I've never written a fic that isn't 'The Bill' so please feel free to tell me that this sucks :D I might write another HC one at some point, but for now this is just a one parter.
Safe Hands
"Joe."
"…It's Joseph, actually." Joseph was quick to correct, a small self deprecating smile lining his lips.
"Whatever." Jac gave a casual shrug. "Lockers rooms this way?"
There was something about Jac that caught Joseph's intrigue as he watched her stride down the corridor. She wasn't one of those giggling surgically enhanced bimbo's that decorated the rooms of many of the social events Lord Byrne had hosted for some charity or other. Joseph had lost track of just what his father was supposedly supporting that month, though the thought of being presented to a group of people he'd never met before, and was likely to never meet again terrified Joseph, yet he allowed his father to do it time and time again.
Jac knew her own mind and that was something Joseph admired and was – admittedly – a little jealous of. He longed to be able to forget the day as he walked out of the hospital, but there was always something nagging at the back of his head that wouldn't let him, something that was stronger than he was and something he always let win.
"Er. Yes."
Joseph caught himself answering as she disappeared out of sight. He ignored the puzzled stare from the person beside him and continued down the corridor, hesitating as he reached the locker room. He raised his hand to the door and was about to push it open, before tensing and stepping back as the door opened and Sam exited through it, almost walking into him.
"Joseph." He grinned and nodded at him, knocking Joseph completely off his stride.
"Sam." Joseph nodded quickly; a glance at Jac through the door as it swung closed confirming to him that the two of them had been sharing a joke or maybe even flirting. Joseph's half hearted smile dropped as he marvelled over something being completely natural and easy to one man, being another man's abject terror, despite it being the one thing he wanted the most.
For now he settled himself with being the 'friend'. He could handle sharing the occasional joke with her – when he himself actually understood it, and he could handle her gentle teasing. If anything he actually enjoyed it. …not that he'd ever let her know that.