A/N: This is a RP fic written by my good 'ol friend and I. She is, as they say, across the pond, Mrs-N-Uzumaki. She is an excellent writer and a great muse! Enjoy! (Title is a good The Strokes song).
It was a pretty good night, Evan decided.
His eyes searched across the four people he now called a HankMed family, encircling the guestroom table, chortling in pleasure as they chowed down their meals. The room's ambience continuously filled with laughter as everyone was cheerfully conversing. Divya placed the cooked meals onto the table whilst Jill passed down the plates. Despite Evan's attempts in reaching for a devilled egg before dinner Paige managed to slap his hand away muttering along the lines of "we haven't even started dinner yet".
They all had wine glasses, too, and even though Evan secretly hated wine (though he would never tell the rich and famous of the Hamptons); he sipped it little by little and smiled through the bitter finish.
He gently smiled down at Paige as he watched her politely chew her tuna salad sandwich.She was so breath-taking. Evan still wasn't completely sure what their relationship was yet. They were – technically, for all intents and purposes – legitimately dating, but some small part of him sometimes drifts off and wonders if Paige really does like Evan R. Lawson, CFO of HankMed, or if she likes The One Decent Guy I Can Show to My Parents.
Nah, he brushed that thought away, because: 1) he doubted that. He was pretty hip around the ladies every now and again, and 2) Dinner's ready. Divya also ordered pizza, but she also carried out bowls of black-eyed pea saladwhich Evan couldn't wait to eat. He was starving.
He glanced over at his brother, who was smiling widely at Jill and pulling her chair out for her. Inwardly, Evan scoffed at the classic Hank move. He was always so…annoyingly smooth with the ladies. Except for this one, he reminded himself. Hank was still a little apprehensive around Jill, and even though he had caught them together – ew, it still made him both shudder and smile at the same time, and he's not sure if that's appropriate– he noticed that they've never actually declared themselves "official", which creeped him out if he contemplated it too much, so Evan decided that yeah, this–just sitting here, talking, laughing, freakin' eating, was nice. This is something. So he pushed everything else aside and passed a piece of pepperoni over to Paige, who smiled her thanks.
"So, Divya," Evan started in on the PA, "How has everything been, lately?" He couldn't help but drop a few hints at her, ever since the whole arranged marriage thing was called off. So what? Divya was a single woman, it was time she embraced it.
"It's been fine, Evan," she said tersely, scooping some iceberg lettuce onto her plate. "You know, I recall you saying you were starving. Why don't you spend less time talking and more time eating?"
Evan rolled his eyes and spooned some macaroni salad onto his plate. He tuned into what Hank and Jill were talking about at the other end of the table.
"…yeah, I've heard those are very successful."
Borrring. He turned to Paige, "Hey Paige, did you do anything to save the world today?"
His girlfriend raised a blonde brow at him, "Um, not really. You?"
"Oh you know, just sorted all of our HankMed mail." He put a forkful of the macaroni salad into his mouth, and then looked pointedly in Hank and Divya's directions, "Work that I spent all day on."
Hank, obviously having heard his brother, said to Jill in a very loud voice, "YOU KNOW, JILL, I SAVED THREE PEOPLE'S LIVES TODAY. MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE THAN SORTING MAIL, DON'T YOU THINK?" To which Evan responded with a mimicking voice of his brother's previous words.
"You know I can see you doing that, Ev," Hank countered, sitting right across his brother.
"Exactly why I did it, Henry," Evan quipped.
"Play nice, boys," Divya scolded from her spot at the table.
"I always play nice," Evan put on his best 'angelic' face. He quickly grabbed a devilled egg and popped it in his mouth, grinning triumphantly through the mouthful of egg at Paige. She smiled at him and shook her head.
"You always play nice?" Hank echoed, "What about that time, or rather all those times you've opened my door without knocking?" Next to him, Jill blushed.
"That doesn't count!" Evan defended himself, "You never gave me a warning or anything."
"I'm supposed to warn you to knock?"
"Yes." Evan itched his arm absentmindedly.
Hank shook his head at his younger brother, "Maybe I should just keep you busy more often, huh? Re-organize some patient files…or re-arrange the finances, so that they pay less?"
"Hilarious, bro."
"A regular comedian," Divya quipped from her spot at the table.
Then Jill said something doctor-ly to Hank, and they engaged in a separate conversation, leaving Evan and Paige to talk to each other.
This was awkward.
"So, uh, Paige," Evan spoke through a mouthful of his salad, after having shoved another spoonful in to diffuse the tension he felt. "Done anything cool lately?"
"Well, I haven't saved any lives," Paige smiled warmly. "But…I did talk to my parents about you…they want you to come over for dinner sometime,"
Evan nearly choked on his macaroni. "Are you serious?"
Paige raised an eyebrow, "Yes…I thought it was a nice gesture, they want to get to know you,"
"I don't think…" Evan stopped, feeling a hot flash pass over him. Odd. "I don't think that's such a great idea."
