One Man Band System

A few hours later, in the late afternoon, Eric walked up to the hospital reception desk. Emma, Chloe, Monica, Priya, Heidi, and Laura were right by his side as they went to meet Avery, who was on shift there. As they arrived, Avery was wrapping up a phone call. She spotted them and immediately hung up. Eric gave a quick wave, and Avery stood up to greet him.

"Hey... thanks for coming. I’m so sorry about this... I honestly have no idea why your name popped up as that woman’s emergency contact in her file," Avery said by way of greeting.

"I see. When exactly did she update her information at this hospital?" Eric asked, completely puzzled.

"Hmm... hold on a second," Avery replied.

She sat back down to pull up the patient records on the hospital computer. She clicked her mouse a couple of times, then stood back up.

"She came in two days ago to get some dental work done, and that’s when she updated her file... do you actually know her? I haven’t seen her myself yet," Avery said.

"You know her too, Avery. She’s the one we ran into at the bar the other night. Remember? The woman who randomly walked up to Caleb and me?" Eric asked.

"Huh... wait... that girl?" Avery asked in shock, her hand flying to cover her mouth.

"Yep... that’s the one. Now, here’s the main question—if I’m listed as her emergency contact, does that mean I’m responsible for handling all her paperwork and billing?" Eric asked, getting straight to the point.

"Unfortunately, that’s exactly how it works... the patient is currently in a coma and has already been moved to the ICU for more intensive care. The critical emergency phase has passed, but she’s still in severe condition and visitors aren’t allowed, according to the attending physician’s report. So there’s no way we can ask her anything, let alone get information about her family," Avery answered, shaking her head.

Eric fell completely silent, entirely at a loss for words. It had never crossed his mind that he would have to take care of the woman who had once hurt him so deeply, even though he felt absolutely nothing toward her now. Emma, Chloe, Monica, Priya, Heidi, and Laura immediately crowded around Eric from all sides, crowding his left, right, and back as they all chimed in.

"You don’t actually have to pay for anything, you just need to handle the communication," Emma said, already knowing who Melissa was before they had left.

"Yeah, exactly. You shouldn’t have to carry any responsibility for someone who used to hurt you," Priya added, also fully aware of Melissa’s identity.

"How about we just head back home? I mean, even if you are her emergency contact, we don’t really have to stay here, right?" Monica chimed in, having understood the whole situation as well.

"That’s right, come on, let’s just clear out of here and go somewhere else," Heidi added, tugging at Eric’s arm.

"Mmhmm... they’re right," Laura agreed, clearing her throat as she placed her hand over Eric’s on the counter.

Eric understood exactly what the girls around him were trying to do. It was true that he had absolutely no obligation to take responsibility for Melissa’s situation. But then, he turned his head to look at Chloe, who was also lost in thought. Chloe then turned to meet Eric’s gaze.

"Let’s do this, I’ll talk to Bryan so our company can cover all her medical expenses and handle her insurance paperwork. After all, Melissa is still technically an employee at our firm. But before we do that, we need to find out where she was coming from and where she was headed when she got hit, because judging by the location and the timing of the accident, both were during work hours and close to the office," Chloe said.

"Hmm... that could work, but won’t that take some time?" Eric asked.

"It’s fine, I’ll take care of it on behalf of our company," Chloe replied, already pulling out her phone.

But before Chloe could make the call, Avery suddenly seemed to remember something. She immediately stood up to speak, though she held her stomach as she did.

"Oh, that’s right... about half an hour ago, someone came by asking about the patient. A guy, probably in his early twenties, wearing a hoodie. And as far as I can remember, he hasn’t left yet because he hasn’t walked past this desk. I’ve been right here all day since this is my station today, so there’s no way I would have missed him if he went out," Avery said.

"Oh, really? Is he up in the ICU?" Eric asked. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Definitely... you can’t actually go inside, but you can see through the glass," Avery answered.

