The next morning went by quickly, as the stream of Jack's doctors all came into see him and ordered more tests to be done. Dr. North beamed at him, carefully patting his shoulder and smiling down at him.
"You're making excellent progress Jack, excellent progress," he said, nodding. "At this rate we will have you home long before Christmas!"
Jack smiled at him, giving nod as the tall man left the room and the petite day nurse stepped forward with the tub of vials to draw blood. She smiled at him, her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and her glasses perched high on her nose.
"Just a couple tubes," she said. "Won't take me but a minute."
He nodded again, turning to look at Elsa with a frown. "What day is it? How long was I out?"
She smiled at him, leaning forward to take his other hand.
"It's November 3rd, they had you knocked out for a little over two weeks," she told him, rubbing her thumb over the back of his hand.
He nodded again, as if slowly processing everything that had happened to him, and looked back over at the nurse taking his blood. She smiled up at him again.
"Almost done," the nurse said, picking up a square of alcohol to swab the port she'd just taken blood from clean before stepping away. She gathered her things and left the room, Jack still looking mildly confused as he looked down at the blankets on his lap.
"Something happens at the beginning of November," he said, looking back at her. "I'm sorry, I get the feeling I'm forgetting something important."
She gave him another smile, opening her mouth to answer when another knock sounded at the door. They both turned, seeing the small form of Dr. Layug walking into the room, smiling at Jack as well.
"Hey, Jack, good to see you awake," he said, holding out his hand to shake. Jack smiled, and shook it back. "I'm Joe Layug, I'm who put your leg back together."
Jack blew out a breath as Dr. Layug pulled the blankets out from around his left leg, shaking his head when he saw everything again.
"I gotta admit, that was quite the shock to wake up to," Jack said, staring down at it.
The doctor grinned, stepping back and grabbing a pair of latex gloves.
"I can imagine," he said, quickly pulling them on and touching around the incision. "Well the incision is looking a lot better, looks like that nasty little infection you had is almost gone."
Jack glanced to his side as he heard Elsa exhale a sigh of relief; he smiled at her before looking back down at his leg and the examination.
"How are you feeling today?" Dr. Layug asked, looking up at him.
Jack shrugged. "Okay, I suppose. Tired, but I'm told that's to be expected after being asleep for so long."
Dr. Layug nodded. "Yeah, you were pretty banged up when you came in here. You look a lot better now, I gotta say. Well, if you feel like you can manage sitting up for about half an hour, I'm going to put in some orders and send you down to radiology. I'd like to get some good images of your leg, specifically your femur. I want to make sure all your new fancy hardware is in the right places."
"Slowly turning me into the six-million-dollar man doc?"
He laughed. "I can try, not sure I'm THAT good though. Hang tight, shouldn't take too long. I blocked a timeslot out already in hopes that you'd be up for it."
Jack nodded, Dr. Layug gave them both a smile and turned to leave the room. Jack smiled, turning his head to Elsa.
"He's a fun little guy," he said. "Kinda bouncy."
Elsa laughed.
He pulled his table tray back over to sit across his lap, picking up the pencil stuck in the crease of the notebook Elsa had had stuck in her purse. He resumed a sketch he had been working on, Elsa returning to her magazine, carefully sticking a post it at the top of a page she wanted to remember.
She jumped a moment later in her chair, glancing worriedly up at Jack as he smacked his hand down on his tray. He scowled down at the blanket as the small cup of water that had been sitting on it flew off and spread over the white woven cloth.
"November 3rd," he said, looking up at her.
She set her magazine aside, stepping around to the other side of the bed and grabbed several paper towels to dab at the mess.
"Yes," she said slowly, looking at him worriedly.
"Yesterday was the 2nd," he said, still looking at her.
She paused, giving him a soft smile. "Yes, it was. And you were getting better, so it was a good day."
He opened his mouth to speak, reaching down for her hand when another knock sounded on the door and two men wearing beige scrubs walked in, smiling at them both.
"Mr. Frost?" one of them said, looking up from a piece of paper. "We're here to take you down to x-ray."
"Okay," Jack said, holding his arms up as the other man pulled the tray out of the way, both men stepping on the bed brakes to unlock it and carefully unplugging cords to take the IV tree with them as well.
