Not a lot of time left. Not much longer. Not a lot of time left. Not much longer. I'm sorry.

Rae doesn't need sorry, she needs for someone to pick up the pace and find a cure for her brother. She only took a day off to catch up on sleep, but as hard as she tried, sleep didn't come easy. It never does for Raelyn. It's usually restless. Nightmares plague her mind, and it seems every time she closes her eye to sleep, they're there, lurking around the corners.

Ready to jump out and coiling their dark arms around her brother to take him away.
Instead of attempting to sleep some more, Rae drove to the hospice in the early hours of the morning and has stayed there since then. It's well past noon now, Rae skipping a lunch one of the nurses brought for her due to the twisting in her stomach, but pretends to eat so Ronan will. It's when they're watching Peter Pan all snuggled up in her brother's hospital bed, does Ronan make a request.

However, his machines beep and go haywire. Rae pages the on-call nurse, and it takes her a half hour just to give Ronan medicine and calm his machines down. She informs Rae that he got worked up and if she could possibly try to calm him down.

With a thumping heart, Rae calls Louis. She hopes he can answer, hopes he's with the other four boys, hope they have time for one last request. The siblings listen to the ringing on speaker, but when it goes to voicemail, Rae hangs up. She dials Harry next with he same result. Calls Liam and Zayn and when they both go to voicemail, Rae's heart begins to sink. Mentally she's pleading for Niall to be the last hope for this, that he'll actually have his phone in his hand rather than just forgotten somewhere on a table. She gently strokes her fingers along Ronan's cheek, waiting for an answer.

"'Lo?" Comes Niall voice, low and quiet like he's not suppose to be answering in the first place. Rae can faintly hear music and singing in the background, but she can't be bother with interrupting anything.

"Niall." Rae breathes out in relief. "Sorry if you're busy but um...Ro-" She clears her through and makes sure to sound as if nothing is wrong. "Ronan isn't feeling too well. He was wondering if...if maybe you all could sing one last- I mean, like, sing on the phone. For him. If that's alright?"

Niall's silent for a few moments. "Is he..." He starts apprehensively. "Raelyn?"

Rae's heart clenches in her chest. She thought she was better at bluffing than this. "He's just in pain. He misses you. Please?"

"Give me one mo'." Niall requests. It sounds like he covers his phone with hand, faint muffled voices the only thing coming through.

"Ra. Rae." Ronan speaks up, weakly tapping her hand. Rae looks down at him. "Will they?"

Rae swallows a dry lump in her throat. "They are, love. Just for you." She smiles at him, leaning down to kiss his forehead.

"Raelyn!?" Louis' frantic voice suddenly emits loudly through the speaker.

"Ronan just wants to hear you sing." Rae responds quickly, calmly. She can do this. She can lie. Her stomach twists sickeningly. "Just misses you lads."

"Rae-"

"Please. Please just sing. He wont fall asleep until you do." She ignores the double meaning of her words. "You're on speaker, by the way."

"Yeah." Louis sighs, like he knows he can see right through her, despite being in another country. "Mind if we sing a bit of a new one, Ronan?"

"Please, Louis." Ronan answers, then smiles at his sister. He's been patiently patting her free hand with his small fingers.

Louis counts off, and then all five are singing in perfect harmony. It sounds like the chorus of the song, and she can pick out Louis' voice instantly, carrying the chorus. They sound amazing, beautiful, and when Rae looks down at Ronan, he's smiling and reaching for the phone. Rae moves it closer to his ears so he can hear them better. When they finish, they launch straight into Little Things, Ronan's favorite song. Her brother smiles through the whole song, snuggling into Rae's side, eyelids fluttering. Ronan falls asleep before the last note, so Rae takes them off speaker.

"Thank you." She whispers, holding her phone between her ear and shoulder as she pulls Ronan's blanket over his shoulders. Her other arm is currently being used as his pillow.

"Always." Louis answers just as soft.

"We love him, Rae. I hope you know that." Liam pipes in gently.

Nodding, she answers, "I know. The song sounds so good."

"We were just recording it when you called. S'why I couldn't answer." Louis informs her.

"I figured. Sorry about that."

"Honestly, don't worry about it." Harry speaks up, "we needed a break anyway."

Rae hears some static shuffling, then the background noise of other voices and music cut off. "Hello?"

"Took you off speaker." Louis tells her after a moment. "You're lying to me."

"I haven't lied to you, Louis. He honestly wanted to-"

"Raelyn. What's really happening?"

"Nothing." She answers lightly. Her voice sounds overly sweet in her own ears. "He misses you. He's just tired...is tired. He's always tired. He's been um, in more pain. He's just- just-" Her breath hitches.

"Raelyn. Hey, it's alright. Sorry I asked. It's okay, don't forget to breathe, darling." Louis tells her. "I believe you."

Rae scoffs lightly, rolling her eyes. "You'd believe me if I told you the sky is purple."

"If that's what you'd want me to believe rather than the obvious truth to it being blue, then yes."

Louis is smart. He's clever, watching him, becoming his friend, becoming more than just a friend recently; Rae has noticed that trait. She should have known- always tells herself that she should by now -he'd see right through her. Why she still tries to hide anything from Louis is ridiculous at this point. However, Rae was only evading Louis' questions because Ronan was right next to her.

