A/N: 5 of 6 'ER of Love' Series for TLS Valentine's Extravaganza 2022! Post S5, Canon divergent as Tex and Andrea are alive. Mike's Valentine's plans, if he had them would be completely destroyed by now.
Appendix, We're Done.
"This is so beautiful." Andrea sighed happily, they sat in a lovely restaurant on the beach. They'd enjoyed a delicious dinner and were about to share a cheese plate and a muscat wine for dessert.
"You're beautiful." Tex said.
"Stop it." Andrea said, her cheeks burned, she and Tex had been together for nearly three years and she still got a little embarrassed when he complimented her.
"I will not." Tex told her with a grin. His smile slipped a little as he winced a little. Andrea frowned as she had noticed him looking pale and sweating through dinner.
"Hey, are you ok?" Andrea asked him.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Tex lied as he shifted in his chair. His eyes darted towards the kitchen for a split second.
"It's just that you're kind of pale and sweating through dinner. I'm a little worried you're going to propose to me in this flashy place." Andrea mused in a light tone. Tex shook his head and smiled.
"Trust me, Red. When I propose, it will be a surprise and so amazing you'll be sharing the story for years to come." He promised her.
"So, not tonight?" Andrea asked, she now wondered what had him sweating.
"Disappointed?" Tex asked.
"No, relieved." Andrea said, Tex wore a panicked expression and dashed from the table. Her jaw dropped as she realised what she said could be misconstrued. But then he said he wasn't proposing. Then it clicked, he wasn't nervous or panicking, he was sick. She felt like a moron. She barely rose from her table when someone shouted.
"Somebody, call 911!There's a guy dying in the mens!"
An hour later,
"I'm so sorry, Red." Tex slurred, he was off his face on morphine. Andrea held his hand and smiled down at him. They were admitted to the ER after a rough ride in the ambulance.
"You have nothing to apologise for." she assured him, she leaned over and pressed a kiss to his brow. Rios and another attending doctor agreed that Tex's appendix needed to come out as soon as possible. They were just waiting on a surgical consult to come down and assess Tex once more before they took him up to the OR.
"Why can't I even get out of the carpark of this damn place?!" Mike grouched nearby.
"Bay 6" A woman shouted in a bored tone, Andrea frowned as she and Tex were in bay 6. The curtain around Tex's bed opened wide. Mike stood before them with an agitated expression.
"Mike, what are you doing here?" Andrea asked him.
"Tex has me listed as his emergency contact." Mike gestured at Tex who was looking pretty miserable, "So, what stupid thing did you do to yourself?" he asked Tex.
"My appendix is breaking up with me." Tex informed him.
"He has appendicitis, they are trying to get a surgical consult down and OR for him." Andrea explained.
"Well, can't fault that." Mike said begrudgingly as he'd been ready to call the man an idiot. But he couldn't given no one had control over their appendix.
"Why would assume I'd do something stupid?" Tex asked.
"Well, Wolf broke his face, Burk cut off his thumb and Tom decided to try and kill Sasha with massage oil." Mike explained, Andrea and Tex both frowned as that was a run of bad luck.
"Hey, it was an accident. How many people in the world have an allergy to argan oil?" Tom asked incredulously as he held two take away coffees in his hands.
"You're still here." Mike told him.
"Everyone is here except for Kara. They took her up to the maternity ward. Looks like you can't escape the ER, Mike." Tom said with a grin as Mike sneered at him.
"Kara had her baby?" Andrea asked.
"Not yet, still in labor according to the last text I got from Green." Wolf said from his bed, he and Burk had opened their curtains as had Sasha. It was a regular Nathan James reunion.
"Awwh, we're all here together on Valentine's day." Tex said with a dopey smile.
"Ok while everyone has their curtains open. I'm gonna say this one time only, update your emergency contact information." Mike told them all.
"But I like you as my emergency contact. You're reliable, dependable." Tex told him.
"They are both the same thing." Mike told him.
"Good looking, unflappable and strong." Tex drawled, Andrea smiled as Mike gave Tex a strange look.
"Are you proposing?" Mike joked.
"If I wasn't already in love with Red…" Tex drawled.
"Ok, my statement still stands. Update your emergency contact as I am out of here." Mike told them all, as he had had enough for one night.
"You can't go." Rios told Mike.
"Why not?" Mike asked.
"You're his emergency contact. He's about to go into surgery. We need you on standby in case anything happens." Rios said.
"Andrea is his girlfriend and fully equipped to make any decisions regarding his care." Mike argued.
"It doesn't work like that." Rios said, Mike gave an exasperated sigh.
"Got a hot date?" Andrea asked wryly.
"Well, if I did. I'd have rescheduled it by now." Mike said, he was in a foul mood as 5 times he had tried to leave the hospital and go home. So far he'd failed to get there. "Rios, how long will the surgery take?" he asked.
"An hour as soon as they have an OR." Rios said.
"Ok." Mike sighed as he knew he was in for the long haul. He decided to go annoy whatever department was going to operate on Tex to get him upstairs.
"Where are you going?" Andrea asked him.
"To find you an OR and then find out how many people have me listed as an emergency contact." Mike told her as he wasn't going to sit around the ER waiting all night.
"This is why you're my Emergency Contact!" Tex shouted as Mike walked away. Tex looked at Andrea who perched herself on the edge of his bed. "How you doing?" he asked her.
"I'm fine, but you're going to make this up to me." Andrea told him as they'd never be able to go back to the restaurant given he'd projectile vomited blood and undigested food all over the mens bathroom.
"Definitely, already formulating how right now." Tex assured her with a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows.
"Don't get too excited, it will be awhile before you can do anything after the surgery." Andrea told him.
"We'll see." Tex said, Andrea smiled and shook her head as he was incorrigible, she loved him for it.