In with the Old, out with the New
Angrily I wondered who the hell would be calling me as I had finally fallen asleep for the first time in awhile and I did not appreciate being woken up,
"What?" I growled,
"Is this Miss Olivia Moss?" the voice asked me in a serious tone,
"Yes," I responded, still miffed,
"Do you know an Erik Duval?" Suddenly I was all ears,
After Erik had been brought to the hospital the process had begun to identify the man. They had salvaged his wallet and run his credit cards. Finding out where he worked, they were able to find out his contact in case of emergency number; something he had not changed since he had been seeing me.
The man on the phone told me that Erik had been in an accident and that I should come down to the hospital as soon as I could and contact his family
It seemed surreal as I got dressed to go to the hospital. At first I was numb with shock, but then when I passed my table and saw my dead roses and then Sammy wagging his tail questioningly at me I lost it.
It took all the strength I had to pull myself off the floor and go to the street to call a cab. I was shaking all over and there was a ringing in my ears. I had come to the realization that I would have to accept a life with out Erik in it, but I had not thought of having to accept a life where Erik was dead.
When I arrived at the hospital later that morning it was still raining like mad. A nurse directed me to wait in the lounge and I sat in one of the blue plastic seats, running a hand through my rain drenched hair and wondering what had happened.
Eventually a doctor approached me,
"Miss Moss?" he addressed me,
"Yes," I said shakily, rising to my feet,
"I'm Doctor Green," He shook my hand, "If you could follow me?" I nodded and we walked toward an elevator, "Erik was brought in here earlier tonight, around ten," I nodded as I listened to his explanation, "He was in a car accident," I did my best not to cry in front of the doctor, "There was a pile up, no one has died yet but several of the passengers are in pretty rough shape; unfortunately your fiancé is one of the worst off," I did not correct his mistake and tell him that Erik and I were not engaged; I couldn't bring myself to. I just listened, "His leg was crushed, as was his right arm; when we brought him in he was experiencing internal bleeding, along with a fractured rib cage and…" I burst out crying and the doctor paused, "I am very sorry…" he said in almost an automatic response. It was not that he did not care, in fact he felt very bad for the tragic man and for me (who he believed to be the man's fiancé) it was just that the doctor had seen this so many times,
"How…How is he now?" I stuttered
"He just came out of the reconstructive surgery; his condition stabilized earlier and we think he is going to be alright; that was why we brought him in for the second operation,"
"Second operation for what?" I asked confused,
"Well, and this is going to be hard to hear…when the cars crashed into each other your fiancé was smashed against the window, and it cut up his face very badly…" Doctor Green looked at me sidelong. Doctor Green was a good man; as were his colleagues at the hospital, but that did not mean they never made mistakes. He only hoped I would not notice. Doctor Green had not been on rounds when they had brought Erik in. The young doctor who had saved Erik's life had believed that the scarring on his face had been a result of the accident and wanted to perform reconstructive facial surgery as soon as he could to prevent the terrible wounds on his face from getting worse.
When Doctor Green had come in, after hearing about the huge accident, the facial surgery had already been underway. Of course, the more experienced man had realized right away that Erik's face had been that way for a long time and only several of the cuts were from the accident. However it was too late to stop and what the hospital had essentially done was to perform unnecessary plastic surgery without the consent of the patient. To avoid a lawsuit, Doctor Green told me the surgery was necessary, and he hoped I would never find out otherwise. He had no idea what he and his associates had inadvertently done…they had taken the deformity off of the phantom.
I however cared about none of this. My only concern was for Erik,
"But will he be alright?" I asked,
"We believe so," Doctor Green said; he was now leading me down a hallway. Finally he stopped in front of a door, "He is in here; I warn you he still looks pretty bad,"
I took a deep breath and entered. Erik lay on a bed before me; his leg and arm in casts, and white bandaging around his ribs and half of his face.
