Just A Moment

Boop…boop…boop…

A steady beeping noise greeted me when I woke up. I groggily opened my eyes but immediately flinched away from the bright fluorescent lights above me. Where the hell am I… I felt disoriented as I tried opening my eyes again and sitting up to survey my surroundings.

“Ow!” I gasped as a sharp pain from my midsection flared up. My hand flew to my abdomen as my mind flooded with obscenities. I lay back down and pushed all thoughts of getting up out of my head. I kept my eyes opened, though, and began to take in everything around me. A moment of panic struck me as I realized that I was lying in a hospital bed.

“Hannah?” I heard a voice and looked to my right. My mom was sitting in a chair beside my bed. Thank God for a familiar face!

“Mom?” I croaked. Ugh, my throat was so dry. I was waiting for her response, hoping to get a glass of water or something, but it never came. Once I looked closer, I realized that she was asleep. But then who-

“She’s been there all night.” There was that voice again! I recognized the voice, but couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I looked around and at the foot of my bed I saw a figure standing there. But I could barely make them out… My glasses! I was blind without them… There they were on the side table. I reached out to grab them-

“Ah!” I gasped in pain as that sharp pain from my midsection surfaced again.

“Hannah! Are you ok?” The figure was suddenly at my side, leaning over me in concern. I looked up into their shining blue eyes, finally able to recognize them. “Do you remember me, Hannah?” he lilted.

“Niall, how could I forget?” I smiled, trying to make my heart stop racing. No, really, it was racing, I could see it on my heart monitor. Can you spell e-m-b-a-r-r-a-s-s-i-n-g.

His face brightened at my response, apparently oblivious to the increasing speed of the beeping behind him. “Ok, good. Do you need anything, then?”

“Well, could you hand me my glasses?” I nodded over to the side table.

“Oh, of course!” He swiftly handed them to me. Once I could see, I looked up at his sympathetic face. “So…” he trailed off.

“So…” I laughed, lightening the mood.

“Yeah, so, these are for you!” Niall held up a bouquet of gorgeous lilies towards me. How did I not notice those? My perception must be really off…

“Oh, gosh, lilies! Those are my favorite!” I took the bouquet and took a deep whiff of the white & pink flowers. “Aw, you really didn’t have to!” I looked back up at Niall, who was grinning sheepishly and totally adorably.

“Oh, please, it was the least we could do!” I turned my head to see Liam entering the room, a bandage stuck onto his neck. It was that bandage that reminded me of last night’s horrible events. My stomach dropped out and it suddenly got hard to breathe. I heard panicked beeping from all around me.

“Oh, my god, what’s happening?” Niall said, sounding scared. Liam looked equally afraid.

All of a sudden, a swarm of nurses rushed into the room and began touching me, checking my pulse, pulling back Liam and Niall… and I fell back into darkness.

****

Boop…boop…boop…

That damned beeping.

I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar face looming over me.

“Hannah? Hi, I’m Dr. Alvarez; I’ve been treating you while you’ve been with us. How are you feeling?” The woman speaking was tall, Hispanic, and very pretty and was wearing glasses, a white coat, and held a clipboard.

“Um, ok, I guess?” I croaked. Ugh, damned dry throat. “Could I maybe have some water? My throat feels-”

“Dry, yes of course!” She turned momentarily then held out a cup. I took it and gulped down the sweet, cool giver of life.

“So…” I put the cup down. “So why did I just kind of black out and stuff? And why didn’t I feel like the Scream killer was stabbing me in the abdomen back when the accident happened?” I tried to make light of the incredible pain I was in.

“Well you were in shock. The nerves in your body were so alive and so sensitive that your brain couldn’t process everything and you didn’t recognize any of the pain. The reason you just passed out is a little less clear. We think that it was because something triggered a neurological…” Everything that she said after that made no sense to me. I assumed that it wasn’t good, but that I was okay.

