The Night Shift

Chapter Five: Kinsley

A/N: My family and I are going to see my grandmother, since they are moving this next month. I will be updating from my phone, so I apologize for any errors. Thank you for being so patient with me. 💕

Luckily, the walk to the locker room wasn't that long. I don't think I could have handled that long of a walk in silence. I led Josh into the now abandon locker room, and gestured to the bench that was positioned in the middle of the two stretches of lockers. He sat with one leg on both sides of the bench, watching me as I unlocked my locker.

I cleared my throat, "So earlier you mentioned something about doing shows? Is that what you and Tyler do?" I started to dig through the bag of toiletries that I kept in my locker for when I needed to shower while I was at work.

When he spoke, I stopped digging through my bag and turned to face him. "You really don't know who we are, do you?" I shook my head no. He seemed a little shocked at this, but the grin on his face made him seem overjoyed to hear about this. "Wow. Sorry, it just seems like everywhere Tyler and I go, people know us."

I turned my attention back to the inside of my locker, going back to fishing out the conditioner, shampoo, and body wash out of the large bag. "It's alright. I kind of get what you mean." The bottles of product were still wet from the shower I had taken a little bit ago.

"Anyway," he continued, "Tyler and I are in a band called Twenty One Pilots. I play the drums, and Tyler pretty much does everything else. Except I play the trumpet every now and again. We're actually in the middle of our tour now. Today's show was going to be the last on for the Texas leg." He let out a frustrated sigh. "But turns out it's the last one for a while."

"You guys weren't in the middle of a show when he fell, were you?" I couldn't imagine being at a concert and watching someone fall. Chris had mentioned that the patient that was being rushed in had suffered a mighty fall.

Josh shook his head, "No, but if we were, this probably wouldn't have happened. Normally during the song we were playing when he fell, we're in the crowd with them holding us up. Last night we played almost the whole concert to an empty arena. It was actually kind of cool. My nerves weren't acting up, until I started hearing Tyler scream." I turned to look at him when his voice tapered off. His eyes were set on the bench in front of him, and he looked like he was in a faraway place.

I placed the bottles on the bench, and sat in front of them, my body mirroring Josh's with quite a bit of space separating us. "Are you okay, Josh? If you need to talk about it, I'm here to listen. I won't leave you until you feel like you can be alone by yourself."

He turned his gaze from the bench to my face, and he stared directly at me. It was like he was studying my features. I felt a little uncomfortable under his stare. He closed his eyes and tears started to run down his cheeks and his chin, some dripping onto his black shirt, and some others running down his neck. I froze for a minute. The mom in me wanted to hug him and make him feel safe, but the professional in me wanted to just talk to him. I ended up siding with the motherly instinct. I swung my right leg over the bench and scooted my body closer to Josh's. Before I could try to give him a hug, he was wrapping his arms around my shoulders, and sobbing uncontrollably into my shoulder. I took a few seconds to assess the situation, before wrapping my arms around him, engulfing him in a gentle hug.

"I-I'm s-so-sorry." I began to rub his back with my right hand gently, up and down trying to calm him down. "I just c-can't get the i-im-image out of my h-head of Ty-Ty-Tyler."

I moved my right hand to his head and gently ran my fingers through his messy hair a few times. "Sh, sh, sh," I started to rock us back and forth slightly the motion seeming to calm him down a bit, but he kept sobbing and choking. "You're starting to hyperventilate. You need to take a deep breath for me, like earlier in the waiting room. You can do it. Just try to calm down. I'm right here." His grip on me tightened. "Tyler's just down the hall. He's okay. He's stable." I didn't know what else to tell him. This was extremely awkward for me, which surprised me a little bit. I was used to strangers crying and hugging me, but it was different with Josh. We weren't in a normal place that I would comfort family and friends, maybe that's the reason.