Like You Mean It

Night Shift

After my brush with Chris this morning I was able to go home to get a few hours of sleep before needing to head back to the hospital. I had a night shift to work, and they thankfully let me out at lunch time to get some rest.

Although I got some sleep, Chris' blue eyes graced my dreams. His eyes, his voice, his smirk, I couldn't shake him. I yawn as I walk into the lunchroom to drop my things off in my locker before clocking in. Ashley, Mel, and Mandy are in there getting their things to head home.

Mel smiles sympathetically at me. "Split shift?"

I nod my head sleepily as I let out another yawn. I open my locker and start setting my things in as I try to not fall asleep standing.

"That sucks, at least Riley will be with you too. She should be in soon." Mandy offers me a small smile.

"Yeah, I saw her parking when I was walking in, thanks." I sigh as I fix the badge on my blue scrubs.

Riley walks in yawning as well with two coffees in her hands. Passing one to me as she downs hers before putting her things up. "Hey ladies! Ugh, split shifts are the worst. Thankfully we don't do them often!"

"That's almost all I worked back home, it was terrible! Thanks for the coffee by the way Ri."

She waves me off as if saying it was nothing. We say our goodbyes to our other friends, before heading out to our station.

The afternoon starts up busy with late afternoon patients, and admitted patient check-ins. The afternoon doctors seem to be a lot nicer than the morning doctors. Most of them being younger, with a lot more energy to burn.

Later that afternoon I finally get the results of Rose's tests. I get up and head to her room, and gently knock on the door before coming in.

"Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, I got Rose's results back. It looks like she cleared from flu, RSV, strep, and a urinary infection. I'm going to go ahead and call Dr. Evans so that he can make a diagnosis from her labs, and then I'll let you know what he says. I just thought you might want an update before I did." They look at me a little relieved as they nod their heads.

"Thank you Charlie." Mrs. Thompson looks at me sincerely as she offers me a small smile.

I nod my head as I smile back before heading out back to the nurses station. Night has now fallen and the usual chaos of the hospital has slowed. Not many patients come in at night, unless it's an emergency, but the emergency room floor handles that unless they need extra hands. So I buckle down for a slow night of check-ins.

I reach the station and pull up the contact information for Chris. I dial his number on the hospital phone and wait for an answer hoping he hasn't gone to bed yet.

Hello, Dr. Evans.

My breath hitches at the sound of his voice, it's interesting how official he sounds when picking up the phone. "Hello Dr. Evans, this is Charlie from Boston Children's hospital."

Charlie, hey!

His voice goes down a bit, and feel myself rub my thighs together. "Hey, um, Rose's labs came in. It's not the flu, strep, RSV nor a urinary infection, her labs all look normal except for her white blood cell count, it's low."

I hear as he shuffles around on his end. Will you read me out her lab results?

It's amazing how quickly he can switch gears to being back in full work mode. I rattle off all the lab findings as he listens and repeats some back to me making sure he heard correctly.

I hear him sigh on his end. I'm almost certain that she's got roseola. I just don't know how she could've gotten it. It's been spreading through daycares, but she doesn't go to one yet.