Chapter 25

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"Could you not?"

    Ashton shrugged, continuing what he was doing. There was a paper towel on his computer, so he was ripping up little pieces and throwing them at Calum while he tried to finish up some charting.

    "Maybe, but this is more fun."

    Calum sighed, but secretly he was happy. He knew Ashton was only annoying him because he loved him. He liked this so much better than when the man ignored him and wanted nothing to do with him.

    Calum was accepted back to work with open arms. Some people had asked him where he'd been, but no one was judging him. They were just trying to catch up, see what he'd been doing during his absence. He told them he was very sick, but was feeling much better and decided he'd really liked working there.

    Some of their coworkers were confused why Ashton was being so friendly and happy, but once they realized he and Calum were a thing, they understood. It was obvious the happy, upbeat ex-travel nurse had rubbed off on the grouchy one. Everyone was okay with the improvements.

    "Calum, patients family in 46 door wants an update," one of the care managers told him as she walked past. Care Coordinators generally dealt with what happened at discharge. They set up home care, rehab placements, and insurance information.

    "Weren't you just in there, Maggie?"

    The older nurse nodded.

    "Yes, they want to talk to you now. Again."

    Calum rolled his eyes. This family was driving him crazy. They wouldn't stop calling for updates on their father, coming in and demanding to speak to the nurse, then the care manager, then the doctor. Every time they asked to speak to someone new, someone "higher up", they got the same answers and pretended like it was new information. It was frustrating.

    Calum brushed the pieces of napkin off his lap, glaring at Ashton's cheeky smile as he watched the confetti flutter to the floor.

"God I love visiting hours," he groaned as Ashton laughed and watched him make his way to the room.

    "Hello again," Calum greeted when he entered the room. The patient's two sons were at the bedside, watching the 70 year old man sleep. That's all he'd been doing lately, sleeping off all the alcohol. During his rare lucid moments, the man was an animal; yelling, screaming, trying to escape the bed. Except he'd been thrown from a car and broken a leg, fractured his face, and had trauma to his head. He wasn't steady on his feet, nor capable of leaving on his own. "What can I help you with?"

    "You said you could get in contact with the doctor. What doctors have seen him today?" the eldest son asked. These people were obsessed with what the doctors had to say. What did the doctor think, what doctor has been here, when was the doctor in?

    Truth was, the doctor had seen him for less than 2 minutes each morning, and got all of her information from the nurses chart. The family would only believe the information when it came from the doctor, even though they got the same exact, if not more detailed, info from the nurse, from Calum.

    "I called the doc to see if she's still here, she'll call you later today if she can't stop by."

    "I thought he had a male doctor?" The younger son frowned.

    Calum shrugged. "That doctor was unable to continue care with your father, so he handed care off to Dr Swiglly. Don't worry, she's amazing, and your dad is still getting the best care possible,"

    "Okay, so we need to talk to her then, as soon as possible,"

    "She was already by this morning, the doctors always do their rounds in the morning. But I can try calling her to see if she can talk to you. I'll reach out...again." Calum told them. He walked out of the room to text the doc and remind her to call them.

    Calum walked down the hall with a huff, plopping down in his chair, leaning back and looking upside down at his boyfriend.

    "How's the family?" Ashton asked with a smirk. Calum groaned.

    "They're obsessed with hearing from a doctor that has never even looked at the man. Care was just passed over this afternoon because Chang was too lazy to come down here, and now they need to hear my words from her mouth,"

    Ashton rolled his eyes.

    "People are the worst. I hate visiting hours,"

    "So, I wanted to talk to you," Calum sat up, wanting to change the subject.

    Ashton directed his attention to the younger boy, "About what, Cupcake?"

    Calum took a deep breath.

    "When am I going to get to Help someone?" he asked quietly. Ashton glanced around the hallway, glad that no one was around.

    "Cal, you've been back at work for 3 days, things like that take time to plan,"

    He whined. "But I want to do something; you said you trust me, why can't we get on with it?"

    Ashton chuckled at his enthusiasm, pinching Calum's cheek softly when he pouted.

    "Baby, of course we trust you. I know you're in this for the long haul, but there's a lot of things that come into play. We can't just start you off without training,"

    "Training?" Calum frowned. "What do you mean?"

    "After work tonight, we've got a surprise for you. Just to make sure that you're really ready for all of this. We want you to really be sure,"

    "Ashy, I am sure, I promise you, I want to do this. I want to be better, do better."

    "I know, love," he ruffled Calum's hair. "And we know just how to get you started. Trust me, tonight, you'll be on your way to being the best Helper on the planet."

***

Yay! Cally is finally moving along!!

I think I'm back, people ! I got some good stuff planned for the end of this book :)

~ashtonfortherwin

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