"My God," I breathed; I had seen this type of thing on TV before, but I had never seen the man I loved stretched out like road kill. I sank down in the chair next to his bed,
"Is he…unconscious? Or is he still under anesthesia?" I asked softly,
"The anesthesia should wear off soon, but he is going to be in a lot of pain…he may not wake up for awhile," Doctor Green looked sympathetically at me,
"Can I wait?" I asked, not taking my eyes off of Erik as I spoke,
Normally he would have said that I would have to leave soon, but as they had already botched things, he would let me stay, "Of course," with that he turned and left; fairly certain that by the way I was crying I would be happy just to have Erik alive and not care about the mistake. If he had known I was a lawyer he might have not felt so good about his lies.
Erik did not know where he was. Was he dead? He could not feel anything, and he was sure that if he was dead he would feel the fires of hell, so he was fairly certain that he was not dead yet, so what was he?
His mind worked hard to piece together the past hours of his life; he found thinking was painful and remembering was difficult. There had been rain, and wind…and a crash. Suddenly Erik remembered the crash. He had known that the driver had lost control of the taxi and that he was headed for a deadly end. In that moment, he had gained a kind of clarity; every twist in his life suddenly straightened and he saw clearly for the first time. Erik the phantom, Erik the cynic had died in that taxi. Erik the man I loved lived still, and struggled against the darkness in the hospital bed.
He realized there was only one question he needed answered; where was I? What would I do if I did not hear from him? I would think he was still ignoring me…He wanted to tell me so much, but how could he?
If he could have mustered the strength to open an eyelid he would have seen me, but the energy required to do such a thing did not belong to him yet. Erik felt like he had just been beaten all over his body. As consciousness swam back to him, Erik sensed the pain in his crushed body; his leg throbbed and his arm felt like it was on fire. His chest hurt every time he drew breath and his face hurt as though he had been in a fist fight where he had been repeatedly punched in the jaw.
I waited four hours as Erik slowly came back to his senses and struggled to master the pain cursing through his body. At five thirty in the morning, a low groan escaped Erik's now perfect lips. At the sound of him I immediately sat up. I had been leaning forward, placing my head on the extra room on Erik's bed. I studied him as he groaned again,
"Erik, can you hear me?" I asked him softly, then repeated a bit louder, "Erik?"
In his half conscious state, Erik found himself back in his old haunt; the Paris Opera. It was the New Years gala…or was it? Everything looked different and yet the same as dreams do. The most striking difference was that instead of watching everything from a distance and hidden from all eyes; he was walking through the dancing people as though he were no different from them. Confused, he began to search for me, but I was no where in sight.
He saw everyone else however. He saw Christine, he saw Raoul, he saw Madame Giry and her daughter, he also saw Tom Hanks but he assumed that this was only an affect of the painkillers and the fact that he had just been forced to watch A League of Their Own. Everyone from his past was there. However, none of them recognized him, which was not a problem at all; it was just unsettling. People were nodding at him and tipping their hats as though they even respected him. Some young ballerinas were even smiling at him.
Using dream logic, which tells you to do the strangest things; like buy a pock-a- dot pant suit, he decided he should talk to Christine. If anyone knew him she would. As he approached her however, he saw a pair of six inch black strappy Manolo's mixed in with the drab low heals and long hemlines of the other women.
He tried to go toward me but he could not. Angry, he began to groan louder and I watched him with fascination and concern.
"Olivia!" Erik finally managed to cry out and I practically jumped out of my chair with joy,
"Erik! I'm right here! Can you hear me?" I called to him, and in his dream world he suddenly realized that what he was looking at was fake. He knew he was dreaming. With a great pull of all the strength he could muster, Erik opened his eyes. One he could not see out of because the bandage on his face prevented it, but as vision came to his other eye he realized he was looking at me.
He found he could not really speak, and I found the same was true for me. But that did not matter; he said it all with his eyes. He was sorry, he had not meant to hurt me, and he still loved me.
In any other situation I should have been mad at him. Erik had broken my heart because he was unwilling to listen to a perfectly good explanation, and he had moved on to another woman because he was pigheaded. However, he had almost died and now he was awake and he loved me and I knew it. So, I did the only thing a girl can do when the man she loves regains consciousness. I kissed him.
