A/N: A day when I follow Katie on a day with Jim at the hospital :) Enjoy xx Mariah

Ages:

Jim - 33
Melinda - 29
Katie - 4

Melinda lounged on the bed, propped up by pillows, fiddling with the ends of her hair. Katie still laid awake next to her, a book covering her face as she pretended to read the book to herself. She was almost there. She could identify words on the page now and even memorized things, but she was only four and couldn't quite read on her own yet.

The little girl's nightmares had been getting worse the more she channeled her mother's ghost energy, which was why she was in their room most nights. Ghosts were non-stop these days, despite Melinda being on bed rest from her pregnancy. She couldn't do much from the bed, so they'd trickle in and out, mostly taunting her with dreams and visions.

Jim had always hated that he couldn't protect her from her visions and nightmares. But he began to hate it, even more, when it started to hurt both his wife and his daughter. It wasn't doing much good for their incoming baby either.

"Stop that, Melinda," Jim said in a serious voice as he watched her look at him as he came out of the bathroom; steam followed him from the shower he'd just taken before work.

"Stop what?" she said, licking her lips. They're a bit chapped, but that didn't matter right at the moment.

"Looking at me like that," he said as he walked toward his closet, pulling the top drawer of his dresser inside open.

He grabbed himself boxers and socks, coming to sit on his side of the bed. He opened his towel and stood up as he pulled his boxers on and then brought the towel up to dry his hair off. He turned to look at her and regretted it because Melinda always looked the most beautiful to him when she was carrying his child.

"Looking at you like what?" She said with a filthy grin. Her tanned skin seemed to glow under the incandescent light of the early sunlight from the window, she was wearing a white slip. Something he was trying so hard to resist.

He flushed at her expression, it was exactly that which was preventing him from wanting to get dressed right now, "Like I'm your next meal," he said breathlessly.

It was becoming almost poetic how she could take his breath away at any moment. She tilted her head a little, her grin becoming wider, she gave him a once-over that made him shiver head-to-toe.

"You do seem pretty edible from here, but I'll leave you be." She licked her lips again, appraising him as he pulled his scrub pants on.

He left his chest bare because it was still damp as he leaned forward to kiss her, much to Melinda's satisfaction. "Are you sure you're okay?" He asked her as he pulled back.

"I'm fine, just really tired." She replied, lying back and giving her a weak smile.

"Get some rest, you need it right now. We'll be back before five." He told her, tucking her in as he pulled the book out of Katie's hand.

"Daddy!" The girl furrowed her brow. "I was reading that."

"Well, you can read it in the car." He winked, kissing her cheek as he moved off the bed. He pulled his scrub top on. "Are you ready to go?"

"Can I ride on your back?" Katie perked up, remembering she was going with her daddy to his work today.

Their daughter jumped on his back before he could answer, locking her legs around his middle. "Sure. But first, you have to give mommy a kiss goodbye and tell her and baby to get some rest." He told her, pointing at Melinda who had opened a book.

Katie slid down his back and hugged his legs before she climbed back up onto the bed. She snuggled into her mother's side before she tapped her cheek. "Are you reading?"

"Not anymore, thank you for asking." Melinda leaned over the best she could to kiss her forehead. "Are you going?"

"Bye, mommy," Katie said, squeezing harder. "You and the baby need to rest, that's what daddy said." She pointed her tiny toddler finger at her mother as she spoke the last sentence.

"Yes, ma'am." She winked, rubbing her side. "You have fun and listen to your daddy, okay?"

"I always listen to daddy," Katie whispered as she kneeled by her mom now. She kissed her lips before climbing back onto her dad as they walked out of the room. "Right, daddy?"

"Right," he shrugged with a smile. Their daughter mostly listened, well sometimes. He took his turn to walk over to Melinda's side of the bed to say goodbye and give yet another reminder that she needed her rest. "Do as Katie said," he reminded her with a sheepish smile as he leaned in and placed a soft kiss on her lips. "It'll be over soon. We're almost through November." She nodded at that and leaned her head in, resting her forehead on his and closing her eyes.

After finishing his residency last year and passing his board this year, he'd finally been given a bigger standing at the hospital. He could make his own hours as long as he kept three nights on during the week and worked every other weekend.

Which meant Katie didn't have to get up at six in the morning in order to come to work with him, so he'd been taking her with him a lot lately to give Melinda some time to rest before their second child was born.

She hadn't been sleeping well at all because of the nightmares and discomfort interrupting her sleep. She was in the final stretch of her pregnancy, with only a few weeks left before the baby was due. But she said it felt like the baby was ready to come out right now, kicking and pushing on her stomach with such force that it woke her up.

