Chapter 112

July 29th, 2024

It was the third time Finn was at the hospital Pasteur in Nice. This time he was with G, the two of them making their way through the labyrinth of a building. It didn't hurt that compared to the nearly 104 degree-weather outside, which made the outside feel like a sauna, the hospital hallways were invitingly cool. Thankfully in daylight the place looked a lot more welcoming and alive, than the time when he'd actually been here after his accident. Finn was mostly cured, just a very weak yellow bruise on his leg, reminding him of that incident. He knew he'd been lucky.

"Georgia Hayden, Je viens voir le Dr. Guillaume," G said to the receptionist at the gynecological clinic where she was supposed to have her appointment to check if she was all better. She'd taken her antibiotics, her fever was down and other than Finn being a little hesitant to resume their former physical activities before he himself had his test results in, she felt good. They still slept in the same bed, they still talked, caressed and loved, but it had been like Finn holding his breath until this appointment, hoping that G wasn't permanently scarred by his frivolous behavior, not that it was all his doing, but he did feel more responsible somehow.

"Veuillez vous asseoir, Dr. Guillaume a indiqué qu'il était en retard," the olive-skinned female receptionist replied, explaining that the doctor was running a little late, and handed G a tablet to fill out her information on.

G nodded reluctantly, having hoped to get this over with quickly.

"It might be a bit of a wait," she translated the receptionist's words to Finn, turning away from the receptionist's table to search for a place to sit in the already crowded waiting room.

"Oh well," Finn sighed. He would've rather been getting lunch of course, his stomach already grumbling a little but he wasn't some wuss who would complain about something like that. Besides, he really wanted to make sure G was okay.

"You could probably just go check on your results while I wait…" G suggested.

They'd planned on doing four floors up to check on his results later, but now it really didn't seem to make much sense for the two of them to wait, if that would indeed take them some minutes closer to actually getting that lunch, Finn having already promised to take G to a nice seaside restaurant near Saint Michel where they'd been to once before.

"Alright, I'll go. You want me to grab you a snack on my way back?" Finn suggested.

"Sure," G replied, and gave him a quick peck.

She could tell there were a few looks in their direction in the busy waiting room - too many people having nothing better to do with their time than do the math about their age difference. But G put up a brave face, smiling a little, as she watched him leave. Surely her gaze spoke more about love than anything else, and thankfully in this public hospital no-one was really sizing up the thickness of their wallets.

Finn made it down the hall, struggling a bit with the language on the signs. When he'd gone to the urologist before, he'd come in from another part of the building hence now he struggled enough to have to ask for directions.

"To your right, up the stairs, down the hall, left, then the elevator up 3 floors," one of the male nurses explained, but gave up, realizing the description was way more complicated that it needed to be. "Here, you can just use this..," the nurse added, and led him 20 ft down the hall where the service elevators were. He swiped his keycard on the call button and gestured for him to take it up to the 5th floor.

"Thanks, man," Finn said to the nurse, patting his shoulder in passing.

The elevator arrived shortly it's design being different from the kind visitors used - the elevator, just a plain silver box, no mirrors or building guides. It looked as if it was used to transport patients, a lonely unused wound tamponade laying on the floor being a prime example of its alternate usage.

Finn pressed nr 5 and tucked his hands into his pockets to wait for his floor to arrive.

He was surprised as the elevator came to a halt already on the next floor, however.

"Dr. Barbier," Finn nodded, recognizing the female doctor that had treated him when he'd been in the hospital after his injuries. There had been some hint of casual flirting from her end, to what he hadn't responded to. But he could tell she'd judged him and G for their relatioship, at last in her mind. She hadn't said anything - the doctor had remained professional, and Finn hadn't thought of her since.

"Hello," she replied, smilingly, and took her stance by his side, facing the elevator doors.

Dr. Barbier pushed the fifth floor button on automatic, despite the number being already lit, and then continued to push the door closing button, looking like she was in a hurry.

"Feeling better Mr. Morgan?" she asked, casually, as the door closed.

"Much," Finn replied, being quite surprised she'd remembered him by name.

The elevator jolted from its place, moving past the next floor.

Suddenly the metal box gave a shudder, that was followed by an even mightier one, half a second later followed by flashing of the lights. Then it was pitch dark for a moment. And then the emergency light above the elevator door turned on illuminating the insides of the elevator with its weak greenish light.

"Putain de merde," the doctor, currently dressed in her white coat instead of her scrubs, cursed, attempting to press the fifth floor button again. She only waited for a second before ringing the alarm.

