Just over an hour later Oracle was beginning to regret her – squeak – choice. As promised, she'd been given the bed and Virgil had stayed out on the couch in the living room. She knew she was taking – squeak – advantage but, well, he'd be gone soon. A few days in town was what he'd said and he's already been here two.

So far – squeak – he'd defied all expectations. Mostly by having the gall to be a decent human being. He was what she'd hoped International Rescue were when she'd decided to step into the breach. He was kind, generous, caring and absolutely gorgeous to look at…

Stop it she told herself firmly.

It was so easy to get lost in the tales he'd told of other countries. He'd clearly been trying - squeak – to hide the fact that he'd seen most of these places. Some of which were clearly important to him. He also didn't know what to make of her and she actually felt a little guilty about that. Taking his shirt had been a calculated move, it just hadn't had the expected result. Earlier in the evening she'd thought she could find out quickly that he was exactly what she'd feared and then just be done with the whole fake welfare check. Thunderbird – squeak - Five might have been annoyed but that was better than the charade. But no, he'd blushed like an altar boy and that'd made her lose focus.

Damn it.

Squeak.

The bed was amazing. The mattress soft yet supportive, the sheets crisp and fresh and the duvet so deep you could bury yourself in it. Was it wrong of her to want a night in an actual bed? Particularly when the alternative was rain? She'd have to make it up to him in the morning, she'd have to find a way to thank him, she'd have to –

Squeak.

Kill him. She'd have to kill him.

Swinging her legs off the bed she strode across the room and threw open the door slapping the light switch on her way past. Virgil looked up startled from the couch where he'd been trying – unsuccessfully – to get comfortable.

"Okay, that's enough!"

"I'm sorry?" He said blinking as his eyes tried to adjust.

"Do you, know how many times I've been able to sleep in a bed like that? None. That's how many and that includes today because every time I'm just about fall asleep you go move and that damn couch has a squeak in it!" Virgil went to say something, possibly apologise like the annoying git he was but she held up a hand, not about to be stopped mid rant. "That bed in there" she pointed angrily "is more than big enough for both of us, I can't even reach one side of it to the other, I know, because I tried. So, we're going to share and both get a decent night's sleep and if you're worried about some outdated code of chivalry, we can even build a pillow wall down the middle, I don't care, but so help me if that thing squeaks one more time I might just throttle you."

"Uh" He looked like a deer caught I headlights.

"Oh, for heaven's sake" she marched over took him by the arm and pulled to get him moving. Unfortunately, it was his left arm that she'd got hold of and he wasn't quick enough to mask the grimace that crossed his face. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just wasn't expecting you to do that, that's all" he said twisting to take the pressure off his arm and get his feet under him.

"Uh-huh" she said disbelieving. "Shoulder or elbow?"

"There's nothing wrong" he tried to retrieve his arm. But froze as her free hand drifted up his arm and pushed up his loose t-shirt sleeve revealing the vestiges of the mottling there.

"Really? Did you just feel like trying out a new look then or are you just spectacularly bad at showering?"

"I, erm, what?"

Oracle relented. He clearly wasn't entirely awake and really didn't deserve to get the full force of her sleep-interrupted mood.

"You shoulder looks like it's at the final stages of recovering from some serious bruising" she said gently. "What happened?"

"It's nothing" he said running his free hand through slightly messy hair. "But I can't get it comfortable, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you."

"Come on" she said steering him towards the bed. "I can probably help." She got him sat on the edge of the bed and climbed up behind him, fingers gently probing along his shoulder. Virgil looked up at the mirror and caught his reflection then looked away quickly. Oracle didn't notice, she was so intent on what she could feel under her hands. "This was pretty bad. You dislocated it?"

He nodded.

"Okay, this needs to come off" and without any more warning she started pulling up his shirt.

"What?" he squeaked, instinctually jumping and batting her hand away.

"Oohh" she said dryly "a shoulder and a back, how will I ever contain myself? You had your hands wrapped round my leg earlier, remember? That's supposed to be a thing, isn't it? Some men are leg men? I've never yet seen a woman get all jittery over a shoulder blade. Come on" she coaxed "I can release this a bit; it should make it feel a lot better. You're not the only one with a bit of medical training you know."

"Um, okay." He was still tense as a board but he let her get his shirt off. She blew out a whistle at the remainder of the bruising that went down his back. It was no longer the deep black and blue of a recent injury but he was covered in an assortment of green and yellow that spoke of a serious impact.

"When did you do this?"

"A couple of weeks ago" he said clearly trying to relax. Gently Oracle rested a palm on his good shoulder blade and rolled the ball and socket joint of his good arm. She then moved and repeated the exercise on the other side.

"Did you do anything to it since then?"

"No" he twisted round to look at her, "why?"

She turned him to face forwards again.

"Because this feels really knotted up. It's more like the muscles are stressed from a collision rather than a dislocation. Come on, this'll be easier if you lie down."

"I definitely dislocated it" he said letting her guide him to lie on his stomach. She then left to grab something out of the bathroom.

