Work Text:
“—and I believe that’s about it for 9216. She doesn’t really need to be here, but her BP was, like, 60/30 on the floor so she’s just here for pressors. Heh, absolute peach of a woman—” Pei Ming chuckles airily, rolling his eyes with an ounce of fury, “—bites like a motherfucker, but should be gone by morning. However…” the nurse drawls, taunting gaze slowly creeping towards Xie Lian. His pencil delicately slips between his front teeth to hide his growing smirk.
Xie Lian looks up from her report scribblings, smiling nervously as she places a lock of hair behind her ear and flicks her eyes back and forth awkwardly. “Um…?”
“9217’s here for acute respiratory hypoxia.” He pauses, grinning, giving it a moment to sink in. “He was—”
“—Oh no,” Xie Lian interrupts, eyes widening in realization of the cause behind her coworker’s growing smirk.
“—admitted after coding, like, twice in the ER. They brought him back, but y’know,” he grimaces, “not exactly cleanly.”
Xie Lian drops her pen, face collapsing into her open palms. “Do you think— I mean do we know…?”
Her coworker bites his cheek to hold in a mean laugh. “We do. We, uh—” he snorts. “All of day shift checked. She’s clocked in and ready for you. I believe whoever was charge actually called to double check she’d be on this specific case before assigning you to it.”
Xie Lian squints dangerously, unknowingly looking more like a child pouting than a grown woman upset over her patient assignment.
She has a lot of pull around here; she works her ass off, stays out of workplace drama, and has a genuine kindness that somehow tends to land her in frequently uninvited leadership positions.
She figures she can take advantage of it just this once. “Hm. Well, who was charge?”
Pei Ming snorts.
“Me,” he proclaims proudly, handing over a clipboard weighted down by stacks of paperwork and the word ‘CHARGE’ sharpied on its backside. “And, oh wow, look at that. Now it’s you.”
Xie Lian seethes, lips thinning into white.
“Sorry, sweetheart, I’d help you out— really would,” he hums, running a hand through his long hair, somehow impossibly clean and greaseless despite the stale hospital air. “But my shift’s up. Plus, I’ve got a hot date tonight, so.”
Xie Lian groans. “I’ll remember this. I hope you know that I’ll remember this.”
Pei Ming howls a laugh. Waving wildly as he swipes his card through the exit sensor. “Have a lovely night, sweetheart. Try not to run yourself too ragged. Oh!” he exclaims excitedly, “but if you do, I’ve heard there’s this lovely RT downstairs who frequents this unit pretty often, and, ho ho,” he pretends to think hard, placing a rubbing hand on his chin, “I actually believe she should be up today, what luck! So if you need—”
Merciless teasing is interrupted as he ducks beneath a box of gloves launched directly towards his head. He slips out the door with a salute and a frightened squall.
Turning around in her chair, Xie Lian begins to investigate her patients, dutifully gulping down a jug of coffee as she works.
While no stranger to the nursing profession, Xie Lian is relatively new to both the ICU, and the city itself. She had worked in a couple long-term care facilities, finding immediate, fulfilling joy in providing care for others’ loved ones in the way she wasn’t able to provide her own. However, she had been run dry— due to everything ranging from facilities not being stocked appropriately, to shifty management and her resulting financial insecurity, she was forced to find a new, better paying position.
At first, she had been devastated, missing the long-term relationships she had been able to form with desperate, grieving families just like herself. But recently, she’s realized a different love for intensive care. These families aren’t like her; their hope for the future is valid, stubborn, and loyal— they reach at straws that aren’t universally considered delusional.
And that’s deeply healing in a different sense– but it’s all the same, really. She fosters the hope in others that she was never allowed to have.
The paycheck is lovely too. Not that she’s particularly picky.
“Xie Lian!” A voice shouts from her right.
She tilts her head slightly in acknowledgement without looking away from the screen. “Hiya,” she smiles, taking another sip of 1900 coffee.
“Xie Lian! You’re here!” Shi Qingxuan rolls their chair across the hall towards Xie Lian, making a commotion that causes heads to turn towards them.