Also, the five of them are too busy recording, and promoting themselves. They're too focused on their careers and Rae doesn't want to take their attention off of what comes first to them. Plus, they're in another country and- Rae really needs to stop giving herself lame excuses and just come clean already.

As carefully as she can, Rae slips away from her brother, and pulls his blankets up to keep him warm. She places a gentle kiss on his cheek, then quietly leave his room, shutting the door before making her way over to the small couches at the end of the hallway. Louis' been silent this entire time, patiently for her. She settles into one of the ugly yellow chairs before speaking again.

"Louis."

"I'm here, love." He reassures.

Rae nods to herself. "He can hardly get out of bed anymore. His breathing is becoming more difficult and when I spoke to his doctor..."

Her words fade out, abruptly hearing her previous conversation with Dr. Ramsy in her ears. It's clear, loud, almost like she had recorded it and is playing it back with headphones stuck in her ears. Her heart begins to race, and her chest clenches so hard, so painful she audibly gasps, immediately trying to ease the pai by digging her nails in her chest, exposed just below her collarbones.

"Niall sat on Harry's banana, and Harry was so disgruntled, he looks liked Pepper when she fell into her water bowl." Louis says randomly. "Liam, I've corrupted him, I swear I have, stole a shopping cart from outside a market. Zayn wants to sneak out at night and graffiti the Eiffel tower. I told him I'd go with him. Oh, and Josh can quote Casablanca word to word, and Paul knows all the lyrics to every single Spice Girl song."

Rae blinks several times. "What? What?"

"Did it work?"

"Did what work? What's this about Zayn wanting to graffiti the Eiffel tower, and Josh and Casablanca- which is a fantastic movie, mind you."

"Is your hand still at your chest?" Louis asks. He sounds like he's smiling.

Realization dawns on Raelyn. Her hand is in fact, no longer scratching at her chest, but is hanging in the air because everything Louis just said was so random. It was distraction. A rather good one at that. Rae can breathe normally again and the spasms had faded away.

"Yes. I mean no, my hand's not on my chest, and yes it worked." Rae answers finally.

"Good. Had me worried there." Louis exhales, sighs heavily with the sound of a question her probably doesn't ever want to ask. "What did the doctor say?"

Raelyn's finger dance over her collarbones, lightly feeling the long, red scratches already forming. She shoves her hand under her thigh then. "He. Um...he doesn't think...he says Ronan may not have a lot of time left."

It's Louis turn to be pin dropping quiet. The silence, however, lasts for so long on both sides, Rae's phone actually single beeps the low battery percentage. It still goes on though, and Rae vaguely wonders in the back of her mind if Louis is on a break or if he's actually missing a recording session for his vocals.

He nearly stole a jet to come see her, so she wouldn't put it past him to ditch just to talk to her. She doesn't know what to say though, and judging by the radio silence on the other end of the phone, neither does Louis. In a time where she would honestly love for him to say something, he hasn't. He can't.

"So..." Rae finally breaks the heavy silence. "Pepper fell into her water bowl?"

"Yes." Louis mutters distractedly. He makes a small noise, clearing his throat. "Just fell right in. I'll be back on Friday, Rae."

"That's still five days away." Rae frowns.

"I can still steal that jet, ya know."

Rae chuckles despite the situation. "Please don't. Just...come back when you can."

"Five days. Just five more days." Louis reminds her.

She suddenly feel so desperate for Louis. For his presence, to just to near him, in her arms, because maybe then, Rae can pretend that it none of it's real. That maybe his arms are her fortress, protecting her from everything that's called reality. She needs him now. Needs him to remind her how to breathe, how to remain calm in front of her bother, for her mother, for herself.

Never would Rae have thought she needed to rely on anyone else to feel that. She has always been the one to give it to other, to protect them. To comfort them. Never thinking of herself. Never for her, until now. When she can't even remember the last time someone just let her fall apart the way she has with Louis. Can't remember feeling so opened, so exposed until she met him. But Louis...Louis protects all of that. She has been willing giving everything she'd hidden and locked away for so long into his open hands, and Louis has taken every single one of them and kept them safe.

Rae abruptly blurts out, "I need you."

"Raelyn," Louis' voice sounds so soft, nothing but fond. "You're so much stronger than you think. You don't need to need anyone."

Well, she wholeheartedly disagrees with that. Rae tells him this much, and listens to his soft chuckle. The one he uses when it's just them two alone. "I may be strong in your eyes, but that doesn't mean I don't need someone to help me."

"Five days." Louis states again. "Don't hate me, darling, but Zayn's beckoning me to come back inside. Call if anything, alright? I mean it."

"Yeah, alright." Rae agrees.

"Give Ronan kisses from us. "

"Always, Lou. See you in five days."

Rae's phone dies right then, as if that isn't a sign for something. She can't think what. She's tired, despite this little vacation from work. So, Rae gets up, heads back into Ronan's room and tucks herself in next to her baby brother, not knowing how much longer she has to just simply sleep next to him.

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Notes

(i love irony...I'm talking about the song I used....which is a great song, so yeah.)