"Hmm... alright, if he’s family, we can talk to him. Let’s head over to the ICU, everyone. We’ll meet this guy, who knows, maybe he is family and I can just dump this emergency contact duty onto him... Chloe, for Bryan, just text him for now," Eric told Chloe and the other girls.

"Yeah... I know," Chloe said, already typing out the message.

"Are you sure about this?" Emma asked.

"What choice do I have? At the very least, I can meet her family, even if the company takes responsibility and treats it as a workplace accident," Eric replied.

"Sigh... alright, fine," Priya, Monica, Heidi, and Laura muttered, completely resigning themselves to the situation.

After saying goodbye to Avery, Eric and the others headed straight to the ICU. When they walked in, they saw the treatment rooms through the windows. Just as Avery had said, a man was standing in front of one of the windows with both hands shoved into his hoodie pockets.

His hood was up, and he was wearing denim jeans and sneakers, staring blankly through the glass. Eric turned to the others and nodded, and then they all walked toward the man in front of them.

Eric caught a glimpse through the window and saw Melissa lying unconscious with her eyes closed, hooked up to an IV, oxygen, EKG monitor leads on her chest, and several other wires attached to her body.

Her condition looked awful, her face was covered in bruises, her arm and left leg were bandaged, and patches of blood were seeping through her hospital gown near her stomach. But she’s still very much alive.

Eric then turned his attention back to the man in front of him. He tapped the guy on the shoulder to get his attention quietly, intending to ask him to step outside to talk. The man turned around to look at Eric, but suddenly, both Eric and the man jumped back a step in total shock. They both stood there, completely stunned.

"Who are you? You look so familiar, oh right, you’re the guy who played music at that festival broadcast on television the other day. Are you a friend of Melissa’s?" the man stammered in surprise.

Seeing the man’s face, Eric didn’t even think twice. He stepped forward instantly, his hand flying up to grab the collar of the hoodie, and jerked the man close to him. The motion pulled the hood right off the guy’s head, revealing a handsome face, an earring, and a black crew cut.

Naturally, Emma, Priya, Monica, Heidi, Laura, and Chloe, who had just been busy texting Bryan, were shocked by Eric’s sudden reaction. They rushed forward to hold onto Eric, though they didn’t pull him back.

"Blake, we finally meet again. Let’s go talk outside," Eric said, his voice dropping to a low, icy whisper to avoid breaking the quiet of the ICU as he stared daggers right into Blake’s blank, expressionless face.

Blake looked completely taken aback, studying Eric’s face the moment his name was uttered by someone he didn’t even think he knew. He strained to recognize Eric, because even though the face was similar and clearly a vastly improved version of it, this guy was also a little taller than him.

His body had filled out a bit, even if he still looked lean, which was a far cry from the Eric he remembered, the Eric who was skin and bones, slightly shorter than him, and definitely not aggressive enough to fight back, having completely given up when he was framed.

"You... there’s no mistake... you’re Eric?" Blake stammered in disbelief.

"Hoo... so you still remember me. That’s right, I’m the Eric you and that woman inside framed until I got kicked out," Eric whispered, his voice so cold it seemed to pierce right through Blake’s ears and settle into his bones.

Blake’s face instantly turned pale. He glanced back at Melissa lying inside the room, then turned his attention back to Eric, who looked cold and detached, yet was actually smiling.

Meanwhile, the six girls caught their breath in shock upon hearing Eric’s words. A second later, their expressions hardened into icy glares directed straight at Blake, clearly harboring every intention of making him Melissa’s roommate in the ICU.

Seeing himself backed into a corner with absolutely no way to run, Blake raised both hands. He forced a smile, making his pale face look incredibly distorted.

"Chill, man. Let’s not have any hard feelings between us, alright? I was just doing my job, and I had no idea things would turn out like that," Blake said, trying to break the tension.

Eric didn’t answer. His hand kept a firm grip on the collar of Blake’s hoodie, and his eyes remained fixed on Blake with an icy stare, a faint smile playing on his lips as if he were genuinely glad to run into him there to settle the score.