Title: Middle of the Night
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: The Office still does not belong to me.
Summary: Nellie is woken in the middle of the night because of Toby.
Other: 1. Originally this had been planned as a 100 word drabble... well, each section is 100 words long still...
2. The last three are a bit of a jumble somehow. But I needed to post it before my blood pressure went through the roof.
3. I know that I didn't react to the reviews for 'A Spoilt Evening', I read them though and would like to say 'Thank you' here. They made me smile. =)
4. This is for the magnificent Wil. Simply because she is who she is. Thank you for that, my dear. :*
I hope you like it! ;)
~~o~~
Nellie is confused when she wakes in the middle of the night, not knowing what woke her. Then she realises that it is her phone vibrating next to her bed and she reaches for it, angered by the insipid whim someone has taken to call her.
But when she answers it her tired anger fades away as she listens to the nurse tell her that Mr Flenderson has been in an accident and that she is listed in his papers as an emergency contact. When the nurse asks her to come she is already out of her bed and dressing.
~o~
The streets are mostly empty, as it's so late that the other people either lie in their beds and get some sleep or work those jobs usually frowned upon in broad daylight.
Nellie doesn't care about the others. She's a tolerable driver in daylight, by night she prefers to stay at home. But this is an emergency and she has to do it. The streets are dark. Only the lamps on the sidewalk and the traffic lights brighten the foggy greyness of the starless night.
The tension in her back is unbearable as she finally arrives safely at the hopital.
~o~
Her arms feel heavy as she approaches a nurse and asks after Toby. Her hastily packed handbag hangs over her shoulder as her arms clutch the more precious weight to her chest.
The nurse shows her the directions and tells her to wait for the doctor. Nellie sits and stares into the distance, as she can't pace much to ease the tension settling in her shoulders or her stomach, neither can she calm her hammering heart. No matter how much she tries to take slow steady breaths her pulse won't stop its rushing.
She feels cold when the doctor comes.
~o~
Even though she feels tired she is dead awake as the doctor explains to her what has happened. There had been an accident. Apparently Toby had walked the dog of his old neighbour when a driver had skidded on the street and lost control. The young driver hadn't hit him frontally but with the side of the car.
A difference between certain death and minor internal damage, a broken ankle, accompanied by a concussion and a whiplash injury.
Relief floods Nellie as the doctor tells her this. She presses her face into the reassuring warmness in her arms and sighs.
~o~
At first they don't want to let her in to see him. As she is not his wife or his family member she is not allowed in. But Nellie is having none of that nonsense seeing that she is his emergency contact, his co-worker and his fiancée – she might have lied to the nurse about the last one but she is not regretting it.
The small lie, which had slipped from her lips with surprising ease, gets her in to see him at least. And in the end that is more important than any official regulations. He is more important.
~o~
There is only one chair in the room and the nurse put it as close to the bed as possible while Nellie has her arms full, warmth slowly seeping through her clothes onto her skin.
It takes a bit of manoeuvring before she can place her handbag on the floor beside her and get out of her coat. She uses it as a blanket and the weight in her lap is heavy as she shifts. Toby's hand lies beside him on the blanket, his fingers unmoving but warm. Gently she intertwines her smaller fingers with his stronger ones and waits.
~o~
She startles as breath strokes over her shoulder. Even though she had intended to stay awake she fell asleep while waiting for Toby's anaesthesia to wear off.
Tiredly she shifts in the uncomfortable chair, tightening her hold on the coat when it threatens to slide off. Her gaze finds his face in the darkness – it's not even morning yet – he is sleeping. He has dark shadows on his face, caused by the dark and a black eye. But his chest is moving slowly up and down. The sound of soft breathing fills the silence around her.
Her heart finally calms.
~o~
He wakes to the loveliest sight when the morning sky just begins to lighten up. Her warm hand in his, her fingers occasionally tightening in his, he watches her for a moment. A strand of her hair trembles in the calm breath escaping her lips. Her arms are slung around the coat in her lap, tightly wrapped around Nellie's new center of her life.
The little redheaded girl sleeps as undisturbed as her mother.
