Never Judge

"I think you should definitely reward them uncle, they risked their lives for Cedric." Miguel said as they walked to Ian's room.

"I'll let Cedric decide what is appropriate." Emilio Reyes said, considering his son's intentions.

​​

"Hey, Jo. So how do you know my brother?" Ayanna asked.

"Oh, I was classmates with him in high school." Jo said quite shyly. He had never met a woman as pretty or as impressive as Ayanna.

"Then you must be a good guy if you were friends with my brother." Ayanna said.

"Well we also had a friend that turned out quite mean. He just suddenly disappeared one night." Jo said, recalling Gabriel's sudden disappearance.

"My brother might be involved with that. I remember Alexi telling me Ced sent someone to jail." Ayanna said recalling a past conversation with Alexi.

"Ah, here we are, Ian's room." Jo said as they got to one of the private rooms.

As they entered they saw Nicole sitting next to the patient's bed looking quite smitten at a sleeping Ian.

When Nicole realized that there were other people in the room she suddenly stood up and cleared her throat.

"Brother, Uncle Emilio, Auntie Priscilla, Ayanna, I was just visiting Ian. He did after all save Cedric's life, and I consider Cedric to be like an older brother to me. So I only thought it would be appropriate for me to visit and thank him. Unfortunately he was sleeping when I arrived." Nicole spoke non-stop in an attempt to cover her embarrassment.

"What's that noise?" Ian, who was woken by Nicole's blabbering, groaned.

"Ian you're awake." Emilio Reyes said as he approached Ian's bedside.

"Mr. Reyes. I tried to save Cedric. Is he alright?" Ian asked.

"Ian don't be so formal. You can call me uncle!" Emilio scolded.

"I'm sorry uncle, I would rather not assume." Ian said apologetically.

"It seems Nicole has been watching over you." Ayanna teased Nicole who in turn blushed.

"Thank you for saving Cedric, Ian. We were told that If you hadn't made an attempt to pull him away Cedric might not have survived." Priscilla Reyes said.

"It was my job auntie." Ian said as he tried to sit up.

"Don't sit up, it might open your wounds. Plus I'm sure that hurts." Miguel said.

"We'll go ahead and check on Camilla and Cedric's driver." Ayanna said, pulling her parents, Miguel, and Jo out of the room.

Nicole attempted to follow but Ayanna pushed her back into Ian's room.

"How are you feeling?" Nicole shyly asked Ian.

"I feel like I was hit by a truck." Ian said with an awkward smile.

"Oh. Hahaha. Yeah." Nicole blushed.

"Thank you for saving Cedric. I got you some food. I wasn't sure what you wanted so I had the kitchens bring you up some soup." Nicole said, pulling the table closer to Ian.

"Thank you. I can't exactly feed myself right now." Ian said, referring to both his arms that were in casts.

"Oh let me help you." Nicole said as she got a spoon and sat next to Ian.

Nicole started to clumsily feed Ian.

An older couple suddenly walked in and Ian suddenly sat up causing Nicole to spill the soup. Nicole panicked and grabbed tissues to clean up.

"Mom, dad, how did you find out?" Ian asked them.

"Oh, we didn't know you were dating someone." Ian's mom said without answering her son's question.

"We aren't mom." Ian said.

"But she's taking care of you, what else could that mean?" Ian's mom said.

"Hi Mrs. Lim, Mr. Lim. I'm Nicole Chan. I work at the hospital. Ian's just a friend. I'll leave you alone now." Nicole said as she stood up to leave.

"Nicole stay." Ian said in a stern tone.

"Ian, your parents are here. I should really go." Nicole argued back.

"My parents have seen that I'm fine. They will leave now." Ian said.

"Ian, we were just worried about you." Ian's mom said.

"I can manage on my own mom. You and dad should just go home." Ian told his parents.

"Let's go hun." Ian's father said, pulling his wife out.

"Why are you sending your parents away?" Nicole asked Ian.

"They don't need to be worried about me. Aren't you gonna feed me some more?" Ian asked, opening his mouth.

Nicole was puzzled by Ian's request but sat back down and fed him.

"You should be nicer to your parents." Nicole scolded Ian.

"It's none of your business." Ian said coldly.

"Nicole, you don't really need to do this." Ian told her in a kinder tone.

"Ian, I want to do this for you. You saved Cedric, and I'm worried about you." Nicole confessed.

Suddenly a nurse entered the room.

"Miss Nicole! Your father is looking for you. I'll help out in feeding this patient." The nurse said.

"I'm full. Just clean this up." Ian told the nurse.

"I'll try to drop by again later tonight." Nicole said goodbye to Ian.

At the conference room Nicole was surprised to see her father and brother together with the Reyes family.

"What's going on?" Nicole asked.

"How's Ian?" Miguel asked with a wink.

"Shut up Miguel." Nicole said coldly.

"It's Cedric. It seems like we need to do an emergency operation on him." Raphael Chan told his daughter.

"What are the risks?" Emilio Reyes asked.

"Uncle, it's a very dangerous procedure. I'll need to operate near a main artery. But I know I can save Cedric's life." Miguel explained. Miguel had gotten his name as the miracle doctor for difficult surgeries such as this. Although he was a neurosurgeon he had operated in different illnesses in the past.

"Adrianna?" Emilio asked his daughter in law.

"Cedric would have trusted you, so I trust you too." Adrianna said, agreeing to the operation.

"I'll have my team prep. We will operate in an hour." Miguel told Adrianna and left.

"Don't worry Adri, Miguel seems young but he is the best. Leaders from all over the world have come to him and he has never failed. He won't fail." Nicole told Adrianna.

"Let's go get some food and tea. That should calm your nerves." Ayanna said as they walked out of the conference room.