A Friendly Hand
By Didi
Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters. John Wells and his friends do. Let's not get into the debate as to who owns the ideas and all that; cause let's fact it, you'll lose. Enjoy the story anyways.
Summary: The hospital rumor mill get hold of a hush-hush situation.
Note: I cannot remember what Dr. Letty Jordan's husband's first name is so we're just going to call him David. If anyone remembers, please drop me a note so I can go back and change it. Thanks.
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Chapter 3
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"Coming!" Jules yelled at her front door as she tried to put earrings, watch and shoes on at the same time. It took longer than expected to tame her unruly hair with gel, mousse and an oversize blow dryer. Now she was ten minutes behind schedule and still not ready yet. Turning the three locks on the door and pulling the door open a crack, she dropped one shoe and the pendant she had planned on wearing for the evening. Hopping on one foot, she tried to clasp the discreet silver anklet on her other feet as she made her way to the breakfast counter where her purse had been laid. "Make yourself at home."
Matt stopped just inside the door and looked around for a moment. He's never had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Keating apartment before and this may be his only chance to do so. The small townhouse had all the comforts without any of the fusses. The living room was spacious with a cherry red sofa set and glass and oak coffee table. The fish tank in the corner was crowded with three ferns that needed more sun. The small wooden dining room table was pushed to one side and decorated with a fresh vase of flowers. The kitchen was just beyond the counter that separated the two rooms. The house was spotless and smelled delicately sweet. Very much like the owner.
After his examination of the house, he turned to the woman.
Dr. Slingerland has only seen Jules outside her professional attire on the few occasions they were forced to join the benefactors of the hospital. And on those occasions, she always choice to wear demurrer sober attires that added dignity to her youthful face. This was the first time he's seen her dress... her age.
The sleeveless crush velvet cocktail dress was auburn with intricate maple leaf designs interlace with black mash. And while it revealed nothing, it hinted at enough to tantalize. The neckline dipped low and the back dipped lower. The thin strapped sandals she choice to complete the ensemble was flirty and dangerous in the nippy weather but looked too good not to risk frozen toes. The long black tailor coat resting over the back of a bar stool by the counter would be her own defense against the San Francisco winter.
"I sincerely hope your car as heat," she said with a smile as she slipped the small diamond studs into her ear. She gave his charcoal gray suit an appreciative glance. "Nice."
"Like wise," he replied, feeling just a little hot under the collar. He hadn't expected to feel any kind of attraction... but there it was. "Need help with that?" he asked as she struggled to put her necklace on.
"Thanks," turning to give him her back and tilted her head forward.
He hesitated for a moment, swallowing to put some moisture into his mouth once more as he stared at the expansion of creamy smooth skin on Dr. Keating gracefully arched back. With all those adorable freckles on her face, he'd had expected some on her back as well. But there was nothing but a light sprinkle of golden specks on her lovely shoulders. "There."
Turning around, she gave him an impish smile. "Well? What do you think? Will I do?"
Reframing from saying what he really thought, given that it was likely to make her back out of the evening's events, he merely nodded his head enthusiastically as any happy man when faced with a pretty woman would. "Lovely."
Jules rolled her eyes and laughed lightly. "Wow, you're flattery just swept me off my feet." She ruffled through her purse for keys, pager, lipstick and other assortment of things necessary for an evening out. "I figure that given you usually form of dates," she looked over at him knowingly, "I should at least attempt to match up that that lofty standard." She pulled a charm bracelet from the beaded purse she planned on carrying tonight. "Bracelet or no bracelet?"
Examining the assortment of charms on the silver chain, he felt slightly bemused. "I would have expected teddy bears, little hearts, angels or something. But planets of the solar system?"
Fingering the little silver charms, Dr. Keating smiled fondly at them. "When I was little, my brothers and I would go and watch the stars in the sky from the roof of our house. When I was fifteen, I was sure that I wanted be an astronomer. My dad was excited and got me a huge telescope set. My mom was sure I would change my mind and got me the charm bracelet instead."
"What changed your mind about the stars?" Slingerland asked amiably as he fastened the clasp into place around her slender wrist and picked up her coat, holding it out for her.
