The Hospital
THE HOSPITAL
Author : sylva_anggia
Pairing : Brian/Zack
Rating : NC-17
Summary : "Only to care the disease, not to care the sick. The University Hospital made many doctors of this sort."
Disclaimer : Nothing in this story was related to the real person, profession, and or organization portrayed herein.
A/N. : a rewritten version to my story with the same title, honestly because I was kind of ashamed of it :P
**Inspired by a manga called Team Medical Dragon, by Nogizaka Tarou and Nagai Akira**
CHAPTER ONE: A WAKE UP CALL
The frantic and relentless coughing made Brian grunt before turning over on his stomach, grabbing his pillow and putting it over his head. The attempt was futile as the sound didn’t go away. He groaned in frustration, still wanted to sleep in a bit more. However, he jumped on the bed with a start as the first thing that hit him was Zack, coughing, and fever. “Fuck,” he muttered before quickly leapt out of the bed.
“Zack?” he called, running out of their small bedroom. He heard Zack’s curses coming from the adjacent bathroom. A worried expression etched on his face as he walked into it, thinking of the worst since Zack and curses meaning something had actually gone wrong.
His eyes widened when he saw Zack coughing up mucus tinged with a hint of blood. Brian quickly grabbed a towel before twisting the hot water knob. He then wetted the towel after making sure the water wasn’t too hot. Holding his boyfriend against his chest, Brian wringed out the excess water and pressed the towel to Zack’s bare chest. He moved the towel over certain places on the plane of Zack’s chest, softly asking Zack to breathe as deep as he could. Zack was only shuddered, trying to comply. Brian repeated his action, until slowly but surely the coughing starting to subside.
“Zacky? How do you feel?” Brian asked, staring down at his boyfriend with weary eyes.
Zack blinked back the tears from his eyes and grimaced. “Hurts,” he said in a choked voice.
“How long since you’ve started coughing like that, Zack?” he inquired, pressing two inked fingers over the smooth skin of his boyfriend’s wrist to check on Zack’s pulses. “You can lie all you want, but you know I’m gonna find out about it eventually.”
Zack glared and rasped in a voice raw from all the coughing. “It’s probably just the flu, Bri.”
“Right, and I’ve swallowed up a cow,” Brian scoffed, and ignored the rolling of eyes he got from his boyfriend. “No, seriously Zack, you’ve just coughed up mucus tinged with blood, or haven’t you noticed? Now, tell me how long since you’ve started to feel the pain in your chest? Have you been feeling nausea and vomiting recently? What are you grinning at, Zack?”
“You. You’re such a doctor.”
It was Brian’s turn to glare at Zack as he released his hold over his lover’s body, letting the other man to lean against the wall for support. “I’m not anymore,” came Brian’s rebuttal. “But you seriously need to see a doctor.”
“But you are a doctor.”
“Zack, stop that. We’ve been through this so many fucking times before.”
Zack rolled his eyes again, “Well then, at least try to get a work you lazy bum. Though I doubt that you’d be as good as you were a doctor. And clean off your beard and mustache! You look like a fucking hobo!” Zack’s string of words suddenly turned into another coughing fit.
Brian sighed exasperatedly. “Gee, easy would you. You don’t need to be so loud about it, you coughing little shit.” he drawled, standing behind his lover and rubbing a comforting hand over Zack’s bare back.
“Hey!” Zack pouted, but his heart skipped a beat at the solemn look his boyfriend gave him over his shoulder. Brian had obviously seen him coughing a mucus tinged with blood, and that was never been a good thing. He gave a sigh in defeat and said, “Alright, I’ll go see a doctor. Happy?”
Brian merely smiled as he wrapped his green eyed of a lover in his arms.
“I’d rather prefer having you as my doctor, though.”
Brian was about to retort with his usual rebuttal of ‘I’m not a fucking doctor, not anymore’ when suddenly there were a shrill sound of the screeching tires from the road outside, followed closely by a loud bang as some random car seemed to have crash onto something hard.
“What the - ?” Releasing the other man, Brian turned to look through the window; Zack was behind him, with the same quizzical and mildly shocked expression.
***
Doctor Matthew Sanders was talking through his cell phone when something dark suddenly jumped in front of his car, flashing its huge and shining gold eyes. He was only vaguely aware when his foot had floored the brake pedal and his hands turned the steering wheel sharply to the right side. Everything had come to a streaky blur except for the dark strange thing he was trying to avoid. The other thing he could manage to gather was the screeching of his tires, before his top of the line Porsche crashed into the concrete border at the far side of the road.