“Shh, shh!” Xie Lian scolds, giggling behind her straw. “ Quietly, quietly, now.”
Shi Qingxuan acts as though they didn’t hear. “I didn’t know you were working tonight! Hi! I haven’t worked a shift with you in a million years!”
“I think it was three days ago,” Xie Lian corrects with a polite smile. “But I’ve missed you too. Oh, and I wasn’t scheduled, I just picked up a shift.”
At this, her friend frowns. “How many is that for you this week?”
“5 or something, I think.”
“ Xie Lian!” Her friend scolds, eyes widening in horror. “You’ve been working too much, A-Lian,” they pause, features taking on a more serious angle. Their words are gentle. “Are you still trying to pay off the funerals?”
Xie Lian bites her lip, fixing her gaze resolutely on the screen. "Yes,” she answers simply. “But that’s not the only reason, Jill needed someone to take her—”
“Still?” Shi Qingxuan asks, ignoring the latter statement.
Xie Lian sighs. “I— yeah. It’s… expensive,” she adds, eyes falling to her lap.
“You know we’d help you. All of us— we are, like, literally nothing here without you. Everyone loves you, and—”
“—and I appreciate that,” Xie Lian uncharacteristically interrupts, keeping her tone polite, yet firm. “But I do not want that. You know that. Please don’t ask again.”
Shi Qingxuan sighs, resting their chin on and reading over their friend’s shoulder. “I know. Sorry.”
Xie Lian tilts her head, resting her temple atop Shi Qingxuan’s. “Mm, it’s nothing. Don’t worry about me,” she insists, as though everyone in her life doesn’t spend a vast majority of their time worrying about her.
“Okay, well,” with a pout and a huff, Shi Qingxuan pulls away. “I’ll be over here if you need a hand with anything. Oh!” They cheer, perking up with genuine excitement.
“I heard you got assigned 17. A-Lian, you have to tell me when and if RT comes up. I’ll literally never forgive you if you don’t.”
Xie Lian groans, head falling into her hands once again. “Why does everyone know about this?” She grunts, curling her hair behind her ears in a fruitless attempt to compose herself. “If I have to call RT, I’ll do so with professionalism. It’s nothing I haven’t done before. No big.”
“Hey, this is for my sake too. Don’t forget, there’s a really beefed up chick down there who I’ve got my little eye on. They should come on up with your special someone—”
“I KNOW,” Xie Lian cries, launching up from her seat as she speed walks into the clean supply room. “I know! I’ll— I’ll burn that bridge when I get there!”
Closing the door behind her, she takes a deep breath.
Though everyone seems to be mutually excited for the impending respiratory consult, Xie Lian feels her blood buzzing underneath her skin, like little bees forming a colony inside the adipose of her stomach
She’s never even talked to the woman— not if you don’t count bumbled apologies for being in the way or whispered answers to patient related questions, which Xie Lian doesn’t. She’s never even asked her the menial, polite conversational questions, like ‘how was your day’ or ‘are you aware of how attractive you are’.
Less emphasis on the latter. Or maybe more.
Xie Lian has been impressively quiet about her crush— if that’s something she can really call it. She’s never had interest in another person like this, not since a very long time ago at least, which isn’t something she’d like to replicate in any way in the future.
She likes being alone. Thrives, actually. So it’s all a little bit scary.
Before she can spiral any further, she's snapped from her thoughts by the closing of the CS door.
“Hey, you look like you just saw a ghost,” Shi Qingxuan notes. “What’s wrong, honey? Is this about—”
“It’s totally fine,” Xie Lian breathes through a sigh. “Really, I’m— sorry. Just—”
Hands curl onto her shoulders, rubbing little circles into the bone. “Hey, if you want we can switch assignments? I haven’t given any meds yet, or even introduced myself, so we could just give each other report—”
“No,” Xie Lian says, “but thank you. I appreciate that. I’m okay, just being weird.”
Shi Qingxuan sighs. “Well, stop being weird. I don’t like it when you’re weird.”
Xie Lian giggles, wiping the grease from her eyelids, “I know, me neither. Sorry.”