Slipping her arms into the sleeves of the coat, she smiled her thanks and picked up her purse and keys. "I got my drivers license when I was sixteen. My best friend, Mitzi Crawford, got it at the same time and decided that she was going to have her first drive as an adult behind the wheels of her boyfriend Jeffrey Randall's little red convertible."
Matt made a face as he held the door open and waited for her to walk out before pulling the door shut behind him. "Why do I have the feeling that this isn't going to be one of those happy stories?"
"Mitzi and Jeff drove down the highway at ninety miles an hour and plowed into Dave Stafford's car... with me in it."
"Ouch!" walking out toward his little black two-door Mustang. Punching his remote ar lock harder than he should, he pulled the door open for her and helped her tuck the long coat into the car before shutting the door. Getting behind the wheel, he glanced over at her. "Cold?"
"Yeah," she laughed as he turned on the heat. "Anyways, I came out of the wreck with little more than scratches and a black eye."
"Black eye?" he laughed and stopped at a red light.
"Dave's elbow. He landed on me when the car flipped over." She glanced about, suddenly feeling slightly nervous. "Anyways, Mitzi wasn't so lucky and crashed twice on the way to the hospital." She toyed with the beaded on her purse. "I watched the doctor's in the emergency room revive her twice and remove a piece of glass the size of her kidney out of her lungs."
"Quite a life altering experience, heh?" He said as they passed 18th street.
"Actually, I lost my lunch and dinner in the emergency room and passed out. Then I woke up and saw Mitzi become violently sick next to me." She grinned at him as he laughed uproariously at the image. "But she was alive."
"And you wanted to perform the same kind of miracles?" he asked gently, making a quick change of lanes as the streets became crowded with cars making their way home.
"Yeah," she nodded and watched as the light turned from green to yellow to red before Slingerland passed the pedestrian lines of the street to pass the intersection. "Um... you just..." she sighed. "Nevermind."
"What did you say?" he asked.
"Nothing," she murmured gently as he got closer to the club. Fidgeting slightly, she took a deep breath.
"What's wrong?" Matt asked, glancing at her from the corner of his eyes. "You look kind of nervous."
"I am," answering honestly. "Matt, I'm not sure I can do this."
He glanced at her, frowning over the way she was chewing on her lower lip and twisting her fingers together tightly. Reaching over, he squeezed her interlaced fingers gently. "Jules, you are a beautiful, smart woman with loads of charms. And we aren't doing anything wrong or illegal, just two friend out having dinner."
"All the while trying to convince an infatuated woman that you are off limits to her," she pointed out. "You don't think that's just a little dishonest? Why not just tell her that you are not interested?"
"You don't think I've tried?" he asked, a little offended by her lack of faith in his manners. "But there is only so much you can say to a woman without being offensive."
"So that's why we're going to lie to her instead?"
"We're going to let her face reality," he correctly as he pulled to the side of the street in front of the valet area.
"But it's not reality, you and I are not dating." She replied as he got out of the car and handed his spare keys to the waiting hands of the valet. She pushed the door open and accepted the hand Slingerland offered to get out of car. "We're creating illusion for her benefit."
"Yes but it will help her move on with her life," he coaxed gently, pulling her gently toward the entrance of the lively club.
"And remove you from a sticky situation," she finished with a grin and shook her head in amusement and resignation. It looks like she was stuck and can only play this out. Well, if nothing else, she will at least get a free meal and some good music out of the evening. "And how are you going to ensure that we end up at a table she waits on?"
"Oh ye have little faith," he chide.
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
"I'm going to have to bring David here one day," Dr. Jordan said with a grin. "This is a nice place they got here."
"Yeah, very upscale but still enjoyable," Harriet Lenning commented as she popped another peanut into her mouth. "You have good music, restaurant area, bar area, and dance floor. A great place to spend an entire evening."
"And some fine men to look at," Jackie sighed as another male with a nice set of abs walked by. "God, I hate being single and unattached."
"Jackie, with your credentials, you're going to have men flocking to your side," Rae pronounced as she sipped the Long Island ice tea with enough kick to get a dead man up and dancing on a table top. It was exactly what she needed.
"So where the heck are they?" Jackie asked a she finished her Cosmopolitan in one solid gulp that had Rae and Letty staring. "What?"
