#charcel

Lolly looked like she was about to cry, Ethan was dabbing at her shirt with a tissue, and Ava was staring, frozen in horror at the bottle of tequila lying open on its side on Lolly’s lap. Any other time, Sarah might have found it funny, but she’d been in a car for nine hours with two babies sitting on her bladder, and she’d quickly lost all patience for whatever problems her family was causing today. 

     “Crockett, you need to find a rest stop.” She couldn’t bring herself to speak to anyone sitting behind her, and instead focused her attention on the road signs they were speeding past, trying to direct Crockett to somewhere with a bathroom. 

It took almost half an hour to reach one, and by that point the smell of tequila was starting to turn her stomach. Her window was open, but it still wasn’t enough to make her feel better, so as soon as they pulled up she was out of the car and taking deep breaths, trying to get the nausea to subside. 

     “You okay, chérie?” Crockett had appeared out of nowhere next to her, his brows furrowed and one hand hesitantly on her shoulder. 

She nodded. “Mhm, it’s just a bit of nausea. I’m fine.”

     “As long as you’re sure-”

     “I am.”

They stood in silence for a few minutes, Sarah eventually leaning back on Crockett for support. Even without the early morning that the day’s thirteen-hour road trip had required, she was still exhausted from the pregnancy, and she’d accepted that standing was only going to get harder from here. 

     “Ava and Ethan took Lolly to find somewhere to get changed. I don’t think they’ll be much longer, so if you want to go get something to eat…”

He let his voice trail off, leaving the question open for Sarah, and she almost jumped at the suggestion. 

The pair made their way towards the building, making light conversation as they went, until they got inside and Sarah was immediately distracted by all the food in front of her. 

It didn’t take long for her to do a circuit of the little store, and when she returned to Crockett it was with armfuls of candy and chips. 

     “I left my purse in the car.”

     “I got it, don’t worry.” He produced his wallet, eyeing up the mountain of food Sarah was carrying to the register. 

     “Is that… is that all for you?”

She shook her head. “I got some M&Ms for Lolly. And it’s not just for me. This is what your babies wanted.”

It was a chilly day in December when Ethan shuffled into the ED around 7 am, having slept in until 6:30 and skipped his morning workout.  That should have been his first notion that something was going wrong, in addition to the fact that he’d taken a nap the day before and had been having cold shivers for the last few days.  Taking a sip of his coffee, Ethan suppressed another shiver, feeling lightheaded from the fact that he’d skipped dinner the night before to go to bed early and had also skipped breakfast, choosing to just grab a coffee on his way in due to being late.

“Dr. Choi?  I need a second opinion on one of my patients, do you mind?”

Ethan turned to see who had spoken, though the southern accent was an easy giveaway.  He had to squeeze his eyes shut as he did so, the movement making his dizziness worse, noticing the look of concern that flashed across Crockett’s face as he steadied himself against the counter.

“You okay, sugar?  You’re looking a little faint,” Crockett asked with a frown, making a mental note of the slight sheen of sweat on the other man's face as well as how shaky his hands were.

“Y-yeah.  I’m fine, just got a little dizzy, that’s all,” Ethan mumbled as the dizziness lessened, and he was finally able to look up at Crockett.

“Did this come on all of a sudden?  Or have you been feeling off the last few days?”

“The lightheadedness started this morning.  But I guess I’ve been feeling off the last few days.”

“Off?  Off how?” Crockett asked in confusion, tilting his head as Ethan ignored his question, and tried to push past him.

“Can we just check on your patient and stop worrying about me?  I’m fine,” Ethan huffed as he tried to walk past Crockett, his head spinning once more as the taller man caught his arm.

“Hey, talk to me.  You look like you’re about to pass out,” Crockett stated firmly as he looked at the other man, his hand moving slowly from Ethan’s arm to loop around his waist when Ethan’s eyes rolled back and he fell forward into Crockett’s arms.

“Shit.  Can I get some help in here?!”

“Ethan?  What the hell happened in here Dr. Marcel?” April asked with wide eyes as she helped get Ethan up onto a gurney before wheeling him into Exam Room 1.

“I’m not sure, he was just looking a little off and then he passed out,” Crockett explained as he started to hook Ethan up to the monitors, letting out a small sigh of relief when the other man slowly started to open his eyes.

“Hey sugar, don’t make any sudden movements, I don’t want you passing out again,” Crockett explained, nudging Ethan back down when the man tried to sit up, moving to hook the bag of saline up to the IV he’d made in Ethan’s left arm.

“You’re dehydrated and running a fever.  What in hell made you think to come to work was a good idea today?”

Ethan frowned at Crockett’s words and gave a half-hearted shrug as he leaned back against the pillows.

“I dunno, I was feeling like shit last night and this morning, but I didn’t want to bother anyone with it.  I didn’t really expect anyone to care anyways,” Ethan explained as he watched Crockett move around the exam room to gather the supplies for a blood draw.

“That’s clearly the dumbest thing you have ever said.  It’s obvious to me that everyone here cares about each other.  Y’all seem to have such amazing camaraderie that I actually get jealous of how much of an outsider I feel like,” Crockett admitted as he drew the blood for tests before he hooked the IV back up.

“People here do care about you y’know.  I mean...I care about you,” Ethan admitted, though he wasn’t sure if it was the fever that was finally making him admit his feelings for the other man or how comfortable he felt being taken care of at that moment.

Crockett cracked a smirk as he grabbed a cool damp cloth to brush the sweaty hair off of Ethan’s forehead before he sat on the edge of Ethan’s bed.

“I care about you too sugar, which is why I got worried when you passed out.  Which, by the way, you didn’t have to do just to get my attention, you know that right?  Asking me out for dinner would have sufficed,” he teased with a grin before he dropped a soft kiss onto Ethan’s hair before he moved to get up, raising an eyebrow when Ethan’s hand wrapped softly around his wrist to halt him.

“S-stay?  We can talk about this more when I’m not fever drunk,” Ethan mumbled as he pressed his cheek against the pillow with a yawn, a ghost of a smile crossing his lips as Crockett moved to sit back down in the chair next to the gurney.