Work Text:
The elevator slowly lowered, going down each floor one by one; however, it did not seem to stop at each one. Babe stood alone in the elevator, fiddling with their stethoscope along their neck. The silence in the elevator was deafening, as the lack of any type of elevator music was blatant. The elevator suddenly stopped, however, on one of the floors. The door slid open to reveal a blonde-headed boy with heterochromia talking on the phone with someone, spouting about how he seemed to have burned his apartment down. The moment the boy took notice of the other person as he entered the elevator, he quickly tried to stop the conversation.
“Hm, yeah I gotta go,” the boy started making static noises with his mouth, making Babe look over at him with a furrowed brow, but then shrugged their shoulders. They saw weird shit every day, nothing new. “My service must be cutting out, uh oh no surface in the elevator. Bye buddy, I love you,” then he quickly hung up, stuffing his phone in his jean pocket.
The boy turned slightly, looking at Babe with a grin, laughing. “Oh god, he’s really trying to turn me into that guy who is being super loud on the phone in the elevator.” He looked down for a moment and then turned his head back to Babe, chuckling awkwardly. “Although now I’m being that weird guy talking to a stranger in the elevator.”
He quickly turned away again after another awkward set of laughs, saying he was going to stop talking now, and the elevator grew silent again. Babe put their hands in their scrub pockets to stop their constant fiddling. They weren’t sure if they preferred the silence or just wanted the boy to start talking again. They certainly didn’t like the thoughts swarming around in their heads.
As the elevator suddenly lowered, it stopped, but seemingly not at a floor, but in between one, which was never a good sign, as the elevator creaked as it came to a slow, deafening stop. The boy made a comment about it stopping as Babe pressed the button. None of them worked, which made Babe sigh in frustration, resting their forehead on the panel of the elevator. The boy said what both of them were thinking out loud, “you gotta be shitting me. It’s stuck.” He pressed the call button, which seemed to fail as well, which didn’t surprise Babe. Everything was slow as fuck in this hospital, even though it shouldn’t be. The blonde relented, deciding to call the front desk nurse on the phone to see if she could do anything. He pulled his phone out of his jean pocket. However, Babe put out a hand, stopping him from making the call.
“No, it’s all right. I got it. I work here, so she’ll pick up when I call before you.” They grabbed their phones from their pocket dialing Tracey’s number so she could get those useless maintenance guys to do something. “And anyway wasn’t your phone not working a couple seconds ago?” They asked with a knowing smirk pressing their phone to their ear.
“No, I have service. I was just lying so I could hang up on him.” The boy explained but then looked at Babe’s smirk, blinked for a second and then laughed, “but you already knew that.” They shrugged as they finally got Tracey to pick up.
“Hey Tracey, yes, I know you’re working so am I. The funny thing is the elevator broke down on us. Yeah me and a guy in here, is there any way you can get maintenance to come and get this fixed? We’re like between floors 6 to 5 and none of the buttons are working.” They said and after Babe spoke there was a long pause from them listening to whatever Tracey had to say. “I know you’ll try your best, thank you.” Babe sighed and hung up the phone, putting it back in their pocket. Babe then turned to the stranger and sighed “Welp she called maintenance and now we just have to wait, I apologize for all of this.” They said putting their hand on the back of their head nervously.
“No need to apologize, it’s alright. I guess you work here?” They nodded and both of them knew that was obvious. “Does this happen often?”
“I wouldn’t say this in particular, but maintenance can be pretty slow.” They said pressing their lips together as the boy let out a quiet ‘great.’ They sit in awkward silence for a moment before the boy speaks up again. He doesn’t seem like the type to be able to sit in silence for an extended period of time.
“Yeah, I’m here because my sister is having another baby. On the 7th floor, I came down to get some snacks for her and her ma—husband.” The blonde laughed it off after stumbling over his words. Babe side eyed that weird slip up but they just shrugged it off. None of their business.
“Congrats, to your sister I mean, is this second kid or?” They asked, they weren’t sure why, maybe to fill their mind with something or maybe they for some reason just wanted to keep talking to the guy. He was also one for good conversion because he jumped up immediately to start talking.