"It gets pretty crowded down there," the first man said to Elsa, a note of apology in his voice. "You might want to just stay here, we shouldn't be gone with him very long."
Elsa swallowed, looking down at Jack. "You'll be okay?"
Jack smirked at her. "I'll be fine, I'm sure they won't torture me too much. Just look through more of your magazine."
She smiled, stepping forward and leaning over him to kiss him. "I'll be here when you get back."
The orderlies smiled at her as she stepped back, moving his bed and everything carefully out of the room and down the hall. She glanced around, putting her hands on her thighs with a soft pat before sitting back down; the room seemed eerily larger without the bed in it.
Settling back in, she read through another article, marked another recipe that she wanted to try before there was another knock on the door. Frowning, she looked up; Jack hadn't returned yet and Dr. Layug was the last of the doctors that needed to see him that day.
A couple strolled into the room, a tall dark haired man and a petite blonde walked into the room, the latter smiling brightly at her. Both of them were dressed in khaki pants and dark blue polo shirts emblazoned with the hospital's logo over the right breast pocket. Both were slender, athletically built and carried clipboards.
They both stopped, the man frowning at the empty space where Jack's bed should be. He looked up at her, palm open in confusion.
"Wh-what, where? What the bloody-?" he started, his voice thick with an Australian accent, looking down at his clipboard again. "I had a schedule."
Elsa blinked at him. "They took Jack down to get some x-rays in radiology," she said carefully. "They said it shouldn't be that long."
He scoffed, rolling his eyes. "They always say that. 'Just a quick little thing, be back in twenty minutes. Next thing you know it takes an hour."
The woman beside him smirked, turning her head to scratch her neck to avoid him seeing her grin. He scowled down at his clipboard, flipping the pages a few times.
Elsa glanced down at her watch. "They took him out about fifteen minutes ago, if that helps."
"Bloody hate radiology," the man murmured again, still scowling at his clipboard.
"Here we go, beating a dead horse again. What's got you in such a mood this morning? Your footy team lose yesterday?" the woman said, also speaking with an Australian accent, as she cast a look up at the ceiling before turning to look at Elsa, blonde hair swaying in her ponytail slightly as she struggled not to laugh at her co-worker.
"I'm Naomi," she said, holding her hand out to Elsa. "That, is Hugh. We're here to assess Jack for what he's going to need for P.T., see what we need to focus on, see what exercises we can give him to work on in bed. That sort of thing. But, since he isn't here."
She trailed off, causing Hugh to look up. "You stay here," he told Naomi, pointing to her. "Page me when he comes back, or I'll never keep my schedule for today. I'm going to pop over to the next unit and visit a couple patients there."
Naomi nodded, giving him a mock salute. "Right, yes sir, ai ai mate."
He scowled down at her, his lids half closing as he spun on his heel and left the room, Naomi's chuckling following him. Elsa smiled at her, struggling not to laugh herself.
"Are you two?" she asked, holding her left hand with her own wedding band sparkling on it.
Naomi glanced at her, eyes flitting to her ring and choked on another laugh. "Me and Hugh? Ffff-Heck no, we just work together. Not sure how we ended up in the same hospital but that happens I suppose. He tolerates me, and I give him hell every chance I can. I suppose he loves me in his own way," she said, grinning at Elsa as she same over to lean back against the window.
Elsa giggled, holding up her hands. "Sorry for the assumption."
"Nah, happens a lot. Two Aussies working in the same department, one of them as gorgeous as I am, it's a safe assumption."
Elsa giggled again, shoulders shaking as she watched Naomi beam at her.
"That's some rock you have there," she said, gesturing back to Elsa's hand. "How long have you had that?"
Elsa glanced down briefly before smiling back up, right hand fluttering to cover her left self consciously. "Oh, how long have we been married? 8 years now. We've been together for 13."
Naomi whistled. "You don't look old enough to be an old married couple."
Elsa shrugged. "Started dating in college, just never stopped."
Naomi glanced down at her magazine on the edge of the chair. "And expecting too?"
Elsa nodded. "Yeah, I just entered my fourth month not long ago."
"Well then, we need to get buddy boy up and moving, can't have only you changing the diapers, now can we."
