“and if it gets dark you call me“

Jack hadn’t been able to catch a break throughout the whole night so far. After Robby had finished handover it was as if every idiot in Pittsburgh needed a doctor. It was a Friday so he wasn’t all that surprised that a lot of the patients were drunk.

Reading through the symptoms on the tablet Ellis had given him on a patient who’d come in with a seizure he stopped to lean against the nurses station. Right before he could agree to Elli’s words his head snapped up at the sound of a commotion.

Head moving to his right he watched as one of his residents, one of the newer ones who’d started just a week ago, tried to reason with two parents.

He watched the resident fumble over his words as he tried to get the parents to not take their kid home. Glancing down at the kid, his breath stopped for just a second. Fuck.

Jack recognized you. Of course he did. You’d been to the ER ever since you were four years old. They could never find an actual reason for why you were sick all the time but you were. Usually you’d come in with a way too high fever. Sometimes you’d throw up so much blood started to come out too. You’d always been a sick kid and they just hoped that, eventually, your immune system would kick in so you could start living a life without getting sick every other week.

He could still remember the first time he’d met you. It’d been during shift change. Jack had just walked into the ER when he heard the crying from one of the rooms. A nurse had been trying to take your blood. But every time you’d flinch away and practically scream at her like she was trying to kill you. Back then your parents still cared, it was the first time your fever had been that high. They’d tried to console you, tried to get you to cooperate. It wasn’t until Jack had walked into the room with a certain energy to him that made the room go into a stand still. He’d asked the nurse what was going on, eyes ever so often moving to your crying form on the hospital bed. Way too tiny for a hospital bed. He always did hate when kids came in sick. Everyone did.

When he’d gotten the clear picture he’d shifted his stance to try and be at your level before he explained exactly why they needed to take your blood. Your cries had eventually slowed down. Jack had taken your blood after softly explaining that if you let them do that they could maybe find out what was wrong and you could go back to playing with your friends.

Ever since then you’d only ever let Jack treat you. Much to your parents dismay, who were already sick with all the hospital visits. But you liked Jack, still do. He’d sometimes let you borrow his pen to fiddle with while he examined you. He always tried to talk to you about your interests to keep you distracted.

Your parents had brought you in once when Jack wasn’t working. As much as every nurse who passed by had thought the sick kid with a pout and crossed arms was adorable, it had been messing with the patients waiting for a room. Everyone had tried to examine you and everyone failed until Robby had tried. You’d liked him too. He acted kinda like Jack. But Jack was still better.

He stared at you for a moment before he automatically gave the tablet back to Ellis and strode over to you. Jack hadn’t seen you in two months. He’d hoped that you’d stopped getting sick, but that was clearly not the case. Your eyes were red from rubbing them too hard. Snot ran from your nose even with how much you tried to keep it in. As he stepped closer he also saw the way your eyes had a slight gloss over it. The way you get when you have a fever. Or when you’re about to cry. Both very much possible.

“What do we have here?” Jack’s lips moved up in a smile as he glanced down at you. His hand moving up to your forehead. Ruffling your hair as a disguise as he felt for a fever. He did not like how hot your forehead felt.

“Kid refuses treatment” the resident started. “And the parents wants to take y/n here, home”

“That right?” Jack looks down at you. Your fingers were fiddling with the hem of your pyjamas shirt. Feet dangling back and forth over the hospital bed. “Didn’t we talk about this last time?” His head tilts slightly back to look down at you. “I can’t be the one to treat you every time” Jack’s eyes soften as you give him a sheepish but tired smile. It was the middle of the night after all, and you were sick, he didn’t fault you for being tired.

He glanced back at your parents who’d he’d noticed, as of lately, seemed to care less and less of your health. Their once worried gazes had flickered into one of reluctant care. Of course he knew having a sick kid was tiring, he’d seen many parents exhausted. Parents who for example had kids with leukemia who were in a state of early grief and hope. Any good parent worried when their kids were sick but lately your parents whenever they’d come in with you looked more like they wanted to drag you home than to get you help. They didn’t console you and rub your back when your blood was drawn. Where once both had worriedly hovered now there was a distance between parent and kid that Jack wasn’t comfortable with seeing. He didn’t know what had shifted but something had.

“Since you’re already here it can’t hurt for us to just give y/n a checkup, make sure it’s nothing serious” it never was serious, but still he always wanted to check to make sure. It wasn’t exactly good for a kid to be as sick as often as you were.

Your parents held a silent conversation before they reluctantly agreed.