Once she stopped talking, I figured to ask what may’ve been an easier question. “Um, what’s exactly wrong with me now?” I asked.

Dr. Alvarez chuckled. “Well, what’s happening is-“

“Hannah! You’re alive!” An enthusiastic voice came from the doorway. Louis Tomlinson made his way over to my bedside, followed by Liam & Niall. He stuck his hand out and said, “Louis Tomlinson. Not sure if we officially met, but you saved my girlfriend’s life, and I feel pretty damn grateful for that!” He quipped quickly.

“Hannah Clarke.” I tried shaking his hand, but the stretching of my arm just made that pain in my abdomen flare up again. “Oh, shit!” I cringed.

“What? What happened? Are you okay?” The three boys were all suddenly at my side, leaning over me in concern.

“Ok, boys, we need to talk about Miss Clarke’s condition, so could you give us a minute?” Dr. Alvarez looked serious.

“No, we want to know if Hannah’s ok!” Louis piped. Liam & Niall had looked ready to obey Dr. Alvarez at first, but now they stood behind Louis and nodded their heads in concurrence.

“Yeah, this girl saved all of our arses, and now we have to make sure she’s going to be okay.” Liam spoke up. He looked down at me and gave an incredibly sweet smile.

Dr. Alvarez looked down at me and said, “Are you alright with them staying?”

“Of course!” I smiled. “I just wanna know why I feel like I’m being stabbed with a butcher’s knife every time I try to move!” I chuckled lightly.

“Ok, well, if you look here…” Dr. Alvarez was holding up x-rays to the light, “You’ll see that you have two fractured ribs. Miraculously, beside a couple first degree burns, those are the only injuries you suffered from the explosion.” I gaped at her diagnosis.

“Two fractured ribs?” I said, staring at the x-rays.

“I’m afraid so,” said the doctor.

“Aw, Hannah, I’m so sorry!” Niall shook his head at the x-rays.

“No, it’s great!” I said, my smile widening.

They all looked at me like I had three heads.

“I’m sorry, when did the word ‘great’ become appropriate for describing two fractured ribs?” Louis pondered sarcastically.

“I mean that it’s great that this is all that’s wrong with me! I mean, after everything that happened? It’s a miracle! I’m just thankful. Broken bones will heal.” I explained to the bewildered expressions before me.

“Well, she’s better off than Harry, and Eleanor for that matter…” I heard Louis mutter quietly to the boys.

My eyes widened and my mouth dropped open. “Oh, my gosh, Harry! Is he okay?”

“Thanks to you, he will be!” Dr. Alvarez said. But the boys looked a bit more doubtful.

“What?” I looked at them all. Not getting a response, I turned back to Dr. Alvarez. “Can I get up and walk around?”

“Well, it’ll be good for you, but probably still very painful.” Her brows drew together in advisement.

“Anyone care to help me up, then?” I panned the room with my eyes expectantly.

A good ten minutes later, I was walking (with the assistance of both Niall & Liam) down the hospital’s hallway to Harry’s room, which was actually just two down from mine.

Now, it wouldn’t have taken ten minutes if it wasn’t for my clumsiness and the fact that there were three crazy boys running around my hospital room. First, Louis had knocked over the vase of flowers that Niall had brought me whilst throwing his arms open wide for a hug for me.

Then, while Liam set about to cleaning up the mess, Niall & Louis engaged in a fight for my little baggie of pretzel sticks that I didn’t want. Once Niall had successfully secured the pretzels, Liam had finished up cleaning and suggested we get me out of bed. It was painful at first, but with the boys helping me, it wasn’t so bad.

Because let’s be honest.

Finally we were ready to leave the room. As we were just about to exit, my foot expertly found a stray wire to trip over and sent me flying. Luckily, Louis grabbed one of my shoulders and Liam the other. Niall still had his, well, my pretzels.

So there we were, ten minutes later, walking into Harry’s room.

