The Silence | ✔️

39. H

The roads were vacant, quiet, almost deserted as I drove back into Fort Lauderdale. The dash clock was glowing, the white digital numbers read 3:45am. The street lights over head would illuminate the car with a dark orange glow, in and out of the shadows as I sped down the highway.

My knuckles were white as I gripped the steering wheel and focused. After a four hour drive, extended by needing gas and an accident two hours after I left Tampa which blocked the roads for half n hour or so, I was finally back and I was that much closer to the hospital.

Being patient enough to not drive like a lunatic was almost impossible. The one thing that kept me going was the fact that Maddie told me he was still alive and the last update from the surgeon was that the bullet retrieval and repair was going well. She told me that he was in good hands. She said that he had every chance of making it out of this with little permanent damage.

That was hours ago. She hadn't called again but when I picked up my cellphone from the centre console, its screen remained black and I cursed, throwing it over my shoulder in frustration. There was an obvious fatigue that was blanketing over me. I could feel the ache in my limbs. I could feel how dry my eyes were whenever I blinked. But the adrenaline had allowed me to continue on. It kept me as alert as I needed to be.

The hospital sign was a glowing beacon that had my heart rate increasing for the thousandth time when it came into view. It stood tall, almost as tall as the actual hospital and I exhaled an anxious breath as I drove past it and pulled into the parking lot. I was still dressed in a white blouse and black slacks. Ones that I'd worn while I helped Lana with the kitchen. She'd tried to insist on coming along. She wanted to drive. But I needed to drive. There was no chance that I could have sat in the passenger seat and let someone else be in charge of getting me home. I just couldn't. So I told her that she should stay at home and let me call her when I got back.

My phone was dead though. Ugh. That word. It wasn't something that I even wanted to murmur right at the moment. The chilled night air whipped as I ran across the lot, straight for the entrance doors. Visiting hours were over but the ER waiting room was bustling with patients who all seemed to stare for a minute after I burst through. There were babies with coughs. Men with batted faces who must have been in a fight. Woman crouched over, holding their abdomens.

A name was called as I moved through the room and I felt a brief moment of relief for whoever was getting seen. Waiting in the ER was long, it was uncomfortable and it was often rather depressing. I didn't hang around though. I took the corridor which connected the ER to the main large foyer of the hospital. It was quiet and dark apart from a few lights beside the gift shop, which was closed. I took the staircase. Once again, I couldn't wait for the elevator. It might have been slower than I was.

My heart continued to pound, loud and obtrusive as I landed on the third floor. That could have something to do with the fact that I just ran up three flights of stairs. But it was definitely a small part to do with finding out how Aiden was. It was so loud and I was so focused on finding him that I almost didn't hear the doctor who reached out and gently gripped my elbow when I ran past him. The sudden contact gave me a fright and I spun around to find an older man with black and silver hair, fine lines around his otherwise preserved skin and a confused expression aimed at me.

"Are you alright?" He said, tucking his clipboard under his arm. "Visiting hours aren't until the sun is out at the least."

That might have been amusing, if I wasn't trying to find the man that I love. "My b-boy— Yeah my boyfriend. He was shot tonight. He's here. Somewhere. He's around. I'm sure. He was in surgery. But that was hours ago. He must be out. He—"

The Doctor held up his palm to pause the incoherent rambling that was starting to leave me breathless. "Does he have a name?"

I nodded. "Aiden Emerson."