C o l e

Pulling at the janitor's uniform, I let out a sigh. It was hot in this thing even with the hospital's air conditioning and my nose constantly burned from all the chemicals I was smelling in this tiny room.

Harvey's appointment was at three and unfortunately, I started at seven in the morning.

It was honestly hard to get out of the house this morning with the obstacle known as Eros being in my way. It's only been 2 days and I can tell he's been trying to hold back any kind of overly affectionate tendencies he may have but this morning his sleepiness seemed to make him forget.

"Eros, you can't sleep here. Your back is going to start hurting" I said as I tried to shake the man awake but he didn't seem to be budging as he snoozed away.

Sighing, I turned and closed his laptop.

"I'm going to the hospital now, please get in the bed properly" I said as I turned back to Eros.

My eyes widened when I was grabbed by my arm and pulled down onto the couch, Eros' arms encircling me with a pretty firm grip for someone who's supposed to be asleep.

"Eros..." I muttered and the man grunted.

"Let me- ah?!" I yelped when feeling Eros bite down on my collar bone. Even though I was glaring at him, Eros just gave me a sleepy smile.

"Sorry, it was just there in front of me so I couldn't help myself" he said.

"I have to go" I said as I tried to push him off but Eros insisted on keeping me there. This guy...

"Why should I let you leave?" Eros asked, eyes narrowing as he shifted himself so that he was on top of me.

"Because I have to go...?" I said.

"Not good enough" Eros hummed and then lent down to my ear.

"Maybe if you give me a little incentive, I might let you go. Might." His voice was low and sultry as he whispered and my heart sped up immediately at the feeling of his warm breath fanning my ear. I don't think my ear is sensitive but surely anyone in my position would feel this way.

"I think these will do very nicely" Eros said as he thumbed my bottom lip, gazing at them with a less than innocent look in his eyes.

It's 6 in the morning...why the hell is he so provocative at this time?

"You better do something Cole, or else you'll be late" He teased.

"And it'll be your fault" I said.

"You can't possibly expect me to function properly all day without at least one kiss" Eros said and I raised a brow.

"You've done it before" I said.

"Mm, yes, but now it's different" He said.

"How?" I asked and Eros leant down to put his forehead to mine.

"Because before, coffee was my motivator. Now, it's you" he said and the gentle smile on his face was so unfair. It made me feel warm all the way down to my fingertips, how could I say no when he smiled like that?

"So...are you going to kiss me or am I going to have to kiss you? And trust me , if I do it, you will be late" Eros said, grinning at the end of his sentence.

"You're unbelievable" I grumbled before cupping his cheeks and joining our lips.

It honestly was supposed to be a quick kiss so I could go but nothing ever goes as planned when Eros is involved. I could feel his teeth nibbling on my lower lip, which was essentially a silent demand for me to open my lips. Though I shouldn't have, I allowed him to part my lips as he wanted. Though he did take me by surprise when he captured my tongue within his mouth and lightly sucked on the appendage.

A stifled moan emerged from me which only got swallowed by Eros' fervent kiss. I was slowly losing myself in the kiss, and I really did believe Eros was trying to keep me here. But my sense of reality was stronger than that...well, my need to breathe was stronger.

Pulling away, I looked at Eros expectantly.

"There, you can let me go now" I panted out.

I frowned though, when seeing the look on Eros' face. It told me that he was already thinking of things that I couldn't afford to be involved in right now.

"On second thought...you're just going to have to be late"

I didn't know how much of a touchy guy Eros could be but I guess he was the type to reserve that kind of behavior for his significant other which made a happy feeling to bloom in my chest.

Getting back to work, I rolled out with my cart. I was just told to clean up any messes and occasionally change and disinfect the beds of discharged patients. It was easy enough in thought but with the hospital being very full at the moment, I was often rushed to get things done.

Thank god I didn't actually work here.

I came across many different kinds of patients, some were nice while others were tired or just the tad bit rude. I was lucky I didn't have to deal with the patients, it seemed like a pretty demanding job.

Time went by slowly and soon enough it was time for my break. Dropping my supplies off, I headed out of the hospital for some fresh air. I never really liked hospitals, I didn't like being in places where people died in general. I've seen and caused enough death in my lifetime.