"Oh, I know, I can feel that" she agreed as she returned rubbing her hands together. "Look, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to but I'm just about smart enough to work out that you got this on the job and I do know who you work for. I don't need to know where or who you were saving but what happened would be useful."

As he deliberated Oracle concentrated on what she could feel under her hands. Why Virgil's hotel suite had complimentary massage oil was something she just wasn't going to ask about. It wasn't even the weirdest thing she'd found in the little wicker basket on the bathroom sink. But then again, it wasn't like she'd lived in anything like Virgil's world. Maybe this was so normal for him he hadn't noticed?

Fortunately, the gentle manipulation of the injured arm seemed to be relaxing him enough for her to be confident that she could make an improvement.

"A chunk of concrete fell on me" he said finally.

"Large enough and heavy enough to pop your shoulder out? Seriously?" She stopped what she was doing and leant round far enough to catch his eye. Wherever he was though, it wasn't in the room with her. He nodded absently then huffed out a frustrated sigh.

"You can really feel that it's been recently dislocated?" he said.

Whatever was going through your head, it wasn't that she thought, but understood that whatever had happened on that rescue, it was something she didn't need to know about. She got back to work on Virgil's shoulder.

"Yeah, I picked up quite a lot in the year or so I spent as Dr Leonard's personal slave" she said fondly.

"He was important to you" Virgil said, picking up on the tone.

"Saved my life" she told him not really thinking about why she was telling him. It was nice to tell someone. "It was during my rehab that he started teaching me how to be nurse for him. He was a good man, though, very misunderstood and more than a little self-destructive. Alright" she changed topic firstly to avoid talking about Leonard any further but secondly to tell Virgil what he could expect. "I can release this a fair bit. It won't magically feel better, or anything, but it should help it heal a bit faster and, most importantly, it'll let you sleep. You'll feel a rush of blood down the inside of your arm when I get it to go. Is that okay?"

"Yes" he said looking over his shoulder at her. She nodded and got to work.

"Why was Dr Leonard misunderstood?" Virgil asked a short time later. Oracle looked up from what she was doing. He'd clearly been thinking of something to say. Or maybe he'd had too many questions and had been trying to pick one.

"Probably because he was a raging alcoholic" she said. "Don't worry, they got him dry and after that he was just exceptionally short tempered. Brilliant doctor though."

Nearly got it she thought to herself as she stretched the ligaments.

"They let him practice as an alcoholic?" He sounded shocked; she should have seen that coming.

"I did say they got him dry first" she pointed out.

Almost.

The groan Virgil let out as the muscles finally released bordered on obscene.

"That got it" she said failing miserably to keep a grin off her face.

"You… wow. How'd you do that? It feels great" he flexed his hand no doubt feeling the benefit of the increased blood flow.

"It's sort of a combination of osteo and physical therapies" she said enjoying the look on his face. It always felt good when she'd stopped people from hurting.

"And you learnt that from Dr Leonard?"

"No, I learnt that from a book" she said sarcastically. "But I got a lot of practice in before today."

"Well, thank you" he said sitting up and turning towards her.

"You're welcome." He really did have gorgeous eyes. That way is very dangerous. Probably best not to think about the sound he just made as well. "Can we go to sleep now?"

"Yes!" he shot up like he'd been scalded. "Yes, I'm sorry. I'll just-" he moved to go back towards the living room and the infernal couch.

"No, you're sleeping here" she said going for stern but missing. She wasn't sure what exactly her tone said but it worked. He reached through the door and turned off the living room light.

Okay, let try and make this totally weird situation as not weird as possible. This happens every day. You meet a guy; you patch each other up and then you fall asleep together. What could be more normal?

My life is mental at the moment.

Perhaps Virgil had decided the same thing as she had, for he quietly climbed into bed next to her and reached for the light. The room plunged into darkness and Oracle became very aware that they were both lying on their backs staring at the ceiling pretending like everything was fine.

A giggle slipped out before she could catch it.

"What so funny?" He asked which for no reason she could put a finger on made her giggle again.

"I'm sorry" she waved him off before realising he couldn't see her. Which made her laugh again. She rolled to her right side to face him, finally getting hold of herself.

"You're infuriating, you know that?"

"What?" She heard him shift his face towards her.

"Why do I trust you?" She wondered out loud. "I can count the people I trust on one hand and somehow, you made it on to that list. That's insane when you think about it. We've known each other a couple of days."

He didn't say anything for a while, but she knew he hadn't fallen asleep, so she waited.

"I wanted to find you for a lot longer though" he said into the darkness. "I didn't like leaving you after the mugging. I saw" he broke off, swallowed and started again. "I saw the busing you had on you at the time, how much you needed the water. But then you vanished and I should have let it go. But I didn't."

Outside the window the faint sounds of the city could be heard. They helped to ground Oracle otherwise she'd have thought this whole situation to be nothing more than a very strange dream.

"Well," she said considering. "Maybe I'm glad. These past two days have been fun so, if International Rescue had to send anybody to check up on me, I'm glad it was you."

"Good night, Jasmine." She could hear the smile in his voice.

"Good night Virgil."