Some girl's doctor

A/N Now I know that Alex and Kelly meet when James is in the hospital but they could both ideally work in a hospital too so here's a little shot of them meeting, possibly a little Grey's Anatomy style. This is an AU where Alex didn't join the DEO and stayed up at her research job in Seattle.

Seattle, Earth-38 - 2012

Dr Alex Danvers MD PhD was sitting at the table in the resident's lounge on the fifth floor, she'd gotten her hair cut last week and her lab coat was now rubbing against the back of her neck. She adjusted it for what felt like the fifteenth time today. She should be upstairs in the genetics lab but there was a minor pipe leak through the ceiling and now her research was out for the next week. It was only a little infuriating. Okay, there was no way she actually meant that, but it was what she'd been telling herself all morning because now she had a pile of paperwork to fill out about moving to a currently unauthorised lab. It was amounting up by the dozen on the end of the desk she was borrowing. But at the moment, there was no paperwork, there was no leak in her lab, there was just her, a jello cup and a sandwich.

When Dr Kelly Olsen MD walked into the lounge she was surprised to see someone she didn't recognise, but had heard about. So much so that she kept her head down and walked over to the coffee machine. She poured herself a cup and took a sip before making for the door. But something stopped her, a pull of psychologist's curiosity to ask why Dr Alexandra Danvers was sitting in the psych floor's resident's lounge rather than upstairs in the bio lab. From what she'd heard about the woman Dr Danvers was a very private person, she'd heard that she could be in the lab for 12 hours without taking a pee break. She was determined alright. But no one seemed to really know her, she had a few friends in her assistants who suggested she was actually a really nice person. But that she used to party a lot and then something happened to make her stop. Either way, she was a person who Kelly wished deeply would come down for some therapy sessions just so she could get to know the woman, let alone find her in the resident's lounge eating a sandwich. So she stopped walking towards the door and turned back to the table Dr Danvers was sitting at.

When Alex saw Dr Olsen hesitating over the chair opposite her she looked up from her lonely sandwich and said, "do you wanna sit?" Kelly did, she really did want to sit. She also had an appointment in the next ten minutes, so she checked her watch and perched on the edge of the chair mentally telling herself she didn't have long. For a few minutes there was nothing but silence, Alex was periodically taking bites of her sandwich and then returning to the form she was hastily filling in, whilst Kelly sipped her coffee and checked her watch twice every minute. In a way there was an eery familiarity with each other, a strange warmth and bubble that surrounded them that seemed to be awkward-proof.

"Do you want my jello cup?" Alex said after a while, realising there was only so many times she could go over and over the words she'd written, soon the pen would poke through the paper.

"I will graciously accept on the account that jello is the perfect hospital food." Kelly replied, smiling sweetly before opening the top and digging her spoon straight into the cup. The pink jello wobbled a little and splintered where the spoon had dove into it. Little pieces of odd fruit sticking to the sides of the cup as she brought the first spoonful up to her lips.

"Oh? Why's that?" Alex replied, giggling as Kelly managed to get some on the side of her mouth. Alex realised Kelly looked cute when she smiled, and even adorable when she was trying to remove the little bits of jello from the side of the cup - her eyes squinted a rather determined look appeared on her otherwise neutral face.

"It's a perfect metaphor for trauma, if you shake it, it wobbles but still holds it's form. If you dig in too deep it's never the same."

"Well I never knew that." Alex said, internally she wanted to say something like 'sounds like my ex-girlfriend' but maybe now wasn't the best time to bring Maggie up. They split because they wanted different things, but every time Alex thought back on it, she kept finding new holes in their relationship. She cursed herself for being so blinded, love was like that sometimes. And love for her was new, she'd never really loved a partner before Maggie, and their break up had reset her entire world.

"I'm a psychologist, it's kind of my job to know all the best metaphors. Dr Kelly Olsen, I haven't seen you around here much." Kelly said, reaching out her hand for Alex to shake, which she did, holding the position for a little longer than necessary to prolong the feeling of warmth stretching up her arm. Kelly shuddered when she realised what the other woman was doing. It'd only been a few months since she'd been discharged and the memory of her late fiancée was still raw.

"It's very nice to meet you Dr Olsen, can I call you Kelly?" Kelly nodded enthusiastically, "I'm Alex Danvers, but you can call me Alex. Sorry I don't really make friends very often, my sister is the popular one. Cute, smart, energetic, you know the type." Alex spilled out, trying to ground her feet onto the floor to stop herself from getting too excited. There was the possibility she could really like this woman, she liked kind, and she had to be smart to be a psychologist. Then the internal panic creeped in and Alex began to wonder why exactly Kelly decided to sit down in the first place. Maybe she had some sort of motive and was psychoanalysing her for an experiment. Or she needed subjects for a study, maybe Kelly didn't really like her after all, maybe she wasn't even gay.

"Yes I know the type very well, my brother is exactly the same." Kelly started to reply and then looked down at her watch - she was late for her patient. A patient that was relying on her, a patient that might in pain or having a panic attack because she wasn't there at the right time. Her guilt skyrocketed, she took a look at Alex and her heard melted a little, she knew they'd only just met but this woman seemed like she was a secret weapon or something. Someone that had been here the whole time under her radar and now that they'd found each other she didn't want to exactly go and leave her.

"You have to be somewhere?" Alex was disappointed, she felt something pulling her towards Kelly, something about their chance encounter, and the woman was funny and sweet that she thought she was in some kind of lost trance when she looked at her. She didn't want Kelly to go.

"Actually yes I do, and I'm running late." She suddenly go up out of her chair and made for the door, forgetting her cooling cup of coffee but stopped by the grip of Alex's hand on her wrist. It was like a shot running up her arm, her head turned quickly back and before her instincts could stop her from dropping to the ground in fear, Alex said.

"Just one thing. Have a drink with me later?"