Chapter 2: Hospital Visit

I couldn't believe what had just happened. I still can't even put it into words. All I know is that Ed is in ambulance truck, and I was in a car with Ed's dad, whom I was somehow just meeting for the first time and Jimmy to the hospital. The first several moments were simply silence, trying to take in the situation and understand what was happening. Finally Ed's dad broke the tense silence.

"What happened to him Edward?" he asked me. I had lost focus when he asked me, so I was slow to respond for a second.

"We were just doing one of Eddy's scams and it all went wrong." Double D replied. I felt so horrible, in ways words couldn't describe at the time.

"Eddy's the little, yellow wearing runt right?" He asked back.

I felt uncomfortable about answering back because I didn't want to throw Eddy under the bus because of my own failures, but at the same time he was the primary culprit.

"Yes sir, Eddy is the little guy." I said back hesitantly. "I don't know where he is right now."

Jimmy then spoke up out of nowhere. "Well he'd be in this car if he were a true friend!"

I was kind of taken aback. Jimmy really didn't have a relationship with Ed at all, even with his sister being his best friend, so the outburst seemed out of the blue. But he had a point. Where was Eddy right now? He had to be coming I thought.

Finally, we arrived at the hospital. The drive felt like it had taken forever, even though it had really been about 20 minutes. That might have been more because I wasn't used to long drives outside of the Cul-De-Sac than anything else, or maybe it was the situation I was in at the moment. Getting out of the car, I realized that this was the first time I'd been at a hospital in my older life. Being as cautious as I was I'd never had to come here, and I'm glad of such. Being here now made me glad of it as I saw so much disgusting people and things just going through the entrance. There was a man with pale skin and red, dark lumps being dragged in by a stretcher, probably for some sort IV treatments was my immediate guess. Suddenly, he began to hack and his spit began flying towards my direction. I instinctively ran ahead, charging right into Ed's dad. He turned back and looked annoyed.

"I can tell you're not used to this sort of place, but no need to be a wimp about it!" he'd said to me. I felt really bad about it, but I felt like apologizing wouldn't have alleviated his mood by a whole lot, so it stayed in my head.

At the reception desk at the front, there was a portly lady sitting there typing into a computer. Ed's dad tried to talk to her, but she put a finger up in the air to signify that she needed a minute before responding to him. He somehow looked even more impatient then before after this, which still managed to shock me at this point.

"Madam, my son is injured and in this hospital! I need to know where he is!" His voiced sounded less angry then desperate.

"What's your name, and your son's?" She said. She sounded like she had heard this so many times before, and her voice came across as fairly "Whatever." Not quite suitable for dealing with such a high volume of likely distressed people I felt.

"My n-name is Tanner, my son's name is Ed. He's 11 years old a-and suffered a-a traumatic injury." He said, stammering just a little.

"Go to floor 3, that's where pediatrics are at." She said, immediately returning to typing on her computer.

Mr. Tanner waited for a second hoping for a room number, but left upon realizing that he'd gotten. I tried my hardest to keep up as he was running, just barely catching him and Jimmy on the elevator. I heard him mumble some word (It sounded like snitch, but that made little sense) but I tried to just ignore it. We got to the third floor after a few stops as several other people needed the elevator, but most came and went quickly so only the three of us and a few other people got off on the third floor with us. We didn't go too far until we reached room 315.

There, we saw a few familiar faces outside of the room. Sarah was there, still teary eyed and not entirely done. Rolf was sitting in the corner of sorts, looking like he wasn't even sure why he was here. And there was Nazz, surprisingly by herself. Sarah then ran up to her dad and started crying into his arms. As unsettling as this situation was, it was equally unsettling to see her so vulnerable, vicious Sarah. Mr. Tanner then walked into the hospital room to be with mother and son imaginably.

I felt like the odd man out as I didn't really want to be around Sarah at such an uncomforting moment, and Rolf seemed his own sort of… damaged I guess. So I kind of took a chance and went to go sit next to Nazz. I say chance because I really didn't talk to her and she always associated with Kevin, who was as anti-Ed's as it got. So yeah a slight chance for me. Nazz was sitting on a bench by herself, just seeming to try to pass the time. I then took the leap and sat down next to her!

…. And she had no response as if she hadn't even noticed.

It was deeply discomforting, and I had no real idea what to do now. I decided that the only real option was to just talk to her after several seconds. So I gently tapped her on the shoulder, and she sharply turned to face me.

"Oh hey Double D." She said.

I gulped involuntarily. "H-hey Nazz," I said, but it came out partially slurred. "Sorry we'd have to meet at somewhere like this." I sounded more composed right then.

"Yeah I agree. This is really saddening that something so rough could happen to kids like us." She said. "Really makes you think about perspective."

Somehow I had managed to follow her entirely despite sweating a river under my sock hat, making it extremely uncomfortable to wear.

"Yeah, I agree. Makes you look back on so many things could have gone wrong over the years." I said in response.

There was a moment of silence, likely one of remembrance for her as it was for me. I thought of all the hard falls we'd taken over the years from trees, all the tumbles from stairs and fences, all of the dangers of our lives. And yet we'd been entirely unscathed for the most part. Well until now that is. I suddenly began to tear up without thinking about it. I pulled my hands over my face to try and shield myself from her, but it only made it more obvious what was happening. She then handed me a tissue and I thanked between blowing my nose.

Then, seemingly out of the blue, Kevin showed up. I should have realized he was here with Nazz, even if he hated us. He was close with her and he'd follow her like a lapdog even if he truly didn't want to go where she went. At that moment I was face to face with him, as he was essentially glaring me down.

"Hey Eddork, you're in my seat." Kevin said, his voice seething with irritation that masked anger. But right now, I really didn't feel like getting pushed around.

"Kevin, you weren't here when I sat down. It's not reserved for you, and there are several seats elsewhere." I said, although I was shaking as I said it. I clearly wasn't the intimidator here.

"Move dork or else!" He yelled back, much more viciously than before.

"Kevin!" Nazz said, giving a glare back much worse than the one Kevin had given him. Kevin realized quickly that he'd lost the fight, and walked away sulking towards Rolf. Nazz then looked at me.

"Sorry about that. We had an issue earlier today before what happened, and he's being… weird." She said. "It's nothing to do with you though."

I felt relieved in a way to be backed up by someone not named Ed or Eddy, almost like I had some sort of credibility. Of course turning to my side, I saw Kevin's eye locked for aim right at me. Then Nazz started talking to again.

"Say where's Eddy?" she said. "I know he's self-centered, but Ed's his friend right?"

It had been bothering me all day really since we'd left the Cul-De-Sac:

Where was Eddy?

Then suddenly, the doctor stepped out of the room…