Christine came to in the hospital, disoriented and confused by her surroundings. She tell by the painfully white walls and the overpowering scent of bleach that she was in the hospital. But how had she gotten there from Erik's home? She hadn't left it on her own. She knew that much for sure.
Did.. did Erik come back and bring her here? She could only hope. She glanced around the room and found that she was alone. She didn't let that crush her hopes, though.
There were visiting hours. It was entirely possible that she'd been here more than one day. She could just ask one of the doctors or nurses if they knew who had been with her.
Unfortunately, she didn't get the chance to do so. Not right away at the very least. The nurses and doctors were much too concerned with her vitals and her memory. Which she supposed was understandable.
Their priorities were in the right place as she was their patient. But she just happened to have an entirely different set of priorities. There wasn't anything wrong with that. Not in her opinion at the very least.
Christine complied and answered all the questions and allowed them to run all their tests and such. When they were satisfied, she cleared her throat lightly to grab the nurse's attention.
"Miss... Do you know who brought me in?" She questioned, her voice raspy.
"An older man. Said his name was Nadir." The woman answered after a brief moment of contemplation. She turned and left after Christine nodded feebly.
That was both disappointing and reassuring. Nadir would only check on her if Erik asked him to and if Erik asked him to, that meant he still cared about her.
At least that meant that there was still some chance of salvaging this. She'd just have to figure out where he was once she was out of the hospital for good.
Unfortunately, any hope of getting out any time soon was crushed when her results were finally received.
While her illness was nothing more than a bad case of bronchitis - they wanted to keep her for at least another day or so to make sure everything was really alright now.
The strain that had been put on her before she collapsed was worrisome and it hadn't helped anything. It was better this way as they could've missed something and it would be easier to handle if they dealt with it immediately.
Christine hadn't fought them on that. She didn't have any reason to. Even if her boss was going to be angry beyond comprehension, she didn't have the energy to deal with that right now.
She nuzzled down in the bed and sighed, getting herself ready for some disgusting, plain hospital food.
Erik had nearly forgotten to turn his phone back on and when he finally did, he was staggered by the amount of missed calls and voicemails he had. He deleted all the ones from Nadir without a second thought.
He was almost certain that the man only contacted to try and guilt him into returning. No matter how much he wanted to do that and make amends, he just couldn't right now. She was horrified by his appearance and so he wanted to give her something that she and others would find more palatable.
He froze when he realized that he had a message from a hospital. He played it. Every word made him feel worse than he already did. Christine was sick. Very sick considering they told him that she was in and out ofconsciousness. The phone slipped from his hand as it trembled.
Erik jolted upwards, pacing around the room. His hands raked through his hair roughly every few seconds, reveling in the dull ache it caused. He deserved the pain.
His breathing became more and more erratic as the moments passed. He was the scum of the earth. The worst boyfriend ever. The worst lover. How could he claim to know his girlfriend when he couldn't even recognize that something was wrong with her?
She must hate him. There was no way that she didn't. He left her in that big house of his for god knew how long when she needed him. Needed his help. He'd hate himself too. Well, more than he already did on a daily basis.
Erik should've noticed sooner. This couldn't have been a recent development. Not if it was already this bad. Why wouldn't Christine take better care of herself?
She wasn't him. She knew better than to let things like this fester. People actually gave a fuck about her, him being one of the main ones.
Though it was doubtful if he could even claim that now. He'd been going over his plans and all the ways he could win her back and now there was a very small chance of that actually happening.
Because it was hard to believe that she would pull through. Slipping in and out was never a good sign. Especially when she'd been unconcious when he'd left.
He had to go see her. It was the only option. He might not have another chance to speak to her ever again, to make amends. Even if he could only apologize while she was under- it was better than nothing.
Hell, it just might be better all around. He clearly didn't deserve her. Not after this stunt.
His mind was made up as he pulled his boots on and put his mask on. He was going to say goodbye and apologize. Then he was going to wallow in his pain as he deserved to.
The drive to the hospital was longer than usual because he'd stopped to pick up some roses for her.
When he'd reached the hospital, he immediately approached the desk, fiddling with the ribbon around the roses.
"May I see Christine DaaƩ? You called me about her?" Erik spoke before the woman could even open her mouth.
The woman seemed mildly irritated that he had done so but brushed it off. She had most likely dealt with far worse before. She did something on her computer before she stood up with a nod, gesturing for him to follow.
"Of course. Christine is mostly stable now. There isn't any permit damage as far as we can tell." She informed, her tone rather chirpy.
Dread and relief washed over him in equal parts. Christine could be awake and aware enough to call him out. He wasn't entirely ready to face her. But it was already too late. He didn't have much of a choice. He followed after the woman almost mechanically.
