It was the crawl. The home stretch. Time had hit 10 to 6am, you could see the dark blue fade at the slow approaching light of the sun. A new day was coming. A new day full of new horrors.

"Y/N," Hoseok runs over to you from outside as you're drinking a cup of coffee in the nurse's office. Your eyes are stinging from the lack of sleep. "Where's Sunny?"

You point to the little girl playing with an old black stethoscope on the floor of the nurse's station. "Literally, if you just used your eyes Hobi."

"Hey, don't sass me," he muses, poking your waist and watching you spill your coffee down the front of your scrubs. "I'm just curious and it's 5:51 AM."

"Fuck," you whimper, grabbing the nearest pack of gauze to pat down your shirt. "Can you be less curious while I'm drinking coffee, you sea cow."

"Someone is cranky," Patting your head, Hoseok makes a beeline for Sunny as he sits on the floor beside her. "Get some sleep!"

The two talk but you're more focused on refilling your coffee to care about what. Dragging your feet into the small staff kitchen opposite the nurse's station, you tirelessly start re-making your coffee when Sana sighs behind you, doing the same.

"Hey, outside is a total traumatic mess and Dr. Minho is useless," she says, grabbing the coffee jug and pouring it into her paper cup. "I think Jin will need an extra hand out there. He helped you with that septic patient, want to help him out this time? You up for it?"

"You could've just asked for my help instead of trying to emotionally blackmail me, you know," You fill the top of your cup with cold water. "I mean, for half an hour or so yeah I can definitely help but I have my child here and I have worked too long past recommendations for safe practice. You up for looking after my daughter Sunny with Jimin while I'm gone?"

"I think you'll find that we all have," She says as she shoves a couple digestive biscuits in her coffee before slurping it into her mouth. She then nods eagerly in response as it drips down the sides of her mouth.

"Ew," you frown, watching her inhale the biscuits. "I don't know you yet but you seem trustworthy and kind of ...grossly relatable. So, I'm going to take your nodding as a yes that you'll look after Sunny."

Laughing, she sips her coffee, mouth still full of biscuits. "Sure can. Where is she?"

You finish the rest of your cup before throwing it into the recycling bin beside you. "With Hoseok on the floor of the nursing station. Thanks"

"Happy to help Dr. Y/N."

"You can just call me Y/N, Sana. It's more comfortable."

"Thanks, Y/N," She smiles, before grabbing onto the sleeve of your coat. "Hey, wait. Have you visited Taehyung yet?"

You pause, feeling a flutter in your chest. "No, why? Is he asking for me?"

She snort laughs before drinking the rest of her coffee. "He's been harassing all the staff to discharge him. I thought, if you had time later, you should pop up and slap him or kiss him, either all. He's receptive to you. He doesn't listen to me."

Blushing, you shake your head. "I only have very little self-control left. It took most of me not to kick the shit out of Yoongi just a couple minutes ago."

"Fair enough, I would too. Think about it though."

"I will." Pulling open the door, you smile at her before walking towards the emergency department entrance. Taehyung needed to be slapped ...or kissed? As if you could do anything that would make the stubborn man change.

Walking through the bright red emergency light outside, you wonder what tomorrow, or today, will look like and what that will mean for you and Taehyung. He doesn't know about Sunny and the minutes you are separated from her makes you anxious that they could meet.

And Taehyung has always been good with children, she'll like him and he'll like her and a large part of you doesn't want that to occur because who knows what will come of it.

But a small insignificant part of you does, because something definitely will. It comes from the same part that will always love him, no matter what he does.

"Hey Y/N!" Jin shouts out. He smiles at you, his hands full of compression bandaging and his new scrubs covered already in old blood.

You jog up to him, feeling the pain of your injuries begin to catch up with you. "Jin, whats up?"

"Did you come to help? Because I have a man in tent one who needs a chest tube," He slaps a packet of sterile clothes from the top of his bandage pile. "Dr. Minho's in there but he doesn't know what he's doing. Please help him. Please help me."

"I can only be out here for a little while, my daughter needs to sleep and I need to sleep."

