Here's the first official chapter! We're still in Wick's POV for this one but we'll be moving onto Raven next. Hope those of you who read enjoy!

November rolls in on a cold wind and hovers in the Newark area in varying layers of intensity from there on out. The first snowfall is two weeks before December and half the state is in a frenzy over the inch of frozen water clinging to their front lawns in speckled white. The local Newark County Hospital is on the panicking side of things.

That's how Wick finds himself at work for the third night in a row. Apparently his co-worker Miller just couldn't dare go out in this horrendous winter storm. Kyle grumbles to himself the whole ride to work and clocks in with a little too much aggression directed toward the timeclock. It's not that he actually had anything better to do necessarily. It's just that doing nothing was better than being here on his supposed night off.

Staying up wasn't what bothered him, that was an old skill he'd acquired back in college. It was the lack of activity that occurred on the overnight shift. He was the only one there so sure, any event that requried attention between the hours of seven p.m. and seven a.m. were entirely his to take care of. Unfortunately, the events requiring the attention of an overnight chemical engineer were very limited. He got called for mechanical duties more than anything else. Sometimes he attended to those problems just for shits and giggles.

It's just after three in the morning when he decides he can't take another damn second of doing nothing. The phone had rung only once all night and he'd barely had to do a thing to correct the problem. He stands and stretches, pausing the current movie playing off his phone. Pocketing his work phone, he slips out of the nearly empty lab and into the even emptier hallway.

He patrols around, walking through each floor and making small talk with all the familiar faces he happened upon. He helps mop a patient's room for EVS and puts a new armband on a patient for the nurse. Pretty much any work he can find he does. Some might consider this selfless or helpful. It was just his way of staving off boredom.

As he makes his way down to the first floor he doesn't waste a second before breaking into a light jog to catch up to the girl with a limp. Her pace was slow and arduous, an armful of paper reams being balanced with each step.

"Hey, let me help you," he says just as he catches up. He gets the first glance of her just as the words have left his mouth.

Wick really wishes that he still looked at her and immediately thought the pretty girl or the runner,instead he hears her resounding 'No' cycling through his nightmares again and again.

Doing his best to smile he offers his hand out to take some of her armload. "I got it," is all she says in response before turning back in the direction she was going and walking off again.

For a brief moment his eyes are drawn back to the brace on her knee as she walks past him. It was defintiely an intricate design, but it left her unable to bend her knee more than a few degrees. Her limp was prominent and he felt sorry for the girl who used to run circles around his neighbourhood before he could so much as jog a mile.

Seeing nothing to lose, Wick follows after her, falling into step beside her. "I'm sure you do, but I'll have you know I am excellent at carrying things."

She rolls her eyes and keeps walking. "And I'm not interested."

"In my carrying abilities?" he questions with great offense colouring his tone.

The thing about the overnight shift is that usually his fellow co-workers were starved for any form of human interaction, any sort of joke to get them through a few more minutes of the shift. It didn't take much to draw a smile out of someone. His dull nights were brightened by the ability to make at least a few people laugh. Apparently this particular girl was not willing to participate.

She reaches the double doors that lead out to the admitting office and she stands, eyes shifting between the scanner she needed to swipe her badge across and the door handle she needed to pull down. "Ah, I trust you're a little more intersted now."

The answering sigh is irritated but he swears her lips quirk. "I'm interested in as to why you're following me."

"Excuse you, Ms…" he glances to her name tag. "Raven, but I am trying to uphold the duties which were regrettably placed upon me the very day I graced this Earth with my stupendous carrying skills."

There's a beat of silence before she answers with, "You're an actual idiot."

"Hey!" he shouts, hand over his heart. "You wound me, Raven." She nearly cracks a smile, perhaps in his expense, but that isn't the important part. In return for her almost smile Wick takes his own badge and swipes it across and then pulls the handle down and holds the door open for her.

She walks through, a bit grudginly, but still. "I don't need your help."

"Never said you did," he says with a shrug as she carries her stack of paper reams over to the filing cabinet and begins stocking it. "So, you work here long?"

Turning in exasperation, Raven looks as if she can't believe he's still standing there, talking. "About a month now," she grumbles through clenched teeth as all of her weight shifts to her good leg and she reaches on tiptoes to stack the last ream of paper. Her balance falters only for a second before she settles gracefully back onto her flat feet. "How about you?" she opens, taking a seat behind the desk. "Stalk people often?"

"Oh come on!" he cries, hands being thrown in the air. "You're a pain in the ass, I'm calling it." That is what finally gets her to crack a smile.

