Wednesday opened her eyes to darkness. For a few minutes, she wondered if she had died and was now in purgatory, nothing but a soul now floating through the atmosphere with no body to call its own. But then a wave of sadness washed over her that was so utterly heart-breaking, she realised she had to still be alive. Death was supposed to bring peace, but all she could feel was pain.

Her sight began to focus as she realised she was still lying on the cold, kitchen floor, her cheek pressed to the tile. She felt dazed, her energy dilapidated. Attempting to move her fingers in front of her to gage if she could move, she shut her eyes defeatedly when she could only weakly wiggle them.

She surmised that it was now the evening, because the only source of light in the room was the light yellowish hue coming in through the window, probably from a streetlamp. The tightness from before in her chest had now been replaced by an ache, almost like it felt strained and she wondered how badly of an effect the ordeal had had on her body.

The patter of rain against the window was weirdly comforting to Wednesday as she let herself focus on the sound. She knew she should probably try to move, but she felt too weak and tired to try, even after what felt like hours of sleep. Her eyes droopily blinked as she remembered what had caused her frantic state, still unable to accept the news as reality.

She felt her lip quiver as she blinked away images of her nanna, her beautiful nanna. Of all the people, why had it been her? Wednesday knew she would have swapped places in a heartbeat. Her nanna had such a beautiful soul and didn't deserve to go just yet. She had so much more to give. Wednesday had so much more to learn.

Knocking at the front door disrupted the calmness of the rain gently hitting the window and Wednesday's eyes looked to the source, seeing the hazy figure of someone through the door window. She tried to lift her head, but it felt too heavy. And when she tried to say something, no words came out. It would have been funny to her, the parallels between her current state and that of Rose in Titanic when she's on the door, unable to cry out for help, if it hadn't been so desperately sad.

The person knocked again, and Wednesday felt her eyes tear up when she realised she couldn't move to let them in and she'd be left there alone. Again.

"I'm here," she croaked, her voice unable to be heard over the rain.

As much as she tried, they couldn't hear her and so she shut her eyes, a small defeated whine leaving her lips as she waited for them to move on, leaving her there in the dark.

But as the sound of a key being placed into the lock and turned faintly drifted through the hall to where she lay, Wednesday opened her eyes to hear the click of the lock opening.

It was then the door opened, the sound of the rain increasing and for a second, the light from the streetlamp flooded through and hindered her vision, painting the person in a blanket of darkness. It was only when she heard their nervous voice call her name, as if they were looking for her, that she knew who it was.

"Harry," she croaked, but he didn't seem to spot her immediately from where she lay in the shadows of the kitchen floor or hear her over the rain, as he looked around in the dark for any sign of her. She mustered all of the little energy she had to try again.

"Harry," she repeated huskily, a little louder this time and as his head turned to her direction, she knew he'd heard.

"Wednesday?" he asked uncertainly, taking a few steps forward and bringing him into Wednesday's full vision.

His face was darkened by the lack of light, but she could see his glassy eyes, frantically trying to adjust in the dark environment. He looked worried, scared almost, and for a second Wednesday wondered if he was really there, or if he was just a hallucination her brain had conjured up to bring some relief.

But as he took another step forward, his eyes finally saw her curled body on the floor, tucked away against the counter and something that looked an awful lot like fear flashed across his face as his eyes met hers that were barely open.

"Wednesday!" he repeated, this time urgently with a strong tone of panic.

Quickly stepping forward, he scrambled to his knees in front of her and the smell of him filled her nostrils. He smelt like the ocean, that fresh smell of someone who had just come back from a holiday. If Wednesday's heart hadn't been awakened by the touch of his hand on hers, the gentle cupping of his hand on her cheek would surely do it.

"Fuck, Wednesday, are you okay? I'm here now. I'm here. I'm not leaving you, okay?" he asked her, as he held her face in both of his hands, his body knelt closely to hers as his eyes frantically searched hers for some hint of what was happening.

She couldn't reply, but nodded into his touch, closing her eyes as she felt a warmth build in them, so grateful for him in that moment.

"What happened?" he asked, still panicked as he analysed her cold, limp body on the floor that was shrouded in darkness.

Her eyes pinched shut even harder as she tried to vocalise what was happening, but no words were coming to her foggy brain, bar one.

"Nanna," she replied with a cracked voice, her breathing starting to ramp up just at the one word as she felt tension in her throat. Harry noticed her sudden sharper intakes of breath and lowered his body so that he was nearly to the floor, his hands still gently but firmly holding her face.

"Hey, hey. Keep breathing slowly, okay? I'm here with you now."

Wednesday opened her eyes to see his pure green ones staring back at her, and for a split second, she forgot how to breathe or the reason why she was laying on the floor. He licked his lips nervously as his eyes moved between hers, his expression slightly frantic as he tried to gage her state. But all she could think was that she would lay there all day if it meant she could look into his eyes the whole time.

"Wednesday, I'm..." he began, looking down with a sad crease between his eyes as his voice came out choked, like he was trying to hold back floods of emotion himself. "I'm so sorry. I came as soon as I heard. She was such a wonderful woman and I'm just so sorry."

He sensed her rising chest once again at his words as she desperately clung to her tears, moving her face in his hands so that he couldn't see her pained expression. Her eyes closed shut tightly, knowing that if she saw his saddened expression, there wasn't a chance she'd be able to keep her tears at bay any longer.

