lifedance.

two.

Louis Tomlinson mentally cursed himself as he pulled up to the red light. His unfortunate habit of getting lost in his thoughts had struck him yet again. He reached his hand down into the pocket of his scrubs, and, groaning, he brought it back up after a second, completely empty. It was the cherry on top of a perfect morning.

His routine started out the same way each work day with checking his pager and getting his ass out of bed. If there was an emergency, he would hurry in without much caution, but most days he could relax and take his time. Only, on the occasional day that he ran late, frantic was not a strong enough word to explain how manic he became and how quickly he tried to move. Clothes flew, he brushed his teeth while attempting to tie his shoes at the same time, and he was lucky if he remembered to grab something to eat on his way out the door. All of those things were easy to deal with, albeit stressful. It was the after effect of his haste that proved to be the real kicker. He must have left his pager on his nightstand, which normally would not have been too big of a deal, but now he had Harry. There was no way he could afford to leave it.

Twenty minutes later, Louis pulled into the parking lot, becoming soaked to the bone as soon as he left his vehicle. The rain was coming down in sheets, lightening up some but never quite stopping. Today, Louis enjoyed the rain. It gave him a reason to look like a mess.

There was always a somewhat awkward shuffle that needed to be done when one of them arrived late, mostly because running into one of the head doctors was always likely, and they would hear an earful if it was found that they were late. Louis understood; to truly care for all of the patients in the best way possible, routines were set. The orderlies, doctors, patients, and guards devoted themselves to the routines. For one person to fuck up, especially when dealing with medication, was an invitation for disaster.

Niall's presence normally made the whole process easier. If he didn't see Louis' smiling face - note the sarcasm - before eight, he would wait by the door and then run to distract the head doctors while Louis ran to the staff room and fixed himself properly. Nobody would suspect a thing after that.

Considering Niall had officially left for his week off, Louis figured that he should have expected something to go wrong. His fingers did a quick pass through his wet hair as he ducked into the building, praying that he would make it to the staff room in record time and without incident. His eyes were on the prize, set on the end of the hall and on the door that would hopefully help him escape the possibility of being caught.

"Louis?"

He bit his tongue to keep himself from cursing. As he spun around, he was met with the knowing, reprimanding eyes of Doctor Halloran. Louis didn't know much about the man, but he wasn't a fan of how his glare alone made him feel like a chastised little boy.

Trying to keep his head up, Louis offered a smile. "Yes?"

"You didn't answer when I paged you."

Louis' façade faltered. "You... paged me?" He took the device out of his pocket. Sure enough, he hadn't even noticed it go off because he was in such a hurry. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize-"

Without skipping a beat, Doctor Halloran thrust papers into his hands. "Don't waste time apologizing. Two of your patients are set to leave this morning. Fill out the discharge paperwork and give them their final evaluations so they don't have to be kept waiting any longer."

Louis glanced down at the papers. Nobody had mentioned that there would be patients of his leaving. There was almost always a warning the day before patients left, and Louis would always make it a point to show up early and go through the protocol so they could enjoy their newfound freedom. Today, not only was he late for the patients who were going to be discharged, but the delay would throw off his rounds as well. He had a knot in his stomach.