“It’s her third actually, it’s kinda crazy. I never thought I’d be an uncle.” Babe nodded listing intently, keeping their eyes on his blue and brown ones. “She delivered a couple hours ago, he’s very healthy which is good. David, my roommate, should be coming soon. That’s why I called him in the first place.” The boy laughed and then realized he was rambling and decided to direct the conversion over to them. “What about you? Are you on a lunch break or something?”
“We don’t really get lunch breaks. I was visiting a patient, my shift was over and I finished my charting, so I got to do that for one of the nurses in the ER. She knew the guy, or something.”
“Nice, well not nice I guess since it got you stuck here with me. Or that you don’t have lunch breaks. It’s nice because you almost get to go home.” Babe laughed at what he said but then suddenly grew quiet starting to fidget again with their stethoscope. The guy glanced over at them with a furrowed brow. “Hey, uh, are you okay?”
They started bouncing their feet and looking around the elevator in a panic. Their breath grew shorter; they weren’t sure what was coming over them. Breaking in an elevator like this was extremely unprofessional especially in front of someone who was a visitor to the ER. They couldn’t even hear what the boy was trying to tell them until he pressed a hand on their shoulder and looked into their eyes.
“Hey, it’s okay. It’s just a maintenance issue. We’re gonna be okay. It’s not gonna fall or something there’s a million different fail safes in elevators. It’s gonna be okay.” Babe blinked, realizing he thought they were freaking out at the prospect of the elevator breaking even more. They thought maybe it was best to let him think that way. They weren’t sure what was more embarrassing though being in fear at an elevator breaking or at what they were actually freaking out about.
“Hey, can you do something for me?” The blonde asked, pulling their head towards him as he asked them to look at him and then slowly bringing them down onto the elevator ground. “Let’s sit. Yeah, let’s sit.” They sat down in front of each other Babe sitting on their knees while the boy sat crisscrossed. “Can I take your hand?” he said while taking out his hands which Babe accepted gently gripping onto the stranger’s hand tightly.
“There we go, you can squeeze it if you need to.” The boy continued to give quiet assurances over something Babe wasn’t actually freaking out about however once the boy said “I’m not going anywhere.” A feeling of safety creeped into them as they squeezed the boy’s hand. They couldn’t describe it, just something washed over them they couldn’t explain. “Let’s try to breathe alright?” He suggested which Babe agreed to.
They went through a short breathing exercise, of breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. Together they breathed as the blonde continued to give assurances. Babe had gone through stuff like this with patients before all the time. They were used to stuff like this. Somehow though this boy was able to calm them down in ways they couldn’t themselves. It was weird. And soon before they knew it their breathing had calmed, their mind still filled with haze, but it was more subdued.
“See that, it’s easy. It’s got to be easier than whatever position you got here in the hospital. What do you do here? A doctor, a nurse, or like a janitor or something.” He asked with a laugh, seeming to not believe himself as he said the last part. Babe didn’t really want to think about their job, but the man’s obliviousness was entertaining. They lifted up their badge that said “Doctor” pretty obviously.
“I’m a 3rd year resident down in the ER.” The boy smacked his head and laughed slightly at not being able to notice such a blatant thing. He removed his hand from his forehead and just looked at them for a second.
“Damn, you gotta be whiz then. I mean med school has got to be tough. At least I’ve heard. You have one hell of a job. Saving lives.”
“It’s a lot more like endless student debt.” They retorted and they both laughed together looking into each other’s eyes. Babe then stopped laughing, the stranger shortly after. “Sorry, about all that.”
“Hey, none of that. Getting scared isn’t anything to feel bad about. That’s just human.” Babe sighed, commenting that he wasn’t freaking out. Even if they knew they weren’t freaking out because of the elevator he was still able to calm them down. “Well sure, I’m not freaking out much, but, what makes you think I’m human?” Babe raised an eyebrow looking him up and down with a chuckle and the boy quickly laughed with them.
“No, I’m just playing…”
“That was stupid.”
