Chapter 11 - Countdown to Texas: 2 days (and a half again)

Lucas stared at Riley for what seemed to be like eternity. Maybe he was just tired, he thought. She couldn't be here. How could she be inside my apartment?

Sensing the weird vibe Lucas was showing, she cleared her throat and sauntered towards him, "Before you freak out on me, let me explain."

"Do you have a thing for breaking and entering? Because this is the second time you broke into my apartment without me knowing,"

"No no no," Riley shook her head violently. "I kind of asked Zay for help. I figured you would give spare keys to someone in case of an emergency and I knew it was him."

The doctor scratched his head, "Zay is in on this?"

"Yes, please don't be mad at him though,"

"What is all of this Riley?"

The brunette sighed and hung her head low. She started to play with her fingers and then raised her head up to look him in the eye, "I felt horrible about what I said to you yesterday." Tears started to form in her eyes. "I didn't mean it like that honestly. I just wanted to apologize to you but it seemed like you didn't want to talk to me this morning. So I had to come up with something so you'd talk to me."

"And your idea was to break into my apartment and cook me dinner?" He raised his eyebrows and folded his arms in front of his chest. Before Riley could get the words out, she covered her face with her hands and started to sob vehemently causing the Texan doctor to panic. "Oh my god Riley," He quickly wrapped his arms around her and pulled her towards his chest.

"I am so sorry," She managed to get out in between sobs as she buried her face against his chest. "I didn't mean to make you upset at me."

Lucas gritted his teeth in pain. He was the reason she was crying right now and it hurt him to see her like this, "Shh... It's okay. You don't need to cry." He began to caress her hair and hold her tighter.

"I didn't mean that we shouldn't talk at work but you left without letting me explain!" She whined loudly, looking up at him in the process.

"I know I know I should've listened," He looked down at her and gave her a small smile. "Zay told me I should've talked to you."

"Well he's right," She pouted, making the doctor laugh. "I know you're tired and hungry from your long shift so I made an apology dinner since you're the one who's always making me dinner."

"What did you make me?"

She cleared her throat, "Well I would uh go finish preparing it if you'd let me go."

"Oh!" His eyes widened. "Right," He chuckled nervously and released his grip on her.

Riley walked back to the kitchen, the doctor just behind her a few steps. "Well, I made lasagna, which will be done in 10 minutes. And garden salad. And roasted garlic soup!"

"Wow my apartment smells amazing," He took a big whiff of the soup that was sitting on the stove top. "Would you mind if I took a quick shower before dinner? I feel..."

"Really gross?" She laughed. "No need to explain. Go ahead. I'll set everything up and we'll eat when you're done."

"Thanks Nurse Riley!" He jogged towards his bedroom making the nurse giggle to herself.

Riley stared at Lucas in awe after he had just devoured the meal that she cooked for the both of them. They were sitting on the couch, Chopped was playing on the TV in the background, "What the hell?"

Lucas looked up from his plate, the fork was midway inside his mouth, "What?" He mumbled.

"How hungry are you?"

"Hella," He replied, putting the plate down on his lap. "I really didn't get a chance to eat a complete meal today. Back to back surgeries with Dr. Evans."

"And how did those go?"

"Really interesting," He nodded. "Amazing how technology has taken us huh?"

"You bet," Riley took both their plates and got up. "Want dessert?"

"Oh what's for dessert?" Lucas' eyes sparkled, like a little kid, causing the nurse to laugh.

"Eclair cake," She responded, making her way to the kitchen to set the dishes down and grab the cake from the freezer. "I can't really do fancy things like creme brulée unlike you."

"I bet it still tastes delicious though!"

Riley returned with two slices of eclair cake. She sat down and tucked in one leg. Lucas began to devour the cake again, nodding in enjoyment. "Lucas,"

"Hmmm?"

"I really am sorry about what I said,"

"I know you are Riley. And I'm sorry too for over reacting,"

She chuckled, "Yeah you did."

"I just got upset because I thought you didn't want people to know about us," Lucas explained. "I mean us being friends and such. You know? I really like spending time with you. I don't know a lot of people here." He chuckled.

"It's not that I don't want people to know about us. I guess I just let Emily get to my head. She's been teasing me about you,"

"Oh she has?" He gave her a smirk and licked the contents of his plate.

"Shut up Lucas," She playfully punched his arm and he pretended to wince. "And that is extremely gross."

"I'm sorry I declined your breakfast from this morning. I saw that it was from Topanga's bakery and Zay told me it's one of the best here in Greenwich Village," Lucas said. "I missed out."

"No worries," She shot him her famous Riley Matthews' grin. "We can go there anytime. I know the owner pretty well."

"So are we okay now?"

"I don't know are we?"

"Forgive me?"

"I forgive you only if you forgive me too,"

"Of course I forgive you Riley," Lucas smiled. "Just don't cry on me again okay?"

She giggled, "That depends if you hurt me."

"I would never purposely hurt you."

Riley took a deep breath of relief. The entire day, all she had been thinking about was how to make it up to Lucas. Although 'breaking' into his house to make him dinner was a bit too much, she figured that she had to take drastic measures if Lucas was that stubborn. "So about Texas," She said.

"We should talk about that huh?"

"Yeah we're kinda leaving in a couple of days and you haven't told me anything about the trip," She got up and collected the rest of their dishes on the coffee table. "Let's talk about it over washing dishes shall we? The sooner I leave the sooner you get to sleep."

