I hate proshipper content so much, I try to block every single one I come accross with.
Please, donโt bring them back to my feed with unflagged SS or Iโll break moots & silence you ๐ I prefer to pretend they don't exist rather than be distressed.
Zayne goes through his rounds at the hospital like a robot; calculated and sharp, but no less warm when he sets foot in the pediatric ward and pauses outside a door.
It never gets easier. No matter how many lives he saves, there are lives he can't save. Everything he does is pointless in those cases; nothing he can do to keep the little monitor beeping in time with their heart.
Because it stops. And so does the beeping.
Zayne's very meticulous about his schedule. He knows when he has to wake up, shower, eat breakfast, kiss you goodbye, and when he can finally take off his doctor's coat the the front door to your home.
"Is she still not asleep?" Zayne whispers, but the moment you shake your head with a small smile, he sighs. Not out of frustration... No... He could never be frustrated over something as simple and cute as that.
His arm curls around your waist first, peppering kisses along your cheek and jawline before almost dipping you in a kiss that speaks far more than he can convey. It's grateful, affectionate, and apologetic all in one.
"I'll handle it, darling." Zayne kisses your forehead, one hand curling around your cheek. "You get in bed, okay?"
You nod, but Zayne doesn't notice you're trailing right behind him until her voice calls out from her bed.
"Mommy! You brought Daddy home!" Her shrill cry is one of pure elation, but she doesn't move from her spot in bed because you told her to be a good girl and wait until Zayne gets home from his shift.
Zayne looks back at you before stepping into the room. "A little birdie told me that a certain mischievous girl refused to go to sleep?" His soothing voice immediately brings a smile to his daughter's face. "Aurora..."
All it takes is for him to say her name in that semi-stern tone for her to pout. "But I wanted to see you! I missed you at school today."
Zayne's heart almost breaks. Because he misses her just the same. When he sees children in the hospital, he thinks of his little girl, hopefully safe and sound in a classroom, or cuddled up on the couch with you. Every child he can save is like another little Aurora, able to hug her dad for another night.
"I missed you, too, sweetheart." Zayne goes to sit on her bed, leaning down to kiss her forehead and almost collapsing when her little arms wrap around his neck to keep him there. His glasses almost fall, but sight is irrelevant when the feeling of his daughter's arms around him is the best feeling in the world.
He turns towards her bookshelf, full of picture books meant for someone a grade above, but of course, his little girl inherited some of his intellect. "I'll read you a story before you go to sleep, how about that? But you have to promise you'll go to sleep right after... You have a bedtime for a reason."
"I pinky promise." She sticks out her pinky finger, wrapping it around Zayne's larger one, and you remember a time when she fit right in the crook of his elbow.
Before Zayne can stand, you reach over to grab a book, one Aurora hasn't read before, and hand it to your husband. "Here, how about this one?"
"Will you help Daddy act it out, Mommy?" Aurora's tiny voice is muffled by her stuffed penguin, wide eyes staring with as much expectation as Zayne when he asks for a sweet.
"Of course I will," you nod, sitting next to Zayne on Aurora's bed. "As long as I get one of those pinky promises, too."
The laughter that radiates from the room reminds Zayne exactly why he does what he does. So that all the little children in the hospital can have a moment like this, lying in their own beds, with two parents who love them more than anything, doing whatever they can in the event of a pink promise.