Erik forgot his pain as I brushed my lips to his. He had been certain there would be no way I would forgive him; he had thought that I would have been so mad I would have hated him. He had been ready to crawl back to me on his knees; but here I was, kissing him. He wished he had the strength to put an arm around me, or at least kiss me back harder, but found it too painful and impossible to budge.
"Olivia…I'm sorry," he manage to say when I drew away from him,
I could tell speaking pained him and I shushed him; I did not need to hear him speak now, "Don't talk if it hurts," I said gently, "Listen, the doctor said you are going to be alright," I did not tell the truth and say that they only thought he was going to be alright, because really, who the hell would say that? "Do you need anything?" I asked him,
He slightly shook his head no. He took a deep breath and I saw him wince as he moved his good hand so it rested over mine.
"I missed you Erik," I whispered as I saw him do this; I saw that this comment upset him greatly; he hated himself for the time he had foolishly caused us to spend apart. I decided to stop talking in this vane, "Sammy will be glad to have you back," I said, smiling through happy tears. This only made Erik feel worse; he had left our little family cold, and now he was being welcomed back. He did not really understand why; but he guessed that it was because I really loved him.
For the rest of the morning I sat by Erik's bedside, talking to him about anything that came into my head. As for Erik; he was content just to hear my voice and feel the warmth of my hand in his. By eight in the morning I was exhausted but I still did not want to leave Erik. I was unsure of what to do; so I left Erik and went to use one of the hospital phones to call in to work. I was going to be taking a personal day.
On my way to the phone, I passed Doctor Green in the hallway.
"I heard your fiancé woke up," He smiled warmly at me, there were dark circles under his eyes and I assumed he had had a rough shift,
"Yes he did," I still had not corrected him about my relationship with Erik,
"Glad to hear it," Good new was always welcome to the doctor,
"Now I just have to call in to work and tell them I am not coming in today," I said with a wan smile,
"What do you do?" he asked me,
"I'm a lawyer," I said with an apologetic smile; most people cringed when they found out I was a lawyer. For some reason, they did not like lawyers…
Doctor Green was no exception; he was still worried about a possible lawsuit and finding out that I was a lawyer did not help him, "Um…so, do you need anything?" Doctor Green asked, hoping to suck up to me,
"Well…I am tired…" I admitted,
"Feel free to sleep in your fiancé's room!" the doctor said quickly before his pager went off and he had to hurry away,
After I called my office, I called Erik's as well. I knew this would set off a chain of events which would inevitably bring Karen Hegel to the hospital, but I did not care. She could see him and wish him well and the she would leave. Erik was mine now and if she tried anything, she would be very glad we were in a hospital.
For two hours I managed to sleep in the chair by Erik's bed. He murmured out that I should go home and sleep and that he would be fine. I refused to leave his side however. Secretly he was glad I stayed. He watched me sleep; he realized that it had been some time since he had watched me sleep. I looked uncomfortable, but peaceful just the same. Erik remembered the feel of our bed and the weight of my head on his shoulder and the warmth of my body against his. He closed his eyes to the pain in his body, knowing that eventually, he would be able to rest in that bed again, and through some act of God he believed that he would hold me again.
When I woke up he was staring at me. I yawned and smiled at him,
"Did you sleep well?" He asked in a horse voice,
"Honey, I'm sleeping in a small chair; no, I did not sleep very well," But I was still smiling and I leaned forward and kissed him, "How do you feel?"
"Imagine how uncomfortable sleeping in the chair was and then multiply it by a million," he said and I was glad to hear him joke again,
"Oh darling," I suddenly remembered, "Has Doctor Green come in at all?" He shook his head no, "Because he thinks we are engaged,"
Erik found himself wishing that we were. He remembered the engagement ring he had bought for me and hoped someday he could get me to accept it. For the moment however he just was happy that I had not felt the need to correct the doctor and was willing to play his pretend fiancé.
