A/N- Thank you all for the lovely reviews. They really made me smile. Imarifirst has been desperate for this chapter so I hope you enjoy! I already have most of chapter three written so I aim to update within the week. Reviews always help though ;)
Shameless plug for my other Delena fic 'The Embargo'. If you haven't read, go check it out :)
Gracie x
Chapter 2
"You owe me a beer." Matt said to Elena as he leaned against the shaded wall of the hospital.
"I do." Elena replied, taking a swig from her water bottle. "How about this weekend? Caroline mentioned some noodle bar on the corner of 1st and East 11th?"
"A noodle bar?" Matt questioned with what was very close to a sigh. "Can't we just go to a bar that serves burgers and beers for less than $20?"
Elena laughed. Matt - much like her - was from a small country town and wasn't used to the over-priced eateries of Manhattan. He'd been complaining for the last three months that all he wanted was a decent home-cooked chilli burger.
"It could be worse." She suggested. "Remember when we went to that sushi place?"
Matt groaned. "How could I forget? My stomach was my enemy for the rest of the week."
"Hey guys." Caroline almost-sung as she joined her friends outside, shielding her blue eyes from the glare of the sun.
"You're late for your break." Elena commented. "Might this have to do with a certain room on the third floor?"
"Someone had to check he had fresh water. It's hot you know."
"And did you check any other room on the third floor?" The brunette questioned knowingly.
Caroline shrugged. "I deserve a break too."
Elena rolled her eyes. Matt frowned. "Which room are you guys talking about?"
"The one that is occupied by Damon Salvatore. It should be illegal for someone to be that hot. I mean seriously, who looks good in a hospital gown?! Besides him, obviously."
"Damon Salvatore?" Matt questioned Elena.
"Gunshot victim you brought in last week."
He shrugged. "I don't remember."
"You brought him in right before I offered to buy you a beer."
"Which you flaked out on." He replied. "Now I remember."
"Caroline has the hots for him."
"The hots?" The blonde retorted incredulously. "What are you Elena, thirteen?"
"No. Anyway, I was telling Matt that you mentioned a noodle bar this weekend?"
"Momofuku!"
"Seriously? That's the name of the restaurant?" Matt asked.
"How about we try somewhere in Brooklyn?" Elena suggested. "We always talked about finding a dive bar with great burgers."
"But I was hoping for a lady and the tramp moment with Tyler!" Caroline half-whined. "Dive bars are so...dirty."
Had Caroline not made Elena laugh so much over the course of their relatively short friendship, the brunette might have grown tired of her princess act. But Caroline was sweet and kind, she just forgot that even though they all worked in the same place, they didn't have the kind of money in the bank courtesy of their parents that she did.
"Fine." Elena conceded, much to Matt's disappointment. "But Matty gets to pick next time. And dive bars are a legitimate option."
"Deal."
X
"Katherine, you don't want to do this. Put the gun down. Katherine. KATH-"
Damon gasped, his eyes springing open, making Elena jump and drop the clipboard she was holding.
She collected it from the floor and set it on the bottom of his bed, resting her hand on his forearm.
"Are you okay?"
He was sweating. "Yeah..I uh...bad dream."
Elena nodded, her hand still resting on Damon's arm. "Just breathe slowly."
He looked at her questioningly but then realised he was heaving ragged breaths. Concentrating on the clock opposite, he exhaled through his mouth until his breaths had evened and Elena picked up the clipboard from the bed.
"I need to check your dressing. If you wouldn't mind lifting your gown."
"A little forward, doctor." Damon replied with a smirk. If she hadn't just witnessed him wake from a nightmare sweating profusely, Elena would have sworn he was flirting. She simply raised an eyebrow.
"You can cover yourself with the sheet from the waist down, I just need to inspect your abdomen."
Damon braced himself for pain as she pulled on a pair of gloves and began to draw the tape on the pain never came. He watched, almost in awe, as her careful fingers removed the tape gently before peeling back the soft material covering his bullet wound.
"You're healing nicely."
Nicely is not the adverb Damon would have used. He grimaced at the sight of his pale skin interrupted by a large, angry red hole that seemed to be leaking some sort of gross fluid.
"I'll get something to clean this with and then I'll be right back." She told him.
"Am I going to get a sponge bath, doctor?"
This time Elena wasn't mistaken. He was flirting. How inappropriate. He'd said the word doctor twice now, and each time it sounded wrong. She'd worked damn hard to earn that title and she wasn't going to let him ruin it by saying it in such a crude way.
"Not from me."
He simply smirked as she left the room.
"Hey." Caroline smiled as the two girls met in the supply cupboard. "Have you checked Damon Salvatore yet?"
"On it now." Elena replied. "Just need to clean his bullet wound."
"Urgh, I can't believe you got the good job!" Caroline moaned. "I'm stuck redressing that little kid's arm in 315. I hate children. Switch?"
Elena shrugged. "Knock yourself out. I like the kid's family. They usually bring cookies."
Caroline squealed in excitement, a glint in her eye. "I hope his abs are as good as I've been imagining."
X
"I hope your hand are wa..." Damon trailed off as he looked toward the closed door to see that his formerly brunette doctor had been replaced by a blonde version. "Where's the other doctor?"
"Emergency down the hall." Caroline replied. "I'm Dr Forbes, but someone as handsome as you can call me Caroline." She added a wink and a smile.
Damon returned it and cocked an eyebrow. "I hope you'll be as attentive. I'm very delicate you know."
