-Pony-
"When were you going to tell me that Liv is back in town? For good. To stay." Two-Bit asks leaning over the shiny surface of the bar he's been busy polishing. He is a natural bartender, he makes a killing in tips, customers come in just to see him and everyone of them leave thinking he's their new best-friend. I had, had some reservations about hiring him, Soda had insisted. I have to admit Soda had been right. I glance up at him over the ledger book full of the weekly numbers Soda had asked me to look at. There are still times I can't believe we actually own this place. I had never even had a passing thought about owning my own business, it had been a hundred percent Soda's idea. His number had gotten called towards the end of the war, in the year he was away from home first in basic training and then waiting to see if he'd be shipped out he got to talking with another guy whose dad owned a bunch of bars in Indianapolis. For some reason the idea clicked with Soda, luckily he never went overseas and came back home determined to buy his own bar. He went back to school to get his GED then enrolled in a bunch of business courses at the local community college all while working sixty plus hour weeks at the car dealership Steve works at. When this space went on the market, Soda proposed I come on with him, as more of a silent partner. I had never seen Soda so passionate about anything, so I couldn't tell him no. Darry had not been happy when he thought I was going to give up four years of college plus medical school to run a bar, it took a lot of convincing him on my part before he finally calmed down. I help out at the bar when I can, but since I took the job at the hospital's new Children's Wing as a resident pediatrician, I find myself here less and less.
"I didn't know I was supposed to tell you." I reply. Two-Bit scowls at me, despite me and Liv having a past, the two of us dated exclusively our junior and senior year of high school, Two-Bit has always harbored a not so secret crush on her. Not surprising she is exactly his type, blonde blue-eyed.
"Yeah. Yeah you were." He insists, he raises his eyebrows at me, "So she's home for good?"
"Yeah she took a job in the new Children's Psychology department at the hospital." Two-Bit thinks about this for a second or two. Liv and I broke up after our senior year, we both knew that trying to maintain a long distance relationship was not what we wanted at that time. I headed to Baylor for college and then medical school while she went to UCLA. Despite having broken up the two of us stayed friends and kept in contact with each other. When the hospital started looking to fill a spot for a child's psychiatrist, I passed on Liv's information and they began recruiting her extensively. She took the job and just got back into town. "She should be here soon, she said she'd meet me here." As if on cue Liv walks in, she greets me with a quick hug,
"Sorry I would have been here sooner but Julie insisted I have dinner at home." She tells me.
"No problem. Two-Bit here has been keeping me entertained." Two-Bit leans across the counter in Liv's direction,
"How's it going Liv?" he asks, "You look as beautiful as ever." Liv smiles,
"I see you haven't changed a bit." She replies, "And thank you I appreciate that especially since I spent the last two hours moving boxes around."
"You got it babe." Two-Bit responds winking at her.
"Any luck finding an apartment?" I ask as Liv sits down on the stool next to me. She shakes her head,
"Not yet. Thankfully dad and Julie are pretty adamant about me staying with them for a while. I think they are going through some empty nest syndrome since Jack moved out." She smiles at Two-Bit as he slides her a drink, "Thank you." She pauses to take a sip, "Where are you living these days?" Two-Bit chuckles as he walks to the other side of the bar,
"Uh, with Two-Bit and Soda." Liv's eyes widen,
"That must be interesting." She replies. I smirk. The three of us had moved in together as soon as I got home from med school. Two-Bit had just gotten kicked out of his girlfriend's house, and Soda didn't want to live with Darry and his then new wife Amelia any longer. None of us had a lot of extra cash, so we figured it would be cheaper to move in together. We got a three bedroom apartment in one of the newer buildings in Tulsa. It's a single guy's paradise, there's a constant stream of girls coming in and out pretty much all the time. I however leave that detail out.
"Interesting is a good word." I tell her.
"I bet." She replies, "The good thing is dad isn't in a hurry to get rid of me so I have some time to figure things out."
"Liv, it's great to see you again." Soda says as he comes out of the office from behind the bar.
"You too." She replies stifling a yawn, "I should get going, I'm exhausted and I have to meet Dr. Davidson tomorrow morning to fill out paperwork." She turns towards me, "Are you working tomorrow?" I nod,
"I'll be there around 8 and then I'm on call tomorrow night. You are in Clinic Five?" Liv takes a piece of paper out of her purse, studies it for a second than replies,
"Yeah. I'll be there pretty much all day." She hesitates for half a second, "We should do lunch." I know Soda and Two-Bit are both watching us, and I am sure Liv does too.
"Sure lunch sounds good. I'll meet you in your office around 1." She gets up giving me another quick hug,
"1 sounds good. I'll see you then." She says goodbye to Soda and Two-Bit before excusing herself and leaving.
"I'm gonna tell you this if you don't get with her I will." Two-Bit remarks casually as he refills my drink. Soda just rolls his eyes and shakes his head, I hang out for a while longer before calling it a night myself and heading home.