Not really feeling hungry, I went to sit behind the hospital since there were benches. There was a doctor on a smoke break and a few other people but aside from that, it wasn't too crowded.

I checked my phone for the time and saw that it was now one in the afternoon. Just as I was about to put my phone down, it began to ring, Eros' name popping up on the screen.

Sliding the bar across, I was greeted with some shouting in the background.

"I don't want to go anymore! What if they stick a needle up my ass?!" My eyes widened at the question, the voice sounding like Harvey.

"What? Why would you think they're going to put a needle in your ass you idiot?" Another voice, Mikhail, asked.

"I've seen it happen on TV!" Harvey cried.

"Uh..." I trailed and Eros sighed.

"Ignore him, he's having some kind of weird crisis. Have you managed to find anything yet?" Eros asked and I shook my head.

"No, I've only been in patient rooms so far" I said.

"I see. Well, Jamie and Harvey are going to make their way over there soon. Jamie will let you know what room they are in" Eros said and I nodded.

"I hope everything is going well and that those bastards are treating you kindly" Eros said and I smiled.

"Everything's fine" I said shortly. Eros nodded and as he said something, the irking sensation of being stared at distracted me.

I looked to my side and saw the doctor that was taking a smoke break just staring directly at me. I furrowed my brow and he raised his own at me.

Okay...that's weird.

"Cole?" Hearing my name, I turned back to Eros who was looking at me confusedly.

"Sorry, sorry. My break is almost over, I'll call you later" I said before hanging up. Eros was probably going to be upset at the abrupt hang up but I just had a feeling that I should go inside.

Once I was back inside, I started to slowly make my way through the halls, looking for any kind of lab really. Just until Jamie texted me so I could check on them.

"No, the patient didn't react well to the drug" I paused when hearing some voices come from one of the rooms. I peeked and saw a patient on the bed, seemingly void of any life as they lied there and a doctor on the phone.

"Yes I administered the proper dose, and they seemed to be fine but eventually we got a report of them having a heart failure" The man said.

I tried to squint and read the doctor's name tag but he practically had his back to me, making it hard for me to make out.

"...alright, I understand"

Seeing that he was finished with his conversation, I backed up my cart a bit so that when he came out it would look like I was just passing by.

The doctor walked out paying me no mind so I took the chance to walk in. I looked around the room a bit, avoiding the dead patient in the bed and my eyes landed on some vitals next to the patients bed. I took my phone out and snapped a few photos of them as well as the patients wrist tag for their name.

After getting everything I needed, I walked out of the room and continued on with my search. As I walked I made note of rooms to check out later tonight during the night shift.

My phone vibrating in my pocket made me pause and I looked to see a text from Jamie.

'Room 257, please come before I lose my sanity'

I made my way over to the elevator and went down to the second floor. The second floor seemed to be more hectic than the fourth and I saw lots of nurses making their ways in and out of rooms.

Once I got to the room, I ditched the cart and walked inside.

"Cole!" Harvey was the first to notice me upon my entry and he beamed a smile at me.

"How's the janitor life treating you?" He asked and I shrugged.

"It's fine. No one's bothered me or anything and I've just had to change a few bed sheets" I said.

"Find anything?" Jamie asked and I nodded.

"Yeah, a patient recently passed. I'm pretty sure they had given them the drug. I heard a man on the phone, whoever he was talking to probably wasn't happy about it. Managed to get some pictures of vials that were on the table next to the patient" I explained and I gave Jamie my phone so that he could look through 

"You even got the labels and name tag, good work" Jamie said as he sifted through them.

"So that means we can leave now right?" Harvey asked.

"Not quite, you could still benefit from a checkup, god knows everything up there isn't always right" Jamie said as he pointed to Harvey's head.

"No way! If we got what we came for, I'm-" Harvey stopped talking when the door to the room opened and I tensed when seeing the doctor from earlier.

He also made eye contact with me but didn't say anything.

"Hello, I'm Doctor Nixon, I'll be taking care of you today" he said and held his hand out to Harvey.

Nodding at Jamie, I took this as my cue to leave so I stood up. Walking out of the room, I made sure to text Jamie about my plans to stay during the night shift since I still wanted to check out the rooms I saw.

I also made sure to text the pictures to Eros before pocketing my phone.

Now I only had to wait a bit longer.