Peanut Butter & Jealousy

It's her first day on the job, and this is not how Lauren Bloom wanted Leyla Shinwari to find out about her past dalliances with her friend and colleague Floyd Reynolds.

"Alright, today is the first day of your internship here at New Amsterdam hospital. My name is Dr. Floyd Reynolds, and I am the Deputy Chair of Surgery. Let me know if you have any questions…" Floyd continues his speech for a little while longer, before he sets the medical residents off to work.

One of them seems familiar somehow, even though Reynolds can't seem to place it.

"The patient has a history of COPD, so make sure you secure the airway-" Dr. Shinwari instructs confidently.

Dr. Reynolds keeps a keen eye on this resident, who seems to be performing exceptionally well for her first day as physician.

"Dr. Shinwari, you've got quite the talent," says Dr. Reynolds.

"Thank you, Sir," says Leyla politely.

"May I ask where you studied?" asks Dr. Reynolds curiously.

"Pakistan," says Leyla simply.

"I've got to say, I'm impressed," says Floyd.

"Thank you," says Leyla. "Hold that thought, I've got to get back to my patient-"

Leyla runs off to treat her patient, and Floyd continues to check up on all of the other new residents for the next little while, as he tries to synergize with all of them, and most importantly, stay out of Lauren's way.

"Incoming!" says Lauren with a booming voice, and Dr. Shinwari meets her.

"She's got unequal breath sounds-" says Lauren.

"Oh no, she's going into cardiac arrest. Can we get a crash cart over here!?" cries Leyla.

"Charge to 200!" says Lauren. "Clear!"

"She needs a surgical airway, hand me a crike tray!" says Leyla.

Lauren nods at Leyla, and Leyla steps forward and performs the procedure without even pausing.

As soon as the patient's breath sounds come back clear and equal again, Lauren and Leyla breathe a sigh of relief, and share a warm smile before Lauren is called to another trauma bay, and Leyla begins filling out admission paperwork again.

"She's quite talented," says Dr. Reynolds.

"Yeah," says Dr. Bloom, smiling despite herself.

But they don't get to chat about it any further before the E.D is newly populated with a stack of patients from a nearby bus crash.

It takes several hours to stabilize them all, and before long, everyone is extremely hungry.

"Now I ordered everyone takeout, and it's on the way, but in the meantime, I have a box of peanut butter truffles a patient gave to me the other day, and I'm willing to share them," says Dr. Reynolds. "Just make sure to wash your hands and brush your teeth after, in case of allergies."

"Here, do you want one?" Floyd offers to Leyla.

"Thank you-" says Leyla, as she takes it into her hand, but then swiftly puts it into a napkin, and tries to find a suitable container for it.

"If you don't like it, I can take it back, no need to be polite about it-" says Dr. Reynolds.

"Oh I do want it, I'm just saving it for… Later…" says Leyla, knowing that they are Lauren's favorites, and she'd much prefer to see Lauren's face when she sees it than to eat it herself.

"Ah I see, I just didn't want it to go to waste," says Floyd kindly. "They're Dr. Bloom's favorite," Reynold whispers. "She would have skinned me."

Leyla smiles, and nods as if she didn't already know that, and then she begins to wonder how Dr. Reynolds happened to know that.

"Lauren, hey I got you some peanut butter truffles!" says Floyd.

"Oh Floyd, you didn't have to do that," Lauren beams up at him.

"I know they're your favorite treat," says Floyd. "And I know you've been busy."

"Well thank you," says Lauren. "I appreciate that."

Floyd and Lauren laugh together, and Leyla watches them out of the corner of her eye.

She knows she shouldn't jump to conclusions, but Floyd and Lauren seem awfully close, and they do get along great. Perhaps it's just because she's always had Lauren's undivided attention at home, or because they haven't gone out together much that she hasn't noticed her girl's interaction with other people, but now that she is, she's immediately envious, and it's starting to become a bit of a problem.

It's when Floyd wraps his arms around Lauren to hug her for a second that Leyla's jaw nearly drops to the floor.

"Hello, Dr. Bloom, could I have a word with you?" Leyla asks tersely.

"Yes, follow me," Lauren says calmly, as she leads Leyla incidentally to the supply closet that Leyla had originally been staying in for a while at the hospital, just because she knew that it would probably be unused and unoccupied.

"Is everything alright?" asks Lauren.

"I don't know, why don't you tell me, and maybe tell me about your peanut butter truffle sharing with Dr. Reynolds-" Leyla narrows her eyes at her.

"My- what?" asks Lauren, perplexed at Leyla's outburst for a moment.

