NIALL'S POV
Niall hoped against hope that this was a dream. A horrible nightmare in which his best friend was in a coma and fighting for his life. When Niall escaped the carnage of the accident he quickly dispatched of the people after them then immediately moved to get Louis out of the wreckage.
The doctors said that had Niall not done that Louis would've died within minutes, however had Niall moved Louis anymore than he did then his friend would've died anyway. Basically the whole situation was some blessed miracle.
He sat on a terribly uncomfortable seat in the hospital wondering why the institution didn't invest in comfier chairs for the omnipresent grief-stricken friends and family of the patients. Niall didn't know when he stopped screaming for them to let him see Louis, when he stopped crying, where the hell he got the luke warm cup of coffee that was dangling from his fingertips. He had a never ending mantra of I must see Louis. I must see Louis. running through his head as he stared up at the white ceiling.
"Niall. Niall. AGENT HORAN!" a harsh voice broke through his mind fog.
He pulled his head away from the wall and straightened his neck to see Liam Payne standing in front of him with two cups of steaming coffee in his hands.
"Yeah boss?" Niall asked, barely recognising the broken tenor of his voice.
"I got you another coffee," Liam said unecessarily, he handed the cup to Niall.
Niall was almost certain that he hadn't drank the first cup but took the offered beverage anyway.
"Louis will be coming out of the operating theater as we speak and moved to the ICU so I assume you'll be able to visit him very soon," Liam spoke these words as he did when he described missions; stoic and professional. It pissed Niall off to no end.
"I don't want to just visit him, I need to stay with him until he wakes up," Niall muttered.
"I'm not sure that is entirely possible. Not just because you aren't family but... Niall you see the doctor said if Louis can make it through the night he's got every chance of waking up. But there's only a 30% chance of him surviving until morning, despite the operation..." Liam continued speaking but Niall stopped listening, his heart pounding in his ears. He felt like he had waves crashing onto the shores of his ear drums. Louis has to wake up, he must.
"... and paired with the brain trauma well I mean-"
"I'm his only family Liam. I'm all Louis has left. I know you can get me the go ahead to stay with Louis but you're refusing to because you think it'll save me from hurting too much if he dies. Well, either way I'm going to be hurting. When Louis hurts I do too. Now you either get me into that damn room or I'm fucking quitting." Niall interrupted. He didn't care about how much trouble he was going to be in later all he cared about was Louis being on his own. Louis, the boy who didn't even like getting dental checkups.
After every mission, without fail, Niall would comfort Louis and be with him through his nightmares about murdering people. It didn't matter that Louis was in a coma and wouldn't notice if Niall was there or not, it was the fucking principle of the matter.
"Fine, I'll see what I can do," Liam replied sounding exhausted.
Twenty minutes later Niall was pushing open the door into Louis' room. He could hear the distinct whirring and beeping of technological apparatus. Several machines surrounded the bed and on that bed lay Louis. Niall immediately began weeping when he saw his best friend lying unconscious with a bandage around his head and tubes sticking out of several places.
He slowly approached the bedside and sat in an armchair by Louis' right elbow. The machine doing the breathing for Louis drowned out the sound of Niall's pitiful sobs as he clutched Lou's hand. Everyone knew about how coma victims could supposedly hear you talking to them but Niall just felt a little bit ridiculous as he steadied his breath to greet his friend.
"Lou?" Niall croaked, then cleared his throat, "Louis? I- uhh, it's me, Niall. Can you hear me? Can you try and come back to me, love?" Niall broke off as he started crying again.
He traced his fingertips over Louis' calluses from handling weapons and too many times on the pull up bar. He pressed a kiss to the skin and wished he could just kiss Louis' hurts better like he used to when they were kids. But now his beautiful best friend was in so much pain that his subconscious would probably rather die even though his body was still fighting for life.
Niall realised that he would give anything to hear Louis' voice, even if it were for the last time. To hear Louis' voice when he talks to animals, when he's belting out the lyrics to some song on the radio, his voice when he's yelling for Niall to get down while he throws a knife at a hostile, his voice at 3am when Niall wakes up crying from a dream about his parents. Niall wanted to hear Louis when he was drunk, happy, sad, angry, bored, impatient. Anything.
A very selfish thought then occured to Niall; if Louis died he would have nothing left in the world. Louis was, essentially, his only friend. A life without Louis Tomlinson would be like when you miss a step on the stairs, and the air whooshes out of your lungs- except this feeling would never end. He had nothing else in the world to live for.
And then Niall belatedely realised that he really was in love with Louis. Before there had been a little part of him that thought he could perhaps move on, that's why Josh happened. But now Niall knew the truth; he'd never be able to be with anyone else and feel like he did when he was with Louis.
"I love you Louis. I really fucking love you and I need you to come back to me. I've got no one else. If you go then I'll go too. So you need to wake up. I know you're hurting and I know you want to stay asleep but you need to be here with me. I don't care if you can't love me back, I don't. I just need you to know that I love you. I can't believe you never knew how much you meant to me. Hell, I didn't even realise until now. I just need you. I need my best friend. I need a reason to keep going. I need Louis. I need-" Niall choked and started crying again. His forehead rested on Louis' palm still clutched in Niall's own shaking hands and he wept into it.
A/N- Listen to the song on the side! It's an amazing bit of music from the 90s that inspired this entire seen, especially Niall's little speech.