“Well yeah, it was a dumb joke, but it was a dumb joke that made you smile. So it can’t have been that bad huh?” Babe quickly frowned which made the boy smack them on the shoulder for the quick frown turn around after having a smile on their face and in the boy’s opinion, an attractive face. They grew silent again however this time it was a good silence one they both enjoyed.
“Real shit, I’m nervous too. I don’t really like closed up spaces. It kind of gets to me.”
“So, you’re claustrophobic.”
He nodded, “But, whenever I’ve got something in my life that feels like it’s getting to be too much but it’s getting to a spot where I’m not really in a place to work through it well, I try to distract myself. Sometimes that’s just talking even if nobody else is listening or nobody else cares.” Now Babe understood why he kept talking, it made sense. “Sometimes it’s putting somebody else’s problems before my own. It’s a lot easier to forget your fears when you’re helping someone else. Face theirs”
“I see that makes sense. I think I do that subconsciously in the ER with patients. It is kinda my job.” They nodded, putting a smile back on their face, the boy smiling with them.
“The core of all of it is distraction.” He says point towards their chest, their core in some sense of the word. “That loop in your head that keeps trying to scare you. It feeds on the quiet in your head, it eats it up, it gets bigger, and bigger to fill up the gaps until it’s the only thing up there spinning around and when there’s that much noise up there it’s really hard to make it go quiet. So, I don’t even try not at first, I just add my own new noise. I switch gears, I think about something else, anything else no matter how fleeting no matter how hard it is to hold onto it.”
Babe wasn’t sure if this was the best coping mechanism, but they couldn’t judge and it was working. As he continued to talk, all of Babe’s worries seemed to melt away. They wouldn’t be gone forever but Babe enjoyed this moment of respite. It was nice to listen to him speak. His accent comes out quiet but strong.
“If I’m at home, I do whatever I can think of you know. I start up a video game, or I blast a song I love, I run in place, I do the dishes. Anything and the second that my brain starts to get bored with that and it tries to go back to the bad thinking I switch gears again, and again. Obsessive thoughts are a pattern you gotta shake the pattern up. Then they can’t win. Then later when you’re in a better spot you can take a look back at them but with a clear head. See what work you can do with them. I know it’s harder in a situation like this. I mean we’re stuck here and there’s no video games, no dirty dishes but you got me and I got you.”
The boy squeezed their hand and showed off a toothy grin. They couldn’t help but smile back. How the blonde calmed them down without knowing what they were actually freaking out about they weren’t sure. He somehow managed to do it.
“And if me talking my ass off helps then I’ll keep it up. And if me asking you a million questions to take up the space in your head helps…then I can do that too. Sounds like a plan?” He asked which made them sigh but they couldn’t hide the smile on their face.
“Fuck it, why not?”
“Hell yeah, what’s your name?” Babe blinked for a second realizing they hadn’t even introduced themselves. They quickly pulled up their badge again pointing to their first name which made the boy laugh. “Well I’m already holding your hand so I guess I don’t need to shake it but it’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Asher. You can call me Ash if you want. I mean you can call me, weird elevator guy if you want.”
“Alright, pleasure to meet you weird elevator guy.” They said both of them laughed as they shook the hands that were already together.
“I’m pretty easy.” They sat in silence for a moment again while Asher thought of his next question. “So who do you hate here?”
“What? I-I don’t hate anyone.”
“Ah come on everyone hates one of their co-workers, even in a hospital. This place is too big for you to like everyone. I don’t buy it. Come on, give me the drama. I love it even about people I’ve never heard of, who’s that bitch we hate?”
Babe sighed looking at him with squinted eyes before giving in and admitting it out loud. “Okay, well there is this new med student who, admittedly, is not the greatest.”
“Hell yeah, what’d they do? What’s their deal?”
Babe hesitated for another moment before spilling. “Ugh, well they are such a gunner. It’s someone in the medical field where someone is super hardworking and strives their best but for this guy he’s a gunner who tries to bring the other med students down which is not a good thing in the medical field. He needs to learn team work.” Babe ranted and they smiled glad they got that off their chest even though this was still completely unprofessional of them. Even if they were technically off the clock.
“Fuck them, who’s your favorite?”
