Forever and Always
Summary: Dan and Phil were planning to have a nice night out with each other. Their plans get ruined when Dan receives a certain phone call.
Genre: Angst, songfic (?)
Word Count: 2,544
Warnings: Major death (sorry)
Additional Tags: Au, tw, death, oneshot, established relationship
A/N: Is this a songfic? Sure, I guess. I really like songs by Parachute, okay. This is really sad and I kinda hate myself for writing this, but oh well. Inspired by Parachute's song "Forever and Always". I use some lines from the song as well, so yeah. This is sad, I'm sorry. Also, please excuse me, as my medical knowledge is very limited, I do not know what I am even talking about half of the time, lmao. Okay, enjoy.
Dan was sat in front of a table inside his house, impatiently looking out of the window. Phil was supposed to come by hours ago to pick him up. He couldn't believe it. They were going to head out somewhere nice tonight, since Phil had been so busy with work lately. Phil promised that he would try to come back earlier so he could spend time with his beloved husband to be. Of course, there are times when Phil couldn't get out of work and had to stay at his building a bit longer. But Dan figured that he could've made an excuse to get out of it, since this was supposed to be a special night.
Dan sighed and grumbled to himself. He tried calling Phil's phone and also on his work phone, but he was only led to his voicemail. Sometimes Phil could be so focused on his work that he would tune out any other sound around him.
But even so, if it was this late, and especially on a night like this, Dan's sure that Phil would have called him ahead of time and apologized for his delay.
Hours passed and eight o'clock rolled around and Dan was still staring out the window. Their driveway was still empty, meaning Phil had yet to come home. Dan knew that Phil wouldn't try to be out this late on purpose. He was beginning to get worried of his whereabouts. He decided to ring one of Phil's coworker, PJ, to see if Phil was heading out yet.
He dialed his friend's number and waited for him to pick up.
"Hello, Dan. I didn't expect you to call this late. What's up?" PJ said as he answered his phone.
"Nothing. But, uh, is Phil going to be out of work soon?" Dan asked.
He heard PJ make a strange noise. "What are you talking about? He left hours ago. In fact, he left before I did. Why, is something wrong?"
"He's not here. We were supposed to eat out tonight to some fancy place he found, but he hasn't shown up and I'm started to get a bit concerned," Dan said.
"I don't know what to tell you. Did you try calling him?" PJ asks.
"Of course I did!" Dan snaps. He takes a breath. "Sorry. Yeah. I called him, but I got his voicemail instead."
"Maybe he's still stuck in traffic? I heard it's pretty crammed tonight. It might have been that accident that I saw on the news earlier," PJ says.
"I don't know. Maybe, who knows. I'll just have to wait, I guess. Thanks though, Peej," Dan says.
"Sure, no problem. I'll talk to you later, Dan." PJ sighs. "Chris is demanding me for food."
Dan gives out a soft chuckle. "Alright, see you. Have a good night."
He hears PJ say an energetic 'you too!' followed by a click, indicating that the call has ended.
It was almost nine pm and Dan was just about to change out of his clothes into much comfier ones. He stopped though, as his phone finally rang.
He almost sprinted and dove for it and quickly picked it up without looking at the caller ID.
"Hello?"
"Hello. Is this Dan Howell?" An unknown female voice asked him.
"Um, yes. Who am I speaking with?" Dan asks.
Dan's blood runs cold as he hears the lady's words. "Your fiance, Phil Lester, has been involved with a car accident and is in critical condition. It'd be best if you come down as soon as possible."
Dan doesn't even say a goodbye or anything else for that matter. He just hangs up the phone and sprints to his car. He ignites the ignition and quickly leaves his house and is on his way to the hospital.
Bleary eyed, and he's suddenly reminded of the time when Phil proposed to him. He doesn't know why though, he's just thinking back to the event.
He's racing down the road and doesn't care if some people are beeping at him. He doesn't even care if a police tries to pull him over for speeding right now. He just remembers Phil on one knee, holding a ring tightly in between his fingers, and saying those words that would change his life forever. He wanted to go find his Phil and hold him.
Phil's words were echoing through his mind.