The alarm connected directly to some operator service, but it sounded like it played some waiting queue message in a loop. Finn's French wasn't good enough to follow it exactly.

By that time both of their phones were out, Finn texting G, and Dr. Barbier was attempting to call someone. She even got through to someone on the second attempt, which made Finn sigh in relief. He texted that to G too, hoping this would be solved quickly.

"The power is down in the whole neighbourhood, it might take a while. It's the heat," the doctor explained.

"I guess then we wait," Finn sighed and leaned his hip against the side railing. This whole getting stuck in an elevator would've probably made the old Finn think about all kinds of kinky things one could do while stuck in an elevator with a no-doubt gorgeous and curvy woman who'd formerly showed some interest in him, if of course his concussed mind had even read her right. But he was so past that. Instead he thought about the time when the then 16-year-old G had been stuck in an elevator at Rory and Logan's townhouse in Greenwich Village, almost making him muse at the nostalgia of the event.

Finn had kept G company for hours, it was the first time they had truly, deeply, talked. After that he had made that elevator an emergency elevator kit - to ease the hunger and thirst for example, trying to stop mostly G from being afraid of using that elevator. He'd even watched instructional videos on how to get out of an elevator, but this elevator he was in now was way newer than that, industrial looking - he wouldn't have a clue where to start with an elevator like that. And besides, it wasn't like it was life and death, he could wait. Surely the power would be back shortly and or someone would come and get the doors open so they could get out on whatever floor they were at.

"What?" Dr. Barbier asked, seeing Finn smile to himself. He had been perhaps smiling more than one should in a situation like that, perhaps coming off even a little creepy like that.

"Oh nothing, this just reminded me of a situation I was once in," Finn explained, apologetically.

"I was supposed to have a consultation like now…," the doctor fretted, glancing at her watch, walking back and forth the elevator. At least the elevator was large enough to do that, normally meant to fit at least a full size gurney bed. She texted a few more messages to someone.

Finn didn't particularily want to tell her that he was going to the urologist office upstairs, or that he'd accompanied G to the gynecology clinic. It was too personal.

"I was asking directions to the fifth floor, and some nurse just let me use this thing as a shortcut," Finn explained. What a shortcut indeed - Finn thought, feeling his stomach grumble.

"They shouldn't really do that. If anything happens to you in here the hospital insurance wouldn't cover it," the doctor commented as if knowing the insurance policy by heart.

Finn shrugged. It was not like Finn was planning on suing anyone. And unless the metal box actually fell down, he wasn't really all that worried.

The doctor sank down to sit on the floor of the elevator, rubbed her neck as if it was sore, and extended her legs out. She looked a little tired, like maybe she'd already had a long night prior to this.

"I'm Vanessa, by the way," she said, filling in the silence.

"Finn," he replied, unsure if she remembered.

They sat there in silence for a bit, Finn messaging a few times with G. She'd been told to go home and come back in a few days, but naturally she wasn't going anywhere without him, besides Finn had the car keys. He urged G to go find something to eat on her own until he got out.

An hour passed.

"What is taking them so long?" the doctor complained, raising up to move around.

"Maybe you could call them again?" Finn suggested.

"I'll text. They might have more urgent patients stuck in these things around the hospital than us.. There are, what, 20-something elevators in this place… No point pestering them, it won't make them move faster," Vanessa replied, and shot a quick text to one of her contacts.

"Your English is a lot better than most people I've met around here," Finn commented, deciding to kill the time by some polite small-talk.

"I've lived in a few English speaking places," Vanessa replied. She no longer seemed to be trying to impress him based on her body language, which was a relief to Finn.

Finn didn't ask but his eyes asked for him. What else were they going to do there than talk?

"Vancouver and L.A.," she added.

"I'm mostly in New York, but originally from Brisbane, lived in New Haven and Boston for a bit too," Finn shared.

"What brings you here? To Nice, I mean," Vanessa asked.

Finn explained in broad terms that he was on a holiday with a group of friends. He knew better than to mention names or exact locations with things like that, doctor or not. He did tell her how long he'd been there and how he'd quite enjoyed exploring the area, deciding to not go into too much detail on G, sensing that might be a delicate subject.

Vanessa continued to tell him a little about her own history with the area, casually mentioning a few locations she recommended him to see, some of which Finn already knew about. It was innocent and friendly small talk.

