Larry One Shots

Harry: Different (1)

Louis POV

I headed into Harry's room to go wake him. It was 9 am and he was usually already awake. I turned his lamp on and opened his curtains and his eyes fluttered slowly before looking at me.

"Good morning Haz." He smiled and gurgled a little bit from his trach, which usually happens in the morning.

You are probably wondering why Harry is sleeping in a different room and why he has a trach? All good questions, so I'll explain our story.

Me and Harry met in high school and got married just a few months after we graduated. We went to Paris for our honeymoon. Unfortunately, driving home from the airport, we got in an accident. At the time I didn't know that was going to be the last time he would talk or walk.

Harry was paralyzed from the neck down, which included his breathing, so they had to put in a trache to keep him alive. He's now on a ventilator 24/7, but he was finally able to live at home. He does have to sleep in a different room and bed as he is on a lot of medications, plus his trache and his feeding tube, it takes up a lot of room.

It was quite the adjustment, for both of us. I had to learn how to take care of him, including cleaning his trache, and feeding tube, plus being able to catheterize him and feed him. It was a long process, but now it's been almost 2 years since the accident and I've learned a lot.

We have a specific morning routine, as Harry is in a wheelchair and can navigate it himself, which is good. This particular morning we were heading to the business that we own together.

I usually check his ventilator and trach first. Today I had to change it, which can be a little scary sometimes as he can't breathe for a few seconds, but he trusts me to help him, so it works.

I suction and clean around his trache and begin the process to change it. We have so much medical equipment in this one room, it's crazy, but luckily we don't have to pay for any of it as we have gotten so many donations from lots of generous people.

"Haz you ready?" I asked as I prepared his new trach. He nodded and I put an oxygen mask right where his trach is. I quickly changed the two and he was coughing slightly, but that's normal. "Good job." I said and he smiled.

Unfortunately he can't communicate very well with me, which can be difficult, but we make it work. Supposedly he could eventually talk if they do a small procedure with his vocal chords, but I don't want to put him through surgery right now.

I help sit him up and we do something called a morning cuddle. I sit him up and slide his legs to the edge of the bed. He lifts his one working arm to my shoulder and holds my neck and pulls me closer to kiss me. I end up wrapping his other arm around my neck and we stay like that for a while, as this is probably the closest thing to intimacy we can do, but he really enjoys it.

"Let's get in the chair okay?" He pouted but nodded as I had to disconnect his vent for a minute to get him in the chair. I quickly disconnect his vent and slide him into his chair. I take the vent on his chair and reattach it to his trach. I check his oxygen stats and make sure he is all good before he navigates himself into the kitchen while I clean everything up.

The house, including his room is surrounded by paintings of a plethora of different things. These paintings are all ones he does himself. That's our business by the way. He paints with his one functioning arm and then I sell them. We've made a lot of money, but we also get quite a bit of hate from certain people in the community. Someone actually tried to shut us down, but they didn't have a case, so we remained open and those people haven't tried to bother us again. But we do still get some hate.

I made my way into the kitchen where Harry was sitting at the kitchen island and he made a little happy noise when I walked into the room. I lifted his shirt and cleaned around his feeding tube before wrapping one of the cotton protectors around it. This was a superman one and it was the first one he got. It's his favorite.

"Ready to eat?" He nodded and I went to the fridge to get the formula. He is only fed through his feeding tube, but he doesn't seem to mind. I mixed his formula and placed it in the IV bag and set up his feeding cycle. I put it on his chair and set it to an hour and it started to go.

I started to prepare breakfast for myself, but was interrupted when he wheeled next to me and I smiled seeing his sign for help. We've come up with modified sign language so that he only has to use one hand to communicate basic words. He usually likes to help me make my breakfast and has learned to crack eggs with one hand, so I let him do that.

He mixes up the eggs while I cook pancakes for myself. He usually will tap me, if I'm close enough, when he's done or he'll grunt or make some sort of noise. He tapped me with the whisk today, which got egg on my shirt.

"Thank you for getting eggs on me, Haz." He silently laughed and I kissed him, before taking the whisk away from him. I finished breakfast and headed back to the bedroom to get dressed and to change Harry's shirt. I don't change his pants unless I absolutely have to, or it's been 3 days, as it's quite the process to change him. His shirt is pretty easy though, besides for disconnecting the vent to get his shirt over his head.

I shower him once a week, and again it's a long process. Obviously he has to stay connected to the vent, so usually I'll place him in the shower chair and bring him to the bathroom, before reconnecting him on the vent. He hates when I have to disconnect him as he feels like he is suffocating, but again he trusts me.

I shower him very carefully. I have a waterproof covering for his trach, so I put that on and try to avoid that area when washing his hair and his body. I'll also change his catheter in the shower as it's just easier. He actually enjoys getting a shower and always asks for them more often, but I just can't do it too often and he understands that, but it doesn't stop him from asking.

We head out the front door around 10 am and I open the side door with the ramp so he can get in. His chair sits where the passenger seat normally would. I strapped his chair in, then put a seatbelt on him and drove to our business.