(not proofread)
**four days later**
Luke gently knocked on Gabi's door and walked in. He had swapped a night shift with one of his co-workers so he was doing evening rounds instead. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too bad of a shift, plus if he got bored at least he had Ash to chat with.
He was quite shocked to find that Gabi was dressed in regular clothing, her IV line and monitors removed.
He knew immediately what was going on. She was going home.
But he wasn't going to jump to conclusions just yet.
"Good evening," he smiled and rubbed hand sanitizer onto his hands. "I'm working a night shift tonight, so I'm sorry I couldn't see you until now."
"Oh, that's okay. I'm going home today, Luke." Yup, there was that confirmation.
"Oh really?" He asked, feigning innocence that he didn't figure out himself that she was leaving.
It was confusing because she's been here nearly a week and there was no mention of her being discharged, then all of the sudden he walks in for his shift and she was leaving.
"Did you already get discharged yet, hun?"
"No, not yet. Dr. Irwin said he needed to get some papers for them to sign," she pointed to the other side of the room and it was then that Luke took notice of her parents sitting in the room with her.
This was bad.
Beyond bad.
Not once, which he took notice of, had they come to visit Gabi while she was in the hospital, yet now that she was suddenly leaving the hospital; they were right beside her.
The thing that truly made his blood run cold though was the fact they were in the room with Gabi and no one had suspected anything. The couple was now under CPS investigation for the suspicion of child abuse and were not to be anywhere near Gabi until they were proven innocent, at least that's the information he knew since his last shift two days three days ago.
So why the hell were they in the room with her?
"I bet you're excited to leave," he smiled at Gabi and nudged her arm a bit.
"Yeah, I guess. I won't see you anymore though, you were kinda cool."
"Well, I'm glad you think that," he laughed. "You could always come back to visit me though, just maybe let's maybe not meet in the ER this time."
"Yeah, that might be much better than all this," she gestured to the heart rate monitor and the bag that still hung on her IV pole. She looked over at her parents. "Can I visit Luke sometime?"
"We'll have to see if we can make time for it." Her mother answered.
Luke could feel the burning glare of both her parents hot on him.
"Well since you've already been approved for discharge, there's not much left for me to do. It was a pleasure to have you as my patient, Gabi... Mr. and Mrs. Baker," he politely nodded to the duo.
When he walked out of Gabi's room and back onto the bustling hospital floor, he immediately saw Ash standing at the nurse's station. He rushed over and grabbed Ash's biceps, pulling him away so they were out of earshot of everyone else.
"Ow! Hey," Ash whined.
"What the fuck do you think you are doing?!"
"Excuse me?"
"You're discharging her?!" Luke yelled in a whisper, looking around to make sure no one truly heard them. They didn't.
"Yeah, her parents asked for her to be released and I see no reason to keep her here longer. She'll have to come to get the sutures removed at one point, but everything else seemed fine," he shrugged.
"Are you fucking kidding me, Ash?! Her parents were under a fucking investigation by CPS. They still are, I think! Did you forget that they weren't allowed to be near her until the investigation is over?"
Luke was furious about all of this.
"Relax, everything's fine. They were cleared by CPS yesterday when you had your days off. You need to stop being so attached and maybe Gabi going home will help you realize that."