“Oh my…“ I gasped lightly. He looked better than he had last night, but he still looked pretty out of it. There were multiple scratches on his face, and one stitched up wound on his forehead. His neck was in one of those fluffy braces, and his left leg was elevated in a huge looking cast. His shoulders, arms, and torso looked fine, though…

“Yeah, it’s pretty bad. And he has a fractured rib, too.” Louis said, his face falling a bit.

My hand went to my mouth. “Wow… I’m so sorry, you guys, maybe if I had been more careful when I was carrying him, or just…” my voice began to tremble and tears formed. This beautiful boy that I had just been watching on MTV yesterday, perfectly healthy and well, was now lying before me in near ruins. I couldn’t help feeling like it was my fault.

“Hannah, love, there’s nothing more you could’ve done!” Louis put his hand on my arm and laughed. “You saved Harry and Eleanor and probably the rest of us, too! If you and your mate hadn’t been there to get our arses moving, we probably would’ve just stood there in a daze til we got blown to oblivion!”

“He’s right, Hannah. We truly owe you our lives.” Liam nodded in agreement.

The tears kept gathering in my eyes. I was so touched by their words… and the fact that it was One Direction? THE One Direction? It was almost too much…

Who am I kidding it WAS too much.

“C’mon, let’s go sit.” Niall put his hand on my back and guided me over to the couch on the wall across from Harry’s bed. He sat me gingerly on the end, placing himself carefully next to me. He made an obvious effort not to nudge me too much with his-

“Niall!” I gasped as I looked down for the first time. “Your arm!”

“Oh, this?” He lifted the bright green cast I had just noticed. “Eh, it’s nothin’!” He smiled, his braces showing and adding to his adorable factor. I suddenly remembered the disfiguration I had noticed last night when he offered to carry Harry.

“Nothing? Please, I saw your arm last night! They had to reset it, didn’t they?” I grimaced at the thought.

“Yeah, but it’s not a big deal!” He swiped away the suggestion with a hand and a smile.

“If you say so…” I trailed off, now smiling too. Liam had sat himself in a chair closer to Harry’s bed, and Louis plopped onto the floor by my knees, looking up cheekily at me.

“You know what Hannah?” he said.

“What, Louis?” I prepared myself for a crude joke or something Louis-ish like that.

“I actually quite like you as a person. It isn’t often we come across someone we can just chill with without having them start crying or squealing like a little oinker or something. I feel like we should be friends!” He smiled honestly.

My heart jumped.

“Could we all be friends, then?” Niall looked around the room hopefully.

“Well, I don’t see why that’s actually a question!” Liam chuckled. “As long as you, ya know, don’t go crazy fangirl on us or anything…” he took on a semi-serious tone, a careful glint coming into his eyes.

“Oh, lay off it, Liam, I don’t even think she knew us before yesterday!” Louis threw a pillow at Liam, pegging him in the knee. Liam, being the bigger man as usual, took the pillow and hugged it to his chest rather than throwing it back.

“I mean, even if she did, lads, don’t you think that she would’ve gone crazy on us already if she was one of those fangirls?” Niall leaned forward and reasoned so seriously it was almost funny.

“Ah, but you never know, Niall. It could be one of those delayed reaction things. Post traumatic stress. You ever hear of that?” Liam pointed in a very scholarly manner. I bit back a chuckle at the situation.

“Nah, we’re safe, lads. Isn’t that right, Hannah darling?” Louis gave me that cheeky look again.

“Of course you are, love.” I winked at him.

“Friends it is, then!” Liam threw his hands up and smiled triumphantly.

“Well, how can we be friends if I don’t even know her name yet?” A new voice came from the doorway. I turned my gaze onto the tall figure. My stomach immediately did a back flip and I could’ve sworn that my heart stopped beating for a moment.

“ZAYNY-BEAR!” Louis exclaimed, throwing his hands up to match Liam’s position.

“Did you bring the sweets?” Niall stood eagerly.

“’Course!” Zayn held up a pillow case that billowed at the bottom.