“Fuck,” Matt cursed, banging both hands onto the steering wheel, only vividly aware of the stupid cat as it jumped into the darkness of the desert to his right. He clucked his tongue in annoyance, before getting out to see the damage he had inflicted to his car. Thankfully it was only some minor damages; a cracked headlight, broken body work and paint at the right side of the car, and a bend tire - an obvious proof of a broken foot work.
“Shit,” he cursed again, before quickly diving back into his car to look for his cell phone, which he’d threw rather haphazardly during the incident. Finding it in the bottom of his car, Matt quickly dialed a tow truck service, knowing it was impossible to drive his car back home. “Yes,” he said as someone answered him from the other side of the line. “I need to have my car towed. My direction is…” Matt supplied quickly, before closing his phone with a simple thanks. He sighed as he looked up, realizing he wasn’t too far from the place he wanted to visit. Putting his cell phone into his pants pocket, Matt crossed the street over the shabby looking little house, almost in the middle of the desert.
“I’m gonna fucking kill this guy if after all this trouble, he’s not there again,” he said, frowning as he saw the house was dark. However, not a minute later, he saw the light being turned on from one of the windows. He couldn’t fight the relief grin, for he would finally be able to meet the guy who’d chilled him to his very bones, just by watching his operation four years ago in an NGO medical camp in Iraq. The guy was quite a medical genius before being disbanded by many hospitals throughout the states.
Rumor has it that the guy went for a date with a male nurse, and thus he had left his patient unattended; said patient was found dead by another doctor.
Once again it was only a rumor, though why many hospitals believed such a thing was beyond Matt. He was actually willing to trade anything, even going as far as denying everything had the rumor was true - if that was the only way he could have Brian Haner to work for his important thesis, and eventually help him to ascend as the professor to the Cardiothoracic Department in Southern California University Hospital.
Yes, Matt was that ambitious. And he always gets whatever he wanted, proven when he was about to knock on the door, it opened for him from the inside, and the one standing behind it was the very guy he had wanted to see. It was just that, he always had this ‘picture perfect’ of the guy inside of his head, and it was kind of crumbling down as what he saw in front of him was far from perfect.
Now, Brian Haner was an attractive guy. He was fairly tall and muscular. His face looked like it was sculpted by gods. Though the things that had shattered Matt’s picture perfect of this guy were the not-so-subtle facial hair that covered his cheeks and neck, as it made him look like a hobo; the other thing being the way his hand visited a place inside of his plaid boxer shorts to scratch an itch. He could forgive the colorful bare chest, arms and abdomen in front of him though, since he also had tattoos all over his body.
“Holy fucking shit! That’s a Porsche you just thrashed, dude. What a waste…” Brian mocked as he looked at Matt’s car across the street, eyes full of sneer, and hand still inside of his boxers, making a disturbing scratching noise. Cue the last piece to fall from of Matt’s picture perfect of the supposedly prodigy.
“Yeah, well, thanks, don’t need you to rub it on my face, though,” Matt grumbled, as Brian merely gave him an unapologetic smirk, finally pulling his hand out of his boxers.
“Alright, sorry,” he said, though the smirk was still plastered across his handsome features. “So, are you okay? Do you need anything? What was going on that you crash your car like that, dude?” Brian asked, eyes moving up and down Matt’s body, looking for a hint of any injury - an old habit being a doctor.
Matt sighed for the nth time that night. “A cat,” he said curtly, shrugging and running a hand over his slightly mussed up hair. “And, thanks by the way, I’m fine, and I just called a tow truck for my car.”
Brian nodded. So there was no subtle injury, and Matt seemed to have everything under control. With a raised eyebrow and crossed arms, Brian leaned on his door frame, waiting for the other to reveal his true intention. Surely Matt couldn’t just drive all the way down to such an obscure place in the southern-most California, crashing his obviously expensive car for no reason at all. But before Matt could do anything about it, another man came bounding to the front door.
“What’s going on, Brian?” Zack asked, looking at Matt bemusedly.
Brian looked over his shoulder, to found his boyfriend still didn’t have a shirt on. “Put on your shirt, Zack.” He said, before shoving his boyfriend inside the house.