They chatted further, each telling the other about their trips from their homeland to now living in America and what it was like. Each of them bemoaned something that they missed about their hometown, laughing over must haves whenever they visited family, and things they still didn't quite understand about America.
"Drive-thrus for everything! ATMs, Food, liquor, convenience stores!" Naomi said, waving her pen around in the air. "I still can't get over it."
Elsa laughed, nodding. "It's a different culture here, that's for sure."
Naomi sighed, grinning and checked her watch. "Hugh is going to have a fit, you said he'd been gone a quarter hour when we got here?"
Elsa nodded.
"It's already been almost an hour. I bet they are backed up down there. Bloody radiology."
Elsa worried her lower lip, glancing down at her own watch and absentmindedly moving her wedding ring back upright with her thumb.
"So tell me how you got that shiny," she asked, bumping Elsa's shoulder.
"Hmm," Elsa said, looking up at this. "Oh, what do you mean?"
"How did he propose, was it romantic?"
Elsa chuckled. "I think he planned it to be."
"Oh you're laughing, I bet this is a good one. Tell me, I love hearing these stories."
Elsa smiled at her, laughing at bit. "You really want to know?"
Naomi held up a hand, indicating the empty room. "Yes! Come on, god knows how long Radiology is going to take. Might as well get a good story out of it."
"Alright," Elsa said, smiling at her. "Well, Jack and I had been living together for a little while, a pretty nice apartment, that was in the same building as one for my sister. She was in college at the time."
"She had an apartment on her own in college?" Naomi asked, raising a brow.
"We lived there after our parents died. Neither of us wanted to continue living in the house they had bought, so we sold it, and Anna wanted a place of her own. We were lucky enough to find a place that had two apartments open for us."
Naomi nodded, accepting the fact and gestured for her to continue. "Okay, so apartment together."
Elsa nodded. "Yes, living together for awhile while everything with their deaths settled down and things got back to normal. I got a job working at the embassy myself and Jack started work in his studio that he made out of the loft area."
Elsa hurried up the two floor walk up to their apartment, carefully balancing the bag of groceries on her arm as she fished her keys back out of her purse.
"Why do I always put them back in my purse," she muttered, leaning her knee on the doorframe and bringing her bag to sit in top of the bag. She pulled them out, smiling and glanced down at the door, scowling; it was cracked open. She groaned and pushed it open with her foot, her heels tapping on the floor as she hurried into the kitchen and set her bags down.
"Yeah, yeah, I gotta go. Yes, tomorrow. She's home now, I gotta go," she heard Jack saying, frowning slightly as she pulled the loaf of bread and carton of eggs out of the top of the bag, turning to put them away.
He emerged from their bedroom, shoving his phone in his pocket and smiled at her as he hurried over to help her unpack.
"Who was that?" she asked, setting the carton of eggs in the fridge and taking the bag of lunch meat he held out for her.
"Uhh, Jamie," he said, pausing for a moment as he continued to hand her groceries.
She waited for a moment, watching him. "And? Making plans for tomorrow? Tomorrow is Saturday afterall."
"No, no plans. No plans at all," he said, smiling at her, folding up the paper bag and setting it on the counter.
She blinked, brow furrowing. "But you were just saying-"
"Oh, that. No, that wasn't anything. He was just asking about something else," Jack said, rubbing the back of his neck. "You want to go get changed and I'll start on dinner? We can stay in, watch a movie on demand, nice and relaxing?"
She still stared at him, moving her hand to feel his forehead. "You feeling okay?"
"Fine, fine. Super. Just, got a lot done today!" he said, smiling widely at her.
"Okay," she said, slowly stepping away. "Just making sure."
He grinned at her as she turned her head, walking into their room and shedding her heels and skirt for bare feet and yoga pants. She pulled her long hair up into a messy bun, pulling a wide headband on to keep everything mostly intact and pulled on her favorite oversized college tee to cover her top.
She sauntered back out to see Jack carefully setting the table, smiling up at her as she came back out and reaching back over to the counter to grab a glass of wine to hold out to her. She took it, eyeing him suspiciously.
"It's not my birthday, it's not our anniversary. What did you do?"
