That One Thing

Chapter 31

*Saba's POV*

I sat in shock for a little while. I could hardly take in what was happening. Liam leaving, Tatum fainting, what else could go wrong? Slowly I returned to the real world, just as we pulled into Emergency. We got out of the car and walked into the foyer. Penelope's mum took charge and walked straight up to the desk, "Excuse me, I'm looking for a patient?" The secretary person looked up, "Tatum Wray? She will have been brought in an ambulance very recently." The secretary flipped a page in her book, "Yes she came in about 10 minutes ago," Holy that ambulance must have sped through town! "She's being prepped for surgery now," and she went back to her writing. I threw a terrified glance at Penelope, Surgery? What?! Penelope looked just as horrified and confused, luckily her mum didn't let it faze her. "Can you tell me which surgery? I'm her gardian for the time being," The secretary looked up again, seeming bored. Did she not realise how stressful this was for us? Obviously not because the next thing she did was sigh and slowly flip the pages of her book again. "It says I cannot disclose any information to anyone except her parents or a certain Lilac Teemastor. Would that happen to be you?" She looked up at us lazily. Holy bum lady! Hurry up and tell us where Tatum is! "Yes it's me, here's my drivers license." Penelope's mum handed the lady the card. "Hmm yes thats you alright, Okay looks like Tatum was taken toooo..." she scanned the page, "She was taken in for a appendectomy," Penelope and her mum nodded seeming to understand. A what? Either that was some weird scientificy term or my brain was still all fuzzy from todays events. "When can we see her?" The secretary was looking annoyed now, though I can't imagine why, wasn't this her job? "The surgery takes under an hour but then she'll need some recovery time, come back in an hour and a half," Then the phone rang and she answered it promptly, cutting off any of out further questions. Penelope's mum turned around, "Shall we go get some food then girls? Then come back?" We nodded, I felt like a zombie still. 

We walked out to the car and started driving. Out of habit I took out my phone and clicked on twitter, there were a bunch of 1D fans freaking out about their new girlfriends. Through the fog in my brain it took me a second to realise that meant us. I read some of the tweets before noticing the links to pictures. I clicked on a couple. The first was of Niall and Tatum staring at each other in the airport. I tried to figure out where it had been taken from but couldn't remember the lay out of the airport terribly well. I clicked on two others, one of Tatum and Niall again, this time in a tight embrace, and one of Liam and I. I had been expecting something like this to happen eventually, but with what had happened today it was all to much. And while most of the comments were things like "Who are these girls?" "Are they just friends?" "Even if they are going out, the boys deserve to be happy!" There were still some saying things like "Bitch get off my husband, you dont deserve him!" and "Dumb whores, who do they think they are?" Those ones stung more then I had anticipated. I clicked on one of Harry and Penelope and sucked in a sharp breath. Uh oh, the photographer must have timed the picture just right because Harry was hugging Penelope so tightly her feet were slightly off the ground, and, because of the profile view, you could see they were most definitely kissing. "Shoot," I said under my breath. Penelope tore her gaze from the window and looked at me, "What's up?" she asked. I bit my lip wondering wether or not to show her the picture. I decided on the latter and slowly turned my phone so the screen was facing her. Her eyebrows shot up and her jaw dropped, "Oh!" was all she said. I knew how she felt. "How did they... Where was the... What?" She took a deep breath and whipped out her own phone, "Will the boys be on the plane yet?" she asked, matter-of-factly. "No not yet I don't think," I replied, "Texting Harry?" She nodded, I figure I should warn him," she typed madly away, "Seriously! Just when I thought it couldn't get worse!" I agreed. "It had to come out eventually though..." I said. It was true, we could hardly keep a secret like this a secret for long. To be honest I'm surprised we got through the week unscathed by paparazzi. 

