Niall knew it had been an extremely tiring and long day for him at the hospital and he ought to go home and rest, but something was preventing him from leaving. It wasn't like he believed in the stars or anything but you could just call it an intuition.

He had just bought himself a cup of coffee from the hospital canteen so he returned back to his cabin to savour its taste as the aroma wafted to his nose. He plonked down onto his chair with a sigh and decided to rest his limbs for a while before he made up his mind to leave. As he stared at the wisps of steam rising from the cup, his thoughts went back to his college days and the fun times he had spent with his friends as an intern.
College life had been so much easier than what he had to endure now, on a daily basis. He had so much lesser stress then. Now, he was working at odd hours, he had emergency shifts, he skipped meals, his circadian rhythm was messed up and he hardly got to go meet his family.

Niall knew he wanted to become a doctor since he was little because he had always loved the idea of saving someone's life. A little into his late teens, he had made up his mind that he wanted to be a cardiologist. Because he was very interested with matters relating to the heart. Except love. Or that's what he thought.

It wasn't that he detested the thought of love. I mean- when he was a young boy, he too loved the concept of love. He dreamt of love. He thought of it as something that was magical and beautiful and imagined it as something that would give him the feeling of floating. But very soon, he learnt that all that was a figment of his imagination and as he grew up and started focussing more on his work life, he got so involved with the job that he stopped thinking about it.

One thing he loved about his profession was to see the happy smile on his patient's and their family's faces once he helped someone recover or saved their life. It was an exhilarating feeling and filled him with a sense of euphoria. But well of course there was a downside too. He had to witness sudden unsuspected deaths and sometimes he just couldn't save a life how much ever he tried. He knew it was all part of the profession, and he had got himself into it, so he had to take it all in his stride. Though he carried himself with a hard exterior on the outside, inside he was a softie.

No one had been able to break that hard shell till now. He hadn't allowed anyone to see that side of him. And he was sure he was not going to, because it made him feel vulnerable and he did not like that.

But he just didn't realise that today was the day things were going to change for him.

Just as he was about to leave, one of the nurses in his hospital rushed up to him yelling that there was an emergency. He immediately wore his coat and ran to the ER room. His patients always came first. Also, there were very few people in the hospital who were as good as him so it was a necessity that he had to be present.

A frail old man, around seventy was lying down on the hospital bed and there was a boy, around 20 years old standing next to him with a worried look. The man was panting and his breathing was laboured.

There were two nurses standing around, one of whom was trying to administer Nitroglycerin sublingually.
Niall looked to the boy with chocolate brown curls.

As soon as their eyes met, something inside him jolted but he ignored it.

"What happened?" He questioned the boy professionally.

"My grandad-" *hiccup* "he suddenly started complaining of chest pain- I drove here as fast as I could doctor- I am scared- uhm" his eyes were welling up and he was struggling to speak.

Niall placed a comforting hand on his shoulder then.
"Do you want some water?"

The boy nodded so Niall thrust a water bottle at him and went to monitor his patient's situation.

"Sister, how is his breathing?"
"Not looking that good, but manageable Doctor Horan"
" Setup for an ECG"
"Yes sir"

As the nurses started to attach the leads with the wires to the patient's chest for the ECG, Niall turned to the boy. He didn't know why he seemed to be drawn to him or felt a need to comfort him.

"Hey" he said, alerting the young man's attention. "Your grandfather will be alright okay? Don't worry."

The boy who had his face in his hands the whole while, looked up and gave Niall a weak smile.

Niall smiled back immediately. And wondered what on earth was happening to him.

He went to observe the monitor. There was a slight ST- segment elevation indicating a need to monitor him for a few more days.

We will have to keep your grandad admitted for atleast two more days uhm-" Niall stopped, not knowing what to address him.

"Shawn," the boy replied, winking at Niall.

Niall was taken aback for a second, but he ignored it. "Ah yeah Shawn. Anyways just wanted to know if there's anybody else who can stay with him or are you planning to?"

"Umm it's just me."

"Your parents?"

"I am actually on my summer break. I came to visit my grand father."

"Oh alright then. But I need an adult-"

"Well I AM an adult" Shawn replied vehemently, gaining back some of the energy he lost out of worrying.

"Ah right, my bad" Niall said and Shawn chuckled.

"Doc, seems like breathing is returning to normal, sweating has come down, he's okay for now," one of the sisters said.

"Ah that is good sister. But we still need to monitor him to find out the trigger for the angina and see that it doesn't keep repeating."

"Of course."

"Umm Doc?" Shawn asked, looking at him askance. "You look really tired. Can I get you a coffee?"

Niall was too shocked by how forward Shawn was being. Nobody had ever flirted so openly with him.

"Ah no, it's fine, I was just heading home."

"I insist," Shawn said cheekily.

"I am really alright, infact I just had a coffee. Why don't you call your parents and tell them about the situation?" Niall said, trying to change the subject.

"Okay, I will" Shawn, replied, dialling a number on his cellphone.
As he was talking to his mom, trying to explain the situation, Niall turned to his nurse.

"We need to shift him to one of the spare rooms. Do you think he's strong enough to walk?"

"No doc"

"Alright then."

They lifted him off the bed and transferred him onto the stretcher.

Niall gestured to Shawn that they were moving rooms, so Shawn followed wordlessly in the same direction, still mid-conversation with his mom.
"Yeah mom things seem okay for now, but they are moving him to one of the private rooms."

Three doors down the corridor, they stopped and entered a room, pushing the stretcher inside. The room had sparkling white walls, just like any other room in a hospital. There was a small attached bathroom too and two other chairs.

As soon as they entered, they started on moving the patient onto the mattress on the bed and seating him in comfortably.

Shawn's grandfather was still not fully conscious. They let him sleep.

" Shawn, I am leaving. You can rest on those chairs. Also the nurses will be here 24/7. If you have any problem, just press that" Niall said, pointing to a green button "and they will come over to you. No need to worry. I will check on him first thing tomorrow morning. Take care. "

"Thank you doctor" Shawn said and Niall waved awkwardly before he left the room.

He hurriedly got out of his coat stuffed it in his bag, collected his things from his cabin and left the building.

He was extremely drained, even though he made Shawn believe the opposite. He just wanted a good night's sleep. Although, it seemed now, that, that wouldn't be a possibility considering that his thoughts were gonna be occupied. He didn't know if it was going to be about the causes of his patient's trigger or if they were going to be about that boy with chocolate brown curls. No, he couldn't get distracted like that.

As he drove home, he tried to remove all thoughts out of his head for a few moments to enjoy the cool night breeze. But Shawn's cheeky smile came back into his head very soon and he groaned.

He knew this boy was trouble and was going to be the death of him but he was going to make sure not to give in that easily.
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Umm so this is the first time I am writing a fanfiction. I hope you guys like it.

Love,
Hershey