Defenceless l.s

Thirty Nine

"Mr.Tomlinson is extremely underweight," he paused, waiting for a reaction, when he got none he continued. "But that's not all, his body is also covered in bruises and scars, some of them fairly new. These are all signs of abuse." A heavy silence fell over the room as they both slowly took in what the doctor had told them. Harry stared ahead with his mouth slightly agape, not sure how to react, what did he mean abuse? He looked over at Zayn who had his jaw clenched and looked like he was about to kill someone with his icy cold glare. Dr.Brown continued, "do you have any idea who could've done this?" Zayn nodded curtly, "Liam Payne," he spat out like the name was venom in his mouth. Liam Payne? His boyfriend? Harry eyes widened and he wanted to scream as realization washed over him, how could he have been so stupid? All the signs were right there!

"Mr.Payne?" Dr.Brown asked with furrowed eyebrows. "Um, yeah. It's his boyfriend," his voice barely audible this time. Harry watched his fist clench and unclench by his side as his eyes glazed over. He wasn't sure who this Zayn was to Louis but they must surely be close for him to be on his security contact. He wondered why he didn't have any family instead, maybe they didn't live in the city? The doctor cleared his throat, "oh, well do you know if they live together?" he asked. Zayn just nodded and he could see more angry tears build in his eyes. "Does he have another place he can go? Family? Friends? Because if he goes back to living with Mr.Payne I am obliged to inform the police, if he removes himself from that situation it's his choice to press charges," he informed them.

Zayn was quick to respond, "he will move in with me," he said making Dr.Brown nod. "If he wants to press legal charges he can either call the police or come back here and we would gladly help him, I'll explain the details to Mr.Tomlinson when he's awake and feeling better," he said with a tight lipped smile. Harry just observed as Zayn nodded again and they got up to leave the office back to the waiting area. "You wait here, I'll go and see if Mr.Tomlinson is up," he said before walking through one of the glass doors.

They sat down on the black plastic chairs as they impatiently waited for Dr.Brown to return. After a few moments of silence Zayn suddenly asked "What happened?"

"Hmm?" He asked, distracted.

"What happened, you know. . . so you had to bring him here?" He asked and gestured around the white room.

"Oh, um, he passed out and wouldn't wake up and he fainted once before so I figured it would be best to bring him in," Harry said quietly, not wanting to ruin the delicate atmosphere. When Zayn didn't say anything he continued, "Did you uh. . . know about this?" He asked carefully and watched as Zayn stared intently at a spot on the ground before slowly nodding. "I didn't know for sure but, I uh. . . I thought that maybe. . . yeah." He spoke so quietly Harry bealry heard it before they both got lost in their thoughts again. Harry looked around the room to see the couple from before was gone, but the girl was still there, with a drink in her hand this time. She didn't look quite as dull but she still looked like she hadn't slept in four days.

Dr.Brown soon returned, snapping them both out of their thoughts. They got up and waited expectantly for him to say something. "You can see him now," he told them and they both breathed out a sigh of relief and followed Dr.Brown through a door and down a small hallway before stopping in front of a small door with 287 written on it with an old calligraphy font. Zayn knocked lightly before opening the door and entering the small hospital room. Harry was about to do the same when he realized that maybe that wouldn't be the best idea. He is still just his boss after all, and he had his friend here now. He should just wait outside just to make sure that he is alright, that would be the appropriate thing to do.

Just as he was about to turn around and leave the door opened again and Zayn appeared. "Louis wants to talk to you," he said before disappearing into the room again. Harry was a bit surprised by this, what did he want to talk to him about? He entered the room after Zayn and saw Louis sitting up in the bed. His arms were on full display with the hospital gown he had on and Harry could finally see just how small Louis had actually gotten. His collarbones were jabbing out of his pale skin and looked completely exhausted still. He cleared his throat and fiddled with his fingers in his lap, "Um, thank you for bringing me here or, uh, calling the ambulance. And I am so sorry if I disrupted anything," he said making a frown appear on Harry's face.

"Of Course, don't apologize, you're sick," he said seriously, not mentioning what Dr.Brown had said about Liam. He figured that it was not his place and that he should probably let Zayn talk to him now. "I should go," he said and nodded towards the door, "get better soon, yeah?" He smiled and with that he was out the door. He called an uber and thought about everything that had happened and he felt a gut wrenching guilt at how he had treated him, especially in the beginning. Now, he didn't know what Louis was going through, but he still should've known that he wasn't alright. It was so obvious.

He thought about how he was always nervous, or how he would flinch at loud noises or when somebody raised their hand, or how he would always shut up when he thought he had spoken out of lane and not to mention his eating disorder. Was that because of Liam too? His heart hurt when he thought about the hell Louis must've gone through. Then he thought about that night in New York, had his boyfriend done that as well? He clenched his jaw, he really didn't want to think about it but couldn't get it out of his head. How could he have been so fucking stupid? He sighed before paying the driver and headed inside.