James motioned to Lizzie to follow him to fill him in on what had happened. He also wanted to have a cigarette and let the teenage love birds, Robbie and Laura, have a few minutes to themselves. But if "She Lovebird" started to thump "He Lovebird" since he got himself injured, at least James and Lizzie would be close to help referee.
Robbie was not quite certain how much Laura knew about how far he fell or how fortunate he was to not be more seriously injured. But he'd learned a long time ago, playing coy and cute with Laura rarely ended well. He needed to be honest and direct, in a gentle manner.
Laura gestured for Robbie to lean against the hood of her car so she could take a closer look at how well Robbie had been treated and bandaged by the medical team a few hours earlier. He quietly watched her work as she unbuttoned his shirt a bit. His tie was already off, so he'd left it off and rolled it up and put it in his pocket. Robbie watched her intently and expertly examine him, and commented "Woman, you can't wait to get my clothes off of me. What will our colleagues think?" Laura kept on focusing on her task of making certain Robbie was fixed up to her satisfaction and able to travel the rest of the way home.
"One of the perks of being married to a doctor, even one who mainly sees dead people, is that you can get expert help any time you need it. So stop your smart aleck comments and let me finish my work. This is for your own good." Robbie laughed, knowing he'd gotten as good as he'd given.
After she'd finished looking him over the oral examination part started. "Robbie what were you trying to prove by jumping through ceilings to get to the first floor, use the stairs like most of us mere mortals." Laura quipped and pulled away from him. She was not angry with him, but the situation. Didn't he realize how much it hurt her to see him hurt or even potentially hurt? She did not want to smother him, could not keep him locked in a child proofed safe environment to protect him from the dangers of the world, but she wanted to. It was the work she did, that accentuated her fear for him and his safety.
"Laura I'm fine. I'll be fine. Come here." Robbie pulled a very serious faced Laura towards him and wrapped his good arm around her. After a quick reassuring embrace, he let her go. Laura looked at Robbie then over at Lizzie and James. "If you three don't have any dead bodies for me, I'm going to drive this injured body home." Laura announced motioning towards Robbie.
A few seconds later, while Laura was getting behind the wheel and Robbie was arranging with Lizzie and James to go ahead and take his car home, since that's what he and Lizzie came out here in earlier in the day, Laura's phone went off. She checked it twice just to make certain of what the message read, and then got out of the car again. "You three call yourselves detectives?' Robbie, Lizzie and James all looked at Laura, since her tone of voice seemed to offer a verbal challenge to them. "I just got a call out to your deceased engineer's estate. There seems to be a body in the woods, behind the estate. Any of you care to join me? Maybe it will refresh your memory on how to conduct a proper investigation." Dr. Hobson was obviously agitated about this, she had just wanted to get Robbie home, have a quiet evening and make certain he was able to rest comfortably. Now plans had changed.
The evidence gathering team and a K-9 unit had been swarming over the buildings that Robbie and Lizzie had looked at earlier in the day. Since the deceased engineer was a high profile victim, and had suffered a suspicious death, the K-9 unit was used because they had not been finding much to help understand who had killed the engineer or why from the existing evidence. Now they had another body and more questions. But they might get more answers, as well.
Laura always carried her equipment and several spare scene suits for herself, because she never knew when she might need to make use of them. She even carried extra scene suits for Robbie, just in case. Dr. Hobson had her suit on and reached for her equipment, when it dawned on her that her comment to Robbie, James and Lizzie about their detective work had been out of place and had been mean. She could not stop to apologize right now, properly, but she needed to start to act in an apologetic manner.
Lizzie had gone ahead with James to show him where she and Robbie had been through earlier in the day. Robbie hung back, near Dr. Hobson while she was preparing for crime site duties, but said nothing. Laura handed him a scene suit, trying to smile and asked if he wanted her to help him get into the suit, given his injured arm. Robbie thought quickly. He could make a bad situation worse and escalate Laura's level of ill temper with a snappy retort, or he could accept her offer of help as an olive branch. He chose the latter.
After he angled into the scene suit, with Laura's help, she zipped up the suit, and then gently put a hand on his arm saying "Robbie I'm sorry, I should not have said that about your detective skills." Robbie looked at her and told her, "Lass, it'd be fine if it were just me. I love you enough to be able to take your sharper comments in stride. But after you see to the poor soul out in the woods, you need to apologize to Lizzie and James. They don't deserve what you said to the three of us. I'll catch up with you later." Robbie gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and went to find Lizzie and James. Dr. Hobson went to find her uncomplaining patient, whom she'd already kept waiting for a while.