@paraphiliapet
The long hours of Smoothie’s shift dragged on. He’d nearly lost count. He was still training, still learning, still supervised, but it did nothing to ease the exhaustion slowly encroaching on him. The dullness of the hospital, patients mostly asleep for the night, certainly didn’t help. He found himself almost dozing off into his coffee more than once, waiting for something, anything, to happen- And then it did.
A new patient, rushed in by ambulance; ensuing chaos. He heard bits and pieces of the gossip; Cult. Torture. Missing limbs. It seemed the patient had been dragged straight out of a basement during a police raid. It would be on the national news later, if it wasn’t already.
Everyone was talking, crowding the patient, surely panicking him worse than he already was. Smoothie didn’t buy into that shit. He wasn’t going to shove his coworkers out of the way like it was a Black Friday sale. He had dignity. But, he was hardly above being tempted by morbid curiosity.
He waited until it was calm, until the patient was checked into a room and sedated. Only then did he drop by under the guise of checking his vitals once more. He wanted to see the extent of the damage. He thrived on the fresh wounds and investigating each injury he’d never come across before. Maybe he liked it all a little too much. Maybe it clouded his judgement from time to time, maybe he had to fight the urge to harm instead of help, but… That was normal. Urges were normal. He just wanted to look.
And so he did. He saw more than he'd wanted. He saw a familiar face, cheeks sunken from years of starvation and bags under his eyes, but so familiar nonetheless. His blood ran cold.
He hadn't seen Cole regularly since high school, yearly visits after that turning to post cards, turning to no contact at all. They lost touch. He hadn't tried to find him. He hadn't really had the option to find him when he was completely off the grid, but… Fuck. Maybe if he'd tried. Maybe if someone had noticed that he was missing sooner-
He had to see the extent of the damage, as paralyzed with worry as he was. He’d heard the rumors, but… maybe it had just been a fucked up game of telephone, injuries getting worse with each new ear they were whispered into. Maybe the damage wouldn’t be as bad as he’d been expecting.
His hands were shaking. As heavily sedated as Cole was, he was careful nonetheless, holding his breath as he peeled the sheets back. Shit.
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The hours of his shift passed. He had a day off following, but he never once left the hospital. No, he stayed by the bedside of his high school best friend, of the boy he’d held hands with between classes despite it never blossoming into more after graduation. He slept in the chair in his hospital room, on and off, too worried to sleep for very long at a time. When Cole woke up, he wanted to be there.