"That was mad that" Rita observed. They had barely exchanged a word to each other from leaving the hospital until now, but were still somehow sitting in the position they were. Rita was snuggled up against Iain; her arms wrapped around his and her head resting on his chest; despite everything that had happened that day she felt more comfortable right now than she had in a long time.
"Yep." Iain seemed distracted. Rita knew that she needed to make sure he didn't close himself away from her like he usually did when he was so preoccupied; she sat up gently removing herself from him.
"Cup of tea?" She asked, it was a flimsy attempt but was the fastest thing that came to her mind, and even that had taken a while. Iain stared at her as if he was surprised that she was there. Maybe she was too abrupt and random, maybe he had noticed it was a feeble attempt to bring him back to her and the present moment. She softened her voice. "What?"
"Nothing" He crossed his arms and observed her.
"Cup of tea?" She tried again, out of alternative ideas.
Iain nodded. "Yeah"
"Sugar?"
"Just one." She patted his leg hinting for him to let her pass. His gaze followed her as she made her way across to the kettle.
She was too busy worrying about what he was contemplating and trying to make the teas that she wasn't aware of the fact that Iain's eyes were still fixed firmly on her. As if he was scared that if he looked away she's disappear. She hadn't worked out that the reason for Iain's strange behaviour was because he had just had an epiphany that she meant so much to him and he wasn't sure if he deserved her. When the teas were made Rita made her way back over to Iain still trying to work out what was wrong with him. She sat back down and snuggled back up to him.
'Ta." He was still extremely distracted, so absentmindedly picked up Rita's tea by mistake, which she had made especially sweet; she felt like she had earned it after the day they had had. He spat it out in disgust. Rita sat up quickly to get out of the way of his mess.
"Are you alright?" Rita laughed at his expression.
"That was foul that!" He picked up the tea intended for him and sipped it trying to rid the sweetness he could still taste. "How can you drink that?!" He couldn't help but think that this was the second time that day he'd been covered in a hot drink courtesy of Rita, he shook his head at himself; what was he getting himself into.
Rita's expression had returned to one of concern; she thought she'd worked it out; that the fighting earlier must have triggered something in him. Something from his days in the Army.
"You know earlier, did it bring back old feelings? Is that why you've been acting off? You know you can talk to me." She was convinced that she had cracked it; so was therefore surprised by him smirking in response.
"Nah, surprisingly no." Rita narrowed her eyes at him in confusion; but was pleased that he was talking more now at least.
"Then what is it? You can't fool me." She pulled a mock stern face at him.
Iain sighed. "You know me and you, I thought, I'd decided, we'd just be a few laughs and sex, but then today happened. He was waving that crowbar everywhere, and, well, I was terrified you were gonna get hurt. I knew in that moment, I would do anything, I would sacrifice anything, if it meant I could protect you" Iain inhaled deeply before continuing at a much faster rate. "I couldn't lose you, I didn't know before, maybe I hadn't thought about it properly before, but I know now that this is more than just a fling you know?"
She looked up at him. "Well I thought you were gonna be the one who ended up in a hospital bed you know." Her voice cracked at acknowledging it out loud. He extracted his arm from her increasingly tightening grip and wrapped it around her pulling her up against him. "Iain, I would've been fine, I can protect myself and you know it! There's got to be more to it than that, I don't need protecting, I'm perfectly capable." She pointedly withdrew herself away from him and sat on the other sofa to face him. "So why do it?"
"I dunno, maybe, I guess, I" he sighed, trying to create an acceptable excuse but failing miserably and instead decided to let his heart talk instead. "I love you, Rita." Her eyes widened at him. "I'm always gonna sacrifice myself if it means I'm protecting you in some way." He visibly relaxed, he felt like he had just shared a massive secret that he had been holding close to his chest. He hadn't even really known how deep it had actually become, but now the words were out they felt so right.
Rita stared at him in disbelief, tears beginning to form in her eyes; she never thought she'd hear those words again. She never thought that anyone else would say those words to her after Mark. But here Iain was with his eyes just as watery as hers. She thought that she was just going to be furious with him for his recklessness, but this was a curveball.
"You love me?" She stuttered and felt a lump rising in her throat as she said it.
"Yeah, seems that way doesn't it" He grinned at her; he didn't care what her response was going to be, he was just glad he'd had a chance to tell her. She deserved to be told how much she meant to him every minute of every day.
"I love you too." She was just as surprised as Iain that the words came out of her mouth.
"Really?" He felt like his heart was going to explode.
As an answer she shifted back across to him and captured his lips in hers bringing her hand up to cup his head; her fingers running through his hair. He responded instantly by wrapping his arms around her pulling her closer to him and deepening the kiss. The delirium that they were both experiencing was unlike anything either of them had felt for many years but something that they wanted to feel for many more.
They had become so infatuated with each other and the moment, or several moments, that they forgot their current location wasn't as private as it needed to be. They, therefore, didn't hear someone enter the room; Dixie had popped back to the ambulance station for some forgotten paperwork.
"Oh! No! My eyes! My eyes!" They definitely heard that and sprung apart from each other. Rita hastily attempted close up her shirt that had somehow come undone; her jacket had been discarded some time before. Iain shifted his trousers about trying to hide his crotch but to no avail; he grabbed his own discarded jacket to try and protect his rapidly diminishing dignity.
"I did not need to be seeing that!" Dixie had her hand covering her eyes as she fumbled her way across the room to her office. As soon as the click of the door was heard and Dixie was safely on the other side of a wall they looked at each other and burst out laughing. Rita's cheeks were bright red with the embarrassment of the situation. Iain hid his face in his hands; he was never going to live this one down; he couldn't bear to think about what she could have witnessed if she'd turned up only a few minutes later.
"So back to mine then?" Rita managed to get out in between laughs. Iain nodded, still too embarrassed to speak, and they very quickly collected their belongings and made a speedy exit from the ambulance station still giggling like schoolchildren.
Today had definitely been mad.