"You're a doctor for goodness sakes, you have a pretty good idea what consuming alcohol like that can do to your liver." Letty shook her head and sipped the coke and rum she's been nursing since they arrived. "Where's the food, I'm starved."
"Where's that cute waiter?" Jackie asked with a grin as she looked around for the tall blonde Nordic god that had taken their order. Not the brightest bulb in the much but he certainly did have a body that could make Jackie drool. Then something else caught her eyes; had she been drinking, she'd be spewing it all over her fellow patrons of the fine establishment. "Well, that's unexpected."
"What is?" Rae asked, turning her head and promptly did spit her drink onto the floor, barely missing a man with a fine sports coat that had had the misfortune of walking by at an inopportune time. "Sorry about that," she apologies but couldn't keep her eyes from straying to the most unlikely sight. "Is that..."
"Slingerland and Keating," Letty finished with her jaw still hanging somewhere in the region of her feet.
Harriet Lenning turned in her seat and peered at the two through a dense crowd of people. Even from the distance of the room, it was not hard to locate the tall stately Dr. Slingerland with one hand resting lightly against the small of Dr. Keating back. "Hum... guess those two got close."
"I didn't know they were dating," Jackie commented as the Nordic God waiter finally approached with a tray load of food for the semi-starved doctors. "Thank you," flashing him her most winning smile.
He smiled back, revealing an even roll of white teeth. A definite model wantabe if she ever saw one. The slightly vacant look in his eyes dropped him from possibly-interesting to would-be-bored-by-midnight category. But hey, he was still fine eye candy for the rest of the female population.
Rae waited until the waiter had left before leaning over. "I didn't know either though there has been rumors."
"Rumors?" Harriet asked, her brows knitted slightly as she turned in her chair to watch as Slingerland pulled out the chair for Keating, who eased herself into the seat with a natural grace that came from being a tomboy most of her life; after navigating the art of falling from a tree, everything else in life is make much simpler. "There are rumors of Jules and Slingerland?"
"Oh yeah," Letty nodded her head and then shook it in disbelief. The rumors must have some truth in it then if the two were so obviously on a date together. Heck, even from here she could tell Jules made some considerable effort to dress up for the night.
Jackie's eyes went wide. "Oh, so that's what all the whispering at the nurses station was about."
Harriet laughed gently. Why not? The two of them may have come together for a rather unusual reason but still... She's definitely seen stranger bedfellows before. Funny, the two had created life together before even going on a date. Talk about reverse order of things.
Rae shook her head slowly at the cozy little corner the maitre d' had secured for the couple. "Oh Jules, what were you thinking?"
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
"Oh god, what was I thinking agreeing to this?" Jules muttered as Slingerland scanned the wine selection with a critical eye. They hadn't even run into Debra yet and already she was a nervous wreak. "Matt, I beginning to think that this was a really bad..."
"Do you like white or red?" he asked suddenly, his smile bright and easy. "A little wine will help you relax and you'll see how easy this will be."
"If you think getting me drunk is going to..."
"Oh please," he waved it away and put down the wine menu. "I hardly need to ply a woman with wine to encourage agreeability toward me. Besides which incapacitating you would be hardly be productive to tonight's plans. I need you at the top of your games here. We're on a mission."
"Speaking of which," she looked around nervously noting the many couples seated around the dance. "I'm not sure I can do this. I'm a doctor not an actor."
"You're doing fine," he said reassuringly. "The maitre d' thought we made a nice copy and seated us in this sweet little spot."
Jules slanted him a look and smiled suddenly. "And here I thought it might have something to do with that twenty you slipped her."
Matt grinned shamelessly at her. "Hey, all is fair in love and..."
"Good evening, my name is Debra and I'll be your..." she stopped midway through her often rehearsed introduction and stared. "Dr. Slingerland!"
"Debra," forging perfect surprise on his classically handsome face. "What a surprise, do you work here?"
"Only on my good days," she smiled invitingly at him, completely ignoring his companion.
It was difficult situation and Jules certainly wasn't doing a very good job of hiding her obvious amusement over the whole thing. The twitching of her lips weren't making it any easier on Matt to avoid the exasperation he was beginning to feel more acutely by the minute. "Debra, you remember Dr. Keating," reaching and taking Jules's hand before she had a chance to withdrawal it from his reach.
