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“Where is my hat? Geri, come on, where is it? I’m not fucking around today.” Sergio crossed his arms. He meant it. He had practically only fifteen minutes to get to work, and Lord knew he’d hear it from whoever he was relieving if he was even a minute late.
“You better be nice to me, or you’re not getting it back. Would they send you back for not having it? You’re not a teen working at McDonald’s who forgot their visor.” Geri flopped over the bed. Geri never had to work nights. Lots of med students had to do nights in Emergency when they were training, but his program confined him to the day. Sergio on the other hand—well, he got enough nights that it messed with how often he could even see Geri.
“Gerard.”
“You’re not fun. You’re not.” Geri got up from where he was laying on the hat. It was squished inwards. Sergio snatched it from under Geri and started to hit him with it. He was just sitting there, laughing, like Sergio was making a big deal over nothing.
“You’re the worst, Gerard. What would your mother say?”
“I know, I know.” Geri was still laughing, enough that he was wiping tears off his face, as he got up and looked for his book bag. Sergio knew it was in the living room, but after all that, he wasn’t going to say. “I guess I better get going back to mine. You wanna come over tomorrow after I’m done work and you’ve slept?”
Sergio still felt a bit annoyed. He’d let Geri dangle. It was such a pain anyway, the two of them going back and forth for only a few hours, before one of them had to sleep or go to work. “Maybe.”
“I’m telling you, I can’t wait until you’re off nights again, this is some real bull. Okay, okay, out the door we go, Sese.” Geri took Sergio’s arms and guided him out of the bedroom to the front door, picking up his bookbag on the floor by the TV on his way. “I’d drive you, but based on how antsy you are, you take your own car and I’ll take mine so you can pick the route you want, but you be safe, alright?”
“Geri, don’t be a dumbass.” Sergio smiled anyway, tugging Geri in by his collar for a kiss. Geri said this every time Sergio left for a shift, now. It was a curious little foible, and Sergio didn’t even know exactly when it had started happened. But Sergio let it go, because it was touching, if a bit condescending. “Go home and sleep for both of us. I’ll be fine. I’m always fine.”
~
“Good morning, Sergio, if you could call it morning. Hey, could you not move? Hold still.”
Sergio felt himself jerk. It was a voice he recognized, but one he couldn’t place at the moment in his sleepy haze. There were hands on his shoulder and arm, moving it carefully. Sergio tried to pull his arm away from the hands, but it hurt.
“Geri, stop.”
“Do I sound like Geri? Geri’s downstairs. It’s Leo. I told you not to move.”
Sergio’s shift suddenly came screaming back to him as he opened his eyes. He was in a hospital room, one that was being shared with an old man who was sleeping. It was silent, and Sergio could see it was still dark out. Early enough that the sun hadn’t started to rise. So it couldn’t have been that long.
It had been a boring night. He’d done some paperwork for an hour, then gone out with his partner Marcelo for a cruise. They’d been called over a few barfights, none of which required further attention once the drunkards had dispersed, but then they’d been called to an apartment after someone had reported a domestic violence incident. All pretty par for the course. It was soon as the door had been opened, Sergio now vividly remembered a man with pockmarks on his face and a wifebeater on opening the door and instantly shooting him, as soon as they’d knocked on the door. The details were fuzzy after that. He remembered falling, and there was a scuffle. He was sure Marcelo had tasered the guy, or something, because he could hear Marcelo’s voice for a little while. It was too blurry, after that.
“Why are you working so late?” Sergio gestured with the arm that didn’t hurt at Leo, as Leo filled in some paperwork on his clipboard. Leo was a very weird dude. Sergio tried to be mindful that Leo was one of Geri’s best friends, usually, but he was small and stony and didn’t appear to find anything at all fun. Leo’s boyfriend was cheerful and bright, always with such a big smile on his face and a million things to say, but the dinners Geri made them go to with the two of them always made Sergio squirm.