"I want you forever, forever and always, through the good, the bad, and the ugly. We'll grow old together. Forever and always."
He pulls up to the entrance of the hospital. Dan gets out of his car and slams the door shut behind him. He runs into the building and is out of breath by the time he reaches the front desk. The lady behind the desk looks at him, bewildered.
In between his panting, he says, "Dan Howell. Here for my fiance Phil Lester."
The lady's eyes widened. "Right this way, sir."
She walks out from the desk and begins leading him through millions of halls. He feels dizzy and all of the halls looks identical to him.
The nurse begins to tell Dan of the incident. "Your fiance, Phil Lester, was involved in a car accident, as you may have already known. From what I was informed about, a drunk driver was on the other side of the road driving. The driver was already in danger by being drunk, but he was also going at a very high speed. While he was going over a few potholes in the road, he lost control and swayed onto the other side of the road and collided directly with Mr. Lester's vehicle. The driver died upon impact. Ambulances were called in, and we managed to get Mr. Lester before he could die from blood loss. However, he went through serious brain damage..."
The nurse continues explaining the situation in excruciating detail to Dan, but he can barely hear her. He can't focus on a single thing at the moment. All other sounds are muted out to him. He just wants to see Phil and hopes to see his stupid grinning face.
Dan can feel his eyes stinging but tries to keep himself composed as he enters the room that seem to be Phil's.
He almost trips over his feet as he runs over to Phil. He's unconscious and Dan can tell that his face looks like a mess. Stitches were lined up along the side of his temple, and some were on his lip. His skin was a dark bruising color, yet he still looked sickly pale.
He pulls up a chair and sets it next to Phil's bed. He sits down and searches for his fiance's hand. Once he finds it, he then grips it tightly in his hand.
He hears the nurse's footstep coming closer to him. She places her hand on Dan's shoulder in comfort and quietly says to him, "He's currently in comatose state. He's in very critical condition, sir. He may not be able to make it. Even if he wakes up, it would probably take hours from now, maybe even days. And even so if that happened, he'd most likely slip back into a coma after a few minutes. And then that may be the last time he'll ever wake up again. I'm very sorry, sir. We are currently trying our hardest and working with the best doctors that we have here."
Dan swallows hard. This wasn't something he wanted to hear, not right now. But he couldn't shout at her or anything. He was trying his hardest to not even shed a single tear. He feels terribly conflicted, and he doesn't know who to blame.
Dan doesn't look away from his fiance's face. "Thank you," he forces out.
The lady notices this and sighs. She turns away to leave. "I'll leave you with him. If I receive any news about your fiance, I'll report back to you. If you need anything, or if you notice that his state is changing, you can press that button right there to call one of us and we will be over as soon as possible." She points to the button above Phil's bed before she walks away and leaves the room, silently closing the door behind her.
Dan thinks back to what many people had told him before. Doesn't talking to people in a coma help them? He wasn't exactly up for the idea of talking to an unconscious person. But he thought it wouldn't be any different from just talking to himself, which he did quite frequently anyway.
He takes a deep breath. Here goes nothing.
"This really sucks, you know? It'd really suck if you died on me, right now." He's barely said anything, yet he can feel the tears already beginning to prick at his eyes. He rubs his face before continuing.
"I thought we were supposed to get married, Phil." He laughs bitterly. "We were supposed to get married. We were going to get two kids and name them Winston and Delia. We'll have our own family. Then they're going to grow up and get little kiddos of their own. Then it'll be just me and you.
"After getting married, we were going to move back up north. We were going to get a house by the hillside and live there until the end. We'd stay together no matter what. We'd go through everything together, the good, the bad, and the ugly. We'd be together, whether we're rich or poor or whatever's better for us. We were going to live such a great life. We were going to live a long and healthy life together. And we'd love each other forever.
"You just had to mess everything up, didn't you?" Dan laughs again. "I'm only kidding. I can't blame you. You did nothing wrong. You never do anything wrong."
He finishes talking to Phil and sits there thinking. He couldn't help but think about how close they were getting to their wedding day, as well. If Phil dies, Dan couldn't even handle the thought of loving someone else. No matter what, he couldn't do it, and he never would. He kept thinking about how Phil was the only one he would ever want.