Turning to smile, Jules was greeted by the sight of Debra's face contorting to a rather unpleasant expression. Dr. Keating at a rather nasty feeling that the blonde beauty would like nothing better at the moment than to tear all her hair out. Forcing herself not to react, "Hello Debra, nice to meet you again. How is Billy?"
That was nothing more unattractive than a jealous woman, or at least that was what Matt's grandfather use to say. Of course, his sweet nana never wore any such a look for she knew that her husband of forty odd years adored her down to the last silvery strand of hair on her head. Which reminded him that he must remember to write his grandparents soon.
"Billy?" Debra's face was straining to appear calm, and she almost succeeded if not for the venom in her eyes. "Oh Billy. He's doing just fine, Dr. Keating."
"That's good," Jules replied, glancing briefly at Matt, who seemed slightly distracted. "Matt, did you want to order some..."
"You two are...friend?" Debra asked, biting out the last word through slightly clinched teeth.
Matt brought Jule's hand closer to him, the movement deliberate to draw Debra's eyes. "Yes, Jules and I are... very good friend." The significance there could not be missed. He looked to Jules with smile. "White wine?"
Nodding her head, she resisted the urge to pull her hand back. The palms were smooth, warm and firmly enclosing her smaller hand. There was something just a little too intimate about the ease in which he made the gesture. But then, this was what she had come to help him out with.
Slingerland smiled back at Debra with the indulgence of made in the fond company of a lover and nodded his head. "Two Chardonnays, iced."
Clinching her teeth to keep from howler in frustration and anger, Debra jotted it down on her pad with enough force to break the tip of her pencil. "Two whites coming up," then dropped the dinner menu on the table instead of handing it to them before fleeing to the kitchen.
Still keeping a hold of her hand, Slingerland grinned happily at Debra's retreating back. "Well, that went well. Don't you think?"
Jules had a feeling that this would be a long night.
TBC....
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I got to catch tonight's episode of Presidio Med. It had one brief but shining moment of Jules and Matt. (sigh) They definitely need more scenes together. Who do I have to petition to request for more scenes with them?
By Didi
Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters. John Wells and his friends do. Let's not get into the debate as to who owns the ideas and all that; cause let's fact it, you'll lose. Enjoy the story anyways.
Summary: The hospital rumor mill get hold of a hush-hush situation.
Note: I cannot remember what Dr. Letty Jordan's husband's first name is so we're just going to call him David. If anyone remembers, please drop me a note so I can go back and change it. Thanks.
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Chapter 3
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
"Coming!" Jules yelled at her front door as she tried to put earrings, watch and shoes on at the same time. It took longer than expected to tame her unruly hair with gel, mousse and an oversize blow dryer. Now she was ten minutes behind schedule and still not ready yet. Turning the three locks on the door and pulling the door open a crack, she dropped one shoe and the pendant she had planned on wearing for the evening. Hopping on one foot, she tried to clasp the discreet silver anklet on her other feet as she made her way to the breakfast counter where her purse had been laid. "Make yourself at home."
Matt stopped just inside the door and looked around for a moment. He's never had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Keating apartment before and this may be his only chance to do so. The small townhouse had all the comforts without any of the fusses. The living room was spacious with a cherry red sofa set and glass and oak coffee table. The fish tank in the corner was crowded with three ferns that needed more sun. The small wooden dining room table was pushed to one side and decorated with a fresh vase of flowers. The kitchen was just beyond the counter that separated the two rooms. The house was spotless and smelled delicately sweet. Very much like the owner.
After his examination of the house, he turned to the woman.
Dr. Slingerland has only seen Jules outside her professional attire on the few occasions they were forced to join the benefactors of the hospital. And on those occasions, she always choice to wear demurrer sober attires that added dignity to her youthful face. This was the first time he's seen her dress... her age.
The sleeveless crush velvet cocktail dress was auburn with intricate maple leaf designs interlace with black mash. And while it revealed nothing, it hinted at enough to tantalize. The neckline dipped low and the back dipped lower. The thin strapped sandals she choice to complete the ensemble was flirty and dangerous in the nippy weather but looked too good not to risk frozen toes. The long black tailor coat resting over the back of a bar stool by the counter would be her own defense against the San Francisco winter.
