Take me from the dark

closed starter for @canyouholdme​

“It should be illegal,” Kathleen grumbled, a sigh slipping out of her mouth as she rolled her head back. She was sore, and felt huge - and if even one more of her well-meaning patients said something that implied as much she was going to lose it mid-session. She allowed herself to lay down, twisting herself into Cormac’s arms and burrowing herself into an embrace that she had been craving more than blood oranges all day. “It should be illegal for me to be on call right now. I mean look at me!” Of course it wasn’t all bad. By some miracle they’d been scheduled on the same shift, she was sure that Cormac had something to do with that coincidence though, and that meant that she could lie there with him, even just for a moment or two before one of them was paged. She’d prefer to be cuddling in their own bed of course, but the on-call room was better than nothing.

Cormac was half asleep taking a break after a long graveyard shift with multiple surgeries scheduled during what felt like the walking dead hours with the sub-in staff and residents who weren’t all too thrilled about being there during those hours either, but he mustered up enough energy to chuckle at Kathleen’s comments about the fact that she shouldn’t be at work - something that he reminded her of when they hit the second half of her third trimester, but Kathleen had a mind of her own. “You know, this is what they meant when they said you should be taking it easy as you get close to your due date, love..” he mumbled, eyes still closed as he instinctively wrapped an arm around her. “We both know you’re here to prove a point, but everyone knows that you’re the best there is and that no substitute psychiatrist could ever really replace you if you took some time off,” 

╰ ❛   💉 — › chris hemsworth. male.  he/him.  .  ╯ have  you  met  Cormac Hayes  yet  ?  this  thirty seven  old  taurus has  been  living  in the seattle  area  for  two weeks.  he  makes  a  living  as  a  paediatric surgery attending,  which  is best suited for their charming,  caring,  chivalrous,  and  strong-willed  personality.

Lizzie had been sure that the coast was clear. She’d been at the hospital on call all night and she missed her kids and husband desperately but she also really missed sleep, so in the two hours she had between surgeries, she opted to use the time to get a well deserved nap in, settling into one of the on-call room beds and waiting for sleep to take over when she heard the door open and a beam of light from the well lit hospital hallways made her open her eyes. “no.. no no no, there are like.. 4 other Dr. Shepherds in this hospital can you please be looking for them and not me right now?” she asked, not even sure who had interrupted her nap but resisting being called for anything anyway. 

( OPEN STARTER. ) ↪ anyone  @traumasstart

Vic had only been working at Seattle Grace Mercy West for a short while, and already she could see why the PR team was looking to bring someone on. A high-ranking hospital with one of a kind doctors, radical surgeries, and planes falling out of the sky? No wonder they needed someone on media relations. “I’m just saying, after this week, I deserve a drink.” Vic said with a laugh, running a hand through her hair. “And I’m going to need to make it a double.”

Cormac arrived just in time to swoop behind Vic and take the double drink for himself, holding it too high for her to reach for and extending his hand to her, “Car keys first,” he said, not relenting until he was sure that he’d be driving her home and she wasn’t at risk of anything happening to her after one drink too many. He knew that she was an adult but he couldn’t help but feel responsible for her, and he knew how much she meant to Austin and Liam as the closest link they had to Abigail. “Want to talk about why the week has warranted a double? It is only Wednesday you know,” 

closed starter for @canyouholdme​ (cormac)

Kathleen’s foot tapped against the floor underneath it, the sound of her toes clicking against the grey laminate giving up any hope she had of pretending she wasn’t nervous for this appointment. She was trying to keep her cool, had been hopeful that she would be able to keep her usual calm façade in place until she was on the exam table and could be told that everything was okay. Because everything would be okay. It had to be. Except the entire reason foot was rhythmically tapping was that she was aware of how not okay this situation could be. Waiting on her twenty week scan, she could only thing of her sisters - of Amelia and Lizzie - and how everything had been okay until it wasn’t. She was painfully aware that this scan could change everything. But lingering on that thought for too long had her wanting to wrap her arms around the ever growing bump and just refuse to leave the chair when her name was called. However, she knew that denial was powerful but could ultimately do nothing. She needed this scan, to check that she still had a very healthy baby inside of her, and if she had a hope of making it into said exam then she was going to have to distract herself. “So final bets,” She said quietly, low enough for just her and Cormac to hear, as she turned her head towards her boyfriend, “Personally I’m still feeling girl, but I’m also looking statistically and I’m not sure that we don’t have another Hayes boy on our hands.”

