My sincerest apologies for my lateness. I had a bit of an existential, quarter-life crisis at the turn of the New Year and then I got sick and… well, enough excuses. I had to coax the Justin muse back, which was a difficult task to say the least. I forced myself through this one and veered from my original plan (as I usually do). Anyway, I hope I'm back and up to no good at a more consistent rate.
Thank you all for your love and patience. I'm still a bit overwhelmed with this story, but the reviews and PM's I've been getting more than make up for it!
Jack grabbed up the unopened envelopes on Justin's dining room table. He couldn't help but notice they weren't addressed to Justin. "You know, stealing mail is a felony."
"Shut the fuck up and help me get this done!" Justin hissed, defensively. "It's my property, anyway. Doesn't matter whose name is on it."
"I'm trying, but we probably should have started this yesterday if you wanted the house to be presentable for your mom." He looked up from the pile of Victoria's mail to see Justin throwing a plate in the kitchen. "Jesus, man. This Victoria girl's really getting to you, huh?"
"She's not -" He began, slamming hand down on his counter before he clawed at the Formica until his knuckles turned white. "She's avoiding me, Jack."
Jack sighed, placing the pile of mail on the counter beside Justin's hand. "Maybe it's just me, but she seems like one of those nice girls. If you want to get to her, you have to pour on the charm."
"I can't shut off my charm." Justin scoffed in response.
"Yeah, and how far has that gotten you? I'm just saying, blindly coming onto her obviously isn't getting you anywhere. You said she moved her by herself, right? She obviously isn't going home for Thanksgiving. You should invite her over tonight for dinner. Nothing says 'I'm not going use you for sex' like having Thanksgiving dinner with you and your mom." He chuckled.
"She went to work this morning." Justin muttered.
"Well, she has to come back sometime, right? Save her some left overs or some shit. I don't know. I'm trying to help you here, bro."
Suddenly, Justin got a wicked idea. The thought was emanated in his evil grin. "You really want to help me?" He asked. "Stay still."
"Earth to Tori. Hello?"
"Huh?" Tori shook her head, waking herself from the trance like state that she had been in while filing folders.
"I asked if you had the discharge papers for room 17. I can't find them and they've been waiting." Jessica, a fellow RN, asked.
"They're over here." Tori reached over the stack of manila folders beside her, handing the top one to Jessica. She stopped to shove the rest of them into a filing cabinet and pushed herself off of her knees to stand again on her aching legs.
"Thanks. Did you sleep at all last night?" She asked, looking concerned.
"Barely." Tori replied. It was the truth. Her landlord, Justin, kept having people over at all hours of the night and Tori had always been a light sleeper. Even the two stories and parking lot between her apartment and Justin's couldn't quell that trait. The fact she was already up, restlessly lying in bed and thinking about him, didn't help matters either.
Admittedly, it had been almost a week since their last encounter and she still couldn't get him out of her head. That smug look on his face when he came onto her in her apartment was haunting her despite her best efforts. He was haunting her every waking thought. She took this as a sign that she needed to avoid him like the plague.
She made every effort to leave her apartment only when she needed to. When she did, she ran straight to her car and didn't dawdle. When she returned, she made sure the lot was empty, grabbed her things, and took off for the stairs in a near sprint. She was beginning to think she should begin looking for a new apartment.
"Still not used to big city life?" Jessica smirked.
"I guess that's it. Stress from moving... new job and all."
"I know the best cure for stress." She said, waggling her eyebrows. Tori only laughed in response. "You didn't have anywhere to go for Thanksgiving?"
"No, I traded shifts with Linsey so she could be with her family." Tori shrugged, hoping they could change topics. It had been manageable in the emergency department because of the holiday, but that meant she and the rest of the nurses had little to do but talk.
Her prayers were answered when a few moments later, Hilda, one of the LPN's, came running around the corner. "Tori!"
"Where's the fire?" Jessica laughed.
"There's some guy in trauma asking for you, Tori." The girl explained. "He's already screamed at the girl in triage and isn't taking no for an answer. Can you just come to shut him up?"
"He's asking for me?" Tori scrunched her face in concern.
"Well, I assume he means you." She shrugged. "Can you just hurry? They should be out of x-ray's soon and I promised you would assist them."
"I'm not a trauma doctor." Tori muttered.
She and Jessica followed the LPN down the hall and through a few corridors until they arrived in trauma. Hilda stopped just in front of one of the rooms and moved aside.
"Fucking shit isn't stopping. You're some kind of stupid, aren't you?" A familiar male voice yelled. Tori didn't have to move the curtain to figure out who was behind it.
"Justin." She scoffed as she entered the room. Avoiding Justin, it seemed, was going to be more difficult than she thought.
She noted, upon entering, that he wasn't the patient. He stood just behind his partner in crime, Jack, pacing across the tiled floor. His friend was teary-eyed, holding a blood soaked towel to his right hand.
"It's about fucking time, Vicky!" He snapped.
"Hey!" Jessica said, trying to defend Tori.
"It's alright, Jessica." The blonde excused. "Can you get me the chart?"
Jessica looked stunned for a moment at Tori's request, but acquiesces all the same, grabbing the folder from a box on the wall and handing it over.
"Thanks." She nods at her co-worker, opening the folder and glancing at the information. "What exactly happened?"
"What's it look like, Vicky?" He sneered. "Genius here stabbed himself in the hand." Justin announced.
