Guest - they are all growing up now *sighs*

428 Harrys POV

Singlehandedly, Danny pulled out the snapped needle, picked Tom back up and carried him to his bed, silently getting into bed too, squeezing Tom with all his strength, wincing as his arm hurt. "you didn't have to do that." Danny whimpered finally, pressing his face to Toms, holding onto the sleeping boy like it would protect them both. "we did, Tom needed to calm down before he damaged himself, he was disturbing other patients, and hurting your arm. Also, we need to get that blood off now, fix that wound, and check out your arm." The nurse glared, like she expected a fight. "then why didn't you wash the blood off earlier then instead of having this fight now?" I asked, standing next to the bed, in front of Tom and Danny, guarding them, Dougie next to me, glaring the best he could through the distressed tears in his eyes. He was so emotional, he couldn't stand to see his friends in pain like this, I hoped that guarding the boys would help him a little.

"because we have had more worrying things to treat first, like the fact that Tom seems to have not eaten for at least a week, and the fact he had very deep cuts all over his arms." The nurse answered cooly, more nurses came in, carrying some sponges and soap. "fine, but you're not washing him, I am." Danny sat up, his best defensive look on his face. "thats probably not the best idea..."the nurse started. "it is. Tom trusts me, and even though he's asleep and doesn't know, you're going nowhere near him, alright?" Danny interrupted, his voice saying clearly that he wasn't taking no for an answer. "fine, but we'll be back later, to make sure its been done properly, and to start feeding him again." The nurses practically stormed out, we all relaxed at last.

"I hate them, the sooner we get out of here the better." Danny sighed, carefully starting to lift up Toms shirt, taking it off him. We all took a huge intake of breath as the shirt came off, revealing the body we hadn't seen for months. Toms chest looked truly awful. He looked like he had been starved of food for months. Toms ribs were clear to see as he breathed in, his hip bones jutting out, his skin so pale white that the sheets almost looked grey next to him. And then there was the blood, covering his arms and some parts of his chest, from where it had soaked through his tshirt last week, making him look even worse.

"sh*t, Carrie are you sure Toms been eating?" Danny swore, running his fingers over Toms ribs, almost hypnotised by his pale skin. "well, not for the past week, he's been so stressed recently. But usually he was eating, I was sure of it!" Carrie whimpered a little, staring at her brother in shock. "but he's so small." Dougie whispered, grabbing Dannys hand, stopping him touching his chest. "Tom is, but, we can't think of that right now, we've got to clean him up. Even though he doesn't want to be clean." Danny sighed, biting on his lip.

"want us to help?" I asked, sometimes Danny liked to do things by himself, I didn't want us to intrude if he wanted to do it by himself. "no, I'm alright, I'm going to do this myself." Danny shook his head, grabbing a sponge, starting to gently wash the blood off Toms frail chest. He went over it meticulously, making sure that every speck of red was washed away, until Toms skin was just a crystal white canvas covering his bones.

As soon as Tom was cleaned up and dried, we carefully put another tshirt on him, covering him before he caught a cold. Danny changed his jeans too, covering his boxer covered legs in pyjamas instead, because they were 'comfier and less bloody'. A blanket got pulled over Toms body too, tucking him in properly, so he looked like he was just sleeping in a bed, his head gently pillowed next to Dannys leg, their hands joined.

429 Dougies POV

When Tom woke up a few hours later, he went mental. Absolutely mental. He screamed and freaked out as he realised that Danny had washed him off and changed his clothes, it wasn't just the fact that we had touched him and changed his clothes, it was the fact that the blood had gone that freaked him out. "I-Its gone! I-Its all gone! Where has it gone?" Tom cried, looking manically all over his body, desperately trying to find blood. "we washed it off baby, it had to be washed off. You couldn't have kept that blood on you, it wasn't healthy." Danny explained quietly, stroking Toms cheek looking almost pleadingly at Tom, practically begging him to believe his words.

"it wasn't supposed to go! It was supposed to stay! Why did you wash it off?!" Tom cried, rocking back and forth on his bed, looking like he was about to have a nervous breakdown. "we had to Tom, its not good to have blood all over you. Its better to wash it off." Harry explained, rubbing his back gently. "b-but I had to keep it on! I-I was supposed to stay like that!" Tom sobbed, actually letting Danny bring him into his arms. It seemed like every time the hospital sent Tom to sleep, he got weaker, mentally, physically he was getting stronger, but mentally every time he woke up, he seemed to get weaker, more childlike.

"why was it supposed to stay like that Tommy? Who told you that you couldn't wash it off?" Danny asked, calmly kissing Toms hair like it would help calm him. "b-because it was a punishment! I-It was showing that I'm stupid!" Tom sobbed, tugging on his hair so much, strands actually came out. "but you don't need to punish yourself, you didn't do anything wrong, it wasn't your fault." Danny whispered, tightening his hold on Tom, taking his hands away from his head, holding both of his skinny pale hands in one of his own freckled ones.

"it was! It was my fault!" Tom cried, remaining adamant that he was to blame for everything. It was heart breaking, to see how Tom saw everything as his fault, I mean, it was his fault that he was here, but he hadn't meant his words to Danny. He had been so emotional, and not in his right mind, he hadn't meant those words. He had meant POV, but not his words, we all knew that. None of us blamed him, it wasn't his fault. We all told him, over and over, that it wasn't his fault, slowly trying to break down Toms thinking, it took hours to make him believe that it wasn't his fault. And even then, he still thought he had caused it, but that he didn't need to constantly be punishing himself for his 'mistakes'.

"you've done far too much punishing Tommy, just look at your arm, you've ripped it to shreds." Danny sighed, gently whispering in Toms ears, like it would get through better. "I-Its not enough." Tom whimpered, nuzzling into Dannys chest, the safe place he hadn't been in for weeks now. "it is, its far too much actually. Don't do it again, please, don't do it again." Danny pleaded, looking down at their bandaged arms in shame. "please don't, its not right Tom, its not good." I joined in, I had been silent far too long, I needed to say something. "why not?" Tom looked a little confused, actually looking at me again, this time actually looking right into my eyes. I hadn't looked into his eyes for almost 2 years, I had missed our eyes contact. "because it scares me! Scares us! Its not right to be hacking at your own arm, its terrible, and it scares us all so much." I explained, falling into Toms arms, needing to hug him, tell him what I was saying was true. "it does Tom, it scares us, so much." Harry backed me up, hugging us both, linking our hands so I knew that he was behind me on this.

Tom didn't reply, just sobbed quietly into our arms, seemingly finally breaking down, just finally letting us hold him close. "you don't need to do anything Tommy, just stop freaking out, please, stop freaking out. I love you, we love you, don't think we're mad and you need to punish yourself, you don't need to do this to yourself." Danny whispered, stroking Toms hair, quietening down his sobs slowly until he was quiet again in our arms.