Chapter Text
Charlie Spring is having a terrible, no good, very bad day. It started with his alarm deciding to go on strike - luckily he jerked awake at 6:45, thanks to Patroclus walking all over his face, but that left him just enough time to wrestle into his uniform, throw some dry food in his irritating (yet helpful) cat's bowl, and sprint out the door.
Skidding into the station at 7:05, he's greeted by a cold stare from Evan, the new EMS Lieutenant onsite. “Spring, tardiness costs lives,” he bitched, glaring and following as Charlie marches into the break room for some extremely sub-par coffee and, he hopes, a banana. There's one left in the bowl, but the amount of brown spots scream ‘bad idea’, so Charlie sighs and grabs a granola bar from Cally as Evan drones on about the importance of punctuality.
Once he has a few bites of breakfast in him, Charlie turns, interrupting his supervisor. “I hear you, Evan. My alarm didn’t go off, and considering a I have a five-year perfect record of timeliness, perhaps we could let this one go?”
He doesn’t wait for a response, striding out as his radio lets out a series of high-pitched beeps, drowning out Evan’s sputtering behind him. "Alert - potential STEMI, 62 year old male found collapsed in the kitchen. Address is 125 Sage Brush Drive."
He sighs, shoving down the rest of the granola bar and hops into the rig, his partner, Tao, giving him an amused side-eye. “Bad morning?” Charlie rolls his eyes as he buckles in, taking a sip of coffee and grimacing. “The literal worst, compounded by Evan.” Tao winces in sympathy as he puts the ambulance in gear and flips the sirens, pulling out as GPS calibrates.
When they get to the house, they rush inside where some hysterical woman is screaming. “MY HUSBAND, HE COLLAPSED.” They rush in and turn the man on his side as Charlie feels for a pulse and Tao works to get a blood pressure reading. “Shit, Charlie, it’s 200/105. We need to move him quick and get an EKG, but I'm pretty sure we've moved from potential to definite STEMI.”
At that precise moment, the man decides to void his breakfast all over the floor in front of him…and also on Charlie, who is kneeling and trying to keep his airway clear. Charlie casts his gaze up at the ceiling as Tao presses his lips together - untimely merriment would be in very poor taste right now.
“Ma’am, we think your husband might be having a cardiac event. We’re going to take him to Memorial Hospital, since it’s the closest. Unless you have another preference?” Tao asks. The man’s wife is weeping, and she says, “No, no, that’s fine…do you…” She goes to get his wallet, trying to hand it to the paramedics.
“Are you okay to drive? You should bring the wallet when you come, so it doesn’t get lost.” Tao is a grouchy, acerbic man, but he is very, very good with panicking relatives. “I called my daughter, she’s on the way.” Tao nods and looks at the man’s ID, making a note of his name and date of birth.
Charlie works to make sure the man’s throat is clear as they load him onto a stretcher, and once they’re in the ambulance, they work fast, getting him hooked up to monitors and starting an IV. “Fuck fuck fuck, he’s going into v-fib” Tao curses as Charlie starts CPR.
“I’ve got this, Tao. Go drive.” As he begins the process of CPR, humming to himself, he hears a crack and swears again. “Not his fucking rib, Jesus fuck.” Charlie is really winning on all points today.
Tao gets them to the ER in record time and Charlie hops on top of the man, continuing CPR as they rush him inside. He sees a pair of large, freckled hands sliding in and an authoritative voice announcing “I’ve got this, you can hop off.” Charlie does, thrilled at handing over the responsibility, though he's less thrilled about his now cold uniform covered in vomit.
Looking up, he meets the eyes of the most gorgeous man he’s ever seen, wearing light purple scrubs that are unfairly suited to him - no one should look that hot in hospital clothes. “NICK NELSON, Nurse” is emblazoned on his badge (the man even takes a good ID picture), and Charlie makes sure that name is saved in his brain for future reference, as now is probably not an appropriate time to start flirting.
“Charlie, come on!” pants Tao, zipping up out of nowhere. “We’ve got another call coming in, you can change in the back of the rig.” Handsome Nick shoots Charlie a distracted smile, though as Charlie is leaving, he hears everyone cheer. They must have gotten a steady pulse back.
A week later, Charlie and Tao are bringing in a teenager who lost a battle with his skateboard and now has a broken leg. After dropping the kid off, he stops by the front desk to chat with Mary, the charge nurse - she always has the best gossip. She's in the middle of a story about Sheila once again trying to flirt with the new guy and getting utterly shut down, when Nick walks up and leans on the counter. Charlie recognizes him with a start - “Oh hey, Nick, what happened to that guy last week? Did he live?”
“He lived. I’ll tell you about it over a drink.” Nick smirks, raising an eyebrow at Charlie. Charlie was stunned into silence. While he stands there, gaping like a fish, Nick slips a piece of paper into the front pocket of his uniform. “My number. Text me when you’re free.”
The man saunters away, giving everybody a good look at what he's got in the trunk, but Charlie’s reverie is broken by the very amused voice of his partner. “Holy shit, that might be the smoothest thing I’ve ever seen.” Tao said. Mary is also looking delighted, and she grins at Charlie over her reading glasses. "Damn right. Honestly I didn't even know Nick had it in him."
“It really was” Charlie replies distractedly, staring down the hallway where his Prince Charming has disappeared. After a minute, he shakes his head. “We should get back to the rig - Evan wanted us at this afternoon’s meeting.” Tao groans, but they trudge back, and as Tao puts the ambulance in drive, Charlie pulls the paper out and quickly puts the number written there into his phone, tagging it Nick (Hot Nurse).
"You're gonna text him, right? Please don't fucking waste a cinematic meet-cute like that, Charlie. Let me believe in romance." Tao's eyes are on the road, but his expression and tone have a certain grim determination that do not in any way match his words or the sentiment he is trying to convey. Charlie, lowkey feeling a little afraid of what would happen if he gave any other answer, replies, "Yes, Tao. Obviously."
"THANK YOU." Tao declares with a dramatic flourish of one arm, nearly smacking Charlie in the face - Charlie rolls his eyes with a "Jesus, Tao, watch it!" and bats Tao away as they speed off, sirens blaring.