"I know what you are but what am I?" she taunts, the joking obvious in her tone but the words still juvenile enough that Wick can't help but roll his eyes.

"I'm sorry but you forgot to stick your tongue out. I just can't be offended with a half assed attempt like that." Shaking his head as if he's disappointed Wick takes a seat in the chair opposite of her desk. She raises an eyebrow but then just fixes her gaze on the computer.

But of course, after working a near thirty six hours in the last three days with little to no event, this is the moment his phone rings, annoucning an actual job to be done. He's half tempted to scribble his number down and present it to her, but his pride gets the better of him. "Alas, my remarkable carrying skills are being called upon once again." She simply blinks back at him as he stands. "I'll see you around?" He hadn't intended for it to come out as a question.

"I'll be sure to contact you next time I need paper," she retorts.

He offers her a thumbs up in response and turns to disappear back through the doors to the hospital, smacking his forehead as soon as he's out of her view. Thumbs up were not the appropriate response to anything. Let alone a lame flirting attempt.

At least she no longer had to be the pretty/running/crying girl. Now she was just Raven. Maybe now the universe would stop arranging him to see her everywhere. Not that the universe had anything to do with it anyway. It was just a coincidence.

Resentment. That's what Kyle feels when, after being off for five days in a row, he is switched from his usual night shift to a day shift in order to cover someone's impromptu sick time. (Who even got Lupus? How was that even real?) It's not like he's been waiting to work again just to see Raven, that would be weird. It was hardly his fault if coincidence befell him once again. After all, they did work in the same place at the same time. Or at least were supposed to.

Unless of course the universe decided to provide the opposite of the coincidence that he wanted and instead prevent him from ever seeing her least, that was how he felt after receiving the call that his shifts were being changed for the next week.

Six a.m. is an ugly fate when one is used to working all night, but he deals with it, maintaining his usual cheerful self and enjoying the opportunity to really do some work.

Once the week is through though, Wick is unbelievably grateful when he gets switched back to his night shifts. It wasn't just about the girl, she barely even crossed his mind, but he finds he likes the solitude of the night shift and the sleep schedule he'd adjusted to had been hard to switch back. Also maybe it was a little bit about the grumpy who girl who didn't smile enough. After all, there'd been too many coincidences leaidng up to this for it all to just…fall away.

So his first night back he's buzzing even without any of his usual caffeine. Any person who said they worked overnights and never drank coffee or Red Bull was a dirty liar. Tonight he somehow became that person. All of his work is finished before the day has even changed and he's left twidling his thumbs in the lab, watching some action flick off of Netflix while Monty runs urine tox screenings across the room. He was the new kid who had just started working for the lab. He was technically still in training and, from the looks of him, should be getting dodgeballs chucked at his head on a regular basis. In his defense, he was a good worker and some surprisingly good company. Though Wick was fairly certain that he was not qualified to be working a shift completely alone. At least, the amount of questions he asked would indicate that.

Finally one a.m. hits and Kyle decides that's late enough to start some innocent wandering. He shoves his phone and his badge in his pocket, tells Monty he'll be back later, and starts to make his rounds. Harper in EVS is glad to see him, holding out a set of sheets to make a hospital bed. He makes quick work of that and then carries on to small talk with the nurse Jackson. Wick's eyes shift more than usual during their conversation, looking for someone in particular.

He takes the stairs two at a time down to the first floor, hand swiping his hair back as he pulls open the door and slows his slight jog to a walk. It wasn't even that he liked this girl, necessarily, but she definitely piqued his interest. He'd seen her so many times in a variety of settings. It would be rude to the universe to not bother pursuing her in the slightest.

She isn't anywhere to be found in the hallways so he swipes his badge and walks out to where her desk is located, a loose grin already forming on his face. The person sitting behind the desk is an unfamiliar one, though.

"Can I help you?" the boy asks, sitting up straighter and appearing a little too eager to offer assistance.

Wick contemplates whether or not he should say anything for a minute. He hardly wanted Raven to hear about him nosing around in search for her. But after a long week and a half of waiting, it would be a shame not to at least inquire. "Is Raven here tonight?"

The boy shakes his head, slumping back into his seat. "Nah, I'm filling in for her."

Nodding in response, Wick turns to walk back from where he had come. "Is she okay?" he asks before he can stop himself.

"I don't really know. She said she had some sort of family emergency." The kid behind the desk doesn't offer anything else. Kyle isn't about to pry any further. "Want me to tell her you were looking for her?" he asks as Wick opens the door.

"Don't bother," he says with a wave of his hand. "I'll catch her another night."

He hopes there is truth in those words.