Chapter Thirty-Four

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     The blackness disappeared and I laid on my back without the strength to sit up. My head lolled to the side and I saw Tristan lying beside me, watching me as blood pooled beneath his shirt.

His lips turned up into a small smile as the paramedics rushed in to take care of the both of us.

I was alive- but so was Tristan. I wasn't sure if I was happy about that or not.

My breathing was laboured and the paramedics put a neck brace on to stop it from swelling further. The sound of my own wheezing was frightening me.

As soon as Tristan was taken out of the room in a stretcher by the police, I was brought outside.

I began to cry as soon as my face felt the sunlight. I didn't know if I would ever get out of there for sure.

Soon I felt hands caressing my face and I blinked up into the sunlight trying to see who the hands belonged to.

I nearly cried with joy when I saw that Luisana and Michael were already here waiting for me, Luisana kissing my cheeks repeatedly and crying and Michael gripped my hand tightly.

Kegan and Kelsey were there, looking pretty teary eyed as well. I tried to speak but my throat was too raw, so instead I let my eyes do the talking as relieved tears flowed down my cheeks.

My family and friends wiped them away as quickly as they had formed and it was at that moment that I saw him standing off to the side, staring at me with his blue eyes that always seemed to see through to my soul.

Niall?


CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR


     Before the paramedics could get me into the ambulance, Niall grabbed my hand.

"I'm so sorry baby," He choked out, blinking away his tears. I grabbed his hand with both of mine and squeezed.

'I forgive you' is what I wanted to say, but I still couldn't speak. When I tried, I winced and Niall brushed a finger over my lips.

"Shh, everything's going to be alright, I'm not going to leave your side. I'm here." He swore, and I pitied the person who tried to hold him back from doing anything but that.

Luisana and Michael kissed my cheeks repeatedly and let Niall ride in the ambulance with me as they followed close behind in the car with Kegan and Kelsey.

He didn't let go of my hand once.

When we got to the hospital, they rushed me in to a private room to examine my injuries- unfortunately Niall wasn't permitted inside.

I could hear how frustrated he was as they wheeled me into the room, but I knew that it might be better that he didn't hear what happened to me in that house.

The doctors asked me a bunch of yes or no questions that I was to answer by tapping my finger once for yes and twice for no. When they were finally satisfied, they administered morphine and some medications to help me sleep. As I drifted off I saw my family and Niall come into the room.


—-

When I woke up, I heard a soft masculine humming and closed my eyes tightly, not wanting real life to wake me up and ruin the peacefulness I was feeling right now.

Slowly and reluctantly, I opened my eyes and saw Niall sitting at the side of my bed playing with my fingers. He was staring at the ground and I just watched him silently for a moment.

He looked exhausted, stressed, and upset.

"Hey Ni," I whispered quietly. His head shot up in surprise to look at me with wide blue eyes.

I gave him a small smile, happy that this was real life and that I actually was here with him in this moment.

I was about to speak again when he shook his head and brushed his finger over my lips.

"Grace, I don't even know where to begin to ask for your forgiveness, and I don't expect you to give it to me in the slightest. I was a fool. I told you that I would never let anything hurt you ever again, and instead of protecting you like I should have, I was the one who hurt you instead. Who was protecting you from me?" He asked quietly, causing me to frown.

He stopped for a moment and I was about to protest but he continued on,

"The fact that I have to ask that question is the reason that I feel like even if you were to forgive me, I wouldn't know how to ever make it up to you. Harper sent the picture that got out to the magazine to the paparazzi for a lot of money. I knew it wasn't true, and yet I let you believe that I did think it was real. I was a coward for blaming that for being the reason that I broke up with you." He looked at me and ran his fingers through his blonde hair in frustration. A moment of panic went through me at the thought that he might have broken up with me because he actually didn't have feelings for me anymore.

"I broke up with you because after seeing the picture of you humiliated on the cover of a magazine, it broke a part of me. If you weren't dating me, then you would have never had to go through a lot of the things that you did. I thought that it was selfish of me to make you go through all of this craziness just because I was in love with you. I thought maybe that you would find someone else that made you happier without all of the media crap that I come with."

He stared at the ground for a moment more before continuing to beat himself up.

"I thought you would be safer, happier, just better off without me, and then this-" He gestured towards me sitting in the hospital bed, "happens and I'm thrown for another loop. I feel like if I wouldn't have done this, that you would have been safe. I could have kept you safe." His voice broke at the end and a pang of sadness went through my chest.

I took a moment to collect my thoughts and took a deep breath before I launched into what I've wanted to say to him for the past week.

"Niall James Horan, you must be crazy if you think that a bump in the road can change how I feel about you." I took a moment to laugh at the thought; I was exasperated that he thought that he was so unimportant to me that I could simply move on like nothing had ever happened.

"I don't think you understand what me loving you means." I looked at him seriously, pausing to think for a moment.