“Ah! I know you!” Zack suddenly exclaimed from over Brian’s shoulder. “You’re Doctor Matthew Sanders from the Southern Cali University Hospital. What brought you here, Doctor?” It was Zack’s turned to shove Brian out of his way to reach the doctor.
Matt only smiled as he pretty much didn’t expect someone outside the hospital to recognize him. He was hoping, however, that Zack’s recognition of him would make everything easier with Brian. “Your friend,” he answered, tilting his chin to Brian, while said person merely gave him a skeptical look. “I come here to offer your friend a place as surgeon in my department, Cardiothoracic Surgery,” he stated, sounding proud for a reason.
Zack’s face lightened up. “Well, that’s going to be good. You clearly have to take the offer, Bri!” He turned to his boyfriend with a little bounce, smiling with gratitude that someone was finally willing to give Brian the opportunity he sorely need.
“Room, now, Zack,” Brian growled, shoving Zack back inside.
“Hey!” Zack protested, but did as he was told, walking grumpily into their bedroom.
“And you… Matthew Sanders, right?” Brian raised an eyebrow at Matt. “I don’t know how you know about me. But I’m no longer a doctor as it is - ”
“Look, I’ve heard about you and the rumor behind why you were fired from the UCLA Hospital,” Matt persisted as Brian started to look a little reluctant to continue talking to him. “I don’t know whether the rumor was true or merely a hoax, but here I am offering you an opportunity to clear out your name.” Matt ended, eyes shining with conviction and determination.
Brian didn’t move, as he began measuring the man in front of him with a solemn look of judgment before moving silently to make way for Matt.
***
The warm inside of the house was hitting Matt instantly as he stepped past the other man, a silent reminder of how cold it was outside at… Matt frowned as he gazed down at his Rolex. It was already past eleven that night, not exactly the right time to make a visit, was it? Hopefully, he wasn’t disturbing their sleep or anything like that.
Matt rubbed his hands on his pants as he stopped in a room. It was small and cozy; there were a loveseat against a wall and a sofa right next to it - facing a small TV set that buzzed quietly in the corner. He just stood there, quietly surveying the room and absorbing the warm until Brian suddenly came to stop in front of him. “So,” Brian started almost awkwardly, “coffee?”
“Black please, and thanks.” Matt answered, smiling, showing his little dimples.
“Zack!” Brian suddenly yelled, as he turned his head towards a room, presumably a kitchen. “D’you hear that? Make it two and quickly!”
“Fuck you, Brian! I’m not your fucking maid, you motherfucker!” Zack shouted back as Brian smirked, knowing he will comply eventually. Though Brian just had to grimace slightly as he heard Zack cough yet again, thankfully it was not as frantic as the last time.
Matt, who didn’t know anything, almost wanted to snort at their exchanges. Almost.
However, there was an awkward silence after that though, before Brian gesturing with his hand, silently telling Matt to sit at the sofa while he dropped on the loveseat. Matt nodded in gratitude while thinking of the best possible way to start things out with Brian. He was mildly surprise when it was Brian who started first. “So,” Brian drawled, “it was you who left the business cards at my door while I was away… An assistant professor… never expected it’d be a guy with tattoos on his arms.” Brian raised an eyebrow, eyeing said tattoos on the other man’s bare forearms.
Matt scoffed, rolling his eyes. “What of it? And haven’t you looked at yourself in the mirror?”
Brian smirked. “I got my tattoo when I stopped being a doctor, man.” He said, looking over the tattoos on his body with pride. “So, tell me, how did you actually get to know about me? I don’t know I’m actually that popular.” Brian asked, pulling on a serious face.
Matt took a deep breath. “I was a new doctor at the NGO camp in Iraq when I saw you, four years ago.” Matt stated, making Brian’s eyebrow raised. “You led an amazing medical team that was even dubbed as the best by most of the staffs back there. Though I’m starting to doubt whether you are the same person or not.” Matt sneered, expecting some kind of retort, but had to contain himself as he only received a nonchalant smirk out of the other man. “Six months ago,” he continued, “you left the campsite when you really should’ve been here a year prior. When you returned to the state, of course you were fired. And because of the UCLA’s professor’s influence, you couldn’t find a job in any hospital.” Matt ended, looking up at the other man, wanting to see a change of expression.
“And? How does this concern you?”
Matt sighed, a little put out as the guy’s expression didn’t really change at all, still looking so aloof and impassive. “You have the talent that I need. And to someone like you, what I’m offering can’t possibly be a bad deal, right?”
