The Bodyguard » Niall Horan

34 » He's with me

For the second time in a short time, I was forced to get to the hospital. Annoyed, I had forced myself on one of the beds and let them hurl me into the ambulance.

I was laying on the hospital bed staring at the ceiling. What a day. I couldn't believe something happened again. I couldn't believe something happened again and actual people got killed in the process. 

Six of the eleven CTE unit died on sight. All because I had forgotten to keep my eyes and ears open. All because I hadn't checked what was under our benches before we sat down. Not that I could have - there were too many eyes and their following questions. I honestly wished fervently I had checked the benches today anyway. I could have spared six very valuable human lives.

Waterlane wasn't doing well either. He had been airlifted to London Bridge Hospital by helicopter. Kellan had been with him, which worried me vastly.

Kellan didn't know I knew something, and I had to keep it that way. If it had been me, I would have hurled him into the whirring rotor blades. Because if he was behind this, he deserved nothing less. Yet, my suspicions weren't backed by any facts, which meant I couldn't prove he was behind all this. Something wasn't right. I just couldn't tell what it was.

My hearing slowly came back. The paramedic on the bench continuously looked at my face. It annoyed the shit out of me. " Can you please stop looking at me? I'm fine," I said to him, hopefully not too loudly.

My clothes were burnt. I was glad I had put on special pants today, with a type of fireproof coating - to an extent, that was. It had burned through on several spots. My arms were burnt, but I couldn't really tell how badly. My shirt had melted away, sticking to my skin. I could feel several stinging abrasions and cuts on my face, shoulders, and elbows. My hands were bloody, with glass shards still etched in them.

I was fairly sure I had a concussion, too. A light one, I hoped, because I wasn't feeling too loopy or nauseous. It kind of surprised me because I had fallen quite hard. 

All of a sudden, I could hear something else than the high beeping sound that had been ringing in my ears. It was a somewhat high beep at constant intervals. I dared to move my head, to see a heart rate monitor on the wall. I noticed the weird clip-on thingy on my finger, which looked as if I had been digging in the yard without garden gloves on my hands. No hand modeling for me, then.

Niall was sat next to the chauffeur - the other paramedic. I hadn't heard him, though he had managed to sign me he was in here as well. And here I was, locked in the back of the truck with a frightened paramedic.

" Can you hear something again?" the paramedic had probably seen me look at the heart rate monitor. His voice was soft, almost like the voice of someone trying to wake you from a deep slumber.  " a little," I said. His face told me I had been yelling. " Sorry," I said on an attempted whisper tone. I wasn't sure if I had actually whispered.

" That's okay. You should be glad you can hear something again." It took a few seconds until I had processed the words. " Or the fact that I'm still alive," I remarked. " I could have been dead." 

The paramedic looked at me. " I have collected a few things from conversations. I would like you to know the death of those people doesn't rest on your shoulders." 

I flipped my head up, scorching a pain through my head. I ignored it as I shot him an angry glance. I could hear my heart rate fasten ever so slightly.

" Wasn't it? The bomb underneath my chair surely tells me something else." I rolled on my side, which wasn't easy on the narrow bed. I could hear him sigh.

I stared angrily at the clear cabinets filled with bandages and materials. I kept staring at it until the ambulance halted and the engine turned off.

The face of the paramedic with me was the one I saw first, followed by the paramedic who'd driven us here as he opened the back doors. Niall peaked over his shoulder, his face etched with worry.

The two paramedics rolled the bed and me out of the ambulance and pushed me into the ER. Niall walked next to me, his hand casually on the banister of the bed. " There's ash on your face," I told him.

" Have you looked in the mirror? I highly doubt people will find you attractive still," Niall said and winked. I could hear him much clearer, thank the Gods. 

" CinderNiall... You surely cannot show up at the ball looking like that?" I spoke. Niall laughed and shook his head.

I could tell he was slowly going mad. He tried not to let it show, but failed miserably. The freedom in those blue eyes had changed into something else - frantic, paranoid. I didn't know. 

The paramedics pushed me into a shared ER room, where doctors would check up on me later. I saw the eyes of several people grow big as we rolled past them.

After the paramedics dropped me off, they received a call for the next patient.

Niall was standing next to my bed, his body as still as a doll. I could tell people were looking at him. I softly put the back of my hand on his, to avoid him getting splinters from my palm. " Would you mind closing the curtains?" I quietly asked. 

He did as I asked - his movements like a robot. When he closed the last curtain, I made some room and patted on the bed, where he sat down. And it was then, when Niall finally burst, a little bomb under extreme pressure, releasing all the sorrow and sadness upon me. I was slightly shocked at the sight of him.

" Niall?" I quietly asked as I pulled him towards me. I ignored the glass shards in my hand. Niall drooped down against me, which hurt incredibly. I stifled a groan as he cried on my battered shoulder. I wrapped my painful arms around him. He needed me more than I needed medical attention.

" I thought you were dead," he managed to push out through the crying. " I saw you flying through the air. I thought you were dead." He kept repeating it, his voice harder every time. My heart ached with worry.

" I'm still alive," I said and kept repeating it until he stopped talking. He let go of me and looked me over with a pained look in his eyes. His face was red and wet with tears.

" Look at you, you're- You were on fire. Oh god, you-" I saw the panic grow in his eyes. I grabbed his wrists firmly. 

" Look at me," I ordered with a loud voice. I knew the curious people behind us could hear me.

" We nearly died, Sadie. There was a bomb underneath our benches!" His breath caught, the hysteria growing and growing. It surprised me he was able to call me Sadie, still. There was still something left of his shocked brains.

" I'm still alive, do you hear me? I'm alive. You are alive, too." 

A nurse opened the curtain slightly and closed it behind her. She first looked at me, and then at Niall who was about to lose his shit.

I looked at the nurse, her eyes snapping at me. " You have to give him something, something to calm him. He will lose it if you don't," I spoke clear and strong. She nodded and spurred away. It only took a few seconds until she was back.

" Niall, I'm alive, can you see that? I'm still here and I won't leave. I will always be here, okay?" I begged. He stared at me when the nurse pushed a needle in his arm and emptied the syringe. He just blinked, as the seconds ticked away. " I'm sorry," I said, as I caressed his face with the back of my hand. He was out seconds after.

The curtain opened, and they rolled in a second bed. The two nurses put the unconscious Niall on the bed and wanted to roll him out of the room. I only just managed to grab the back of the bed, forcing the nurses to stop.

" He's with me," I said. The two nurses looked at each other.

" But ma'am-" I shook my head and cut off her words. "I'm Metropolitan Police, and I demand he stays here." 

My voice did not tolerate any contradictions. My face probably said the same. I would fight them off. I didn't care they were nurses. 

The two nurses just nodded and pushed my bed aside a little to make room for Niall's bed. 

" Thank you," I spoke to them. I knew I wasn't an easy patient.