A moment later, she felt his fingers trail over her hand as he brought it up to be held in his large palm, warmth encompassing her freezing fingers as the smoothness of his rings rubbed against her skin. Then, she felt his other hand move from her face to snake under her head and with a gentle lift, he scooted his body closer to her, before placing her head gently down onto his thigh, so that her head was laying on him.

His fingertips started to stroke gently through her hair, repeated long strokes from the side of her forehead to behind her ears and her heart began to beat faster. She wondered if he could feel it radiating from her, for it felt so strong she was sure he'd notice. At his simple touch, her body began to shiver even more than it already was, but there was something so comforting about it that she never wanted him to stop.

His other arm wrapped around her middle as he readjusted her limp body once again, this time bringing her up a bit further so that she was situated between his legs, still laying down but now with his warmth behind her. Keeping the one hand in her hair, her brought his other to wrap around her freezing arm, doing his best to keep her as warm as he could. She wondered if he knew she couldn't move, not just yet. Her hopeless demeanour must have indicated that.

And then, he began to sway with her. Side to side, ever so gently. Like a parent to their baby. Wednesday, with her face out of his view, let a single tear run down her cheek at the action, not realising how much she needed this. Comfort. It was so simple but so beautiful that it made Wednesday want to sob with gratitude and she felt a rush of guilt overtake her when she realised how awful she'd been to him over their last few interactions.

Slowly moving her hand, she managed to place it on top of the hand wrapped around her middle. Unable to vocalise her complete and utter relief at his presence right then, she squeezed his fingers gently, hoping he would understand. In one quick action following, he leant and placed a gentle kiss onto the top of her head, lingering for a few seconds that told Wednesday he knew exactly what she'd meant, without her needing to say anything.

"I'm sorry," she croaked, letting another tear he couldn't see roll down her cheek.

At her words, he hugged her tighter and leant his own cheek down onto the top of her head.

"Shh, shh. None of that matters. All that matters is that I'm here now with you, and I'm not going anywhere."

They stayed in that position for an undetermined amount of time, silently swaying with his body wrapped around hers. Wednesday, the girl who had never been keen on hugs, felt like she might crumble if he let her go. His arms were the superglue keeping her in one piece. Despite him not seeing her shed a single tear, she knew how vulnerable she felt in that moment, like her soul had been bared for him to see and there was no hiding. But she was too desperate for comfort to overthink her own issues and instead let herself be lulled to peace by his presence.

Eventually, Harry shifted under her, stroking her hair behind her ear as he leant down to look at her face and seeing her sleepy gaze.

"I'm going to take you upstairs to bed, okay?" he said quietly and gently to her.

She nodded, feeling like she'd finally regained some of her strength to move position. Her back ached from the hardness of the floor as she pulled her legs up slowly, grabbing onto the kitchen counter with one hand and Harry's hand with her other and harnessing all of her energy into hoisting herself up. He stood up behind her too as she eventually made it, though her legs felt weak below her and she gripped onto his hand tightly.

Placing her arm over his shoulder, he delicately laced his arm around her waist and kept a soft, but firm grip on the exposed skin where her t-shirt had ridden up. Slowly, he turned her around and with a look at her face for reassurance, which he received, he began to walk her out of the kitchen and down the hall, towards the stairs.

They made it up the stairs after a minute, with Harry following her close behind as he let her lead the way, all whilst keeping a hold of her hips to guide her. Finally, they made it to her bedroom and as Harry turned on the light, Wednesday looked around to remember the utter state of the house that had yet to be cleaned up. Piles of washing remained on the hardwood floor and mugs and empty packets lined her bedside tables. She cringed at the mess, hating that he was seeing how she'd been living for the past week. But if Harry had been shocked by the unusual uncleanliness however, he didn't let it be known to Wednesday.

Instead, he led her over to the bed and helped her in, pulling the duvet over her weak body so that she was completely covered. He even reached back behind her head to fluff the pillow quickly, before leaning down and tucking her sides into the duvet so she could be as comfortable as possible. Wednesday watched all of this with an ache in her chest and a heavy heart.

"Thank you," she mumbled quietly, her voice still hoarse as she looked up to his face, clearer now in the bright light of the room.

He had an impressive tan and his brown hair had grown a little longer since the last time she'd seen him, a loose curl hanging over his forehead that had escaped the shock of hair. He was wearing mismatched joggers with a hoodie and she wondered whether he'd flown back like that, or just quickly thrown it on to come around when he'd found out. His nails were painted pink, though they'd started to chip around the edges now.

Looking down to her with an expression she couldn't quite determine, he acknowledged her thanks with a small smile before turning to stand next to the door.

"Get some sleep," he whispered, nodding down to her before flicking the switch and letting her be engrossed in darkness once more.

It didn't take long for her to fall back asleep. Despite having had more sleep in this past week than ever before in her life, she somehow still felt completely exhausted and drained of all her energy. The news of her nanna's passing had been the straw that had eventually broke the camel's back.

Out of the view of Harry and safely in the confines of her own space again, she allowed the tears she'd been holding onto to run freely down her cheeks, wetting the pillow below her head as the pain grasped her chest.

/

I want to CRYYYYYYYYY!!!!