Stepping away, Xie Lian slides her thumbprint onto the Pyxis, entering her passcode to pull meds. “You know this poor woman had a car wreck ten years ago and just never got treatment for it?”
“Jesus.”
“Jesus,” she agrees, grabbing a medicine cup and plopping a tablet of oxycodone inside. “And that’s not even what she’s here for— just the dizziness and cognitive decline caused by her BP being in the toilet,” she sighs, grabbing a bag of norepinephrine before standing up and pulling her hair into a low ponytail. “I mean, I get it. That's just the gap between impoverished rural communities and limited access to medicinal healthcare, and I guess at some point the issues get so out of hand that you just give up on any ability to gain your previous life back.”
“I don’t understand how you could let it get that bad, though.”
Stepping aside to allow Shi Qingxuan to access the machine, Xie Lian grabs a bag of D5W from the bin.
“Lack of access to resources about health education doesn’t allow people to know when things are bad. And besides, a lot of people don’t have the time or money to sacrifice towards their own physical wellbeing when they’re busy working paycheck to paycheck. God knows insurance isn’t doing them any favors, and that’s if people even have access to it.”
“Damn. Well, it makes me feel a little better that she’s an unkind human. I’d be more sad if she was a sweet old lady.”
“A-Xuan,” Xie Lian scolds, despite her hidden smile. “We are all sweet old ladies until we’re not.”
“Yeah, yeah, I don’t even know what that means,” Shi Qingxuan blows out a laugh, hands full with medications and IV tubing. “Have fun with your GCS 15 patients, I’ll be over here in 18 and 19 with my wonderfully, heavily sedated folks.”
Xie Lian huffs, waving them goodbye with a hidden tinge of jealousy.
Bundling her wires of tubing into her widespread arms, she heads towards her first patient, hoping to be quickly in and out.
Mrs. Millie is admittedly a frightening woman. Her long hair, brittle and gray with age, reaches down to her sacrum, twisting and turning around her body like veins. Pei Ming had said in report that she had used a wheelchair for the last decade, which Xie Lian fully believes considering the degree of atrophy in the woman’s spindly legs. The skin underneath her eyes seems to sag as though Satan had brought a hand up towards the earth twenty years ago and has been fighting valiantly in a losing attempt to tug the woman downwards ever since.
Not that Xie Lian would ever think that about someone.
“Good evening,” Xie Lian greets, running through her script in her mind. “My name’s Xie Lian, I’m going to be taking care of you tonight! I’ll just get your nightly meds started and then we’ll see where we need to go from there, sound good?”
The woman just blinks, squinting at Xie Lian with the importance of a bug on the wall.
Taking that as confirmation enough, she begins checking through the lines running from day shift, beginning her nightly assessments. “Are you in any pain right—”
“When can I smoke,” Mrs. Millie barks, nothing about her tone indicating a question.
Xie Lian sighs. “Um. So, we actually have you on 40L of oxygen, we can’t—”
“Take it off.”
“Okay, so we can’t do that,” Xie Lian hums apologetically. “Last time they tried they said you dropped to the 70s pretty quickly, and—”
“Do I look like I give a shit.”
“No,” Xie Lian nods solemnly. “No, you do not, but that’s okay because I do a lot. I don’t want you getting hurt any further, Mrs. Millie. I promise you once everything becomes a bit more stable we can talk to your doctor about how long we can take you off oxygen, but for now we have to keep it on. I’m sorry.”
Reconstituting an antibiotic into the DW5, Xie Lian runs through solutions in her head. “Could I get you a nicotine patch? Would that help at all?”
Mrs. Millie simply growls, a deep vibration emitting from her chest.
Xie Lian nods. “Ah. Okay, so we can come back to that later? I’ll be going now.”
“That would be best," she says.
Shutting the door behind her with a soft click, Xie Lian takes a moment to breathe, eyes wide and overwhelmed.
Someone laughs from her right, then quickly smothers it with their hand.
“I’m sorry,” Shi Qingxuan giggles, sounding not at all apologetic. “I overheard Pei Ming saying that one was bad. I can’t believe they gave you a group like that while charge.”
