Chapter 301: Overthinking at the Hospital
*Thud.*
The sound hit me like a punch. Aeri’s body crumpled to the wooden floor right in front of me, knees buckling, arms limp. No warning. Just gone.
My eyes went wide. The grocery bag slipped from my fingers—apples, onions, a packet of milk—everything spilled and rolled across the hallway.
"Aeri!!"
I dropped to my knees beside her in one fast movement, sliding my arms under her shoulders and pulling her up against my chest. Her head lolled back, heavy. I cradled her like she was made of glass.
"Hey—Aeri! Wake up!" I shook her gently at first, then a little harder. "Come on, open your eyes. Please."
Nothing. No flutter of eyelids. No small groan. Just shallow breaths moving her chest up and down, too slow, too weak.
I pressed two fingers to her neck. Pulse was there—faint, thready, but still beating. She was alive. Barely.
My hands shook as I yanked my phone out of my pocket. Thumb fumbled over the screen, hit emergency call. It rang once.
"Hello? Ambulance!" I shouted the second someone picked up. My voice cracked.
The operator’s calm voice came through, asking for address, what happened, if she was hurt anywhere. I rattled off our house number, everything in a rush while I kept one hand on Aeri’s cheek, stroking it like that would bring her back.
"Help’s on the way," the woman said. "Stay with her. Keep her airway clear. Don’t move her too much."
I barely heard the rest. Sirens were already screaming somewhere in the distance, growing louder every second.
Minutes later—felt like hours—the door burst open. Two paramedics rushed in with a stretcher, bags, oxygen mask. They knelt fast.
"Step back a little, sir," one said, not unkindly.
I moved just enough. They checked her vitals, slipped the mask over her face, lifted her carefully onto the stretcher. I grabbed my keys, wallet, phone—didn’t even think about the spilled groceries.
I climbed in beside the stretcher. The doors slammed shut. Siren wailed again as we peeled out onto the road. I held Aeri’s hand the whole ride—cold fingers, no squeeze back. The paramedic next to me kept checking monitors, adjusting oxygen.
I nodded, staring at her pale face. Couldn’t speak.
At the hospital, everything blurred. White lights, sharp smell of disinfectant, nurses calling out numbers. They wheeled her through swinging doors marked "Emergency – Authorized Personnel Only." A nurse put a gentle hand on my arm.
"You wait here, okay? We’ll update you soon."
I stood frozen for a second, then stumbled toward the family waiting area. Plastic chairs bolted to the floor. A TV mounted high, playing some news channel with the sound off. I dropped into the nearest seat, elbows on knees, head in hands.
Time dragged. Five minutes. Ten. Twenty. I kept checking my phone—nothing. No messages. No calls.
Across the waiting room, a woman was crying loudly. She was older, hair messy, clutching a tissue like it was the only thing holding her together.
"My son... my baby boy..." she kept saying between sobs. "He was fine this morning... how can he just... gone? I can’t live without him. I can’t..."
A nurse tried to comfort her, but the woman just rocked back and forth, voice rising into a wail. The sound cut straight through me. Hospitals always felt like this—too many broken people in one place, air thick with grief and worry.
I pressed my palms hard against my eyes. Sighed long and shaky.
What the hell happened to Aeri?
She’d never fainted before. Never blacked out. Not once in all the years we’d been together. She got tired sometimes, sure late nights, stress from work but nothing like this. Nothing that made her drop like a stone.
The hospital waiting area felt colder now, even though the heater was humming somewhere behind the wall. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, too bright, too steady. I sat hunched forward in the plastic chair, elbows on my knees, staring at the scuffed linoleum floor like it might give me answers.
"Did something happen outside when I wasn’t with her yesterday?" I muttered under my breath, so quiet only I could hear it. My mind kept replaying the moment she dropped—her body tilting, the thud, the way her face had gone from flushed red to ghostly pale in seconds.
"She didn’t call me. I didn’t call her either. I had no clue where she was or what she was doing. And when I finally saw her... she was already sweating buckets, face burning red like something was eating her from the inside out." My voice stayed low, words spilling out in pieces while the woman across the room kept sobbing in broken waves.
My legs wouldn’t stop shaking. Up and down, up and down, like they had their own nervous energy I couldn’t control. I pressed my palms flat on my thighs to steady them, but it didn’t help much. All I wanted was to run through those double doors, grab Aeri’s hand, and never let go again.
"Come on... hurry up... hurry up..." I whispered, eyes squeezed shut. I clasped my hands together tight, fingers locked, head bowed like I was praying even though I hadn’t prayed in years. "Please, just tell me she’s okay."
Guilt hit me harder than the cold air ever could.
"I should’ve stayed with her," I said to myself, voice cracking a little. "Instead of leaving her alone on the road and going off to Elizabeth’s place. I should’ve stayed home. Even after she turned me down, even after we fought... I should’ve been there. That was my mistake. I took my own stupid path and left her by herself."
The sting in my chest sharpened. I rubbed at it with the heel of my hand like that would make it stop.
My thoughts flipped to Sonny.
"And who the hell was that fucker Sonny anyway?" I muttered, jaw tight. "Did he do something to her? Did he... hurt her? Get her drunk? Something worse?" The questions burned in my head, making my stomach twist. "I need to know what really happened. Whatever it is, I have to know—so I can fix this. So I can finally talk to her, really talk, and make things right."
I let out a long, shaky breath and sat up straighter. My decision settled in like a weight lifting just a little.
"When she wakes up," I told myself firmly, "I’m going to be right there. No more running off. No more leaving her alone. We’re going to sort this out together."
The double doors stayed shut. No doctor yet. No nurse with news. Just the clock ticking too slow and the distant sound of a trolley rolling down the hallway.
I leaned my head back against the wall, eyes fixed on those doors.
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