VIII

WILL

The moment Will had reached the nurse station to start his shift, he already felt that something was wrong. Especially, if some of the doctors and nurses including Kayla and Lou were gathered in a small semicircle. Worse, if in that gathered crowd, Lou and Kayla were in the middle. Worst, all of them were having these stupid grins on their faces as they looked back in forth between Will and on that thing that Lou was holding.

And that thing happened to be a mobile phone.

"Do I want to know why are you looking at me like that?" Will said slowly as he cautiously walked towards them like he's afraid to step on a landmine.

"Why, dear Willie, what do we look like?" Kayla asked still grinning.

"Like your cheeks are gonna rip off when you grin a little bit more," Will said and glanced at the phone. He's starting to get suspicious on that phone. That phone seemed harmless but Will did not understand why he was also getting nervous about it.

"It's because, why on earth you haven't told us that he is hot!" Lou suddenly gushed.

"Although, he seems anemic to me, yeah, I agreed he is hot. A hot looking badass." Kayla nodded.

"I know right!" Lou agreed, gazing up at Kayla since Lou was sitting on a stool. "I seriously need to ask Will about where he's finding hot badass guys!"

Cecil cleared his throat. "You have to be reminded that you already have a boyfriend."

"Hold on!" Will raised his hand. "I don't think I am following what you're talking about, who is he?"

"That's what we would like to ask you, Will. Who is this guy?" Lou held out the phone so Will could see the screen.

Will stared at the picture on the screen with wide eyes. It was a picture of him and Nico holding hands on the sidewalk of 3rd Avenue. He remembered it clearly since that was the day he had seen Nico at Mcdonald's. By the look of the picture, that was the time that Nico had dragged Will towards his apartment to talk privately.

"And are you both dating already? He was already holding your hand." Kayla asked then she shook her head. "I am so disappointed Willie, why aren't you telling any of this to me now. You used to tell me about your dating life."

"I am also hurt too, Will." Dr. Lee Fletcher said who was also in the crowd and who was feigning a look of hurt. "How can you replace me so easily? I think, really need to start dating too."

"So he was the guy you like and the one you were talking about in the cafeteria last time huh?" Cecil said. "Can we know now his name for real?"

Will came to his senses.

"What in Hades!" He shouted as he tried to snatch the phone but Lou just leaned away since there was a long counter that was separating Will and the rest of the crowd. "Are you part-time paparazzi now?"

"Hey," Lou stood up so she could back away a little bit more. "It just happened that I was across the street at that time!"

"So are you dating now?" Kayla asked curiously.

"Nico and I aren't dating!"

"Aha! So he's Nico huh?" Kayla snapped her fingers and grinned triumphantly.

"Finally," Cecil muttered.

Will just groaned. "Oh my gods."

"What in Hades Will, are you blushing? You're all red!" Kayla exclaimed.

"He's serious about this guy." Lee Fletcher noted.

"What's his last name? So we can further investigate this Nico on Facebook or something." Lou asked.

"He doesn't have Facebook," Will muttered. How can a death angel have Facebook? Are they going to have death updates through newsfeed? He thought.

"Still what's the surname?" Lou insisted. "You know, we are not going to let this go, right?"

Will slumped forward to the counter, giving up. His arm still outstretched. " Nico. Nico di Angelo. Happy?"

"No. Will. We are happy for you. We know that you love this job but we don't want you to be a workaholic asshole and don't have any social life." Kayla stated. There's a sincere smile on her face.

Will raised his head to look at his friend. "I am not workaholic."

"You are." Lou decided.

"I knew it!" Drew, one of the nurses exclaimed gaining their attention. "It's Solangelo."

"Solangelo?" Cecil frowned.

"You know, Dr. Solace' surname and di Angelo equals Solangelo. We already have a ship name!"

"Ooohh girl! I like that!" Lou exclaimed giving Drew a high five.

"All right, I guess Solcher is already out of the list." Lee Fletcher joked, snickering.

"What's wrong with you people!" Will continued to slump on the counter.

"But we want to know more about Nico. Where did you first meet?" Lou asked curiously.

"There won't be a more," Will muttered wistfully.

"Hey, guys!" one of the nurses came running towards them. "There was a construction site collapse at 5th Avenue and car accidents due to the collapse. Lots of casualties. Be prepared."

This made Will stood straighter. Then the sirens of upcoming ambulances echoed in the emergency.

"All right guys, back to work." Lee Fletcher clapped his hands.

Will and the crew went outside, in front of the emergency. Several ambulances parked at once to unload stretchers with heavy wounded casualties. Will went to the nearest stretcher.

"She's slipping in and out consciousness Doc," The paramedic said to Will and pointed at the bloodied and unconscious girl with a gash in the head. "Possible concussion."

"Miss, can you hear me?" Will tapped the cheek of the girl lightly. There was no response.

Will hopped and rode on the stretcher doing a CPR on the girl while the paramedic pushed them towards the emergency.

After doing several compressions on the chest, the girl groaned.

"Do a CT scan on her," Will ordered the nurse as he swung his legs off of the stretcher when they had reached the emergency room.