Xie Lian sighs, deeper than she has in years. “It’s not the acuity, just the—” Kindness, Xie Lian, kindness– “eccentricity. I’ll be okay.”
“Okay, well, tell me if you aren’t. I’m not too busy tonight, so. Here if you need an extra hand.”
“Thanks,” Xie Lian breathes, genuine and soft. “I really do appreciate that.”
A bit of silence, then—
“Oh!” Shi Qingxuan exclaims, scaring Xie Lian enough to bounce in her chair. “Sorry, just remembered. Someone called your phone while you were in there. Doctor put in an RT consult for your old lady and they’re on their way up.”
“No…”
“Yes…”
“Um…”
“Yeah.”
They blink at one another silently.
“And that was how long ago?”
Shi Qingxuan checks her watch. “Um. About fifteen minutes.”
“So…” Xie Lian concludes, heart dropping in realization. “So, they should be—”
“Um, excuse me?” A voice, smooth as silk, hums politely from behind her. She thinks she'd recognize that sound anywhere.
Slowly, very slowly, Xie Lian turns in her chair. She stares ahead silently, looking resolutely at her scrubs rather than at the person. After realizing that’s probably creepier than just looking them in the eye, she lets her gaze travel upwards, not at all stopping to investigate the elegant dip of the woman’s collarbone.
Her black, silky hair, pulled into a makeshift ponytail, doesn’t quite reach her shoulders, exposing the back of her neck slightly through wisps of hair too short to be included in the elastic. Her ears are lined with several little silver cuffs all the way up to her cartilage, some extending tiny chains between them. She’s not wearing makeup except for a slight, smoky smear of eyeliner framing her outer corners. Her black scrubs are paired with a dark grey undershirt, which has been pulled up around her elbows.
“Sorry to bother,” the woman says softly, as though she were trying intentionally hard to be gentle. “I didn’t mean to interrupt you guys.”
Neither Shi Qingxuan nor Xie Lian have anything else to say, and the conversation lulls at an awkward pace until the woman puts her hand under the hand sanitizer pump outside of Mrs. Millie’s room.
“Um,” the woman swallows, seeming genuinely nervous. “You can call me San Niang, I think we’ve, uh, worked together before. It’s nice to see you again.”
And Xie Lian knows that's not her name. She can see her legal name through the EPIC chat log. It's a nickname, and Xie Lian’s stomach swoops dangerously in her stomach. She has to place a hand over her mouth out of the fear of the sensation making her sick.
“Yes,” she mumbles out bravely. “It’s— and you.”
“I— yes," San Niang stumbles. "Is there anything I need to know about the patient before going in?”
And this, Xie Lian can do. Hopefully.
“Yes, um.” She flips through her paperwork, clearing her throat as she gathers her bearings. “71 year old female, full code, no allergies, um…” she teeters off, feeling a little nervous. “She wants to smoke, but— but I can’t let her because her sat drops. She’s a little…”
“Uh huh got it,” Hua Cheng confirms with a knowing smile. “I’m just giving her a breathing treatment then I’ll be out of your way.”
“NO!” Xie Lian squeals, drawing weird looks their way. Glancing around in panic, she quickly squeezes her eyes shut, waving her arms wildly as her cheeks reddej. “Sorry, sorry! I just meant no rush. You’re not— not bothering us or anything. Take your time.”
Hua Cheng glares at something all around them, then looks at her worriedly. “Okay, thank you.”
Beginning to walk into the room, the woman pauses, poking her head out towards Xie Lian with a haggard, goofy smile. “You seem to know her better than I, so I might need you to come in and save me, jiejie.”
“Y-yes. I understand. Let me know if— yes! You can EPIC message me! Whenever! My, uh, my computer is on!”
Hua Cheng snorts, then nods, then salutes, then ducks into the room.
On her right, Shi Qingxuan chokes through a collection of giggles. Looking towards Xie Lian with an outright flabbergasted expression, they simply mouth ‘Jiejie?’
Xie Lian groans.
