Chapter 10

It was Friday evening and Thirteen was not out and about, jumping from club to club and downing endless rounds of martinis offered by strangers. Instead, she was standing in front of her bathroom mirror, putting on make-up and fixing her hair as she waited for her pretend-girlfriend to pick her up for some party that both of them didn't even want to go to. But she couldn't do anything about it – she had promised Cameron already, and it would be an asshole move to cancel on her. Besides, Remy would make sure that they wouldn't stay too long. It was actually getting kind of ridiculous... all these events that she busied herself with in the past few weekends. So much for this 'girlfriend' facade being only a one-time thing. It clearly hasn't. For a person who was single, she really didn't feel single.

When Thirteen finally heard a couple of soft knocks on her door, she swiftly grabbed her leather jacket and went to open it. There Allison was, standing on the other side of the threshold, dressed in a pair of skinny jeans and a cute blouse. She always managed to look effortlessly stunning, whether in casual clothes or her ER scrubs.

"Hey."

"Hi."

It took a whole lot of effort for the bisexual not to check out the attractive woman standing in front of her. She cleared her throat. "Come in. I just have to grab my keys and wallet really quick."

Allison followed her friend into the living room as she looked around to scrutinize the apartment. It was surprisingly modern and cosy, and quite tidy too. "Nice place," she complimented, watching the brunette put on her sleek jacket.

"Thanks."

After grabbing her wallet and digging out her apartment keys from a drawer, Thirteen was ready.

"Shall we go?"

"This party better be good."

Cameron looked up from her steering wheel to the passenger's side and quirked a brow. "Please, don't expect anything," she deadpanned.

Remy laughed. "Promise we won't stay for too long?"

"Promise."

After a while, the younger woman turned to look out of the window, momentarily hypnotized as she watched the outside world fly by in a blur. It was strangely comforting...to be sitting in a car with Allison while she drove in silence, not having to think or talk about work at the hospital, or anything specific for that matter. It always happened during car rides – that sense of timelessness that occurs as you are in between destinations... It always managed to set Remy at ease.

Always the attentive one, the ER attending eventually took heed of her colleague's quietness. After a moment, she asked softly, "Something on your mind?"

Thirteen glanced at her companion curiously, then turned back to the window. "It's nothing," came a simple response.

The best thing about Cameron is that she doesn't pry. If it was something that Remy wanted to share, then she'd be more than happy to listen. But if not, then it's none of her business. Allison understood that some people needed their own space every once in a while, and may take some time to open up to others. Thirteen was definitely one of those people, and she was aware of that.

But that didn't stop Cameron from wondering. She took a brief glance at the younger doctor, who was still transfixed by the moving pictures on the car window. Many times, Allison wondered what went on in her colleague's head – what she thought and how she thought. To be honest, Allison was still having a bit of trouble trying to figure Remy out. There always seemed to be something more about the younger woman, hiding underneath the cool, composed exterior. Allison could only hope that in time, she would be able to get to know all there is to know about Remy Hadley.

"Okay... I think this is where he lives..."

"You think?"

Allison rolled her eyes at her companion. She carefully parked her car at the curb, and the both of them got out. "It should be that row house over there," the blonde pointed. After locking up the car, she instinctively took hold of Remy's arm without the slightest hint of thought. The younger woman simply let Cameron drag her towards Colin's house.

"Okay... when you see me scratching my ear, it means that I want to leave," Thirteen muttered as they walked up the front steps. Allison chuckled, shot her a look, then proceeded to ring the doorbell.

"We're only staying for half an hour. Don't worry."

"Who said I was worried?."

They turned to each other and locked eyes, both sporting amused expressions on their faces. At that moment, the door flung open. "Allison! So nice to see you again!" Colin was clearly excited to greet them.

"Hi Colin..."

"Come in, come in!"

The two doctors followed the short man as he showed them into his house. They silently hoped that the evening wouldn't prove to be as dreadful as they apprehended.

As it turned out, the evening was as dreadful as they had anticipated, and probably even more so. Once they were invited into the house, they were surprisingly introduced to Colin's wife – a quiet, nervous-looking woman who seemed to be the stereotypical homemaker. Everything in the house was oddly in place, with flowery curtains and other elaborately embellished decorations adorning each room. It was homey, but there was just something off about it that neither women could put a finger on... After having shown them around the house, they introduced Allison and Remy to all of their other guests – which was actually not a lot of people. Apparently, a couple more friends were supposed to come, but they "couldn't make it", as Colin explained. He introduced the doctors to Bill, a tall, stoic and depressed looking man who lived next door; Colleen and Allen, co-workers at the law firm; David, a loud and boisterous, portly man who happened to snort a lot when laughing; Janet, David's wife; and finally, Katie, a perky and excessively feminine woman who spoke a few octaves too high.

When they were done with all the formalities, Colin and his wife offered the two doctors some drinks and had them sit down on the living room sofa to continue chatting with their other friends. Remy spent most of her time drinking and eating the finger foods served on the coffee table, speaking only when she absolutely had to. Allison, however, wasn't so lucky. Colin managed to drag her into a very long (and frankly, dull) conversation about their middle-school, which the blonde really couldn't care less about. David and Allen talked loudly about football while their wives exchanged cooking and baking recipes. Bill, the neighbor, sat idly in one of the recliners as he listened and grunted every once in a while, muttering something incomprehensible under his breath. And Katie... that twenty-something year old blonde, had been finding Thirteen extremely interesting as soon as they were introduced. Eventually, she had moved to sit beside her on the couch, asking random, and sometimes irrelevant questions that had to do with the brunette. Remy obviously took a hint – her gaydar wasn't that bad – but she found this Katie girl to be more than a little irksome. There was the brushing of arms, and hands flirtatiously patting her on the thigh... as if the blonde woman sitting on the other side of Remy wasn't present. But she couldn't do anything about it. They were at a friend's house and it wouldn't make too good of an impression if she outright acted like an ass. Poor Thirteen began inching closer and closer towards Cameron, trying everything from mentioning her 'girlfriend' every other second to taking hold of her hand. Unfortunately, Allison was too busy responding to Colin's endless sea of questions to notice what was going on behind her. The brunette had eventually given up on her 'scratching ear' signal because she would've scratched her entire ear off and her friend still wouldn't notice anyway.

