Come Hell or High Water - Striker x Reader (18+)

133. The Calm, Pt. 1

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"So, have you guys picked a date yet?"

"Not yet," I answered, scribbling down some information on my report sheet. "I was kinda thinking of having a spring wedding, though."

"Well, you'd better hurry up and decide," Carrie retorted, leaning back in her rolling chair. "Most people take more than three months to plan a wedding."

"It's a little hard to wrap my head around the fact that it's already the end of the year," commented Missy, who was seated on the other side of Carrie. She held a hand to her cheek and added bittersweetly, "I can't believe Arlen's already one—he's growing up way too fast."

I smirked and leaned forward on the desk to get a better view of my coworker. "Pretty soon, he'll be walking all by himself and saying full words."

"Nooo! " she whined, covering her face and vehemently shaking her head. "My baby!"

Carrie and I giggled to ourselves at her reaction before she paused and glanced behind me. "Finally—our relief."

We wrapped up our work as the dayshift staff trickled in, preparing for report. I flagged down my relief as soon as she arrived and clocked in, promptly starting report when she checked her assignment and grabbed a pen and paper.

Near the end of my report, Carrie approached me and lightly nudged the arm of my chair with her leg. "Hey, girl. Don't look now, but you've got a visitor."

Despite her words, I turned to look behind me anyway, and to my surprise I spotted my fiancé leaning against the wall on the other side of the nurses' station, his arms crossed and a small smirk on his lips.

I quickly finished giving report and, after ensuring I was caught up with everything, I put away my work supplies in my locker, grabbed my backpack, and made my way over to Striker, who was still silently observing my coworkers talk amongst themselves.

He smiled as I approached, and I couldn't help but ask him, "What are you doing here?"

Striker pushed himself off the wall and remarked, "Can a man not walk his bride home after a long night at work?"

I blinked, admittedly a bit taken aback by his choice of words. A small, humored scoff escaped my throat, and I mirrored his smile. "Okay. You got me there. I'm just a little surprised to see you up and dressed for the day this early—on an off-day, that is."

"I'd be up earlier than this when I used to work at Daisy and Darryl's stable," he said. "Darryl'd have me up and feedin' the horses at the ass-crack o' dawn." He reached over and took one of the straps on my backpack. "Here. I got it."

"Striker," I started, but quickly relented when he lifted the backpack off my shoulder and slung it over his own.

"Damn, what do you got in this thing, rocks?" he commented.

"It's really just some of my work stuff, a book, and a phone charger," I answered, following him down the hallway. "Oh, and my lunch that I didn't get to eat last night."

"Busy night?"

"Yeah," I said. "One of the other nurses got sick early in the shift, and we couldn't find anyone to cover for her. So, we ended up just dividing her patients amongst the rest of us." I took a long swig from my water tumbler and continued, "Oh, yeah. And then we had a code around three o'clock that lasted an hour before we finally got him back long enough to roll him down to ICU."