You meant to change it. You really did.

It had been years since you and Addison ended things, and there was no reason for her to still be listed as your emergency contact. You’d just… forgotten. Or maybe, deep down, you’d never really wanted to erase her from that space in your life.

Now, lying in a hospital bed with an IV in your arm, you regret that decision.

Because she’s here.

Storming into the room, red hair wild, still in her scrubs from whatever surgery she left to get here. Her eyes scan you quickly, assessing—checking for anything the nurses might’ve missed. And then, she’s furious.

“What the hell happened?” she demands.

You blink at her, still groggy from the pain meds. “Uh… hi?”

Her glare is withering. “No, don’t ‘hi’ me. I got a call saying you were in the ER, no explanation, no details—just your name and the fact that I’m still your emergency contact, which, by the way, we need to talk about.”

You groan, shifting in bed. “It’s not a big deal, Addison.”

She scoffs, hands on her hips. “Not a big—? You collapsed in the middle of your shift!”

“I was dehydrated.”

“You passed out.”

“Again, dehydrated.” You sigh, rubbing a hand over your face. “They gave me fluids, I’ll be fine. You didn’t have to come.”

Something flickers in her eyes. It’s quick, but you catch it before she schools her expression back into something clinical.

“You should’ve changed it,” she mutters.

It takes you a second to realize what she means. The emergency contact. The call she wasn’t expecting. The way she probably had to stop for a second when she heard your name over the phone.

You swallow. “I forgot.”

She shakes her head. “You don’t just forget something like that.”

Silence stretches between you. It’s different from the usual tension—the professional jabs, the careful avoidance. This is something heavier, something neither of you really know how to handle.