I claim no ownership—duh. Anyways! Enjoy this fic! Maria falls back on one of her bad habits. Gabe just finds it hilarious.

Of Bad Habits and Lunch Breaks

All was calm at Resurgam—well, almost calm. Maria was about to lose her damn mind! It wasn't just the fact that she had been going almost forty-eight hours without any sleep, but everyone she ran into these past few days had been dumber than a box of rocks. The paramedic had been on call ever since a plane crashed into the Portland Airport. Over hundreds of people needed to be stabilized in order to transport them to Resurgam, leaving Maria with no choice but to handle them all. But it didn't just end there! The Hospital itself was understaffed enough as it was when it came to nurses. When Doctor Torres got back to Resurgam, she had to help with the conferences before operations went under way.

Needless to say, a certain paramedic was liable to blow at any given second. Now that all of the crash victims were taken care of, that didn't mean she could just go home to get some sleep. Nope. The green-eyed doctor still had other calls to attend to. (She wasn't about to leave it up to anyone else, knowing that this was the start of her actual shift, anyhow.) It was amazing how she could even fly that damn helicopter, or drive the ambulance. And it was all thanks to caffeine and pure will power. When she finally made it back to the hospital—again—Maria could hardly see straight. She sported heavy, dark bags under her usually bright green eyes, which were now dull and bloodshot.

Doctor Torres stormed past everyone, even her closest friend Tomoe, to get to the break room. It was now noon, marking a complete forty-eight hours since she had been on the clock. Maria was suffering through a major caffeine crash. While she would love nothing more than a nice, long nap it was simply out of the question. The paramedic would do like she always did in cases like this. She would eat as many carbs as she could withstand and drink a whole pot of coffee. If things began to slow down, she could finally leave. But there was no telling when that would be. Weekends were always the worst. Some moron would always get themselves into trouble. Seeing as it was now Sunday, Maria was crossing her fingers that they would attend church and be out of her hair. At least long enough for her to shower and get some sleep. No doubt Esha would be calling her later, anyways…

"Maria, is something bothering you?" came from a distance. The sleep-deprived paramedic spun around to face Tomoe, who look a might concerned.

"Huh? Oh—I'm just peachy," she shrugged, turning back around to fill her mug up to the very brim with fresh coffee. She shuddered after taking a huge slug of it. Black coffee did the trick of a fast wake up call, no matter how bitter it was.

"Surely you can head home. I'm sure the other paramedics would be happy to take over while you recuperate," the endoscopic surgeon reasoned, giving her best friend a thin smile.

Maria just scoffed. "Right. Like that'll work," she scuffed over to the vending machines, choosing the unhealthy carbs such as a microwavable burger and a bag of chips. "Look, I'll be fine. Lemme just finish the next few hours of my actual shift and I'll go get some sleep."

Tomoe, like the rest of them, had her own job to do when it came to the crash victims. But once she was able to, she left and actually went home for the night. Her next surgery wasn't scheduled until early Sunday morning. Maria could have gone home at some point on Saturday as well, but she didn't. That just wasn't in her blood. She was quite stubborn, and that stubbornness only multiplied when she became sleep deprived.

"If you say so, Maria," Doctor Tachibana finally spoke—defeated. She too went over to the vending machine and picked a bag of trail mix to snack on. Before Gabe spoke up on how horrible the hospital food was, there were no vending machines. In the break room was just a refrigerator for the staff to bring their own meals, a coffee pot, and a microwave. Everything else had to be bought at the cafeteria. Maria had to hand it to the diagnostician for that one.

As the two sat down to the table, they could hear Darnell and Emma talking from a distance. It was just their normal banter, so neither doctor decided to get up and see what was going on. Maria was focused on demolishing her burger and Tomoe was just focusing on remaining in a calm state for her next operation within the next hour. The Path of Honor frowned upon anything less than a level head in most circumstances.

o—o—o

Once Tomoe left to prep for surgery, Maria was once again alone in the break room. She felt better having eaten, but there was just something missing. Her nerves were still frayed from her lack of sleep; there was one other solution she could think of. One that would keep her jitters down, at least for a little while. After the orphanage fire, the paramedic swore that she would never lite up another cigarette. That might have been a little white lie… But she had one on occasion! It was usually her bumming one off of Gabe while they met up on their break. Those two had begun to spend more and more time together, both on and off the clock. Nothing too serious was going on; Doctor Torres was quick to tell herself that. But she knew that this too was a white lie. They wereinvolved, but neither of them would bring it to the other's attention no matter how obvious it was. Maria and Gabe had been spending the weekends together, bunking up at each other's houses. But it always ended the same; they would separate in the morning and be right back at it when they got off work. Maybe one day it could be different but Maria sure as hell wouldn't be the one to bring it up.

The paramedic took one last gulp of her coffee. Like as planned, she had downed the whole pot. Now it was time to visit Gabe. She needed a cigarette and she needed it now.

Doctor Cunningham was reading a patient chart when he heard a familiar pair of boots coming down the hallway. He scoffed, putting the chart down. So much for a peaceful break to himself. Like always, she announced that she was coming in without knocking. Of course, they both shared this trait. He shook his head once, spinning around in his chair to see Maria. He was about to make a smartass comment like usual, until he took her in carefully. From all the patients they have seen in the past forty-eight hours, neither of them had time to really see each other. Gabriel had crashed out on his couch but it didn't look like his companion had gotten any rest.

"Sheesh. What the hell happened to you?" Gabe retorted.

Maria sent him a sharp glare. "Shut it," she snapped, "gimme a smoke."

The diagnostician snorted at that remark, cocking an eyebrow at her, "that all you want?"

"What else would I want from you, moron?" the paramedic tried to hide the coy smirk tugging at her lips.

Gabe just stared at her for a moment, deciding to keep the next comment to himself. They were at work, after all. And, sadly enough, RONI was probably listening in on everything he said to Maria. He rolled on his office chair, reaching for one of the many packs of cigarettes he kept at his desk. Doctor Cunningham took two from the pack, tossing it right back on his messy desk. He then grabbed a lighter, lighting up his own cigarette before handing the lighter over to his co-worker.

Maria took no time at all to light hers up, taking in a deep inhale of smoke. She knew this was a bad habit to pick back up but the more puffs she took, the less she cared.

The diagnostician noticed how quickly her demeanor changed. She went from looking like she could kill anyone and everyone in this damn hospital to the less irritable Maria he knew. Still snappy, still annoying, but tolerable. Gabe was fond of her spitfire attitude, despite everything. (Not that he would admit that out loud, mind you.)

Maria glanced down at her watch, taking in another drag from her cigarette. She looked to her companion, who was back to scanning over his patient chart, a cigarette hanging between his lips. He tossed the patient chart back down when he noticed that he was being watched.

"Sooo, are we feeling any better?" Gabe asked, taking the cigarette out of his mouth long enough to flick the skillfully long ashes that had collected and inhaling another drag.

"Much," the paramedic admitted, locking eyes with the diagnostician. She took the last drag of her smoke, leaning forward against Gabe to put it out on the ashtray by his chair. Maria could have simply asked for it. But it was far too much fun to tease him especially with the 'I'll see you later' she whispered into his ear before pulling away.

All Gabriel Cunningham could think of as she walked away was how he was going to hide these new symptoms from RONI. If she could tell something was up in his voice, there was no telling what else she could presume…

So, whatcha think? Good, bad? Wanna burn it with fire? Lemme know in a review!