There is no good reason for extending this story, but this chapter was fun to write! :D Not sure where I'm heading with this, but there will be at least two more chapters.
My thanks to Gooniegirl3333 for beta-reading and to anitra mason 1 for commenting.
When Ryan woke up the next morning, two distinct sensations vied for his attention. The first was the gritty feeling of his irritated eyes. The second - two warm bodies snuggled happily next to him - woke him up in a hurry.
Natalia's spooned against my right side, so who's on my left?
A pair of wide blue eyes met his bloodshot hazel ones. "Meow," said the cat, pawing at his cheek.
Ryan was so startled that he leapt out of bed - "Aaaah!" - which caused the cat to twine around his legs and purr. He narrowly missed stepping on the animal and came down hard on his injured foot. "Yowch!"
Natalia awoke to find Ryan on the floor in a heap, sneezing, one hand over his nose and the other clutching his left ankle. Zöe sat off to the side, innocently grooming a furry white hind leg.
The brunette tipped her head to one side with a bemused expression. "Ryan?" The look he gave her wiped all traces of humor from her mind. She quickly slipped on her pink satin robe, grabbed a tissue box, and hurried over to him.
He took a tissue gratefully, blew into it, and then removed a second tissue and neatly folded it around the first. When he spoke next, it was with the slight lisp one gets from a clogged nose. "You never told me you had a cat." He winced and rubbed his instep.
"Ryan, meet Zöe. Zöe, Ryan."
He rolled his eyes at her lame attempt at defusing the situation. The cat ignored them both.
"I take it you're allergic," she said, handing him another wad of tissues.
He nodded. "It's not too bad unless they sleep on my head." Ryan shrugged, blinked his eyes, and squinted at her.
Natalia's own eyes widened when she caught sight of Ryan's impaired hazel ones. "Does cat hair always affect you that bad? Because your eyes are bright red."
"Only if I get fur in my eyes." His voice was rough and he sneezed again, followed by a shudder and another wince.
"I'm sorry, Ryan," she said contritely. "I didn't know you were allergic. I didn't expect her to come in here at all with you around. She was scared of Nick."
He raised his gaze to hers and gave her a faint smile. "Cat's got good taste." Noticing Natalia's unease, he added, "I like cats, Nat. I just can't sleep in the same room with one."
His girlfriend finally returned his smile. "Okay. I'll keep her out of here from now on," she said, shooing the cat from the room as she spoke. "But only because I like you so much." She gave him a peck on the cheek. "C'mon. Let's get going. Our reservation at Caruso's is in two hours and I, for one, want to enjoy our day off." Natalia bounded toward the bathroom.
Ryan remained on the floor, clutching his ankle in a death grip. "Yeah, about that ..."
The brunette peeked back in, hairbrush in hand. "What did you say?" She adjusted her hearing aid and looked at him expectantly.
"Can you help me up?"
Natalia dropped the brush with a clatter and hurried back to Ryan's side. "God, Ry, I didn't know it was that bad. What happened?"
With Natalia there to steady him, Ryan was able to get his good leg under himself and rise to standing. Leaning heavily against her, he limped to the bed. Once seated, with his left leg propped up, he gave her a wan smile. "Thanks."
She spread her arms wide and studied him with a frown, willing him to answer her question.
Ryan shrugged. "I don't know. My ankle was sore last night but it wasn't like this. I can't put any weight on it now." He looked away and bit back a curse as she inspected his swollen foot. In a small voice, he added, "When I jumped out of bed, the cat tripped me and I twisted it again."
Natalia stood back, arms folded, and regarded him. "You need to see a doctor, Ry. That looks bad. Stress fracture, maybe?"
"Maybe." He stared at the floor. "I'm sorry, Nat. I know this wasn't how you planned to spend our day off."
"That's okay." She sat down, threw an arm around him, and squeezed him tight. "I'm sorry, too, Ryan. I love Zöe. I didn't realize she would be a problem for you." Natalia placed her head on Ryan's shoulder and they sat like that for some time. Finally, she turned to her boyfriend. On seeing his face, she shook her head. "Your eyes look awful, Ry. You have any eye drops?"
"At home," Ryan said, closing his eyes. The pain in his ankle was wearing on him, and he was starting to feel nauseous. "I think I need to go to the ER, Nat. Can you help me get dressed?"
Her eyes widened at his vulnerable admission and she began to scurry around the room, digging into his duffel bag after she dressed herself. He tried not to notice the mess she was making of his neatly packed clothes. "Here," she said, throwing a pair of jeans and a dress shirt in his direction.
He caught the shirt one-handed and put it on, but let the pants fall to the bed. "Jeans are a bad idea," he said, frowning. "Maybe sweats?"
Natalia chewed her lip. "I have a pair of Nick's around here someplace."