New secure private message.
Xie Lian blinks up at her computer, clicking onto the private chat message.
Hua Cheng, RRT
‘I need help. SOS. SOS.’
It’s been three minutes tops, what could she even need? Xie Lian giggles under her breath.
Xie Lian, RN, BSN, CCRN, RN-BC
‘Is anything wrong?’
Hua Cheng, RRT
‘I need a brave, strong, capable knight to save me from a ferocious, smoke-seething dragon (9216).
Hiding her mouth beneath her hoodie sleeve, Xie Lian fails to hold back an ugly snort. Maybe she should play back.
X ie Lian, RN, BSN, CCRN, RN-BC
‘But San Niang, I don’t entirely believe you. If she were truly smoke-seething, I think I’d have much less to save you from.
Xie Lian’s heart thumps wildly, and she blames it on the borderline breach of professionalism. She doesn’t like breaking rules, after all– what if San Niang views her behavior as inappropriate? What if she doesn’t like–-
Hua Cheng, RRT
‘You wound me, jiejie. To offer an aiding hand then cower when it's called upon. Deeply betrayed, jiejie. Deeply betrayed.’
Xie Lian, RN, BSN, CCRN, RN-BC
‘Don’t pout, now. Is there anything specific you need?’
A pause. Three dots appear and disappear repeatedly until a response finally comes through.
Hua Cheng, RRT
‘Actually, yes. If jiejie would be so kind as to offer her services, despite her repetitive acts of cowardice, I was going to pull her up in the bed, but could use an extra hand.’
Throughout her life, Xie Lian is constantly teased and poked fun at for her ongoing bouts of obliviousness and airheaded tendencies. She knows, objectively, that she's conventionally attractive to most people, but doesn’t consider this as a magnetic factor due to her general off-putting nature. However, she can read between the lines on this one.
There’s a CNA in the room already grabbing evening vitals. The patient is 90 pounds sopping wet.
Hua Cheng, despite her awkward, teenage-like frame, is built like a fucking ox.
There’s an unspoken intention here.
Three dots on the chat screen continue to appear then disappear, until Xie Lian rolls her eyes– tired of waiting.
Xie Lian, RN, BSN, CCRN, RN-BC
‘Alright. I’ll be there in just a couple moments. In a room.
She’s not, actually. It’s not hard to see that. If Xie Lian didn’t have her head angled slightly awkwardly to the left, Hua Cheng could actually see the outline of Xie Lian’s mousy hair blatantly sitting in the hallway through the shaded window in the patient’s room.
“Oh my god, are you playing hard to get?” A voice over her shoulder asks. “Xie Lian!” Shi Qingxuan squeals, wrapping their arms around her from the back and rocking side to side with a nauseating vigor.
“Stop! Stop— I wasn’t doing anything—!”
Shi Qingxuan snorts meanly. “I’m in a room— my ass! What did you even do that for?”
Xie Lian’s head falls into her hands. “I don’t know. I guess I was stalling…?”
“Well, shit, I’m not sure that’s working for you,” they hum, pointing through the window.
Through all the commotion, Xie Lian must’ve slid slightly to the left, putting her within Hua Cheng’s line of sight from within the patient’s room. Standing behind the bed with a hand on Mrs. Millie’s back, her blurry figure waves excitedly.
“Shit.”
“You better get in there, slugger.”
Standing on wobbly legs, Xie Lian toddles through the room.
“Hi Mrs. Millie! I’m just here to, ah, help you move up a little in the bed.” As she speaks, Xie Lian lowers the head. “That way we can get you set up and ready for RT. Sound good?”
“No.”
“Beautiful. Let’s do it.” Hua Cheng smiles haggardly, with an overexaggerated clap. Xie Lian notices the tech is nowhere to be seen, meaning Hua Cheng must’ve ushered the poor kid out. She’ll have to apologize later.
Situating themselves on opposite sides of the bed, Xie Lian begins to shuffle between the sheets, lowering the head of the bed. “Do you have the other side of the drawsheet over there?”
“Mhm!” Hua Cheng chirps, grasping it firmly.