"He's your son," she'd chastise him, but he'd only chuckle.

Katie and Jim left the house not long after nine that morning and started their familiar routine. He buckled her in the backseat of Melinda's jeep that he was using today and started off on his drive to the hospital.

"Daddy, are we gonna eat breakfast?" The little girl asked, humming as she drew on the cold window.

"Do you want to eat at the hospital or somewhere else?" He asked.

"I like the hospital food, daddy," she giggled. "They have the best fruit juice."

"Spoken like a true foodist, Katiebug, I'm proud of you." He chuckled, turning the radio back up a little more.

Coming to the hospital has been beneficial for Katie in a lot of ways. It's helped her learn to socialize and be around other people, but also listen to her father when he brought her to his office to occupy herself for little bits of time if he needed to. She usually stayed but, but the occasional ghost that came around could spook her from his office.

"Up, daddy," Katie called, pulling on his hand. He scooped her up in his arms as they walked into the hospital. "I missed your face." She touched his cheeks and rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm tall!"

"You're the tallest girl in Grandview," he confirmed. She giggled at the statement as he put her down when they reached the nurse's station. "Got anything for me, Eliza?"

The nurse rustled around with the files on her desk. "Here are your patients, Dr. Clancy. Two are in post-op and healing nicely the last I checked. Three are awaiting pre-op today. Just minor procedures. I put everything you need in your files." Eliza turned to Katie next, holding a candy apple sucker, her favorite. "And for you… it's been a few days since you were in! Hi Katie."

"Hi," Katie took the sucker and waved. Eliza was her favorite nurse. She always made sure her dad's patients were taken care of while he was gone. She was the first nurse on the shift in the morning. "Thank you."

"Thank you, Eliza," he said, looking through one.

"And if you could pop into ICU room two and check on Mr. Sergio that would be great. I need to go eat something and sit down for a few minutes." Alicia sighed, taking a drink of her coffee. "Demario's interns haven't been checking on his critical patients as much as they should, but I've picked up as much slack as I can."

"Yeah, I'll stop in there." He said, making sure that he was holding Katie's hand as they started to walk away. "Thank you. Go eat something. I'll have Marcel come watch the desk."

"Okay. Thank you, Jim," she grabbed her wallet from under the desk, smiling at him. She waved to Katie, high fiving her before she walked away. "See ya, Katie."

It took Jim fifteen minutes to find the patient that Eliza had told him about, but only five to realize what his problem was.

Tenderness in the right upper quadrant. A positive Murphy's sign. Katie sat in the chair in the corner of the room as he gave the man an ultrasound which showed gallstones and fluid around the gallbladder. He had cholecystitis and needed surgery.

By now he was at that crispy kind of irritable that put a mean edge to his usually calm demeanor. Katie took his hand as he walked out of the room and he left her in the hallway with a kiss on the cheek.

"I'll be right back," he told her. "Stay here. We'll go to eat after I come back."

"Okay, daddy," Katie smiled and tapped his cheeks with her hands. "I will stay right here."

He tried to talk himself down as he turned around and stormed into the intern's workroom, ready to chew out the intern (what was his name? Damien? Darren?) but was still twitching with irritation when he pushed open the door.

"Who is taking care of Mr. Sergio and why on earth isn't he being seen by a surgeon?" He asked, walking up to the blonde on the bench by her locker, reading a file.

Tomorrow he'd regret his tone, but he's had it. Between all the scut work he's done the last few months and the ortho hip fracture he was babysitting, the interns seemed to actively forget how to manage basic medical problems as soon as they graduated despite this hospital requiring good recommendations to get into its teaching program.

Jim was done cleaning up messes. He was supposed to have a slow day of checking in on patients and spending the day with his daughter, not cleaning up after sloppy interns. He was expecting a sniveling red-eyed intern. Instead, he was face to face with Molly Peterson. The oldest and smartest one, and his favorite intern. She was almost ready to test out and start her residency.

Damnit.

"Hey, Dr. Clancy, what's wrong?" she asked, but he couldn't quite tell by her tone. Her eyes were slightly puffy, but her face hadn't gotten that pinched look like it did towards the end of a shift. She must be freshly on shift for this morning and he could tell her scrubs have that soft worn look to them like they're on about day three of use. "I'm sorry, what did you say? I worked a double and am reaching that time of waking up so early when I start to see green fairies." She looked at him dubiously, but repeated, "Are you here for the man in room 22? With the stomach pain? Darius gave me a really garbled sign-out and I'm trying to organize my patient list."