“I don’t work in Geri’s department. I’m just a registered nurse.” Leo’s words always slurred together, and he was quiet enough that Sergio wanted to smack him with a rolled up magazine and tell him to speak up. Most of his friends, and Geri, were loud, expressive people. He was himself. Sergio was honest with himself—he didn’t understand introverts at all.
“Do you remember what happened, Sergio? Your colleagues have to fill in paperwork and stuff. Someone’s going to come up.” Leo sighed, like he was tired.
“What about Geri?”
“I dunno, cops probably want to talk to you first.” Leo shrugged, before leaning back in to check the bandage. “Just so you know, you’re going to be fine. The gunshot missed your humerus, and even luckier, it missed any major arteries. You’ll be up and at it pretty quick. They’ll likely send you home tomorrow or the next.”
“And Marcelo?”
“Your partner? He’s fine. He’s downstairs.”
“Jesus.” Sergio scratched at his hair. His heart was starting to beat thinking about how close he’d come. As if panic was only setting in now. “I don’t feel very well.”
“What sort of not feel well?” Leo was heading towards the door already, swinging his perky bum in his scrubs more than necessary. “I’m going to go say the cops can come upstairs.”
“Like I’m going to throw up. God, you have bad bedside manner.”
Leo came back over. “Well, that’s not fair. I asked to take you specifically tonight. I called Geri, because he wasn’t your emergency contact and I thought he should be. Here, I’ll get Geri to come up first.”
“Please.” Sergio suddenly felt desperate to see Geri’s face. Geri would calm him down, tell him he was okay and still here. That the brush with death hadn’t been that bad. Leo had left the room already, the gentle tapping of his feet going down the hall getting more distant. Sergio looked around. There was a bedpan sitting over by the old man sleeping. Sergio knew he shouldn’t get up, but it wasn’t far. He was going to throw up on the bed if he didn’t get it, or something else, immediately. His legs weren’t injured, anyway. Sergio stood up slowly tested his feet. They’d do. He leapt across the room and grabbed the bedpan, throwing up in it almost as soon as it was in his hands. His right arm was searing with pain even holding the bedpan. Maybe it would have been smarter to vomit on the bed.
“Why did you get up?” Leo stood in the doorway, Geri behind him. He was in plaid pajama pants and a t-shirt from his university, his hair sticking straight up. Normally, Sergio loved this Geri, the dozy, sleepy one who poured his milk into his bowl before his cereal. It was a nice sort of vulnerable, like Geri trusted him enough to see that side of him. Now, Geri’s eyes looked wild and frantic, his hair as crazy as it was because he couldn’t stop running his hands through it. It was a vulnerable that Sergio wished he didn’t have to see. Geri was probably thinking the same about him.
“Sese, jesus, jesus fucking christ. Go lay down, lay down right now.”
Sergio went and laid back down on the bed. He felt better after throwing up, but he still felt weird. Like his whole head wasn’t quite there. Leo rubbed Geri’s back for a second before exiting, giving a stern look to Sergio to behave.
“I just…” Geri walked the length of the bed and back again. He couldn’t settle. “Didn’t you have your protective vest on?”
“The pain is further past my shoulder, where my vest wouldn’t be. I dunno, Geri, it doesn’t matter, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I can see I’ve scared you so much. And I wasn’t safe. I didn’t keep my promise.”
Geri stayed silent. It wasn’t angry, but thoughtful, Sergio could see. Like there was a lot in his mind, and Geri was trying to take the time to pluck the right thing out of it to say.
“I was afraid of this. Like I’d scare someone off because my job can get dangerous. It seemed different with Nando because we both did it. Does it scare you? Please say something.”
Another pause. “How long are you going to be off work, do you know?”
“Geri, what?”
“How long are you going to be off work? You’re going to need help if you’re one-armed. I think you should move into mine. So I can help you. I’d be a better medical caretaker than anyone else. And then you can just, stay.”
Sergio knew he was tired and probably on drugs, but he couldn’t have heard that right. Geri was weird about his space and kept saying that it would be better once he’d graduated and had a better-paying job, so they could get a bigger space. It always sounded like excuses.