"I sincerely hope your car as heat," she said with a smile as she slipped the small diamond studs into her ear. She gave his charcoal gray suit an appreciative glance. "Nice."
"Like wise," he replied, feeling just a little hot under the collar. He hadn't expected to feel any kind of attraction... but there it was. "Need help with that?" he asked as she struggled to put her necklace on.
"Thanks," turning to give him her back and tilted her head forward.
He hesitated for a moment, swallowing to put some moisture into his mouth once more as he stared at the expansion of creamy smooth skin on Dr. Keating gracefully arched back. With all those adorable freckles on her face, he'd had expected some on her back as well. But there was nothing but a light sprinkle of golden specks on her lovely shoulders. "There."
Turning around, she gave him an impish smile. "Well? What do you think? Will I do?"
Reframing from saying what he really thought, given that it was likely to make her back out of the evening's events, he merely nodded his head enthusiastically as any happy man when faced with a pretty woman would. "Lovely."
Jules rolled her eyes and laughed lightly. "Wow, you're flattery just swept me off my feet." She ruffled through her purse for keys, pager, lipstick and other assortment of things necessary for an evening out. "I figure that given you usually form of dates," she looked over at him knowingly, "I should at least attempt to match up that that lofty standard." She pulled a charm bracelet from the beaded purse she planned on carrying tonight. "Bracelet or no bracelet?"
Examining the assortment of charms on the silver chain, he felt slightly bemused. "I would have expected teddy bears, little hearts, angels or something. But planets of the solar system?"
Fingering the little silver charms, Dr. Keating smiled fondly at them. "When I was little, my brothers and I would go and watch the stars in the sky from the roof of our house. When I was fifteen, I was sure that I wanted be an astronomer. My dad was excited and got me a huge telescope set. My mom was sure I would change my mind and got me the charm bracelet instead."
"What changed your mind about the stars?" Slingerland asked amiably as he fastened the clasp into place around her slender wrist and picked up her coat, holding it out for her.
Slipping her arms into the sleeves of the coat, she smiled her thanks and picked up her purse and keys. "I got my drivers license when I was sixteen. My best friend, Mitzi Crawford, got it at the same time and decided that she was going to have her first drive as an adult behind the wheels of her boyfriend Jeffrey Randall's little red convertible."
Matt made a face as he held the door open and waited for her to walk out before pulling the door shut behind him. "Why do I have the feeling that this isn't going to be one of those happy stories?"
"Mitzi and Jeff drove down the highway at ninety miles an hour and plowed into Dave Stafford's car... with me in it."
"Ouch!" walking out toward his little black two-door Mustang. Punching his remote ar lock harder than he should, he pulled the door open for her and helped her tuck the long coat into the car before shutting the door. Getting behind the wheel, he glanced over at her. "Cold?"
"Yeah," she laughed as he turned on the heat. "Anyways, I came out of the wreck with little more than scratches and a black eye."
"Black eye?" he laughed and stopped at a red light.
"Dave's elbow. He landed on me when the car flipped over." She glanced about, suddenly feeling slightly nervous. "Anyways, Mitzi wasn't so lucky and crashed twice on the way to the hospital." She toyed with the beaded on her purse. "I watched the doctor's in the emergency room revive her twice and remove a piece of glass the size of her kidney out of her lungs."
"Quite a life altering experience, heh?" He said as they passed 18th street.
"Actually, I lost my lunch and dinner in the emergency room and passed out. Then I woke up and saw Mitzi become violently sick next to me." She grinned at him as he laughed uproariously at the image. "But she was alive."
"And you wanted to perform the same kind of miracles?" he asked gently, making a quick change of lanes as the streets became crowded with cars making their way home.
"Yeah," she nodded and watched as the light turned from green to yellow to red before Slingerland passed the pedestrian lines of the street to pass the intersection. "Um... you just..." she sighed. "Nevermind."
"What did you say?" he asked.
"Nothing," she murmured gently as he got closer to the club. Fidgeting slightly, she took a deep breath.
"What's wrong?" Matt asked, glancing at her from the corner of his eyes. "You look kind of nervous."
"I am," answering honestly. "Matt, I'm not sure I can do this."
