When you walked into the emergency department, you knew it would be hectic, but this was a new level.

“Dana, Milo and Liu are out today, so Nat is taking over as charge nurse, and you and I are basically everywhere,” Nick said as soon as you walked through the doors, handing an iPad over to you with the first chart. “The med students will fill in everywhere else.”

“Lucky us. Why can’t they just, I don’t know, get more nurses?” You replied sarcastically before jumping into your groove.

Patient in bay 2 needed an IV for dehydration, patient in bay 6 wanted a sandwich and water, patient in Trauma 1 needed the CT to open up faster, and you needed a change of scrubs after a patient in the waiting room threw up on you.

You took a deep breath as you drank some water while changing your clothes when that familiar ring of an incoming trauma came through. You ran out to catch Nat at the nurses’ station with the phone to her ear.

“Incoming crash victim,” She told you as Nick slid to a stop beside you. “23 year old male, hard hit in the race that’s going on. Concussion protocol, who wants it?”

“I don’t think-”

“I can’t handle vomit, you good to take it?” Nick said, already walking away to take another patient. “You’re the best!”

“Nat, I don’t know if I should-”

“We don’t really have a choice here,” She sighed, “We’re already stretched thin, and I don’t think you would want me sticking a med student with him.”

“Can I ask? Is it him?” She gave you a small nod, causing you to sigh and put your face in your hands momentarily. “Stick him in room…”

“Treatment room 3 is open if you want to go dim those lights now,” Nat offered, gesturing towards the treatment rooms. “He should be here any minute.”

You wasted no time before walking into the treatment room, setting up the bed to not be completely flat, grabbing some water and a rag, and turning the lights down. In your couple of minutes of downtime, you checked on the few patients you had already helped, and got them discharged before you saw Nat pointing two people your way.

“Hey, Bailey, I can help from here,” You said to Corey’s PR manager, who had accompanied him to the hospital, as you pulled one of his arms over your shoulder. “We’re going to be in Treatment 3.”

“Are you going to be his nurse?” She asked, to which you nodded. “Isn’t there a rule against that?”

“We’re too understaffed to care,” You dismissed, pushing the door open with your foot. “Ok, Corey, let’s get you set up on this bed.”

“How do you know my name?”

“I read your chart, silly,” You chuckled in a light tone as you helped him lean back against the pillows. You looked toward Bailey and asked, “Did the med center say anything specific?”

“Just the concussion and bruising, they didn’t really push him that hard,” She said thinking back to it. “They did give him some pain meds, though. I don’t remember what.”

“Ok, if you could find that out, that would be great, and you can head back to the track if you need to. I can handle him.”

“No,” He dragged out, reaching in Bailey’s general direction (it was nowhere near her). “Don’t leave me here!”

“You’re in good hands, Corey, trust me,” Bailey chuckled, looking between you and him.

“I don’t think so,” He replied skeptically.

“Maybe if you opened your eyes, you would know,” She said with a smirk before slipping towards the door. Of course she would hear Corey say, ‘woah,’ under his breath, causing her to chuckle. She gave you one last, “Good luck” before closing the door carefully.

You scoffed to yourself, briefly rubbing your hands over your face to hopefully stop the heat from rising in your cheeks. Alas, it didn’t work. You turned to grab some hand sanitizer and put on gloves before looking to Corey on the hospital bed, already looking at you through half-lidded eyes.

“Corey,” You started, and he dragged his eyes up to meet your eyes, slowly. “You mind if I check your ribs?”

“Only if I can have your number after,” He smirked, but it was more of a lopsided smile.

“Funny enough, you already do,” You replied, lifting up his fire shirt to examine the surprisingly minimal bruising on his skin.

“How many hot nurses’ numbers do I have?”

“Hopefully just the one,” You couldn’t stop the chuckle at that. You pulled the fire shirt back down before looking at his face, seeing him already looking at you. “I’m going to give you a gown to put on since this is all sweaty. Do you need help putting it on?”

“You just wanna see me naked, don’t you?” He flirted, haphazardly pushing himself to stand on unsteady legs, only to immediately fall back onto the bed. 

“Oh please, I know you’re not naked under these,” You scoffed, putting your arms around his middle to steady him as you lifted the fire shirt off him. “I’m also a professional who knows how to change someone without seeing anything private.”

You put his arms in the hospital gown one at a time before tying it in the back. Then you moved to take the rest of his fire suit off before he even knew what was happening. It wasn’t until you already had him laid back and was putting a cool rag over his eyes when he actually said anything.

“How did you do that?” He said groggily.