"You could throw me to the wolves and I would still love you. You could try to do everything in your power to stop me from feeling this way, and I would look at you and tell you that you're crazy, that it was impossible to go back on how I was before I met you. I count my blessings every single day that I met you, because you saved me when I was fighting a losing battle. You could ignore me, hate me, it wouldn't matter. I would still love you. Do you want to know why?" I asked him.

"Why?" He whispered, swallowing hard. His eyes were misty and it took all of my effort to keep going and not just crawl into his lap and kiss him senseless.

"Because when someone has met their soul mate, they don't just 'give up'. They chase that feeling to the ends of the earth and beyond that, because they are more priceless than life itself. You never run from love, because it always catches up to you in end anyways. I've never experienced a love like ours before and it truly is once in a life time. It's pure, selfless love that people spend their lives dreaming about and may never actually see. But with you, I have it. I love you, do you hear me?"

Niall moved so that he was sitting beside me on the bed. "I can't explain to you how much that means to me. Thank you for being the most forgiving, sweetest person on this planet. I love you." He leaned forward and gave me a long, sweet kiss on the lips. We both leaned back into the bed and breathed a sigh of relief.

Niall traced his fingers across my hand lightly and I moved my head to my favorite place, the crook of his neck. I breathed in his familiar and comforting smell and was filled with an overwhelming feeling of happiness.

As I was beginning to fall asleep, Niall nudged me, "I forgot to tell you that you have a new doctor." I could hear the smile in his voice but was too tired to open my eyes.

"Mmm?" I mumbled lazily, enjoying the warmth his body was emitting.

He laughed and nudged me again. A sudden thought had me shooting up straight in bed and looking around wildly for the one person that I hoped to see in that moment.

When my eyes finally settled on someone standing in the doorway, my hopes were confirmed and I jumped out of bed and met her for a long awaited hug.

"Hattie, I missed you so much. What are you doing here? What happened to being transferred to a different hospital?" I asked her, not wanting to let go.

She rubbed my back and laughed. "I'm sorry it took me so long to see it myself, but I realized that getting paid more to be where I wasn't happy wasn't worth it. It only took you nearly getting severely hurt again for me to see that."

I laughed, "Well at least something good came out of it after all," I glanced at Niall to see his face scrunch up unhappily. I reached out to squeeze his hand.

I climbed back into my hospital bed and snuggled back in with Niall, and Hattie smiled. "You two look much better today," She commented while going through my charts.

When Hattie was distracted with my files, Niall leaned close to my ear and whispered, "Nice butt."

I gasped, turning red and swatting him.

"Hospital gowns are pretty flimsy," I muttered, laughing. I hid my face under the covers in embarrassment.

Niall peeked under the sheets to stick his tongue out at me, "I didn't mind the view," He winked. His voice was as smooth as honey. And I was melting like goo.

Hattie laughed and we both peeked out from the covers. "You guys are too old to play house!" She joked, flipping through some papers. I was about to deny it when Niall nudged me with a smile.

"You're never too old to play house," Niall chuckled quietly.

Before I could respond to his witty responses, Hattie began talking.

"So Grace, based on what I've seen, I have no reason for you not to be able to go home tonight. You're on some pretty strong pain killers for your throat and neck so we'll send you home with some of those, but you should be alright to recover from home from this point on. Just rest up because you've been through quite a lot."

I nodded, "Thanks Hattie, I appreciate it."

She smiled at me, "By the way, since I'm going to be staying here, I just thought I'd let you know that your new neighbor? Yeah that's me." She winked at me.

I gaped at her in surprise, "No way! You bought the house next door?"

She nodded, "I figured that if I was going to move all the way back here to be closer to family, I night as well go the whole nine yards. Plus it's a gorgeous house."

I laughed, "It is a gorgeous house."

"All right, I'll leave you two be now, I'll see you soon Grace." Hattie kissed me on the cheek before leaving the room.

I rested my head on Niall's shoulder and we fell into a comfortable silence, happy because we were together again enjoying the simple company of one another.

—-

A while later, Niall had left to go back to the studio after much convincing that I wasn't going to disappear on him again. He couldn't put his life on hold any more than he already had for me. He had his dreams that he needed to continue chasing, and I would be there for him in whatever way that I could.

Luisana and Michael came to pick me up from the hospital a little while later and told me that they had been there overnight and left in the morning to give Niall and I our space to figure things out.

I loved that they were so supportive and understood exactly what I needed. It was impossible for me to tell them just how much I appreciate everything that they do for me, so I just hugged them tightly and repeated how much I loved them until it was firmly cemented into their minds.

Because that's all you need to do sometimes, is let the people that you care about know just how much you love them. And sometimes, that's the only thing that they want to hear.

When we got back to the house, Kegan and Kelsey were waiting on the steps huddled together. As soon as we got out of the car, Kelsey ran over and began sobbing onto my shoulder.

"I never thought that I would see you again," She cried, tightening her grip on my shoulders. Kegan was hanging back so that Kelsey could see me first.

My eyes became watery and I hugged her tightly back, "I missed you," I mumbled, and glancing at Kegan I said, "I missed both of you."

Kegan took that as an invitation and wrapped his arms around the both of us as we embraced.

