Niall, answer the door please

What's it to be, lads?

The lads always joked that you could hear Niall long before you ever saw him and today was proving no exception . As they approached Niall's room, Niall was yelling at the top of his lungs. "No. No. NO". A nurse was trying to calm him down, her voice quiet and soothing in pitch. Niall continued to shout but never once did her voice alter tone until her patient finally subsided in to choked sobs. Zayn looked at the others then turned on his heel leaving them staring after him. Louis' expression hardened then he knocked lightly on Niall's door. Niall's nurse asked them to wait a moment so they wandered over to the chairs in the waiting area and sat , listening to the sound of crying gradually diminishing into silence.

"What's up with Zayn" Liam asked of nobody in particular.

"No idea. He's been acting off for the last few days. You know anything, Lou?" Harry asked, turning to the smaller man sat next to him. Louis frowned but just shook his head in reply. Louis had been thinking about Zayn's behaviour but didn't want to share his opinion. Not yet, anyway. And, he thought, he may well be wrong .No, he mentally corrected himself. No, I'm not wrong.

"I'm sorry about that," The nurse that had been in with Niall had come over to talk to them. Niall was no longer shouting or crying.  " I'm afraid Niall is struggling again today. I have his parents permission to update you fully over his condition as they say you are more like brothers. We have found that Niall  has reduced ability to tolerate noise at times, especially if it interferes with his concentration. This, combined with the short term memory issues is making him  fly into angry rages when he feels scared, under pressure or frustrated.It can be quite challenging for family to deal with as it can be triggered by the smallest thing,  but it is likely to be only a short term side effect of the coma as his brain scans showed no visible damage. Unfortunately Niall is becoming aware of the problems and that is causing him to become increasingly upset and depressed.He doesn't understand why he is reacting like he is, he is just aware that it's happening and he has no control over anything. 

I am sure you can appreciate that Niall needs extra support at the moment but it is suggested that if you don't feel you can cope with his needs at the present , that you consider not visiting for the time being and allow only close family members to visit. Whatever you decide, you will need to be consistent as an established routine will be the most beneficial to Niall's recovery" The nurse looked at them questioningly and they all nodded in understanding.

"I think we should  go and talk about this together" Liam suggested. "We have to do what's right for Niall not for ourselves. We have to get this right" The others agreed and told the nurse they'd come back later and let her know what they had decided. "Not sure what we do about Zayn though. Should we try finding him?"

"NO!" Louis said harshly. " I'll talk to him myself, later" Harry's eyebrows drew together and his lips pressed into a straight line.. He could read Louis like a book and knew that there was something that Louis either knew or suspected about Zayn and he wasn't sharing. He decided he'd leave it for the moment but planned to corner Lou as soon as he could get him alone.Why, Harry thought, did he think he wasn't going to be too happy after that conversation.

The three men sat in a very quiet corner of the hospital canteen with large mugs of tea before them.They were silent, each of them working their way through their own thoughts and feelings, none of them wanting to be the first to start the topic off. Harry sighed loudly then fell back into silence once more.

"He's our little brother. We need to be there for him. I'm prepared to do this." Liam was the first to speak.

"Yeah, I'm with you" Harry said " but I'm afraid of messing up. What if we make things worse?"

"I'm up for it too" Louis looked at his friends " but we can't make a knee jerk decision, lads. This could be for the long haul. We've got our break coming up. If we agree to doing this, being there for Niall, then we have to be there, our personal lives will have to be secondary"

"Wow, Lou. Swallowed a dictionary?' Harry joked trying to lighten the  intense expression on his bandmate's face. " No, serious, Louis, I get what you are saying. This isn't a game where we can press the pause button and go do something else.We can't afford to mess up. It's too important."

"God, I'm scared. What if we do mess up? What happens to Niall? And how short term is short term?"

"How long is a piece of string. I dunno, mate. I think I can do this but you guys have to make up your own minds'. Louis sat back and picked up his mug of tea, shuddering as he drank it. "Ugggh, Hospital tea is even worse than than the food and that's saying something" Louis banged his mug back down on the table and stood up. "Well, what's it to be lads?". The others glanced at each other then both stood. 

"Let's go see our little leprechaun" Liam led the way out of the canteen and back up to the room where their bandmate lay, quiet now, just staring off into space.