(a/n – the five times fic I know you've all secretly been waiting for!)
A Clear Action Woman
1 – Boys Going Drinking
They were curled up together on the sofa when Bernie first brought it up. They'd recently moved in together and were enjoying the freedom of being able to cuddle with one another every night at the end of a long shift, without one of them needing to return home. There was no sound in the room aside from the crackling over the fire in the grate, and Serena was lazily stroking her foot up Bernie's calf when the ex-army medic broke the silence.
"Serena?" The vascular surgeon made a murmur of acknowledgement, signalling for Bernie to continue. "The boys, ah, um, my unit that is. They're all meeting up. A reunion. I'd have to get the train after shift and then get the last one back but, um…" She trailed off and Serena smiled lazily.
"You don't need my permission to go, Major. Go enjoy yourself." She paused. "Not too much though. Is Alex going?" Bernie ran her fingers through Serena's hair and dropped a kiss to her hair.
"No. She's currently back up North with her new wife. They're having a baby together." Serena snuggled further into her army medic's chest and sighed contentedly.
"You have fun with the boys then."
When the day actually came, AAU was having an incredibly busy day. Towards the end of the day, the red phone rang and Bernie looked alarmed.
"Don't worry, I've got this. You clock out and get ready to have fun. I'll try to be done in time for you to say goodbye until later." She pecked Bernie on the lips and dashed out of the office.
It turned out that the trauma call was out of Serena's depth. Once the patient was wheeled in, Serena had realised that the main issue was with the heart, and had Morven page Jac Naylor on Darwin as the porters began to move the victim to the correct ward. All Serena needed to do was reset the break on the patient's right arm and leave the team on Darwin to save the man's life.
Arriving back on AAU, Serena was surprised to see a whole group of young men stood by the door in military uniform. One of them whistled as she walked past.
"Alright missus?" She laughed and turned to look for Fletch to ask if a casualty from the military training centre had been brought in during her absence. Before she got the chance the doors to AAU swung open and Serena was treated to a sight which made her knees turn to jelly. The whoops and chants of the soldiers died in her ears as she drank in the image of Major Berenice Wolfe in full military fatigues. It had never crossed Serena's mind that the reunion would be in uniform.
Bernie looked towards her and approached.
"Serena? Are you okay? You look faint."
"Looks like the cat's got her tongue!" One of the soldiers chipped in. Another jeered.
"If you ask me I'd say it is the Wolfe that has that one's tongue!" Their laughter snapped Serena out of her trance and she reached out to smooth her hands over Bernie's uniform.
"Bernie… I… Wow." Bernie chuckled at her reaction.
"I didn't realise you had such a thing for uniforms, Ms Campbell."
"Neither did I." Serena was well aware that her voice was raspy, but her mind just couldn't comprehend anything beyond the camouflage print material. One of the soldiers behind them coughed pointedly, and Bernie turned and steered them through the doors of AAU and into the corridor beyond.
"I have a train to catch, but I'll try not to get too drunk so I can make it back to you in one piece, Fräulein." Bernie winked at Serena, who tried desperately not to melt into a puddle on the floor. "Wait up." Serena nodded as Bernie brought their lips together in a kiss which was altogether too chaste for her liking, even if there was an entire group of soldiers stood behind them yelling encouragement towards their commanding officer. Bernie turned and walked away with the boys, and Serena headed back onto AAU in a daze, hoping against all hopes that the rest of her shift would not require too much concentration, for her mind was most definitely elsewhere.
Once her shift had finished, Serena drove home and went through the everyday motions of making and eating dinner with Jason in a daze. The clock seemed to tick incredibly slowly as she counted down the hours until the return of her action woman. When the clock struck 11pm, Serena dragged herself upstairs to bed, deciding to wait out the rest of the time there. She lay down under the covers, her mind replaying every moment of seeing Bernie in her fatigues in high definition.
Serena was in the middle of being swept into Bernie's arms in the middle of the desert, the army medic's fatigues partially undone, when she was pulled from her dreams by the sound of the door to the bedroom closing. Serena looked through sleep filled eyes at Major Bernie Wolfe, her body responding to the sight before her. The soldier herself walked over to the sleepy surgeon and kissed her forehead.
"I didn't get drunk, much to the dismay of the boys."
"Did you have fun?"
"Absolutely. Though the highlight of my evening was definitely seeing your face in the hospital." Serena harrumphed and forced her eyes back open. The trauma surgeon laughed softly. "Go back to sleep, Serena. It's been a long day. There'll be other opportunities for you to see me in my fatigues."
"Promises, Major, promises," Serena mumbled tiredly, before dozing back into the land of dreams. Bernie smiled fondly at her sleeping partner, before changing out of her fatigues and into her sleepwear so she could climb into bed behind Serena.
As she too began to drift, she couldn't help but wonder how Serena would react if she ever saw her dress uniform. Perhaps, in time, she would find out. The thought made her smile.
