After several minutes of telling the story in beautiful Danish that reminded me of home, which was just what I needed feeling so pathetic and alone at this hospital, Aida went silent and I opened my eyes.


“That was beautiful,” Harry gushed and Aida cracked up.

“You didn’t even understand a word of what I just said,” she laughed.

“No, I’m serious,” he persisted and I looked at him curiously. “It just… sounded like a really touching story spoken in the most carefully chosen words…” he said with a bowed head.

I think I felt in love with him just there. “That’s exactly what it was,” I replied.

“What was it about?” Perrie asked.

“Uhm…” I began, “about a mom, whose child is dying and the Death comes to get it but this mom decides to follow him not ready to let go of her child. As she chases the Death he leaves impossible tasks for her to overcome before she can continue. And then it’s just... The most touching part about the story is how much she’s willing to go through to give her child the best possible life. When she finally catches up on the Death and her child he tells her that he will bring him to The Lord, where he can’t tell her how the life will be for the child – either filled with joy and love or with tears and misery. She ends up letting them go since the Lord’s will had be the right one, she could only hope that it was the good life that waited ahead of them and not the one that she could give the child.”

“Yeah,” Perrie agreed. “It was something like that I imagined. It’s much more beautifully told in Danish though, I think.”


Aida and I smiled proudly feeling silly and a bit patriotic at that point.



Even though I felt so happy and relaxed I still had a rather rough night. One time every three or four hours my stomach would turn and I would do a few minutes of dry heaving before I could lie down on my back again. Harry insisted on sleeping at my bed resting his head on the edge as Niall used to do and helping me, I think he still felt incredibly guilty about all this even though it wasn’t at all his fault.

The cramps in my body made the pains worse movement by movement and I had a really hard time falling asleep again after each round of throwing up. The uncomfortable things made me sweat and tear up over and over again and I noticed that Harry really had to do his best in order to act as the strong one out of the two of us. His comforting words spoken with his deep and raspy voice in my ear always helped a bit though and I don’t think that I would have gotten through the entire night if it hadn’t been for him.



Sometime right before sunrise I fell asleep and didn’t wake up before I heard people talking quietly around the room. I opened my eyes feeling a bit better than during the night.

Louis had left again to record at the studio with Liam and Niall, who would come and be with me when they’d finished. I couldn’t help but think that maybe I wasn’t the one among us that was going through the roughest time right now; getting almost no sleep at night, recording at the studio all day and then no sleep again. Poor boys.


Em and Eleanor had arrived with breakfast consisting of some scones and fruit, they already looked a lot better having both had a whole night of proper resting.


“Morning,” I said almost getting scared of the strength in my voice that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d heard.

“Are you feeling better?” Eleanor asked smiling at me and I nodded.

“Fantastic!” Em exclaimed and rushed over to my bed kissing my hair. “Can you eat a bit of breakfast?”

“Uhm… maybe a little,” I said knowing that it probably was a really bad idea, but even though I felt better and stronger my body still felt completely drained out of energy. Some nutrition might help.


I ate whole two bites of an apple before I had to put it away again. Talking was soon not that difficult for me, but chewing still challenged my physical strength to the max.

“Can you believe it…” I began and they all turned their heads towards me. “Just a few days ago I was running for an hour without any problems and now I can hardly chew on my food.”

“Guess it’s karma,” Perrie said smiling caringly.



It didn’t take the two bites of apple more than a few minutes to get up again and this time I didn’t get to warn them in time.


With a wet smelling shirt and a humiliated feeling Harry pulled the red string to get a nurse.

“Do you have a clean shirt?” he asked her when she walked in to the room. She took one glance at me and then went outside to get me some clean clothes. I suddenly started to feel really nervous. I hadn’t had a shower for almost a week and I had been sweating like hell for the past couple of days and at this point I certainly didn’t want anyone to touch me or my dirty hospital clothes.

The nurse took out my drop for a few minutes so that I could get it off.


“All right,” she said. “We have to get you to sit up right before we can get it all off.”