He sighed, looking down at the papers she was trying to organize on the bench. He couldn't yell at her for this. She'd just gotten here. It wasn't her fault that this was diagnosed late. It would be the shift on-call early this morning.

Ugh, he hated himself already.

"Yeah, gotta love the newbies." He tried to save himself somehow, shrugging. "In a few months they'll be rock stars, but right now they don't know which direction their heads should be facing."

Molly nodded sympathetically while looking over her paperwork. "I hear you. I'm about ready to kill them all." She rolled her eyes. "Now what's wrong with Mr. Sergio? I haven't gone in to see her."

"Right upper quad tenderness, positive Murphy, ultrasound with gallstones. I think it's cholecystitis and he needs a surgical consultation from the head of General." He explained. "And I-"

"You have Katie with you today, right? I can take care of it." Molly said, already sitting back down to look over the patient's labs. "I've got it, Jim." She waved him off. This was what he loved about her. She checked everything and instead of arguing or turfing, she investigated to see if what he's saying was true and if he missed anything. Just like he would. She also always knew what was going on around her. She'd already realized he hadn't left yet and was waiting to hear what she thought. "Hmm...I see your point. Let me examine him and if our exams match I'll give surgery a call and let Dr. Demario know. You mind sticking around down here, so in case they've got questions I won't have to page you?"

"I'll be in the cafeteria. Katie's hungry and it wouldn't hurt to eat." He said, backing out of the locker room slowly. "I didn't mean to sound angry. I am pissed at Darius, not you."

"Yeah. I would've come in here like that too," she said, standing up and collecting all of her papers. "I'll page you."

Katie was in the hallway, patiently waiting for her father as he came out. "Hungry, bug?"

"Yes!" She jumped into his arms as Molly came out with her files in her hands. "Hi!"

"How's Melinda doing?" Molly asked, smiling at the girl as she walked toward the ICU room. "Hi, Katie."

"She's alright, just really tired. This one finds that the best time to kick and move around is whenever Melinda is trying to sleep. It keeps her up at night." He explained with a sigh. "That's why I've been taking Katie to work with me."

"Not much longer now? Right?" Molly shrugged, trying to be light.

"A little less than four weeks." He told her and Katie nodded excitedly. "We don't have the nu ready yet. I still need to paint, but I want everything done beforehand, even if the baby will be sleeping in the bassinet in our room for the first few weeks." He didn't know why he was saying all of this to the intern, but she didn't seem to mind. Plus it was nice to talk to people around here and make colleagues."It's just a lot more difficult now with Katie and Melinda barely being able to move these days. She's still on bed rest."

"That must be hard for Katie. And for you too," Molly sighed, smiling at the little girl. "If you ever need a babysitter… I have little sisters and would love to. Even if I don't have much free time outside of here, but you can always ask me. I'll say yes if I can."

Katie pulled on his ear and he turned to see her. "Are you ready, dad?" She asked, trying to sound mature.

"Ready for what?" He asked, trying not to laugh.

"To eat," Katie said like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well I better go feed her," he laughed, looking at the woman. "Page me if you need anything."

They started off by washing their hands in the nearest bathroom, something Jim had instilled in Katie since she was old enough to walk. Never touch food you're eating or making for other people unless you've washed your hands first. She did a pretty good job of remembering this, but there were still times when he had to remind her.

They went to the cafeteria next and he got her a plate of eggs and a bowl of fruit. He'd gotten himself a breakfast sandwich.

"Did you sleep well last night, bug?" He asked her, taking a bite of his sandwich.

Melinda had told him about a nightmare before his shower, only one. She'd slept most of the night otherwise. He hadn't remembered Katie waking him other than when she crawled into bed with him and Melinda, and he usually didn't wake up then either, but last night she'd crawled over the top of him from his side to push him away from Melinda and snuggle in closer to her mother.

She shook her head, eating her fruit quietly to herself. He could see the way she was looking around at things he couldn't see. Avoiding some areas of the room, but mostly looking to the left corner.

"Who do you see?" He whispered, looking over to the empty corner.

"Oh, it's just Nurse Nancy," she giggled, eating her fruit. "She's nice to me. She keeps all the bad ones away when mommy isn't here."

"That's good," he smiled and she agreed, holding out a strawberry to him. "Thank you. I love strawberries. Did you know that?"

"Yes. You told me, daddy," she giggled and gave him another one.

"You're so nice to share. Thank you," he said, eating the second one. He loved his days with his daughter like this and he couldn't wait to have ones with his son one day too.