An 'accident'

After Max had taken the papers that needed to be filled out, and started on those, the woman behind the front desk told Noah where Laila was. She told him that Laila was in the middle of surgery and wouldn't be coming out until at least another hour. This meant that Noah wouldn't be able to see her just yet. When Noah asked about Laila's condition, she told him that he should just take a seat by operating room 6 and wait for the doctors to come out and tell him about Laila's state as she wasn't able to tell him anything at the moment. All she knew that the accident was pretty bad and that Laila had lost a lot of blood. That they were fighting now to keep both her and the baby alive.

Noah's face became even paler than it was and with the world spinning around him, he walked over to where the nurse had told him to go sit. Every step he took was taken in a daze, before he sat down, staring into nothing, not knowing what to do or what to think. Just sitting there like a zombie, filling up with worry and rage. Rage fuelled by the anger he felt for himself for having been unable to protect his own wife a second time, anger towards the people who had dared to do this to her and anger stemming from the frustration of not being able to do anything, while his wife and child were fighting for their lives.

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Over in the non-emergency care wing, the bodyguard was going over tonight's events in his mind. It had all happened so fast. They were late, so they were rushing. The road they had intended to take, was under construction, forcing them to take a different route. This road was more abandoned and apparently, someone who had intended to do harm, had taken advantage of this situation. It was as if they knew they would be taking this route, as if they had planned for it.

The more he thought about it, the more convinced the man became that it had to be someone who either knew there was an event or someone who had followed them long enough to find out. Which is exactly what he told Max, when he came to see him.

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After handing the filled out papers to the nurse and seeing that there wasn't much he could do for Noah in the moment, at least not by staying by his side, Max decided to make himself useful in a different way. Realizing that the role of offering comfort in this moment was more suited for his closest friends that were on their way, than for him who cared about both of them, but had interacted with them more on a professional level and not in the personal manner that was required for the level of understanding needed in this situation.

A better use for his time would be figuring out what had happened and how it could have happened. Since just like the bodyguard, Max knew that sooner rather than later, Noah would be wanting answers and right now there was only one person in a state to give them. That is why Max figured that the best place for him to be wasn't on the seat next to Noah, but the one next to the third victim and only conscious witness of the crash.

When he heard what took place, Max too was convinced that it was done intentionally. He even went as far as pointing a finger at the person he thought was responsible for tonight's 'accident'. Normally he would immediately bring this information to Noah, but with him worrying and being upset about his wife and child, he didn't want to add to that by mentioning the names in his head. Instead, he waited for Steve and told the bodyguard to not say a word of this to Noah for as long as he could. If he needed to speak to anyone, he should speak to Steve, who he would be telling everything shortly.

When Max returned to where Noah had been waiting, it seemed that his absence hadn't been noticed. Noah was still in the same state he had been in when he heard the news and hadn't moved an inch. In fact, he looked like he hadn't even blinked. Max decided to wait for Steve's arrival here, since this was the place he was sure they would run into each other and would give him the chance to talk to him at the first opportunity.

The moment Steve and Maria arrived, and walked into the waiting area Max and Noah were sitting, Max stood up and raised his hand to get their attention as he walked in their direction. It didn't take long before his raised arm was noticed. Both of them were looking worried as they approached Max and tried to join him to the bench where he and Noah had been waiting for Laila's surgery to finish. Max dragged out the walk as much as he could, giving Steve and Maria time to ask all the questions Noah had asked as well when he got to the hospital, without making Noah go through it a second time. "How's Laila? Where is she?"

Max told them that Laila was still in surgery, which would take about an hour still, and that according to the nurse at the front desk, Laila had been hurt pretty badly. Then Steve asked the question that Noah would surely soon be asking too. "What happened? Who did this to them?"