Then, he suddenly gets an idea. He almost jolts out of his seat and falls over, but barely catches himself. He presses the button above Phil's bed. Not before long, he hears a nurse rushing into the room.
"Is there a problem, sir?" she asks.
"I want to get married."
The nurse gives him an odd look. "Excuse me?"
"Please, help me. My fiance is practically dying, and I want to get married as soon as he wakes up. Please." Dan tries to explain.
The lady looks at him for a while before giving out a soft and tired laugh. "Sure, let me just bring up a chaplain and call in the other nurses in here as the bridesmaids. That will be fun."
Dan stares at her. "I'm serious. Please, do it for your patients."
She purses her lip, and then sighs. "Okay."
Dan instantly smiles at her and almost jumps up and down from joy, but contains himself.
The nurse leaves the room and Dan couldn't stop smiling. He was going to do it. He was going to get married. He didn't even care if he was in a hospital getting married. He was just finally able to get married to the man he loved.
The lady comes back into the room. "Actually, one of our patients is a chaplain, and he's well enough to marry you two together. And I think there's an old couple next door that doesn't mind letting you borrow their rings for your ceremony."
Dan's eyes light up and the nurse can't help but laugh. She leaves again and Dan sits back down in his chair and patiently waits for Phil to wake up.
It will only be hours from now.
Dan doesn't realize that he's fallen asleep. He wakes up with his forehead resting on his arm on the side of Phil's bed. The room's still bright from the lights, and when he looks up, he sees Phil moving a bit.
He sits straight up and stares intensely at Phil. Suddenly, his eyes begin fluttering. Dan stands up and quickly pushes the button above Phil's head again, alerting the nurses to come in.
"Dan?" Phil croaks out.
Dan knows that he's already crying. Tears are streaming down his face, but he doesn't care. He grabs Phil's hand tightly. "Yes. Phil, I'm right here."
Phil smiles softly at him, but doesn't say a word. Dan continues talking. "Guess what Phil? I got some people working here to do us a huge favor. We're going to get married! I know that sounds like too much right now, but trust me. I want to do this right now. Do you care at all?" Dan asks.
Phil shakes his head and smiles brightly at the brown headed man.
Dan smiles back. The nurse from before comes through the door and sees that Phil has woken up. She smiles at Dan as she checks up on Phil. Once she's finished, she leaves again, only to come back with more nurses and an old man that could only be the chaplain.
She hands Dan a set of rings and gets everyone into their places.
The man speaks. "I believe there is a wedding due, isn't there?" He gives out a breathy laugh. "Well, let's get this started."
The chaplain says a couple verses. Dan holds Phil's hands and he couldn't stop smiling. This was his and Phil's moment, and theirs alone. Phil looks sickly pale on his bed, but his eyes shine bright and he smiles happily.
It's in the middle of the night, and everyone's crying, yet laughing. It's Dan's turn to say his vows. He uses the words that Phil said to him when he first proposed, but changes it just a tad bit.
He stares into his eyes and he says, "I want you forever, forever and always, through the good, and the bad, and the ugly. We'll grow old together. And always remember, whether happy, or sad, or whatever; we'll still love each other, forever and always."
As he was finishing his vows, his voice breaks, as he realizes that Phil's eyes began to droop and his a breathing becomes shallower and slower. He hears the beeping of the machine becoming slower as well.
He stares at Phil's still face, waiting for him to say his vows - for him to say anything. He waits for him, so they can place the rings on each other's fingers. He waits for him, so that the chaplain can say that he may now kiss the groom. He waits for him, so Phil can have his happy ever after.
Dan can hear that the beeps are getting too slow. He sees Phil's lip barely move. Phil's speaks, and it's so quiet that Dan has trouble to catch his words.
Phil's voice is almost too low, and he says, "I love you forever, forever and always. But please just remember, even if I'm not there, I'll always love you, forever and always."
Beep.
A/N: Sorry. I'm sad now. I hope you enjoyed that. Goodbye.