Mornings
A yawn stretches over your face as the automatic doors open into the hospital lobby. The receptionist smiles at you warmly, and the nurse standing beside her, Mary, gives you a wave and a "good morning!". Your hands are full, but in return they get the most joyful smile that you can muster this early in the morning.
You take a left and make your way to the end of the hall where the stairs are, since the elevator somehow still has that "OUT OF ORDER" sign on it from a few days ago. You vaguely wonder how all these sick people are making their way around here without an elevator as you huff your way to the third floor. You push through the outer door and get greeted by Joanna, your favorite nurse, in her bright pink scrubs.
Her smile widens when she sees what's in your hands. "You sweet angel. I'm on hour 12 and one of those had better be for me."
You have to roll your eyes. "What, am I drinking four coffees for myself? Who the hell else would I give it to?" The paper cup is snatched immediately when you put it down on the reception counter in front of her. "Keep being all entitled and I might start drinking yours just out of spite. You'll just have to watch from the hallway, too."
Joanna rolls her eyes at you this time as she starts to walk away without replying, presumably to continue her rounds. You give her a smirk and a quick wink before continuing on to your destination. One of the remaining three coffees is left at the same reception desk because you know that Noah will be finishing his round on the other side of the ward within a few minutes.
You take a deep breath before you take the last few steps into the hospital room, and take a moment to observe the scene. Nina is currently taking up space on three chairs she's stolen from the waiting room, reclined horizontally as best as she can be above and around the various armrests that you know for a fact have a vendetta against people's joints. You stare for another minute or so, and smile when she snorts and snuffles in her sleep. The man in the hospital bed does what he's been doing for the past week, and that side of the room stays silent, save for the beeping and whirring of the mechanical menagerie that makes up life-support.
Your soft knock on the doorfram wakes Nina, and she sits up with a squint and a yawn of her own. "Hey, baby." A kiss on the cheek makes her smile softly at you before she sighs and turns her attention to her father. "Morning, Dad."
You put a cup of coffee in her hand. "How was he yesterday?"
"The same. All his tests came back inconclusive again." You hate how her face is already resting in an exhausted slump, even though she'd just woken up, but you hide your frustration. Instead, you walk over and place the remaining cup of coffee from the cardboard carrier on the bedside table, next to her father. When you turn back around, Nina's eyebrows are furrowed in confusion.
You walk over and sit down next to her before explaining, "I was thinking about it yesterday, about how much your dad likes his coffee. I got this scenario stuck in my head. If he has to deal with shitty hospital dispenser coffee as his first cup after waking up, we'll all just be so ashamed of ourselves. He might decide to die then, instead, just out of spite." You feign serious injury when Nina punches you on the shoulder, but you would take a thousand more blows if she gets to laugh like that just one more time today. You'll do your best to make that happen.
When you leave to get her a change of clothes later in the day, you throw away her empty coffee cup and leave the cold one right where it is.