He sat down on a stool so he could be somewhat closer to your height, rolling it forward to get closer to you. He held up a thermometer he’d grabbed on the way. “Alright kid, the usual, I’m gonna check your temperature and then we’ll take your blood, sound okay to you?” He gives you a reassuring smile, like always. “Then when the results come in we’ll see if we have to do any other tests”

You rub your eyes, trying to get rid of the irritation in them. A headache had started to form too and all you wanted to do was snuggle into your bed at home with your favorite plushie and sleep. Nonetheless you gave Jack a nod.

“Hard to breathe?” You shook your head before he took your temperature. He frowned at the result, it was higher than usual. “Cough?” You nodded. “Headache?” Another nod. “Have you been able to eat like normal” a shrug, he raised a brow at your answer urging you to continue.

“Don’t like eating when sick, mom and dad make me eat though, they say it’s good to eat when sick”

“Yeah? They say that?” You nod. “You have very smart parents then, it is good to eat when you’re sick, it gives your body energy to fight the infection” he took your arm. Careful to be gentle when he took your blood, he didn’t want a repeat of the first time when you were scared and screaming at anyone who tried to take your blood.

Tears appeared in your eyes. But you did your best to keep it in. You hated when they had to draw your blood.

“You know, I happen to know they restocked the cookies you like from the cafeteria” he watched the tears slowly disappear. “Maybe I could get a nurse to get you one” he glanced up at your parents. “Is that okay?” At their nod he quietly told Mateo to get one for you. Mateo had brought you to the cafeteria before so he knew what you wanted.

Finishing the blood tests, he gently wiped your skin where the needle had been before letting you pick a band aid. Of course you picked the silliest one. Gently placing the band aid on your arm he gave it a little love tap before he glanced up at your parents again. “I’d like to keep y/n for observation during the rest of the night, I don’t like how high the fever is, we’ll know more when the results for the blood test comes in, hopefully it’s like the other times and it doesn’t show anything serious” though sometime he wished the blood tests would show something. If he could place a diagnosis he could help you from getting sick again.

“Can’t we come back tomorrow?” Jack tried his best to hide his frown at your dad’s words.

“Like I said I’d like it if y/n stayed overnight, at the very least until I get of my shift in the morning”

“We can’t stay, can’t we just come back in the morning and you can do a check up then”

“I could but like I said-“ he trailed off as he realised he wouldn’t get anywhere. After the blood test came back clean he reluctantly watched your parents walk out with you after he’d given instructions on how to treat your fever. A frown that wouldn’t disappear for the rest of the night covering his face. It only worsened when your parents never brought you back for a check up.

Two days later Jack’s life changed forever.

He’d just walked out of a trauma, an idiot had started a bar fight and had somehow ended up with half a glass bottle in their stomach, when one of the residents wanted a consult before he sent them off to prescribe the medication for said patient.

Taking off the nitrile gloves and throwing them into a trash can he rounded an incoming gurney with a screaming patient on it that had what looked like a screw in his shoulder. The shift had been far from calm so far. He came to a stop in front of Lena who was talking to Ellis. Leaning against the nurses station subtly listened into the conversation. While he logged into the usual computer he used.

“I think there’s an abandoned child in the waiting room, Mateo says the kid’s been there since he clocked in”

Jack's head slowly turned to the side to look at the nurse and resident. “What?” That was at least four hours ago, how had no one noticed a kid alone in the waiting room for four hours. There was also no knowing if said kid had been there longer than that.

“Kid’s just sitting there, looks sick too” Shen walks up then. “Tried to take the kid back here, safe to say it did not work”

Jack slowly processed the words. There was only one kid he knew that protested that much. And who was currently sick. But a lot of kids protest, your parents wouldn’t abandon you would they? Even with the struggle of the many hospital trips.

“Kid say anything?”

“Kept asking for the nice doctor, whoever that is” fuck. You always called him the nice doctor when someone else would try to examine you. Eventually whoever had taken your case would end up going to Jack talking about a certain kid who refused treatment.

“I’ll deal with it” was all he said before he made his way into the waiting room. And there you were. Body sluggish as you sat curled into the stiff uncomfortable chair. You looked worse off than when your parents had come in with you two days ago.

His steps faltered in front of you. Waiting for your head to lift. “Hey kid” Jack’s voice was softer than usual.

You snivel as you look up at him. Rubbing your eyes before wiping your nose with your sleeve.

“You okay?” You nod, even if Jack sees through it he doesn’t comment on it.

