Giving a Ride

Two days later the girl was back to work. It was a good thing that she hadn't come in yesterday. She'd tossed and turned all night, waking from dream after bloody dream about her handsome coworker that had so gallantly driven her home. What the hell had she been thinking; accepting rides from strangers? But when she looked at him, she couldn't help thinking that he wasn't a stranger at all. No, he was the one that her treacherous heart had set itself on. A famously wealthy, famously successful playboy. What was she thinking? For the last two years, she'd successfully avoided his charms, ignoring her other friends on the unit who insisted that she should go for it. He worked almost every shift that she did; you'd think he'd get tired of trying to run his games on her.

Catching a glimpse of herself in the med room window, she shook her head. Why would he choose her to run games on in the first place? She was a short, squat, fat chick with a great personality. Who could possibly be paying him to make her blush and stutter like a teenager? And all of this after two freaking years of withstanding his advances. She wasn't a little kid anymore and she had bigger problems than an oversexed African battle god looking to get his jollies off the resident charity case. Shaking her head, she got to work on Mrs. Lieberman's pain meds.

"How is your shift going?" Tyr said softly behind her. He chuckled and caught the vial of hydromorphone that she dropped. "Relax, Bliss."

"How did- Why- H-h?"

"Shh," he soothed her. "It's alright. I'm not going to hurt you." The girl looked like she was about to bolt. "Who's this for anyway?"

"It's for 32OC!" she said louder than she meant to, snatching the vial away from him.

He handed over the vial easily. "You didn't answer my question. It's the question on everyone's mind today actually."

"What question?" she asked in confusion. She looked nervous when he moved closer.

"How... is…. your... shift ... going?" he asked again smoothly, leaning in to hear her when Jessica and Chidi came in, talking about Jessica's latest boyfriend debacle.

"Oh! Um… It's going fine. I mean, Mrs. Emfan is gone, so her awful son is gone too. That automatically makes the shift better. Makes the whole unit better, doesn't it?" It was true. At least two nurses had left the unit citing the police officer's abuse of power. Mrs. Emfan had stayed on the unit a year and a day before passing on. And while she should have had nightmares about her horrific experience with her son, her dreams had been full of Tyr, something that she would never admit aloud.

"Indeed. Well, I'll see you after the shift," he said absently, leaving her to her work. The girl prepared her pain meds with a sigh, relaxing now that he was gone.

"Girl, why don't you just date him already? He's so obviously after you." Chidi asked after he was gone. Jessica laughed at the look on the girl's face. It was an open secret that bets were being placed, had been placed for the last two years, on the couple. Some believed that Mr. Anasazi's love would never be requited. Some believed that it was only a matter of time before she gave in to him. Still more felt that he should give up on her. Either way, the advance and retreat between the two were hilariously interesting to watch. This was the first time someone had spoken openly to her about it though.

"I… I'm not… I-I… I have to get this to Mrs. Lieberman." She ran out of the med room with both women laughing.

After her shift, which was blessedly free of Tyr-related incidents, she headed to the bus stop tiredly. Gosh, what a shift. At least she had the next three days off to recover from her ordeal with Mrs. Emfan. She was just turning to look for the bus when a familiar black Jag pulled up to the bus shelter. Abbie felt an army of butterflies take flight in her stomach when he rolled the window down and those honey-golden tones of his voice floated out of the car to her.

"I thought I told you how I felt about you taking the bus home late at night," he chided her playfully.

The girl looked mortified, especially with a few of the girls from the unit standing at the bus shelter, their ears and eyes drinking in this cozy scene between the two.

"You're not the boss of me, Anasazi! Go away! I-"

"Abhaya. Abbie. Do I need to go park and take the bus with you? Get in the car, please." She stood stubbornly, desperately wishing that the stupid bus would show up early for once. It wasn't windy and miserable like the day before yesterday, but it was still bitterly cold outside and would be for the duration of her hour and a half trip home if she somehow managed to turn down his offer.

"I-"

"You should go with him, hermanita," Nora smiled beautifically. "It's cold out. I wish someone would pull up in an expensive car and offer me a ride home." With the encouraging nods of her coworkers, she came forward towards the car just as the man got out and took her things to put them in the trunk. The two got into the Jag to catcalls and whistles of approval.

"You know that people are going to be talking about this tomorrow, right?"

"So?" the driver said nonchalantly. "Those people don't know just how dangerous your neighborhood is. I'd rather have you safe and endure a little gossip than have you wandering around that neighborhood so late at night." Abbie blushed at the statement, looking over at him. Tyr looked as sleek and sexy as his car. He prowled the streets in his chosen vehicle, every move sure and no trace of uncertainty as he got them to her home. She turned away abruptly when she realized that she was starting to drool. She could feel his tender amusement as he reached over and turned on the radio. Abhaya fought the pull of the soothing music on her eyelids, but soon she was asleep just like the other night.

