What Are The Odds?

twenty five

That night no one slept. Zayn couldn't sleep because of the pain. Trisha and Yaser couldn't sleep over the thought of their baby no longing being them. Harry and Niall couldn't sleep because of all the memories of the little boy that swam through their minds. And then there was Liam, Louis, and Ashton who had all decided to have a bit of a sleepover upon learning the news of their small friend. These three boys literally weren't sleeping as the three had found themselves just sitting downstairs on the couch while something they didn't even know played on the television.

"He's only fifteen," Louis said for seemed like the millionth time that night.

"You've said that," Liam finally replies in annoyance.

"Well, I'm sorry but I just don't understand. He's only fifteen and tomorrow your dad is basically going to send him home to die," Louis says, annoyance also lacing his tone.

"My dad is not sending him home to die! Zayn chose this!"

"But your dad is letting him!"

"He doesn't want to!"

"Enough!" Ashton finally speaks up for the first time that night. "Dr. Styles isn't sending Zayn home to die, Louis. And Liam, Zayn didn't choose this. No one ever chooses to be asked whether they want to spend the rest of their life suffering in a hospital bed or suffering in their own bed at home."

At Ashton finally deciding to speak up Louis and Liam immediately shut up as they realize what they had just been arguing about. Of course Zayn wasn't choosing this, but it just felt like it. In a way they felt they needed to blame someone and all Louis could think to blame was Harry because Harry got him better. Sure is resulted in him losing his leg, but he was better. He was healthy and he was allowed to live the rest of his life how he wanted to. Why couldn't he do the same for Zayn?

Liam on the other hand, though ashamed of the thought, felt he could only blame Zayn. I mean, he promised– Zayn promised that he would try to get better. Try for Liam. And now here was the boy choosing against staying in the hospital where he at least would have had the opportunity to live maybe just a couple days more.

"I just can't believe any of this is happening," Louis practically whispers.

"He said he would try," Liam then whispers as tears begin to form in his eyes.

"Try what?" Louis asks while placing an arm around his friend and pulling him closer to his side.

"He told me he would try to get better for me. For me! And now- now it's like he's just giving up on that. It's like he's giving up on me," Liam says as the tears begin to cascade down his face. "God, I'm so selfish. He's- he's the one dying and here I am crying because of stupid little promise I practically forced him into making me."

"Liam, you're not being selfish, you just care. You care a whole fucking lot, and that's exactly what Zayn's gonna need when they release him tomorrow. He doesn't need us to cry over him or pity him because everyone else does that anyways. He needs us to be the people who aren't scared to tell him he looks shitty or to not go easy on him in a game of FIFA," Ashton says.

"Tomorrow's going to suck," Louis mumbles as he lays his head down onto Liam's lap.

"That's for sure," Liam mumbles before the three finally manage to close their eyes and get just a bit of sleep.

+

The next morning Harry forces the three boys to go to school even though deep down he wanted to let them play hooky and go into the hospital with him. As he made his drive towards the building he couldn't help but allow memories of Zayn to swarm his mind. From the first time they met to the first time he got to tell the family that their baby was healthy enough to go home. The fact that he got to do that twice brought a smile to his face, however, it was only there for a second before he realized that today he would be sending the boy home for the third and final time, only this time he wasn't allowed to say Zayn was perfectly healthy.