Jin steps close, whispering to you. "Just put the tube in and leave, I don't think Dr. Minho knows how."

"Christ," you sigh. You grab onto the gloves before rushing over to Dr. Minho's tent. Pushing through the plastic door, you sanitize your hands before approaching the patient. Minho was standing with his back to you, reading through his paperwork as the patient bleeds all over the table.

"So what have we got here?" you ask and Dr. Minho whirls around, a flirtatious smile takes over as he eyes you up and down.

"Oh, hey! I wasn't expecting a beautiful woman to come and help me..." he says.

"Please refrain from saying those kinds of comments," you announce, setting the tone for this particular treatment with this particular doctor. "Didn't think an old man like you would need help."

"Christ, and she's witty too," he winks. "You sound like my kind of woman."

"Please stop," Shaking your head, you point to the patient. "Stop flirting with me and tell me what's happening with your patient."

"Dylan's a 22-year-old with a stab wound from falling debris to the left chest lateral and just above the nipple," he says, gesturing you to come closer. "BP is 82/49 mmHg, pulse is 137/min, his resps are 25/min and he's in a shit load of pain."

"Okay, so let's put in a tube thoracostomy," You say, immediately preparing the patient for a chest tube. "Come on."

He hesitates.

"What, are you afraid?" you ask.

He looks at you with a smug grin. "The only thing I am afraid of is a fiercely independent woman with a daddy fetish."

"Hmm, irrelevant," You shake your head, in disbelief that men like him actually exist or maybe the fatigue truly is making you cranky. "So you can't do one?"

He blinks at you.

You sigh. "I'll do it and you can handle it from there."

"Sounds like a plan," He hands you the scalpel after you put on sterile gloves. "The name is Minho, I don't think I've had the pleasure of meeting such a beautiful and intelligent woman."

Rolling your eyes, you take a deep breath. "I'm Dr. Y/N. Even if we had, I'd probably still forget your name."

"I doubt that," Leaning close to you, he watches you count the spaces between each rib. "Women don't forget my name."

"Yet, I already have."

"Stop macking on my sister Minho." Jin interrupts, joining you in the tent. He turns off the oxygen cylinder and begins manually pumping the ambu bag on the patient's mouth.

"She actually your sister, Jin?"

Rolling his eyes too, he ignores him.

Minho turns to watch you as you slice through the skin at the fifth intercostal space with ease before shoving the tube he hands you quickly into the incision site. "That was quick, dang," he admits as blood immediately begins to drain into the box it's connected to. "So quick, I'm impressed."

"She's our best." Jin smiles.

"I like it quick."

"I heard that," Minho laughs, leaning in to whisper into your ear. "And good to know."

"There's a lot of blood coming out of that chest, Minho," You ignore him albeit the goosebumps now littering your arms. "Holy fuck, we've got a strong leak here. 1000mls and counting."

"He should be okay, we've got red blood cells if he needs a transfusion," Jin says, shuffling on his feet. "I've given him some fentanyl too so I'll monitor him."

"You should consider moving him inside, he needs a surgical team."

Jin sighs loudly. "Yes, that's why this fucking idiot is here."

Minho holds up the peace sign. "At least I'm here..."

You sigh.

---

"Where are we going?" the patient asks, wrapped up in warm blankets, as Sunny sits on the end of his bed as Jimin and Sana push it down the hallway. He leans up, looking at her. "Little one, do you know?"

"It's okay, sleep now," Sunny giggles at the man. "We are taking you to a comfier place."

"Oh," he says, falling back into his sheets. "Where are we?"

Jimin raises a brow. "We're in a hospital. You've been in an accident and you've hurt yourself. We're taking you to a surgical medical ward for treatment."

"Oh, oh good gracious. Have you phoned my wife Laurice?"

Jimin, Sana and Sunny look at each other, all mirrored looks of confusion. "Yes, I phoned your wife half an hour ago, she is on her way. She'll see you before you get surgery." Jimin says.

"Alright, going up now," Stopping in front of the elevators, Jimin presses the up arrow. "Hold on tight Sun."

Pushing the bed into the elevator as the doors open, Sunny turns around to look at Jimin. "Is mister going to be okay?"

