I'm With You

Chapter 13

"I'm not sitting on the floor, though, I've had enough of sitting on the floor." Eira walked past him and to her bare camp bed, sitting on it and Miguel scrambled up to his feet so he could join her on the bed, placing the McDonalds bag between them and he pulled out a wrapped burger, handing it over to her and he kept one for himself, handing out the two cartons of large fries and he handed her a bottle of water.

"I want all of that gone," Miguel said, eating one of his fries and Eira took a bite of one of the fries. It felt strange for her to be eating before Mackenzie, without her, but at least from where she was sat she could watch over her sister.

"You're young to be a doctor," Eira said and Miguel chuckled.

"You don't know how old I am." Miguel nudged her and Eira cracked a small smile. "I'm twenty-four... how old are you?"

"Twenty-two... I think." Eira admitted.

"It's September, if that helps."

"Then I am twenty-two," Eira said and Miguel smiled, eating another fry as Eira dunked hers in the sauce before eating it. The food was cold, but neither of them cared. Eira and Mackenzie would eat anything, they were desperate for food - they couldn't afford to be fussy when it came to what they ate.

"I graduated this year, became fully qualified," Miguel said. "But I've been working in hospitals since I started my degree, doing a placement there for longer and longer periods of time... one day, my boss's wife came into the ER and because we're not allowed to work on our family or friends because it's a conflict of interests, it was my job to deal with her and to help her because I was the only one available and she was in my section of the ER cubicles... I did all I could for her, but she had a bad heart attack, out of the blue, at the age of forty-three, and she passed away. I thought my boss was gonna fire me... he gave me a permanent job." Miguel said and Eira's eyes widened slightly in shock. He was even slightly surprised himself that he'd told her that story, but he knew he could trust her. It wasn't a secret, but he still found it easy to talk to her.

"Is it hard?" Eira asked. "Not being able to help?"

"Of course it is, but you have to kinda teach yourself to keep a distance from patients... otherwise you'd have a breakdown every single day of your life. Sometimes you can't help it, but I try." Miguel said, unwrapping his burger and taking a big bite out of it and Eira followed his lead, only her bite was a lot smaller. He knew that she'd feel full a lot sooner and easier than he would, she was so used to barely eating that it would take time for her to build up an appetite again. He just knew her iron levels had to come up, otherwise, she would be in danger of being just as sick as Mackenzie.

"What was your best shift?" Eira asked and Miguel smiled.

"That one is easy." He admitted, eating another fry. "I just started a shift and a woman came in, she was in labor and her husband was away on business. Her pregnancy was high risk, so she needed someone to stay with her at all times and that was me... I delivered her son and she named him Miguel, after me." Miguel said with a smile and Eira smiled back.

"So, you have a little Miguel running around out there somewhere?"

"Yeah, I guess I do." He chuckled. "What's your favorite memory?" He asked. He was desperate to know how she and Mackenzie ended up homeless, but he didn't want to push her to talk about it right away.

"Mac coming home from the hospital," Eira said simply and Miguel smiled.

"You can remember that?"

"Yeah, I was five... the neighbor came to watch me overnight whilst Mom and Dad went to the hospital, and I remember them coming home with this... ugly little red thing..." Eira laughed breathlessly as Miguel burst out laughing too. "Dad couldn't afford to take much time off from work, so he had to go back to work that afternoon and I remember just sitting with my Mom on the living room floor, she was cradling Mackenzie... I don't know, it sounds dumb but I just remember being really happy at that moment." Eira said and Miguel shook his head.

"It doesn't sound dumb at all." He assured her and she cracked a smile, but Miguel laid his hand over hers as she went to put the food away. "No, no. I know you're trying to save it for Mackenzie, but I got a snack for her in the bag. I want you to eat this." Miguel said and Eira hesitated, nodding her head and she got up, grabbing something from the nightstand beside Mackenzie's bed before walking back and Miguel smiled when he realized she was giving his phone back.

"You have a son?" Eira asked, referring to the picture on his lock screen and Miguel gave her a sad smile.

"I did... he passed away two years ago." Miguel admitted, Eira's jaw dropping with shock.