When we finally pulled apart, our eyes were still teary.

"Luisana told me that you guys were the reason that they found me. I really owe my life to your dedication." I said honestly.

"I'm just glad you're home and safe," Kegan said quietly.

Kelsey nodded, still hugging me. "Aw, Kels." I rubbed her back, "I'm okay."

"Seriously though, how did you guys find me?" I asked Kegan, for the first time curious about how everything had happened.

He looked at Kelsey proudly and rubbed her back. "Kelsey actually figured it out." He responded. The way that he looked at her was not the way someone looked at someone who they didn't think they would be with forever.

They would get married and have cute babies one day.

Kelsey shrugged good naturedly, "It wasn't a big deal..." A small smile formed on her lips.

Kegan scoffed, "No, you should have seen it Grace. It was like something out of a movie."

I widened my eyes and looked at Kelsey, waiting for her to elaborate. She looked shyly down at her feet and then looked up and smirked.

"Well, I did channel my inner Veronica Mars. And I found a secret hiding place behind his poster." She said seriously, looking at me with her wide innocent eyes.

I tried my best to keep my face straight, coughing to try to hide my smile but Kegan caught me and started laughing first. Soon, we were all laughing together, clutching our stomachs trying not to collapse on the ground altogether.

These people were going to be my friends for life.

—-

Later that night, I was in bed and got a phone call from an unknown number.

With everything that had happened recently, it was no surprise that I was hesitant to answer.

Would it be Harper, calling to humiliate me more? Or to gloat? Or would it be someone who got my number from a friend back home?

I answered.

"Hello?" I said slowly. I sat up further in my bed, holding my breath.

A relieved voice on the other end answered, "Oh, good! You answered. Sorry babe, my phone died so I borrowed Liam's."

I sighed, happy it was Niall.

"Hey Ni, how's it going?" I asked happily.

"I'm good, how are you feeling?" He asked me.

"I'm feeling a lot better now that I'm home. My throat is still swollen but the pain killers are helping a lot." I answered honestly.

"Well I'm glad you're feeling better," Niall said sweetly.

"Yeah, I'd be better if you were here though," I replied quietly.

"Well actually, I know that you're supposed to be resting but I was hoping you might want to meet me somewhere tomorrow?" Niall asked.

My heart fluttered excitedly, "Yeah, I'd love to. I feel better when I'm around people anyways, I don't want to sit at home alone." I laughed.

Niall chuckled, "Well I suppose I should clarify that by meeting me, I mean meeting me on your front porch. I'll pick you up- I can't have you ruining the surprise now."

I could picture the mischievous grin that was on his face at that moment.

I laughed, "I'll be waiting, my prince."

"Well you need your rest, so I'll let you go to sleep. Have sweet dreams, but not too sweet. Save that for when we're in person." He laughed, his voice was honey smooth and I found myself blushing a deep red.

"All right Ni, sweet dreams. I'll see you tomorrow. Good night," I smiled into the phone.

Hanging up, I snuggled deeper into my cozy bed and fell into a comfortable sleep.

—-

When I woke up, I ignored my sore body as it protested to my quick movements. I jumped out of bed, showered, brushed my teeth, and changed into a cute summery dress.

When I made it down to the breakfast table, Luisana and Michael were waiting for me and the warm food was being served by Kegan's mom, Nora.

She ran over and hugged me tightly, "Oh don't you ever scare me like that again!" She chided with a small smile.

"I'm sorry, Nora." I hugged her back and laughed a little at her stern expression.

She nodded, satisfied with my response and spooned a big pile of strawberries and whipped cream on top of my waffle. I stared at it, more excited to eat than I thought I would be.

After I had successfully inhaled my waffle, Luisana cleared her throat.

"Later tonight, we were thinking we could have a family night?" She asked me.

I nodded, "Sure, that sounds like fun! Niall is picking me up any moment, what time did you want me home at?"

She shrugged, looking at Michael for his opinion. "I'd say maybe six?" He said.

I nodded, "Okay I'll be home by then. What are we doing?" I asked.

Luisana laughed, "That is for us to know and you to find out."

I sighed, "What is it with everyone and their secrets?"

Michael chuckled in response and I jumped out from my seat when the doorbell rang.

When I opened the door, my prince was standing there. And well, he looked...prince-like.

"You look beautiful." He smiled, his blue eyes twinkled with mischief.

"Niall, why are you wearing a tux?" I asked warily.


He smiled, "I guess you're about to find out."





—-

_____________

A/N

HELLOOOO!

So basically, I told you there would be an update in three days and then it ended up being like two months. I HAVE A REASON! I was pretty much ready to update, just had a little more to write, and then all of a sudden my computer closed the screen. I still have no idea what TF happened, but all of it was erased and I balled my eyes out because I had worked so hard to write it all! Lol, so I was super busy and just now had time to rewrite everything and yeah... I hope you liked it! Let me know what you think :) Next chapter may be the last one! And there will be an epilogue chapter :)


Question:

If you could only say five words to One Direction, what would you say?!

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