Knockout

Chapter One

"Alright Jayden, so good news is it's not broken, just sprained, but come back and see me if it still hurts in one week," you said, handing him a bright blue lollipop. Once you escorted the boy and his undoubtedly exhausted mother to the check out desk, you finally glanced at your watch. 3:18 AM. You groaned internally.

Three more hours , you thought. What's three more hours? After all, you'd already finished the other 21. Had someone warned you how arduous 24-hour shifts were, you may have reconsidered the medical profession.

Adjusting your woefully wrinkly scrubs, you made your way over to the nurses station, ready to pick up your next patient. In the ER, it was always one patient out the door, two more in. Especially on overnight weekend shifts. You received a plethora of falls, cases of alcohol poisoning, or battle wounds from bar fights. Upon picking up the next patient log and seeing the name, you turned to the nurse on staff, Simon, and began to fuss at him.

"Siiimoooonnn," you whined, glaring at his smirking face, highlighted by the glint of mischief in his obsidian eyes, "Why did you give me Ren? He's so annoying. Can't I just have one of the drunk kids outside?" You gesture wildly at the door leading to the waiting room. Simon let out a high-pitched laugh, loud enough that you were sure some of the coma patients were awake.

"Y/N. Girl. No, fair is fair. Margot dealt with the foot fungus earlier so you get Ren." The ER had regulars of course, hypochondriacs, klutzes, and the like, but no one was in as much as Kylo Ren.

"But... Ugh!" You stamped your foot, begrudgingly grabbed the clipboard and went to your assigned room, AD-069. Although, you hated to admit it, you had to stop yourself from giggling like a teenage boy, because of-fucking-course Simon would put you in room 69. With Kylo Ren of all patients.

Kylo was a regular at the Amylin Holdo Teaching Hospital and Emergency Room, coming in almost every other day with a new bruise, broken bone, or cut that needed mending. You vaguely remember at some point he mentioned that he was a boxer but even that didn't explain away the degree to which he was always injured. However, it wasn't his frequent appearances or types of injuries that made you dread whenever his name came across your clipboard. It was his incessant flirting and cocky attitude. This man acted like his dick was made of gold, and he was a gift from the gods to grace the world with his presence.

To make matters worse, when Simon wasn't flirting with him, which always caused a slight blush to creep up on Kylo's pale cheeks, Simon was trying to create amorous situations for whenever you treated him. Simon had some deluded idea that you had a crush on Mr. "Hey- Dollface-you-da-doc?"

As if .

It wasn't as if Ren was ugly , in fact, you thought he was really attractive the first time you saw him. Long black hair pulled up partially in a bun, no shirt, slouchy black basketball shorts that rode dangerously low on his hips, a splash of freckles, a cut in his plushy lips.... But no. It wasn't as if you liked Ren. Not in any meaningful way at least.

In spite of the fact that he was surely the most infuriating man to have ever walked the planet, you hated to admit he was kind of okay—at times—and definitely not the worst patient you could've been assigned. In fact, he became much more bearable after you conveniently "forgot" to anesthetize his arm when you gave him stitches. In your defense, he was being extra dickish that day and you had already been vomited on. You weren't having it. Since then, you've both had a mutual understanding.

You took a deep breath and prepared yourself to enter his room.

It's fine. You're fine. He's just like any other patient.