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Steve was pulled from a deep sleep as someone opened the door of his hospital room and walked in. He blinked groggily and watched as a man in scrubs inspected the heart rate monitor set up beside his bed. After the stranger wrote something down on a small notepad he glanced over and met Steve’s bleary gaze.
“Hey, man. You awake under there? We just had a shift change and I’m your nurse for the night. My name is Sam,” the man stated with a kind smile.
Steve just stared at him, he felt too exhausted to do anything else.
“Oookay, then. Well I’m just going to finish taking your vitals and then I’ll leave you alone so you can get back to drooling all over your pillows. Sound good to you?” Sam asked, the smile never slipped from his face as he moved some of the pillows around and grasped Steve’s bony wrist to check his pulse.
“Fight me,” Steve muttered.
“Excuse me?”
“Fight me.” But Steve’s eyes had already closed. A pleasant chuckle was the last thing he heard as he slipped off to sleep.
Two hours later Steve was slightly more aware of his surroundings than earlier, though not by much. He had just pulled another pillow over his head in an attempt to block out the glow of the monitors when the door opened and Sam strolled into his room again.
“What is with you and the pillows, dude? Aren’t you having enough trouble breathing without trying to suffocate yourself?” he chided as he pulled the pillow off of Steve’s head and placed it on the chair in the corner. A scowl twisted Steve’s mouth as irritation swept through him. After being woken up and disturbed every two hours for the past three days he didn’t have as strong a grip on his temper as he would have liked.
“Figh-” his protest was cut off as a coughing fit took over. Sam leaped into action while Steve struggled to take in air. He lifted Steve into a seated position, braced him across his forearm, and began to rub his back until the coughing abated. It took several moments before Steve could draw in a breath without choking.
“There you go,” Sam soothed and handed Steve a cup of water to sip from. “And what did I say about those pillows?”
“The monitor was bothering me. I was just trying to block out the light,” Steve defended grumpily as he gave the cup back to Sam. Sam heaved a long-suffering sigh.
“Look, man. The last thing I need is for you to suffocate on my shift. You do that and I’m going to be stuck here with a mountain of paperwork that will take me forever to complete," he mocked as he adjusted the monitor to face away from the bed. "And I can’t be stuck here forever because depriving the world of my beautiful face for any length of time would be a crime. So please, if not for my sake, then for the good of mankind."
“Fine. No more pillows,” Steve acquiesced tiredly. Exhaustion had crept up following the coughing fit and he was on the cusp of oblivion. "Wouldn't want the world to go without."
“Good. I’ll be by later to see if you're a man of your word. Don't let me down, after all I'm the one that will be bringing you your breakfast in the morning,” Sam threatened with a wide grin.
"Oh, fight me," Steve mumbled, although a smile flickered across his face soon after. Sam scoffed.
"Please, I could kick your skinny butt in ten seconds flat."
"I may be skinny, but I'm also fast. You'd never see what hit ya," Steve's voice trailed off as a yawn overtook him.
"Whatever you say, champ. How about you close those pretty blue eyes and rest up. We can talk about your mad fighting skills later," Sam teased as he backed out of the room. Mere seconds later Steve's eyes fluttered shut and soon he was asleep.
Sam did stop by two more times before his shift ended but Steve slept through both visits. The next evening Steve was much more alert and more than slightly disappointed to learn that it was Sam's night off. The new nurse, although competent, was completely devoid of any humor and was a bit rough when it came to taking out Steve's IV. Brock, as he had introduced himself, gave no indication that he had heard the darkly muttered challenge as he ripped a piece of particularly sticky adhesive from Steve's slender forearm. The night dragged by slowly and Steve counted the hours until another nurse would take over. He was pleasantly surprised when he heard that his next nurse would be Sam.
“Well if it isn't the Fighting Man!” Sam exclaimed while approaching the bedside, “I heard through the grapevine that you are feeling better and might even be released today. Are you going to try to throw down again if I come over and check your vitals?” Steve blushed at Sam's teasing and shook his head.
"I promise that I will not be challenging you to fisticuffs today. I'm on good behavior until the doctor officially releases me. But after that..." he trailed off with a suggestive tone. Sam eyes widened for a second, clearly surprised.
“Oh, is that how it is?”
"That's how it is," nodded Steve, his face still flushed as he flirted shamelessly. He watched as an amused smirk settled on Sam's lips.
"Uh-huh, we'll just have to see that you're healthy enough to be released then, won't we?" replied Sam as he began to take Steve's blood pressure. He wrote the figures down in his little notepad and then did the same after checking Steve's temperature. “You would think," Sam started conversationally as he wrapped his fingers around Steve's thin wrist to check his pulse, "that being challenged to a fight would stand out in this job but that wasn’t even the strangest thing that someone has said to me this week.”
“Really?” Steve inquired doubtfully.
“Really,” Sam affirmed. “There was a guy in here a few days ago that was feeling pretty happy with his pain meds and he asked me to turn the channel to Disney Junior. Then he asked me to sing along with him to the theme song from Little Einsteins.”
Bursting with laughter Steve asked, “What did you do?”
“What did I do? I sang along with him!” Sam proclaimed. “Little Einsteins is my jam. Thanks to my nieces and nephews I know all of the words by heart.” Steve wiped tears of laughter from his eyes and settled back to watch Sam as he gathered his equipment and prepared to move on to the next room. He had almost managed to forget that he was in the hospital and that Sam had other patients that he needed to attend to. "Hey, good luck with the doctor, man. I'm pretty sure that you have nothing to be worried about."
Steve hesitated before he answered. "Thanks, Sam. I really appreciate it."
"You're welcome," he grinned. "I'll see you around, alright?"
"Sure. See you around," Steve echoed quietly as the door swung shut behind Sam. He had meant to ask Sam for his number but shyness had reared its ugly head and he had chickened out. Steve sighed before he resolved to ask the next time he saw Sam.
Two hours later Steve waited for someone to bring him the paperwork for his release after being cleared by the doctor to go home. His bag had already been packed and he itched to get out of there. He knew that he had to stop at a store on his way home to pick up milk and other sundry items. Steve was pulled out of his thought by a knock at the door.
“Knock, knock. I heard that you were making your escape,” Sam called out from the entryway. Steve turned to see Sam stroll into the room. He carried two coffee cups from the gift shop downstairs.
“Yep. I’m trying to get out of here before the doctor changes her mind about discharging me,” quipped Steve.
“Well I thought that I would bring you a departing gift,” Sam informed while he offered Steve one of the cups. “I’m on my way to a meeting but I wanted to make sure that I saw you before you left.”
“Thank you,” Steve said as he accepted the drink. “That’s really nice of you.”
“You’re welcome. I won’t hold you up any longer and I have somewhere to be. Don’t take this the wrong way but I hope that I don’t see you around here again.”
“I’ll do my best to stay away,” Steve promised and held his hand out. “Take care, Sam.”
“You too, Steve.” Sam shook Steve’s hand and then headed out the door. Steve's smile faded and he began to kick himself mentally. He had chickened out and hadn't ask Sam for his number again. He sighed and took a drink of the coffee. As he set the drink down he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. The words Fight Me? followed by a phone number were printed neatly on the side of the coffee cup. Steve ducked his head and grinned as a blush stole over his face. He set the drink down and pulled out his cell phone to save the number.