It was perhaps an hour and a half later Finn's stomach grumbled audibly, making Vanessa chuckle at his expense.

"You sound hungry," she laughed, now again sitting on the floor.

"Yeah, I'm way past my lunch hour," Finn admitted like a little schoolboy, making a sad face, jokingly, now sitting on the floor as well.

Vanessa fished out a granola bar from the pocket of her lab coat and tossed it across the elevator for Finn to catch.

"Thanks," Finn replied. "You're not hungry yourself?" he asked.

"I had lunch just before we got stuck, I'm good. I always keep one around, sometimes I don't have time to eat for hours," she shrugged. "Besides, we wouldn't want you suing the hospital now, would we?" she chuckled.

Finn mused, biting into the granola bar.

"I know this is probably none of my business, but what's the deal with you and that young girl," Vanessa asked, having shown her rather upfront and curious nature, about half an hour more of small-talk later. She wasn't his doctor anymore, so technically the question wasn't unethical.

"It's not what you think…," Finn replied.

"What do you think that I think?" Vanessa asked.

"Well it's not the first time someone has assumed me to be some wealthy cradle snatcher that liked to have the young and pretty, and probably likely brainless, girls at my arm to overcompensate for something," Finn suggested, his arms leaning on his knees, speaking casually.

By now it was getting hot in the elevator, and Finn was definitely sweating through his t-shirt already, his forehead glistening. The ventilation must've been off, but he was pretty sure it wasn't a situation where they'd run out of oxygen or anything serious like that. It was just that it was hot outside and the AC was off in the entire building.

"Well that girl didn't sound brainless," Vanessa replied, generously, having noticed G ask valid questions and also speak at least two languages fluently.

"I know she's young, if she was older things would be a hell of a lot easier, I tell you that... But I love her regardless. I didn't just meet her here or just recently either. I actually met her years ago - and honestly back then I thought I was out of my mind for being drawn to someone who was that young… I didn't do anything back then, I took myself out of the picture. But if anything this is a long time coming, it has just made me see how some things don't really ask for age… or time," Finn said, surprising even himself with his candidness, and how deep that had actually sounded. It had just poured out of him.

"Wow," Vanessa exhaled, "that's more than I expected, that's for sure..," she added.

Finn wasn't sure if she believed him or not, or whether she read something out of the fact that he'd needed to defend himself.

"But don't you ever think it's a little unfair to her… I'm sorry, again - not my business," Vanessa struggled to hold her tongue. For just a doctor she sure was opinionated, but it was not like Finn had a lot of other things to do presently.

"Do I think it's unfair to her?" Finn reflected.

"Yeah, like she has her whole life ahead of her, discovering herself… I don't know...kids and so on…," Vanessa specified, not really knowing a whole lot about what Finn wanted out of life.

"Yeah, I know. I think about it all the time," Finn replied. He wasn't about to go into that whole bit about either him or G really having plans for procreation, it wasn't something he needed to convince her of. It was just important that the two of them were content with whatever they decided to do. "I think she deserves to discover life in similar way like I've had a chance to do, and I am certainly not going to say that she can't try or even do something just because we're together," he added, almost wanting additionally add that he was pretty open minded about a lot of things. He could only hope things wouldn't be that simple.

"I guess she has what, a few decades... to do whatever she wants to do with her life. If she spends five years with you - and I don't mean to sound negative, just talking from my own experience - she would still have time to have the things she may have given up for you," Vanessa discussed, having by now shed her lab coat, and was using a folded up paper sheet to fan herself.

Finn hadn't really thought of things that way, almost reversing his way of thinking. The truth was he'd always thought of this either being something very short term, like in the very beginning, and they'd find out that it wasn't going to work, or alternatively sort of infinite. But the idea that at any moment in time, in the next few decades, G could indeed decide she wanted something else, was new to him - this was usually what women tended to worry about, wasn't it? She would still have that power to grab reins and do whatever she wanted. She had the possibility to leave him for a younger guy, someone more family oriented even if that was what she wanted by that time. He liked and disliked that thought at the same time. Largely it came down to either wanting her now, maybe for a decade, maybe for five years - all those deadlines seeming dangerously long to speak of out loud, or wanting her for the rest of his life. He'd never thought about anyone using those words.

It was at that moment the lights in the elevator flickered again, turning on fully and a light thud which jolted the elevator out of its place.

"Thank god," Vanessa mumbles, raising to her feet.

Finn rose too, sighing deeply. He had a lot of thinking to do.