When Love Heals - A Niall Horan Fanfic

Chapter Thirty Three.

Niall was right about Lydia probably not being honest with him if she was feeling ill.

She was feeling ill. There wasn't really a specific thing that she could pinpoint most of the time, but she just felt exhausted and nauseous. The new treatment wasn't working and despite Doctor Hanson's protests to keep it going a little longer just to make sure, Lydia knew it was only a matter of time until they moved onto the next option and the next and the next until eventually they ran out.

It had been almost two weeks since Niall went back to New York and luckily the boys were scheduled to come home for Christmas in just another two and a half weeks. Lydia could not wait.

She had just been at the hospital for yet another dose of toxic radiation. She was in one of those moods that were pretty uncurable. She felt like shit and she was just moody with life. Especially since Doctor Hanson had seen how weak she looked, barely even able to walk around on her own, and he ordered her to stay in the next few nights, just to 'make sure everything's okay'. Lydia hated that sentence. Of course everything wasn't okay, she had cancer for god's sake! She bit her tongue though, knowing that snapping at the older man would be something she regretted when she broke out of this foul mood.

"Hey mum," Lydia said when the ringing finally stopped.

"Hiya Lyd, you okay?" Karen's familiar voice came through the speaker.

Lydia rolled her eyes. Not at all, she wanted to reply. "I have to stay in the next few nights, can you bring me some clothes when you close up the shop?" She kept her reply short since she knew that she was about to snap any moment

"Oh my goodness! What's happened? Are you okay? Did something go wrong?" Karen blurted, sprouting thousands of questions at once.

Lydia huffed. "I'm fine. It's fine. Everything's just bloody fine. Just please bring me some clothes." And with that she hung up.

She knew she was being stupid. She knew she was being rude and immature and selfish but she was so tired and so fed up and she just felt like life was against her. And the one person who could cheer her up was three thousand miles away. Or so she thought.

When Lydia received the text from Karen that she couldn't find a parking space so she was in the 'pick up' area and couldn't leave her car, Lydia let out a big sigh. She swung her legs over the edge of the familiar mattress of Room 206 and weakly stood up, swaying a little before she got her balance. She knew she shouldn't be walking alone, she could have easily asked Jo the nurse to go and retrieve her stuff, but Lydia was fed up with being treated like she was delicate and she hated relying on other people and so she took a deep breath and steadied herself, before walking slowly but calmly out of the room and down the corridor.

Every step was getting more and more difficult. Lydia knew she wasn't going to collapse yet, she had been in this position many a time before so she knew how to handle it. So she walked past the reception desk and into the main lobby of the hospital, taking each step at her own pace. She began to think that this maybe wasn't the best idea. She could barely breathe because she felt so sick and dizzy and she almost wished that she had asked someone to get her things for her after all. She was just so frustrated with not being independent that she had pushed herself too far.

She realised that she needed to sit down fast, so she forced her legs to carry her as fast as they could to the nearest chair in the waiting area, full of grumpy looking pensioners and bored family members waiting for patients to come back from their appointments. Lydia tried to draw as little attention to herself as possible as she clutched her stomach subtly, willing herself not to vomit in front of everyone. She inhaled as much oxygen as her lungs would allow and it did make her feel a little better, although she could feel the cold wash of sweat lining her forehead and she was sure she probably looked like crap.