Alex Knightly pulled into a parking spot and slammed on his brake. Turning off the car with one hand, he grabbed his phone from the passenger seat of his black Honda Civic. Jumping out of the car, he began to run the moment his feet hit the pavement. He pushed the little red button on his key ring and didn't wait to hear the beep of his car locking before he continued running.
He entered the building, pushing the door hard. Apologizing to the person he may or may not have hit, he continued down the hallway of the hospital, till he saw the reception desk.
Breathing hard and in a tight, worried voice he asked the blonde at the desk, "Where is Waiting Room Three? I need Room Three of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit?"
"Well sir, I need your name and could you please sign this-" Alex leaned forward and looked the woman in the face, breathing hard.
"Please, ma'am I need to be there, now. It is very important. Please you don't understand" He stopped for a moment, to catch his breath.
It could have been the way his voice cracked when he said it, the fevered look in his eyes, or his disheveled appearance, but something got it across to the receptionist that this was a man with whom one should not trifle with. She slid a map across the surface of the small desk.
"Go down this hallway, take a left, a right and you'll see an elevator. After to you get to floor three, take two lefts and the waiting room will be at the end of the hallway."
Alex didn't even wait to hear the last part of her sentence. He ran down the hall, and being too impatient to wait on the elevator, sprinted up three flights of stairs. He made it to the hallway where he thought he was supposed to be, and stopped and looked around.
He saw the sign for the waiting room and ran over, pushing the door open and looking around. He let his eyes sweep around the room till they settled on the reason he was there.
She was standing there, all alone looking scared and nervous. She was pacing, the heels of her red pumps making clicking noises on the tile floor of the waiting room. Her normally impeccable makeup was tear-streaked and her designer dress was unkempt.
Hearing the door slam shut behind him, she turned around. "Alex!"
She ran towards him, and he wrapped his arms around her. "Alex, you came!" Her normally fearless and self-assured voice was quaking and scared.
"Of course I did, Emma." He tightened his hold around her, holding her, comforting her. "I am here for you."
"Emma, shh. Hey its alright, I'm here" He stroked her hair and back, trying to calm her down. She took a few gasping breaths, and then steadied herself. Alex led them over to a couch and sat in an attempt to calm down Emma.
"Alex, I don't know what is happening, what if he is going to die?" Her eyes, normally a beautiful, clear hazel looked clouded with worry. They sat down and Emma collapsed next to him, burying her face in his chest.
"Emma Woodhouse, listen to me." He gently held her chin up so she was forced to look into his eyes, "Your father is one of the strongest people I know, he will get through this." He tried to infuse his words with all the confidence she could muster. She looked so worried, so weak. Alex hardly ever saw her like this.
In fact, the he had only ever seen her like this once. In all the years they had known each other, it was strange that it had only happened once, Alex thought to himself.
It had been ten or so years ago, during Emma's senior year of college. Incidentally, it had been the last relationship she had been in before she swore to being single, or in her words, "Independent". She had been dating an older guy for ten months or so, and she found out that he had been cheating on and using her the whole time. She had showed up at Alex's apartment at two o'clock in the morning, distraught and hysterical.
He had stayed with her then too, sitting there, holding her, comforting her. Alex always made it a priority to make sure that Emma was okay. And although Emma would never in a million years admit it, Alex's constant support was something she could never live without.
All of this Alex thought about and knew in that moment, and he turned his attentions away from the troubles of the past and into the concerns of the present.
"Alex I don't know what is happening back there-" At this she broke into another round of fresh tears, gesturing to the ominous double doors behind which Mr. Woodhouse was inevitably behind. "I always know what is happening, in every situation. I hate, hate, hate this feeling of not knowing." She sank back into him, leaning her head on his chest. They sat like that for a while, strengthening from each other's presence .
"You know," she said, sitting up straight and sniffling a bit, "That shirt might be better off with my makeup smearing all over it. Now you will finally have to get rid of it."
He grinned a bit, "Now that's the Emma I'm used too." She gave him a weak smile and he tentatively asked, "Can you tell me the whole story about what happened? You didn't say much on the phone"
Her face dropped a bit and she nodded soberly. Taking a shaky breath she began to speak. " I got a call from the hospital a few hours ago. Apparently Dad had a heart attack during bridge club this afternoon while I was finishing at work. I received a call from one of the club girls saying that they had called an ambulance and he was on his way to, well, here." She indicated the room around them, "Harriet drove me here, and dropped me off. The nurse who showed me here said that I would hear from the doctors as soon as they found out anything."
For the first time, Emma looked Alex up and down. Noticing his disheveled appearance she asked, "I am surprised you got here so fast, what did I interrupt?" She cocked an eyebrow in expectation of a response but didn't wait for him to say anything. "No, wait, let me see..." Alex sighed resignedly, knowing that no one, not even he who had known her his whole life could stop or even postpone one of Emma's guessing games.
She took in the fact that he still had his work clothes on from earlier, so he couldn't have gone home straight after work. And the fact that she knew (Because she always made it her business to know what all of her employees were doing. All of the time. Some called it creepy, but to Emma that was the glory of co-owning a small business) that Alex didn't have any pre-aranged plans for this evening.
