Automatic

Chapter 64. Going Home

Edd adjusted his hat a little as he stood outside of Naomi's room. His fist had been raised to knock for the past fifteen minutes, but he simply couldn't muster up the strength to go in and face the woman that had thrown a seemingly permanent wrench into his life. What if she was horrible? Or worse. What if she was a completely pleasant human being? Would she fight for Kevin's affections? Or would Naomi admit that she made a mistake by taking something that wasn't hers to begin with? Edd had no idea, but he did know that the air needed to be cleared if any progress was to be made.

With his fist only mere inches away from the solid wooden door, Edd's thoughts began to drift away again. Kevin had been spending the past couple hours with his new baby girl; what would he want to do? A twinge of guilt washed over Edd as he wondered why his fiance wasn't with him. He had been smeared across the pavement, his ribs were now wired back together in six different places, and had to tote around a portable oxygen tank as one of his lungs took a serious beating from the floating fragments of bone in his chest courtesy of Naomi Thompson's front bumper.

And Kevin had yet to see if he was okay to his knowledge.

Perhaps the redhead had come by to check on him after the surgery, but Edd wasn't so sure about it. It's not like he could blame the man for not dropping everything to come cry at his bedside. Kevin had a daughter now and she was a preemie at that. He had other, much more important priorities now and Edd was very slowly beginning to realize that and it made his already hurting chest ache.

Sucking in a deep breath, the raven knocked on the door until he heard a small voice granting him permission to enter. Inside the room resided a tired looking woman. Her once flawless dark complexion was now riddled with cuts and bruises but it did nothing to deter her beauty. Naomi's ebony curls sat stacked on top of her head and she offered a smile as Edd shuffled into the room with his little oxygen tank following close behind him. Like hell was he going to spend anymore of his time lying in a hospital bed, he had better things to do. Like talk to his fiance's Baby Mama.

"I was wondering when I'd get to see you again." she croaked when Edd finally took a seat next to her bedside. He adjusted the tubes absently just to have something to do besides actually look at her. "I wanted to thank you, for saving both mine and my baby's lives."

Edd fought the urge to scoff but settled on a little twisted smile instead. The guilt in his gut intensified as Naomi was slowly started to prove herself to be a genuinely pleasant person. "It's...It's quite alright. You don't need to thank me, it's my job."

"Oh, is that so?"

"Yes, I'm an EMT. I suppose you were very fortunate to hit someone like me last night." Edd mused, his mother's words were starting to come back to haunt him; 'everything happens for a reason' echoed throughout his head loudly.

"Wow, I didn't know that they would hire on so young. That's definitely an accomplishment."

Edd grimaced a little. "Fuck. Why the fuck is she being so nice to me?!" he thought angrily. Naomi must not have seen the troubled look on his face because she pressed on anyways.

"I'm...I'm so sorry for what happened last night. I-I was hysterical and I was going to tell the father because the guilt was eating me alive and-"

Edd silenced her with a hand. "It's alright, because now I actually get to place a face to the name."

Naomi's brows knotted in confusion at the raven's words and a hand scratched absently at her flat stomach. "What?" she asked and Edd merely stuck out a hand for her to shake with a small smile.

"I don't think we've been properly introduced yet. I'm Eddward Vincent."

Realization slowly dawned over the woman's features in such a way that Edd briefly wondered if he had told her that he once killed a puppy under his boot rather than his name. "W-Who?" she asked rather dumbly.