Jimin stares at the concern on her face before pressing the 6th floor. "I have no idea Sun, I have no idea," Jimin watches as the doors closed.

"We can only hope."

Jimin holds onto the end of the bed before pushing the bed through the elevator doors. He feels weird about this particular patient. His gut, his instincts are telling him something's been amiss. That he's not okay.

"You think something's not right too?" Sana whispers to Jimin. They trade concerned looks before jumping back into action as they push it through the chaos and down the dark hallway.

"I just don't think they even looked at this patient," he admits, frowning heavily. "My heart is telling me that this man needs more medical attention but Dr. Baekhyun down there whatever his name is just ...shut me down."

Sana sighs loudly. "Welcome to Seoul Hearts. Every day is a battle against doctors for our patients."

"I wish it wasn't like this."

She nods, patting his back. "I know."

They continue pushing the bed down the hall until a nurse looks up, prompted by their arrival at the nurse's station.

"Shit, sorry, I've only just gotten back on the ward," Nurse Joy looks up, her cheeks red and forehead sweaty. "Push him into the quad, there's only one-bed space left on this ward."

"Trust me, we understand," Jimin pats her back, "I'm Jimin, I'm from Forest Lakes."

Joy immediately lurches forward, scooping him up into a hug. "I'm so sorry about what happened, I hope you're okay? Did everyone make it out?"

Jimin stiffens as she rubs his back. "We all lose someone in these kinds of things but I am okay, don't worry about it."

Sana crosses her arms over her chest and leans on the wall beside them. "Joy, stop being a hoe and get off him. He's Yoongi's boy."

The smile on Joy's face drips off her face. "This is Jimin? Oh boy, we've heard all about you."

Jimin laughs. "Actually?"

"No, of course not. Yoongi is a class A piece of shit, think he'd tell any of us anything?"

Jimin nods in understanding. "Yes, but he is my piece of shit. Don't talk about Yoongi like that, he's a good man and I know how small the nursing world really is, so I encourage you to tell everyone that you can hire me to hit him, Lord knows I need the money."

"Don't talk to me about money, you'll trigger me. We don't get paid enough for this bullshit, especially when we have to look after interning doctors and they harASS us-"

Sana interrupts. "-you guys can bitch over a cup of coffee later, we have a patient for you and he's looking pretty shitty. Irene, one of the Forest Lake nurses has asked we do a CT since the doctors didn't do a thorough assessment of this man. She's convinced he might have a brain bleed."

Joy rolls her eyes, putting her hands on her hips. "That is like so typical, I bet Minho just ignored her."

"It was Baekhyun but they're practically the same people."

"Nice to see you again though," Joy smiles, looking at Sana fondly. "How's it going downstairs?"

Sana sighs loudly. "So great. No patients at all. It's a holiday. I'm not constantly panicking at all."

"Makes two of us. At least you have a student working with you," she says, pointing to Jimin. Jimin frowns at her. "I'm not a student, I'm a nurse."

"HOW DO YOU LOOK SO YOUNG, WHAT IS YOUR SECRET." Joy glows a bright red. "I'm so sorry. My mistake, nothing bad with students. We just could use all the help we can get and you're so beautiful and young looking and-"

"-shut up," Sana interrupts her. "Jimin is an experienced specialized emergency department nurse. He surpasses us in nursing experience. Irene too, she's relatively newish but exceptionally intelligent."

"Let's get this patient into a room, hey?" Jimin coughs. "Aka, please stop, you're making me more uncomfortable."

"Oh shut up Jimin, we're being nice." Sana laughs, smacking his arm.

Jimin rolls his eyes as Sunny giggles.

Joy agrees. "I'll meet you in there in a couple minutes, okay? I'm just going go chase that damn intern Sehun."

Jimin and Sana watch her run down the hallway.

"She was nice," Sunny whispers, yawning into her little hand. "I like her name. It's like mine. Joy and Sunny."

"Those are very different names Sunny," Sana says, evoking the cutest little frown from her.

She folds her arms across her chest. "I mean, our mamas wanted to be happy, so they named us after things that would remind them of joy and sunshine."

