"You're sure this isn't a joke?" Remy asked Eveline briskly. Eveline was a security officer that patrolled around the Earalas estate. She'd been the one who had woken Remy from her sleep, her voice sounding urgent.
"As far as I know, the man sent from the doctor was being truthful."
Eveline had been on the receiving end of one or two of Hadley's games in her time working for him, so she knew Remy's wariness was warranted.
Remy nodded and pulled on a coat before letting herself and Eveline out. The stars were twinkling bright in the sky, darkness enveloping them. Her heart was pounding but Remy still only half believed that something bad had happened to Hadley. He was usually so careful about himself. He'd never put himself in danger--that spot was reserved for anyone else that he could pay to take his place. And it wouldn't be unlike him to pull something to get Remy out of bed and riled up if there was some sort of entertainment to be gained from it.
Eveline walked Remy to the hospital, which was thankfully not that far from the estate. It was raining. It made Remy all the more sure Hadley was playing some sort of game. Oh, get Remy out of bed. Don't give her time to do her hair (he KNEW how much she loved her hair). Make her walk a mile in the rain. Scare the wits out of her for fright something had happened to her only friend in the world. The whole situation had Hadley's name written all over it.
She hated him. She'd make sure he knew it. Her pants were soaked, her shoes caked in mud. Why was he so damn annoying? If she had any brains, she'd turn around right now. Crawl out of her clothes and back into her nice, warm bed.
If she wasn't already almost there, she'd probably have done exactly that. But Eveline was with her, and it wouldn't be good of her to let the woman know how little Remy thought of their boss right now.
When she got to the hospital, everything changed.
"Miss Monroe?" a nurse asked, as soon as the pair walked in. Remy looked at her, her heart suddenly dropping.
"You were listed on Overloridian Sterling's emergency contact list," she said. And then nothing else mattered.
"Where is he?" she asked, her limbs feeling suddenly numb. "What happened--where is he?"
The nurse explained whatever they knew about Hadley's condition, but Remy was barely listening. All she heard was blind, and that he was in a coma. He was stable.
Hadley was stable but he was in a coma. And blind.
Those three things together just made no sense. Stable and blind. Stable and coma. He was stable.
Remy finally reached the room Hadley was in; his body was hooked up to wires and IVs, and he certainly didn't look stable.
The nurse must have finished explaining the situation to Remy, or else she had acknowledged the fact that Remy wasn't listening, because she left as soon as Remy crossed the room.
"Hadley," she said in a broken voice. He didn't look like Hadley, lying here attached to all these things that were helping keep him alive.
It was a strange thing, seeing someone who was always on top of his game looking so broken. It made Remy feel broken too.
"What the hell happened, Hadley?" she asked him quietly, knowing he couldn't answer.
A million thoughts ran through her head, none of them good. Something had finally caught up to Hadley, that much was apparent. The bruises that covered his skin told her that much, at least.
Remy stayed there, sitting in a chair, for the rest of the night. Making him deals she hoped she would have the chance to keep. "I'll never call you stupid again (she cried, knowing that he was stupid)." "I'll never tell you to do it yourself ever again (she whispered, knowing she definitely would)." "Just wake up and I promise you I will never tell you I hate you again (she bargained, knowing she had never hated him and that he already knew that)."
She eventually fell asleep hunched over his coma-ridden body, but not until the sun was peeking through the windows and birds were chirping happily outside.