The Peds and OB wings of the hospital were relatively close together so Cormac still felt like he was in his area of comfort as they waited outside of the doctor’s office and he started flicking through the first magazine that he’d grabbed from the stack - raising an eyebrow when it turned out to be cosmopolitan and filled with quizzes about what season his wardrobe favored. He kept reading, but the tapping of his girlfriends shoe on the floor made him chuckle a little, “Love.. if you were trying to give off the cool and collected impression... the foot tapping is giving you away,” he said, putting down the magazine after finding out he was a ‘fall’ style season. Shrugging he folded his arms over his chest. “I say girl all the way. I just know it, I can feel it in my bones.” he said, going off no medical or scientific basis and just channeling what he wanted. He’d had two boys, he wanted to know what it was like having a daughter, and he’d been looking forward to this appointment for weeks. 

“well, they did but i didn’t get the persons name yet. i’ve been kind of busy!” he smiled wrapping his arms around his sister and hugging her tight. “ugh, i’ve missed you!” he said pulling away, so he could see her face to see if he could how she looked. “good, i’m glad to hear that. well, it seems like you found it. i’m sure you’ll fit in great around here. plus, the twins are going to be so excited to see you!” 

“Oh please they totally did but you glossed over the names, as usual!” Kenna said, calling her brother out and showing off how well she knew him. Grinning when she could see how much he’d meant that he’d missed her by how tightly he’d squeezed her into a hug, she just rolled her eyes. “I’m so excited to see them, they must be practically teenagers already. I haven’t seen them in more than a year! Please tell me you’ll let me keep them for a few nights so I can reclaim my favorite aunt title.” 

“Kenna, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” He wasn’t mad that she hadn’t really called. Knowing that she knew he liked his space. “I just needed to get out of the house for a bit. I was going a little crazy. It’s time to get back to working and life.” It sucked he didn’t want to do that yet but he needed a distraction. Work was a great distraction for him. “I did get the many things of food you sent.” Although, he hadn’t ate much lately but he was getting better each day. 

Kenna knew Ryan really well, so she knew that even talking about giving him space felt too much like she was bubble wrapping him, but one thing about her was that she wasn’t going to play along if she didn’t agree with what her friend was doing. So while she nodded for a few minutes as he tried to reason out his decision to get back into the real world, she ended up giving him a look and shaking her head. “Ryan, it’s me.” she said, giving him an out of the rehearsed lines he’d been telling everyone else because she could see past it. “How have things really been? How’s Amelia dealing with everything?” 

closed starter for @canyouholdme​ (luke)

Over the years that they’d known each other, Daphne had gotten used to being alone in Luke’s apartment. Surgeries ran long, his pager went off during dinner, they worked alternating shifts. She’d quickly discovered that dating Luke sometimes meant that she had to make herself comfortable waiting on him. So she’d found little things to do; would pull out his medical journals, dance around to the music collection that she claimed was mediocre, prepare some dinner and hope that he’d be home to enjoy it at a decent time. It was the latter she’d chosen that night, the pasta bubbling on the stove in front of her when her boyfriend walked through his front door. “You know who I miss?” She said in way of greeting, turning around and grabbing a beer from the fridge before holding it out in offering to him while her spare hand reached for her own half-finished bottle. “Georgia,” She answered her own question, the slight pout on her lips enough to let him know that she really was talking about the ghost she’d long tried to convince him had been his roommate in New Orleans.

He should have expected it, but he was just as pleasantly surprised every night since theyd gotten back together whenever no later than 2 seconds after he walked into the apartment, he was being reeled into a conversation that Daphne had probably been thinking about for much longer, leaving him at a complete disadvantage as he sighed and rolled his eyes, dropping his things by the door and walking over to her to give her a kiss on the cheek. “Georgia, the figment of your imagination that you could just as easily have here in Seattle?” he asked, taking the beer from her and taking a sip. 