"Wow, I really like your jacket," Katie cooed while she trailed a hand down the length of Remy's arm.

"Er... thanks..." She turned to her companion, who was still talking to Colin with an unexcited expression on her face.

"I think it makes you look hot."

Remy widened her eyes. "Um, hold that thought..." She tightened her grip on Allison's hand and leaned in close to whisper urgently into her ear. "Code red... Time to go."

Cameron turned around just in time to see Katie practically clinging onto Remy's other arm. 'What the hell does she think she's doing?' She knew that Remy wasn't her real girlfriend, but they were supposed to be a couple right now. She felt a surge of anger as she eyed the blonde who was shamelessly hitting on Thirteen even when it was made absolutely clear that they were together. 'The nerve of her!' Allison was mostly angry because of how rude Katie was being, but another part of her – the part that wanted to physically yank her off of Remy – was driven by another reason, one that she couldn't exactly pinpoint at the moment. But one thing was for certain: there was no way in hell that she's going to sit by and watch a girl slobber all over her friend. She reciprocated the iron grip that the brunette had on her hand and made a motion to check her watch for the time. "Oh gosh I forgot..." she announced somewhat loudly.

"What is it?" Colin asked with a hint of concern.

She looked up at him apologetically. "I'm so sorry Colin, but I'm afraid we have to get going..."

"Oh... So soon?" He looked genuinely disappointed.

"A friend of ours is performing at a bar downtown, and we promised we'd be there to support him," Thirteen interjected, saving the blonde from thinking up a good explanation. "Sorry that we can't stay longer..." She tried her best to look what she said.

"Yeah, he really wanted us to be there for him..." Allison added. She turned to shoot Katie a look before pulling Remy along as she stood up from the couch. The blonde girl's expression was one of dissatisfaction, but really, the two doctors couldn't care less.

"I'm really glad we got to catch up though, Colin," Allison added.

Her middle-school classmate smiled. "Me too. We should get together again sometime!"

"Definitely," Thirteen muttered, attempting to sound at least a little sincere.

"It was nice meeting you all," Cameron said to the rest of the people in the room. They bid them farewell as quick as possible and headed for the front door with Colin seeing them out.

"Thank you so much for tonight Colin. It was...fun."

"Yeah, it was great. Thanks for inviting us."

They didn't hesitate to get into Cameron's car. After waving goodbye for the umpteenth time, they finally drove off, leaving Colin's house behind them at long last.

"Oh my god, that girl was all over you!"

"I know!"

They were driving down the road, both feeling completely relieved to have finally left that 'party'. Cameron didn't think it'd be that bad... but it was, and she felt terrible for having dragged her poor, unsuspecting colleague along.

"I kept sending you the signal, but you wouldn't look my way!"

Allison laughed. "Sorry! Colin just wouldn't stop talking!"

"That Katie almost clawed my arm off. I could've died back there, you know."

The ER attending rolled her eyes at the exaggeration. Turned out that she was the one who had to save Thirteen from the big scary lesbian. "Well, you made it in one piece didn't you?"

"Yeah, but my brain is damaged by the boredom you made me endure," Thirteen deadpanned.

The blonde giggled a bit, then turned sincerely apologetic. "Remy, I'm so sorry I dragged you into all of that."

Her colleague simple rested her hands behind her head and leaned back in her seat. "You owe me, Doctor Cameron."

Allison nodded. "Yes, yes I do."

"This evening had been nothing but painful." Oh, now she was being melodramatic.

But Allison had thought of a plan to make it up to her. She glanced at the digital clock on the dashboard and saw that it was still somewhat early. "Okay, how about I treat you to dinner and a movie?"

"Hmm..." That actually sounded promising.

"There's a really good one out. I think we'll be able to catch the nine o'clock picture."

"Tonight?"

"When else?"

Thirteen sat still for a moment, as if trying to process what she heard. Cameron had just offered to prolong their outing together. A part of the brunette felt excited and truly wanted to spend some more time with her friend. But there was always another part of her – the uncertain part – that still held doubts about their growing friendship and questioned whether or not this was a good idea in the long run.

The younger woman became so consumed in her thoughts that she forgot to answer her companion. "Oh come on. I owe you," Allison simply said as she looked at her with a smile. Remy met her gaze and immediately knew she lost the fight. She hated that she couldn't ever say no to her.

"Alright..."

Allison giggled at her colleague's surrender as she continued driving. She thoroughly enjoyed Thirteen's company and was delighted to hang out with her again without the pressure of putting up an act for an audience. It was just going to be the two of them.

Remy sighed quietly and looked out the window again at the blurred city streets. She shouldn't feel too worried, right? There's nothing wrong with becoming good friends with Cameron... It's not as if the blonde wasn't willing to spend time with her; she insisted to even.

As the two doctors fell into casual conversation once again, Remy decided to push her insecurities to the back her her mind – at least for now.

- end chapter -

First of all, "All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental." (Colin's other guests were just added in for funsies. I couldn't resist including the Katie person. :D)

Remy is so whipped.