"Hey, Boone," she greeted before turning to a girl behind the desk. "Lisa, this is Boone, come meet him."
Lisa looked up and moved towards them. "What?"
"This is Boone," Maria repeated. "As in Jack's Boone."
Lisa looked at him. "Oh my God, I thought you looked familiar."
Boone looked between the two of them, clearly missing something. "Why do I look familiar?"
"You were on Oceanic flight 815, right?" Lisa asked.
"Oh, Jack's mentioned you," Boone said.
Lisa looked excited. "Really? He talks about me?"
"Calm down, sweetie," Maria advised.
"Yeah, look, is he here?" Boone asked.
"He's around," Maria replied. She put her arm around Boone's shoulder and turned back to Lisa. "Isn't he gorgeous though? I mean I know he's not your doctor and all. Hey, I'm having an idea. We should split them up and keep the pieces for ourselves. You in?"
"You know I'm standing right here," Boone said.
"I have a boyfriend," Lisa replied.
Maria rolled her eyes. "Come on, play along."
"Believe me, if I gave you Jack, you'd be giving him back within a week anyway," Boone said. "He's surprisingly high maintenance. Performing complex spinal surgery, fine, but for some reason he can't grasp the concept of separating lights and darks before putting a wash on."
Lisa smiled. "He's not very domesticated?"
Boone shrugged. "He does okay I guess," he replied. "So do you know where he is?"
"I think he's up at radiology," Maria replied. "He'll be back soon."
"Didn't a plane fall on you or something?" Lisa asked.
Boone looked at her. "Erm, kind of."
"And Jack saved you, right?" Lisa continued.
Boone nodded. "Yeah, he did."
"That must have been awesome," she said dreamily.
"Yeah, I guess," Boone replied.
"He's off the market, keep your hands to yourself," Jack said, coming up behind them.
Maria removed her arm from Boone's shoulders and smiled at Jack. "You don't feel like sharing just a little?"
Jack gave her a look. "Go do some work."
"I'm a nurse, you're not my boss," Maria replied.
Jack turned to Lisa. "You work for me, right?"
"Erm, yeah," she replied.
"Then you go do some work," Jack requested.
"Okay, Dr. Shepherd," she said, picking up her charts and heading away.
"See, why doesn't anyone else listen to me like that?" Jack asked.
"Cos no one else is in lurve with you," Maria teased.
"I am," Boone said, raising his hand.
Jack smiled at him. "Okay, then you come with me." They began to walk down the hall. "What were you guys talking about?"
Boone shrugged. "Not much," he replied. "That Lisa girl seems sweet. You should be nicer to her."
"I'm nice to her," Jack insisted.
"I bet you could be nicer," Boone told him. "She thinks you're the best thing since sliced bread."
"You like that I have a twenty something med student doting on me?" Jack asked.
"I think it's sweet," Boone said. "And you hate her so you're not exactly going to go running off with her, are you?"
"I don't hate her," Jack argued. "You're right, she's sweet. She's also overbearing and her image of me is a lot to live up to."
"You could try," Boone suggested.
"Yeah, I'll work on that," Jack said, leading Boone into his office.
Boone looked around and went over to the desk. "Cool desk plaque," he appraised.
Jack smiled at him and then locked the door.
"Why do you have a lock on your door?" Boone asked.
"I don't know," Jack replied. "Keeps the med students out. And the residents. And the nurses, nurses are very interfering creatures."
Boone smiled at him. "Okay then," he said. "Well you don't need to lock it, I didn't come here for that. I was running some errands and figured I'd come by and see if you wanted to have lunch."
"Yeah, no, we're gonna have sex," Jack told him. Boone gave him a look. "Don't look at me like that, you're the one who's a corrupting influence on me."
"I'm a corrupting influence on you?" Boone asked incredulously.
"Yep," Jack replied. "I was an innocent little spinal surgeon before I met you."
"Sure you were," Boone said.
"It's true," Jack insisted. "Then you came along, being all young and carefree."
"I don't think I was ever young and carefree, Jack," Boone told him.
"Well, you were young," Jack said.
"Yeah, I was young," Boone admitted.
Jack smiled. "And totally hot," he added, moving towards him.
"It's not gonna work," Boone told him.
"You saw the desk plaque, right?" Jack said.
Boone gave him a look. "You wanna go to lunch or not?"
Jack sighed. "Yeah, okay," he said, sliding his arms around Boone's waist and pulling him close. "You're repressed, I get it."
"It's not working," Boone said. Jack rested his head on Boone's shoulder. "What's with you, anyway?"
Jack shrugged. "My job's stressful and sometimes I'm not in the mood to be serious about everything."
"That mood doesn't strike you often so I guess I should capitalise on it," Boone said.
Jack looked at him. "Am I really as annoying as you make me out to be?"
Boone smiled and shook his head. "I rag on you cos I love you."
Jack nodded. "Okay," he said. "We can just make out a little though, right?"
Boone rolled his eyes. "You are unbelievable."
"I'm just asking you to kiss me," Jack said. "You like kissing me, remember?"
"Yes, I remember," Boone said.
"You know, you said that I wouldn't do it when really you meant that you wouldn't do it so you didn't want me to bring it up," Jack said.
"I'm sorry, hospitals don't exactly get me in the mood," Boone said. "And I'm hungry."
Jack laughed a little against his neck and Boone felt it tickle.
"Fine, let's go eat," Jack said. "Cos you can't do that later."
"It's you I'm worried about," Boone told him. "You probably wouldn't even take a lunch break if I wasn't here."
"I would have done," Jack said. "Maybe." Boone gave him a look. "You should come by here more often."
"I don't want to get in the way of your work," Boone said.
"You wouldn't," Jack told him.
"No, you're really focused right about now," Boone replied.
"I'm on my lunch break, I can do whatever or whoever I want," Jack stated. "So long as I keep my pager on, admittedly."
Boone smiled at him. "When you get home you can count on it."
"But we have to wait for Noah to go to sleep," Jack complained. "That's eight hours away."
"When did you turn into such a sex fiend?" Boone asked him. "When did this happen?"
"You know you were the one who brought up the doctor kink," Jack reminded him.
"It's not a kink," Boone dismissed.
"Sure," Jack said. "Anyway, you're my priority, you and Noah, and right now Noah's not here so it's all you."
"Doesn't mean you have to do me in your office," Boone said.
"No, but it would be fun," Jack said, leaning in and kissing Boone briefly on the lips.
"Okay, here's the deal, I'm gonna kiss you and then we're going to lunch," Boone told him. "The rest can wait 'til tonight."
Jack smiled at him. "I guess I could take that as a compromise."
"Good, cos it's all your getting," Boone said.
Jack smiled and leaned back in, kissing Boone softly but deeply and Boone could feel himself buckling already. Actually he could feel himself buckling from the moment Jack locked the door. Well, no, if he was honest the idea had popped into his head before he even got to the hospital. But that didn't mean he was going to act on it. It was unprofessional. Well, for Jack at least. And the doctor thing might be sexy but the hospital thing definitely wasn't. Boone had never liked hospitals and he didn't think even Jack could change that. But he was starting to come around to the idea.