[ Eddie doesn't answer for what seems like an eternity, and that entire time Richie feels like he's drowning. He can feel his heart pounding in his chest, and panic rises -- he's dead, it was worse than he thought, he was okay and then he wasn't and now he's DEAD and the nurse is just trying to figure out how to tell me -- and then Eddie answers and a rush of air escapes him as he gets verbally berated, and he's never been so stupidly glad for something in his life. ]

Fuck. Okay. I can...yeah I know how to get there from here. Okay. Jesus, Eddie. You could have said you weren't in the hospital! Lead with that! "Hello, Richard, love of my life, star of my heart, I crashed my car but I'm at that baller deli you love and I hate and I absolutely promise I'm not dead." Fucking gave me a heart attack and you know my arteries are already half clogged with grease.

[ Overstatement, sure, but holy fuck he doesn't know what to do with all the nervous energy he's got vibrating through him right now. ]

Yeah, I'm driving, but we're in the 21st fucking century so I'm hands free. Fucking relax, you're the one who almost died.

Breathe. I'm almost there. I bombed the show and they're probably gonna fire me tomorrow anyway, so I've got all day. All week, really.