I suddenly felt extremely scared – almost as much as Em.

“What? No that will hurt,” I quickly objected even though I knew that she was right. I tried to comfort myself by thinking that it might be that bad since I was stronger now and must’ve healed a bit in the past couple of days.



But no. Hell no. It hurt just as much as last time they’d tried to raise the bed. Harry held my hand and it soon changed in to an almost clean white color because of my tugging on to it. Em walked out of the room with Eleanor, but Perrie and Aida stayed in the room doing absolutely incredible at covering up any disgust at my screaming.

Harry wasn’t capable of that at all, the tears streamed down his face as he bit down on his poor lower lip in order not to make any sound. When I was finally sitting up I had to take a long break breathing in and out heavily, it seemed as though none of my organs wanted to cooperate with my brain anymore.


“Maybe you would like the dear gentleman to leave the room?” the nurse asked me as she looked at Harry’s poor looks.

“Oh yeah… Of course,” he said and left the room with a red face. Aida and Perrie laughed a bit which made the whole scenario a bit les humiliating as they also ended up having to help me getting the clothes off and on.

“You’ve really lost some weight,” Aida said without any emotion at all, while looking at my devoid upper body and arms.

“I hope so,” I just said still trying to brighten up my own mood. “Nurse, do I get to get a shower sometime?”

She smiled at me as she closed the shirt. “The doctor is coming to check your scar from Friday night tomorrow and if it has healed nicely you can get one after that,” she said.


It didn’t take as much time to put me down again but it didn’t hurt the very slightest less, maybe because I this time didn’t have Harry’s hand to squeeze the life out of. But I couldn’t blame him that he chose to stay outside and get a break from my pains.


Em, Eleanor and Harry came back inside and sat down to finish their breakfast that I’d interrupted with my unpredictable stomach action.

“Eleanor, Perrie, Em and I have to go home and sleep tonight,” Aida said. “I can’t get off from work and the day starts early, but Niall and Liam will be here. Is that okay?”

“More than okay!” I said. “Guys, you have no idea how grateful I am for having friends like you. Spending most of your time in a hospital with a sick and disgusting person like me can’t be much for fun.”

“Actually I think it’s kind of nice,” Eleanor said and we all looked confused at her. “I mean, we’re all usually so busy all the time, this way we get to spend some time together with the ones that we love hanging out with.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Perrie said with a thoughtful smile.



The whole day went by extremely slowly. Even though they all did their best to keep all of us preoccupied we all ended up running out of ideas; Harry trying to show us the same three card tricks started to become slightly annoying instead of cute, Aida ran out of stories to tell me and she and Perrie had made all the scariest faces they could manage, so now there were nothing left than to talk, read, eat and sleep.


Talking and sleeping were my two favorite things to do, because I had such great friends who had so much good and funny stuff to say and because I would instantly get exhausted from doing the smallest things.


So that’s what I did the entire afternoon, until Harry’s buzzed in the pocket of his black skinny jeans.

“Hi Niall,” he said in to it and then listened before looking at the rest of us saying: “He’s almost done at the studio.”

“Tell him to bring a guitar!” I exclaimed after having thought about music the entire day. And right now the best possible music for me would be the sound of Niall playing the guitar casually and without any particular melody or chords. Harry smiled at my sudden outbreak and said: “Maja’s asking you to bring a guitar. And I would like some horns, please.”


I stuck out my tongue at him as he smirked probably finding his own way of making fun of me incredibly hilarious. He hung up and put on his jacket.

“I have to go, I promised Tom and Lou to look after Lux for a couple of hours, while they’re having a night out on their own,” he said and pecked my forehead. “Stay strong.”

“Tell them I said hi,” Perrie said as she hugged him.

Aida left with him to get home early and maybe catch up on some sleep. Em and Eleanor waited until Louis, Niall and Liam would arrive, so that Eleanor could drive home with Louis and Em could get a chat with her boyfriend before she had to leave as well.



The three boys arrived at the hospital about forty-five minutes later and I was delighted to both see Niall’s face that was now looking a lot better than when I’d last seen him yesterday, but also because of the black bag at his back that very much looked the case of an instrument.