"You two just seemed very… Close in there… And I was wondering… Why he was saving chocolates especially for you…" says Leyla, her anger diminishing by the second the moment

"Floyd was saving me for them because he knows I crash without sugar at around four-thirty, and that I like peanut butter chocolates, and because he wants to freak out to me about his twisted love problems after he left his fiance who I set him up with last year-" explains Lauren.

"Why did he leave his fiance?" asks Lauren.

"She wanted to live in San Francisco, and I wanted to live here, and they didn't want to go long-distance," Lauren shrugs. "It really sucks, because they were great together, and Evie is such a great friend, and Floyd is a really great friend, and sometimes I feel all caught up in the middle of it, even though the whole point of introducing them was to be uninvolved with it, and-" Lauren rambles.

"Wait, why were you involved with 'it,' in the first place?" asks Leyla.

"Oh well, because Floyd and I had this very brief fling, in which we hooked up one, maybe two or three times, and we got along fine but he decided that he didn't want to end up with a white woman, and then he dumped me-" says Lauren. "Which I think is totally weird, but it's what he wanted, because he had this whole ideal life plan that worked that way, and now he's still pursuing that ideal life plan, but on this very weird path with a woman who may or may not be married (?) I never got the full story on that one, and by the way, you can never tell anyone ever about what I just told you, because that is information I'm only giving you because you're my girlfriend-" says Lauren.

"So you and Floyd, you were a couple?" asks Leyla, still focused on the now (potentially) founded reason for her potentially irrational jealousy.

"Well, I wouldn't say we were ever a 'couple,' because he refused to call us that, and we kissed probably a grand total of maybe six different times-" says Lauren.

"But he is your ex? You two did… You two hooked up together?" asks Leyla.

"Yes, Leyla. Floyd and I slept together. Are you satisfied now?" asks Lauren.

"Maybe. I just have a few more questions about you and him and then I'll try very hard to be over it-" says Leyla.

"Sure, I mean… Wait, is this because you want a leg up on your residency? Because I thought we were clear that I couldn't help you with that?" asks Lauren.

"What!? No!" says Leyla.

"Or is this because you're jealous?" asks Lauren, and Leyla looks down and away from her.

"I'm not jealous-" Leyla denies it pathetically.

"Oh," says Lauren, coming to that realization. "I see what this is now."

"Hey, no! I am not jealous-" says Leyla.

"Oh, but you so are," says Lauren, laughing.

"What can I say? I am a very protective woman, and I do not like other people having hands on my girlfriend-" says Leyla. "Especially not their best friend slash exes."

"Well, Floyd and I are most definitely exes, if that's what you mean. And he gives me a hug sometimes because we are friends, but if it makes you all crazy, I can ask him not to hug me too hard," Lauren chuckles.

"And maybe you can ask him not to save you some of your favorite treats all the time, because I want to be the one doing that-" says Leyla.

"You can totally do that," says Lauren.

"I do, and I did," says Leyla. "I even brought it for you."

"Awe, thanks Leyla," Lauren smiles. "You're the best."

"No you are," says Leyla, giggling as Lauren does light up and smiles just the way that she knows she will as she unwraps her chocolate.

"This one will taste better than all the rest of them," Lauren smiles.

"Now you're just making that up to make me feel better. I read the package, and those are all exactly the same," says Leyla.

"But this one…" says Lauren. "I get to taste along with you," Lauren smiles, as she hands half of the truffle to Leyla, and bites into her own half, motioning for Leyla to follow her.

Leyla does, and she begins to let the chocolate peanut butter truffle melt into her mouth before Lauren kisses her.

Leyla smiles, and instinctively reaches her arms up to circle around Lauren's neck while Lauren weaves her hands into Leyla's hair as their kiss deepens.

They close their eyes, and share this moment, and experience each other before they hear an abrupt knock on the door, followed by a subsequent person barging into it without waiting for a reply to their knocking.

"Casey!?" Lauren groans, as the head nurse brushes past both of them to get another pack of sterile wipes.

"Hi, my name is Dr. Shinwari, I am one of the new medical residents here at New Amsterdam-" Leyla introduces herself as formally as she possibly can to hide her embarrassment about this situation.

"Cool, hi, I'm Casey, and I'm just gonna go now, and probably never ever use this supply closet ever again-" says Casey.

"Hey, shut the door will you-" Lauren calls out after Casey, who is already halfway down the hallway, and therefore doesn't hear her.

Leyla leans in for another kiss just as her and Lauren are interrupted again, and this time by Dr. Floyd Reynolds.

