all we can do is keep breathing

two.

feel it beat.

|☤|

eight years later.

"Morning, Carrie!" Louis waves at the young college age kid behind the counter as he strolls into the hospital gift shop.

"Hey, Dr. T!" Carrie greets back warmly. "It's good to see you."

"It's good to see you too." Louis smiles, leaning up against the front desk. "How are you today?"

"I'm good. Same old, same old." Carrie shrugs a bit.

"I feel that." Louis nods, blowing out a stream of air. "And how's your mum doing?"

"She's really good, thanks." Carrie smiles. "She asks about you and she always says to tell you to stop working so much."

Louis laughs a little, shaking his head. Last spring, he met Carrie when he treated her mother for severe epileptic episodes with a temporal lobectomy. But with a condition so severe, her mum couldn't work as much anymore and Carrie didn't have a job. Louis really felt for them, so he pulled a few strings to get her a job in the gift shop. That way she can help her mum out while she finishes school.

"Slow day here too?" Louis looks about the small store briefly, only noticing a family picking out flowers and an older man filtering through assorted get well balloons.

Louis has been here since six this morning for a quick outpatient procedure, but once that he was over, Louis realized that he had a bit of time to kill. A lot of time in fact, because when he checked the O.R. board he was surprised to find that he has not one single surgery scheduled for today. Which is odd because he's usually overbooked or jumping from one O.R. to the next, but not today. It's a slow day and Louis hates slow days. Everyone knows that nothing good ever happens on a slow day. It's basically asking for trouble.

"Yeah it's been slow, but it'll probably pick up by lunchtime." Carrie guesses, shrugging.

Louis nods, still leaning over the counter, not in any sort of rush. "I see you've already started decorating for Christmas in here, even though it's barely November."

"It's a gift shop, we have to be festive, Dr. T. And it puts people in a better mood while they're here." Carrie explains with a smile. "So to what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you in here today?"

"I'm here to get my fix, you know that." Louis laughs a bit as though it's obvious. "The gift shop has the best candy in the hospital, it's just a fact."

"You say that every time, but I still don't understand how that can be true. What about the cafeteria?"

"It is true!" Louis defends, leaning in over the counter to whisper. "You didn't hear it from me, but the cafeteria is shit—just absolute shit. At least in the candy department."

The gift shop is the only place in the hospital where he can find not only the Original Skittles but the Tropical flavored ones and the Mixed Berry ones and the Sour ones and even the newer Brightside ones. And sometimes Louis just likes a little variety in his Skittles options, break the monotony and all that. Yes, they're a little overpriced, as is everything in the hospital, but he can pay for it with the quick scan of his I.D. badge so it's convenient and therefore worth it in Louis' book.

Carrie laughs at him, rolling her eyes.

"Honestly Carrie, I don't know why on earth I put up with it." Louis sighs dramatically. "I should quit and work at a hospital that knows what's really important."

"Candy?"

"Candy." Louis smiles, always loving to tease. He rounds the register towards the prized candy display on the side wall of the shop, singling out the Skittles. A few years ago he discovered the art that is mixing Skittles packets. One bag of Skittles is great and all, but two bags? Two different flavors? Mixed together? A gift from god.