You Can't Sing Without Air- Harry Styles Fanfic

15. Drowning on Dry Land

My head slips under the lake. I flail my arms, desperately trying to come to the surface but I only sink further down. My lungs burn for air, my muscles scream in pain. The dark water pulls me further and further down until I run out of every bit of oxygen. I take a deep breath and my lungs fill with water. 

I wake with a start. I can't breathe. My chest is heavy with mucus instead of water, but it's just like the sensation of drowning in my dream. I begin coughing thick heavy coughs, gasping for air. Harry wakes next to me, his eyes wide in terror. 

"Aideen what's going on? Aideen?" He asks, but I cant get enough air in to respond.  

"Shit. Shit! What do I do?"  He fumbles for his phone in his pocket.

I need him to help me clear my airways, to pound on my back and my chest and help me get the mucus out of my lungs, but I don't know how to communicate it to him. I should have thought to teach him some emergency tactics just in case.   

He finally grabs his phone and quickly dials Niall's number on Facetime. His hands are shaking, making it difficult for him to press the keys.

"Niall? Oh thank God. Aideen can't breathe, I don't know what to do."  He looks back at me. 

I continue coughing, my face bright red with the effort. It's not the first time this has happened, in fact, its not  even an unusual event for me lately. My lungs are worsening, there's no denying that. Sometimes I wonder if one day I'm going to have an episode like this and I'm not going to be able to catch my breath. What a lousy way to go. Drowning on dry land.

 "You need to get the mucus out of her lungs." Niall says calmly, more for Harry's sake then mine. "Pound on her back with your hands flat, like this." He demonstrates on the table next to him. 

Harry puts the phone down on the couch and leans down towards me, tapping me lightly on the back. 

"Harder. Seriously Harry I know she's tiny but you need to get her lungs clear. She's been doing this all her life, she'll be fine." 

"Fuck. Okay yeah." Harry starts pounding my back harder.  

I cough a few times and spit out a disgusting glob of mucus. Attractive. 

"Good, good" Niall says over the phone. "Aideen you're doing great, hold on for me okay?" He says. He masks it well but I can still hear the worry in his voice.

I nod, coughing up another glob, then another. There's blood, but again, it's nothing unusual for me. 

Harry keeps pounding on my back until I finally feel like I can breathe again. 

"Thank you" I say, turning around to face him as his hands fall away. 

His eyes are wide with terror. His face is ashen.

"Aideen, are you okay?" Niall asks from the phone. I turn my attention away from Harry to face him. 

 Although Niall's seen this many times before, I notice the same look of fear from when I  almost drowned in the lake all those years ago. It fills me with grief. 

"Yeah. I think I'm okay. I've been better." I joke, trying to cut the tense atmosphere.

He wipes his eyes with his hand, for once not laughing at the joke.

"I love you, okay?" he says seriously. "Take care of yourself. Please. I'll be home in four days. Call anytime."

"I will. I love you too." I hang up the phone and turn back to Harry. 

I grab his hand only to find it's shaking violently. 

"Harry, I'm okay. You did the right thing."