“A pillow case, Zayn?” Liam questioned.

“Yeah, everything just looked so good, and once I had finished getting everything, there was too much to carry in my arms. So I did the obvious.” Zayn shrugged.

“You stuck a banana in your ear!” Louis exclaimed gleefully.

“No, dipshit, I took a pillow case from a nurse’s cart and stuffed everything inside!” Zayn rolled his eyes with a smile and tossed the pillow case to Niall’s expectant hands- well, hand.

“Nice catch!” I nodded to Niall, impressed. I had the dexterity of about a rhinoceros and would most certainly have missed that catch.

“And I still don’t believe that we’ve been properly introduced!” Zayn said, making his way over to me. My heart did that skip a beat thing again.

See, I guess you could say that Zayn was my favorite. He was just… what’s the word for it… oh, yeah, fuckable.

“No, I suppose we haven’t!” I smiled and held out a hand. “Hannah Clarke! Sorry for not standing, two fractured ribs.” I pointed to my abdomen with my other hand.

He chuckled. “Don’t worry about it! Please pardon my, well…” He was holding out his right hand, but it had a massive cast that matched Niall’s in color.

“Oh, please, don’t worry!” I chuckled along with him, taking his fingers gently.

“Zayn Malik.” He flashed a heart stopping smile at me. I practically died.

“Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Zayn Malik!” I somehow managed.

“And you as well, Hannah Clarke!” Ohhh my Lord his voice saying my name….. melt, melt, melt…

“So the boys tell me you’re the one who pulled Haz out of the fire?” He said, taking Niall’s seat beside me. Niall was still sifting intently through the pillow case.

“Yep, guilty.” I lifted my left hand and smiled.

“Now, why would you do that? Why couldn’t you let the little bugger burn?” Zayn threw his head back in irritation.

I caught onto his sarcasm immediately. “I thought about it, but then I thought about poor Louis, here.” I put my hand on Louis’ head and patted it affectionately. “He would be without a hope in the world without his dear Hazza!” I shook my head in fake innocence, finally cracking a smile.

Zayn chuckled at my response. “Yeah, I suppose that’s best for everyone, keeping Louis calm and all!”

Louis turned abruptly and faced Zayn with wide eyes. “Me! Calm! Exactly what planet are you living on, then!” he practically yelled.

“Dear God, must you scream, Lou?”

“IT’S ALIVE!” Louis yelled and jumped up to Harry’s side. “You alright, Harry?” He leaned into Harry’s face.

“As soon as you shut up I will be,” came Harry’s weak reply.

“Of course, love!” Louis whisper-shouted, patting Harry’s cheek lightly.

“Now have you seen that girl?” I heard Harry say.

“Pff, which one?” Louis chuckled.

“The one that dragged me out, you idiot.” I could hear the tolerance in Harry’s voice.

“Oh, that one! Yeah, she died when you landed on top of her after the explosion, you fatty!” Louis scoffed like it was no big deal.

“Died?!” Harry exclaimed.

“No, she didn’t die. She’s alive and well.” Liam reassured Harry, stepping in between he and Louis with a reprimanding glare directed at Louis. “In fact, she’s right-”

“Here. I’m over here…” I spoke up, trying to stand but failing miserably. “Um…” I blushed awkwardly.

“Oh, allow me!” Zayn helped me up with a smile and walked me over to Harry’s bedside.

“Hello, Harry, I’m Hannah Clarke.” I smiled, talking softly.

“You’re the girl that saved my life?” It sounded more like a statement than a question.

“I guess you could say that!” I nodded lightly. “How are you feeling?” My brows knit together in concern.

“Alive, thanks to you!” He cracked a slight grin. This boy… even in this situation, he still smiled.

“Oh, it’s not that big of a deal…” I blushed sheepishly.

