Six of a Kind

삼십팔: Waiting

The hospital was incredibly busy.

Namjoon paced up and down the side of Hoseok's bed in the children's A&E. He had been here so many times before, with one of those times being after Hoseok got hit by a car. He hated it, and he hated every noise that every noise made. He wanted to be at home, playing with his babies, celebrating Hoseok's football match, thinking about plans for the summer. They didn't need a set back like this. Everything was supposed to be okay.

Hoseok had woken up in the ambulance, but he was confused and dazed. He cried a little, and tried to pick the cannula out of his hand, but he fell asleep again pretty quickly, and hadn't woken up since. A few hours had passed with just waiting. Namjoon had been told they would do a brain scan to see if he was bleeding, or had a tumour, but had heard nothing since.

There were kids crying in the background, and sometimes a parent would shout angrily at an older sibling or their spouse. It set Namjoon on edge, but Hoseok never woke. He hadn't reacted to his blood test being taken from his cannula, either, though the nurse had mentioned the cannula shouldn't hurt, so it wouldn't wake him.

Namjoon knew his son best. Hoseok was a light sleeper, since he was pretty nervous, and after seeing a small clip from a burglary on the news, every noise in the house makes him wake up. It wasn't like Hoseok at all to not wake up with all the noise and movement.

Finally, Namjoon sat in the chair next to Hoseok's bed, though his knee kept jogging. He stroked through his hair, watching his face closely. Hoseok's eyebrows furrowed a little, but he still didn't wake up. He would much prefer his son to cry, despite him telling himself that Hoseok sleeping is healing him.

A head popped around the curtain, making Namjoon jump. It was the nurse who had been in charge of Hoseok since they came in. "Shall we make our way round to radiology? They're ready for him now."

The nurse went to move the bed, but Namjoon scooped Hoseok up instead. He wanted to hold his baby, and feel a little control. Hoseok's head drooped on his shoulder, his arms dangling down his sides. Namjoon hated this so much.

They laced through corridor after corridor, but Namjoon was so worried he wasn't really paying attention to where they were going. He was glad the nurse was in front of him, since his mind was so cloudy he could have walked across the town before realising where he was.

There was only one other person in the CT waiting room. It was a middle aged man in a wheelchair, dried blood caking his face and clothes from a large gash on his forehead. His eyes followed Namjoon as the nurse led him into the scanning room.

It was cool, and quiet, the way it always was. Jimin had had numerous CT scans, and Hoseok had had one before. Yoongi had had one on his tummy when his ulcerative colitis had flared up. For Namjoon, the room should be no more fearful than the rest of the hospital, but he still shivered when he saw the machine.

The radiographer made Namjoon sign some forms about radiation safety and Hoseok's age. He was supposed to read them, but not a singular word processed in his brain. He went to lie Hoseok down on the table, when Hoseok chose that exact moment to wake up.

For a few seconds, Hoseok was quiet, clearly very confused of his surroundings and what was happening to him, but then the pain shot through his head, so burning hot it made him scream. He thrashed around, sobbing.

"Oh, honey," Namjoon soothed, picking him back up. Hoseok clung onto him, tugging his shirt, and sobbed hard. "Shh, sweetheart, daddy's here."

Hoseok could barely hear him. Everything hurt, and he felt sick and dizzy. He wanted to go home.

"We'll wait for him to calm down," the radiographer said as Namjoon sat on the CT table, bouncing Hoseok gently. "Looks like we just missed our window. We don't want to have to repeat the scan."