Emma bolted awake as a loud knock sounded on the door. It only took her a handful of seconds to gather her wits enough to realize where she was and why she was being disturbed.

"Someone had better be dying!" she growled out, as she swung her legs off the bed and pushed herself up to her feet.

"Um… Doctor Swan," a timid voice called out, "We, uh… a patient needs your help."

Emma sighed heavily as she flicked a look down to her watch. Thirty-nine minutes. She'd been resting for exactly thirty-nine minutes. She reached for her lab coat and pulled it on a little more aggressively than usual, before she stormed across the room to throw open the door.

"I thought I told you not to disturb me unless someone was dying," she barked out, facing off against the nervous-looking interns standing far too close to her. "You should know from your studies just how dangerous a sleep-deprived doctor can be. So, tell me, is someone dying?"

"Um… no, Doctor Swan. But if we don't get your help, he might."

Emma sighed again as she held out a hand for the file that one of her interns was clutching tightly, and then gestured for them to lead the way.

"Talking is faster than reading," she prompted.

"Of course, Doctor Swan. Um… a forty-three-year-old male. Presented with chest pains and shortness of breath. I had a listen to his lungs, and they seem a little rattly, so I was gonna order a chest x-ray, but I can't seem to get a line in to get him started on some fluids."

"The man presented with chest pains?" Emma clarified, stopping dead in her tracks.

"And breathlessness," her intern continued.

"Have you called for a cardio consult?"

The interns shared a look between themselves that Emma clearly recognized from her own days fresh on the job. It was the look you gave your colleagues when you knew someone had fucked up but wasn't entirely sure which one of them was to blame for it.

"Why isn't anyone calling cardio?" she snapped out, and like a flock of pigeons that had just realized a cat was among them, they scattered, leaving Emma to find her way over to the patient in question.

"Mr. Jenkings?" she asked, as she approached the bed in Bay One of the Emergency Room. "I'm Doctor Swan. I hear you're experiencing chest pains and shortness of breath."

The man lying on the bed nodded his head as he turned to face her, and Emma found herself offering him that trusty doctor smile she'd perfected throughout her internship.

"Don't worry, Mr. Jenkings, we'll take good care of you. Do you mind if I have a listen to your chest?"


It was almost six hours later when Emma finally found herself flopping down into a seat opposite Ruby in the hospital cafeteria.

"Hey, Ems. How's it going?" Ruby asked, with a knowing smile on her face.

Emma simply flashed a deadly one of her own back before she turned her attention down to the cup of crappy coffee cradled between her hands. It was only after she drank a quarter of it that she finally found herself relaxing into her seat a little more easily.

Ruby must have noticed this as she said, "Ems, you remember Belle, right?"

Emma had been so focused on her coffee and mentally cycling through the patients she needed to check on before the end of her shift, she hadn't realized Ruby was not alone.

"Pediatrics, right?" she asked Belle, recalling what her friend had said about the other nurse just a few short nights ago.

"The best place in the building," Belle chuckled, and Emma offered her a small, noncommittal shrug. She definitely wasn't feeling the baby fever that Walsh seemed to think she should be feeling by now.

"Emma's looking for a place to stay," Ruby told Belle. "Have you found anyone to take over your lease yet?"

"Not yet," Belle trilled, perking up a little in her seat. "If you don't mind living with a nurse, I can show you around on one of my days off. Would that work for you?"

"Right now, I'd consider an ex-convict for a roommate," Emma said, and she was only half-joking about that.

Ruby raised a brow in question, and Emma shrugged as she explained, "I told Walsh I was leaving him, and it went exactly as I thought it would."

"Damn! I thought you were gonna wait until you had a place sorted?"

"I was," Emma sighed. "But I went home yesterday to try and get some uninterrupted sleep – because my interns this year are idiots – and his mom was there, knitting little baby booties for our kids, and I just… I couldn't take it anymore! I tried to explain to him that he wasn't listening to me and what I wanted, but of course, he didn't listen to that either. He just started going on and on about how I'd change my mind, and he only wanted what was best for me, and ugh! It was too much. So I told him I was leaving him and that I was already looking for another place to stay."

"How did he take that?" Ruby asked a little hesitantly.

"I think he thought I was joking at first. Then he cried - a lot. It was really awkward. I just grabbed some stuff and left."

Emma downed a large, scalding mouthful of coffee – almost as if she could drown away the memories of her ex crying about how much he loved her into his mother's shoulder while she was forced to watch.

"So, uh, as long as your roommate isn't like some freaky ax murderer or something, I could use a new place to live," she told Belle.

Belle chuckled a little at the look on Emma's face and then reached for her purse. After digging around inside for a moment, she pulled out a small notepad and a pen, scribbled something down in it, and then tore off the page.

"That's my number," she told Emma, as she slid the piece of paper across the table. "Text me when you finish work, and I'll try and get away from the hospital during my lunch break to show you around."

"Thanks so much, Belle. I really owe you one."

"Don't worry about it," Belle assured her, waving away Emma's concerns.

For a long moment, the three women sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts as they finished their drinks and snacks.

Just as her break was coming to an end, a thought suddenly occurred to Emma.

"I know you said your roommate worked at the hospital too, but she isn't gonna mind living with a complete stranger, is she?"

"She?" Belle asked, looking totally and utterly confused. Before Emma could say anything, Belle added, "I live with Nurse Jones… Killian Jones..?He's a guy. The only guy working in pediatrics. Surely you've heard of him?"


Sorry for the delay in updating ANYTHING recently. Life took a bit of a strange turn and I have very little time to do anything these days. I'm hoping it will settle down soon but I'm afraid I can't promise anything at the moment.

Thanks for reading and reviewing.