My girls left in the evening after having dried off my hair – which by the way felt amazing and also weird being all clean - a few more hours of chatting. I made them promise to stop by again tomorrow afternoon when the boys would be here as well. I wanted them to meet Cara, but after having these couple of days on my own I was starting to miss the company again.



The next morning I woke up quite early by a nurse coming in telling me breakfast was ready. She helped me in the wheelchair and I drove in to the bathroom on the way down the hall. This way my tired morning mood was already improved by discovering that it’d become easier for me to pull down the Diaper and I even changed it myself this time.

At the tables arranged the end of the hall I saw Cara sitting staring on a plate full of white bread and jam.


“Good morning,” I said and rolled over next to her. She sent me an incredibly tired and sad smile. “Wow. That’s one mighty big portion,” I gushed. “Understand if you find that prohibitive.”

She nodded.

“Can I have a bite?” I asked and she pushed the plate a bit closer to me.

“Don’t let the nurses see you,” she whispered. “They’ll just say that you can’t do that.”

“Hell, you’re not going to eat all of that yourself,” I frowned and hid the piece of toast under the table. “Where were you last night at dinner?”

“Uhm… There’s this one time a week where I have to eat with some people that you know, have the problems as me. That’s every Tuesday’s dinner,” she answered.

“Okay,” I said. “Are you free this afternoon?”

“Why?” she asked.

“Because I have a surprise for you,” I said smiling.

“Really?” she exclaimed. “What is it? More music?”

“Well, if I told you it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it? Have a bit of toast with me.”


She did as I told her to and actually didn’t seem as frustrated about her breakfast anymore, which only brightened my mood even more.



We spent the day together doing some puzzles, playing cards and watching television. She took me for a tour around some of the hospital, since she’d been here for a while and knew a few more of the people around here.

She got a visit from her parents around lunch though and I let them have some time alone after greeting a short lady with a lined face and a man with grizzled hair. They both seemed very kind and polite, but that’s the thing about diseases like Cara’s – they always come to the people you wouldn’t expect it to.


I ate some lunch and sitting in my room with my phone where I recorded a few notes for a melody that I had had in mind the entire day but without knowing what kind of notes it was – hopefully it would turn in to be something useful one day along with tons of other incoherent notes that I discovered I had apparently recorded at some time.



Suddenly I heard someone knocking on the door and Niall’s head popped inside, he was smiling widely and so I began to.

“Hi Maja!” he exclaimed and came over to me pulling me in for a hug as tightly as he could with me sitting in a wheelchair with a couple of bruised ribs.

“Niall!” I smiled. “Is it already that late? Wow, guess I’ve gotten used to doing nothing…”

“No, we just decided not to arrive all at once, that would be quite dangerous I think, so I was the first one to leave the studio. The others are just finishing recording,” he answered and sat down on the sofa pulling my wheelchair close to him. “How’ve you been?”

“Splendid actually!” I said. “I’ve got a new friend.”

“So you said. She must be very special, this girl you wrote about,” he said and smiled at my excitement.

“She is. She’s only 12 years old, but in here for anorexia, that poor girl. A huge fan of yours though so I wanted to surprise her today,” I said.

“That is really nice of you,” he said while taking my hands in his bigger ones. “Anorexia. Wow. And in such a young age. I honestly can’t imagine how that works…”

“I bet you can’t,” I smiled and so did he before kissing me.



Harry and Zayn arrived a bit later with a few bouquets of flowers.

“Thought you might need some fresh ones,” Zayn smiled shyly.

“Thank you so much!” I gave him a quick hug from the wheelchair.

“God, you look good today!” Harry exclaimed when he saw me.

“I got my hair washed yesterday. You have no idea what relief that was!” I told them and they all smiled.

“You’re right, we probably don’t have any idea,” Zayn said.


The next ones to arrive was all the girls; Eleanor, Perrie, Em and Aida, all coming straight from different works around London.


In the end around five o’clock Louis and Liam finally arrived.

