I Get To Love You || l.s

chapter 8

22nd December

Louis adjusted the Christmas hat on his head as he wandered through the department, pleased that many of the patients appeared to be smiling despite the pain. The Christmas decorations he and Kelly had put up brightened the place up a little bit, and Louis was glad that his staff had embraced wearing some sort of festive attire, whether it was tinsel around their badges, a festive hat or festive socks. Louis just longed to give the children that ended up in the department at the happiest time of the year something to smile about, even if it was only for a few minutes.

He walked over to the big whiteboard where they listed each of the patients in the bays and removed the two patients he’d recently discharged, opening up the space for more children to come in. Luckily, it had been a fairly quiet shift, which had meant Louis had been able to spend a little more time getting to know the children he’d had to deal with so far. He still had another four hours until it was time to head home. He was going to be working an early shift on Christmas Eve, but he had Christmas Day and Boxing Day off thanks to the fact he’d worked them for the past five years, and had finally got the schedule to work in his favour.

“Louis, did you discharge Heather Watkins?” one of the doctors asked, and Louis nodded.

“Yes, Dr Lucas checked the scans and confirmed there was no fracture. I put her arm in a sling for support and she’s headed home.”

“Perfect, just wanted to double check. Thank you.”

Louis finally sat down, relieving his feet for a moment. A string of Christmas cards was hung over the desk from various staff members and even regular patients the department had dealt with, and he smiled at the childlike writing within the cards he could see, names scrawled in messy writing, lots of kisses underneath. He was glad he’d already written and sent his cards, and the ones for his best friends and Harry were sat in his bedroom, ready to be doled out soon enough.

He could hear a bit of commotion in the corridor, but Louis ignored it, knowing they hadn’t had a call about an urgent case. There was also enough staff milling around that could deal with any drama, so he stayed where he was, checking up on a couple of cases while he had five minutes to himself, pleased to have a lull in patients.

“Louis?”

He sighed, knowing the peace wouldn’t last long. He locked the computer and span around on his stool, turning to look in the direction of the voice, seeing it was another of his nurses, Megan, calling him.

“What is it, Meg?”

“Someone’s here to see you,” she said, her cheeks oddly a little pink. Louis wondered if it could be Niall coming to pick him up a few hours early, and it wouldn’t be the first time. Niall quite often got Louis’ shift patterns wrong and had been turned away countless times, sent on his way by Louis. He swiped his card to walk out of the department, stilling when he saw who was in the waiting room, crouched on the floor, talking to a little girl on her mother’s lap, looking miserable.

“Harry?”

“Oh, hi Lou,” he said, smiling at Louis over his shoulder as he got slowly to his feet, supporting his bump. He was twenty four weeks pregnant now, and Louis was sure his bump was growing by the day. Louis could feel the eyes of the room on them, but he let Harry walk over, hugging him quickly, a soft red beanie on his head, the top of his Christmas jumper peeking out over the coat he’d finally bought a couple of weeks ago, after Louis had told him he wouldn’t go out with him anymore until he was dressed appropriately for the weather, and that meant wrapping the baby bump in a coat too. “Sorry to just turn up…”