"Nothing! Nothing," he said, dumping pasta into a boiling pot of water. "I just, I want you to have a nice evening. Stop being so suspicious and just enjoy, okay?"
She relaxed, slowing, sipping on her wine as she told him about her day, upcoming plans and events for the coming weeks. She asked about an art project that he was hoping to get selection for, wondering if they had contacting him back as she watched him prepare their dishes and set them on the table with a flourish.
"I'm impressed," she said, shuffling over to the table. "You should do this more often."
He chuckled, leaning over to kiss her as they sat down to enjoy their meal together.
With their plates cleared, and the dirty dishes sitting in a sink full of soapy water, they turned to cuddle up together on the couch, Jack slowly thumbing through the various movie options as Elsa settled a blanket over them.
"Oh look, they have 'Titanic,' one of your favorites," he said, pointing it out to her.
"You hate that movie, you make fun of it all the time."
"Well," he started, looking to reconsider.
"Jack, we're going to get to the scene with them at the front of the boat and you're going to ask me if I think I'm flying, you do every time you see me watching this."
He smiled, struggling not to laugh and looked back up at the screen. "Yeah, maybe we should watch something else."
"Ooh, 'The Fountain,' what's that one?" she asked, pointing to another selection.
"No," Jack said quickly, moving through the selections.
"Why not?" she asked, looking up at him.
"Because it's depressing as hell."
"More than 'The Notebook'?"
"That's not a legit movie and you know it," he said, looking down at her. "You can lose that argument again on why it's a terrible movie, if you want. But yes, 'The Fountain' is like, the most depressing movie ever. Goddamned beautiful but depressing."
He grunted when she punched his stomach.
"It is too a legit movie."
"And so is Big Trouble in Little China."
Elsa made a noise of disgust.
"Don't you even start," Jack said. "That was the deal. I watch 'The Notebook,' you watch 'Big Trouble in Little China'."
She rolled her eyes, watching more movies scroll down the screen.
"There. 'Phantom of the Opera.' Surely you can appreciate that."
He leaned forward, looking at the screen. "Which one is it though? There are some pretty terrible ones."
She looked at him, frowning. "I swear, you've seen like every movie."
"I'm a connoisseur, my dear, I do my best. Ugh, it's the Gerald Butler one."
Elsa snatched the remote from him and jammed the play button.
"Wha-?" he started, looking down at her.
"Shut up, he's hot and he can sing."
"I can sing."
"No you can't."
"I can shower sing."
She looked up at him. "Yes dear, you can shower sing. Now, lets watch the professionals sing."
He rolled his eyes and wrapped an arm around her, settling down into the couch to watch the film.
And two hours of snarky filled comments later, Elsa thumbed off the TV, chuckling.
"We should get a basement like that," he said, kicking off the blanket. "I'll put a whole bunch of candles down there, and I'll make a creepy effigy of you so I can't miss you while you're at work. I totally dig that heart-shaped bed too. TOTALLY dig it."
Elsa laughed, rolling onto her back. "Oh I remember why I don't watch romances with you."
"Is THAT what that was? Cause, that totally looked like stalker-licious dude getting his stalk on."
She laughed again, tossing a pillow at him.
"That's the Phantom, he's supposed to be misunderstood, and hurt, and-"
"Stalkery?" Jack finished, snatching up the blanket to drape around his shoulders like a cape.
She laughed, rolling off the couch and rubbing under her eyes. "Oh god, my sides hurt."
"Come to me, COME to me ANGEL of MUSIC," Jack said, moving his hands under the blanket.
She scoffed at him, shaking her head. "You're such a dork, and I love you for it. Come on, I'm tired," she said, yawning. "I want to go to bed."
He pulled the blanket off, tossing it back over the couch and wrapped her up in a hug, smiling down at her. "Hey, you chose the movie, you know the rules."
She smiled up at him, leaning up on her toes to peck a kiss on his lips. "Yes, but I can still think you're a dork."
He continued to smile down at her, bending his head to give her another longer kiss. "Love you too. Now lets get you to bed, before you turn into a pumpkin, or a thimble or whatever else Disney says you will."