I honestly didn’t care what kind of instrument it was, I just wanted to listen to the sound of anything having anything to do with music. Jesus Christ, it could be a pair of maracas and I would be completely satisfied!


Niall walked over to me surprised to see that I was now strong enough to hold up my arms and hug him.


“Yay, are you feeling better?” he asked cheerfully.

“Much,” I said and laughed at his face expression when he heard that my penetrating voice was now already back.

“Oh, I’m so glad!” he exclaimed kissing my lips. Right then and there I realized how long it’d been since I had felt his lips on mine and I warmly welcomed the soft touch and the warm feeling that spread out through my body.


The moment of tenderness was shortly lived though since I suddenly felt the well-known rumble in my upset stomach.


“A bag,” I quickly managed to say and as Niall just stood right next to the bed staring confused at me Perrie rushed over grabbing one of the plastic bags on the way, remembering what’d happened last time.

A few drops of liquid and some dry heaving for a couple of minutes was all I get out of my system. As he still stood looking at me, this time with worry, I said: “It’s just the morphine,” but it didn’t seem to get him to worry less about me.



“Well, I better get going as well,” Em said a few minutes later standing up from her chair. “Have to go to work tomorrow early morning so…”

“Oh my God!” I exclaimed.

“What? What is it?!” she said.

“What about my job? Do they know that…” I began but she cut me off.

“Don’t you worry, we called them and they are doing just fine,” she said laughing at me. “You can call them when you’re feeling better and capable of starting to work again. And… there’s some guy, Eric was his name… he’s been calling you a few times about some band?”

“Oh yes, I remember. We were supposed to rehearse Thursday, but I guess I was still sleeping at that time. Does anyone know where my phone is? Think I should probably call him,” I said.

“It’s in here,” Em said and opened the small wardrobe closet in the corner. “We’ve charged it for you, since people have been calling and texting you constantly.”


She handed me my white iPhone before leaving the room blowing me a kiss on her way out, whereas Liam followed her to kiss goodbye.



I called Eric so tell him about what’d happened and to apologize. He picked up after only one ring.

“Maja?” his voice said.

“Hi Eric!” I said.

“Oh hi! God, what have you been doing? I’ve been trying to call you, but I only got to talk to your friend who said something about an accident – is that true or what?” he asked confused.

“Yeah, unfortunately,” I replied. “I got hit by a car this Wednesday and I’m now in the hospital with a concussion, a broken knee and a few broken ribs. I haven’t been able to talk until today so…”

“Wow! Are you serious?” he exclaimed.

“Yes I am,” I said trying to sound happy – I didn’t want him to worry as well.

“I’m so sorry! Is there anything I can do for you or something?”

“Don’t spend any time worrying, that’s my only wish.”

He sounded like he smiled a bit as he asked for the name of the hospital, so that he maybe could stop by and keep me company for some time. I gave him the name before we hung up.



“Who was that?” Niall asked not sounding too comfortable.

“Eric. He plays percussion in a folk music band and has asked me to play with them,” I said trying to express that there was nothing for him to worry the slightest about, so I took his hand in mine which seemed to work pretty well since he kissed me again before getting out what looked like a guitar.

“You wanted me to bring this?” he said smiling.

“Yeah, I just really need some quiet and comforting music. Will you play a bit for me?” I asked making big doggy eyes and pouting my mouth, which made him laugh.

“Of course,” he said and did it the way I liked it – without any pattern or melody, just note after note after note.


The music made me feel calmer than I’d felt for as long as I could remember and I didn’t even notice Liam entering the room again. It wasn’t until he started singing the first verse of Truly, Madly, Deeply that I recognized his voice. Niall joined in on the chorus and I smiled at the sound of their two fantastic sounding voices.


I closed my eyes and fell asleep to the sound of acoustic and pure music – just the way I wanted it.

Notes

I'm updating almost every day, it feels nice to write and get your response, so keep the votes, comments and subscribers coming! :-D