“It’s complete madness out there!” Liam breathed when he got inside the room. “Guess people started noticing you guys going in here, even though we split us up.”

“Good to see you,” Louis said hugging me. “So why did you want all of us here at once? We can barely fit in here.”

“It’s because there’s someone here that I’d like you to meet. A girl named Cara and she’s anorexic, but a really big fan. She doesn’t know that I know you though, so it’s a surprise for her,” I said proudly.

“Cool,” Eleanor said. “Can’t wait to see the look on her face!”



I rolled out on the hall and towards her room to get her.

“Cara, it’s time for your surprise!” I said when I got in there where I saw her still sitting with her parents. She immediately jumped out of bed with an excited smile on her colorless lips.

“I really hope it’s something with music!” she said which made me smile as well. “Can mum and dad come?”

“Of course they can,” I said and the three of them followed me and my wheelchair back to my room.

“You guys go first,” I added when we got to the closed door. Cara opened the door slowly and she and her parents walked in. I couldn’t see anything for their bodies due to be sitting down, but I could tell that they were greeting each other.


“You must be Cara,” I heard Harry say. And then a sob.


I suddenly got really nervous that all this might be a bit too much for her. But then I heard Niall’s voice saying:

“Nice to meet you,” and as I slowly got inside I could see that he’d pulled her in for a hug. “Don’t cry.”


But she was in no condition of restraining herself as she sobbed in to each of the boys’ chest her tiny shoulders shaking. Luckily Eleanor helped her at last by giving her a hug as well whispering a few things in to her hair that I couldn’t hear – it seemed to calm her down a bit though.

That was until she ran towards me and threw her arms around my neck, where I couldn’t help but feeling relieved that she wasn’t that strong at all, or else that would have hurt like hell.

“Ssh, don’t cry,” I said as her shoulders started moving again. “You deserve this.”

“Thank you,” she whined as I brushed over her hair with my hand.

“Do you want to play some music?” I asked and she pulled away drying her eyes with a small nod. I nodded at Niall who quickly grabbed the guitar.

“Cara, do you have a favorite song?” he asked.

“Uhm… I… I like… Diana,” she hyperventilated and I could see the girls getting really emotional as well out of my canthus. Em stood with Perrie’s arm around her shoulders that were almost shaking even more than Cara’s. Even Aida – who never cries – looked like she was extremely touched by this whole scenario, as Niall started playing the chords for the song on the guitar.

Liam began on the first verse and the little girl’s mouth moved along with his as she knew the lyrics from front and behind. Eventually all the boys just let her sing the song along with Niall playing the guitar.


The whole room was so filled with emotion, even the boys themselves, who were used to these things, looked like they were struggling with some tears each of them.

Cara’s parents were the beautiful thing though. They did not exactly look emotional, just more… relieved. Yeah, incredibly relieved to see their daughter having a good time and maybe for a brief moment not thinking about the stuff she had to deal with at all other times. Just to look at them made it all worth it, cause it wasn’t only Cara who had her day saved.



When she finished singing the song we all applauded her loudly, before the boys got her to sing another one for them. Louis started making a bit fun out of it by playing some kind of a host.


“Here, all the way from London, now performing in Madison Square Garden, the biggest star on the planet, I give you… Cara!!!!”


We all laughed as Niall played song after song after song making the little girl’s smile wider for each one.

I felt so grateful to be knowing such great people like these around me; people that make their surroundings better and other people as happy as themselves.




A few hours of jamming later, when most of the people in the room had left, except for Niall and Harry, Cara’s mum pulled me aside.

“Thank you so much,” she said hugging me. “You have no idea how much this means to her. And us. Being in this hospital alone isn’t easy for her, so having a friend like you and experiences like these really will help her, we’re absolutely sure about that seeing her face today.”

“Don’t thank me,” I said with my hands on her shoulders. “Thank them”. I pointed towards Harry and Niall who had decided to stay for the night. They now both sat and talked with Cara making funny faces and the sound of her constant giggling filled the room.