"Yo Bloom, we need you here on a pediatric case, and do you know where Dr. Shinwari went? She likes kids right?" says Floyd, before he bursts in, and finds them.

"We'll be ready in just a minute-" says Lauren quickly.

"I do like kids, for the record-" says Leyla.

Lauren and Leyla scramble to make themselves presentable before they head back to the emergency department, where Floyd and Casey are earnestly waiting for them.

"Okay, but just tell me. How long do I have to wait before I get to make a 'coming out of the closet,' joke," asks Casey to both of them, with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"Try 'your entire lifetime, and then some,' will you?" Lauren snarks back at him.

"Alright but you've got to give over some details here man, I've been telling you all about my qualms and you've been out there with your lady friend totally holding out on me!" says Dr. Reynolds.

"Umm, I'm just going to go-" says Leyla awkwardly.

"You can stay," Lauren smiles. "They're just teasing you because they like you," says Lauren. "You're one of us now. This is how we show each other affection-" says Lauren.

"Okay…" says Leyla, taking a deep breath, and finally smiling. "But not too much affection for this one-" says Leyla, before motioning to Lauren again. "Because when I get jealous, I sometimes get angry. And now I know some very embarrassing secrets about you-" says Leyla teasingly.

"Hey, what did you tell her about me, Bloom!?" asks Casey.

"Did you tell her about my Rubik's cube collection?" asks Floyd. "Because I thought we had talked about that one."

"Did you tell her that I'm still obsessed with espionage, especially on the Russian side?" asks Casey. "Because even if you did, that case the other day was super cool, man."

"Yes, in fact. I was totally telling her this, and all about you two-" (Lauren points between them) "While we were 'in the closet together,' earlier," Lauren recovers easily. "Because Leyla is my girlfriend, and I'm proud of her, and I'm proud to be me, so if you've got a problem with that, then you can go suck it!" says Lauren.

"Yeah!" says Leyla.

"Hey, I never said I got a problem with that-" says Casey.

"Actually, I think it's kinda hot-" says Floyd Reynolds. "Hey, do you two ever think that you'd want to maybe… Y'know…" Floyd says as he gestures between the two of them, and winks at Leyla.

"No!" says Leyla. "Not happening!" Leyla cries out possessively.

"Okay, cut it out, Reynolds," Lauren rolls her eyes at her friend, unconcerned, as she consoles her apparently very envious girlfriend. "And you've got nothing to worry about-" says Lauren. "Floyd's never actually wanted a threesome."

"That's true," says Casey. "I'm a guy, and we've talked about this kind of stuff. And Floyd here, he isn't interested."

"That is very good to know," Leyla smiles, as she finally relaxes.

"Glad you're fitting in here perfectly," says Lauren, as she kisses Leyla once on the cheek before she picks up one of the charts on the desk in front of her.

"Now, let's all get back to work, shall we?" says Lauren.

"Yes, Doctor," says Leyla.

"Now that's what I like to hear," says Lauren, as she hands the chart over to Leyla.

Leyla nods back at her, and Lauren winks and giggles before she picks up another chart, and hands it to Reynolds, and Casey gets back to work also.

"Seriously though, I'm happy for you. And I'm glad that she turned out not to be a serial killer," says Casey.

"Wait what now?" asks Reynolds.

"She eats pineapple on her pizza. There was a bit of an inquiry a while ago," says Lauren, smiling as Casey nods along with her.

"Now that, that is questionable," says Reynolds, as he moves on, to go treat his patient.

"Is that as questionable as the fact that you took in a homeless woman, gave her free showers and then a bed in a supply closet, and then took her home with you, and then fell in love with her, and then started working with her in the emergency department?" asks Casey.

"Hey, c'mon, I'm a drug addict here. By that standard these are all very healthy coping mechanisms," Lauren smiles.

"I'm glad that you're happy, boss," says Casey. "Now are you ever going to tell me what you did on that vacation of yours?"

"Not a chance," says Lauren, as she smiles at Casey. "Now, would you kindly go to the supply closet that I know for a fact is currently unoccupied because as you can see, Dr. Shinwari and I are both in front of you?" asks Lauren.

"To do what?" asks Casey.

"To get me a fresh set of sterile wipes," says Lauren. "Because you dropped yours there on the floor earlier."

"Right away boss," says Casey, as he goes to fetch them, and while she's unoccupied, and Leyla is unoccupied, she has another chance to wink at her again.

And that's when Lauren decides she'll have to start buying her own personal supply of peanut butter truffles to snack on, oh, and also to share exclusively with her girlfriend.