Vingt Trois

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Halden walked down the hallway towards apartment 2F, only to find the door ajar. He pushed it open gently, hearing only a rustling coming from the kitchen.

"Kay?" He called out, deciding that he should just go for it. He was already in the apartment.

"He's not here," a man, taller than Kay, with a significantly darker skin tone appeared in the doorway to the living room, looking Halden up and down sceptically. "Did you need something? I can let him know you came by."

"Actually, I really need to talk to him, any idea where he is?"

"He's in the ER, I can text him and tell him that you were here, but my boyfriend said that he was pretty sick. What's your name?"

"It's Halden. He probably hasn't mentioned me."

"Halden? As in, his fiancé?" Ferris was granted a nod. "He's mentioned you, all good things."

"Yeah, I'm his fiancé. How can I get hold of him?"

"Like I said, he's in the hospital, probably overnight from what my boyfriend said, but I can give you his number and where he is. I'm sure that Kay will be thrilled to see you."

"Why are you in his apartment? Should I be worried?"

"I'm picking up dog food. The damn thing has apparently taken a huge liking to my couch and it looks like he'll be staying with me for a couple days at least. Give me a couple minutes and I'll get you Kay's number."

Barely fifteen minutes later, with the newly acquired information on his fiancé, Halden was heading to the hospital. He wasn't even questioned on arrival, simply asking to be told where his fiancé was. The information was handed over without a fuss.

Outside of the room, Halden brushed himself off and glanced through the window to take stock of who was inside. A nurse was there, but that was expected, and there was a second man sitting by the bed, flicking through pages of a book – Homer's Iliad – between concerned glances towards Kay.

He pushed the door open, without knocking, and the man sitting beside Kay sat up instantly.

"Hey – I think you've got the wrong room," he said quietly.

"No, I don't think I do," Halden shrugged, "I'm Kay's fiancé, he was really hard to track down."

"His fiancé?"

"Halden," he stated, offering a hand out to the man across from him.

"I'm London, I live in his building."

"What happened? I take it he's stable if he's allowed visitors?"

"Appendicitis apparently. And yeah, he's doing well now. He was really tired after the surgery but he's been asleep almost an hour. As much as I know he'll be glad to see you, you should probably let him sleep."

"Of course, I take it that your boyfriend is the guy I met at Kay's apartment?"

"Ferris? Yeah, probably." London agreed. "I hope that you don't mind me asking, but what happened? Kay's told me his side, but there are gaps. And it's taken you a while to turn up..." he trailed off.

"I got into some shit, that's what happened. Kay and I planned to move. Meet in Washington and take a road trip across the country. We decided on Salem together. He never showed up to meet me. Next thing I know, he was on the news as missing," Halden shrugged. "I only recently found out that he was actually alive and that's when I started trying to find him. Only I hit the minor snag that he didn't seem to want to be tracked down. I'm here now."

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