The Wolf In sheeps clothing

One Hour

Noah was slumped in the hard , plastic chair, arms folded  and his chin on his chest. He was exhausted and had fallen into a doze . He'd been watching Niall carefully as the experimental drug had dripped slowly into Niall's small body. The iV had finished yet Niall remained still and unresponsive, his breathing so shallow that he'd been put on oxygen. Noah suddenly woke with a start as he heard a rattling sound. He looked towards Niall whose small body was convulsing violently. Suddenly the room filled with people and Noah was forced to stand to one side and watch in horror.

"That was close"  Caleb Jameson  said ' once Niall was laying quietly again. "But we've got major problems."

"What problems?" Noah approached the bed again and looked at  Caleb. "What problems?"          

"Niall's kidneys could be shutting down. Despite pumping him full of fluid via an iV, his urine output is almost zilch. " He indicated the container collecting  the urine from Niall's catheter. There was barely anything there and  what was there, was so dark, indicating severe dehydration at the least, and major problems developing. "His heart rate is also increasing,It's putting a terrible strain on him. I want you to stop the drugs now, at least until we can sort this out."

"But we're so near the end, just a few more hours" Noah said said. "I just need a few more hours."

"Noah, Niall may not have a few more hours. Don't you get it. His kidneys are shutting down, His heart is showing signs of strain. He's have seizures. He can't continue, I'm sorry."

"An hour, just give me an hour" Noah pleaded. "This will work, I know it will"

"I want to believe you, Noah, really I do. I know you think you've stumbled on the cure for Lupus, or at least a great way on controlling it. But it's killing this lad."

"One hour" Noah begged again. "Then I promise I'll withdraw the drugs"

"One hour"  Caleb  repeated. "Then that's it, Noah.." He turned back to the bed where Niall lay, unresponsive, machines monitoring his every function. He checked machine reading outs carefully, recording his findings. This really was against his better judgement in allowing treatment to continue. He only hoped Niall had the strength to survive.

Meanwhile Louis found himself needing major distraction. His thoughts kept returning to his friend and bandmate, knowing that , at that very moment, Niall was receiving the experimental treatment. Despite all the reassurances and explanations he'd received, Louis wasn't happy. The test results sounded good on paper, very positive. But Niall was a living person, not a test dummy. He shook his head and reached for his phone, scrolled carefully through his contacts and called the one person he knew would understand.

"Hey, it's Louis"

"Louis! So good to hear from you. How are you sweetie? I've not seen you or Niall for ages. How is he?"

"He's why I rang you, to be honest. I'm scared out of my wits. I just need someone who understands.  He's agreed to some f.cked up experimental drug treatment and I'm so f.cking scared. What if it goes wrong?"

"Lou, do you want to come talk?"

"Yeah, can I? I mean, I know you're sick yourself but I just need to clear my head."

"Come"

"Thanks Selena" Louis ended the call. At least there was one person who truly understood. He headed out to his car.

Noah and   Caleb   watched  as Niall began moving jerkily, his hands suddenly clawing at his body, scratching  his skin hard enough to draw blood. Then the vomiting started.

"Enough!"  Caleb roared. "He can't take any more. Noah hurried to obey, disconnecting the various tubes and freeing Niall's body so that Caleb and the nurse could begin to help the very sick young man. Noah left the room, feeling defeated. This shouldn't be happening. What had he missed? He knew that there was the risk of serious side effects. But this was terrible. Niall seemed to be enduring every single possible bad reaction to the drug. Disaster Noah thought wearily ,  the drug just a total disaster. Years of research down the drain and his patient even more sick, dying even. He leant against the wall, slowly sliding down until he was sat on the floor, head buried in his hands. He'd f.cked up........big time. He was killing a patient because he was so arrogant that he convinced himself he'd found a viable treatment.His shoulder shook as sobs wracked his body.

"More fluids" Caleb said, "As quick as you can" The nurse raced  from the room to collect more bags of fluid for the iV as Caleb and another nurse pulled the soiled bedding off Niall, then allowing the nurse to clean him up. Caleb adjusted the flow of oxygen as he kept a nervous eye on the monitors hooked to his patient's body. The nurse send to collect the fluid arrived back, breathless, and immediately started to replace the almost depleted bag and start it flowing into Niall's dehydrated body. An orderly arrived not long after, a  covered tray in his hands, which he instantly handed over to Caleb.

"There" Caleb handed the vials of blood to the Orderly. "Get those to the lab now. Tell them I need answers immediately. This is priority, tell them. We don't have time to spare." The orderly nodded and hurried out of the room, not running, but his long legs eating up the ground rapidly as he sped away. Caleb turned back to his patient and watched every laboured breath, every twitch Niall made.

It felt like a lot of time had passed but in reality the lab had indeed hurried the results of Niall's blood work and Caleb was soon pouring over the data. Once finished, he dashed from the room. He could have sent the nurse but decided he'd be quicker. He scanned the rows of medication until he found exactly what he needed. He carefully prepared everything before heading back to his patient.

"It's up to you now, Niall" Caleb murmured after administering the treatment. "Fight"

A/N Thank you so much for all the good wishes you have sent for Louis and myself. I feel truly humble that people who do not know me have taken the time to pray for us and to wish us well. Loulou is making slow but steady progress and everything is looking so much more positive for him.

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