"On purpose?" Tori asked.
"No, I didn't fucking do it on purpose!" Jack finally spoke. "I was trying to help out with dinner and the knife slipped."
"It hasn't stopped bleeding since. Is that normal?" Justin asked, seemingly more tame.
"Can you move it?" Tori asked Jack, ignoring Justin completely.
"Yeah, just hurts." He muttered.
"That's normal. Nothing's broken. Can you get me a pressure cuff?" She asked aloud. Jessica grabbed the device off the wall and handed it over so that Tori could wrap it around the man's lower arm, tightly. She compressed it until it tightened around his arm and then took the towel away. Blood spurted out of the artery between Jack's middle and ring fingers and shot across the floor before the pressure cuff could slow his blood flow.
"Jesus Christ!" Justin hissed.
"You punctured an artery, Jack." She said simply, smirking at Justin's disgusted reaction.
"That's not major, right?" He asked.
"You'll need stitches." She sighed.
"I prepped a laceration tray." Hilda said, pushing in a cart with a metal tray on top of it. "I have to go check on the next room. I'll be right back." Hilda left the room with Jessica close behind. The closed the curtain behind them, leaving Tori all alone.
"You might wanna leave the room if blood gets to you." She told Justin, slipping on a pair of purple latex gloves.
"I'm alright." He insisted, leaning against the shelves behind him in the room. "This doesn't count as my favor, by the way."
"Yeah?" She laughed. "And why not? What makes your legal obligations any less important than mine?"
"This isn't for me. Jack's the one who almost chopped his finger off."
"Hey!" Jack said.
Tori pulled out a stool and sat down to begin the sutures on Jack's right hand. "You know, you may want to see a specialist. There might be nerve damage. I've never seen anything like this. Usually when knives slip, they don't go straight through someone's hand." She mused, eyeing Justin suspiciously. "I'll have to stitch the artery, too."
"Must be my lucky day." Jack muttered, hissing loudly as she made the first stitch. "God damn, you can't warn me first?"
"It wont hurt any less." She hummed.
"You need to work on your bedside manner." He grunted to which Justin chuckled. Tori couldn't help but glare back at her landlord as he crossed his arms and stared down at her as she worked.
Tori was nearly finished, trying her best to hurry and rid herself of this awkward silence, when Justin cleared his throat. "So, about my favor…"
"All done." Tori announced, cleaning up the stitches. She removed her gloves and then removed the cuff from Jack's arm. "That makes nine." She said. "You'll have to have the outer ones removed in a week but the inner ones should dissolve on their own. We'll see what it looks like when you come back."
"Can I get something for the pain?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, I can get the doctor to prescribe some mild pain killers for you." She stood, moving the rolling tray. "I'll be right back." She said.
As soon as she moved, Jessica grabbed her hand. "What was that in there?"
"That would be my landlord's son."
"He's really hot, Tori." She squealed.
"You know, if you're into the bad boy, asshole-type."
"Sounds perfect to me. Hilda and I had to leave the room, there was so much pent up sexual tension."
"Are you kidding me?"
"No, seriously. What's he talking about 'a favor'?"
"It's nothing." Tori blushed.
"Nothing my ass. You should definitely do him a favor."
"Jess, I am not –"
"You're the one who was complaining earlier about stress." Jessica shrugged. "If I were you, I'd take him up on the offer." She laughed, turning and leaving her there in the hall to be consumed by her own thoughts.
By the time Tori returned home late that evening, she was far past exhausted and ready to collapse.
She'll admit that she chickened out after her conversation with Jessica and gave the doctor's prescription, along with the discharge papers, to Hilda to bring to Jack and Justin. She just couldn't deal with her feelings or the things that Jessica had said.
Tori was almost across the parking lot when she heard Justin shout her name. She quickly muddled through her options; make a run for the stairs, or turn to face him. She didn't want to seem anymore childish than she already did, so she chose the latter. He walked up to her, handing her a stack of papers. "I uh –" He began, pausing to bite the skin on his thumb nail as he crossed his arm over his chest. "Mail man put these in the wrong box."
"Thanks." She muttered. She noticed his left arm was tucked behind his back, awkwardly.
They stood in awkward silence for another moment before Justin finally spoke. "I noticed you weren't home for Thanksgiving. I was gonna ask you to have dinner with us, but you never came back." He smirked, triumphantly at her.
"No, something came up." She lied, biting her lower lip and looking down at her shoes. "I had another patient. How's he doing, by the way?"
"How's who doing?"
"I seem to recall giving someone stitches earlier today." She mused, sardonically.
"Oh, he's good." He said, tersely. "Anyway, I saved you a plate." He shifted the arm that he held behind his back to reveal a plate covered in aluminum foil.
"Oh." Was all she could reply. "You didn't have to do that."
"I know, just figured it would be another favor you owe me." He nudged her arm, beckoning her to take the plate. "I plan on cashing in soon."
"How's that?" She said, honestly amused with his cockiness.
"You're going out with me next weekend."
"Really now?"
"Yeah, after you left, your friend came to talk to me. She said you just needed a little coaxing. She also told me that next weekend was your weekend off." He smirked.
"Did she now?" Tori growled. She had a few choice words for Jessica tomorrow during their shift.
"So, what do you say, Vicky? Will you let me take you out?"
The word 'yes' slipped out before she could catch herself.