It was Brian’s turn to sigh. “I’m not interested,” he said.
Matt frowned at this. “Why? Do you feel content with the way you live right now?” Matt swept a hand to the air, as if trying to emphasize his point, looking at Brian’s stuffs which looked very unassuming for someone who used to lead a very decent medical team in a war zone of Iraq.
“I still can’t see why this concerns you, Doctor Sanders. And besides,” Brian said, with a clipped tones. “I’m not too fond of the university medical centers, y’know. I don’t like following orders barked out by the professor.” Brian stopped for a few second, before continuing with a little more of solemn look on his face. “Instead of having to deal with a stupid lord of the fucking manor, I figured it would be best to content myself being a wandering doctor.”
“And living off of my paycheck. What kind of a husband are you?” Zack suddenly chirped as he entered the room, handing a mug over to Matt, who gazed at him quizzically before chuckling as he got the joke; and then to Brian who merely told him to fuck off.
Laughing softly, Zacky started to walk back into the kitchen, when he suddenly stopped in his track and coughed. Brian immediately rushed to his side, gripping the shaking shoulders as if trying to steady the other man, while Zack’s coughing was only worsened up.
“Zack?” Brian questioned, but the only answer he got was wheezing noises and increasing cough. “Zack, are you okay? What do you feel?” Brian asked in concern, but Zack was only shaking his head, gripping Brian’s forearm painfully as his knees buckled under his weight.
“C-cant b-b-bre-…” Zack struggled, clutching his clothed chest so hard his fingernails turned white.
“What happen, Brian?” Matt who watched the unfold scene with worry eyes finally stood from his seat to hover over Brian and Zack, as the former lowered the latter on to floor.
Brian laid Zack on to the carpeted floor, as he pressed his ear against Zack’ chest, while Zack’s breathing was dangerously close to stop. Drumming a finger over the side of Zack’s chest, Brian’s eyes widened with recognition as to what was happening to Zack. It was just as he had suspected.
“COPD,” Brian muttered.
“What?” Matt startled, eyes widening.
“Zack!” Brian suddenly yelled, as he saw Zack’s head turned limply to the right side, losing his consciousness.
***TBC***
A/N. This is un-beta-ed. So do let me know if you find any mistake in it, since English isn’t my primary language.
Author : sylva_anggia
Pairing : Brian/Zack
Rating : NC-17
Summary : "Only to care the disease, not to care the sick. The University Hospital made many doctors of this sort."
Disclaimer : Nothing in this story was related to the real person, profession, and or organization portrayed herein.
A/N. : a rewritten version to my story with the same title, honestly because I was kind of ashamed of it :P
**Inspired by a manga called Team Medical Dragon, by Nogizaka Tarou and Nagai Akira**
CHAPTER ONE: A WAKE UP CALL
The frantic and relentless coughing made Brian grunt before turning over on his stomach, grabbing his pillow and putting it over his head. The attempt was futile as the sound didn’t go away. He groaned in frustration, still wanted to sleep in a bit more. However, he jumped on the bed with a start as the first thing that hit him was Zack, coughing, and fever. “Fuck,” he muttered before quickly leapt out of the bed.
“Zack?” he called, running out of their small bedroom. He heard Zack’s curses coming from the adjacent bathroom. A worried expression etched on his face as he walked into it, thinking of the worst since Zack and curses meaning something had actually gone wrong.
His eyes widened when he saw Zack coughing up mucus tinged with a hint of blood. Brian quickly grabbed a towel before twisting the hot water knob. He then wetted the towel after making sure the water wasn’t too hot. Holding his boyfriend against his chest, Brian wringed out the excess water and pressed the towel to Zack’s bare chest. He moved the towel over certain places on the plane of Zack’s chest, softly asking Zack to breathe as deep as he could. Zack was only shuddered, trying to comply. Brian repeated his action, until slowly but surely the coughing starting to subside.
“Zacky? How do you feel?” Brian asked, staring down at his boyfriend with weary eyes.
Zack blinked back the tears from his eyes and grimaced. “Hurts,” he said in a choked voice.
“How long since you’ve started coughing like that, Zack?” he inquired, pressing two inked fingers over the smooth skin of his boyfriend’s wrist to check on Zack’s pulses. “You can lie all you want, but you know I’m gonna find out about it eventually.”
Zack glared and rasped in a voice raw from all the coughing. “It’s probably just the flu, Bri.”
