Chapter Two: Make Me Like You

A/N: Hey guys! Chapter two. Hope you're enjoying so far. I think the biggest thing I want to say is that I do not agree at all with the perspective that Eli holds in this story, you'll see a bit from his perspective this chapter. Anyway! Enjoy.

Eli enjoyed his work fine enough. It paid well. His patients were okay. Really, he just spent all day waiting for the moments he saw Clare. Lunch was his favourite part of work. Seeing her affirmed his decision to become a therapist. How could he work with her, as a writer, with her being a nurse? And sure, if he thought about it, his own experiences helped push him towards this career. But Clare was the light in his life, his raison d'etre.

He wondered how her day was going. He heard a new patient was arriving today. An aggressive one. He hoped she wasn't assigned to him. He hated when she got give violent patients and she always seemed to get them. Emma really exploited Clare's kind nature sometimes. He had spoken to Clare about it before and asked her if she wanted him to say something about it, his voice did have more sway in regards to internal affairs, but she always told him no. It frustrated him sometimes. However, he chose to drop it, for his own sake really, it upset him too much to think about.

Tapping his fingers on the hard wood of his desk, he looked over the new patient's file. Mark Fitzgerald looked like a total thug. He hated these kinds of patients. He would do his best to help them of course, he wasn't a monster and this was part of his duty. That didn't stop him from being repulsed by some of the people that walked through his door. Violent thugs had no good place in society and they were the ones most likely to screw up and be back in rehab a few months after leaving. A waste of space. Exactly what Fitzgerald seemed to be. Several arrests and multiple rehab stays on his file only showed that.

"So Ma-Fitz, this is the room you'll be staying in." Clare gestured to the relatively plain room, sparse except a few pieces of furniture. A bed, a desk, a little bookcase and what looked like quite a comfortable chair. "It's not much but you're welcome to decorate however you please."

Fitz was in a tour of the facility and so far he had been enjoying following behind Clare. If only to stare more at her figure. She was sort of plump, but in the way that made you want to grab onto every curve and boy did she have curves. He found his eyes, already having to look down to even see the lady, constantly coming back to the round arse that swayed whenever Clare walked. If they were in a club right now he surely would have jumped her. Oh well.

"A rundown of how a typical day here is we'll get you up bright and early for some light exercise. Then it'll be off to morning group therapy before having lunch. After that you'll have some individual counselling with Dr. Eli," she had smiled wide when saying the doctor's name, Fitz couldn't help but wonder why, "and then it's free time before dinner and then bed."

Not too different from the schedules he was used to at other places.

"And Clare, will you be there for all these daily activities?"

"Well… mostly, you won't see me exercising that early in the morning, and I leave before it's time for bed. Then you get the night nurses. Otherwise I'm here all day."

Mornings sounded like they were going to suck. Having to exercise and not see the cute nurse in workout gear bouncing around with them? No thanks. Especially not with the cramps he was already starting to feel and the bile rising to his throat involuntarily. He gulped it back down and stared around the room. His new home.

Clare took his silence as a sign to continue. "For today though, it's just about getting you settled in. I know you must be feeling pretty bad already, so feel free to rest right now and I'll come check on you later with some more details."

And with that she smiled gently and turned to leave. Clare may not have been an angel, but she might have been a psychic. A day without benzos and he was already feeling physically ill, and not having any cocaine was making him irritated as all hell. But he took the opportunity of Clare leaving to take another look at her arse before hopping onto the bed.

Clare was embarrassed to admit her suspicion was correct. Fitz was a handsome man. Tall, muscly and his blue eyes were even more dazzling in person. He was the exact opposite to Eli, who even now was a similar height to her and had no real definition to him. She didn't care though. Eli was gorgeous. Especially with his brown curls that were always wild and untamed. Clare had tried not to stare too much at Fitz while showing him around. She was a happily taken woman and she wasn't going to act like some boy crazed teenager.

"Hey Clarebear, ready for lunch?" A familiar and comforting voice spoke out, awaking her from her dazed thoughts.

"Of course Eli."

Once entering the lunch hall they took their usual seats at the staff table. One time a new staff member had tried to take the seat next to Clare and Eli had nearly deafened the man with his loud protest. After that everyone knew not to touch that seat. It had made Clare want to sink into the floor and disappear out of shame, but she was used to it by now. It was no secret that Eli was a little possessive, but it was romantic really. It was completely different to how he obsessed over her like he was in Degrassi.

"Anything exciting happen so far today?"

"Well the new patient was assigned to me. Poor thing was just about beaten up by the police on his way inside. I wish they wouldn't manhandle patients the way they do."

Anger tainted every word that left her lips. She had been brought up to respect the police force but ever since getting her job at the facility she had begun to wonder if they should be the ones escorting the patients – violent or otherwise.

"He seems like a punk. I can't believe they assigned you to yet another aggressive patient. Do they think you're a masochist or something?" It was Eli's turn to scoff at something today.

"He seems nice enough. I don't think he'll be a problem. You worry too much."

"I worry too much? Says the one who had to triple check that everything was turned off before we left the house this morning."

Shaking her head, Clare chuckled lightly. Sure she had a tendency to worry about trivial things but she still thought Eli was being irrational. Fitz put up no fight once the police had left. Sure he didn't say much the entire tour but she didn't expect him to. With plenty of experience under her belt she could tell he was starting feel the signs of withdrawal. She'll check on him after lunch. Hopefully he found the toilet in his room should he feel the need to be ill.

"Okay! Fair. But I'm telling you, I don't think there will be any problem with Fitz."

"Fitz?!"