Hank chose that moment to butt back in, "What's not a good idea?"
Paige set down her fork. "Evan doesn't want to have dinner with my parents,"
"Why not?" Hank asked quizzically, turning to his brother in confusion, "Haven't you eaten with them before?"
"Yeah, but it was different then!" Evan felt himself getting upset more by this, because Hank had to put his opinion in. Now he was going to have to do it, because he would look like an even bigger jerk if he didn't. In frustration, he tugged at the button on his polo shirt, feeling like he wasn't getting enough air. Calm down…
"Ev…" Hank's eyes were a little wide, and Evan knew he was blowing it out of proportion, but he was irritated that his brother was always trying to fix everything and dear God why was it so hot? He tugged again at the button, popping it free, but feeling no relief from it.
"Don't they already know she faked the relationship thing at first?" Divya asked, sipping from her glass of wine.
"Doesn't matter," Evan said tightly.
"You're making this a bigger deal than it needs to be, okay?" Hank looked over at Paige, who nodded, and calmly placed a hand on Evan's shoulder, "It's okay, we can talk about it later, alright?" She asked. But he wasn't answering. "Evan?" she asked again. Evan felt the hot feeling wave through him again, and with a sudden gasp, he realised it was becoming difficult to breathe.
"Evan?" By now, Hank was up halfway out of his chair, ready to race to his little brother's rescue. The younger Lawson pushed away from the table, wanting to bolt to the bathroom, or somewhere, but he fell backwards, and gasped. Once, twice, three times. Help me, he wanted to shout, but couldn't find the willpower to do so.
Everyone stood from their seats but Hank was instantly by his brother's side, "Ev?" he tapped his hand against his cheek. "Evan?"
The accountant barely managed to choke out a few words in response, "I-…breathe-…I can't-" There was a sudden strain on his heart and his hand instantly flew to his chest in hopes of easing the pain with his forceful clutch.
"Oh my God, is he having a heart attack?" Paige called out as she found herself crouching on the other side of the younger Lawson's struggling form.
"Divya, get me an EpiPen, now!" Hank yelled, watching his physician assistant haste towards the medical supplies and tousling her hands into the drawers.
Hank curved his attention back towards Paige, "No, it's anaphylaxis."
The young heiress looked up in horror, her heart racing in fear as she squeezed her soon-to-be fiancé's hand, "That doesn't sound any better!"
"It's a severe allergic reaction," Hank responded. Jill hovered over the Doctor watching him reassure his little brother; she then sought for her phone inside her purse, intending to call the paramedics; Henry continued, "Right now his airways are swelling. He may fall into shock soon which means his blood pressure will drop and he'll eventually lose consciousness."
"What do we do?"
"Our first priority is to protect the airway and maintain adequate blood pressure."
"Ambulance is on their way," Jill spoke, kneeling beside the doctor as he ruffled through his Gladstone bag in hopes of finding an Epinephrine kit.
Evan continued gasping for air, his hand clawing against his shirt. Beads of sweat were forming at his hairline. Hank didn't take his eyes off his brother.
"Evan, Evan, look at me!" he pleaded, watching as Evan's pool-blue eyes scuttled around, not landing on anything in particular. It almost hurt to see the clouded look in them; knowing his vision was most likely distorted and he was probably a blur in his little bro's eyes. Finally, they came in contact with Hank's, and Hank grabbed his hand. "Squeeze my hand," he commanded.
But Evan couldn't. His once incessantly fluttering eyes began to slow and his head began to loll to the side as a result of the lack of oxygen circulating to his brain.
"Divya!" Hank called out, turning to his PA.
"There's no kit here. I'll have to run to my truck!" Divya exclaimed as she rushed out of the guesthouse.
"Ev? You still with me?" Hank asked. But his younger brother's eyes were closed, leaving Hank to lower his fingers onto his brother's neck, "Stay with me Ev. Come on…come on…dammit!" He cursed under his breath. He then laced his fingers together and pressed them against Evan's chest, murmuring numbers in sync with his compressions. Divya returned within that instant with an oxygen tank by her side. She then took a hold of the oxygen mask and pushed it onto the accountant's face.
"Divya…" Hank's eyes were wide and panicked, and she quickly slapped the EpiPen Auto-Injector into his hand. He didn't bother continuing with the compressions, his brother would be fine with the mask. He ripped aside the packaging so fast it flew behind him in shreds and, his fingers flying, fluttering gently but determined, he released the safety cap, and slammed the orange-coloured tip into his brother's thigh. He waited impatiently, what must have been only ten seconds, to release it and then turned to Jill, who said quickly, "The paramedics will…" In the background, the clear, piercing sound of an ambulance's siren could be heard as it pulled into Boris's vast driveway.
"Be here soon." She finished. Within that minute, the HankMed team released the anxious breath they've been holding during the entire occurrence.