Jimin and Sana look at each other blankly for a second, not expecting that response.

Jimin ruffles her hair. "Deep. I'm impressed."

"Dang," Sana shrugs her shoulders. "Yeah, that makes sense."

"When you put it like that though Sun, it makes people think you're like sunshine and I live with you and know what you're like when there's a thunderstorm or when Uncle Jungkook has eaten all the cereal. You're a monster," He leans toward her, tickling her sides. Her laugh explodes throughout the ward. "A big cheeky monster!"

"Stop it, you two," Sana smacks Jimin's shoulders again. "Let's move this patient."

"God, stop hitting me woman." Jimin stands up straight, looking at Sunny seriously as she covers her mouth to laugh. Pushing the patient further down the hallway, Jimin does the best left he can manage into the large 4 bed spaced quad.

"Hi team," he announces, looking at all the open curtains. "I've got a new roommate for you."

"Where am I?" the patient asks again.

Sunny leans over to him, clasping his hand. "You're in the hospital. You hurt yourself."

"Oh, did I? Have you phoned my wife Laurice?"

Jimin pushes him into the bedside, slamming the breaks on his bed. "We have, she's on her way."

"But why am I here?"

Sunny groans loudly.

"You've hurt yourself and you're in the hospital to get treated," Jimin says, reaching out for Sunny to jump off the bed. She does so without further prompting.

"Is that you Jimin?" Taehyung asks, hopping out of his bed and pulling the IV machine with him. He rips open the curtain, and Jimin stumbles, holding Sunny's head behind his leg. "It is! Boy am I happy to see you!"

Jimin looks at him warily. "Shouldn't you be in bed?"

Taehyung looks at him, adorning a guilty expression Jimin is far too used to being a nurse. "No...."

"Get back into the bed Dr. Taehyung right now."

Sana walks into the cubical and punches Taehyung's shoulder. "You asshole. I heard about you terrorizing the nurses up here. What's wrong with you?"

Jimin snorts as he continues preparing the patient for his stay on the ward. "What's not wrong with him?"

"Where am I?" the patient interrupts, asking again.

Taehyung looks over Jimin's shoulder. He looks at Sunny before he looks at the patient. "Hey Jimin, I have two questions. 1, has that patient had a CT scan and 2, who is that tiny baby nurse on the bed?"

"No, he hasn't had a CT yet. Hospitals turned to shit at the moment. If you hadn't noticed while having a holiday up here and this little human is Sun, she's my colleagues daughter. Unfortunately, she had to come in and we're all taking turns watching her while her mama works outside."

Taehyung blinks, his mouth agape. "Her mother?"

"Hi mister, I'm Sunny," She smiles, jumping off the bed to stand beside Jimin. He watches her extend her little hand to his. "I'm five and I'm a nurse."

"You're a nurse are you?" He smiles, softly taking her small hand into his large one. "Hi Sunny, I'm Taehyung and I'm a patient here. It's nice to meet you."

"We should get you back to bed if you're a patient, you should be sleeping," She frowns, pulling on his hand as she walks over to his bed. "I'm a nurse and I know everything."

"Who's daughter did you say she belonged to?" Taehyung asks as he feels compelled to listen to the little girl seemingly out for his heart. Sunny lifts herself onto the bed as Taehyung slips under the covers.

"She's bossy but she's alright." Jimin comments, smiling at Sunny as she smiles up at Taehyung. "Are you able to look after her for a bit, I just need to go and speak to the doctors about our new patient."

Taehyung nods. "I can do that, I like kids."

Jimin holds his thumbs up. "Sunny, Uncle Tae is going to look after you for a bit. We know him and he's great. Your mama knows him too, so don't wander off okay?"

"I know her mother?"

She frowns at Jimin. "But Jiminie, mama said I could visit Ginia with you if you took me!"

Jimin pauses, staring at the ground before looking up at Taehyung. "Hey Taehyung, Virginia, she's a patient down the hall in room A01, are you able to take Sunny to see her later please?"

"Um yeah sure," Taehyung blinks, watching his hesitant form slowly walk away. "I'll see you later Jimin."