Closed Starter for @canyouholdme​ for Kenna

Things had not been great since the baby was born. Everything was off and he had been going to a lot of meetings lately. Trying to stay on top of his sobriety given the situation. It was hard. Considering he hadn’t even been out of rehab for a year yet. Everything was not easy. Asking Kenna if she wanted to go to lunch. He was happy she agreed needing to get out of the house for a bit. Once he got to the restaurant he sat down at the table waiting for her to get there. Looking at the menu aimlessly. His mind wasn’t exactly on that so he was just staring at the menu. When he heard a voice he jumped. “Hey, Kenna.” 

Kenna had been trying to give Ryan space after everything that happened, obviously hearing about it from just being at the hospital. She’d sent random bundles of food to his house in an effort to make sure he was eating but otherwise she waited for him to reach out, which he did and she was glad for, with an invite to lunch. “Hey,” she said, sitting down across from him and giving him a supportive smile, “How are you doing, Ry? I’m sorry I haven’t called more, I just figured-- well, if I was in your position I’d want some time to myself.” 

At the sight of her brother taking over her medical care, Olivia rolled her eyes but didn’t mention it. She did prefer him than a resident that seemed to have not done it ever before, not even in the simulator toys they used in medical school. And just as quickly, she would have preferred going back to giving grieve to the young resident if she didn’t have to hear a lecture from her big brother but that was too much wishful thinking. “There was no time! And what was I supposed to do, leave Millie out there to deal with everything herself? Leave that poor woman fence for herself?” That wasn’t something either her or her best friend would ever do, dark alley or not. Maybe the alcohol running in their veins at the time had made them misjudge the situation but the outcome would’ve always been the same. “But I didn’t.” She retorted back, putting pressure on her arm when he was done with the blood. “Hey…” she called him out of his protective older brother state, “I didn’t. I am here. I am alive and safe, Cormac. You don’t have to worry.”

━━ ✦ CLOSED STARTER                             ft. noah hudson @canyouholdme​

Millie was sick of being in the hospital, as a patient at least. Coming into the hospital as an emergency in the early hours of the morning only days before had hardly been the plan. She could understand a night of observation, two at a push, but she was approaching day three and she was more than ready to leave. Doctors looked out for their own, and with the way she felt, she could understand not being let out of the hospital to be in her apartment alone. She’d been laying with her eyes closed, desperately trying to fight the urge to find Olivia’s room, the assurance from everyone else that she was okay the only thing keeping her at bay, when she heard the opening of her room door. “Have you come to tell me I can finally go home?” She asked, eyes opening only to fall to Noah. Her headache was now coupled with a pang of guilt she felt every time she looked at him. “You don’t look like the doctor who’s going to discharge me.” She said quietly, a poor effort at relieving what was already a tense situation. “I wouldn’t have held it against you if you didn’t come to see me, you know.”

“Do I look like a doctor who’s going to give you a full cardio work up though, because that’s what I’m here for.” Really, he didn’t have to be the one to do this but it was his way of checking to make sure that she was still alive, without playing the card that he didn’t want to throw down on the table just yet. Grabbing her chart he started flicking through it, making a note of her oxygen levels since arriving at the hospital and the general trend that her tests were showing. “You put on the hospital gown and the nurses freak out when you try to leave the room, Millie. You’re a patient.” he said, whether he was talking to her or to himself was unclear. “You left me to marry your best friend who didn’t want to come out to his family, that doesn’t exactly warrant withholding medical expertise when you’re admitted to the hospital. Close to warranting it, but not quite.” 

OPEN STARTER. ↪ for anyone ( @traumasstart​ )

“not to put anymore pressure and make you get out of here crying but have you drawn blood before? i swear it’s not that hard to find a vein.” it was no coincidence the saying that doctors were the worst patients. olivia was trying to be understanding, compassionate even, for the resident but even her fragile state had limits.

Cormac walked in just as Olivia started giving the poor anaesthesiologist the fifth degree on drawing blood, tapping the poor other doctor out and carrying on with it himself, easily finding a vein and drawing the blood with a butterfly needle so that Olivia didn’t even feel it going in. Sometimes it paid to be a peds doctor and have practice with much tinier veins. They hadn’t talked since she’d woken up from surgery but Cormac was always there, and always checking on her to make sure that she was resting. That all came to a halt now that she was awaked and seemingly okay enough to handle a conversation. “Strangers arguing in a dark alley, Olivia.” he said using her full name, standing next to her bed with a hardened expression on his face. “Were you out of your bloody mind?! I know that you’re smarter than that... I taught you to be smarter than that. When faced with that situation what do you do?! You call the authorities! You do not rush into action without knowing all the facts. You could have been killed.” he said, chastising her like the older brother that he had to be when she did something that put her life in danger. “You could have been killed.” 

