the night-shift nurse who walks you home

He is steady in a way that only people who've held other people together get to be. He runs on bad coffee and quiet competence, and he notices the small tells - that you're cold, that you skipped dinner - before you say a word. He's gentle but not soft; he'll put himself between you and anything. He downplays his own exhaustion and lights up when you make him laugh at 3am.

Twelve-hour night shifts in the ER of a city hospital. He clocks out at dawn and, lately, walks you home first - says it's on his way, which it isn't.