#I KNOW IT LOOKS REALLY SCARY BUT HE'S NOT THREATENING CECIL I PROMISE

[ministerofchaosabsolute]

Uncy-nephew bonding

[video-killed-the-radio-host]

Heartbeats on the Airwaves chapter 6

For @acealex-blueiguana

Carlos loved his job. It made him feel useful. He loved helping people. Some days are better than others but does his best to not bring it home with him. Tonight was important. Tonight marked eight months since he and Cecil started dating. It had only been a short time but it just felt so right.

He straightens his coat and picks up the pager as it goes off. He makes his way to the ambulance bay to find most of the surgeons-minus peds- standing outside. He finds the head of trauma, Rochelle, giving orders to the interns. Carlos pulls gloves on and makes his way over to her.

“What do we got?”

She looks at him, eyes bright. “Silver Flood. And you know what that means?”

There was a chorus of “bleeders!” behind them, from the interns.

“Exactly!”

“Wow. We haven’t had a Silver Flood in six years.”

Rochelle turns to the group of interns. “You guys are lucky. A lot of interns never get to see one of these. So keep your eyes open today and learn lots.”

There was nodding as the first of the ambulances pulled into the bay.

“Go. Go. Go. Head injuries go straight to MRI. Phillips is waiting for you.” Rochelle has to yell over the pounding rain and the blare of sirens. Carlos pulls open the nearest ambulance door.

“What do we have?” He asked, checking vitals.

“Josephine Ortiz. Eight four, elliptic. Unsure of head trauma.” The paramedic reports

Carlos thanks her and motioned to the nearest two interns to join him. “Names?” He asked.

“Wagner.”

“Maribell.”

“Great. You are my team today. You report to me. Got that?”

“Yes sir.” The two say in unison.

“Good. Lets go.” Carlos directs the gurney inside and into a spare space. “Wagner, start blood work. I want to know if she has any kind of medicine she may be on. Maribell, start an IV. I will be right back. I’m going to go grab her chart.”

Carlos crosses the ER, to the wall of charts. He finds Josephine’s and returns. He comes back to find her sitting up and talking with the interns. She looks up and smiles.

“So you’re Cecil’s doctor man.” She says.

Carlos flushes darkly. The interns make a cooing noise.

“You know Cecil?”

“Oh everyone knows Cecil. He spends a lot of time down at the center. But I’m also an old family friend.”

Carlos opens his mouth to answer but Josephine kept talking.

“He is such a sweet boy.”

“He is amazing.” Carlos nods with a small smile.

“Whoa. He’s so far gone we can’t even see him anymore.” One of the interns-Wagner, Carlos thinks- says.

“I told you.” Josephine smirks.

“So boss, when are you gonna pop the question?” the other intern, Marinell, asks.

“I don’t think that’s any of your business.” Carlos stutters.

Josephine hums. “That means he either has already or is about to.”

Carlos rolls his head back with a groan. He was never going to live this down.

“I wouldn’t worry about it. He really likes you.”

“Is this where you threaten to kill me?”

“I see you’ve met Dana.”

“Yeah. She’s nice but kinda scary.”

“Just wait until you meet Marueen.”

“She works for the FBI. She’s supposed to be scary.”

Carlos smiles and goes to answer when Rochelle ran by. “Mendez, with me! I need your help!” She yells. Her scrub cap was a little crooked from trying to contain the poofy red curls while running.

“I’ll be back to check on you as soon as I can.” Carlos promises, running after Rochelle.

“What happened?” Carlos asked, tying his scrub cap in place. It was purple with black cats on it. Cecil had gotten it for him, trying to be funny. Carlos loved it.

“My patient has a brain bleed and his lungs are full of fluid. I paged general but you are our best neuro so here we are.”

Carlos looks into the OR at the man on the table and nods. “Lets save a life.”

-----.-----

The surgery was long but successful. He was breathing normal now, but would have to be kept for observation. Just in case.

Carlos leans against the sink and lets out a laugh. “Nothing beats the rush of emergency surgery.”

“Nothing beats the rush of surgery in general.” Rochelle comments, pulling her cap off.

“Ah you do have a point.” Carlos nods in agreement.

“Hey Carlos?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s midnight.”

“Yes it is.”

“We didn’t loose any old people today.”

Carlos looks at her. “Successful Silver Flood?”

“Successful Silver Flood “ she confirmed. “You wanna break the news?”

“Go gather everyone in the lobby.” Carlos grins.

Rochelle nods and leaves the wash room. Carlos follows, stepping outside for a breath of fresh air. The rain had let up.

“Excuse me.” A female voice calls, making Carlos turn. His blood ran cold. This girl was a carbon copy of the girl who changed his entire medical career.

“Are you Carlos Mendez?”

Carlos, still shocked, gives a little nod.

“Oh thank God.” She whispers. “My name is Ami Marie Storm. My mother was-“

“Crystal.” Carlos whispers.

“You saved my life seventeen years ago.” She pauses. “Can I hug you?”

“Ye-yeah.” Carlos smiles widely and hugs her. “How are you?”

“I’m going to be a doctor. Like you.” She announces

“if you want, when you start your internship, you have a guaranteed spot here.”

Her face lights up. “I would love to study under you. You have no idea how honored this makes me.”

“I have something for you.”

“You do?”

“I do.” Carlos confirmed, pulling his wallet out of his lab coat's pocket. He pulls out a folded piece of yellowed paper. “Your mother made me promise that if I ever met you, that’d I’d it to you. She said she was already so proud of you and she hadn’t even met you yet.”

Ami takes the paper and carefully unfolds it, reading the words that Carlos himself had memorized. She looks back of him with wet eyes before hugging him again.

“Thank you.” She whispers.

“I’ll see you in eight years. But don’t hesitate to call if you need anything. Alright?”

She nods. “Yessir. Now you need to go rest. You look dead on your feet.”

Carlos chuckles. “I am. Have a good night.”

She waves as Carlos made his way back into the hospital to address the crowd of exhausted doctors and interns.

“It’s been a long day.” He starts, receiving murmurs of agreement and a “yeah no shit” from the crowd. There was a scattering of tired laughter. “But I am proud of all of you. A Silver Flood isn’t an easy thing to pull off, especially in a large city like Quantico. But we did it. We didn’t loose a single person today.”

The room was quiet before clapping broke out and cheering. Carlos lets them celebrate for a moment before quieting them down.

“Go home and get a good night’s sleep. You all deserve it.”

There were nods of agreement as the crowd broke up. Carlos leans om the railing and watches, pulling out his phone. He dials Cecil’s number, unsure if he was even awake.

“Hello?”

“Hey Ceec. Did I wake you up?”

“Oh no. I just got home. What’s up?”

“Can I come over?”

“I would love that.”

“I’m on my way.”

-----.-----

Cecil answers the door, wearing an oversized t-shirt that was Carlos’ at one point and purple and orange stripped leggings. The only indication of him just getting home from work was his hair was still up. Carlos smiles at the sight, feeling as if his heart would burst. He leans forward and kisses the taller man deeply, pulling him close.

“um..not that I’m complaining, but what brought this on?” Cecil asked, making a squeak of surprise when Carlos nips at his bottom lip.

Carlos then pulls away. “We need to talk.”

Cecil’s face fell.

“No no. It’s good. I promise.”

“inside?”

“Yeah. Inside would be best.”

Cecil stepped aside to let Carlos in before shutting the door.

“Cecil, I was thinking about……”

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Y'all probably know exactly how the next chapter is gonna start