Saturday is, for some reason, typically the day that I'm in the worst mood. I think the stress of the week catches up with me and makes me unusually lazy and irritable. So, it does nothing but makes matters worse when Teddy shows up on my doorstep, unannounced like always. And, like always, I invite him inside.
So much for getting him out of my head.
As much as I love Teddy in theory, actually having him around pisses me off the majority of the time. We sit down at the kitchen table.
"I was just about to start making dinner. How about you show me how to make fancy Italian food?" I suggest.
He grimaces—not a good sign. "Look, Bri, I sort of… quit that job."
"It's been two weeks!" I cry in exasperation.
"Two and a half…"
"Teddy Remus Lupin," I scold, while realizing vaguely that I wouldn't have expected anything more of him than this.
"Cooking isn't my passion," he defends himself weakly.
"Oh, well, what's your passion this week?" I ask sardonically.
"I'd like to be a musician. A recording artist.
I couldn't force myself to have any kind of reaction to that if I tried. Why do I so often feel like his disappointed mother? My face still blank, I say, "Are you here to ask me to join your band or something?"
"Nah, I'd definitely be a solo artist."
My deadpan routine slips. "Have you ever even played an instrument in your life?"
"I just bought a guitar this morning." His eyes are bright but I feel none of his excitement. "With the money I made working at Il Giardino."
"Oh, of course—a guitar. Instead of, oh, I don't know—paying rent?!"
"My Muggle landlord believes that I've paid him on time every month I've been there, but he keeps gambling away the money, poor bloke." Teddy winks, obviously proud of himself.
This time I'm serious: I can't do this anymore. "Why don't you just be a male model?" I mutter, half-jokingly.
Teddy's face very clearly conveys a life-altering epiphany. Oh, dear Merlin…
"Bri, you're a genius!" He scoops me up into an unexpected bear hug and then drops me back down. Then he rushes out of my house, apparently to pursue his newfound calling. Bloody hell.
Later that night, after a lonely and very un-Italian dinner, Des returns from his Ministry job and Eli from wherever she was all day.
"Bri, we got an all-nighter tonight," she says before she's fully in the door.
"Are you kidding?! What do these people have against advance warning?"
She shrugs and waits for me to get ready to leave. Des curls up on the couch with the TV remote and a bag of chips… taunting me as I wrench myself from the house.
"Okay, Des, we'll be back in the morning," Eli calls.
"Kay."
"Don't throw a party while we're gone."
"Ew. I hate parties."
I smile at him and he returns it sympathetically. "Have fun with your chips, Des. See ya."
We Apparate into St. Mungo's, pass through the lax night time security and head up to the ER. On the way there, we see a light on in a room down the hall. Always being ones for snooping, we peeked into the occupied room. I feel Eli tense beside me as we see Rafa sitting by Stephanie's bed, making little sparks and puffs of colored smoke with his wand that he hid cleverly up his sleeve. She giggles, completely enthralled.
"Well, adios, kiddo," he says to her, patting her blond head. "Buenas noches."
"Buenas noches," she echoes.
"Hasta mañana." When he stands up he sees the two of us just as Eli tries to flee the scene. I grab her wrist.
"Eli, grow up," I hiss, yanking her into the room.
Rafa seems less relaxes now as he stands straighter and his smile tightens. "Oh, Steph, these are my amigas, Bri and Eli. They're doctors here, too."
"Hola," she says brightly.
"Hola," Eli and I reply.
"Doctor Rafa's been teaching me Spanish," she says, nodding importantly.
"Un poco," he says, smiling fondly at the girl.
Eli fidgets with the sleeves of her robes, her eyes fixed on the ground. As Rafa tells Stephanie what 'un poco' means, I whisper to Eli, "Don't be a baby."
He tucks the girl in, promises to come back first thing in 'la mañana,' and turns off the light, but not before creating a magical night light: a perfectly safe floating flame that hovers in the corner.
The door to her room has barely been shut when Eli gushes, "I'm so sorry, Rafa. I was a jerk and I was wrong. What you do is really important and I couldn't do it."
I take a few steps away, pretending to be fascinated by a sign prohibiting visitors from using magic, while they quickly and quietly make up. Once Rafa leaves, Eli and I continue our journey to the ER.
"You think we'll get a real Hinkypunk attack tonight?" she wonders aloud. "Or will nothing happens and we'll lie to Des about it?"
"Remember what you just said about being a jerk?"
"Fine…"
For the first hour or so, the night seems to be on a similar course as my first uneventful night shift. We chat, or at least takes turns talking about ourselves. Eli overanalyzes something Wright said to her yesterday, and I perform my typical rant about Teddy. I practically have it scripted. Then, somehow, we both get bored of the competing narcissism game, and we're quiet for a while.
"I'm gonna run to the bathroom," Eli says. "Think you can hold down the fort till I get back?"
I roll my eyes in answer, hoping that something will happen in the next few minutes that will prove my competency.
Seemingly in answer to my wish, the door bangs open about thirty seconds later. Startled, I leap to my feet. The receptionist ushers in a tall young man who's clutching his ear. Blood is running between his fingers.
"Splinching?" I ask as he sits down on one of the cots. The receptionist asks where 'Reddor' is and I ignore her until she leaves.
"Uh, yeah," he admits. "Kinda embarrassing."
I smile as I wash my hands. "Can I take a look?"
He removes his hand. A small chunk of his ear is missing. It's pretty mild; I know I can handle this. By the time Eli comes back, he'll be all healed up and then I can exaggerate the severity of the injury…
The door opens again.
"Oh,wow! What do we have here?" That was fast. Eli struts in and grins flirtatiously at the bloke.
Of course, I was too busy saving his life to notice how attractive he is. Eli is so much less professional. No big deal.
She turns to pick up her wand that she had left on the counter. I act on impulse.
"Confundo!"
Eli turns around slowly, her blue eyes glazed over. She starts wandering around the emergency room, looking at her reflection in shiny things. The patient looks shocked and his ear is still bleeding.
Okay, maybe I'm not so professional either.
"What was that about?" he asks, laughing nervously.
"It's, uh… kind of a long story. Let's see about this ear." My face is burning as I hand him a vial of potion. I begin cleaning the wound, siphoning off the blood.
"I'm Sean, by the way," he says.
"Bri."
Nice to meet you." He pauses. "So about that long story…"
"Oh, it's not—"
"You just confunded another doctor when my life is possibly on the line." He grins up at me. "Don't I have a right to know why you would jeopardize my well being?"
"Oh, fine." I sigh and mutter the first healing spell. "She's my best friend, really. But she's… insufferable sometimes. She's way better than me at pretty much everything—and she knows it. I just wanted to prove to myself that I can do this."
I finish the healing spells, muttering them softly. His ear looks as good as new.
"Thanks," Sean says. "Feels great."
My hand's still on the side of his face. I rub my fingertips against the new skin, shiny and pink. He doesn't say anything—just continues looking up at me.
"So, uh…" Des coughs awkwardly. "What happened next?"
I blush. "I sorta ended up snogging him right there in the ER."
Des groans. "Is that ethical?"
"Probably not. But it was fun and no one is ever going to find out, right?"
"Eli?"
"She thinks she fell asleep in the bathroom."
Des shakes his head. "I can't believe you did that…"
"Confunded her?"
"Well, that too, but… are you really that sex-starved that you threw yourself at some idiot who splinched his ear half off?"
"In my defense, he was totally coming onto me."
A/N: Thanks for reading! Sorry about the shortness of this one… they all turn out to be fewer words than I predict they will be! Anyway, please leave a review :)