Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 107: Admitted

A/N: I'm well aware my descriptions of the American medical system are wildly inaccurate, but let's just pretend they sound kinda right for the sake of fic, hey?

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"Fuck," Shayne curses, loudly, as he flicks through emails on his phone on Friday evening, standing in their kitchen getting both of them drinks.

"What's up?" Courtney calls, concerned, eyes rapidly flicking over from where she'd been scrolling through TikTok on her phone, half-lying on their sofa.

"I'm on the damn Goldbergs call sheet for Monday. And it's an 8am to 4pm deal," he grumbles, roughly shoving his phone back in his pocket as he leans into the fridge to grab a kombucha for her and light beer for himself.

"Oh... You can't get out of that one, can you?" Courtney sighs, reaching out to take the kombucha from him when he returns and sits down just beside her.

"Not really. Dammit, I'm so sorry Courtney," he sighs, turning to face her, his expression a mix of disappointment and guilt.

"I don't blame you, love, I know you can't control the scheduling there at all. It... sucks, yeah, I really wanted you there when I gotta check into hospital, but Kari's already offered to come visit me and things so she might be able to instead, and... yeah. I'm not upset with you," she answers, setting her own drink on the side table beside her for a moment so she can turn to lean against him.

"At least it doesn't finish too late- I guess I can come visit you straight after work, or something?" Shayne sighs, letting his own head tilt to the side to press against hers for a moment, "I want to be there for you with all of this."

Smosh had been easy – they simply told Ian that Courtney was going into hospital for a couple of nights for a heap of testing around the migraines, and in response, Ian had told HR to authorise both of them taking the full week of leave, even though she would only be in from Monday afternoon through to Wednesday afternoon.

("Whenever Pam was in and out of hospital, the stays would always be planned for a certain time and then it'd change... take the extra time, just in case, and if it's a firm two nights you can have the other days to just recover a little," he told them, with a firm nod.)

They have a quiet weekend at home. Courtney texts Kari and asks her if she can drop her off at hospital on Monday, getting an immediate yes in response. She chooses to not think about it the rest of the weekend, instead going to the gym with Shayne two days in a row and messing around with some scripts for work.

"Hey, Ian, Shayne's been called for Goldbergs Monday and I kind of don't want to sit alone at home all morning... Can I just come in and work Monday morning even though I'm on leave?" she texts Ian on Sunday evening.

"No problem Courtbourt, do whatever you feel like tomorrow," he replies.

She wakes up stupidly early the next morning with a combination of anxiety and a stress headache. It's not a migraine, it's just a headache, and she lets Shayne massage some of the tension out of her shoulders before he has to rush off to Goldbergs.

"I'll be there as soon as I can tonight, Court, please text me the visiting times and everything as soon as you can?" he asks, pulling her into a tight hug before he has to leave.

"I will. Thanks for everything," she replies, letting her arms tighten around his waist.

"Love you," he murmurs, pulling back to kiss her softly before they reluctantly step apart so he can leave.

Courtney isn't surprised that her anxiety jumps as soon as he's gone. She packs a small duffle bag with clothes to take in – a lot of it ends up being Smosh merch, given they are her most comfortable relaxing, around-home sort of clothes –, her Switch, and a journal and some pens so she has something to do in any downtime.