“Come on” he hold his hand out for you, waiting for you to grab it. “you hungry?” Another nod. He always did hate how silent you were, then again he’d only ever met you when sick. And most kids he’d met were far from loud and babbling when sick.

He led you into the break room, getting a nurse (once more) to get you some food, not wanting to leave you alone.

Sitting in the chair opposite of you he leaned his arms on his knees as he looked at you. He would have smiled as you went for the cookie before the sandwich if it wasn’t for the situation.

“Y/n?” He watched your eyes move up to meet his. “Where’s your parents?”

You swallow slowly, fiddling with some crumbs from the cookie. “Don’t know”

His brows furrows. “Did they say anything when they dropped you off here?”

“They gave me a hug and told me they loved me”

“They didn’t say where they were going?”

You shook your head as you took another bite out of the cookie.

Right. Of course they hadn’t. “How’s your fever? Your head still feeling fuzzy?”

A silent nod leaves you again. “Light hurts too”

“Yeah? The hospital is bright, isn't it?” Another nod.

Silence fell over you both as he watched you sip through the straw to your favorite juice. Jack didn’t know what to do with you. On one hand he didn’t want to fear the worst that your parents had actually abandoned you. Despite everything pointing at it. For your sake he didn’t want it to be true. On the other at least he could examine you now, and keep control over your fever, make sure it didn’t get worse. Third, if they had abandoned you it meant he had to make a lot of calls, calls he had no interest in making any day, but he still had to.

He let out a sigh and looked back out towards the coordinated mess in the ER. The noise is somewhat muffled by the closed door. His eyes fell back on you again. You were only a kid.

A kid who’s parents had just left. Abandoned at a hospital. Jack watched you curl into the chair. The way you shivered from the fever, and the way you kept your eyes closed.

A thought struck. Maybe he was stupid for it. He certainly wasn’t a dad. But he couldn’t just leave you here alone when his shift ended. Couldn’t just let you go with cps alone, scared and sick. Besides he did have emergency foster care as a doctor, he could take you for the day until CPS and the cops found your parents and a home for you. And since he was a doctor he could also monitor you from home. “Y/n?”

You cranked an eye open towards him.

“What would you say about going home with me? After my shift?” His head tilted to look at you more properly. Eyes searching both your eyes that had opened again.

Your brows knitted together in slight confusion. “Live with you?”

“For a day or two, yes”

“Okay” you nod. You liked him. He felt safe.

“You wanna stay in here or come out with me?” He had to get back to work eventually. Either way he’d come check on you every time he could, and when he couldn’t he’d have a nurse check on you.

Glancing out at the chaos outside the door you curled more into the chair. “Here”

He nodded, hand going to your forehead again. Still warm. Seeing as you still shivered he wrapped a blanket, even if it was the stiff hospital ones it still did the job of keeping you from shivering.

An hour or so later he gave you something for the fever. You didn’t know what it was but it made the headache go away. And as you curled further into yourself on the chair you felt his hand once more on your forehead, but before his hand had even left you were fast asleep.

It had started slow. The discomfort settling in your body, signifying what was to come. Then came the dull ache in your stomach. It was a mistake to chalk it off as the pain you’d get sometimes from a bad night's sleep. Small things annoying you more than usual. And still for some reason it hadn’t connected the links to your period in your head.

Not even the way you had to shift to get comfortable in bed. Waking up every other hour. Sleep escaped you until finally Jack got home from the night shift. His body making the mattress sink as he rolled over to pull you into him. Eyes still closed you could feel his breath on your forehead before he wrapped his arms fully around you. Tight and comforting, it was as if he knew you’d pretended to sleep as he rubbed your back soothingly. Moving your head into the crook of his neck as he breathed out a deep sigh. Feeling his body relax under you.

It took almost an hour for both of you to fall asleep. His warmth and the way his hand traced soothing patterns into your back lulling you to sleep.

Then it happened. A few hours later. Waking up from the light seeping through the blinds that could no longer completely cover the morning sun when it rose. Eyes slowly opening as you shifted. Gaze locking onto Jack until you finally registered the uncomfortable feeling by your torso. The way your lower back had a dull ache. Feeling the gross sticky feeling in your lower region was all the confirmation you needed. And that tiny part in the back of your head started to whisper. The feeling of disgust flooding you. Even though you knew it wasn’t, that it was completely natural. But still logic didn’t stop your body from feeling gross.

One of your hands slowly detangling from Jack, moving down to feel the spot underneath your, or well rather jacks shorts you used to sleep in. A deep sigh leaving you as you felt the wet spot. Seeing the red coloring your fingertips as you moved it back up from under the covers meaning it happened just now.

