What Are The Odds?

six

"Zayn you can't shut us out like this," Niall said while sitting at the side of the boy's bed along with a still concerned Ashton. However, Zayn just turned his body more into the bed.

"Zayn, please. You're scaring me," Ashton pleaded, but once again Zayn just ignored the two.

"If you're not going to talk to us then the least you're going to do is eat your lunch because I know you didn't," Niall said sternly before going off to grab the boy' tray of food.

Niall situates the tray above Zayn's lap and removes the lid, showing off the soup and sandwich that were laid underneath it. And Zayn, who was typically pretty good at eating his food, wouldn't even look at it.

"Zayn you need to eat," Niall pushed while lifting a spoonful of the soup up to Zayn's lips.

"M'not hungry," the boy mumbled which only caused Niall to sigh again.

"Ashton can you give us a minute?"

"But-" the boy started only to be cut off by the pointed look Niall was giving him. "I'll go check on the other patients."

So with that Ashton walked out of the room leaving Zayn and Niall alone. For a bit the two just sat in a silence, but eventually Niall got up from the chair and found himself removing the tray of food from the boy's bed and sitting beside him.

"What's going on, huh? You rarely shut me out, let alone Ashton. What happened?" Niall asked softly while running fingers through the boy's hair.

And Zayn stays quiet for a while. A lot longer than Niall would like, however, he could tell the boy was just trying to process his thoughts so he let him be. He let him be for as long as he needed, and finally he decided to speak up.

"Why am I so easy to forget about?"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Eleven Years Ago .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Mumma stay," a four year old Zayn whined as he saw his mother walking over to the hospital door.

"I need to go pick up Waliyha, Safaa, and Doni, bubby. I promise I'll be back with them in no more than an hour," a still hopeful looking Trisha told her youngest baby.

It was the day after Zayn's first chemo session and Trisha had yet to leave the boy's side, however, with her husband, Yaser, working two jobs to help pay off the new medical bills someone still needed to care for their three other children.

"Bring ice cream?" The little boy mumbled while twirling the edge of his blankie around his hands.

"I think you've earned yourself a bit of a treat. I'll make sure to bring you back the best ice cream out there," Trisha said with a coo before placing one last kiss to the boy's forehead and walking out of the room.

Zayn sat on his own for a bit not quite sure what to do. Sure, his little TV was running, but nothing good was on at this time since he was limited to very few channels. And also since he was currently connected to a few more machines than normal, he couldn't exactly get up and walk around the room to grab one of his discarded toys.

The little boy decides to just sit on the bed for a bit, look around at his new surroundings a bit before he felt a sudden urge to need the loo. Now being a very shy toddler, Zayn wasn't very comfortable with the idea of a nurse helping use the restroom, his mother had always been there up until this moment, so forcing himself to call the nurse took a lot of effort. The little boy played with the nurse button, examining it in his hand and seeing how far he could pull it, however, before he could even press it a nurse was walking in.