It hadn’t been that long ago that Liam was in UCLA both teaching and practicing at the university hospital, but he’d gotten used to the rain and gloomy weather of Seattle. So used to it, that sunny days seemed weird. He was thinking about that as he saw the sunlight coming through the large windows of the lobby, only to get blinded for a second and bumped right into someone, “I’m so sorry I didn’t see y--- Cat?” he asked, holding the woman at arms length to stop her from following but also to make sure that he was looking at who he thought he was looking at. “What are you-- what are you doing in Seattle?” 

Walking into the attendings lounge this early, seeing as not many of the lights were open, Luke thought that he’d get the place to himself but as soon as he turned on one of the lights he jumped seeing Hope sitting there looking like she’d been waiting to talk to him, “Holy fu--” he yelled, glaring at her when his heart slowly restarted from the scare. “Hope what the hell are you doing sitting here in the dark, do you know how terrifying that was? You’ve seen the Godfather one too many times,” he said, arms folded over his chest as soon as he sat on the couch opposite her almost like he was building layers of defense to shield from whatever was going to happen next. He and Daphne had worked things out, they were together, or trying to be, and he wasn’t sure if her siblings knew yet but, he was assuming that they did seeing as secrets didn’t last long between the three Prices.

She rolled her eyes right back, slowly shaking her head. Lucy lifted up her arm, glancing down at the watch on her wrist. “Huh, approximately 35 seconds and you’ve already called me delusional. That has to be a new record.” She chuckled. Some things never change…and apparently, some people never do either. “I know it can be hard to admit it. It’s okay. I’ll be here for you when you’re ready to face the truth.” Her hands fell into her pockets with a light shrug of her shoulders.  “Ah, well you’ll have plenty of rain in your future to fill the void.” She also didn’t miss a lot of the snowfall. Seattle saw a couple of inches each year, which in comparison to other places she lived like Boston, was absolutely abysmal. She shook her head again as she followed him away from the desk. “Oh, god, yes. Like a hole in the head. Although, I guess our competition days are behind us seeing as you went Cardio and I, of course, save the lives of pregnant mothers and unborn children.” Which was all to say, there really was no competing with that. She smirked. “Okay, so what really brings you here? Are they giving you a hard time over in Cardio?” She asked, knowing very well he might deserve it. 

“The real record here? It took you 32 seconds to give me a reason to call you delusional,” Noah said, not about to let Lucy have the last word because.... that was just how they were. Chuckling at the many supposed jabs Lucy threw his way, he just followed her, waiting for her to say something about the next delivery she had scheduled so that he could actually be prompted into telling her what he was doing in the OB floor, but he just waited and stood by her with his arms over his chest. “Ah yes, the age old battle between the fetal surgeons and cardio gods. You are aware that your battle should be with peds while Cardio is usually battling it out with neuro, right?” he said, hands in the air like he was telling her that it was out of his hands and just how things usually went in hospitals. “Actually, I was called down for a consult. You have a patient down here in labor in need of a valve repair so it looks like we’re going to be in the OR together. Just like old times,” 

“Creepy?  I would call it insightful,” he grinned as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his lab coat and followed her down the hall.  “Because the pain part?  That is kind of boring,” AJ confessed.  There was no entertainment value in Arianna and Andrea only sharing each other’s pain.  AJ couldn’t help but chuckle as they arrived to the cafeteria and she asked about his story.  “What do you want to know since clearly you can’t pick it up for Andrea.  Shame really.”

“Alright then we’ve established your insightful is every other person’s creepy. Thank goodness we waited till today to make sure that was drilled into your brain,” Arianna said, smirking at AJ and laughing, “I don’t know, I think it’s a bit of a blessing to not know exactly what your twin is thinking... infinitely more interesting conversations.” she said, shrugging. “If it counts, I know Andrea so well that I can make an educated guess about how she would react to things or how she would handle a situation, but no mind reading is involved there.” When they got to the cafeteria Arianna picked out what she wanted and waited for AJ to do the same. “Well, for starters... why’d you become a surgeon? It’s different for everyone so I’ve asked a couple of people and the response to that question is always interesting,”