Symbiosis

Chapter 23

Alex impatiently and nervously drummed his fingers against the steering wheel of his car as he scanned the hospital parking lot for an open space. The moment he spotted one, Alex made a beeline for it and hastily parked himself, not even bothering to double check his parking job. In a single rushed motion, Alex turned off the car, opened the door, and leaped out of his vehicle. Alex almost fell flat on the ground in his clumsy haste to get out of his car. Luckily, he was able to catch himself, and as soon as he regained his balance, he rushed inside the hospital as fast as he could manage.

Alex had to stop himself for a moment, however, when he saw a small group of people crowding around the reception desk. Alex groaned impatiently. 'I really don't have fucking time for this.' Alex approached the reception desk without regard for how populated that area was, and listened in to see if they were all in a singular group, hoping that if they were, Alex could be helped sooner. But what Alex heard instead was slightly alarming to him.

"And I'm telling you, I don't give a damn. You're harboring a criminal here and we have the right to know where he is!"

"Sir, this is your last warning. You cannot visit anyone that you have no relation to, nor without a valid reason-"

"I just gave you my reason like five times already! That little miscreant you're harboring assaulted a woman!"

"Be that as it may, he still has a right to privacy and you have no right to breach that privacy. Now please leave before I call security to escort you out."

Alex was slightly alarmed hearing that exchange, but it only confirmed Alex's suspicions that, not only were they not there for a productive reason, but also that they were all in a single group, judging by the dirty looks the other people were giving the receptionist. Alex paused slightly in his stride, wondering who they could even be talking about, but after quickly reminding himself of the reason that he was even at the hospital in the first place, Alex quickly put any wandering curiosities aside and rushed up to the receptionist desk. "Excuse me, I'm looking for Eli Edwards. Could you tell me how he's doing and where he is?" Alex hurriedly asked the irritated receptionist, completely ignoring the protests from the group of people hounding the nurse.

The nurse then fixed her annoyed gaze at Alex, making him rather uncomfortable. "Do you have any familial or professional relation to him?" she droned out without missing a beat.

"Well, I mean, he's my friend, so-" Alex started defensively, bur was almost instantly interrupted by the nurse.

"I'm sorry sir, any non family member or coworker is unauthorized to visit him at this time," she droned rather curtly.

Alex's impatience was once again rising at the unexpected and ill-timed roadblock of seeing how his friend was doing, and as a result, his voice began to shift upwards in volume as he began to sound more and more desperate. "Please, you have to let me through! I don't care if I have to have an escort the entire time! He's my friend and I need to see how he's doing! You can even go and ask him. He knows-"

"Hey, back off, buddy! Where do you get off butting in?" One of the men in the group of angry people clearly had enough of Alex's interruption of their crusade, and marched up to him in an aggressive manner, shooting a rather dangerous glare straight at Alex, interrupting his effort to visit his friend.

Alex felt a small pang of fear from the sudden confrontation, but this was one too many unnecessary obstacles towards seeing his injured friend that Alex could tolerate. He clenched his teeth and, in a fit of defiance, whipped around to face his aggressor with a glare of his own. "Oh shut the fuck up, dickweed. I'm trying to visit my injured friend and I would think that's a little more important than bitching at an innocent person for their own warped sense of justice or whatever the fuck is going on here."