“Right, and I’ve swallowed up a cow,” Brian scoffed, and ignored the rolling of eyes he got from his boyfriend. “No, seriously Zack, you’ve just coughed up mucus tinged with blood, or haven’t you noticed? Now, tell me how long since you’ve started to feel the pain in your chest? Have you been feeling nausea and vomiting recently? What are you grinning at, Zack?”
“You. You’re such a doctor.”
It was Brian’s turn to glare at Zack as he released his hold over his lover’s body, letting the other man to lean against the wall for support. “I’m not anymore,” came Brian’s rebuttal. “But you seriously need to see a doctor.”
“But you are a doctor.”
“Zack, stop that. We’ve been through this so many fucking times before.”
Zack rolled his eyes again, “Well then, at least try to get a work you lazy bum. Though I doubt that you’d be as good as you were a doctor. And clean off your beard and mustache! You look like a fucking hobo!” Zack’s string of words suddenly turned into another coughing fit.
Brian sighed exasperatedly. “Gee, easy would you. You don’t need to be so loud about it, you coughing little shit.” he drawled, standing behind his lover and rubbing a comforting hand over Zack’s bare back.
“Hey!” Zack pouted, but his heart skipped a beat at the solemn look his boyfriend gave him over his shoulder. Brian had obviously seen him coughing a mucus tinged with blood, and that was never been a good thing. He gave a sigh in defeat and said, “Alright, I’ll go see a doctor. Happy?”
Brian merely smiled as he wrapped his green eyed of a lover in his arms.
“I’d rather prefer having you as my doctor, though.”
Brian was about to retort with his usual rebuttal of ‘I’m not a fucking doctor, not anymore’ when suddenly there were a shrill sound of the screeching tires from the road outside, followed closely by a loud bang as some random car seemed to have crash onto something hard.
“What the - ?” Releasing the other man, Brian turned to look through the window; Zack was behind him, with the same quizzical and mildly shocked expression.
***
Doctor Matthew Sanders was talking through his cell phone when something dark suddenly jumped in front of his car, flashing its huge and shining gold eyes. He was only vaguely aware when his foot had floored the brake pedal and his hands turned the steering wheel sharply to the right side. Everything had come to a streaky blur except for the dark strange thing he was trying to avoid. The other thing he could manage to gather was the screeching of his tires, before his top of the line Porsche crashed into the concrete border at the far side of the road.
“Fuck,” Matt cursed, banging both hands onto the steering wheel, only vividly aware of the stupid cat as it jumped into the darkness of the desert to his right. He clucked his tongue in annoyance, before getting out to see the damage he had inflicted to his car. Thankfully it was only some minor damages; a cracked headlight, broken body work and paint at the right side of the car, and a bend tire - an obvious proof of a broken foot work.
“Shit,” he cursed again, before quickly diving back into his car to look for his cell phone, which he’d threw rather haphazardly during the incident. Finding it in the bottom of his car, Matt quickly dialed a tow truck service, knowing it was impossible to drive his car back home. “Yes,” he said as someone answered him from the other side of the line. “I need to have my car towed. My direction is…” Matt supplied quickly, before closing his phone with a simple thanks. He sighed as he looked up, realizing he wasn’t too far from the place he wanted to visit. Putting his cell phone into his pants pocket, Matt crossed the street over the shabby looking little house, almost in the middle of the desert.
“I’m gonna fucking kill this guy if after all this trouble, he’s not there again,” he said, frowning as he saw the house was dark. However, not a minute later, he saw the light being turned on from one of the windows. He couldn’t fight the relief grin, for he would finally be able to meet the guy who’d chilled him to his very bones, just by watching his operation four years ago in an NGO medical camp in Iraq. The guy was quite a medical genius before being disbanded by many hospitals throughout the states.
Rumor has it that the guy went for a date with a male nurse, and thus he had left his patient unattended; said patient was found dead by another doctor.
Once again it was only a rumor, though why many hospitals believed such a thing was beyond Matt. He was actually willing to trade anything, even going as far as denying everything had the rumor was true - if that was the only way he could have Brian Haner to work for his important thesis, and eventually help him to ascend as the professor to the Cardiothoracic Department in Southern California University Hospital.
Yes, Matt was that ambitious. And he always gets whatever he wanted, proven when he was about to knock on the door, it opened for him from the inside, and the one standing behind it was the very guy he had wanted to see. It was just that, he always had this ‘picture perfect’ of the guy inside of his head, and it was kind of crumbling down as what he saw in front of him was far from perfect.