For a moment he just watches them sleep beside his bedside, not caring what happened to him but marveling at the wonder of them being there.
~o~
Nellie wakes up feeling as if someone is caressing her fingers and the soft skin of her wrist. Her neck is stiff and moving hurts for the first minute, so she does it slowly. Her arm tightens around her daughter sleeping peacefully in her lap, pulling the coat further over her, as she looks up to see Toby awake and watching her.
His fingers tighten around hers and she doesn't mind it for the moment. He's awake and well. And asking her what happened.
So she tells him everything she knows.
But forgets to mention her masquerade as his fiancée.
~o~
When her daughter stirs in her lap Nellie smiles at him apologetically and stands up. She has to return home for them so they can change clothes and get the little one to kindergarden.
Toby understands and nods, desperately trying to keep his face calm and not to show her how he will miss her while he spends the day in bed.
He watches her back and how the door closes behind her. Whishing for her to return in the evening. Even if she stays just for a few minutes, just so he can see her. To brighten his day.
~o~
She drives home, her daughter in the back of the car. The streets turn brighter, the lights go out. She has seen him, stayed by his side for the night. That has to be enough. There's work at the office waiting for her.
At home she dresses her daughter, packs a few things, makes lunch for her and brings her to the kindergarden. Hugging her child, kissing her forehead she promises to get her in the evening from the Halperts' home.
She gets ready for work. But his keys rest heavily in her hand as she searches for her phone.
~o~
The nurse entering his room at eight in the morning doesn't seem to draw breath while she chatters aways. Checking on him she just talks about how lucky he was, what they did during the night, and keeps blathering on. He lets her voice drone into the background, prefering to think about how Nellie sat by his side during the night.
He keeps ignoring her while she takes his pulse. But then something reaches his ears, catches him by surprise and he has to shake his head to get out of his self-induced stupor and asks her to repeat herself.
~o~
The moment the nurse closes the door behind her Toby leans against the raised back of his bed. It will be hours before Nellie returns. If she returns at all. She has a child to look after.
He wonders if he should try to call his ex-wife and Sasha but they won't be at home. And he doesn't want to worry his daughter just yet.
For a moment he stares out of the window.
And then the door opens and Nellie is back, a bag with his things draped over her shoulder.
Planning to stay with him during the day.
~o~
"You told them you were my fiancée."
Sitting up against the rasised back of his bed he looks over to the window where she is standing in the fading sunlight, her titian hair aflame. Having turned her blouse clad back to him, arms wrapped around her to keep her warm, she stares out of the window and down into the green hospital park. Watching other patients and their families enjoying their time together.
She doesn't turn around to him as worry and shyness suddenly grab hold of her while her heart starts beating faster than it should.
"What about it?"
~o~
Seconds tick by and turn into centuries as she waits for whatever it is he wants to say to her.
"Do you want to be?"
She doesn't know the answer. Months ago it would have been no. After the kiss at Christmas, when he mistook them for a couple, everytime he got on her nerves with the Strangler Story.
But ever since he nearly was strangled because of her, since she told him to man up and clear his conscience, since she got him from hospital and drove him back home, something has changed.
Slowly she turns around to him.
~o~
"No."
He stares at her standing so far away from him even though it's just a few steps to the window. But he can't make them. His ankle is broken and he still suffers from the whiplash trauma. Instead he reaches for her but she does not react to it.
His hand falls back on the white bedspread.
Nellie bites the side of her lower lip and strokes her hand over her arm.
An awkward silence settles over them. Toby wonders if she will leave now but when Nellie opens her mouth the talking nurse bursts into the room again.
~o~
They are silent while the nurse chatters away as if her life depended on it. Nellie isn't quite sure if the woman ever draws breath at all while taking Toby's pulse and checking his other injuries.
Taking the half empty dinner tray she talks on and on about how lucky Toby must feel that his fiancée is there with him.
They don't tell her that it was just a ruse so Nellie could see him. Even if they wanted to they couldn't. She doesn't let them. And her talking continues when she closes the door behind her.
They remain silent.
~o~
She leaves soon after the nurse has left them. They barely speak another word to each other. Toby because he doesn't know what to say. Nellie because she doesn't know what to think. A part of her wants to decline, to tell him off for dreaming about them being a couple. Another part wants to accept.
