The Doctor

The thing about Alec was he never got sick, ever. He'd always been a healthy kid with a strong constitution, it was rare for anything to knock him for six and take the wind out of his sails.

The problem was that something had.

It had crept up on him when he least expected it to and he'd spent the last four hours of his shift muffling a cough. He'd brushed aside a few concerned looks from the nurses and just reassured them that it was nothing to worry about, he was clearly working too many hours. Nothing to do with the fact his right hand had tingled for a long time after touching his cancer patient this evening. It was just weird that was all.

Alec scrubbed at his hair and cleared his throat, trying to dislodge the apparent lump at the back of it. He couldn't be sick, he just couldn't because he had already signed himself up for some overtime on the weekend.

He turned on his heel and stopped by his cancer patient's room, picking up his chart to look over the nurse's comments. Huh, he wasn't doing too badly. Alec had been expecting something worse. He slid the chart back and looked up at his patient, muffling another cough into his hand as the man himself appeared to be sleeping peacefully for the first time in a long while.

Least somebody was doing well even if Alec hadn't expected the best from this particular patient.

Alec turned and left the room, coughing into his hand. If this kept up then he was going to have to leave the hospital, it wouldn't do anyone any good for him to be spreading germs around already sick people. He'd see how he felt in an hour, if no better he'd go home, but hopefully it would just pass.

If only his hand would stop tingling.

Jetlag: Alec hates it, he's always hated it. It's an essential evil but it's one he wishes he could do without; it's bad enough he's in a strange city but he also feels like he's slogging his way through thick treacle which has somehow wrapped itself around his ankles.

He has bags over his shoulders and directions in his hand, they were scribbled onto a map and Alec (not for the first time) curses his co-worker's chicken scratch excuse for handwriting. What is it with doctors and bad handwriting? He squints and mouths out the letters like it might help him figure out what the hell that dot and the corresponding line could mean, Alec is pretty sure it's a word, he just can't tell which.

Alec finally decides that he can find his own way and if all else fails he can ask somebody because surely not everybody in Chicago bites even if he has heard some of the more... crazy rumours about the town. Not that they're all rumours given the great big reveal that the undead walk amongst you, it was like something out of a horror movie, only not. Sometimes Alec wonders when the zombie apocalypse is coming as foreseen in countless cinematic events across big screens. He may or may not have invested in something blunt and heavy for that eventuality.

What? It doesn't hurt to be prepared.

He shakes himself out of his wandering thoughts and flags down a cab, repeating the name of the hotel in the hopes the local driver might know where it is and Alec won't have to wander around Chicago looking like a very lost tourist. He could pull off an accent if he needed to, totally.

Thankfully the driver nods and grunts some sort of answer, gesturing for Alec to get in. Which he does, only to regret it a few moments later as he realises that the cab smells vaguely of... vomit. Clearly somebody had quite the eventful trip in this cab.

Wonderful, what a welcome to Chicago. And to think he's the one who asked for this early transfer, what in the hell had he been thinking?

"I really appreciate this," Alec said as he regarded the older man. "I just feel I need to make a fresh start somewhere and given what's been going on in Chicago lately I figure I can be better use there than I am here."

The Chief Of Medicine nodded his head and extended his hand. "I understand your reasoning, Alec. Just know that we're going to miss you around here. You've been a good addition to the staff. You're always welcome back."

Alec ducked his head at the compliment. "Just doing what I can to help. And thank you, it's good to know I have somewhere to come back to."

The older man chuckled and patted Alec on the back, passing him papers. "Your transfer papers with a recommendation from myself. You're going to do just fine in Chicago, keep in touch and I'll be expecting news from you."

"You know I will," Alec said with a slanted smile and a parting look as he left the office he had pretty much come to know as a shelter from the proverbial storm that was the busy hospital. He'd been working in the same hospital for the last year or so but he was far from content, unable to balance both a personal life with a work life. He was miserable, truth be told, and he was lonely. It sucked. Hopefully Chicago would be exactly what he needed to make a clean break, start anew and it didn't hurt to be somewhere you were actually needed.

Chicago seemed to have come alive with drama as of late, Alec wanted to be in the thick of it.

He breathed out and scrubbed his fingers along his jaw, beginning to feel the faint fuzz of newly grown facial hair. Man, he really needed a shave, all in good time. As it was he had a couple more patients to see before he could even think about doing anything in relation to himself.

His gaze dropped to his transfer papers and he shook his head, not quite believing that it was finally happening. "Guess I should find myself someplace to live," he muttered to himself as he rocked on his heels. "No way I'm going to survive more than a week in a hotel." He hated the impersonal feeling you got with hotels, how the sheets were always white and smelt faintly of... some sort of detergent and that sterile feel you got to the room itself. He was all for germ control but there were limits and he appreciated the warmth of a well used and familiar room.

"Note to self, look on the internet tonight."

With that decided, Alec wandered in the direction of the changing room. He needed to put his papers somewhere safe and then he could tackle his workload. There was no way he was leaving without getting everything done and making sure his patients were handed off responsibly, he'd been treating them for too long to do anything else.

"Alec?" Janine asks, leaning in to peer at the blonde who appears to be staring blankly into space. "Alec? Hello? You in there?"

It's not that he means not to listen, it's just that Alec's got lost in a train of thought that's currently dragged him from reality and taken him into a very familiar daydreamer state. It happens a lot. He drifts off, stops making eye contact and doesn't move. It's fortunate that Janine knows him as well as she does or she might get offended, it's happened before.

"Alec!"

Alec jumps and regards Janine with wide almost skittish green eyes, surprised and a little taken aback. "...Huh?"

Janine sighs. "You weren't even listening to me, were you?"

Alec pauses for thought and wonders if there's any way he can pretend he heard every word she said when he heard nothing at all. "Um, I- You were saying something about..." He clears his throat and ducks his head, offering what he hopes is a cute enough smile for him to get away with not listening, the smile might even have dimples in it.

"And you wonder why you're still single," Janine mutters before lightly smacking him on the arm with her clipboard before nodding. "Heads up on your right." And then she's gone.

Alec turns and immediately searches the area in front of him before he feels a tug on his scrubs and he drops gaze to rest it on a very small girl no older than six. He knows her as Alison. "Hey," he says quietly as he drops down to look her in the eye. "Shouldn't you be in bed?"

Alison pouts. "Can't."

Alec gives her a sympathetic look. "No? And why not, beautiful?"

"The monsters will get me," Alison mutters with an assured nod of her head. "They're hiding under my bed."

Alec does a good shocked expression and shakes his head. "We should do something about that, shouldn't we?" He gets back up off the ground and offers his hand. "C'mon, I'll fight the monsters for you and then you can get some sleep. You've got a big day ahead of you tomorrow." She's got surgery on a tumour and Alec is hoping for the best, Alison is too young to die.

Alison beams and takes his hand immediately, bouncing along beside him quite happily.