-Liv-
I wake with a start when my alarm goes off then I panic for a second when I can't remember where I am, it takes a moment until I realize I am back in the bedroom I grew up in. I turn off the alarm and groan getting out of bed almost tripping over one of the thirty boxes that are piled up in my room. The movers dropped them off a few days ago, neither my dad nor my step-mom Julie knew what to do with them so they just stacked them up. Everything else had been dropped off at a storage unit. "Ugh." I moan when I crash into another box I stop a moment to rub my leg where I can guarantee I am going to have a bruise later. I glance up when I hear the short rap on the door, and Julie sticks her head in the door,
"Oh good Livy you're up." She says, "We didn't want you to oversleep on your first day." She takes a look around the room, "How about this weekend I help you unpack and get you settled." I nod,
"Thanks that would be great."
"Good. I'll let you get dressed breakfast is ready for you downstairs whenever your ready." She tells me shutting the door behind her. I lucked out in the step-mom department, all you ever hear are horror stories, but I can honestly say Julie has been nothing short of amazing. My real mom, if you can even call her that left my dad when I was just three months old, leaving my dad with a newborn and my older brother Jack who was barely over a year old, while she took off to live on some commune in Oregon. It took dad almost two years to find her to serve her divorce papers, she signed them immediately and relinquished all her parental rights to Jack and I. Sometimes I wonder how my dad held it together, but he did somehow he managed to keep Jack and I both alive and open his own architecture firm. My grandparents helped out a lot when we were younger and my Aunt Vivian moved in with us, until him and Julie got married. Needless to say dad is incredibly over protective of the two of us, he was a mess the day I left for school in California. I take a quick shower, fix my hair and makeup get dressed and head downstairs.
"Morning sweetheart." Dad greets from behind his newspaper.
"Morning." I reply sitting down as Julie piles pancakes on my plate. A lot of my friends think it's strange that neither Jack or I call Julie mom, when she first started dating dad she told us to call her Julie and even after they were married never once told us to call her mom. She is our mom though and she knows this both of us refer to her as our mom, regardless of what we call her.
"You excited about your first day?" Dad asks setting down the newspaper.
"I am." I reply. I try not to let on the fact that I am having a few doubts about this. I gave up a pretty good thing in LA to move here. A good job, friends, an apartment. However this job is my dream job, and bonus it came with a hefty pay raise. My family is here, and thankfully I have a few friends who either moved home after college or just stayed in Tulsa period and then there's Pony. I find myself smiling just even thinking about him, I've been trying to convince myself that he had nothing to do with my decision to take this job, that I am not even the slightest bit curious if we could possibly make a go of something now. But deep down I know I'm lying to myself. I glance at my watch, "Oh shit. I mean crap. Sorry." I cry standing up, even at twenty-six I am paranoid about swearing in front of them. "I'm going to be late, I'll see y'all for dinner." I grab my stuff and dash out to my car. I make a mental note to remind myself to buy Jack a twelve pack and a steak next time I see him, he had offered and then flown to LA to drive back with me so I didn't have to pay to ship my car or drive by myself. It takes about fifteen minutes to get to the hospital, the hospital itself is old one of the oldest in Tulsa however thanks to a benefactor the new Children's Wing is brand new and gorgeous. I park the car and get out following the directions to Clinic Five. A pretty brunette stands up when I walk in,
"You must be Dr. Cooper. Or Olivia which do you prefer?" She asks standing up shaking my hand,
"Liv please." I tell her, "Dr. Davidson?"
"Guilty as charged. But please call me Ginny. It's so nice to finally have a face to go with the voice." I had, had no less then four phone interviews with her but we never met face to face, I had taken the job sight unseen.
"It is. Thanks for this opportunity, I'm glad I could come home and help the community." She smiles at me,
"It's our pleasure, you came highly recommended. How do you and Dr. Curtis know each other?" She asks as I follow her down the hall,
"We actually went to high school together." She nods pushing a door open,
"This is your office feel free to to decorate it anyway you want, if you don't like the paint color let us know and we'll have it changed. You don't have any patients scheduled until next week, give you some time to settle in, fix things the way you want, meet the nurses." She pauses a second to catch her breath, "We have quite a long list of minors waiting to see a psychiatrist, you getting here couldn't have happened at a better time." She takes a breath, "So lets go see the rest of the building." Ginny is like an over excited child, she is non stop. By the time we get back to my office, I am exhausted. "My office is right down the hall if you need me." She replies as she leaves. I sit down behind the desk and lose myself in my thoughts,
"How's it going Dr. Cooper? Have a fun morning with Ginny?" Pony's voice snaps me out of my thoughts.
"She's very excited about everything." I tell him standing up getting my purse. "Super sweet but very uh exuberant." Pony laughs,
"That's a nice way to put it Liv." The two of go to the cafeteria for lunch, and spend the hour just talking, catching up. I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy just being around him even if it is totally platonic. "I should get back to my office I have a bunch of appointments this afternoon. We should make lunch a regular thing." He says nonchalantly as we walk back to my office.
"I think so." He smiles, one of those smiles that make my pulse kick up a notch, and my knees feel like jelly. One of the best things about Pony is he has no clue what kind of affect he has on girls, none at all. It's adorable and incredibly endearing.
"Good. I'll see you at 1 tomorrow then." He gives me a super quick hug goodbye before turning towards the elevators. I go back into my office to start organizing.