He glanced at her, frowning over the way she was chewing on her lower lip and twisting her fingers together tightly. Reaching over, he squeezed her interlaced fingers gently. "Jules, you are a beautiful, smart woman with loads of charms. And we aren't doing anything wrong or illegal, just two friend out having dinner."
"All the while trying to convince an infatuated woman that you are off limits to her," she pointed out. "You don't think that's just a little dishonest? Why not just tell her that you are not interested?"
"You don't think I've tried?" he asked, a little offended by her lack of faith in his manners. "But there is only so much you can say to a woman without being offensive."
"So that's why we're going to lie to her instead?"
"We're going to let her face reality," he correctly as he pulled to the side of the street in front of the valet area.
"But it's not reality, you and I are not dating." She replied as he got out of the car and handed his spare keys to the waiting hands of the valet. She pushed the door open and accepted the hand Slingerland offered to get out of car. "We're creating illusion for her benefit."
"Yes but it will help her move on with her life," he coaxed gently, pulling her gently toward the entrance of the lively club.
"And remove you from a sticky situation," she finished with a grin and shook her head in amusement and resignation. It looks like she was stuck and can only play this out. Well, if nothing else, she will at least get a free meal and some good music out of the evening. "And how are you going to ensure that we end up at a table she waits on?"
"Oh ye have little faith," he chide.
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
"I'm going to have to bring David here one day," Dr. Jordan said with a grin. "This is a nice place they got here."
"Yeah, very upscale but still enjoyable," Harriet Lenning commented as she popped another peanut into her mouth. "You have good music, restaurant area, bar area, and dance floor. A great place to spend an entire evening."
"And some fine men to look at," Jackie sighed as another male with a nice set of abs walked by. "God, I hate being single and unattached."
"Jackie, with your credentials, you're going to have men flocking to your side," Rae pronounced as she sipped the Long Island ice tea with enough kick to get a dead man up and dancing on a table top. It was exactly what she needed.
"So where the heck are they?" Jackie asked a she finished her Cosmopolitan in one solid gulp that had Rae and Letty staring. "What?"
"You're a doctor for goodness sakes, you have a pretty good idea what consuming alcohol like that can do to your liver." Letty shook her head and sipped the coke and rum she's been nursing since they arrived. "Where's the food, I'm starved."
"Where's that cute waiter?" Jackie asked with a grin as she looked around for the tall blonde Nordic god that had taken their order. Not the brightest bulb in the much but he certainly did have a body that could make Jackie drool. Then something else caught her eyes; had she been drinking, she'd be spewing it all over her fellow patrons of the fine establishment. "Well, that's unexpected."
"What is?" Rae asked, turning her head and promptly did spit her drink onto the floor, barely missing a man with a fine sports coat that had had the misfortune of walking by at an inopportune time. "Sorry about that," she apologies but couldn't keep her eyes from straying to the most unlikely sight. "Is that..."
"Slingerland and Keating," Letty finished with her jaw still hanging somewhere in the region of her feet.
Harriet Lenning turned in her seat and peered at the two through a dense crowd of people. Even from the distance of the room, it was not hard to locate the tall stately Dr. Slingerland with one hand resting lightly against the small of Dr. Keating back. "Hum... guess those two got close."
"I didn't know they were dating," Jackie commented as the Nordic God waiter finally approached with a tray load of food for the semi-starved doctors. "Thank you," flashing him her most winning smile.
He smiled back, revealing an even roll of white teeth. A definite model wantabe if she ever saw one. The slightly vacant look in his eyes dropped him from possibly-interesting to would-be-bored-by-midnight category. But hey, he was still fine eye candy for the rest of the female population.
Rae waited until the waiter had left before leaning over. "I didn't know either though there has been rumors."
"Rumors?" Harriet asked, her brows knitted slightly as she turned in her chair to watch as Slingerland pulled out the chair for Keating, who eased herself into the seat with a natural grace that came from being a tomboy most of her life; after navigating the art of falling from a tree, everything else in life is make much simpler. "There are rumors of Jules and Slingerland?"
"Oh yeah," Letty nodded her head and then shook it in disbelief. The rumors must have some truth in it then if the two were so obviously on a date together. Heck, even from here she could tell Jules made some considerable effort to dress up for the night.