Penelope kept texting Harry all the way to the Subway we stopped at. And resumed texting right after ordering. I texted Liam a couple times about the pictures and he replied, "Dont worry love it was bound to happen. Just stay strong and try to ignore the haters as best you can! :) xx" There wasn't much else to say and I sat in silence eating my sandwich. Suddenly Penelope put her phone. "They are literally about to take off so Harry had to switch his phone off," She sounded close to tears again. "Don't worry! The flights not long! You can continue your non-stop texting marathon with him soon enough!" she half smiled and took a bite of her sandwich.

*Penelope's POV*

*1 1/2 hours later*

We walked back into the Emerge foyer and the same lazy secretary leered up at us. "Oh you again. She's done surgery but still asleep, you can go see her if you want." She gave us the room number and we walked down the hall and along until we got there. My mum knocked softly on the door, a nurse inside came and opened it, "Are you Lilac?" she asked. "Yes, can we see Tatum?" The nurse nodded and opened the door fully. "She's still out and because of the circumstances may not wake up for a couple days." My jaw dropped, a couple of days!? What!? I was shocked. We walked into the room and stood by the bed. It was odd seeing her out cold. At least with the fluids and such she wasn't a pale. Suddenly I looked up at Saba, "We didn't tell Niall!" She looked at me, wide eyed. As far as Niall knows Tatum is just fine. I pulled Tatum's phone out my bag, I had kept it for safe keeping. She had about a million texts from Niall getting more and more worried. I quickly typed out a reply, even if they were still in the airplane he would get it eventually. 'Okay hey Niall its penny,' I typed, okay how to I phrase this? 'Hate to break it to you but your girlfriend is in a medically induced coma after collapsing when you left, hope your all right!' ? Not the best idea. Instead I wrote, "Unfortunately right after you left Tatum collapsed and was taken to hospital. It turned out she had acute appendicitis and just had surgery. I know this is all terrible timing and quite sudden. Call me when you land and I'll try to explain! x Penny" I sent it off and hoped he didn't freak out when he got it. I stared at Tatum again and felt myself on the verge of tears. The next couple of days would be terrible. Also, and I only let myself think this for a second, what if she doesn't wake up? People don't always wake up from these things! I banished that thought from my mind. Of course she'll wake up! She's Tatum! She always bounces back! I took some deep breaths and looked up at my mum, "So what do we do now?" I asked. "Well," she replied, "We can stay in the city for a while longer I supposed, and visit Tatum whenever we can!" I looked back at Tatum, "Sounds good too me!"

Over the next couple of days we visited Tatum whenever we were aloud. Her mum and dad came as well and we would see them sometimes. Niall phoned everyday asking how she was and fretting. "Don't worry! It's not your fault! She was sick, we jut didn't notice!" He didn't seem to be able to let it go. Finally after what felt like forever Tatum woke up.

We were sat there in the room and I had brought my iPod and was playing some One Direction in the hopes that it would wake her up. At first she just twitched her toes, then her fingers and finally she fluttered her eyelids open. "Mmm where am I?" she asked groggily. Saba and I jumped up and stood beside her. "You in the hospital! You collapsed after Niall and the boys left, then you had to have surgery!" Saba said as I dialled Niall's number. "Oh really?" I heard Tatum say, she was obviously still half asleep and high on morphine. "What day is it?" she ased, "Sunday," Saba replied quietly. Tatum seemed to wake up a bit at that, 'I've been asleep for four days?!" she said sounding mildly alarmed. Saba nodded. Finally Niall picked up. "Is she up?" was the first thing he said. "Hello to you too Niall, and yes she is, wanna talk to her?" I replied. "Yes now!" he exclaimed, "Please," he added. I laughed at his eagerness. "Okay but she literally JUST woke up so go easy on her!" "Okay okay okay!" I chuckled again and handed Tatum the phone. "It's Niall..." I mouthed to her. A sleepy smile spread across her face, "Hello there" She said. I walked around the bed and tugged Saba's arm "Let's let them have some privacy..." I said. She complied and we walked out into the waiting room, leaving Tatum some time to recuperate.