"You're leaving?" The doctor pouted and helped Riley carry dishes over to the kitchen.

She gave him a confused look and started to run the water in the sink, "Lucas it's already 10:30 and you have another 12 hour shift tomorrow. You need sleep."

He leaned against the counter, waiting for her to finish cleaning the dishes so he could dry them. Every time Riley came over for a meal, this was their routine: she would wash the dishes and he would dry and put them away. "I can run on 5 hours of sleep. And hella coffee."

"Lucas," She gave him a stern look.

"Okay fine!" He raised his hands in surrender. "Midnight the latest."

"Okay fine!" She mocked and shook her head. Stubborn indeed.

"So our flight on Friday is at nine thirty in the morning. It's about a four hour flight and there's a one hour time difference. We'll probably get there just after noon,"

"Sounds good to me," Riley nodded. "Are we going to take an Uber to the airport?"

"Mhm. We're going to have to leave here at 6 am. And uh," Lucas scratched his head and began to dry the dishes. "Uhm I was wondering,"

"Yeah?"

"Well you don't have to if you feel uncomfortable and it's not a big deal since we live right next to each other anyway,"

"What?"

"Only if you want though,"

"Spit it out Lucas,"

"Would you want to sleep over here Thursday night?"

Riley gulped and slowly turned her head to face him, "What?"

"I figured we could catch up one last time. Make sure we get stories straight. Blah blah..."

"Uh," She nodded slowly. "Sure. That sounds fine."

Lucas sighed of relief, "Okay it's a plan."

After finishing up the dishes, the two moved their conversation to the couch. Lucas had his legs stretched out, rested on the coffee table while Riley had both feet tucked in and had her head propped up by her hand on the couch. She had a blanket over her legs that Lucas had placed on her, after she had complained that she was cold.

"So are you going to take me to see a rodeo there or what?" She chuckled.

"Sure will! We could even do line dancing if you want,"

"Are you a pro at that or something too?"

He scrunched his nose and laughed, "Maybe. Maybe not. You'll just have to see for yourself." He turned his torso a little to face her. He placed both arms on the couch and rested his head on it, glancing up at Riley. "I feel like we've only been talking about me. It's your turn to talk."

"There's not much to say about me. I'm boring,"

"I highly doubt that. Tell me more about growing up in New York,"

"Well you know. The city is always busy," She shrugged. "We have a rooftop access at our apartment building and sometimes I would go out there to watch the stars but I can barely see any because of all the city lights. We have a nice view of the sky line though,"

"You might just enjoy the sky in Texas then,"

"Really?" Her eyes lit up.

"Yeah! I never get tired at how millions of stars light up the sky at night,"

"That sounds wonderful,"

"It is," He smiled lovingly at her. "You told me that you were working on your DNP but I never got around to asking you more about it. So tell me more about it."

"Well you know," She began. "I'm only a part time student so it's taking me longer. I have 2 semesters to go which isn't that bad. Readings and papers here and there."

"What are you trying to specialize in? Pediatrics I'm guessing,"

"Correct."

"How do you manage both working full time and being a part time student?"

"Eh I don't know," She shrugged. "I guess that's just always been me. I worked part time ever since I could start working. I like to keep myself busy and challenge myself. I learned how to manage my time at an early age and it never left me."

"I can see that," he chuckled.

"What do you mean?"

He straightened himself up and turned his entire body towards her, "You just seem so passionate about everything you do. Especially with your career. You love your job. You care about every single patient that you have. You create relationships with them and they trust you. Every single staff on our floor loves you because of how dedicated you are."

"That's really deep doc,"

"It's true though,"

"Well in that case, thank you. Helping people is what I've always wanted to do and I'm glad that I get to do it as my job."

"You're going to have to teach me how to handle those little tykes,"

She laughed and rolled her eyes, "It will come to you someday Dr. Friar. You'll learn along the way and figure out how to communicate with them in your own way."

"You make it look so easy,"

"That's because I have experience," She shrugged. "I have a little brother and I've been working on the unit longer than you have."

"What's it like to have a sibling?"

"It has its pros and cons. But I only want to hurt him sometimes, " She shifted her legs to stretch them out as Lucas laughed at her comment. "I have a good relationship with my brother though. So we're not the typical brother-sister hate each other kind of thing."

"The closest thing I have to a sibling is Zay. We practically grew up together,"

"Same with Maya. She's the sister I never had," She laid her head on the couch and smiled at him.

Lucas got up from his position, "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to use the bathroom."

Riley gave a small nod and Lucas jogged towards the bathroom. Just as the door shut, Riley's eyes started to close. "Hey Riles I didn't notice it was..." He came back to a sleeping Riley. "Already pass midnight." He finished his sentence and lightly chuckled.

Because he didn't want to wake her up, he gently scooped her in his arms and brought her to his room. He laid her on his bed and pulled the covers over her. He stared at the sleeping brunette for quite some time until he decided to get some rest himself. He grabbed the other pillow on his bed and tiptoed out the door, but without turning back around and whispering, "Goodnight sleeping beauty."

Good news :) Here's another update! I hope that you like the conversation between Riley and Lucas. Conversations between them are my absolute favorite!

Bad news :( School is starting next week and unfortunately I wouldn't be able to update as often as I can. I will do my best to update once a week or once every two weeks. Worst case scenario would be once a month. But I promise to make the wait worth while :)

Thank you again for reading and for your patience!