Slowly panic set. It shouldn’t have, it wasn’t like it was the first time you’d bled through. But it was the first time (somehow) with Jack still here. The other times you’d be able to change the bed, clothes and shower without Jack noticing but now…

Taking deep breaths to still your panic you swallowed. Feeling the ache below your stomach become stronger, you shifted once more ready to get up. Except Jack’s arms tightened around you as he squinted at you with one eye. Taking in the way your chest was raising and falling differently than normal, both his eyes focused on you. Propping himself up to look at you better. One hand moving to cup your cheek. “What’s wrong?” His voice was more gruff than normal from just having woken up. Sleep still ridden in his eyes as he slowly glanced over your face, watching your eyes move to his. The slight panic in them didn’t escape his notice. Jack’s eyes flicked back and forth over your face now, a bit more careful to take in every micro expression you made. “Hey, what’s wrong?” He purposely made his voice softer, trying to coax it out of you.

“It’s nothing” but the way your nose scrunched and your eyes closed told him otherwise. “Why don’t you go make breakfast?” A poor attempt at directing the conversation at something else. It wasn’t that you wanted to hide from him, it was more like you’d dealt with it by yourself your whole life, and it didn’t need to change. If you told Jack you knew he’d make you take a hot shower get yourself clean while he took care of everything else.

His eyes squinted slightly at you. Head tilting and the corners of his lips moved down. God did you hate that frown and he knew it. “Love, You can tell me” he kissed your forehead. “I don’t care what it is” he kissed your cheek this time before looking into your eyes. “Just tell me what’s wrong so I can help you” he hated seeing you like this, always had. He had a hunch as to what was wrong but wasn’t certain.

Jack could practically see the moment you resolved. Melting into his hands as you stared back up at him. He watched you shift over moving the covers letting him see the red spot on the bed.

“Y/N” Your eyes cast down at the way he said your name. It didn’t make it better the way he looked at you with utter love tinged with some amusement.

“You don’t need to hide that” he said as he heard you hum.

“I know” you still refused to look up at him.

“Then why did you?” Jack met your eyes as your eyes moved up to his once more. Thumbs softly caressing your cheeks.

Why did you? The question struck something in you. And you shrugged. Not able to voice that part of you that still somehow thought he’d think it gross. Even if you knew he wouldn’t. He was a doctor after all. Had been a medic patching up soldiers. He’d seen his fair share of blood both in the field and at the hospital, enough so that a little blood from a women’s monthly cycle wouldn’t scare him off. If anyone would have thought it gross it wasn’t Jack. And the thought that you’d even think of him finding it gross made guilt settle in you.

Blinking out of your own thoughts you sat up, Jack following with. “I’ll take care of the bed, why don’t you go and take a shower, I’ll bring in some clothes for you” the way he looked at you was enough to shut the protests about doing it yourself down. He’d always been a problem solver, always would be.

He pressed a soft kiss to your lips before nudging you to the bathroom. Watching you leave with a soft smile and shake of his head before getting up. Putting on his prosthetic and curling his fingers around the white fabric covering the bed.

The hot shower was unsurprisingly soothing. You’d probably stood under the warm water longer than necessary as you let it relax you. Maybe halfway through your shower Jack had silently opened the door. Putting a black big towel on the stool inside the bathroom, along with some clothes. You could recognize the black sweatpants and the big hoodie as Jack’s. The thought of him letting you wear his clothes even if you might bleed through again made something warm form in your chest. He didn’t care if you made a mess, just that you were comfortable.

After doing the necessary steps in the bathroom you padded out to the bedroom again. Watching Jack put the last pillowcase on. A glass of water and a pill resting on your nightstand. Your clothes from before and the bed covers already getting cleaned in the washer.

You swallowed thickly as you settled down on the bed. Jack's side dipping down as he shuffled up on the bed to rest his back against the headboard.

He watched you place the pill on your tongue and swallow it with water. A grimace forming on your face as you did so before he opened his arms for you. Letting you settle in his lap, his arms wrapping around you. Tight enough for comfort but loose enough that it didn’t cause you more discomfort. His hand once more rubbing your back. Placing a kiss to the crown of your head he let his head rest there as he waited for either the pain to settle or for you to fall asleep… or both.

His eyes closed along yours. Feeling your arms wrap around him tightly, your face nuzzling into his chest. Letting yourself relax once more as the comfort of Jack’s warmth and the silence of the room filled you.