Do More Good (5sos ot4)

Chapter 9

It had been two days since Ashton's boyfriends had made him promise to be nicer to Calum. Ashton had thankfully been off those 2 days and today was his next day back. Unfortunately, Calum was there as well.

    Ashton had wanted to groan and walk out the second he saw the man with the dark curls walk into the locker room earlier in the day, but he knew it wasn't possible. He'd just have to suffer.

    The day had been much better than Ashton's last shift. Most of the patients they'd taken care of a few days ago  had been discharged, and this new batch were much less needy. They were able to do some things for themselves, at least, so he didn't have to help the aides all the time. It was pretty nice.

    Ashton was sitting down to chart outside one of the patients rooms. This girl was pretty young, only 19, and she was a bit nervous to be alone, so Ashton said when he had the chance he'd be outside her room where she could see him. It made her feel better, and since he had to sit somewhere anyway, he didn't mind.

    "You all right, Rebecca?" he called, leaning over to catch her eye. She'd made him leave the curtains all the way open so she could see everything happening outside.

    "Yep, thanks." She smiled before going back to whatever she'd been doing on her phone.

    Ashton nodded, continuing to look through what he still needed to do. He still had 3 charts left to fill out, but that wasn't too bad. He could do that in no time.

    The sound of footsteps filled the quiet hallway, causing Ashton to look up. Calum was walking past, heading down to the corner of the unit and sitting behind a computer. Ashton nodded, satisfied. He and Calum were buddies, once again, and they each had one half of this side of the small hallway.

    Ashton knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to say screw what Luke and Michael wanted, and do what was easier for him. He wanted to pretend like he didn't see a frowning Calum who he'd been ignoring all day sat in the corner alone. It would be much nicer for him if he just pretended like he didn't care and didn't say anything.

The things he did for his boyfriends, he thought with an eye roll.

With a heavy sigh he picked up his phone and dialled Calum's extension.

He heard the phone go off and watched the boy's delicate features turn into confusion,  his eyebrows raising and a small frown on his lips. He picked up the phone, pressing it to his ear, and answering with his usual, "4 West, this is Calum, how may I help you?" which just made Ashton close his eyes and try not to be annoyed.

    "Hey Calum, uhm, it's Ashton. I saw you sitting over in the corner. I thought maybe you'd wanna come sit by me and we could chart together?"

    He sounded stupid, and by the silence he was met with on the other end, he knew Calum thought he was dumb too. He should have just left it alone, but—

    "You mean it?" Came the ecstatic voice on the other end. It sounded like he was trying to hold back his excitement...and failing.

    "I wouldn't have asked you if I...I mean, yeah. Come join me. I want to run a treatment plan by you, see what you think."

    Ashton didn't look over at the other boy, but he could feel the smile on his face all the way down the hall.

    "Yeah, okay! I'll be right there." The call disconnected, and he heard the sound of Calum's computer rolling down the hall before there was a presence on his left side.

    "Hi, Ash."

    "Hey, Cal. How's it going?" he sighed inwardly. Now he had to deal with small talk and stupid shit. Did anyone know what lengths he went through for Luke and Michael?   

    "Much better now. So," the dark haired boy sat down in the chair and scooted himself towards Ashton's screen. "What are we looking at?"

    Ashton pulled up the files, and the two spent a couple minutes discussing possible options for the patient. Ashton was surprised how many good ideas Calum had, and how much of a help having someone to bounce ideas off of was. It's almost like his nurse manager knew what she was talking about when she assigned them buddies.

    "Thanks for your help, Calum. It...I mean, this was nice."

    Calum beamed, a light blush coating his tanned cheeks.

    "Y-you're welcome, Ashton. It was nice, wasn't it?"

    "I guess we should do this more often," Ashton chuckled, rolling his eyes fondly.

    "Really? Y-you think we can do this again?" Calum almost feinted when Ashton smiled at him. He'd never seen the brunette smile before, and the dimples left him speechless.

    "It worked, didn't it?" he shrugged. "I don't see why not!"

    "Y-yeah, great! I would l-like that."

    "Good. Me too."

    "Nurse, can I get some help?" Rebecca's shy voice called.

    "I'll be right there, hon." Ashton looked over his shoulder. "Hey, think you can help me with her? She's a 2 assist, and I don't see any of the aides."

    Calum's jaw dropped. He never would have dreamed something like this could happen, that he and Ashton would get on so well.

    "If you're busy, that's fine," Ashton shook his head. "I can get someone, it—"

    "No, no, I mean, I can do it. I don't mind." Calum stood up. "What are we doing?"

    So the two went from room to room together, checking on patients and doing what they could to help. And they had a good time doing it, even if Ashton wouldn't admit it out loud.

***

Aww, Calum is so cutie!!!!

A short chapter, but we've got character development herreeee people !!!! Hooray for ashy.

Also, I just want to point out, the amount of times I whispered to patients and coworkers today to eat my dick is incredible. Especially considering I'm female. People suck so fucking bad yo. I'm really not having a good time at work.

~ashtonfortherwin