“Okay, ready?”
“Ready.”
“1, 2, 3,” Xie Lian counts, before they move in tandem to pull the patient upwards smoothly.
“Yup, that’s perfect right there. Thanks, jiejie.”
Xie Lian puts the head of the bed back to its upright position, placing a hand on her aching back and pretending not to notice Hua Cheng squinting deeply at the action. “It’s no problem, happy to help!”
She turns her focus towards the patient. “Is there anything I can get you before I go, Mrs. Millie? Are we having any issues with pain so far tonight?”
“We aren’t having shit, honey. My chest is fucking killing me, so unless you want to do something about that for me you can get the hell out of here.”
“You do not speak to her like that.”
Xie Lian blinks. Looking back up to Hua Cheng, the girl’s hands are gripping the bed so hard her knuckles are plastered white, as if she were trying to keep them in place from doing something else. Her voice is deep and tight, lips curled in fury with eyebrows angled downwards as her previous careless disposition evaporates.
If she weren’t defending Xie Lian, she might actually be a little scared of her herself.
“San Niang, it’s—”
“No!” She interrupts, leaning towards the patient menacingly. “She is only trying to help you. You have no fucking right to speak to her like that. You try that one more time, and I swear to god the entirety of RT is going to despise you, and then you’ll find out what it does feel like to have your chest hurt.”
“San Niang.” Xie Lian says firmly.
Breathing a bit hard, she glances up from her fiery rant. Both Xie Lian and Mrs. Millie look at her with wide, frightened eyes.
“Let’s step outside for a moment, yeah?”
Hua Cheng swallows, clearing her throat. “Yeah. Yeah— that’s. Alright.”
Looping around the bed to place a gentle hand on her coworker’s back, Xie Lian guides Hua Cheng from the room like a mother crossing the road with her child.
“Hey, are you—” Xie Lian starts, closing the door behind her.
“Sorry,” Hua Cheng interrupts, voice suddenly desperate in her throat. “I’m sorry, that was out of line, jiejie. I just— I mean, she shouldn’t have—”
“I’m used to it,” Xie Lian cuts in, voice kind and understanding. “I appreciate you caring, but I’m used to it.”
“You shouldn’t be,” Hua Cheng growls. “You shouldn’t be. Not that. I mean, fuck– not you.”
“San Niang—”
“Sorry, I’m— I’m gonna go do this stupid neb, and then, uh. I’ll be on my way.” She gulps, energy feeling somewhat skittish, not unlike a frightened animal.
Before Xie Lian can respond, the girl slips back into the room.
After giving meds, doing assessments, and introducing herself to the family of her other patient, Xie Lian camps out at her desk between her patients’ rooms, subtly watching the camera to wait for Hua Cheng to emerge.
When she finally does, it’s with a meek disposition, as though she’s suddenly tiptoeing around the halls she had previously pretended to own.
That just won’t do.
“Hey,” Xie Lian calls out softly, grabbing the girl’s hand to get her attention. It has the intended effect, possibly too much of it, causing Hua Cheng to freeze in her tracks, shoulders hiking upwards as though she’d seen a wild bear.
“We’ve all gone off on a patient before, I truly understand. And I really appreciate you standing up for me— sometimes I forget that it is wrong to be spoken to that way, but it’s also because they’re really sick and feel bad. People deserve kindness at their dark moments too.”
Under her breath Hua Cheng says something Xie Lian can’t discern.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t—”
“I'm sorry," she says, a bit dazed. Xie Lian has to tilt her ear closer to hear. "I didn’t know they treated you like that,” Hua Cheng whispers, voice trembling in her throat as she squeezes the palm tucked into her own with closed eyes.
“Oh,” Xie Lian responds dumbly. “San Niang, oh, it’s not—” she stops herself, noticing tears building in the woman’s eyes.
“Oh,” she whispers, horrified, squeezing the woman’s hand. “Oh, hey. It’s really okay, nobody would be completely kind to everyone when they’re sick like this. It just comes onto us, but it’s not personal. I’ve had worse.”
