Expensive Mistakes

The Eighth Wonder

"Merry Christmas, Vanessa!" Emilio exclaimed happily, embracing his eight-year-old sister.

"Come on, come on!" she said, tugging him through the doorway. "We've been waiting ages for you to get here!"

Emilio chuckled and allowed himself to be dragged to the living room where his mother and father waited. He greeted them both, explaining, "I'm on call today."

"Does that mean you're going to have to go to work?" Vanessa complained.

"Don't worry. I'm sure I won't have to. Who's going to get hurt on Christmas?" he assured.

Emilio has gone straight into college after high school. He took four years of nursing school and had been working at the hospital for a year and a half.

He returned to his car to grab the presents he'd brought and placed them under the tree with the other ones. He smiled happily and took photos as Vanessa's face lit up in delight at the presents.

Upon unwrapping the ones from Emilio, she ran over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"You spoil her," his mother said.

"I know. But how can I help it when she's so adorable?" he replied with a slight squeal. "Vanessa, come take a picture with me."

She stood up from the mountain of wrapping paper surrounding her and skipped over to Emilio. She placed a stick-on now from one of the gifts on the rim of his glasses before sitting next to him and smiling for the picture.

He set the picture as the wallpaper on his phone before taking the bow off of his glasses and sticking it to Vanessa's nose.

She giggled, then asked, "Did you bring the movie?"

Emilio feigned shock and said "I forgot!"

"Not funny, Emilio," Vanessa said, pouting.

"Yes, I brought the movie."

Emilio pulled out a DVD of The Nightmare Before Christmas. He'd shown it to Vanessa when she was younger and she had begged to watch it on Christmas.

"But it's a Halloween movie," Emilio explained.

"Nuh-uh," Vanessa has protested. "It says Christmas is the title, so it's a Christmas movie."

"Alright..."

They had watched it on Christmas ever since.

They started the movie up and Vanessa quietly sang along with the beginning song, cuddling with Emilio under a blanket.

Emilio had seen the movie so many times that he knew it word for word by memory. He didn't mind, though. He enjoyed the movie and enjoyed spending time with Vanessa even more.

About halfway through the movie, his phone started ringing.

"Emilio..." Vanessa whined.

"Sorry, sorry."

He went to decline the call, when he noticed the number.

"Shoot. It's the hospital. I have to take this. Keep watching," he told Vanessa as he stepped into the other room, answering the call.

Vanessa turned to him expectantly when he reentered the room after finishing the call.

"Do you have to go?" she asked.

"Yeah. There was a fire. No one got burned too badly, but two people inhaled a lot of smoke."

Vanessa nodded, but her bottom lip quivered.

"Aw, don't be sad," Emilio said, "I'll make it up to you. You can have a sleepover at my house and we'll finish the movie then."

"Do you have ice cream?" she asked.

"I will," Emilio promised.

He said his goodbyes before getting in his car and driving to the hospital. He arrived shortly before the ambulance and followed hurriedly after the paramedics wheeling the gurneys in.

One of the patients was completely unconscious; the other drifting in and out, doing his best to stay awake. Both of them had oxygen masks pressed to their faces and blisters from second-degree burns. A few splotches of black dotted their skin which may have been soot, but also may have been third-degree burns.

As the two of them were hooked up to the equipment, Emilio rushes off to get cold compresses to hold on their burns.

He was assigned to tend to the unconscious patient. Reading the information he was given, he learned that the patient's name was Tobias Schneien.

Tobias was changed from his burned and soaked clothes to a clean hospital gown. Emilio noticed he had a large scar on his back, but it wasn't recent. A frown tugged at Emilio's lips. Was it just meant to look cool? How did he receive it?

He held a cold compress to one of Tobias's burns and studied his face. It was a sickly pale; round and soft. His black hair was burnt and matted slightly, falling out of the ponytail.

Though the patient clearly didn't look his best, Emilio found him beautiful. He subconsciously wondered what color his eyes were, guessing brown or gray.

Emilio moved on to the next burn, listening to Tobias's quiet, shallow breathing. He pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, but they slowly started sliding down again. Annoyed, he tilted his head back, pausing his work.

His eyes came to rest on Tobias's face and he stared for a moment.

Keep it professional, Emilio scolded himself, shaking his head. Don't get distracted.

He sat back once he'd finished testing Tobias's burns and listened to the steady beeping of the heart monitor.

"Wake up soon so you can tell me your story," Emilio said quietly.

He wanted to meet his patient. Tobias looked like he'd be a friendly person. Emilio could already tell he liked him.

A/N

Guess who's back at it with another chapter!! Sorry it's been so long. I've felt so uninspired recently. I hadn't written in a while and then yesterday at 9:30 pm, I picked up my notebook and just wrote for an hour. Sorry this chapter is a little short. Like I said-- writer's block. Chapter title is from "Wilson (Expensive Mistakes)" by Fall Out Boy. I hope to get my next chapter up soon, but I think the time gap between this chapter and the last proved that I'm not a man of my words. It may also take longer because school. We can hope, though, can't we? I was a bit unsure about this chapter because I honestly don't know what hospitals are like. I did research and my best, but there are probably mistakes (especially considering I was too lazy to edit). Feel free to help me out if I got something wrong because I'm sure you guys know more than I do.

Jfc, this has been a draft for ages and I just realized I never actually published it like the complete dumbass I am. Do forgive me.