Now, Brian Haner was an attractive guy. He was fairly tall and muscular. His face looked like it was sculpted by gods. Though the things that had shattered Matt’s picture perfect of this guy were the not-so-subtle facial hair that covered his cheeks and neck, as it made him look like a hobo; the other thing being the way his hand visited a place inside of his plaid boxer shorts to scratch an itch. He could forgive the colorful bare chest, arms and abdomen in front of him though, since he also had tattoos all over his body.
“Holy fucking shit! That’s a Porsche you just thrashed, dude. What a waste…” Brian mocked as he looked at Matt’s car across the street, eyes full of sneer, and hand still inside of his boxers, making a disturbing scratching noise. Cue the last piece to fall from of Matt’s picture perfect of the supposedly prodigy.
“Yeah, well, thanks, don’t need you to rub it on my face, though,” Matt grumbled, as Brian merely gave him an unapologetic smirk, finally pulling his hand out of his boxers.
“Alright, sorry,” he said, though the smirk was still plastered across his handsome features. “So, are you okay? Do you need anything? What was going on that you crash your car like that, dude?” Brian asked, eyes moving up and down Matt’s body, looking for a hint of any injury - an old habit being a doctor.
Matt sighed for the nth time that night. “A cat,” he said curtly, shrugging and running a hand over his slightly mussed up hair. “And, thanks by the way, I’m fine, and I just called a tow truck for my car.”
Brian nodded. So there was no subtle injury, and Matt seemed to have everything under control. With a raised eyebrow and crossed arms, Brian leaned on his door frame, waiting for the other to reveal his true intention. Surely Matt couldn’t just drive all the way down to such an obscure place in the southern-most California, crashing his obviously expensive car for no reason at all. But before Matt could do anything about it, another man came bounding to the front door.
“What’s going on, Brian?” Zack asked, looking at Matt bemusedly.
Brian looked over his shoulder, to found his boyfriend still didn’t have a shirt on. “Put on your shirt, Zack.” He said, before shoving his boyfriend inside the house.
“Ah! I know you!” Zack suddenly exclaimed from over Brian’s shoulder. “You’re Doctor Matthew Sanders from the Southern Cali University Hospital. What brought you here, Doctor?” It was Zack’s turned to shove Brian out of his way to reach the doctor.
Matt only smiled as he pretty much didn’t expect someone outside the hospital to recognize him. He was hoping, however, that Zack’s recognition of him would make everything easier with Brian. “Your friend,” he answered, tilting his chin to Brian, while said person merely gave him a skeptical look. “I come here to offer your friend a place as surgeon in my department, Cardiothoracic Surgery,” he stated, sounding proud for a reason.
Zack’s face lightened up. “Well, that’s going to be good. You clearly have to take the offer, Bri!” He turned to his boyfriend with a little bounce, smiling with gratitude that someone was finally willing to give Brian the opportunity he sorely need.
“Room, now, Zack,” Brian growled, shoving Zack back inside.
“Hey!” Zack protested, but did as he was told, walking grumpily into their bedroom.
“And you… Matthew Sanders, right?” Brian raised an eyebrow at Matt. “I don’t know how you know about me. But I’m no longer a doctor as it is - ”
“Look, I’ve heard about you and the rumor behind why you were fired from the UCLA Hospital,” Matt persisted as Brian started to look a little reluctant to continue talking to him. “I don’t know whether the rumor was true or merely a hoax, but here I am offering you an opportunity to clear out your name.” Matt ended, eyes shining with conviction and determination.
Brian didn’t move, as he began measuring the man in front of him with a solemn look of judgment before moving silently to make way for Matt.
***
The warm inside of the house was hitting Matt instantly as he stepped past the other man, a silent reminder of how cold it was outside at… Matt frowned as he gazed down at his Rolex. It was already past eleven that night, not exactly the right time to make a visit, was it? Hopefully, he wasn’t disturbing their sleep or anything like that.
Matt rubbed his hands on his pants as he stopped in a room. It was small and cozy; there were a loveseat against a wall and a sofa right next to it - facing a small TV set that buzzed quietly in the corner. He just stood there, quietly surveying the room and absorbing the warm until Brian suddenly came to stop in front of him. “So,” Brian started almost awkwardly, “coffee?”
“Black please, and thanks.” Matt answered, smiling, showing his little dimples.