Hua Cheng shakes her head. “That’s not— no… not—” her gaze locks onto the floor. “You, ” she emphasizes, “I didn’t know they treated you like that.”
Shocked into silence, Xie Lian gapes, mouth closing and opening as she searches her brain for anything to say.
“And I’m not sorry,” Hua Cheng proclaims, seeming to gain a bit of her fire back as she unconsciously twiddles with Xie Lian’s fingers. “I’m not sorry, and I’m not apologizing to her. I should’ve said more to that fucking—”
“San Niang!” Xie Lian scolds. “She’s 71…”
“More time for her to have figured out how not to be a hateful fucking bitch.”
Curling her lips inward, Xie Lian rubs a sleeve over her mouth, shoulders shaking slightly. When she doesn’t say anything in response, Hua Cheng panics.
“Jiejie, I— sorry. I didn’t mean to raise my voice at—”
“San Niang!” Xie Lian finally bursts out, poorly restrained giggles pouring out of her chest in melodic echos. “You— pfft,” she interrupts herself with a snort. “You can’t say that!”
At the sound, a huge, face-splitting grin cracks between Hua Cheng’s cheeks. She leans against the doorway to brace herself as she begins to laugh alongside her.
“Can,” she sniffs between chuckles. “Did.”
Finally letting go of her hand, Xie Lian pillows her arms onto the desk in front of her, flopping her head into the space between in a desperate attempt to silence her laughter.
“You need to— gosh,” she snorts pitifully. “Don’t you have work to be doing?”
Hua Cheng smirks wildly. “I do, but luckily for jiejie, I won’t be far.”
She says it with a bit of sarcasm, but Xie Lian notices something underneath that reeks of longing and insecurity.
Xie Lian curls a fallen strand of hair behind her ear. “Good. I wouldn’t want my knight in shining armor away for too long. Ah, San Niang, who knows who might call me a mean name while you are gone!”
Gasping with newfound confidence at the teasing, Hua Cheng perks up impossibly brighter, finally beginning to walk away, though it seems more like she’s being physically pulled by an invisible wire.
“Jiejie! You know I’d defend your honor anyday! Tell me when and where! They’ll burn–!” she squints, nodding to herself contentedly before adding, “—they'll perish! ”
With an exhausted giggle, Xie Lian forces herself to return to her work.
New secure private message.
Expecting a unit-wide message or EICU nurse introduction, Xie Lian opens the message.
Shi Qingxuan, RN, BSN
‘knight in shining armor??? A-Lian u are so embarrassing!!’
Glancing towards where Shi Qingxuan is sitting, she notices there’s no one there, meaning she’s sending this message from inside of a patient room.
Xie Lian groans.
Xie Lian, RN, BSN, CCRN, RN-BC
‘I didn’t know what to say! Don’t make fun of me through the work chat.’
Shi Qingxuan, RN, BSN
‘ur never living that down… u have a crush!!!!’
Xie Lian, RN, BSN, CCRN, RN-BC
‘A-Xuan that is not what this chat is for.’
Shi Qingxuan, RN, BSN
‘who knows, maybe the higher ups are reading this and rooting for you!! go get your girl!! you deserve it!!’
Xie Lian, RN, BSN, CCRN, RN-BC
‘I don’t think she likes me that way. But thank you, I appreciate your support’
Shi Qingxuan, RN, BSN
‘XIE LIAN. I COULD STRANGLE YOU RN.’
Xie Lian, RN, BSN, CCRN, RN-BC
‘Please don’t send that through the EPIC chat!’
Shi Qingxuan, RN, BSN
‘SHE COULDNT BE MORE DOWN IF SHE TRIED. GIRL.’
Xie Lian, RN, BSN, CCRN, RN-BC
‘What does that mean?’
Shi Qingxuan, RN, BSN
good lord a-lian sometimes i worry about how you navigate the modern world…
Xie Lian, RN, BSN, CCRN, RN-BC
‘MapQuest.’
Shi Qingxuan, RN, BSN
u did not just say that. im pointedly ignoring that. so how r we gonna get ur girl.
