divulgence // luke hemmings au

2

It was 7:45 in the morning when Elsie was rushing through the house hoping she didn't miss her ride to work.

She stopped in her tracts seeing her dad on the sofa who was laying down, laptop on his stomach and he was typing away.

"Uh Dad what are you doing?" She questioned thinking that he would be getting ready for work considering that Elliot was in the shower.

"Elsie, I'm applying to nursing school."

"Nursing school?" She raised one of her brows thinking he was joking around.

"Yes."

"And you're doing that because..? You literally just became captain a few weeks ago"

"This is not an over night decision I have actually been thinking about this for a very long time. Honestly Sierra had inspired me and after the baby Maisie save I think I'm ready to make a move."

"Oh.. but if you get accepted into nursing school, that means you leave EMS. I thought EMS was your life? I thought you wanted to retire as a medic?"

Elsie seemed a bit sad and disappointed.

"I mean you're right but, listen, I'm about to be fifty years old at the end of this week, it's never too late to make a career change and to persue your other dreams."

"Elliot's been so excited to work with you, why would you want to do this now? You leaving is going to hurt him. How can you do that to him?"

Luke sighed slightly, "it's not like I'm going to leave at this very moment, Elsie. I'm not even sure if I'm qualified to get into these schools. And even if I do get it, I don't plan on leaving right away, this won't happen for another year or two. I'll be with Elliot for awhile. He's a great medic already, I enjoy working with him."

"Oh, and what do you mean by 'it's never too late to pursue your other dreams'? What other dreams are you referring to?"

"First I want to make it clear that achieving my goals of becoming a medic and being in critical care has been very fulfilling and has come with a lot of benefits and opportunities. But another part of me has always felt attracted to cardiac care, learning cardiology and reading up on diseases and studies have always interested me to the fullest extent. I would like to get into cardiac nursing and work on a cardiac care unit in the hospital." His daughter was actually surprised by her father's answer.

"I swear every day I learn something new about you that I didn't know before hand, yet I have known you for almost sixteen years." She laughed trying to make light of the situation.

"What would be different about doing that compared to what you do now?"

"There's some obvious differences, like I will no longer be in emergency care and I will no longer be on the rig for starters. I'd also be focused on cardiovascular stuff with regular stuff sprinkled in. The downgrade would be that I would be not in charge I'd be taking orders from doctors and there would be skills that I do now that would be out of my scope of practice as a nurse".

"And you're okay with that big change?"

"Yeah and No, it'll take some time getting used to it. I can do IVs and meds, blood draws.. that kinda thing, a downside would be catheterizing people which would be something I'd have to learn in school."

"Ew." Elsie looked visibly disgusted wanting her dad to change the subject. "I never said that every aspect of the medical field was pretty. The amount of gore, vomit and whatever body fluids I've seen in my career would make some people nauseous for a lifetime."

"Okay dad, enough."

A car horn interrupted them both, "that's my ride. I gotta go. See you later."

Elsie left, Luke typed in a final answer clicking submit at the bottom of the page, now it was a waiting game.