Jackie's eyes went wide. "Oh, so that's what all the whispering at the nurses station was about."
Harriet laughed gently. Why not? The two of them may have come together for a rather unusual reason but still... She's definitely seen stranger bedfellows before. Funny, the two had created life together before even going on a date. Talk about reverse order of things.
Rae shook her head slowly at the cozy little corner the maitre d' had secured for the couple. "Oh Jules, what were you thinking?"
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
"Oh god, what was I thinking agreeing to this?" Jules muttered as Slingerland scanned the wine selection with a critical eye. They hadn't even run into Debra yet and already she was a nervous wreak. "Matt, I beginning to think that this was a really bad..."
"Do you like white or red?" he asked suddenly, his smile bright and easy. "A little wine will help you relax and you'll see how easy this will be."
"If you think getting me drunk is going to..."
"Oh please," he waved it away and put down the wine menu. "I hardly need to ply a woman with wine to encourage agreeability toward me. Besides which incapacitating you would be hardly be productive to tonight's plans. I need you at the top of your games here. We're on a mission."
"Speaking of which," she looked around nervously noting the many couples seated around the dance. "I'm not sure I can do this. I'm a doctor not an actor."
"You're doing fine," he said reassuringly. "The maitre d' thought we made a nice copy and seated us in this sweet little spot."
Jules slanted him a look and smiled suddenly. "And here I thought it might have something to do with that twenty you slipped her."
Matt grinned shamelessly at her. "Hey, all is fair in love and..."
"Good evening, my name is Debra and I'll be your..." she stopped midway through her often rehearsed introduction and stared. "Dr. Slingerland!"
"Debra," forging perfect surprise on his classically handsome face. "What a surprise, do you work here?"
"Only on my good days," she smiled invitingly at him, completely ignoring his companion.
It was difficult situation and Jules certainly wasn't doing a very good job of hiding her obvious amusement over the whole thing. The twitching of her lips weren't making it any easier on Matt to avoid the exasperation he was beginning to feel more acutely by the minute. "Debra, you remember Dr. Keating," reaching and taking Jules's hand before she had a chance to withdrawal it from his reach.
Turning to smile, Jules was greeted by the sight of Debra's face contorting to a rather unpleasant expression. Dr. Keating at a rather nasty feeling that the blonde beauty would like nothing better at the moment than to tear all her hair out. Forcing herself not to react, "Hello Debra, nice to meet you again. How is Billy?"
That was nothing more unattractive than a jealous woman, or at least that was what Matt's grandfather use to say. Of course, his sweet nana never wore any such a look for she knew that her husband of forty odd years adored her down to the last silvery strand of hair on her head. Which reminded him that he must remember to write his grandparents soon.
"Billy?" Debra's face was straining to appear calm, and she almost succeeded if not for the venom in her eyes. "Oh Billy. He's doing just fine, Dr. Keating."
"That's good," Jules replied, glancing briefly at Matt, who seemed slightly distracted. "Matt, did you want to order some..."
"You two are...friend?" Debra asked, biting out the last word through slightly clinched teeth.
Matt brought Jule's hand closer to him, the movement deliberate to draw Debra's eyes. "Yes, Jules and I are... very good friend." The significance there could not be missed. He looked to Jules with smile. "White wine?"
Nodding her head, she resisted the urge to pull her hand back. The palms were smooth, warm and firmly enclosing her smaller hand. There was something just a little too intimate about the ease in which he made the gesture. But then, this was what she had come to help him out with.
Slingerland smiled back at Debra with the indulgence of made in the fond company of a lover and nodded his head. "Two Chardonnays, iced."
Clinching her teeth to keep from howler in frustration and anger, Debra jotted it down on her pad with enough force to break the tip of her pencil. "Two whites coming up," then dropped the dinner menu on the table instead of handing it to them before fleeing to the kitchen.
Still keeping a hold of her hand, Slingerland grinned happily at Debra's retreating back. "Well, that went well. Don't you think?"
Jules had a feeling that this would be a long night.
TBC....
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I got to catch tonight's episode of Presidio Med. It had one brief but shining moment of Jules and Matt. (sigh) They definitely need more scenes together. Who do I have to petition to request for more scenes with them?