Once he was sure that the girl was asleep against the heated window, he reached out and caressed her cheek. She automatically switched so that she was laying on his arm, snuggling against him with a happy sigh. Tyr smiled and caressed her face again. Now, if only she would admit to the attraction between them like this while awake, he wouldn't have so many restless nights.

"Oh Tyr…" she sighed softly in sleep. His ego puffed up at that. So, he was in her dreams, eh?

"Wake up, Bliss," he said quietly once he had her home. Just like the other night, she was reluctant to relinquish her impromptu pillow and wake up. The driver chuckled at this turn of events, caressing her cheeks tenderly. After a few minutes of this, he slid away from her reluctantly and popped the trunk to get her things. "Come on, Bliss. It's time to get you in bed," he said at last, opening the passenger side door. She stretched luxuriously again and he groaned at the look of her stretched out like some fluffed out kitten. She looked so content, especially bundled up like she was. Tonight, she came awake quickly, immediately knowing what was happening. No adorable look of sleepy confusion tonight, to his disappointment. She stood up and went to her home, Tyr following after her sedately. It was bitingly cold in her place like before. She turned on the space heaters automatically.

"Don't you get heat down here?" he couldn't help asking as he put her things on the couch. She went to the fridge to get some juice.

"For some reason the heat doesn't reach down here. At first, Lila thought that I was trying to get out of my part of the utility bills. But once I had her come down here for a month straight, she let me use that month's heating bill money to get some space heaters."

"You still pay half of the heating bill for heat you don't get?" the man deadpanned.

Blushing and starting to fidget under that cool stare, Abbie answered. "Well, they are very nice heaters…"

"Abhaya, there are other places to live! Places that have heat. Places that-"

"-Are expensive! I only pay $575 plus half of the utilities here! It's one of the cheapest rents in the city. And I told you that I have aspirations for-"

"Abhaya, this place isn't safe. I have a basement apartment to rent and I've made sure that all my walls don't leak and I have the newest appliances. Why don't you just rent from me? You'd be closer to work and I could teach you to drive."

"$575, Tyr. That's not something I can just-"

"How about I make the rent $550? My neighborhood is in one of the new communities and my basement has never been lived in. You could-"

"And how would I make that twenty-five dollars up to you, Anasazi? In kind?" she glared at him furiously. "I'm not some slutty whore that-"

"What are you talking about? Abhaya, I'm rich. Very rich. I don't actually need to take a salary from the health region. I only do it on the principle of the hard work I put in to earn my degree. And I only work so much because you do. I would let you stay in my basement for free, but I know that your ethics wouldn't allow you to just… live off of me yet. So I'm setting the bar so low to entice you. There's no 'paying in kind' here, Bliss. I only want-"

"You're that rich?" she asked quietly, deeply uncomfortable with what he'd just told her. He was only working because she was? 'Live off me yet'? The man obviously had a plan for her, one that she wasn't sure she was okay with. The first step in that plan seemed to be her moving in with him, though. If she could just avoid that, then she should be fine.

"I'm not talking about 'living in sin', Abhaya. I'm talking about a safe place to lay your head at night, warm and comfortable. I just want you safe. And think of all the time and gas I would save getting you to and from work." Seeing that he had the girl on the ropes, he decided not to press her for an answer yet. He wanted this to be her choice after all. "Just… think about it, Bliss. You don't have to answer right this very minute, okay?"

"Okay," she took the life line, the hunted look leaving her sweet face. She saw him out and went to fix her cold bed so she could sleep. Her thoughts were as tangled a jumble as her sheets though. She wasn't about to give herself to a man that used to profess to the cameras that he would never settle down. What? Was there a 'fat girl' notch he needed on his bedpost? But he'd settled down from his wild child ways since he'd been working on the unit. Hell, if she was being honest, he'd started to calm down during his semester as her lab partner. Oh, she'd heard of his reputation to let others do the work for him and graciously accept the fallout of someone else's hard work with a charming smile. She'd been determined that she wouldn't fall for his bullshit. She'd challenged him from the first assignment, demanding that he participate in their projects and papers if he truly wanted a good grade.

The first problem was that he'd accepted her edicts for the semester without even arguing. He'd researched and worked his butt off that semester under her direction. She'd secretly gone to her instructor when the semester first started, insisting that she needed a new partner, having heard of his reputation. Professor Ansen had promised her that if he didn't participate, she could bring her grievance to him and he would fail the man. But Anasazi had never given her cause to bring a grievance to the professor. Part of her was suspicious that he'd changed his attitude towards school based on her example, but that was impossible. He likely hadn't even heard of her before they'd met. Maybe he was a changed man. Maybe she truly meant something to him.

"Yeah, right," she snorted to herself, laying her things out for her trip to the library tomorrow. She tended to go to the library and write science fiction on her days off. Either that or she would work on the sweater she was crocheting for herself. She was a very artistic person as a rule. Now that she was in a place in her life where she didn't have to hide her talents, she enjoyed flaunting them a little. After all, that's how she'd…

No. It was better not to even think such unlucky thoughts. The past was the past, after all. She'd made her choice and she was never going back.

Dun Dun DUUUNNN!