Dressed in a clean set of dark purple scrubs, Sophia left the staffroom and joined her colleagues at the nurses' station. Her two favorite people in the entire hospital, May and Mateo, already stood together there.

"Gotta love Sunday mornings," May commented as Sophia approached them. No one explicitly spoke about why Sunday mornings were the best. That would only ensure that it would turn into the morning from hell.

But even so, the E.R. was calmer than usual. In fact, there was barely anyone in at all.

"How was your day off?" May asked.

"Kinda weird, actually," Sophia admitted.

May and Mateo exchanged looks. "What, you jump off another pier or something?" Mateo asked.

"Oh, shut up," Sophia told him. When she first told the two of them, they had been impressed and a little worried about the state of her sanity. But now, just like everyone else, they just used it to tease her. "And no. I managed to stay dry."

"So what's up?" May asked.

"Right, well, you remember the guy who also jumped off the pier?"

They both nodded. "The guy who turned out to be a firefighter," May said.

"Yeah. I ran into him yesterday."

That piqued both of their interests. "On the pier?" Mateo asked.

Sophia rolled her eyes. "No, not on the pier," she said. "Other places exist besides Santa Monica Pier. No, at a coffee shop."

She proceeded to tell them about the chance encounter with Dean and the conversation that followed. By the time she was done, she could see the wheels turning in both May and Mateo's heads.

"You're totally into him, aren't you?" Mateo asked, his eyes narrowed.

"I am not." Sophia immediately tried to deny it, but the words sounded weak even to her. "Okay," she relented, "I'm kind of into him," she amended. "Not that the bar is particularly high if all it takes is a good-looking guy being nice to me."

"Girl, the bar is never high," May pointed out. "So when are you going to see him again?"

Sophia shrugged. "Maybe never," she said. "Just because I had a couple of minutes of attraction to him doesn't mean that was reciprocated."

"Why would it not be reciprocated?" May pointed out. "You're fucking amazing."

Sophia just chuckled. "As far as he's aware, I'm just some crazy woman who jumped off the pier, and then he later regretted being rude toward. He made his apologies, and that's that."

Neither May nor Mateo looked like they believed her. "What do you mean 'maybe?'" May asked. "That implies that you could see him again if you wanted to."

"I mean, I got his number."

Both of their faces lit up at that moment, but Sophia was saved from dealing with their freak-out. At that moment, Dr. Julia Townsend appeared and waved her over. "Hey, Evie's back."

All thoughts of Dean dropped from Sophia's mind when she heard the name. May and Mateo gave her encouraging looks as she followed Dr. Townsend to the E.R. bed.

"Mr. and Mrs. McBride," Dr. Townsend greeted the parents as she and Sophia entered the room.

"Dr. Townsend," Mr. McBride said, relief clear in his voice. "I'm glad you're here." He looked at Sophia, too. "Sophia, you as well."

"Hi, Mr. and Mrs. McBride," Sophia greeted. "Hi Evie," she said, her voice dropping some of her professionalism and softening out. "How are you?"

Evie had an oxygen mask on her face already, and she gave a small shrug. "Okay." The mask muffled her words, but Sophia could tell her voice was weak. "I don't want to worry everyone."

Sophia and Dr. Townsend shared a glance. "Why don't you just tell us what happened?" Dr. Townsend asked.

"I was just playing," Evie said. "But then it felt like I couldn't breathe, and then my head started to hurt really bad."

"She was in a lot of pain," Mrs. McBride added, her voice wavering. "It didn't feel right."

"You made a good call to bring her in," Dr. Townsend reassured them. "And don't let your minds jump to any conclusions. There are several things this could be. We'll run some tests, see what's going on. Sophia?"

Sophia followed Dr. Townsend out of the room. "What do you think, Jules?" Sophia asked, keeping her voice low.

"Hard to say at this point," Jules said. "I'm not a fan of where her blood pressure is, and her oxygen levels are a bit low. But it could very well be just a side effect of her medications."

Sophia hoped that that was all it was.

"Like I told her parents, we'll run some tests, take some blood, keep her here for evaluation, and see what comes up."

Sophia nodded as Jules rattled off the list of tests to order, and Sophia quickly put them in before heading back into Evie's room.

"Alright, Evie, this might pinch a little bit," Sophia cautioned.

Evie just nodded, putting on her brave face. "It always pinches less with you."

Sophia smiled and patted her arm. Evie flinched slightly as Sophia put the needle in, but didn't complain. She never did.

Sophia worked quickly to draw the blood samples, hoping to let Evie get some peace as soon as possible. "Alright, another quick pinch," she said, and then slid the needle out of Evie's arm.

Once again, the little girl remained as stoic as always.

"And pressure here." But Evie didn't really need to be told what to do, she knew the routine.

Once Sophia had bandaged Evie's arm up, she gave the girl a high five. "You did amazing, as always," she complimented. "You okay?"

"I'm okay," Evie confirmed.

"Good." Sophia gave her arm another squeeze. "I'll be back soon, okay?"

Evie nodded.

Sophia stood up and turned to the parents. "Let me know if you need anything, okay?" she told them.

They both looked stressed and worried, but Sophia had never really seen either of them relaxed. "Thank you, Sophia," Mr. McBride said. "We really appreciate it."

Sophia nodded and left the room, heading to send the blood samples down to the lab, but Mrs. McBride followed her out. "Sophia?"

Sophia turned around.

"Be honest with me. Is this bad?"

All Sophia wanted to do was let out a sigh, but she held it in. "I really don't know, Mrs. McBride," she said. "Like Dr. Townsend said, we just have to wait for the tests. No point in jumping to worst-case scenarios right now. It could be basically nothing."

Mrs. McBride let out a shuddered breath and crossed her arms across her chest, squeezing tightly. "It's just, it's just so much, you know?"

Sophia nodded and then placed a hand on Mrs. McBride's shoulder. "I know," she said. "But no one's given up and no one's resigned that the worst is going to happen. We're here for you."

"I know. Thank you, Sophia."

After getting the samples down to the lab, Sophia rejoined May and Mateo at the nurses' station.

"How is she?" Matteo asked.

Sophia shrugged. "Brave, as always. But beyond that, hard to say."

Evie had been receiving treatment for lung cancer at the UCLA Medical Center for almost seven months now, and she was in the emergency room for one complication or another far too often. At this point, the E.D. crew felt like they shared her with the oncology department.

"Poor kid," May murmured. "Poor parents."

They all agreed with that. As medical professionals, they had to keep certain boundaries between themselves and their patients. But with some patients, those lines blurred, just slightly. It was almost impossible for them to not.

"Hey, Sophia." Dr. Elysia Brown interrupted their conversation. "Come help me in four."

Sophia nodded and shook away the feeling of dread that she couldn't help from appearing in her stomach. Just because Evie McBride was in the hospital again didn't mean everyone else deserved lower-quality care. "Coming."