The next morning, Elsa woke with a start as a loud crash of thunder rattled the windows. She moaned, settling back down into the covers and stretching out her legs behind her for Jack, frowned and looked behind her at the empty bedclothes. She yawned and pulled herself out of bed, squinting at the clock that told her it was just after nine in the morning, and headed back out into the living area.
Jack was on the couch again, furiously typing away at his phone with a heavy scowl on his face, the weather report softly talking on the television. She watched for a moment, seeing the report called for thunderstorms off and on all day long, and glanced back down at him.
"Morning," she said, shuffling around to plop down beside him.
"Hey," he said distractedly, still typing away on his phone.
"Looks like it's going to be a nasty day," she said, rubbing a bit of sleep from her eye.
"So it would seem," he said, pressing hard on the glass screen a few times before thumbing the off button and sighing, his head flopping back on the back of the couch.
She watched him for a moment, raising an eyebrow.
"Something wrong?" she finally asked, watching as he draped an arm over his eyes.
"No," he said. "Just a change of plans."
"Plans?"
He waved at her with the hand draped over his eyes. "It's nothing, don't worry about it. The thing I was talking to Jamie about last night."
"Oh," she said, looking down in her lap. "Well do you want to get some breakfast?"
The arm raised up and he looked over at her, smiling.
"I wanna go back to bed."
She waved a dismissive hand. "Go, you know once I'm up, I'm up for the day."
The smile changed, grew slightly more mischievous. "I didn't say sleep."
She smiled back.
Later that day, as she sat curled up in a blanket reading a book after her extra long weekend shower, she paused and frowned, looking up at the loft room above them where his studio was.
"You can? Today? What time? Oh that's perfect. No that-Yeah that's fine," he said, sounding incredibly excited.
She watched him hurry down the stairs a few minutes later, a huge smile on his face and raised a brow at him. He held up his phone, a satisfied smile on his face.
"Got us dinner reservations at that new place over in Silver Spring," he said, grinning madly at her. "It's for 5pm, so you still have a couple hours to get ready."
"I thought you had something going with Jamie?"
"What? No, no that was just a little something, nothing really. Got changed this morning with the weather."
"How did you manage to get a reservation? I called last week and they said they were booked for the month."
He shrugged, smiling at her. "Guess I got a little lucky?"
She rolled her eyes, looking back down at her book. "I'll start getting ready after I finish this chapter, it's almost over."
"Yeah, I've heard that one before. 'Just one more chapter, Jack.' and then it's 3 in the morning and the light is still on."
She stuck her tongue out at him, holding her book up higher to finish reading her chapter.
She was ready on time, mostly, as she stood standing at the mirror with two different shoes on trying to pick which one looked the best with her flirty black dress. Jack came out of the bathroom, tightening his silver tie on his black shirt, eyeing her with a smile.
"You clean up well, I might just keep you," he said, grinning at her. "Might want to pick a shoe though."
"That's what I can't decide," she said, turning to one side to eye the black stilettos.
"Don't wear the black ones, you don't like them."
She frowned turning to look at him. "I don't like them?"
"You wore them at one of the gallery things we went to, you said they pinched your toes."
"Oh," she said, looking down at her feet. "I guess I'll wear the silver ones then."
"Aww, we will be all matchy," he said, smiling at her.
She snorted as she fished the matching shoe out of her closet, hopping to slip it on her foot and stepped over to her dresser. She flipped open the top of her jewelry box and carefully pulled out the snowflake necklace he'd given her the day they had graduated college.
"Help me put this on?"
He stepped over behind her, taking the two small clasps in his fingers and carefully hung it around her neck, moving his hands to wrap around her waist when he was done. He hugged her, kissing her shoulder and stepped back.
"Come on, let's get going, I don't want to be late," he said, clapping his hands.
She snatched up the small clutch she planned to use, slipping her lipstick and phone into it and headed out towards the door, Jack close behind her.
"Oh," he said, patting his pockets. "Forgot something."
He grinned at her sheepishly, turning to jog up the steps to his studio. She threaded the earrings she held in her hand into her earlobes as she waited, smiling at him as he came back down.
"You good?" she asked, pulling her hands away from her earlobe.
"Yep! Let's go."
