One Way || Phan

Part 16.

[A/N: The part in italics is a flashback :3 Enjoy!]

*Dan's POV*

The next day my mother dropped me off at the hospital around 10 am, I just insisted to go back. She had been asking questions about Phil non-stop, and I had been trying to answer them all without telling too many details. I really didn't feel like talking about it with her, but I knew I couldn't really escape it. When we arrived she waved me goodbye and told me to call her when I was ready to go home again.

I immediately walked to the counter and waited till the woman behind it had finished her phone call. When she had hung up she turned to me and smiled. I shuffled a bit closer to the counter and told her I was here to see Phil. She told me to sit down and wait until a doctor came up to me.

Reluctantly I sat down in the exact same seat as yesterday and waited again. I had charged my phone overnight, so this time I could listen to music and it made the waiting a little bit more pleasant.

After half an hour the same doctor as yesterday entered the waiting room and told me to come with him so we could talk. I followed him, a weird feeling growing in my stomach, and I thought I already knew what this conversation was about. I could only hope I was wrong because I hadn't fully made up my mind yet about breaking or not breaking my promise to Phil.

We entered a small room, presumably the doctor's office. It only contained a desk with a computer on it and some plastic chairs. Several posters of the human anatomy covered the walls of white concrete. The overall look of the room felt cold, just like the rest of the hospital.

The doctor smiled at me and gestured at a chair, implying I could sit down. That's what I did and then I waited for the man sitting opposite me behind the desk to start talking. He cleared his throat and intertwined his fingers. I felt my heart pounding in my chest and I dug my nails into the palm of my hand. Leaving was all I wanted to do as the doctor began talking. 

"So, this is about Phil. I want to ask you a few questions about him. Firstly, what do you know about him?" He asked, and placed his hands on the keyboard of the computer, ready to type down my answer like doctors always do. This was probably supposed to be a friendly conversation, but I felt trapped. Like I was being questioned as some kind of criminal and everything I said could be used against me later. I considered the words I was going to use carefully, before opening my mouth. 

"Not much, actually. I know he has a Youtube channel, that's where I saw him for the first time. But we started talking only weeks ago," I spoke, deciding not to tell him we kind of had a fight. It seemed irrelevant. "That's why I don't really know much about him yet. We've talked, but it mostly was about me."

The doctor smiled. "That's not what I meant, Dan."

My mouth felt dry. The silence filling the room in the seconds after was filled with tension, and I looked down, unable to say something.

"You don't have to be nervous. I'm not here to question you, but judging by your reaction I think you know what I'm talking about." The doctor said in a sympathetic voice.

I decided to play dumb. "I don't know what you mean, sorry."

The doctor sighed and leaned back in his chair, frowning at me but not saying another word. Why was this so hard? It wasn't like this was about me. This was about Phil. This was about helping Phil. I closed my eyes and started thinking about the conversation I had with Lissie yesterday. I knew it had only occurred yesterday, but it seemed like weeks ago. So many things had happened in the meantime which had caused everything else to fade away. I tried harder and Lissie's words slowly floated back to the surface.

"I understand it's hard, but sometimes, to help someone you have break promises. If it's something dangerous that you can't fix yourself, getting help is really important. He might be angry at you at first for not keeping your promise, but as soon as everything gets better he'll see you made the right decision and he will be grateful for that."

I looked up again and met the eyes of the doctor, who was still looking at me like he expected me to give a full explanation.

"I-It was his father," I said softly, voice trembling. Immediately a heavy weight was lifted off my shoulders and the rest of the story left my mouth pretty much like it was nothing. I told everything I knew, I explained what I had seen and I even told him about my conversation with Lissie. When I finally finished my story I felt so much better and I waited until the doctor finished typing out my story. He then looked back at me.

I had expected he would ask more questions or at least tell me what was going to happen next, but he simply thanked me and told me I could see Phil if I wanted to.

"But what about his father?" I blurted out. "Aren't you going to do something? You can't do nothing about this, what if his father comes back and it all happens again?"

"Calm down, Dan. I can't tell you anything about that right now. You shouldn't worry. We'll first talk to Phil when he awakes. For now, he's safe."

I sighed and then nodded. "Can I see Phil now?"

We both stood up and he showed me the way. We silently walked through the dull corridors of the hospital. It was very quiet, the visiting hour hadn't started yet so the corridors were empty and the doors of the different rooms were closed. The only people walking around were nurses, all with a blank, almost sad expression on their faces and I wondered if they even liked their jobs.

We arrived at a wooden door with the number '204' on it. Right beneath the digit, a name was written and I read 'Philip Michael Lester' on it. So this was his room. The doctor opened the door for me and I hesitated for a second, before stepping in.

It was a relatively small room. A hospital bed, two chairs and a small sink in the corner were the only objects in the room, but they almost filled it completely.

But it was the boy lying in that bed that took my full attention of course.

His face was cleaned up and a splint covered his – presumably broken – nose. His raven hair was messy and covered part of his face. Some tubes were attached to his body and to a heart monitor at the other end. The monitor made beeping sounds whilst showing his rhymic heartbeat on the screen. 

He was asleep. The only indications that he was alive was the rhythmic rising and falling of his chest and the sounds the heart monitor made.

I quietly and carefully picked up a chair and put it o so gently next to his bed, like I could wake him up if I made too much noise. Then I sat down and the minutes that followed were filled with just looking at Phil. Even in these circumstances, with such damage to his face, he was beautiful and I was glad he was asleep. Asleep he couldn't be haunted by the cruel reality he was living in.

It was a peaceful sight. I was unaware of it, but I slowly started to adjust my breathing to Phil's and it was like we connected while breathing at the same time. Nothing mattered in that moment anymore. Everything, all worries and problems, just lead to me and him. It was just Phil and me in the end. It was just us.

[A/N: Hope you liked this new chapter! ^_^ I'm having a minor writer's block atm but this chapter is actually better than I expected it to be. :3

Also, I'm going to see Dan and Phil on tour in Berlin next month! I'm so excited! :D]

Edited: 25-2-2018