Perhaps it was naïve, even foolish, for a vampire to dream of working in a hospital. The idea of helping people, of doing good, had always appealed to you. But in hindsight, it was obvious: there would be blood. A lot of it. What you hadn’t expected was just how much.

You’d always been able to manage small exposures, minor cuts, road burns, the occasional nosebleed. But this? This was different. The Pittfest shooting changed everything.

You hadn’t even been working in the ER that long, just a few months. Long enough to find your footing, but not nearly long enough to prepare for something like this.

When Robby gathered the team in the hallway, his voice tight with urgency, and announced the incident.. your district, your city.. your stomach sank. The chaos hit fast and hard. Patients were wheeled in one after another, gurneys crowding the halls, the coppery tang of blood clinging thick in the air.

Thank god for the surgical masks. Without them, someone would have seen. The fangs. The way your lips curled, involuntarily, every time the scent got too strong. You kept moving station to station, patient to patient desperately trying to keep your composure. But the dizziness was creeping in. The hunger. The need.

You thought you were doing a decent job hiding it. After all, everyone was running on adrenaline. No one had time to notice much of anything.

Except Whitaker.

You were both assigned to the yellow station, treating the less critical wounds. He noticed the way your hands trembled as you wrapped a bandage. The way your pupils dilated, too wide. The way you couldn’t stop adjusting your mask, your fingers twitching in nervous repetition.

In a rare lull between patients, he gently reached out, catching your wrist to still you. With a glance over his shoulder, he pulled you aside and lowered his mask. His eyes searched yours, filled with quiet concern.

“Are you alright? You’re acting… off. Like something’s wrong. Do you need help? Want me to call someone, or.. anything I can do?”

He was so sweet. So painfully unaware of what was really going on. His kindness nearly broke you.