Traffic was a nightmare. It was D.C., so things were always on the borderline of insanity, but the combination of all day rain and people trying to get things done on the weekend made things even more hellish than usual.
Jack kept glancing nervously at the clock as the minutes ticked closer and closer to 5 o'clock. He fidgeted with the wheel, changed the radio station every few minutes and cursed under his breath at the traffic around them. Elsa smiled, looking out the window at everything slowly passing by; Jack hated driving in Washington and around it.
With a few minutes left to spare, Jack pulled into a parking space in front of the restaurant, breathing a heavy sigh of relief as he shifted the car into park.
Elsa frowned, leaning forward. "Is that a firetruck?"
His head whipped around, leaning forward to try and see what she was looking at. She pointed, showing him the red lights swirling about towards the entrance and the mass of people standing out front under the covering and umbrellas.
"Are you kidding me?" he muttered, leaning back behind them to pull their own umbrella forward. "Stay in, I'll come around and get you."
She complied, watching as he stepped out and around the car to open her own door and hold the open umbrella above her head. He cast a worried look over at the restaurant as they walked closer.
Conversation was buzzing as they got closer, people chatting animately as they waited outside. Elsa leaned forward, smiling at an older couple who turned to look back at her.
"Hi," she said. "Did something happen here? We were supposed to have dinner reservations."
The woman chuckled. "Did it ever. One of their cooks set the kitchen on fire! I told Morty, I told my husband here that I smelled smoke, didn't I Morty?"
"Aye, you did," said Morty, nodding at his wife.
"I said, I smell smoke. And it wasn't like the normal kind of smoke that you smell in restaurants, it was, well it was like something was burning. And I said to Morty, I said I think something is burning. Didn't I Morty? Didn't I say something was on fire?"
"Aye, you did."
"I did! And then all the waiters started running around all panicked like, and then the fire alarm went off and we had to come out here. Some people are waiting to go inside and get their belongings, but I brought my purse and my wrap out with me. I said to Morty, I said that something happened. I said something big happened and it's gonna take awhile to get back in here. Didn't I Morty, didn't I say that?"
"Aye, you did."
Elsa's smile was frozen on her face as she nodded along with the woman, looking between the pair.
"I see," she said, speaking as the woman finally took a breath.
"You aren't going to be eating here anytime soon, no way," the woman continued. "I told Morty this place looked a bit dangerous, didn't I Morty? Didn't I say this place looked a bit dodgy?"
"Aye, you did."
"And the prices they were charging, it was ridiculous!"
Elsa felt Jack lean down beside her ear. "Back away slowly, I don't think she will notice," he whispered, slipping his arm through hers.
Elsa struggled to not laugh as she continued to smile and laugh, the both of them taking a few steps backwards before the woman turned to speak to someone else in the crowd, Morty adding in his "Aye, you did," when prompted.
Rain falling heavily on the umbrella as they hurried back to their car, laughing hard once the doors were closed.
"Out of all the people you could have asked, out of ALL of them, you had to choose HER," Jack said, turning to look at her.
"Aye, I did," Elsa said, smiling up at him before they both dissolved into laughter once again.
"Oh god," Jack said, rubbing at his eyes. "Well, dinner is a bust. Damn, damn, damn."
"Let's just go get pizza at that place over by Jamie and Emma's, they have really good garlic bread," Elsa said, pulling down the vanity mirror to check her makeup.
"All dressed up like this?"
She looked over at him. "Like we're going to get in somewhere at five on a Saturday night?"
He considered this for a moment, sighed and put the car back into gear. "You're right. Pizza it is."
Another hour later, with more muttered curses and a few obscene gestured traded between Jack and other drivers, they arrived at the pizza parlor and made their way inside. They made their way to a booth in the corner, Jack waving at the owner of the place as they sat down and huddled together to examine the menu.
"Let's see, today is Saturday," Elsa said, running her finger down the list of specials. "That means today's special is-"
"ELSA! JACK!" a voice screamed from the front of the restaurant.
Elsa jumped slightly, looking up to see Emma, Jamie's girlfriend, coming out of the bathroom and hurrying over to them with a big smile on her face.
"Oooh, where is it? I wanna see, I wanna see!" she said, waving her hands in the air. "Lemme see!"