"Erik, I'm starving; I think I will go to the cafeteria and…" I started to tell him but then the door to his room opened,
Karen Hegel flew in, "Erik! We heard about you at work! How could you not have called me?" she looked furiously at him,
I stood quickly and positioned myself between Karen and Erik's bed, "Excuse me," I said in an angry tone, "but I would appreciate it if you did not yell at my boyfriend,"
"You boyfriend!" Karen glared at me, "He is with me,"
"Not anymore!" I yelled back,
And right there in the hospital room Karen and I got in our first and last fight. Karen pushed me backwards and I almost hit Erik's bed. Furious that she could have hurt Erik if I had knocked against his bed, I shoved that little hussy back into the wall. With a shout of fury she came at me; we locked arms and each of us attempted to throw the other to the ground. Unfortunately for Karen Hegel; she was a stupid boyfriend stealer that had ruined my life and I hated her more than I hated anything, and that included stretch pants, and so Karen crashed to the ground.
"How dare you!" Karen screamed at me,
I simply folded my arms across my chest and looked defiantly at her. She scrambled to her feet, "I demand to speak to him!" Karen yelled at me, "He needs to explain himself!" she was angry that he had just walked out on her the night before,
"He needs to do no such thing!" I yelled back, "he is in a lot of pain right now and I don't think listening to your grating voice is going to help him!" Erik had fought for me dozens of times, and now I was returning the favor; I bodily shoved Karen out of the room and into the hallway, "I know it is going to be hard for you to accept," I told Karen once we were out of Erik's room, "But he loves me, not you! So I really think you should leave now, before this gets messy,"
"Are you threatening me?" Karen narrowed her eyes,
"It's not a threat," I said menacingly, "It's a promise," I knew it was cliché, but really, I was in a hospital and running on very little sleep; what else could I say?
"Well," Karen looked scandalized, "I will go now, but this is not over," and with that she stormed off. I laughed as she tried to exit through a janitor's closet; opening the door too late to realize her mistake and then having to shamefully walk back out again and find the real exit.
My small victory won, I returned to Erik. I had not shut the door when I had left and he had heard every word exchanged between me and Karen. He had never had two people fight over who got to be with him, and he had to admit that it was nice, even if one of those people was Karen.
He also had to admit how proud he was that I had dealt with her so affectively. The fact that I loved him enough to fight for him made the pain from the car crash seem almost bearable.
"That was very good of you," Erik said to me as I sat down in the room again,
"Well, I had to get ride of her somehow," I smiled at him; and then I had a thought, "You are mine again, aren't you?" I suddenly realized that we had never said anything about the subject; I had simply been assuming that Erik loved me again. Oh God, I thought suddenly, what if I had been wrong? what if he did not want me back, what if he was just happy to be alive?
Erik stared at my now worried eyes, "Olivia," he said, "I was always yours; I was just too foolish to see it," and just like that, Erik and I were officially back together.
At the end of the day I knew I had to go back home. However, I still needed to tell Erik what had been done to his face.
"Erik, I have to go soon, but there is something I need to tell you first," I began,
"What is it?" he asked,
'It's about your face," I started, "When you were brought in here, they…operated on it and…they made it look…not deformed,"
He did not believe his ears, "What?" he was shocked at the idea,
"Yeah…so from now on, you will look…your face will be…" I did not quite know how to put it,
"Normal," he said it for me. I just looked at him; it appeared there was some great thinking going on in his head. Erik was stunned; what he had always wanted had happened to him. He never would have gotten plastic surgery on his own; it was expensive and he did not want to admit he was that vain, but this was wonderful; this was the best day of his life. He got me back and he got a real face.
I kissed him goodbye an hour later and went home. I missed him already.
Well! There it is, everything is happy in Erik world again! Really, I can't believe some of our readers would think I would end the story by killing Erik…that's simply not done! Julia was very perceptive in noting something from the very first chapter, as was Twinkle22 for picking up on the metaphor thing. And so was Skeleton Horse; and yes I know I use commas when I should have periods, I can't really explain it. I'm crazy sometimes! And to everyone, again I am sorry if I threw some of you into shock, but I hope you are all better now if you are wondering this was the plan; there had to be some more obstacles in their relationship. Of course Erik has still not told Olivia about his past…so there is a lot more fun to be had! Thanks one and all for reading and reviewing! (hope you liked your treat Barb!)