"You too Taehyung, I'll be back Sunny!"

"Bye Jiminie!" Sunny shouts, waving her little hand in the air.

Sunny pulls up her pink socks before pulling the blankets out from their tuck on the other side of the bed and lifting them up.

"What are you doing?" Taehyung asks, watching her tiny body wiggle against the bed rails beside him.

"I'm getting warm," she whispers, without looking up at him. "I'm cold and you're hogging all the room."

He looks down at her in concern. "You're cold?"

She nods shyly.

He laughs softly as her pigtails bob too. "I'll give you a jumper," he says. Leaning towards his personal belongings drawer, he pulls out his grey jumper that one of the nurses returned from the on-call room for him. "Now it will be a little big on you but at least it will be warm."

Unfolding it, he turns to her, handing her the jumper. "Do you need help putting it on?" he asks.

She looks at him as though she were offended. "I'm not a baby, I can dress myself."

He watches her pull the jumper on. "Cute. How old are you then Sunny?"

She pops her head through the top. "I'm five. I'm a big girl I promise, I can even make noodles!" Taehyung helps her raise the sleeves, she accepts reluctantly as he fawns over her. "How old are you?"

He snorts as he fixes the jumper, now dress, on her. "Old enough to be your dad."

She scowls. "I don't have a dad."

"You don't have a dad?" he asks, watching her cross her arms over her chest. "What happened to him?"

She shrugs her shoulders. "Mama doesn't like talking about it, it makes her cry."

He stares at the little girl, feeling a little blossom full of curiosity grow in his heart. "That's okay."

"Mister, what happened to you?" she asks and Taehyung grabs the bed remote, putting the head of the bed up so they can lean on it. "Did you hurt bad in an accident?"

Taehyung shakes his head. "No, Tae got hurt protecting a girl he loves, nothing bad."

"Oh," She stares at him curiously as she sits beside him. "Is she your princess?"

A smile spreads across his face as he moves a little to the side so she can lay beside him. "Why would I have a princess?"

Sunny pokes his cheek. "Because you look like a prince. Princes have princesses, right?"

She smiles a Cheshire like grin as her big brown eyes stare into his. It's odd, the sudden feeling that takes over him as he stares back at her.

"You're right." is all he can say as he wonders who else share the same big brown eyes.

Grabbing her little finger from his face, he holds her small soft hand in his much larger one. Sunny intertwines her fingers with his as she leans her head against his shoulder.

"Can you be my mama's prince instead? I think she named me after sunlight so she'd always feel warm but I think she gets cold way too much."

Taehyung snickers in the dark. "You're smart for a kid your age."

"You're smart for a boy too." she quips and the whiplash Taehyung experiences is dizzying.

"What?" he laughs as he says it, poking her ribs. "What did you just say to me?"

She giggles as he begins to tickle her. "You heard me, mister!"

The laughter fills the room and if not for the acutely unwell patients around him, it would've been a welcome sound.

They settle side by side a couple minutes later after being yelled at by the nurses and the patients to be quiet. Sunny hides underneath Taehyung's arm in embarrassment, hiding her face in his warm chest.

He winces as she places her head right on his wound but he truly cannot bring himself to say anything about it. He holds her there as he lays his head on her smaller one. "You're cute Sunny."

"I know I am but call me smart please," she says before looking up at him with her big brown eyes. "Mama is really smart. She began being a doctor when she was little and I wanna be like her, so call me smart, not cute. Okay?"

His heart begins to pound as he focuses on her calm expression. "When she was little?"

She nods. "My grandma told me they used to live in a little hospital, people would come for my mamas help."

The silence that then follows is the loudest thing Taehyung has ever heard as Sunny wiggles in his arms. Her eyes ...her nose ...maybe even her lips... why does she look like...

"Sunny," he starts, his voice starting as a whisper before it quivers at the thought bouncing in his brain that she couldn't be his... that you would've kept his ...the idea was outrageous but something realistic and a complete possibility, especially knowing you. "Who did you say your mother was?"

Sunny smiles up at the man who shares the same brown eyes as her. "Why?"

"Because I have a feeling I might know who your dad is."