Emma smiled triumphantly as she came to her conclusion. "So, you were running a domestic errand." She said it as though it were solid fact, and not a guess.
Alex somberly shook his head "No. Actually I was going on a date."
Emma's head sharply turned to stare at him. "What? Really?" She couldn't believe it! How could she be that wrong. And besides, who wears on a date the exact same thing that he wore all day at the office?
He laughed, "No, Emma I was going to the post office." She hit him lightly on the arm.
"I knew it! Emma Woodhouse is always right!" She smiled and tossed her long, brown hair over her shoulders.
Alex was happy that he was able to make her smile. She needs a break every once and a while, he thought, looking at the countenance of his best friend. That was why they got along so well, he thought. They balanced each other out well, and worked with a seemingly perfect cohesion. They were able to banter and play one moment, and then run a business the next. That, he thought, was what made them such good friends and such excellent business partners.
Their laughs faded quickly as a man wearing white scrubs and carrying a clipboard approached the pair of them. Emma saw him coming and seemingly involuntarily reached out for Alex's hand. He let her take it and squeezed gently. "It's going to be all right, Emma. I'm right here," he whisperd softly. To his relief his words seemed to calm her down.
The doctor walked up to them and glancing down at their intertwined hands asked questioningly, "Mr. and Mrs. Woodhouse?"
Emma put her business face on and smiled at him. "I am Miss Woodhouse, this is my friend Mr. Knightly." The doctor muttered apologies as Emma plowed right on, " How is my father? Will he be needing surgery? When will I be able to see him? Does he need anything? If he needs surgery may I speak to the doctor who will perform it?" She asked these questions all rapid-fire, going a mile a minute. Alex recognized this as a sign of her nervousness, and between that and the death grip she had on his hands, he could tell that she was worried, stressed, and barely holding it together.
The doctor took her questions in his pace a steadily answered, "it was only a minor heart attack, no serious long-term damage that we can see. He will have to start watching his diet and getting some exercise, but nothing too major."
"So he won't have to have heart surgery?"
"No heart surgry, we're glad to say. This was more of a wake up call than a major scare. After some lifestyle changes, your father should be back to normal and better than ever."
"When will she be able to see him?" Alex asked the doctor.
He flipped a few pages over on his clipboard and answered Alex, "We are keeping him overnight, but in the morning you should be able to see him!"
"Thank you very much, doctor!" Emma shook his hand and as he walked away leaned over to Alex, "Exercise and a healthy diet? Very Emma Approved."
He grinned and elbowed her gently, "See? I told you he would be fine."
She looked up at him, smiling lightly. "Thank you for coming, Alex, you've no idea how means so much to me."
"You had better believe that I would be here, Em. I care about your father almost as much as you do!"
"Not true!"
"Yeah, it is! I've known him longer than you have!"
"Well that is besides the point, Alex Knightly. Anyway, regardless of who here has known him the longest, I greatly appreciate you being here." She looked into his eyes, and reached up to put her arms around his neck.
Alex engulfed her in his arms, breathing in something that was slightly sweet, that could have been strawberries. He inhaled the delightful scent that was distinctively Emma, and felt the tension melt away from his back and shoulders.
He was so glad that her father was alright, so happy that she was happy, and that feeling was something that Alex could never get enough of. When Emma was sad, or stressed, or worried, that always affected him. Weather it was because they were the owners of a small business whose success depended on them, or because Alex and Emma were so close, it did and he was relieved to know that Emma and her father would be okay.
He pulled away slightly from their embrace and looked down at Emma. "Now, let's get you home."
They walked out to Alex's car and he opened the door for her. She grinned at him, saying "Your manners Alex Knightly, are very Emma Approved!"
As he buckled his own seat belt and put his keys in the ignition he looked over at her, "Well, I did learn from the best." That made her smile, and they drove the duration of the car ride in silence.
Other than Emma's occasional changing of the radio statio because In her words, Alex's taste in music was "So not Emma Approved." He had learned by now that arguing with her about what was and was not "Emma Approved" wasn't a wise decision.
Fifteen minutes, three skipped songs, and three complaints about Alex's driving later, they arrived at Emma's apartment. He walked her to the door of her building, knowing that she wouldn't want him riding the elevator up with her.
"Thank you again, Alex. You have know idea how much it means to me that you came today." Her voice was quiviring slightly, and Alex thought she might be on the verge of tearing up again.
"You know that I'm always here for you, Emma. I wouldn't ever want to miss being your knight in shining armor. They don't call me Knight-ley for nothing."
"Emma looked at him incredulously, "Was that supposed to be a pun?" She arched one perfect eyebrow at him.
He laughed, "It was me attempting to be funny, ignore that."
She grinned and gave him another hug, "You bet I won't!" standing up on her tipoes, she lightly kissed him on the cheek. "See you tomorrow, Alex"
"Good-bye, Emma." He watched as she turned around, flipping her long hair over her shoulder and pushing the door open. As it closed behind her, they locked eyes for a long moment, her dark eyes boring into his. The corners of her lips turned up in a small smile as the door closed.
Alex drove home happy. After helping Emma, one couldn't help but feel happy as well.
Both of them fell asleep that night knowing that they would always be there for each other, under whatever circumstances, no matter what.