Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
A/N: I've been wanting to do a Lauren/Jake fic for a long time and now I finally have!
She didn't know that he sat up with her at night. That was kind of the way they worked. He bugged her and she bugged him but they never admitted it was anything more. If she knew that he was here it would ruin that.
When she first came into the hospital he didn't want to visit her with all of her friends around. He was pretty sure none of them knew what was going on between the two of them—he wasn't even sure he knew what was going on between them—so he waited until it was nighttime. It was past visiting hours and he had to sneak in, but he was good at that. When he got there she was asleep, and he didn't want to wake her so he just sat by her bed to wait. She never woke up and he never left, so it turned out that he spent the whole night watching her and left before dawn the next morning. She didn't know he'd even been there.
The second night he started to notice some things. There was a vase on the bedside table with a rose from him in it. "A beautiful flower for a beautiful girl." It was a cheesy line, complete with a bow and kiss on the hand, and he only did it to piss her off. She wiped off her hand like he'd slobbered on her and made a crack about his shining armor being rusted, but she kept the rose. She'd probably go to her grave denying it. He'd certainly go to his denying that he kind of meant what he said.
And then there was his sweatshirt hanging over the back of a chair. That was from one of the few times they weren't bullshitting each other, when he found her sitting on a bench near their gym late one night. He was tempted to think she did it on purpose, but there was no way for her to know that he would forget his hoodie and have to go back for it. Looking back he realized that she was hiding. She wouldn't run into anyone she knew there. At least that's what she thought.
They started their normal song and dance number and probably would have continued it if he hadn't noticed that she was shivering. He might like to act like a jerk sometimes, but he wasn't one, so he offered her his sweatshirt. She said no in a typical Lauren Tanner fashion (meaning rude and sarcastic), but she was cold enough to give in pretty quickly. She pretended like she didn't take a moment to inhale his scent before she put it on and he pretended like he didn't notice. He hung around for a couple hours after that just talking and telling stories and making jokes. It was a nice, normal—dare he say it—date, but normal was weird for him and Lauren, so it didn't last past that night. The next day she was bitchy and he was cocky and everything was back to the way it should be.
The third night she was wearing the sweatshirt. He'd pictured her wearing that hoodie a thousand times and in a thousand different ways. With jeans and flip flops with her hair messed up, the way she never let other people see her. Lying on his bed with nothing underneath. Over one of those leotards that he said looked stupid but were really kind of sexy. In the stands cheering for him at the Olympics. Sitting on the same bench from before, but this time during the day when other people could see them. But seeing her here like this—in a hospital bed, sick, frightened, and drowning in his clothes—he knew he had to fix it. He just didn't know how.
That was the same night that he found out the nurse knew about his visits. She brought him a bottle of water and a pillow and laid her hand on his shoulder like she understood something about him. He couldn't explain that she was wrong because he wasn't really sure that she was, so he just accepted her offering and settled back to watch Lauren sleep.
He was sort of stalking her, following around her friends and hanging out by her dad in the hospital waiting room so that he could eavesdrop on their conversations, so he heard about the decision they made the next day. Open heart surgery. The Olympics were over for her. She might not even live. He had an uncle who had open heart surgery a few years back and he died on the table. Lauren would be lucky if she…
It hit him over the head like a wrecking ball, exactly what he could do to help. He would get her some luck.
He didn't really believe that Otis was lucky. The statue was just a symbol of the daring and drive that it takes to be an Olympic Champion, but it would help Lauren. It would give her something to hope in, and it would make her happy. And who knows, Jake could be wrong. Otis might be lucky. If it hadn't been for Otis he would never have met Lauren.
His team didn't have Otis. Rumor had it that the weightlifting thugs had him, so he would have to steal him back. He'd need his team for that, which meant owning up to his whatever with Lauren.
He didn't have to. Apparently he and Lauren weren't being nearly as subtle as they thought they were, because all he had to say to his team was "I need to get Otis back" and they were in. One of his friends even slapped him on the back as he walked by and said, "Just don't let the Barbies keep him. We want him back when you're done."
It took all night to find him. Somehow or another the weightlifters had managed to get him into a camouflaged sling at the top of a 50 foot tree. The sun was already coming up by the time they got him to the hospital and loaded onto a wheelchair. It was the time that he normally left.
The nurse smiled at him when he came rolling up to her room. "I've been wondering where you were," she said. "I see you've brought Miss Tanner some luck."
He hid Otis behind a curtain and settled into what he now considered 'his chair.' He'd spent three whole nights watching her sleep, but this would be the first time he watched her wake up. He knew exactly how it would play out, though. He would bug her and she would bug him but neither of them would admit that it was anything more.
But he would want to.
A/N: I can't believe I'm saying this, but the Lauren/Jake scene in tonight's episode trumped every single Sasha/Payson moment the show has ever given us. That feels like heresy, but it's true.
What do you think? Love Lauren and Jake? Hate them? Think the romance is all in my head?