Another way (Young Royals)

Simon

I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing. It was Erik. I wondered what he would want in the middle of the night. He usually did not call late, as he was usually going to bed early after the car crash.

"Hi Erik," I said. I had barely opened my eyes and I was still laying on my bed.

"Wille, Linda is coming to get you in fifteen minutes. You are going to the South hospital in Stockholm," Erik said at a fast speed.

"What?" I said. "What has happened, Erik? Are you okay?"

"It is not me, Wille. It is Simon," he said.

"What?" I replied. I could not comprehend what he said. What about Simon? He was sleeping at Peter and his husband's house, I was pretty sure.

"Yes, he is in the hospital. Hanna said that he has been robbed and left bleeding on the cobblestone alley close to where his producer lives," Erik tried to explain. I felt my heartbeat in my chest. It was more difficult to breathe. "Try to stay calm, Wille. He is going to be okay. Hanna is with him." I got up and threw on clothes that were on the floor. When I got out of my dorm I realised I had picked up Simon's purple hoodie in the dark. I hugged myself, smelling his scent that was all over the fabric of his hoodie. The boy I loved was in the hospital, robbed and hurt. When I got out I saw Linda's car in the parking lot. I ran down there as fast as my legs would allow me to go.

"Hi Wilhelm;" Linda said. As soon as I was seated in the front seat she drove off. She of course wanted to get to her son as quickly as possible. Just like I was desperate to be with him. I could not really comprehend it. Simon was in the hospital.

"Hi Linda," I replied. "Have you heard anything new?" She shook her head.

"Nothing more than that he is in the hospital with a head wound, and you?" she asked.

"No, nothing," I said. I wished I had been awake. Talking to him on the phone. Who knew how long he had been just laying at the ground? If he had just been with me on the phone, I would have heard if something happened. I could have helped him. Maybe even prevented it all. We sat quietly in the car until we reached the hospital. We had nothing to say. Just worry. I felt sick of worry for him. I could not let myself think of what could have happened. What could have happened if Hector and Peter had not found him. He was my everything. Without him, I did not know what I would do. When we arrived Linda parked the car and I ran for the entrance. Linda had probably already guessed I would, so she did not make me wait for her.

"I am here for Simon Eriksson," I said to the person in the reception. I probably looked pretty desperate. I felt desperate. Helpless. Because I was. I had no power over what happened. I did not know how bad it all was.

"And you are?" he said and looked into his screen.

"His boyfriend," I said. He looked up at me in disbelief. Saw my red face from crying.
"Name, please," he said.

"Wilhelm Bernadotte," I said. If he did not let me through to Simon soon, I had a bad feeling I would tear that place apart to find him.

"Okay. Down the corridor to the left. Room 216," he said. I nodded quickly and ran like a madman towards my boyfriend. The nurses and doctors all looked at me as I ran by them. They must have thought I was crazy for running in the ER. And maybe I was. At least crazy in love with the boy behind one of those doors. When I came to the door 216 I tried to compose myself. Get myself together. I did not want to cry in front of him. I did not want him to be worried about me, when the one we should be worried about was him. I then opened the door. There he was, on a hospital bed. He was dressed in a hospital gown and had a white bandage around his head. His pretty brown eyes were open. They were clear and awake, even though he seemed tired. Peter sat at his bedside.

"Simon," I just said. Then I had to stop myself from saying anything else, or I feared that my attempt to not cry would fail. I dug my face into his hospital gown and held him close to me. I did not ever want to let go of him, ever again.

"Wille," he replied. I felt his arms wrap around my body and his nose in my hair. Then I stood up and pulled a chair up to the bed, to be able to sit next to him. "What are you thinking that you are doing?" I looked at him, not understanding what he was talking about.

"What?" I replied.

"You are obviously not sitting in that chair, baby. I want you to hold me. Please," he said. He meant that he wanted me to share the tiny hospital bed with him.

"Okay, darling," I said. I took off my shoes and jacket and then I climbed up next to him on the bed. Then he pulled me closer and kissed me. That kiss filled me up with a warm feeling. A feeling telling me that we would get through that too. It was not the worst we had gone through together, and probably not the worst we would go through together. We just kissed and held each other. And we apparently did not even notice Simon's mother Linda getting through the door, because when we finally separated she was sitting in the chair I had tried to sit down in before Simon asked me to cuddle him on the bed.

"How are you feeling, mi amor?" Linda asked.

"It is okay mom. My head hurts a bit, but other than that I am fine," he said.

"You have a concussion, Simon," Peter said, as if he wanted to correct Simon for saying that he felt fine. "But I guess that if you can snog your boyfriend like that you could have been worse off." That made us all grin. Then the door opened. It was Hanna. The one who had called Erik, who had called me and Linda.

"I would like to inform you that you need to stay for monitoring of your concussion. The doctor just wants to make sure everything is okay," she said. "Your visitors can stay if you want them to." Simon looked at me with a smile.

"I would very much want them to stay," he said.

"Especially that one on the bed, huh?" Peter said jokingly. That made us giggle.
"Especially him. The one who makes him leave me will regret it," he said and pulled me in for another kiss.

"Baby, you have not caught that you have a concussion, have you?" I said. That made him laugh.

"I almost forgot how bad my head was hurting when you got here," he said. I held him close in my arms. He seemed so small. Little.

"I have been here all the time. I even saw them stitch you up and then I made sure you don't fall asleep and listened to you whine about your head hurting. And only when your boyfriend shows up, you are distracted all at once?" Peter said in a joking tone. That made Simon grin.

"Well that is Wille's magic. He can make me forget anything else. I don't think I would have noticed if they chopped a leg off too." I grinned.

"But let's not test that out, okay baby?" I replied.

"Okay, sweetheart," he said.