Chapter 22 - Fatigue.

Rei carefully opened the thick envelope and pulled out a small stack of fully written papers, after a short hesitation, Rei started reading the content of the spy report. As Rei was reading that whole stack of spy reports, subtle changes could be seen on her face. Started with nervous, then gradually switched to curious, concerned, worried, relieved and finally at ease.

"Well... At least he is living safe and sound," said Rei who suddenly sounded like an old parent who received the latest news from her child who worked far away from hometown.

"Done reading?" Ben asked.

"Mmm... How about that other envelope? It can't be another spy report, right?" Rei asked as she slid that stack of reports back into the envelope.

"Nope, this is a letter for you from Jade," said Ben who handed the other envelope to Rei.

"Letter from Jade?" said Rei in a curious tone as she immediately accepted the letter from Ben.

"Yes, Jade really missed you all these days," said Ben.

"Ah... I see... Mmm... I missed her as well..." said Rei as she stared at the envelope but had no courage to open it, after all, she was still unable to get over her own guilt on that incident a few weeks ago.

"You don't have to open it now, it's not that urgent, you can read it when you are ready to," said Ben, who easily saw through Rei's thought.

Hearing that, Rei sheepishly nodded and carefully kept the letter into her sleeve.

"Alright, let's proceed with your routine health check-up right now," said Ben after Rei kept away the letter...

***

Just as usual, the routine health check-up started with checking blood pressure, heartbeat and pulse. As Ben was quietly checking Rei's pulse, Rei observed Ben's facial features in silence.

Under the soft light that shone in through the window, his exhausted face looked even more obvious and heart-wrenching. The dark circles and eyebags under his eyes indicated that he hadn't been getting enough sleep these few days. However, all these imperfections due to extreme fatigue do not affect how good-looking he is, or rather, it adds a sense of fragility that will hook up some sort of 'motherly protectiveness' from other people.

"Is there anything wrong with my face?" Ben asked as he glanced at Rei for a bit while still continuing with the pulse checking.

Rei sheepishly nodded.

"Hmm? What is it?"

Getting that slightly unexpected response from Rei, Ben stopped his work and looked at Rei.

"You look really tired, didn't you get any good rest these few days?" Rei asked with concern.

"Good rest huh? Hah... No." said Ben as he sighed, he had no intention of hiding that.

"But... Ah... I know you would not even listen to me whenever I said this but... Please don't overwork yourself." said Rei, who switched her concerns to worries.

"Ah... Right. Chris said that all the time and I totally agree with it as well, but... Tsk... Nevermind. Don't worry, I will take a long break after all this mess." said Ben.

Rei nodded without saying anything, she knew it so well that it was most likely a white lie.

"So... Let's proceed," said Ben.

Once again, Rei nodded...

***

After Ben is done checking Rei's pulse, he proceeds to check on Rei's injured ankle as always.

"Chris told me that you were practising walking without your walking cane but almost fell, right?" Ben asked.

Rei nodded.

"Hah... No wonder..." Ben murmured.

"Uhm... Is there anything wrong?" Rei asked, a bit worried.

"Well, the ligament on this spot is slightly strained. But it's not a big deal. Let me get my specially formulated ointment..." said the doctor as he started searching for the said ointment from his work trunk.

As Ben is looking for the ointment from his work trunk, Rei somewhat feels that something is off with this man, but she can't tell what it is.

"Hmm?... Ah... I guess I left it in my room. Tsk... I will be back in a minute."

After Ben rummaged through his work trunk for nearly three minutes but failed to find the said ointment, he felt that he must have accidentally left it in his room, and thus he stopped the rummaging and stood up.

As Ben walked a few steps away from Rei, Rei saw a weird detail from Ben's wide-opened work trunk.

"Heh? Isn't that a bottle of ointment? Should I tell Dr Ben? But he would not possibly make such a lowly mistake... Or would he?" Rei thought as she saw a small bottle of brownish ointment that sat quietly in Ben's slightly messy work trunk.

"But... Is Dr Ben always this messy?... Ah... Hold on... Maybe I should tell him after all." Rei thought.

However, before Rei was able to say anything to Ben who was about to step out of the door, she heard a dull thump. Rei immediately turned her face around and to her shock, it was Ben, he collapsed at the door side.

"Dr Ben!"

Exclaimed in shock, Rei hastily rushed to Ben's side. Uncertain if it had anything to do with the shocking situation, Rei stood up and walked on both of her feet without the aid of her walking cane.

With tightly closed eyes, Ben lay unconsciously on his side on the floor. His face looks extremely pale while his lips look slightly blueish. Tiny droplets of sweat can be seen on his forehead and around the neck area, despite with cold weather, the upper part of his shirt was partially drenched in cold sweat.

Worried about Ben's condition, Rei quickly checked on his breath, and to Rei's relief, despite showing signs of shortness of breath, Ben was still breathing nevertheless. Then, to be more secure, Rei gripped Ben's wrist and kind of checked on his pulses despite only knowing some basics.

"Fast but weak pulses..." Rei murmured as she was trying her best to recall what's the meaning of this pulse pattern...

.

.

.

Just as Rei was in great distress, she heard a rush of footsteps, it's Holly.

"Ah! Dr Ben! Rei, what happened to Dr Ben?!"

"Holly! Please do something..."