With You | Ant and Dec

Part Fifteen

Alfie stood silently outside his uncle's hospital room. It had been an hour since Anne sobbed out the story of Dec in distress and still, no one had come out to explain what was happening.

The 17 year old was mentally breaking, but he refused to tell anybody this. He knew that if he told his dad, he would be sent home and he didn't want that. He needed to stay here.

He wanted to call work and tell them he wouldn't be back for a while, but again, his dad, and probably his uncle Ant and Nana, would all but force him to leave.

Looking around at his family, he sighed quietly and leant his head against the wall he was sitting against. He closed his eyes and willed away the tears that threatened to escape.

//

Another half hour had passed in silence before a doctor finally stepped out of Dec's room and smiled sadly at the group. Ant was the first to look up and he immediately tapped on Martin's shoulder before getting the attention of Anne and Alfie.

"How is he?" Martin asked, worry clouding his vision. The doctor smiled,

"He's awake," He happily explained, "Although, he's very groggy and weak. He's been asking for you,"

The group of 4 cheered and shared hugs and tears of happiness. Anne sobbed happily and gave the doctor a hug of gratitude, "You have no idea how grateful I am for you, Doctor. Without you, my boy probably wouldn't even be here," She thanked him, but the doctor simply shook his head and motioned to Ant.

"It was all Anthony's doing, Mrs Donnelly. If he and Medic McCarron hadn't of gotten to your son when they did and kept him stable until he arrived here, Declan wouldn't even have made the journey,"

It was then that Anne, once again, cried and pulled Ant into her arms and smoothed his hair, "Oh, Anthony, I can't ever thank you enough for what you and Bob have done for my boy," Ant just shook his head and pulled away to look at his best friend's mother.

"You don't need to thank me at all, Mrs D, the only thing that will make me happy, is Declan getting better and getting help," He said, "I hate myself for letting this happen, he's my best friend, my only friend! And I let him think he's worthless! I mean, what kind of friend am I?!" By this point, Ant was crying again.

Martin stepped in before anybody else could speak up, "Anth, shut up! If we're going to play the 'blame game' then we should be blaming me. He's my baby brother. I've known him since he was born, for Goodness sake! I knew he was upset, but I never thought he would be feeling this bad!"

Anne was looking between the two and felt her heart breaking once more. Her biological son and the boy who she looks at as a son, are both blaming themselves for something that is not their faults.

"Martin, Anthony," Anne interrupted, glaring at the two to silence them, "Stop blaming yourselves. This is nobodies fault. Declan has always been stubborn, especially when it came to hiding any sort of illness, and this time, it just so happened to take him over the edge," Everybody was silent now, even the Doctor, and they were all looking towards Anne,

"Declan needs us all to work together to help him through. I can guarantee that he feels absolutely awful and so guilty right now. So, we all need to go on in there and love him and let him know that we're all here for him, no matter what,"

It took everybody a few moments, but then, Ant nodded and let a shaky smile curl his lips. Looking around at everyone, determination in his eyes, he nodded to them all, "Let's go see our Doolittle, yeah?"

The doctor opened the door and that was when they all saw how weak Declan really was.

//

Note from the author:
Welp. Hope you all enjoyed that chapter. :)
I will be updating again (hopefully!!!) tomorrow.
I was meant to get this up last week, but I've been busy and all the days blurred into one.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed it and I will post chapter sixteen in the next couple days. :)