daylight ◇ 5sos | a.i

ten

A few weeks had passed since Lily passed out at work and everything seemed back to normal, Lily was just a little under the weather. Dave noticed this too and would shorten her hours and give her longer breaks when she wasn't feeling well. When at work El and Mikey would babysit her until she got home and Ashton could. They gave her the space she needed when she wanted it, they couldn't have eyes on her 24/7. Ashton's mother never apologized for what she said about Lily, so Ashton just caught up with his siblings a few more times before they left, not even saying goodbye to his mother. The past couple of days Lily had been down in the dumps, Dave had given her the week off to finally get some rest and get well and she was feeling even more sick.

"Lily?" Ashton called as he let himself into her apartment, he was running errands and thought he'd pop in. He looked around her apartment and she was nowhere to be seen, he assumed that she was at work doing the night shift, he was about to leave until he saw Cooper scratching at the bathroom door. He couldn't hear any water running but the door was locked,

"Lily?" he became panicked, this had happened once before. He thumped on the door loudly, yelling her name. In a sudden rush of adrenaline he slammed his shoulder against the thin wooden door, causing the lock to bust open. A sight he never wanted to see clouded his sight, Lily motionless on the floor with a pill bottle on the countertop. He ran to her as fast as he could, falling down onto his knees, he rested his head on her chest - she was still breathing. He continued talking to her as he lifting her into his lap he held her upright, making sure that he could still feel her pulse as he did. He felt her body convulse as she threw up, handfulls of pills and spit spilling across the floor in front of them. While Lily regained consciousness, Ashton stayed silent, just resting his forehead on her shoulder and started sobbing. She could've been dead if he didn't decide to call in like he usually would.

"Ash?" she whispered, barely audible over the sound of him crying. He couldn't reply due to how hard he was crying, the sound of him crying resulted in Lily breaking down into tears too, especially after seeing the sight of pills scattered across the counter and floor.

"Why?" he finally whispered after a few minutes of them quietly crying together, he wrapped his arms around her waist, not wanting to let her go again.

"It's just so hard Ashton, you don't understand"

"No I don't, but killing yourself isn't the option-" he was about to continue but felt her body flop in his arms, "Lily?" he shook her slightly, but she wasn't responding. Doing the only thing he thought right, he scooped her up and called an ambulance. Once the ambulance arrived they took her away from Ashton and placed her into the van, connecting her to tubes and machines instantly. They allowed Ashton to ride in the back so that he could explain the whole situation to the paramedics.

They pushed her into the emergency wing of the hospital in lightning speed with Ashton following closely behind until a nurse stopped him.

"I'm sorry son you can't go any further" a sympathetic smile spread across her face, she obviously dealt with emotional people every few minutes,

"But she's my girlfriend" he whispered out, his knees going weak.

"She'll be okay honey, come and wait in the waiting room and she'll be out before you know it" the nurse led him down onto a plastic chair, sitting down next to him, "have you contacted her family?" he shook his head, scared to use words. "please do. If you need anything I'm just at the desk" he nodded as she walked away. Taking a deep breath, Ashton dialled Lily's parents' home phone, not even bothering to work out the time difference between them.

"Hello?" Lily's mother answered groggily,

"Hey Jo, it's Ashton" he answered hesitantly, "Lily's in hospital" he spat out, not being able to hold it in along with his tears that began to fall onto his jeans. He was damp and was freezing from the rain that fell as Lily was loaded into the ambulance, but refused to leave until he knew Lily was okay and could see her.