Nialler's Traumatic Injury

Chapter 2 : At The Hospital * Liam Payne's POV *

After an extremely painful ride to in the ambulance, we finally arrived at the Manchester Memorial Hospital. Niall gently gnawed his bottom lip nervously as the paramedics parked the vehicle near the emergency entrance and yanked the doors open, grasping each end of the gurney. I immediately grabbed Niall's hand once more as they lifted him up. They began to wheel him inside the hospital, and we were met with a blast of air conditioning. It cooled us off almost immediately after we had been baked in the sun for four hours every concert day, working out, and rehearsing for the next performance. The nurse met us at the door, along with a few doctors, and they told us that only one person could go into the examination room with the patient. The rest of us would have to sit in the waiting room. But since we were celebrities, we could sit in an enclosed place, away from other people and possible fans. Niall chose me to be with him, probably because I was nicknamed 'Daddy Directioner'.

The nurse wheeled him into an examination room and grabbed a gown for him to change into. She also said that I could help him if he felt discomfort or pain. Niall seemed a little embarrassed, so I walked out with the nurse and waited for him to whine or call me back in. Thankfully, he didn't need my help, but he did whine when he stood up. So he sat back down and squeezed his ripped skinny jeans off his muscular legs. He called my name, followed by a whimper. I gently pulled back the curtain to find Niall sitting on the bed, gown on, but skinny jeans resting on his thighs. "It hurts too much to take it off. Can you help me, please?"

I feel bad for the little guy, so I slowly removed the skinny jeans. Once they were off, I slowly helped him tie the back of the gown and lifted his injured knee onto a soft pillow. Then I grabbed some blankets from a cupboard and covered him with them. He leaned back against the bedframe and grabbed my arm, biting down on his lip to stifle a cry. Occasionally, his eyes fluttered open to check that I was still there or to see if the doctor had arrived.

The rustling of the curtain interrupted our silence and a tall, beautiful woman slipped into the room. "Hello," she began. "I'm Dr. Andrews and I will be looking at your..."

"Knee," I responded. "He fell on stage and couldn't get up."

She nodded gently and walked over to the sink to wash her hands. It struck me how stunning she was, and I was briefly reminded of my ex-girlfriend, Danielle. "Alright," she began, placing a pair of non-latex gloves on her hands and bending down to examine the knee. Niall squeezed my hand whenever it became painful. She gently tapped his injury, turning his leg from side to side to see where it was swollen the most, and lifted his leg to see how far it could bend or move until it began to throb. Niall screamed from the pain and she gently let it go.

"Well, it looks like you have very limited movement. We’re definitely going to need an X-ray of your knee to see if it’s dislocated, if you have ripped muscle around the kneecap, so on." She called out to the nurse to check if the radiation room was available. While the nurse confirmed her request… Niall closed his eyes and soon fell asleep, and I could tell he was exhausted from the performance. I walked out to where the other boys sat or paced. When they saw me, hundreds of questions filled the air at once.

"Boys, boys!" I said, raising my voice so they could hear me. "The doctor said he has very limited movement in his knee, and he was in deep pain when she touched it. They’re ordering X-rays right now. He's taking a small nap because he's exhausted, but that's all I know right now. I’ll keep you updated, though. Can someone please use my phone to change my status on Twitter? I want to update our fans, but I have to be with Niall."

Louis instantly grabbed my phone and the rest of the boys began to make small conversation among themselves. Louis, however, was too busy updating statuses on two phones. Typing at lightning fast speed, keeping one phone on his lap and alternating between them.

"I'm going to go check up on Niall again, please update statuses, and when I get tired, I’ll come out to rest and one of you boys can go inside. You can vote now and come in when you feel like it. Be back later," I said nervously.

I returned back to the room. Niall was now awake and seemed to be very tense. "They're bringing me down to X-rays really soon." He began twiddling his thumbs.

"You're going to do great. I promise. They're just going to lay you down and have you move around a little, but it shouldn't hurt. I'll go get you something from the cafeteria and we'll meet back here soon. Do you want to watch a movie tonight?" His expression morphed from miserable to a little boy’s excitement within seconds and nodded, slumping back onto his bed as two nurses approached the curtain.

"Radiation is ready for you, Mr. Horan."

I gently patted his back. "You'll do great, mate. I promise! When you're back, I’ll have the movie and chocolate milk for you." He nodded in response and the nurses wheeled him off to radiation. I left the room and approached the boys in the enclosed area, quickly updating them. I asked them if they wanted anything from the cafeteria since I was already going there, and they gave me their orders.

I returned from the cafeteria and quickly ran to the boys, gave them their meals, then entered the Niall's room and put down his chocolate milk. A movie accompanied it—Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never. He had wanted to see the movie so badly, but we never had enough time, and the rest of the boys didn't really want to see it. I inserted the disk into the side of television but paused it before it could play. Niall deserved a surprise at least.

He returned about twenty minutes after I came back from the cafeteria. I took my phone back from Louis and texted up a storm with his family, switching promptly to Twitter to update fans. He looked at me with fear and discomfort in his eyes. He was pressing himself up against the bed and trying to hold back tears, biting his lip and gazing worriedly at his knee. It was no longer tan—it had transitioned into a purple, swollen lump.

The nurse pointed at me and then to the curtain, and it felt suddenly as if a rock had thrust itself into my gut. I followed the nurse outside Niall's room and into the hallway. "After examining Niall's knee, it looks like he will need an operation if he ever wants to walk again,” she grimly informed me. “He has a dislocated kneecap and we need to reconstruct some of the ligaments. They’re badly damaged, and this could be very serious if left untreated. Do we have your permission to do the surgery?"

I took a moment to collect my thoughts and attempted to absorb the words the nurse was saying. After some explaining, I could tell it was serious and the operation needed to be done. If it wasn’t, the fans and Niall would be extremely upset. I nodded and she smiled in response before turning away and motioning a few other nurses to her side. While they assumedly prepared for surgery, I took a deep breath and swept aside the curtain once more. How was I going to tell Niall this?

"Hey, mate. So I talked to the nurse about your x-rays... and it looks like you need an operation as soon as possible."

Niall looked at his knee, and squeezed his eyes shut. Tears began to slip from underneath his eyelids like a waterfall, and he let loose a bloodcurdling scream of pain and fear. It must have been loud enough for the rest of the boys to hear, because I envisioned them dropping everything they had as they sprinted from the waiting room, their footsteps echoing loudly on the sterilized tile moments before they spilled through the curtain.