“Leiah, she’s our charge nurse and she keeps us stable while being the nicest lady you will ever meet. I don’t know how she does it.” Babe also couldn’t imagine a day without her. Which has happened and it was absolute chaos.
“All right, okay. Uh on a scale of a swamp cooler truck stop to a Hilton what are the bathrooms like?”
“They are actually pretty decent; they have to be up to health code so they can’t be too terrible. However I barely have time to use them while I’m on the job.” Babe couldn’t actually remember the last time they had time to go to the bathroom while working.
“Not bad, break room what are we thinking?” They gave a quick it’s alright not much to comment on the break room, a place they barely saw. “All right, do you do all that Tv shit where all the nurses and doctors hook up?”
They gave Asher the blankest stare. If looks could kill, Asher probably wouldn’t be dead they weren’t that mad but Asher sure acted like it. “No, that’s very unprofessional. We couldn’t do something like that.”
“Then why is it like that in every medical drama?”
“For drama.”
Asher laughed, it made sense. He wasn’t sure how’d he’d feel if he knew his doctor and nurse were fucking. He sat for a moment thinking of the next question, a random one coming to mind. “What did you go as for Halloween last year?”
Babe thought for a moment, they remembered they were luckily off for Halloween which was uncommon but lucky. “I went as a werewolf.” They said and they could swear they saw a weird glint in Asher’s eyes once they said that.
“Oh, okay. I like it. Are we talking like classic werewolf, like fake fur all over and shit or like modern interpretation you know like contacts, leather jacket, maybe a set of fangs?” When they replied with a modern werewolf Asher grin seemed to grow even more if that was even possible. “Gotcha, hell yeah. I bet it looked great.”
“How do you know that?” Babe asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk on their face which just made Asher lean in.
“I mean, well you’ve clearly got good taste. Look, you’re currently holding the hand of an incredibly handsome and painfully humble man. So uh, your taste in that department seems pretty exceptional if I do say so myself.”
Babe laughed rolling their eyes at his comment, gently shoving him but not letting go of his hand. “If you say so…”
“Yes, I do say so.” They both laughed but before any banter could continue the elevator began to creek again as it started to descend. “Oh shit, we’re moving. Hell yeah, here let me get you up.” Asher said as he pulled them up to their feet Asher quickly joined. He then snickered. “See, it didn’t even take that long.” They reached the bottom floor both exiting the elevator with a sigh of relief. However, they both quickly realized they were going different directions, Asher to the cafeteria and Babe to the ER. “It was uh, it was nice meeting you even if the circumstances were uh, not great.”
They were about to part ways after Babe said the same as Ash, however Asher stopped them before they could walk off. “Hey um, feel free to tell me to fuck off if I’m reading this wrong but uh, can I get your number?” Babe blinked at him for a second, a small smile forming on their face and blush coating their cheeks. “I mean you never know when you might need an elevator buddy again.”
Before Asher could ramble some more Babe quickly interrupted him, “sure why, not.” Which made Asher grin, handing over his phone to them as they quickly typed their number into his phone and then passed it back to him.
“Well in that case, safe travels.” Asher said walking off with a laugh as Babe heard in the distance him say over the phone “DAVID, I GOT THE NUMBER OF A HOT PERSON!”
Which just made Babe laugh as they walked towards the ER, it may have been unprofessional, but they think it was worth it.
Extra Scene:
Asher was sitting in his waiting chair, it being uncomfortable to sit in; he couldn’t imagine how David must feel sitting next to him since he was way taller and bulker than Asher was. However David didn’t let out a complaint, he was actually being quite silent due to Asher’s sister and the new baby sleeping. The silence was broken by Asher not being able to be silent for less than two seconds. “Did you get my voicemail about the number I got?”
David looked at him however without turning his body just looking with his dark brown eyes. “Yes.”
“You wanna hear about them?”
“Not partially, no.”
“Okay, so they’re so amazing! So, while I was on the phone with you…” And Asher just went on and on about who that person he met in the elevator. David couldn’t help but sigh, the only thing of interest was that they were a doctor. ‘Well at least they seem to have a good head on their shoulders.’ Then David realized they were unempowered. ‘Shit’