She has no idea what to make of her mixed emotions. So she runs for the hills.
The next day he waits for her in vain. And the next.
Toby doesn't know if he'll see her again.
Only the nurse chases the silence away.
~o~
On the third day she appears after work. Her daughter on her hand, some cake in the other she slowly walks into the room. The little girl lets go off her hand, runs to his bed where she climbs up and hugs him.
He's surprised she did that and doesn't really know how to react but to embrace her too.
Nellie haltingly smiles at him while she gets the pieces of cake out of the box and prepares it for them.
She got him apple tart, his favourite, and he finds himself occasionally being fed some overly sweet chocolate cake.
~o~
While they eat their cakes the little redhead sits next to him and keeps talking about kindergarden and the last few days. How she has asked her mother several times why they had been at the hospital and when they would see them again.
Toby looks over to the woman who has not said ten words herself since she arrived and sees her smiling lovingly at the child by his side.
When she notices him watching her she blushes but doesn't look away. Instead she holds his gaze, mouthing "She insisted" as her daughter chatters on.
He's thankful for that.
~o~
She returns the next day. And the day after that. Always bringing her daughter with her, who holds her hand until they step through the door. Then the little redhead always runs to him. He helps her up, careful of the stitches he has, the remnants of the doctors who stopped the internal bleeding.
Nellie doesn't like to think about it. About what could have happened if the driver had hit him frontally or had fled the scene.
Instead she smiles on, lets her daugher do the talking and tries to stay in safe territory whenever she has to speak.
~o~
They go for a walk in the park the next day. Her daughter happily bouncing around them, while they slowly make their way down a path into the direction of a pond. Occasionally they stop and let Toby catch his breath.
A small bench stands by the side of the pond and Nellie and Toby sit down, watching her daughter walk to he water's edge. He can feel Nellie tense beside him as the girl step closer and closer to the water. Without thinking he reaches for her hand, holding her beside him but ready to let go if needed.
~o~
They barely talk. She sits beside him, her eyes on her daughter sitting by the water's edge watching the ducks swimming over the surface, creating little ripples in the otherwise calm water. Some goldfish swim beneath them and hide under some white and pink water lilies.
She can feel his eyes on her, can feel the memory of his hand on hers still, but everytime she turns her head he looks away. Like he doesn't want to be caught.
And then Nellie realises that he's keeping an eye on her daughter whenever she doesn't. That he keeps her in sight.
~o~
A soft breeze ruffles through his hair and plays with her locks as he fights for courage to talk about the last few days.
"Nellie." Her name sounds like a plea, desperate for her to listen to him, to not turn or run like she did the first time. He falters when he sees her fingers clenching into her coat.
"Toby." She doesn't know what to say. The fear that he will propose to her again sets her on edge. But she doesn't want to break his heart. Not when he has just broken his ankle.
"Please, give me time."
~o~
Toby only nods. She can have all the time she wants. He will wait til the end of time as long as she'd consider sharing her life with him. Their lifes, he corrects himself as he watches the young redhead starting to pick little daisies.
Her inner monologue, the troubling whirlwind of her thoughts, is hidden to him. It had only been a ruse to see him, she had never wanted to be proposed to. Not like this anyway.
She doesn't know what to think anymore.
"Ask me somewhere else but in a hospital."
His heart leaps at her words.
~o~
She feels his hand sliding over her own, warm and comforting. There is no mistaking that he knows that her answer could still be 'No', but he would accept it. She clasps his hand tightly with her own.
"Maybe I change my mind."
Maybe she will, maybe she won't. She doesn't know yet. She had never wanted to marry Henry, so she doesn't know if she'll ever be happy in a lawful marriage.
The only thing she is sure of is that beneath his sometimes creepy and bumbling facade he really cares about her. About them.
And that's worth something.
~~o~~
Well, you made it to the end. Well done. Please have a cookie and maybe leave a review for me. They always cheer me up. :)
Oh, and just by the way. I have a blog over at tumblr. Where you can find a bit more fic if necessary.^^