Hold Me

Chapter 20

I woke up early the next morning. Ash was still passed out next to me, snoring. I wanted to sleep more, but my mind was too awake to.

After stretching, I got out of bed carefully, not wanting to wake up Ash. Luckily, he didn't wake up.

I walked down the stairs and into the kitchen to get some water. To my surprise, Mike was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee. He was scrolling through his phone before he looked up.

"You're up early." He said.

I nodded, going to sit down across from him.

He had messy hair and dark under eye circles.

"Did you sleep at all?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Had a difficult case last night. Sort of kept me up."

I nodded.

"You want some coffee?" He asked.

I nodded again.

Mike stood up to pour the rest of the coffee from the pot into a mug. He added a bit of milk and sugar before setting the cup in front of me. I thanked him, taking a sip.

"How'd you sleep?" He asked.

I shrugged. "Okay."

He nodded and rubbed his eyes.

Both of us were pretty quiet until the rest of the guys woke up. First it was Luke, then Cal and finally Ash. He rolled out of bed around 10.

All of them greeted us with a good morning before going to chill in the living room. I picked up my coffee, deciding I wanted to join the rest of them. Mike ended up joining as well. He looked like he could fall asleep any minute.

"Mike man, you should go take a nap." Luke said, looking over at Mike with a concerned look.

Mike shrugged. "I'll try in a bit. I just had two cups of coffee."

Luke nodded before turning his attention back to what was playing on the tv which happened to be ridiculousness. I grew up watching this show with my dad. My dad and I used to wake up early on the weekend to watch the show together. It's weird, but I sort of miss him now. Even if he didn't treat me the way a father should treat his daughter.

I couldn't gain enough courage to tell Mike the truth about last night. I knew he had a lot on his plate at the moment and this would just add more stress. I decided that I would wait a few days before telling him.

"Hey, I'm going to go nap for a bit." Mike said, getting up from the couch.

We all nodded, saying goodnight to him before he headed upstairs to his room.

"What's going on with him?" Ash asked Luke and Cal.

Cal shrugged and Luke gave him a look that told him that he would tell him later.

I sighed, wanting to know as well, but I knew that they probably wouldn't tell me. They know that I get stressed out easily. And I definitely don't need any more stress in my life right now.

______

Michael's pov

I woke up a couple hours later to my pager going off. I rubbed my eyes before looking at my pager. After seeing what the page was, I sighed but got up.

After changing into scrubs and brushing my teeth, I grabbed my keys and headed out to my car to drive to work. I turned on Green Day, trying to relax my mind a bit before getting to work. Thankfully there wasn't a ton of traffic and I made it to work in about 30 minutes.

I clocked in and headed up to the ward to see my patient. I put on hand sanitizer before knocking on the door, there was no answer, but I didn't expect to hear one. I decided that I had to pick my battles, so I opened the door.

The room was dark with only a little bit of light coming from the ceiling. 

"How are you feeling Mr. Johnson?" I asked.

He grumbled at me. The man was yellow due to jaundice and was in desperate need of a new liver.

"You damn doctors find me a liver yet?" Mr. Johnson said in an annoyed tone.

I sighed quietly. He already knew the answer.

"I went over this with you yesterday Mr. Johnson. You are not a candidate for a liver transplant. You have to be sober for at least 6 months and you've only been sobered for 4 weeks."

"You told me that I could get a transplant if a family member donated."

I knew where he was going with this. And there was no way in hell I was going to let Sam donate. This was the same man who hurt her.

"No way is that happening. She doesn't want anything to do with you." I told him bluntly.

I promised Sam I would keep her safe from this man. And now, here he was. Dying slowly before my eyes.

"I want to see my daughter." He said.

I shook my head. "She isn't ready to see you. And I won't let her."

"You're not her father."

His words hurt a bit, but I stayed grounded.

"I may not be her biological father, but I am her guardian. I'm adopting her as soon as I can. My number one job is to protect her and that's what I'm doing. I'm protecting her from you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have other patients to tend to."

I turned my back to him, walking out of the room.

"You'll regret your decision when I'm dead." Mr. Johnson screamed, before his door closed.