Written for the 'in bed' prompt
Title: Better Late Than Never
Alice peered through the small glass panel. Matthew had his back to the door but she assumed he was awake; a newspaper was propped against his leg which now sported a white plaster cast.
She couldn't put this off any longer. She'd found every excuse under the sun, and then some, to avoid visiting. She'd even lingered at the nurses' station today, procrastinating further. Upon mentioning her medical degree, the matron had merely rolled her eyes and reminded Alice about the strictness of visiting hours.
She had no idea what she was going to say. There was no case to talk about; the Club owners were safely tucked away in Pentridge. Billy Bentley had somehow talked her way out of an arrest. Alice was loath to introduce the glamorous blonde as a topic of conversation, however.
Perhaps she could greet him with a joke to break the ice? That one about hospital beds and the slab in the morgue? No…
Taking a deep breath, she entered the room.
"Alice!"
Before she could return his warm smile, she saw a wheelchair parked beside the bed – ready and waiting.
"You're back in that?" she blurted out as a greeting.
He shrugged. "You're a doctor."
What was he implying? "I'm not an orthopedic surgeon."
He sighed. "We should talk."
"Why?"
"Why not," he countered.
As she flushed with guilt, he wrestled around in the bed, rearranging himself against a pillow and folding The Age into a neat pile on the floor. "There's room in the bed now," he announced.
Frantic, she spun around searching for a chair. There was one near the window-
"Here," he said, patting the cleared space alongside him. "Sit."
And, for some inexplicable reason, she obeyed this soft command.
"That's better," he murmured.
And, shockingly, she nodded with agreement.