"I can work wonders with my hands." Caroline flirted back. She soaked a cotton wool ball in the warm water and squeezed gently, carefully wiping the outside of his wound. The skin was inflamed and very red, but the smile she had on her face told Damon that, as the brunette assured him earlier, he must indeed be healing well.
The blonde doctor was good, Damon thought, but not as good as her friend. He felt quite a significant amount of pain, especially when she pressed the new dressing over his cleaned wound.
"So," Caroline said, pulling off her gloves. "Do you want to tell me how you got that hole?"
"No." His tone was stern and clipped.
"Oh..okay."
A memory of why he was in there flashed in front of his eyes and Damon was suddenly mad at the blonde doctor for bringing it up. "I'd like to get some rest if you're done." His tone was still abrupt.
"Of course." She gathered the used equipment and made her exit, closing the door behind her.
"Everything okay?" Elena asked as she passed on her way to the nurses' station.
"Yes. Just maybe don't ask Damon Salvatore how he got the bullet wound. He didn't take it so well when I tried."
Elena offered the blonde a reassuring squeeze of her shoulder. "Forget about him. Did you get a chance to make that reservation at Monma - whatever it was?"
"No." Caroline pouted. "There goes my lady and the tramp fantasy with Tyler."
"I think it was spaghetti, not noodles."
"I know, but noodles are tastier. And it's the kind of place we might see some celebs. I'd hate to miss an opportunity to flirt with Ryan Gosling."
Elena chuckled. "Tyler, Damon, Ryan...do you think about anything besides men?"
"Clothes?"
The brunette rolled her eyes. "Choose somewhere else and we'll go there. You can have your fantasy over pizza instead."
X
"Again?" Stefan sighed as Elena told him about her plans for the weekend. "I thought we could stay in and watch tv together."
She collected the used mugs dotted around various surfaces in their apartment. Stefan's lack of interest in anything other than being holed up in that apartment was making her increasingly worried. And annoyed.
"We stayed in this weekend." She replied. "And I felt bad cancelling on Tyler for his birthday."
Stefan said nothing as she moved past him, collecting the final used mug from the coffee table. Putting them neatly by the sink, Elena began running the water, checking with her hand to feel it growing warmer.
"Any luck with jobs?"
"Will you stop!" He spat. "Stop pressuring me about getting a fu-" Stefan stopped himself, green eyes wide. "I'm here because you got a placement Elena, not because I wanted to be for my career."
Tears stung her eyes. When she'd told him about her placement in New York, he was the one who'd said he should come with her and that it was the best place in the world - save for London maybe - to try and get into publishing. Now he was throwing that back in her face!
Elena finished washing the mugs and set them on the drainer to dry. "I'm going for a shower." She told him, though she wasn't sure why. Stefan kept his eyes fixed on the tv.
X
"I missed you." Damon told Elena as she entered his room with the supplies needed to clean and redress his wound.
"Really?" She replied, unaffected. "I would have thought Dr Forbes would have kept you busy."
"Caroline doesn't have fingers quite as careful as yours doctor."
There he was with that damn doctor again. "And I missed your frosty responses. It's a little hot in here without them."
Elena reached for the air conditioning remote and cranked it up. "That should cool you down."
Damon smirked. He watched her as she drew back the tape just as carefully as she'd done the previous day. Again, she removed the used white material with deft care and with her gloved hand, soaked a cotton ball in warm water, squeezing it before offering a small smile which seemed somewhat tighter than it had the previous day. Perhaps his manner made her uncomfortable. He made a mental note to be a little less...Damon.
"This will probably sting."
She wasn't wrong, but it certainly didn't sting like it had yesterday. In fact, Damon realised that what he was feeling wasn't a sting; more like a gentle burn - the kind you get if you put your hand near a flame but far enough away that it doesn't leave a mark. He continued to watch as she placed the used cotton ball on the tray and took a clean one, submerging it in the water before wiping it across his skin again. He adjusted his body as he felt a trickle of water about to drip onto the bed. She steadied him with a hand on his side.
"Damon, try to stay still."
"I don't think it's fair." He told her. She looked puzzled. "You know my name but I don't know yours."
"I'm Dr Gilbert." Elena replied.
"Doctor huh? Pretty." He couldn't help the smirk tugging at his lips. She made this easy what with masking clear annoyance with her inherent kindness.
"I've worked for five years to get this title." She told him.
Damon sucked in a breath. "Five years huh? That's a lot of missed drinking opportunities."
"And I assume that during those five years, you've not passed up on many drinking opportunities."
He feigned shock. "Doctor Gilbert, you should never assume anything."
Elena finished the cleaning and took a dry piece of material, holding it attentively over Damon's bullet wound. "Can you hold this in place?" She asked. "I'm just going to tape it down."
He placed his hands at the edge of the material, careful not to press down on the gaping hole in his abdomen. He was extremely careful, yet it stung when he did it. Quickly, Elena cut the tape and slid her left hand softly over the material, grazing Damon's fingers as she did so. Suddenly, there was a warmth in her fingertips that hadn't been there before, along with a lump in her throat that she couldn't explain. She didn't like it. She didn't not like it either.
Again, Damon was mesmerised by how little her touch hurt. In fact, it had quite the opposite effect.
"All done." The voice that left her mouth didn't sound like hers. It had an unusual rasp to it, and Elena cleared her throat. "Someone will be back to check on you in a few hours."
"Will it be you?" There was a hopefulness to his voice that Elena couldn't quite place.
"No, my shift finishes in an hour. Rest well."
"Thank you, Doctor Gilbert."
She smiled. It was the first time he'd said it in a serious manner. "Elena."
"What?"
"My name." She smiled again. "It's Elena."
Review? Please? x