“Let’s just say, a lot of practice,” You said with a grimace as you turned back to the iPad to write in the chart your findings with his ribs. You checked your watch to see a text from Bailey, saying the med center gave him a low dose of fentanyl. That would explain it. “How is your head right now, Corey? Do you need anything?”

“I need my hot nurse in the bed with me,” He said, lolling his head to the side, and lifting the rag to peek an eye open at you, “unless that’s unprofessional.”

“It is,” You corrected, holding back a smirk, “but I don’t know if your significant other would approve of that.”

He suddenly tried to sit up before falling right back against the pillows, the rag now resting on his chest instead as his eyebrows furrowed, panicked. “Oh shit! My significant other! Y/n!”

He reached for your arm clumsily, gripping your wrist desperately, looking at you with much wider eyes than he had in the entire time he’d been in there. “Listen, I love Y/n. Please, I…do they know I’m here? They don’t know about the crash, they were working. You have to call them! I’ve been with them for years, did you know that? I’m gonna propose too, soon. I have this whole plan that…I uh…I can’t remember right now, but I have a plan!”

“Woah, slow down, Corey,” You said, putting your hands on his shoulder to steady him. “Y/n knows, trust me.”

“Hey, I need back up out here, now,” Nat said, poking her head into the room before taking off again.

“I just…ok, Corey, I will be right back, but if you need anything-”

“I need Y/n!”

“Besides Y/n right now,” You answered, grabbing the remote and showing him the call button, “Press this if it’s an emergency, like your head hurting or something. I’ll be back to check on your head in an hour or two.”

You jumped back into the chaos that made up your emergency department as a trauma came in. You bounced between critical patients to urgent-but not deadly ones as you watched Bailey walk towards Corey’s room with a nod. 

A little while later, you were sitting at the nurses stadtion, eating a sandwich as you caught up on some charting, when one of the treatment rooms requested assistance.

“Your boy needs meds probably,” Nat chuckled, sending you a smirk.

“On it,” You smiled, throwing the wrapper away and grabbing some hand sanitizer on the way to his room. You gently pushed through the door after knocking, “Hi Corey, how are we feeling in here?”

“My head hurts, but I’d feel better knowing if you were single or not,” He shamelessly flirted, dropping the arm that was previously covering his eyes down. 

“Unfortunately, I am not,” You chucked, putting in an order for some more medication and a request for a doctor to administer it. “But if it makes you feel better, I am dating you.”

“Good,” He replied simply. A few minutes later, when Dr. Halstead came in to add the medication to the drip, Corey sat up like he was electrocuted. “Wait, really? You’re with me? I’m with you?”

“Is that so hard to believe?” You teased, quickly writing down the time and dosage of medication. “I will leave you with that for a little longer, and I will send someone in with some food shortly. If you need anything again, just press the button.”

And you left the room again. You’d reviewed his CT scan when you got back to the station, which was clear, and the next time you went in to check him, he was less awake.

“Hey Corey, how were the crackers and applesauce?” You asked in a calm voice, seeing him barely away.

“Hi, gorgeous,” he mumbled lowly with a smile

“He kept it all down, and hasn’t complained about feeling nauseous at all,” Bailey answered for him.

“Thank you, Bailey,” You said, directed at her, “and thank you, Corey. I’m flattered, but I must tell you, I am engaged.”

“No way,” He groaned, trying to open his eyes, but somehow only closing them further. “Who beat me?”

“You did,” You chuckled lightly before looking at Bailey. “If he kept it all down, then he’s fine to be discharged. Would you rather I hold him here until my shift is done? I’ve only got an hour or so.”

“If you want to take him home, that’s fine by me. I know he’s in good hands. I did bring him a change of clothes, and I’ll take his race suit back.”

“Wait, how do you know where I live?” He asked, grogily.

“I’ve lived there for three years, Corey,” You said, sitting on the edge of his bed to hold his hand and gently run your hands through his hair.

“Wait a second,” he paused, recognition flashing across his features as he finally looked at you, really looked at you, “I’ve been flirting with my own significant other for like 2 days.”

“Well, a few hours, but yeah…”

“Did I win you over?” He smirked as he sent you an uncoordinated wink that actually turned out to be a blink. 

“You won me over the first time you flirted with me, but sure.”

“Good,” He said, and everything settled in the silence as he relished in the feeling of your fingers in his hair for a good 10 seconds before Corey gasped. “Wait, I told you my plans to marry you!”

“Yeah, you did,” You chuckled.

“Fuck! I worked so hard on not telling you!”

“Well, technically, you didn’t say your plan.” You shrugged, “You actually forgot it.”

“How could I forget it? I have this whole plan to-”

“What happened to keeping it a surprise?”

“Oh, right. I’ll shut up now.”

~~~

Main MASTERLIST // NASCAR // HITLIST

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