“Zack!” Brian suddenly yelled, as he turned his head towards a room, presumably a kitchen. “D’you hear that? Make it two and quickly!”
“Fuck you, Brian! I’m not your fucking maid, you motherfucker!” Zack shouted back as Brian smirked, knowing he will comply eventually. Though Brian just had to grimace slightly as he heard Zack cough yet again, thankfully it was not as frantic as the last time.
Matt, who didn’t know anything, almost wanted to snort at their exchanges. Almost.
However, there was an awkward silence after that though, before Brian gesturing with his hand, silently telling Matt to sit at the sofa while he dropped on the loveseat. Matt nodded in gratitude while thinking of the best possible way to start things out with Brian. He was mildly surprise when it was Brian who started first. “So,” Brian drawled, “it was you who left the business cards at my door while I was away… An assistant professor… never expected it’d be a guy with tattoos on his arms.” Brian raised an eyebrow, eyeing said tattoos on the other man’s bare forearms.
Matt scoffed, rolling his eyes. “What of it? And haven’t you looked at yourself in the mirror?”
Brian smirked. “I got my tattoo when I stopped being a doctor, man.” He said, looking over the tattoos on his body with pride. “So, tell me, how did you actually get to know about me? I don’t know I’m actually that popular.” Brian asked, pulling on a serious face.
Matt took a deep breath. “I was a new doctor at the NGO camp in Iraq when I saw you, four years ago.” Matt stated, making Brian’s eyebrow raised. “You led an amazing medical team that was even dubbed as the best by most of the staffs back there. Though I’m starting to doubt whether you are the same person or not.” Matt sneered, expecting some kind of retort, but had to contain himself as he only received a nonchalant smirk out of the other man. “Six months ago,” he continued, “you left the campsite when you really should’ve been here a year prior. When you returned to the state, of course you were fired. And because of the UCLA’s professor’s influence, you couldn’t find a job in any hospital.” Matt ended, looking up at the other man, wanting to see a change of expression.
“And? How does this concern you?”
Matt sighed, a little put out as the guy’s expression didn’t really change at all, still looking so aloof and impassive. “You have the talent that I need. And to someone like you, what I’m offering can’t possibly be a bad deal, right?”
It was Brian’s turn to sigh. “I’m not interested,” he said.
Matt frowned at this. “Why? Do you feel content with the way you live right now?” Matt swept a hand to the air, as if trying to emphasize his point, looking at Brian’s stuffs which looked very unassuming for someone who used to lead a very decent medical team in a war zone of Iraq.
“I still can’t see why this concerns you, Doctor Sanders. And besides,” Brian said, with a clipped tones. “I’m not too fond of the university medical centers, y’know. I don’t like following orders barked out by the professor.” Brian stopped for a few second, before continuing with a little more of solemn look on his face. “Instead of having to deal with a stupid lord of the fucking manor, I figured it would be best to content myself being a wandering doctor.”
“And living off of my paycheck. What kind of a husband are you?” Zack suddenly chirped as he entered the room, handing a mug over to Matt, who gazed at him quizzically before chuckling as he got the joke; and then to Brian who merely told him to fuck off.
Laughing softly, Zacky started to walk back into the kitchen, when he suddenly stopped in his track and coughed. Brian immediately rushed to his side, gripping the shaking shoulders as if trying to steady the other man, while Zack’s coughing was only worsened up.
“Zack?” Brian questioned, but the only answer he got was wheezing noises and increasing cough. “Zack, are you okay? What do you feel?” Brian asked in concern, but Zack was only shaking his head, gripping Brian’s forearm painfully as his knees buckled under his weight.
“C-cant b-b-bre-…” Zack struggled, clutching his clothed chest so hard his fingernails turned white.
“What happen, Brian?” Matt who watched the unfold scene with worry eyes finally stood from his seat to hover over Brian and Zack, as the former lowered the latter on to floor.
Brian laid Zack on to the carpeted floor, as he pressed his ear against Zack’ chest, while Zack’s breathing was dangerously close to stop. Drumming a finger over the side of Zack’s chest, Brian’s eyes widened with recognition as to what was happening to Zack. It was just as he had suspected.
“COPD,” Brian muttered.
“What?” Matt startled, eyes widening.
“Zack!” Brian suddenly yelled, as he saw Zack’s head turned limply to the right side, losing his consciousness.
***TBC***
A/N. This is un-beta-ed. So do let me know if you find any mistake in it, since English isn’t my primary language.