Xie Lian, RN, BSN, CCRN, RN-BC
‘Ah, we aren’t… she’s not mine, I don’t own her.’
Shi Qingxuan, RN, BSN
oh sry i thought differently after that whole ‘my knight in shining armor’ display u hadgoing on
Closing out of the chat from embarrassment, Xie Lian begins her nightly charting. She loses track of time, but is brought out of her foggy, distant work mind when a coffee is carefully placed in front of her.
“Hey,” Hua Cheng hums, eyes forming crescents with her smile. “I thought you might need this,” she offers, twiddling her hands a bit nervously.
Xie Lian thinks, with a hint of embarrassment, she’d like to feel the soothing warmth of her hands again.
Visibly shaking the thoughts from her head, Xie Lian takes a hearty sip. Despite already having a full jug of coffee earlier, she feels entirely inclined to drink it without complaint. It’s exactly how she likes it, but Xie Lian doesn’t question how she came across that information— probably Shi Qingxuan.
“Ah, this is so wonderful. Thank you so much, San Niang. You really didn’t have to do this!”
Hua Cheng makes a disapproving noise. “Nonsense, jiejie. It’s my pleasure.”
They chat pleasantly about their nights so far, despite it only being 2200 and having spent a majority of it together. At some point, the conversation dies out, and Hua Cheng settles peacefully behind Xie Lian’s chair, resting her chin on the back cushion and quietly watching Xie Lian as she charts.
Xie Lian thinks it must be pretty boring, but Hua Cheng watches her work with an attentive eye, as though Xie Lian’s bare minimal charting was a work of modern art.
!! Deterioration Score: 65 !!
Acknowledge // Not on care team
“Shit,” Xie Lian hisses, clicking acknowledge on the orange pop-up message. “She just keeps desatting…”
“Is it 16? Want me to pop in and check on her?”
Xie Lian buckles down, quietly switching into her ICU brain, which she admittedly hasn’t used all night, other than to hang a couple pressors and sedate a patient in the other room.
“No, it’s no biggie.” Xie Lian denies instinctively, before recognizing the help for what it is. “Hey, actually, would you mind doing me a favor?”
“Anything.”
“Could you peek in and check that she hasn’t pulled her oxygen off?”
Hua Cheng hums in assent.
Comically, she pops her head in far enough to see the patient, but not far enough to be noticed. “Mhm. It’s off, jiejie.”
Xie Lian exhales. “Good. She’s okay, then. The desatting is just because she won’t keep it on, but I can’t force her to.”
“Want me to see if I can wrestle it back onto her?”
“Ah, you can try, but…” Xie Lian trails off with a grimace.
“Won’t keep it on. Got it.”
Continuing her charting, Hua Cheng settles back into her position behind her, and Xie Lian finds herself soaking up the girl’s presence, almost being lulled to sleep by the rhythmic tufts of air blowing onto her shoulder.
“Hua Cheng!” Someone shouts, snapping them both from their peaceful bliss.
“Fuck,” she mutters under her breath. “Yeah, coming!”
Switching her attention back to the screen Hua Cheng glances to the side apologetically.
“Sorry, jiejie. Duty calls.”
Xie Lian snorts. “Have you just been putting work off this whole time?”
“Totally. Completely. Unapologetically.”
Collapsing into breathless giggles, Xie Lian waves her off with a fond eye roll. “You should— ah, um. Go. Before you get in trouble.”
Climbing to her feet, Hua Cheng grins. “Okay, okay. But if the old bat—”
“—you can’t say that!”
“—says anything mean again I swear I’ll take her out.” Her voice softens into something more genuine. “You don’t have to take that.”
“Hua Cheng! Get your ass—”
“FUCK, HE XUAN,” Hua Cheng yells back with equal volume and hatred. “I’m coming, fuck. Sorry jiejie, I have to go beat the shit out of some poor CF kid.” With a little twirl, she turns back around, curling her hands behind her back and swaying dreamily. “I’ll see you around?”
Xie Lian smiles, biting her thumb as she looks back towards her screen. “I’m sure you will, my San Niang.”