He was a chivalrous bastard, but he was cute.
Melinda Warner could only stare at her three co-workers, trying to process the information they had just given her. However, the only conclusion her mind could come to was that they were idiots.
The three of them were smart people. Odafin Tutuola and Elliot Stabler were dedicated detectives, and Casey Novak was a very resourceful prosecutor. Yet, here they were at her office, all of them injured in some way.
Casey Novak had twisted her leg, Fin had an injured wrist, and Elliot Stabler's nose was crooked with his face stained with blood from a nosebleed. A little bit of blood also managed to make it onto Casey, as Elliot had been the one to carry her down to the office.
This was not the condition she expected the three to be in.
Melinda had decided the Elliot's nose was the first thing she needed to treat, much to the displeasure of the other two. They were obviously in pain, but they were sucking it up. However, Casey was a bit better at pretending it didn't hurt. While it was obvious they were both fighting to hold back tears of pain, Casey had a slightly better poker face then the detective. It was cute, actually, seeing Fin the way he was. She always saw him as the rough and tough detective, who didn't let things get to him. This was a side she liked to him.
Elliot's nose was easy. All she had to do was pop it back to place. She didn't even warn him about it. She simple grabbed his nose and gave it a pop.
"Gah!" He exclaimed. More blood came out, but his nose looked normal now. A look of panic and surprise crossed his face, and all he could do was stare at her. She grinned, and walked to grab a tissue box. She handed it to him, smiling.
"All done," she said, and turned to her other two patients. A sense of relief crossed their face, as they realized they would be treated quicker than they thought. "Who's next?"
Casey and Fin looked to each other, and she smiled as she saw them wait for the other to volunteer. Both of them were stubborn like that. By volunteering to go next, that would mean admitting they were in pain, and they were too prideful to admit that. Especially Fin. The man could have a steak knife stuck through the middle of his hand, and he still wouldn't admit it hurt.
She guessed she'd have to make the decision for them.
From glancing at the two injuries, she could see both looked very swollen. Due to Casey's pale skin, hers looked much worse, though, as the area around her ankle had turned bright red.
"Let Fin go," Casey finally said, forcing a smile, "I've waited for worse injuries then this."
A stoic look of relief crossed Fin's face. He really didn't have a good poker face. Or maybe, she was just better at detecting what he was thinking. That was certainly a possibility.
Elliot and Fin switched places, and Fin attempted to walk nonchalantly over to where she was. He was trying to play off his injury like it was no big deal. It was adorable.
She lightly grabbed his arm, and examined the injury. His wrist had definitely swelled up. She gently used her hand to feel along the skin. He winced slightly, but played it off.
"You'll need an x-ray to tell, but I think you have a sprained wrist," she explained. He nodded, forcing a smile.
"Okay," he said.
"We can ice it until we get to the hospital, if you want," she officered.
"It'll be fine."
She could tell he regretted the words as he said them, but she smiled. If he wanted to play the tough guy, she'd let him.
Finally, the lawyer.
She smiled at Fin, then walked to where Casey was sitting, not wanting to make her get up. Elliot and Fin peered over curiously, pretending like they weren't in pain themselves. As far as they were concerned right now, their friend's injury was the most important thing right now. The chivalrous bastards.
"Where does it hurt?" Melinda asked. Casey slowly pointed to a spot on the back of her ankle.
Melinda saw the place she was talking about. It was swollen beyond belief, and the area was bright red. Now that she was looking at it from this angle, she saw how much pain the poor girl must be in. The poor girl had torn her Achilles tendon. She thought back to the image of Casey and Fin trying to hide their pain, and how much better Casey was at it then Fin was. Casey's injury was much worse than Fin's was, yet she played it off as if it was no big deal. Then there was the fact that she let Fin go before her.
The fact that Casey's injury was so much worse than Fin's just made the tough-guy act that much cuter. Melinda couldn't help but wonder what Fin would have done had he been the one to tear his Achilles tendon. While she didn't wish injury of any kind on the man, it would be amusing to see how he played it off.
"I'm afraid your Achilles tendon is torn, dear," Melinda said. Casey let out a deep sigh.
"Alright," she said, "As long as I don't have to lose my foot, I'm happy."
"However," Melinda said, standing up. She looked at all three of them sternly, "before we go to the hospital, how the hell did all of this happen."
Silence filled the room, and the three looked at each other.
"El and Casey were teaching me how to play softball," Fin said. Melinda raised an eyebrow. She knew for a fact that he hated sports. Fin didn't even like football.
"Why?"
"Because Queens SVU are a bunch of punks!" Fin said back. While she was still confused, it was adorable to see Fin act like a competitive ten year old.
"You see," Elliot started explaining, "The SVU out of Queens started a softball team, and all of the members are a bunch of former baseball all-stars. We ran into a couple of them, and they started bragging about how nobody could beat them. Especially you cissys down in Manhattan'. We decided to kick their asses."
Melinda noticed the competitive looks a upon Elliot and Fin's face. She could definitely see Fin enduring a game of baseball to beat them. She loved that he was a little bit competitive. It was something she'd never imagine for him.
"We were showing him how to bat," Casey explained, "I threw a pitch, and he tried to hit it, but he moved at the last minute and the ball hit his arm, and he threw the bat at me. While I was running to get out of the way, tripped on a rock and twisted my ankle."
"After he threw the bat, he jerked his arm back and hit me in the face," Elliot added.
Melinda nodded, it suddenly all making sense. Casey tore her tendon when she tripped, Fin sprained his wrist when he threw the bat, and Elliot's nose went crooked when Fin hit him.
However, Melinda caught another part of that conversation.
"You were hit with a softball?"
"A baseball," Fin said.
"Can I look at it?"
Fin took off his signature leather jacket, and showed her the place on his arm he was hit. The area was very swollen, and there was a giant bruise in the middle. Melinda winced.
"Casey, how hard would you say you can throw a baseball?" Melinda asked. A grin crossed the ADA's face.
"I don't know about baseballs, but my average with a softball is sixty-seven miles per hour."
Melinda winced, and looked back at the injury. Even though the speed of the baseball was sure to have dropped, that was still a damn fast ball. Something as hard as a baseball hitting you that fast was bound to hurt. It certainly explained the pain the detective was in. Even if the ball was going at forty miles per hour, that would have hurt like hell. Add that to the sprained wrist, and they were sure to have one pained detective.
"Okay then!" Melinda said, "Now's the part where I take you all to the hospital.
She let Casey grab on to her shoulder, and Fin helped the ADA up with his good hand. Melinda smiled at the act.
Considering the pain the man was bound to be feeling, his tough-guy act just got much cuter. As they made their way to the door, Melinda could tell the detective was in pain. Yet he was brushing it off to help his co-worker.
He was a chivalrous bastard, but he was cute.
It's official. I love writing Felinda. These guys are just too damn cute! They're great characters to write, that's for sure.
Thank you all for reading. This has been a very fun story to write.
For readers of The Shape of Things to Come, this is my way of apologizing for no new chapter. The past few days have been crazy. I have a contest coming up (which I joined last minute) so I've spent a lot of time practicing that. The only reason this got out, was because it was trapped in my muse. Don't worry, though, the chapter is mostly done and will either be up Saturday night or Sunday morning.
Also, on a different note, my cousin's cancer is in Remission (YEAH!), so there very well may be a story celebrating that.
Thank you very much for reading, and I'm very sorry about the long author's note. Have a wonderful day, guys. You're awesome!
Fayth
