Chapter Text
When you are young things seem so easy. Life is fun. All people are nice to you. At least that’s how they were for Louis Tomlinson. Even at age 6 Louis was known as the loud, vibrant, cute little kid that lived with his mother and a sister. Everyone in his neighborhood knew who he was, mostly because he made a point to introduce himself to everyone. At least for a little while. You see something happened one fateful winter’s day to Louis, and it would change him forever.
It all started with a snow storm and a Louis who wouldn’t listen when his mother told him to stay inside. I have to go play while it’s snowing! He had told her. He needed to run around and collect snowflakes in his hair. So he did. When his mother wasn’t looking he snuck out the back door and ran into the storm. He did manage to put on his warmest winter coat, gloves, boots, the whole works; how was he supposed to know it wouldn’t be enough?
Behind Louis’ house was a beautiful forest. He always loved running through the trees and hearing the birds chirp, but he never did take a moment to actually look at his surroundings. He was 6 years old! That meant he had plenty of time to look at things, but for now he just wanted play in things. Like now for instance, he was running through his beloved wood and forgetting to look for the small pond that was in the middle. By the time he did notice it, it was too late.
Crack!
“What was that?” Louis asked himself. He stopped walking and finally looked around.
Crack!
And there it was again, that strange cracking noise that seemed to be coming from below him. He looked down and at first all he could find was snow, but then he saw it. He bent down to wipe the snow away and yes, that was ice. A rather thin layer of ice was covering the pond. He looked back and saw the cracks in the ice leading to his feet. Louis knew better than to move at this point.
“Mummy!” he tried to call out to his mother for help but was met with silence.
His breathing sped up and when he tried to take a step forward the ice broke even more.
“MUM!” he called out again, not able to move.
Louis began to cry, he wasn’t even supposed to be outside! He was panting as the tears ran down his face and he continued to yell for his mother, or for anybody to help him off the ice.
He tried to take another step forward and that was it. His foot broke straight through the ice and his whole body was pulled in after it. He screamed as he hit the cold water below and tried to grab to something, anything to keep above it.
He thrashed around in the water as he tried to swim to safety, but it was so, so cold. “MUMMY PLEASE! HELP ME! HELP ME!”
“LOUIS!” whipped his head around and saw his mother run through the trees and stop dead before hitting the ice. “Oh Louis! Why did you leave?”
“I’m sorry mummy! I’m sorry! Please help me!” Louis’ head bobbed in and out of the water, his energy dropping as he felt himself slipping away.
His mother removed her jacket and jumped into the ice after him. “It’s okay Boo, mummy’s got you. It’s okay.” She pulled him through the ice and out of the pond as fast as she could. She wrapped her dry jacket around him and held him close.
“It’s cold, mum. It’s so cold.” Louis’ voice was so small and his lips were blue. The tears he cried were frozen to his face and he wouldn’t stop shivering.
She lifted him up and began to run back through the trees. “I know Boo, I know. But you will be okay, I’m going to get you warm.”
“Mum,” Louis whimpered in his mother’s arms.
“Hold on Louis, just hold on. We’re almost there,” She was running faster now and he could see tears falling from her eyes.
“Mum, I’m so cold.” Louis whispered as he slowly closed his eyes. The last thing he heard was his mother crying out his name, before he blacked out completely.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The first thing Louis noticed when he woke up was that his head hurt. A lot. All he could hear was a distant ringing in his ears. He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his hands to his ears. Eventually the ringing stopped.
The second thing Louis noticed was that he was not in his room. The football posters and drawings that normally covered his walls were all gone. He looked around and realized he was in a hospital. What happened? He thought as he looked at the boring white room. Then he remembered. He remembered running through the snow and the trees. He remembered the crack of ice beneath his feet. He remembered being colder than he had ever felt before. And mostly he remembered his mother calling to him and telling him to hold on.
He shook his head wiped the tears from his eyes. He was crying so loudly now, he knew he was. But he didn’t hear a thing. Why couldn’t he hear anything? He sobbed and this time he knew he must have been screaming because he saw a nurse run through the door. She was quickly pushed aside by his mother, who ran to him and threw her arms around him.
He looked right at his mother. Her lips were moving, she seemed frantic, but still Louis heard nothing. He looked into her eyes and he saw deep desperation. She moved her hands onto his cheeks, her lips stopped moving and she was just staring at him. She turned to look at the nurse who looked very confused and ran out of the room. Louis’ mother pulled her son close and he could feel her tears on his skin, but he still heard nothing.
The third thing Louis noticed was a bouquet of flowers. The biggest ones were pink and white and shaped like stars. They had darker pink dots all around them and even from where he was sitting, Louis knew they smelled beautiful. These flowers were surrounded by smaller blue-purple flowers that had two petals and a yellow center.
They were beautiful. Louis smiled knowing they were for him. He just wished that his mother would let go so he could push his face into them and just smell them. And then he wanted to be left alone to just look at them and arrange them. He had never really looked at flowers before. He saw them when he ran through fields but he never stopped to enjoy them.
Now he could feel his mother talking against his neck but he still couldn’t hear her. All he could do was look at the flowers and hold her close.