“Those are some great guys,” she agreed smiling at their silly behavior. “Well, we better get home, got work tomorrow morning.” She grabbed her husband’s arm. After another couple of hugs they went over to their daughter to give her multiple kisses and tight hugs.

“Thank you for everything,” her dad said as he shook Niall and Harry’s hands. “I think you just made us become hardcore fans of One Direction as well.” We all laughed.

“It was really nice to meet you, sir,” Harry smiled as the tired parents left the room.


Only a few minutes later a nurse came in.

“All right, Cara, it’s time for bed now,” she said kindly and Cara stood up to follow her out the door, but only after having given several hugs for each of us.

“Good night, Cara,” Niall waved at her making her blush heavily.


“She told me you were her favorite,” I said to him when they’d closed the door behind them.
“Playing the guitar for hours and that wave must’ve been really hard on her.”

“I’m so sorry then,” he laughed.

“I need to go to the toilet,” I then said rolling towards the door that had just been closed.

“Do you need any help?” he immediately asked.

“Nope, I can do it all by myself now!” I said smiling proudly as I always did telling people that.

“Hey, well done!” Harry exclaimed standing up and clapping his hands like a fool, while I couldn’t avoid noticing a slightly disappointed look on Niall’s face.



When I got back they helped me up in my bed, where I felt incredibly relaxed after having sit up almost all day and I couldn’t remember much after that, which probably means that I drifted off the sleep rather quickly.


The next day was going to be very special, even though it started like any other on the hospital; A few bites of breakfast, where I was delighted to see that Cara was eating even more and feeling a lot happier from yesterday, the boys, her and I hung out for the rest of the morning, but right after lunch a nurse stopped by to say that a doctor would come and check on my knee.

And so we waited most of the afternoon, since it wasn’t until right before dinner the doctor that had been taking care of my bruises came in the door followed by the nurse that I also recognized from earlier.


“Hi Maja, how are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m great, thank you,” I smiled as he came over to my bed.

“Since your knee was only sprained and not broken it shouldn’t take much longer time than a week for it to heal, so I will just take off the plaster now,” he said and the nurse started cutting it up with a scissor.

Harry and Niall stood by the bed looking curiously at it the same way I did.


It looked quite normal, my knee. But it sure felt really good to feel some fresh air hitting the skin of the area that had been covered in the plaster for a week now.

The doctor looked at it and bowed it up towards me. “Does this hurt?” he asked and I shook my head. He bowed it up a little further.

“That hurts a little,” I squealed in a tone like some kind of a squirrel that made the boys giggle at me.

“It’s looking quite good, I think we should try to walk a few steps,” he then said and I suddenly looked at him in chock.

“Me walk?!” I asked. “I can do that?”

“We’ll see, but it looks strong enough,” he said and I then felt insanely nervous.


Harry and Niall walked around the bed to help me down of sheer habit, but now that I could use my left leg as well it wasn’t that difficult for me to move around. As I reached the edge of the bed I put down both of my feet on the ground.


I think I was a little too eager since Niall had to catch me the second I put on weight on the leg.

“Wow, take it easy, miss,” the doctor said. “Don’t push yourself too hard.”


I slowly put more and more weight on it, holding myself up by help from the boys who stood on each side of me. I could feel that I hadn’t been using it for quite a while now since it felt rather weak when I tried to make it support me.


But very slowly, step by step, I started moving forward. Or stomp by stomp, I should say. Niall and Harry seemed more scared than me since they kept holding their arms around my back. The stomps started becoming less violent so that it almost looked like I walked in a normal way. I let go of Harry so that it was now only Niall who support me a bit, but it didn’t take me long before I tried to let go of him as well.

“Maja, are you sure…” he objected but I just exclaimed:

“I’m walking! I’m fucking walking!”

Notes

15 subscribers! BAM! I love you! Keep on voting, please xx