He moved to the next patient who was also covered in blood, a mid-twenties guy who was unconscious.

"How long he was out?" He asked the nurse.

"Almost one minute doc," said the nurse.

"Let's give him a shot again" Will got the paddles of a defibrillator. "Shot to 200."

"Clear," He pressed the paddles to the chest. The body just jerked up.

"Shot to 300," Will ordered again. "Clear," Another jerked of the body.

A cloud of black smoke appeared next to the nurse. Will looked up just in time to see a death angel appeared. They were looking at Will stoically. The death angel seemed to be waiting, waiting for the glowing trick.

Will put down the paddles and pushed up the sleeve of his white coat. He looked at his wristwatch. "Time of death, 7:09 p.m."

The death angel frowned slightly but then she dissolved in the thin air.

Will looked around at the emergency briefly. It was pandemonium. Several death angels were appearing and disappearing at once. Doctors and nurses were running around. It was like a whirlwind of black and white in the emergency. Will attended the next casualty.

"What we've got here," Will said surveying another guy whose t-shirt was torn exposing his chest. There was a big bruise on the chest, and the chest looked deformed. Will immediately concluded that the ribs were broken.

"Possible myocardial contusion or hemorrhage in the heart. Barely unconscious." The nurse answered dutifully. "Fell off the motorcycle,"

Will inspected the casualty's eyes with a small flashlight. Then he put his stethoscope on to listen to the beat of the heart and the breathing.

"Do the CT scan for the chest," Will ordered pulling down the earpiece of stethoscope from his ear.

The nurse nodded. Suddenly, the casualty coughed up blood and moaned in pain.

"Doc, the blood pressure was dropping." The nurse reported staring at the heart monitor.

"Put him in the operating room, we're going to open his chest. Broken ribs may further damage the heart and lungs." Will commanded again.

The stretcher was wheeled out of the emergency. Will paused again as if on cue, he looked at the corner. At the far end, Nico di Angelo stood there, watching him impassively.

They stared at each other for a moment. Then he turned away and proceeded to the operating room.

As it turned out, Will couldn't save the patient too in the operating room because there was severe damage in the heart.

"Close him up. There's nothing we could do." It was Will's final order before leaving the operating room.

After washing up, the blond doctor found himself banging his head lightly on the white pillar in the hallway. He did not even bother to remove his scrub cap and the mask hanging around his neck.

Will stop torturing yourself physically and mentally. He chided himself but of course, he didn't stop on hitting his head on the post.

"What in Hades are you doing Solace?"

That made Will stopped. He turned his head to see Nico standing not from afar.

Will turned to him. "Err, banging my head on the post?"

Nico strode towards him. Will could feel that something was off because Nico seemed angry. He was proven right when Nico pushed him against the wall, fisting the neckline of the surgeon's scrub he was wearing.

"N-Nico?"

"Why aren't you using your glowing trick anymore?" Nico asked, looking at him straight in the eye. His voice sounded dead quiet.

Nico's straightforwardness left Will breathless and speechless. Other reasons might include that Nico's face was so close to him that he couldn't think straight or the fact that Nico was angry that surprised him or Will thought that he was still handsome even if the death angel was angry. Or maybe, it was all of the above choices.

Then Will remembered that Nico was waiting for his answer so he cleared his throat. "M-maybe cheating death is long overdue…"

"What happened to your dedication to saving lives?" Nico hissed.

"Hey, I am still saving lives but in a slightly different way this time." He reasoned.

Nico seemed to hesitate, his eyebrows furrowed together. "I-is this because of what I told you last time?"

Will couldn't answer because Nico was right. For the past few days, Will had been thinking about the punishment of death angels because of him and this made him torn in between his job and his conscience. It almost drove him nuts.

Nico let go of Will's scrub. He stepped back and turned around. He took a deep breath as if to calm his nerves. Then he faced Will again who was still rooted in his spot.

"I told you to mind your own business right?" Nico said as quietly as before. "All of the things that we are going through in the Underworld have nothing to do with you."

"I am afraid…" Will finally said.

Nico's thick black eyebrows were drawn together in a frown. "Of what?"

"That you're going to be punished again because of me… I don't like it." Will answered softly.

"It has nothing to do with you," Nico replied coldly. "I was also at fault because I was not doing my job properly."

"But I am worried about you, you idiot!" Will exploded. "Because I do care about you!"

Nico was taken aback. "What?"

"What was so hard to understand that I care about you? I was pretty sure that I said it in English. Do you want me to say it in another language-? No scratch that, I can't speak another language, but the point is I don't want you to get punished again!"

Nico was momentarily rooted in his spot. After a second he seemed to regain his bearings. He continued to step back. "I-I don't understand. W-Why would you care about me?"

"Because… Because.." Will swallowed hard. Come on, say it.

But before Will could have the guts to finish his sentence, Nico dissolved in a black smoke leaving Will behind.

"Oh great," Will cursed. "The almighty William Solace scared him off.."

He yanked off his scrub cap from his head and threw it on the floor out of sheer frustration. He scratched wildly his already messy blond hair. Then he resumed banging his head on the pillar.

Concussions were damned.