Elsa stared at her, leaning back slightly and looked over at Jack, who was glaring daggers at Emma.
"See what?" Elsa asked slowly, looking between the two.
Emma froze, color draining from her face as she looked between them. "Oh, did you not-?"
"No, I haven't," Jack said through gritted teeth.
Elsa frowned looking at him. "Haven't what? I'm missing something here."
"Emma!" Jamie said, coming in the front door, and shooting an apologetic glance towards Jack. "Did you get the food?"
Emma turned and hurried away, mouthing an apology to Jack as she hurried back up to the front counter to pick up their order.
Jack put his head down on the table, thumping it a few times for good measure as Elsa blinked, still trying to figure out what had happened.
"What just happened there?" she asked, looking over at him.
He moved his hands under the table, shifting his weight to one side for a moment before sitting back straight up. He moved his right hand, the one closest to her, up onto the table and sat up, giving her a pained smile.
"Here," he said, handing her a small velvet wrapped box.
She furrowed a brow at him, looking down at the box. "What's that?"
"Open it."
She reached forward and picked up the box, opening it to reveal a diamond ring, nestled around a bed of sapphires set in white gold. She smiled, looking up at him.
"Not a very romantic proposal, but I'll take it," she said, leaning over to kiss him.
He scowled at her. "Woman. I've been trying for two days. TWO. DAYS. I had things planned out. I had lined for the movie prepared, that you didn't want to watch, but I wasn't really banking on that because it was kind of lame anyways. Then I had this big thing planned in the park today, Jamie and a couple other guys were going to help me. It was going to be big, it was going to be awesome. IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO RAIN. Then I thought, okay, I'll get nice dinner plans. Nice, romantic dinner plans," he said, gesturing with his hands. "Everything just, FUBARed on me."
She watched him, trying not to laugh and grinned.
He sat there for a moment, sulking and looked at her. "What?"
"Are you going to ask me or not?"
He winced, giving her an apologetic look and took the box back, smiling at her. "Sorry," he said. "I just, wanted things to be a little better than when I first asked you out."
"I think this is more your style," she said, smiling at him.
"Elsa, Snowflake, my dearest love, marry me?"
She nodded, leaning forward to wrap her arms around his neck. "Yes, yes I will."
"He still isn't back? What the bloody hell is radiology doing down there? What the bloody hell are you doing Naomi? Having girly fun time?" Hugh said, coming back into the room and waving his clipboard around.
Naomi scowled at him, sticking her tongue out as he neared them. "You said to page you when they got back, they haven't gotten back yet."
Hugh rolled his eyes. "I don't understand what could be taking so bloody long, he was scheduled for four sets of x-rays. FOUR. How is that hard?"
Naomi waved a hand at him. "He sounds like a keeper, hopefully radiology hasn't stolen him."
"I have returned!" Jack said, the orderlies pushing his bed back into the room as Jack smiled, holding his arms open as they maneuvered the bed back into place.
"About bloody time," Hugh muttered. "Never going to get back on schedule now. What the hell did they do down there, build a new machine?"
"Uhh," Jack said, glancing at Elsa before giving a confused look at Hugh. "No. They wanted the doctor to check the images."
Hugh rolled his eyes. "Don't get me started on them. Alright. I'm Hugh, that's Naomi, we're from P.T., we're here to see what muscle mass you've lost while being in bed the last couple weeks."
"Going to make me bigger and stronger?"
"I'll settle for getting you to stand upright and walk out on your own power," Hugh said, giving him a smirk over the clipboard. "Now then, for some real fun. Naomi, if you're done with your girly time?"
Naomi sighed, moving forward off the windowsill to stand bedside Jack.
"You can give me more details next time," she told Elsa, smiling. "I want to know about the wedding next."
Jack frowned, looking over at them. "What were you two talking about?"
"You," Naomi supplied, smiling down at him and taking his arm.
"Oh," Jack said, smiling. "I'm usually a good topic."
Hugh groaned from the other side of the bed. "Dear god, there are two of them."
Elsa chuckled, settling back in her chair to watch Jack go through the exercises with Hugh and Naomi to test his strength, cheekily exchanging retorts with the latter.
Please review, love you all! Love, Aria