"Perfect," Ryan spoke with a touch of anger. "When we cut the left leg open, maybe the evil will drain out."
She rolled her eyes but got the sweatpants from her closet anyway and handed them to him. "It's either this or your pajamas." He studied the offending item with a puzzled look on his face. At his unspoken question, she replied, "I wore them over my clothes the last time I painted the apartment."
He stared down at the paint-splattered grey sweats with a hole in one knee and quirked an eyebrow at her, a gesture she ignored. She helped him to ease the left leg of the sweats over his injured foot, a process that was clearly painful, despite his best efforts to hide it. "Maybe we should wrap your ankle before we go," she suggested.
Ryan shook his head. "Let's just go. Can you bring me my keys and my contacts? They're in my backpack."
After a few minutes of intense rummaging - during which Ryan again tried to ignore the chaos his girlfriend was causing to his carefully-ordered life - Natalia handed him the keys and a small plastic case with some hesitancy. "Ryan, have you seen your eyes?" At his quick shake of the head, she returned with a hand mirror. "I don't think you should put your contacts in when your eyes look like that."
Ryan took the mirror and frowned unhappily at his blurry reflection. The whites of his eyes were practically pink. He had to admit, she had a point. The last thing he needed was for his contacts - especially his expensive, specially modified right lens - to become saturated with cat dander.
He handed the mirror back to her and shoved the contact lens case into his pocket. "You'll have to drive then. I'm seeing two of everything."
She tossed the mirror on the bathroom counter - narrowly missing seven years of bad luck when it didn't break - and gave him an amused smile. "Ryan, you weren't driving anyway."
He didn't return the smile. "I've got you boxed in, remember? I have to move my car. Unless you learned to drive stick overnight."
Natalia groaned. "Why didn't you bring the Hummer?" she complained.
Ryan didn't bother to answer. Taking a departmental vehicle home was perfectly acceptable when you were working late on a case, not so great for your day off. Ryan's compact car - which barely fit two people - was parked directly behind Natalia's in the driveway, effectively blocking her exit.
"I'll call Eric," Natalia decided, reaching for her cell phone.
"You are not calling Delko!" Ryan bellowed. He wiped the sweat from his brow and shivered.
She eyed him with a determined set to her jaw. "Ryan, have you got a better idea? You're not looking so good and I'm going to need help getting you to the car anyway. Do you want me to call a bus?" she said, using their slang term for an ambulance.
Ryan set his lips in a thin line. "You want to broadcast to the whole department that we're dating?"
She threw her hands in the air. "Fine! What do you want me to do?"
"Help me up."
Somehow, the two of them managed to hobble - slowly, and with several rest stops - toward the driveway. Ryan was sweaty, shaking, and miserable by the time she deposited him in the driver's seat of his small car.
He put his hands to his face, massaged his temples, and tried to take a deep, calming breath. It was no use. He couldn't do this. The driveway was sloped, necessitating use of the brake, and there was no way he could push in the clutch with his injured ankle. He wasn't in any condition to teach Natalia how to do it. There had to be some other way - I must be missing something! - but he just couldn't come up with anything. His foot throbbed in pain from being jostled and he was having a hard time thinking clearly. Lost in his misery, it was quite a while before he realized that Natalia was on the phone.
"... really appreciate it," she was saying. "Thanks."
He narrowed his gaze after she hung up. "Who was that?"
"Your ride. Give me your keys. I'm going to go to your apartment and get some of your things so you can stay with me for awhile. I'll meet you at the hospital."
He openly gaped at her. "But -" We are so not ready for this!
She threw her hands up and let out a gusty sigh. "Ryan, be reasonable! You can barely walk on flat ground. Your apartment's up two flights of stairs."
He nodded and tried to concentrate as he handed over his keys. "Okay. You know what I like to wear to work. Get me a few more pairs of pajamas. My robe. Some pants with wide legs or sweats. My glasses are on the dresser in the bedroom. Grab all of my allergy stuff from the medicine cabinet. Water the plants." He locked eyes with her. "And feed Henry."
"Henry?"
"My pet rat."
Natalia shuddered and all of the color drained from her face. "You're kidding me, right?"
Her boyfriend shook his head. "His food's on the counter by the cage in the living room ... you can just drop it in." Ryan's eyes closed; he had begun wincing between each breath. "Make sure ... he's got water."
Natalia rubbed his arm soothingly. "They'll be here soon."
He cracked his eyes open. "My taxi?"
"Eric and Calleigh."
Ryan dropped his head on the steering wheel in frustration, accidentally honking the horn. "Great. Kill me now."
Author's note: I had already written Wrong Number before I saw Ryan's ground floor condo in 8x23 "Time Bomb." So, I decided to keep him in the third floor apartment that I gave him in my earlier story.
