Guiding Light

Chapter 12: In The Chaos I Feel Fine

Chapter 12: In The Chaos I Feel Fine

Nico's mind was a blur, he had no idea what time it was or how long he had been there. So many people were hurt, there was blood in most of the cars he visited. He tried to control the bleeding, he set multiple dislocated shoulders and kept going. He would do anything not to have to think about the second landslide and the rocks that had fallen off to the direction of where he had sent Levi to.

After what felt like days, the scene had been cleared of critical victims and Nico caught a lift to the hospital with one of the ambulances. He reaches for his phone to call Levi, but his phone is out of battery.

When they arrive at the hospital, he walks into the Pit and starts looking for Levi. He tries not to panic, but his face must have betrayed him this time as Dr. Grey walks up to him, looking alarmed.

"Dr. Kim, are you OK? You have a cut on your head," Dr. Grey says. Nico reaches instinctively to his temple and looks at his fingers, there's some blood.

"But I need to find..." He starts but Dr. Grey is already touching his back and walking him to trauma bay 3. Nico sits down on the bed and realises then he is freezing, his clothes are drenched from the rain.

Dr. Grey examines Nico's temple, "It's a superficial cut, I will get a nurse to come and clean it up," she says.

"Do you know where–," Nico starts to ask but Dr. Grey is already gone. He curses and rubs his eyes with his hand. He had not seen Levi in the Pit, he had not seen him in the scene, he was nowhere. Nico did everything he could not to think of that one room where he might be, downstairs, and he could feel the tears in his throat due to how exhausted and worried he was. The nurse arrives just then, and Nico composes himself as she starts to clean his cut.

"Nico!"

Nico turns to face Levi and feels immense relief at the sight of him. His entire body relaxes, he feels so grateful and before he knows it Levi's hands are wrapped around him and he does the same. He holds Levi so tight that he doesn't know if he can ever let go. All the drama with his parents seems lightyears away, it seems like it doesn't matter at this moment, all that matters is that Levi is alive and holding him and talking to him, telling him he loves him.

-

Some hours later, Nico and Levi are back home, sitting by the kitchen island and trying to eat. They are both still shocked from what had happened, so it feels more like force-feeding at that point. They tell each other what had happened from their own points of view and by the end of it, they give up trying to eat.

"Any response from your parents?" Levi asks as he takes away the plates.

Nico reaches for his phone for the hundredth time that hour but there are still no new messages.

"No, I'm getting worried," he says.

"You should go to the hotel, if they made it through that's where they'll be," Levi suggests.

"Yeah, I'll do that," Nico says and gets up. He may have had the worst fight he ever had with his parents, but he still loved them and needed to know they had not been hurt.

"I'll be back soon," Nico says and walks out the door, to his car and drives to the hotel. He parks the car and walks to the reception.

"Hello, my parents are in room 455 and I would like to see them. Are you able to call them and ask if that would be OK?" Nico asks the receptionist. The woman behind the counter smiles and nods, picks up her phone and calls the room. Apparently there is no answer, and she then types something on her computer.

"It looks like they checked out a few hours ago, actually I believe I called them a taxi to take them to the airport," she says.

Nico is relieved to hear his parents are OK, but he is disappointed to hear they had decided to go back to Seoul already. He was not surprised, though.