A Hundred One Shots For Jo

1-2. All I Need (Larry)

PART TWO

When Louis awoke, he was in the hospital and his room was bright. He immediately closed his eyes again, then slowly opened them a second time. This time, his eyes adjusted to the brightness, and didn't nearly blind him. He saw no one, though. Might as well as kept my eyes closed, Louis thought. But then, the door opened and he was being smothered.

This time, though, it wasn't by smoke, but by Zayn Malik.

"Louis, God, how are you feeling?"

"Uh," and that was all he could get out because his throat was so raw.

"Oh, do you need something to drink? Right, the doctor said you would." Zayn reached over and pressed the nurse button. "Louis, I'm so sorry I was a dick to you. Really, I'm so sorry. God, I'm so glad you're okay and alive and you have no burn marks and you're okay." Zayn was crying.

Louis just kind of watched as Zayn let out a sob, tears rolling down his cheeks and Zayn was staring at Louis, too. Zayn was crying and Louis didn't know how to comfort him because he's never seen Zayn cry like this. Not with sobs and snot and hiccups.

The nurse came in then, and Louis lost his opportunity to say anything. For now. He could always say something later. Like tell him it was okay, and that he wasn't mad at Zayn. Yeah, he should definitely tell him that.

The nurse checked some things, completely ignoring Zayn, which Louis thought was rude, but she was here to do her job, which was take care of the patients here, not comfort their families. She could still be more considerate, though.

"You're looking good. The doctor will be in here shortly. Do you need anything in the mean time?" she asked, and Louis tried not to cringe when she smiled. She had the ugliest set of teeth he had ever seen. He usually tried to not judge people, but shit, her teeth were horrid. He looked at Zayn, but Zayn was staring already. He wasn't crying anymore, which was good, Louis thought.

"He needs water," Zayn said.

The nurse nodded and walked out of the room, muttering that she would be right back. Zayn was quiet after that, and Louis so badly wanted to break the silence, but he couldn't until he had something to drink. He noticed Zayn was dressed in sweats and a loose fitted T-shirt. It hung low on his chest, showing his tattoo. His hair was greasy looking, sticking to his forehead and disheveled in the back. He had bags under his eyes, which made Louis feel terrible. He shouldn't have lost sleep worrying over him. None of them should have; if only he hadn't been so careless. He could only imagine how the others looked like.

After another minute of deathly silence, Zayn cleared his throat. "Uh, the others were here earlier. But they all went home to shower." He chuckled, but it wasn't genuine. "We had to shove Harry into the car because he didn't want to leave. He kept saying, "What if he wakes up while I'm gone?" and I assured him you wouldn't. You've been asleep for almost two days, Louis, and Harry has only left once during those two days."

Louis blinked. Two days? Really? Oh, my God, Louis thought.

The nurse came back in the room then, and a man, whom Louis presumed was the doctor, was following her.

"Hello, Louis. I'm Doctor Snyder. How are you feeling?" he smiled at Louis, offering his hand to shake. Louis obliged, shaking his hand before he took the cup of water from the nurse, gulping the water down like his life depended on it. When the water was gone, he sighed with relief. His throat wasn't as dry as the Sahara Desert anymore, nor was it burning. The relief was so wonderful.

"I'm fine," he said, and yeah, it was so much better. It still hurt, but it wasn't as bad as before and at least now he could speak.

"That's good."