Harry brought one of his hands to my arm and looked me straight in the eye. “You saved my life. That is a huge deal, love.” The way he looked at me… Damn, it just sent chills up my spine. But I mustn’t cry, mustn’t scream, mustn’t let myself think about it…

“Yeah, no kidding! If it wasn’t for you, we all would have blown up! I can’t even remember anything after the impact…” Zayn agreed, now standing beside me.

“You don’t remember me talking to you?” I asked.

“Not at all!” he shook his head, bewildered.

“Well, it’s no wonder. You were all ridiculously dazed!” I shook my head, remembering their blank expressions.

“Well, I just wanted to thank you. And to tell you that I will sure as hell make it up to you, if it’s the last thing I do!” Harry stole my attention again.

“Oh, you don’t have to do that!” I protested humbly.

“Well of course I do! If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be here right now!” Harry insisted.

“Nor would Eleanor!” Louis quipped from behind me.

“Eleanor? What happened to Eleanor?” Harry looked to Louis, his beautiful eyes clouded with something that I think was meant to look like worry.

“Well-” I started, stopping myself at the look on Louis’ face. “What happened to Eleanor?” I repeated solemnly.

“Well, you remember she was knocked unconscious from the impact and then she stopped breathing.” Louis rubbed his eyes wearily. “Hannah here actually revived her. Brought her back to life and everything!” Louis patted my back proudly, earning a pained grunt as my ribs were jostled. “Oh, sorry love!” he winced.

“Look at you!” Harry smiled. “You little life saver! They should have a special life saver, the candy kind, and make it Hannah flavored and name it after you and everything!” A dreamy look took over his features.

“And there goes the sedative. C’mon then guys, let’s leave Harry to his dreams.” Liam said, nodding to the door.

“No, wait, Lou didn’t finish telling us about Eleanor.” Harry’s words stopped Louis, thus stopping the rest of us.

“Yeah, mate, you haven’t said a word about her yet!” Liam’s brows drew together.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t say anything because it’s really not good news.” The pained expression returned to Louis’ face. “See, she was fine after Hannah revived her, but when she got to the hospital her heart stopped again.” A quiet fell over the room. “The got her back, but she’s been asleep ever since. They can’t wake her up.”

“I’m so sorry, mate…” Harry was the only one capable of replying.

“Eh, it is what it is.” Louis shrugged, wrinkling his nose a little.

“Well, uh, we’ll let you rest, Harry.” Zayn finally interrupted the heavy silence. Nodding to the door, he said lowly, “Shall we, boys?”

Niall, still buried in that pillow case of snacks, went quickly before stopping short and turning to me, saying, “You coming with us, Hannah?”

“Yeah, of course!” I replied. Zayn and Louis followed Niall, with Liam bringing up the rear. He looked to me expectantly. I was about to follow when I felt a pressure on my hand. I looked down to see Harry’s hand wrapped around mine.

“Stay with me til I’m asleep, yeah?” His gorgeous eyes still seemed lucid.

“Sure,” I smiled. “Liam, I think I’ll stay for just a bit?” I said, my gaze reverting to Liam.

“Of course. See you back in your room, then?”

“Yeah, I’ll be right there!” I smiled before turning back to Harry, who was still looking at me. “You doing alright there?” I asked softly.

“You don’t know you’re beautiful, do you?” he said out of the blue. I blushed. First of all, because he was quoting one of their songs. Second of all, because he, Harry Styles, member of One Direction, had just called me beautiful. Third of all, I really didn’t think that I was beautiful, so it was rather… startling, I suppose you could say?

“Oh, I wouldn’t say beautiful…” I turned my eyes down and smiled bashfully.

“See, there it is. You’re smiling at the ground!” he sounded amused.

“Oh, please!” I met his eyes again, chuckling. He let out a light chuckle as well.

“You really are, though…” he said heavily as his eyelids started to close. “Hannah… it rhymes with banana… Thank you, Hannah…” he mumbled softly and slowly as he began drifting away. But the one thing that didn’t drift away was his strong grip on my hand.

Notes