divulgence // luke hemmings au

24

Eloise just finished blowing out her birthday candles when Luke's phone started ringing, he looked down at the caller ID. "I gotta take this" he said patting Sabrina on the shoulder as he stepped away from the party to go into a different room in the house.

The party raged on in the kitchen as Luke was having a serious conversation in another room with the door half closed, Sabrina trying to see what was happening from afar while trying to help her daughter serve slices of birthday cake.

Luke came back ten minutes later muttering to himself seeming very angry and confused. Sabrina stopped him in his tracks "what's wrong? What's going on?"

"Work, there's a lot going on." He tried to whisper but failed. "What? What do you mean?"

"It's a long story."

Sabrina had concern written all over her face. "By the look on your face I can tell that it's not a good thing."

Luke immediately changed the subject "Eloise are you ready for your present?"

"Yes!"

"Perfect." He replied leaving a minute to go get something out of another room.

Luke appeared five minutes later holding a leash with a dog attached to it, Eloise's face immediately lit up. "Happy birthday sweetie, the insurance finally approved a service dog for your POTS and we got you this little guy his name is Rocky." Luke explained walking the dog over to his daughter who was so excited taking the leash in her hand and she admired the Australian Shepard.

Rocky was sniffing his new owner and seemed very ready to work. Eloise looked up at her parents "thank you this is the best gift ever. Do you think Rocky will get a long with Poppy?"

"Poppy is a docile old dog, she won't mind Rocky at all, Rocky will be more concerned about servicing you so he may not notice Poppy at all."

"Oh that's good. So what is Rocky's job?"

"Rocky will be on alert, he'll be able to detect changes in your heart rate and blood pressure and can alert you to take meds, or to sit down so you don't faint."

"That's awesome! Being at school will finally be a bit better to deal with."

Luke's phone went off and noticed he had texts from Sierra. "What's wrong Luke?" Sabrina asked again, wanting to know what was up. "It's work related, I gotta call Sierra." Luke excused himself again and walked outside calling Sierra now, Sabrina suspicious of everything sneaking out the door two minutes later, Luke was startled when he turned out to see his wife standing there with her arms folded.

"I gotta go." Luke said hanging up the phone "I gotta go down to the station" he said heading toward the car. "Why? It's your daughter's birthday, whatever this is it can wait till the party's over."

"It can't." Luke grunted and walked around his wife to get to the car. "What do you mean it can't?"
Sabrina raised her voice turning around placing one hand on her hip.

"I got suspended Sabrina, I'll be out of work for a few days."

"Suspended?"

Luke was now opening up the car door to get in. "Yeah, it's so stupid. I literally didn't do anything wrong, none of this ever happened before maybe it's a sign for me to go per sue nursing now." Luke stated getting into the car, where she watched him take off, Elliot came dashing out of the house and Sabrina nearly walked into him "where's dad going? Eloise didn't finish opening up her presents."

"He got suspended from work Elliot, what happened?"

"I literally don't know, he said it wasn't a big deal so I stopped asking questions."

"Why would they do this to him?"

"I'm not sure. I'm sure it's not a big deal though."

Luke got down to the station and went to his bosses office, he was already pissed slamming the door, "I saved a baby's life and this is how I get replayed? How can a station suspended their captain for saving a baby?"

"You being Captain doesn't give you a pass, I know you saved a baby and I'm proud of you for that but you're not supposed to be up in the NICU doing something a doctor should be doing."

"What was I supposed to do stand there with the nurse and watch a baby suffocate because the hospital was short staffed? Time was running out.. I didn't have a choice but to tube that baby. That baby was my patient, it's not like I touched someone else's patient."

"How is it far that I'm in trouble yet the hospital isn't? Why is there only one nurse in the NICU? Why can't you get someone to bring a crash cart when asked? How can one person be taking care of six critical babies?"

The boss raised his brow, "they must've left that part out, hmm, a short staffed NICU is a huge problem, babies will die because of that.. do you remember the charge nurses name?"

"I do." He smirked, writing the information on a piece of paper, his boss made a phone call and Luke stood around waiting for answers.

There was a lot of back and fourth between his boss and the nurse's boss, until the phone call ended. "It looks like your story checks out. It looks like disciplinary action will be taken against the nurse and the department. It looks like the hospital was unaware of this incident and will be taking action."

Luke raised his brow, "and what about me?"

"Well you still have to serve your four day suspension and you are still banned from the pediatric floor of that particular hospital. They emphasized that if you drop patients off at that hospital that you need explicit permission to go beyond the ER."

"Oh." Luke rolled his eyes thinking this entire thing is ridiculous.

"You are dismissed Captain."

Luke didn't budge from those words.

"Is there anything else Captain?"

"Yes, I want to let you know that I appreciate working here and for the community but I think I overstayed my welcome and I will be starting nursing school classes in the coming weeks, I'm ready to take the next step and per-sue my other dreams."

"Oh" the boss reacted in a shocked manner.

"Are you sure you're ready for that?"

"Yes, sir, it's time for a change and I'm ready."