FicWad

It was nearing midnight and in the emergency department of Chicago Northern General Hospital, Emily, Sarah and Patrick were waiting for a doctor to examine Emily. Sarah and Patrick were sitting on two uncomfortable chairs next to the hospital bed Emily was lying in. As they waited for the doctor to arrive, Sarah rapidly wrote text messages to Greg and Liz and to Emily’s parents back in Australia. Cell phones were not allowed in the hospital though, so midway through writing a text message, Sarah was asked to continue outside. This left Patrick and Emily alone in the cubicle she was in. For a few seconds after Sarah had gone, there was a silence between the two of them. Emily couldn’t work out quite why, perhaps it was because they had no idea what to say to each other, perhaps it was because they wanted to say something, but they found it hard to say. Finally Emily spoke and broke the silence between them. Although she had been thinking of Patrick, it had only suddenly occurred to her that he must be extremely exhausted from the performance and that he probably needed to go home and get some sleep. Not wanting to prevent him from doing this and thinking she would be a burden if he stayed, Emily decided that it was best to tell him he could go. The thing was, she wished for him to stay, but she knew he needed sleep and that was more important.
“I don’t know how long the doctor will be,” she said looking at Patrick in the eyes, “But it might be a while and you need some sleep after today, so it’s fine, you can go home if you’d like.”
Patrick shook his head, “I’m not going, not until the doctor shows.”
“Aren’t you tired though?” She asked concerned for him.
He nodded his head, “Yeah, but I’m not going to leave you now, I can’t,” he smiled at her.
Emily blushed at his consideration for her. She reached behind her head and grabbed one of the pillows she was resting on. Then she held it out to Patrick and said, “Well if you’re going to stay, you have to give me some peace of mind and rest.”
He grabbed the pillow and grinned, “Just for you, okay.”
Then he tucked the pillow behind his head and got into a more comfortable position before closing his eyes. Emily watched him as he drifted off to sleep. She was right, he had been exhausted, but he had also wanted to stay for her.

After a few minutes in which Emily rested while keeping an eye on the sleeping Patrick, who looked very cute the way he was sleeping, Sarah came back into the cubicle. She saw Patrick sleeping and crept over to her chair and sat down.
“He’s asleep?” She whispered to Emily.
Emily nodded, “He’s exhausted Sarah and he wouldn’t go home, he wanted to stay, so I told him to sleep.”
“See he cares for you,” she said quietly back, “Wanting to stay for you.”
Emily was about to reply when the curtain opened and an older male doctor entered. Emily watched him as he took the scene in before him, Emily lying in the bed, Sarah looking excited and Patrick asleep. Emily thought that the doctor must find them quite amusing.
“Hello,” he said to both Sarah and Emily, “I’ll try to be quiet,” he said indicating to Patrick, “But I can’t guarantee you’re friend will stay asleep.”
Emily laughed a little, “It’s alright, he’s too tired to wake up.”
The doctor smiled and then walked to the end of the bed and looked at the chart hooked on there. He studied it for a minute before looking up at Emily.
“So Miss Roberts, have these symptoms occurred before today?” He asked.
“No, never,” she replied.
“Have you got them at the moment?”
“I feel a little faint but it’s a bit better,” she said.
“Alright, well I think the best place to start is by doing the normal tests, blood, urine and the normal obs which the nurse will do, but I’ll just give you a check over first.”
He moved around the bed and did a quick examination of Emily. After getting through the examination he moved back to the end of the bed and noted something down on the chart before saying, “That’s all normal, but we’ll get these tests done. Is it all right if we keep you for observation overnight?”
“Yeah, whatever’s best,” Emily agreed.
“Alright, I’ll check on you later,” the doctor said before heading out of the cubicle.
Sarah rolled her eyes once he had left, “Quick and no bedside manner,” she stated.
Emily chuckled a bit, “Better than nothing I guess.”

Later on the nurse came and did all the tests the doctor had mentioned. Emily just simply sat through them and they were over with soon enough. Just as she finished doing them, Greg and Liz came bustling into the cubicle. Liz rushed over to Emily and pulled her into one of her ‘leaving you breathless’ hugs. As she pulled away Emily looked over to see Patrick waking up he. He blinked a few times before sitting up and asking, “How long have I been asleep?”
Sarah grinned, “A while, the doctor and nurse have been.”
“Oh,” Patrick said pulling the pillow from behind his head, “Pretty embarrassing.”
“No, you needed it,” Emily said as he handed back the pillow to her.
He nodded, “I guess I did, but what did the doctor say while I was off in dream land?”
“Yeah, any ideas what’s happening?” Greg said to Emily.
Emily sat herself up a little and placed the pillow Patrick had used behind her, “Well they’re not sure what’s wrong but they want me to stay overnight.”
“Well dad, mom,” Sarah said standing up, “I guess that means we better grab some of Emily’s stuff from home.”
“Yes, we should,” Liz said stroking Emily’s hair, “And I better ring your parents,” she said to Emily.
The Clayton’s said their goodbyes to Emily and Patrick and then left to do their duties. Patrick sat on the side of Emily’s bed and looked at her.
“Time to go home?” Emily asked.
Patrick sighed, “I don’t want to leave you here on your own though, but I’m still pretty tired,” he said while taking Emily’s hand and giving it a squeeze.
She kept her hand n his and silently smiled that they were holding hands.
“I want you to go and get some sleep,” she said, “I don’t want you becoming a walking zombie.”
They both laughed, “Aright, well I’ll go but I’ll be back first thing in the morning okay?”
Emily nodded and Patrick stood up taking his hand away from hers, although tentatively.
“Just one thing though,” he said, “When you’re better, would you like to…” he blushed momentarily but continued, “Would you like to go out? I really like you Emily.”
She smiled, “I like you too. Course I’ll go out with you.”
Patrick beamed, “Alright, goodnight then.”
“Night,” Emily said as he disappeared out of the cubicle. She grinned as she closed her eyes and rested. Sarah had been right; he did like her and now he had asked her out and they were going to go on a date.