Jesse
Jesse walked into the Starbucks that was around the corner from Resurgam and sighed, immediately regretting his decision. The queue was huge. He checked his watch, and decided that waiting for 10 minutes was less exhausting than work.
He joined the queue, scrolling through Instagram. When it was finally his turn, he looked up and was met with a smiling barista that he didn’t recognise.
“Morning sir! May I take your order?” She asked. Her smile never once faltered.
“Caramel coffee frappuccino. You’re new?”
The girl looked shocked. “How did you know? I mean, I’ve worked here all week, and on the Starbucks on the other side of town but this is the first time I’ve been serving customers.” She rambled. Jesse looked at the floor, fiddling with his hands. No flirting or talking to strangers aside from what’s needed. His boyfriend’s voice reprimanded him in his head. You know I’m insecure and it makes me have anxiety attacks whenever you do that.
“Right. I work at Resurgam.” Jesse pulled his EMT jacket closer to his body.
“Oh, a doctor! Jen, get this order done quick! It’s for a doctor!” The girl ran off. Jesse stood there dumbly for a few seconds.
“I don’t care if you’re some homeless punk or a world-class doctor,” a man pushed Jesse’s shoulder roughly. “Get out of my way so I can order my drink and get to work.”
Jesse moved to the area where he could pick up his drink. He thanked the second barista when he received it and headed to Resurgam. He hoped the chief wouldn’t be too mad. Then again, stopping for coffee wasn’t a good excuse in her opinion. She believed the only good excuses were: helping in an accident, a family member’s death or being physically sick. Not much to work with when you needed to create excuses. Jesse thought back to when Maria Torres had been the chief, and he was new to the job. She had been loud, and her fiery temper meant she was not one to be crossed. In fact, although he wouldn’t admit it, Jesse was initially intimidated by her. However, she had been quite relaxed with Jesse turning up to his shift, so long as he wasn’t over ten minutes late. Something about him “being Naomi’s son and all, I can’t really disrespect her.”
Jesse was pulled out of his thoughts by an ambulance blaring it’s siren and honking at him. He jumped out of the way and it hurtled past. He hadn’t even noticed that he’d stepped in the road. He checked both ways to make sure it was safe before he crossed properly. He checked his watch, 15 minutes late. Oh boy...he took a deep breath and entered the emergency department, a snarky smile plastered on his face.
“Sup, rat bastards!”
“Dr. Williams, that is not workplace appropriate,” the Chief walked up to him. Her lips were drawn in a tight line. She glanced her watch, pushing her glasses up. “What do you call arriving at this time?”
“Fashionably late?”
“That isn’t funny, Dr. Williams.”
“I had to get my coffee!”
“That’s hardly an acceptable excuse, if one at all,” the Chief turned around. “You need to go and prep 721 for service with Dr. Vargas. She’s already emptied it.”
Jesse nodded and walked away. No use arguing, and it seemed like he’d got off lightly.
***
“And then this fricking idiot pushed me out of the way and was like ‘ooh you’re in my way’!” Jesse vented. “I mean, entitled much?”
“Yeah, no kidding,” Donna pulled out another antibacterial wipe and bent down, wiping the spare seat.
“At that point I decided it wasn’t worth it. I mean, I’d be grumpy without my morning coffee.”
“That doesn’t seem like you. Are you sure you’re Jesse Williams?”
“Yes, thank you very much. I can be quiet!”
“Mhm, sure,” Donna straightened up. “Are you alright to start reloading?”
“Sure,” Jesse picked up some boxes and began placing them on the shelves. In no time, he was done and Donna had also checked everything was placed correctly.
“That’s it. We should report to-”
“721? Come in, 721.”
Jesse raised an eyebrow at Donna, who rolled her eyes and answered the call.
“721 responding.”
“There’s been an RTC crash on the Main Street, outside Greely High School. A lorry went into a group of students walking out of school. There are eight initial victims, but more may be discovered. We’re dispatching you and 895 to the scene.”
“Understood. We’ll head out.” The crackled from the intermission faded at Donna’s words. “Well, lets go.”
She shut the back of the ambulance and hopped into the driver’s seat. Jesse claimed up into the passenger side and turned on the sirens. He looked at Donna, winking.
“Bet you those kids were bunking.”
***
“Well, what did I tell you?” Jesse watched as their last patient was rolled into resus. “They were meant to be in school.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that they needed help.” Donna pulled her dense, coiled hair out of the ponytail it was in. She sighed in relief as she massaged her scalp.
“I never said it did!” Jesse leaned up against the side of the ambulance. “I’m just making an observation.”
“You say that like you’ve never bunked.”
Jesse put a hand to his chest, feigning insult. “I can’t believe you’d say that! My mother would have gone mad if I bunked.”
“That doesn’t mean you didn’t.”
“It doesn’t mean I didn’t.”
“So you bunked?”
“No I-” Jesse saw the Chief glaring at him and he stood up, patting the metal. “Maybe we should get this moved back to the bay.”
Donna followed his eyes to the Chief and then looked back at Jesse, grinning. “Does old wrinkle-face scare you?”
“No!” Jesse climbed into the ambulance, his voice becoming muffled. He slammed the door and waited for Donna.
“Sure she doesn’t. Sure.”
“Shut up,” he jabbed her in her side.
“Hey!” Donna poked him back. Jesse retaliated, tickling her slightly. Donna dissolved into a mixture of laughter and anger. “Oh my god you - absolute - dick!”
Jesse repeated the motion again, and Donna caught his wrist. Jesse flinched, his face dropping.
“Do it again and you’re cleaning the entire of this van alone,” she said breathlessly, still smiling.
“Yeah sure,” he replied sarcastically but he put his hands on his lap. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Donna hummed to herself, satisfied that she’d won the round of bickering. They drove in silence round to the ambulance station. When Donna had parked the vehicle, Jesse hopped out, groaning as he landed on his ankle a bit too heavily.
“Jay?” A voice echoed around the station. Jesse turned to see his boyfriend stood in the entrance to the station. Donna looked over and rolled her eyes, starting to empty the van.
“Cake,” Jesse walked over and grabbed his boyfriend’s hands. “Why’re you here?”
“Can I not pay the my boyfriend a visit at his workplace?” Caleb pecked him on the cheek. Jesse nearly flinched involuntarily, but he managed to stay still.
“Of course you can, I just didn’t expect you. And I kinda have to help Donna with the van...”
“Donna?” Caleb pulled back, hurt in his eyes. Jesse gestured to his coworker.
“Dr. Vargas. You’ve met her before.” Donna waved quickly from the corner and focused on emptying the ambulance. She put one box down rather aggressively.
“I didn’t know you were on first name terms,” Caleb’s eyes narrowed. “You aren’t gonna leave me, are you?”
“Of course not!” Jesse squeezed his boyfriend’s hand. “Maybe you should go, Caleb, I really need to help Dr. Vargas. And I’m on call so we could get dispatched at any moment.”
Caleb pulled a face. “Fine. I’ll see you later. You better not be home late. By the way, your hair looks awful.” The man turned and stomped out. Jesse reached up to sort his hair out and turned to Donna.
“Hey, let me help.” He attempted to take a box from her arms.
“Thanks. Jes, you know I don’t like that guy?”
“Yeah?”
“You know why?”
“I can’t really say I care,”
“Jesse, he’s not good for you.”
“Oh come on!” Jesse dumped the box on the ground angrily. “Not you too!”
“I’m just saying-”
“Save it,” he growled. He turned on his heel and walked into the break room, leaving Donna to finish cleaning the ambulance.