“Your place, eh? What’s wrong with my bed.”
Geri raised his eyebrows, waiting for a real response.
“You mean it?”
“Well, I’m not going to start loving you less. Why drag it out?”
Sergio felt his heart thumping, but this time it wasn’t in a panic about his own mortality. “You love me?”
“Come on, let’s not make it weird. I said it.”
Sergio felt warm, in a pleasant, light way. His arm didn’t even hurt as much. It was okay that Geri wasn’t able to express himself very well, especially in a time of stress. He’d said it, and Sergio knew he meant it. “I love you too, you dick.”
~
“Wake up, wake up, wake up, get your egg and protein shake.” Geri made a noise out of his mouth like an air horn, practically in Sergio’s ear.
“Shut the fuck up, oh my god, you’re the worst nurse in the entire world? You say you got a ph.D on the way? In caring for people?” Sergio tried to reach beside him and hit Geri with a pillow. As soon as he opened his eyes, Geri’s face loomed two inches from his nose.
“I’ve re-worked my protein shake recipe. You’re going to like it this time.”
“Oh my god.” Sergio sat up. His arm wasn’t that bad anymore. He only needed to be off for another week or work or so. Geri wasn’t giving up on his task of nursing, though. Not giving up for a fucking second. As soon as Sergio sat up, Geri was opening a lap breakfast tray up to place on Sergio, organizing his breakfast to look appealing on the plate.
“Ger, you know what, the egg is fine.”
“It’s peanut butter this time.”
“You could just use the recipe on the back of the protein powder package.” Sergio didn’t know if Geri was fucking with him, or if he was just that bad of a chef. He was starting to grow suspicious that it was possibly both of these options. Sergio used to brag to his friends that Geri made a mean paella, but the more he looked at it, that seemed to be all Geri cooked. As if he had mastered one dish, and was stubbornly trying to master all the rest at a ridiculously slow speed. Not that Sergio could judge. He wasn’t much of a cook himself and he got a lot of takeout.
“Sese, you have no whimsy. It’s fun to experiment.”
“And I’m your guinea pig. Geri, stop, stop.” Sergio pushed Geri’s hand away as he tried to guide a forkful of egg into Sergio’s mouth. “I’m not two.”
“That’s for damn sure. You don’t respond when I pretend the fork is an airplane flying into your mouth.”
“You are unbelievable.” Sergio took the fork from Geri, patting the bed for him to sit beside him while he ate. The last two weeks had been strangely wonderful. Overwhelming, even for Sergio, particularly with all the legal paperwork regarding the shooting and Geri’s grossly overbearing manner in regards to his injury, but it really was like they were settling into a funny routine that was for them together. Sergio knew it would get mucked with again as soon as he went back to work, but they’d figure out a new one. And besides, it was plenty fucking nice to let someone else do all the work, feed him and clean the house. Even better, Geri had been such a nice, solid presence that Sergio hadn’t felt hardly any of the trauma he was told he would experience after a gunshot wound. He’d had a psychiatric nurse talk to him, and she warned him of nightmares, anxiety, and worry about going back to work. Maybe it would come, maybe it really would. But right now, Geri seemed to be inadvertently an excellent distraction.
“Did you eat, babe?” Sergio pushed the protein shake gently towards Geri. He could go make some toast later if he was still hungry.
“Yeah, I ate hours ago.”
“It’s like 9:20 in the morning, how hyperbolic are you being?”
“Okay, I ate at eight.”
Sergio considered shoving Geri’s head to the side, but instead, he pulled it in to give the top of Geri’s head a kiss. “Why are you like this?”
“Helpful? Adoring? Caring? I can only think of glowing reviews for myself. Here, let me see your sore today. We should probably change the dressing anyway right now.”
Sergio let Geri take his shirt off. “I was thinking loud and air-headed, but we’ll go with your adjectives. And I love you for it.”