Night shift - Completed

Chapter 11

Poppy's PoV

Despite the hesitation, I didn't ask any more. I followed through with checking his obs and was glad to see they were starting to normalise. The medication we'd been giving him was some strong stuff but luckily he'd had no side effects and handled it pretty well.

"You guys have to work long days, huh?" Ashton asked, trying to bring some conversation into the otherwise silent room. I nodded in response.

"Yes but I like it. Then I only work three or four days a week." I smiled as I checked Calum's pulse.

"Don't you ever just wish you could do this job but on a normal work hour basis?" Michael added in. My stomach grumbled and I clutched at it in the hope no one heard it.

"In ways yes, but one thing I love is having that amount of time with your patient to bond with them and see the progress they make over those hours." I was still smiling. I always enjoyed talking about my job, it was my life and I'd trained so so hard to make it here - so what's not to be proud of?

"Have you eaten anything yet?" Calum asked, his gaze aimed right at me like a parent scolding a child. I gulped down a little nervousness before answering.

"I had a breakfast bar." Once again, I was brutally honest with him. There was something about him, when he looked at me, that told me he was genuine and that we were friends. I couldn't lie.

"Since this morning?!" Luke piped up, straightening in his chair. I nodded.

"It's fine, I'm going to have my lunch in a minute. It all went up in the air when Derek..." I faded out the sentence so I didn't have to say anymore. "But thank you for caring."

"Why don't you have some of ours and sit with us?" Ashton asked me, quickly covering himself with "Well only if you want to..." I could see the other men exchange glances but I couldn't tell quite what they were trying to imply. None seemed angry, or upset with his suggestion, it seemed more that they were just confused about him asking it.

"Honestly, I've taken up enough of your time being here. You guys are such great friends I don't want to put a dampener on your time." I smiled politely. "We have an office that I can-"

Michael stood up quickly and walked over to me, guiding me to the chair and sitting me in it.

"Sorry but I think you deserve it." Michael said, now perching on Calum's bed, being careful not to hurt his ankle any more. Luke pushed a few boxes towards me and opened each to show they were all different; curry and rice, noodles, stir fry, fish and chips, burgers... they'd literally ordered one of everything. I smiled as I took the stir fry and some chopsticks where I sat and began tucking in, gracefully now because I had people to impress.

"I can't thank you guys enough." I said as the first bit of food hit my starving stomach. "I owe you one!" Calum scoffed and shook his head at me.

"You don't owe us a thing. You helped me. Look at the difference between when you came in this morning and now. I'm a completely different person." He offered me a smile while his friends nodded in agreement.

"Honestly, I didn't think we were going to get past the morning with how he was acting. We nearly left him here." Luke said, shaking his head with a smile on his face.

"Please tell me she's not coming back tonight?" Calum whined childishly, folding his arms across his chest.

"I'm sorry Cal, I won't know until they turn up tonight just like you." I shrugged, finishing the box of food unbelievably quickly. "Wow, I didn't even realise I was that hungry..." I laughed to myself.

"You look after us, we look after you." Michael said wisely. I stood up and tidied up after myself, throwing the box in the bin and washing my hands afterwards.

"Thanks again. It sure beats the cheese sandwich I was going to have." I went back to my chair and sat down. "So, how long have you all been friends?" They all looked at each other with smirks on their faces, clearly remembering things from the past that cheered them up.

"Since school." Michael said vaguely. "We met Ashton slightly later."

"Wow that's great! You guys must know everything about each other being friends that long. You've practically grown up together like-" I began, a proud smile letting me speak to them in awe.

"Like brothers." Calum said alongside me. "I couldn't do anything without these guys. We do everything together." It was amazing to hear yet it did bring back the memories of my very own failings in friendship, how the one friend I had ended up moving away because of Mr Shine. Asshole. I hadn't managed to keep in touch with Leanne either, it all happened so fast and affected us so much that we couldn't ever find the right time to bring it up and talk about it, so we just drifted apart. It was such a shame. Other than her, I didn't really speak to anyone else because of my work hours so most people I liked were here working the same long hours as me - and even then there were some people on these shifts that I hated.

"That's great! How do you manage to do that with work?" I asked but I noted the boys look at each other again. Had I overstepped the mark? I panicked slightly that I might have upset them, so followed quickly with "Sorry, you don't have to answer that it's very personal. It's just I don't do very well at all. If I'm not working, I'm sleeping." I nervously played with my hands, waiting for someone to answer with something. Everyone seemed so hesitant.

"No, it wasn't rude, it's just that... well..." Calum began but no sooner than he'd started, a loud knock echoed the room. "Come in!" Calum interrupted himself to speak to the person at the door. "Sorry Poppy." He said quietly as the door swung open and Mr Shine walked back in, his chest puffed out and his Cheshire Cat grin on.

"Mr Hood, I have some great news for you!" He started, walking past me and standing directly in front of me like I wasn't there. Here we go again!