Another chapter! This one was super funny to write

Bow 10:14 PM

Come and meet me at the mall tomorrow.

Catra 10:23 PM

You know I work this week-end, right?

Bow 10:37 PM

Yes. Come after your shift.

Catra 10:52 PM

I can't, I have a date with my bed.

Bow 11:02 PM

Then I can't tell you what's up with Adora.

Catra 11:05 PM

You're impossible.

Bow 11:06 PM

You love me.

Catra 11:10 PM

Debatable.

2:31 PM. Not bad for a weekend shift. Catra had worked well. Plus the chief assigned to the weekend shifts with her was not Shadow Weaver for once, so Catra'd had less work on her own.

Fucking Shadow Weaver. She was a disgrace. An old fart who'd probably suffered a lot when she was a young surgeon, thus decided that everybody should suffer the same way.

Catra hummed as she left the ward, twirling her motorcycle's keychain around her finger. Her small pride. Lonnie often made fun of her for looking more and more like a stereotyped surgeon, but Catra didn't care one bit. She had wanted a bike since she'd watched Carrie-Anne Moss riding a Ducati in The Matrix at the sweet age of 8. It had nothing to do with her huge crush on Trinity at the time. Okay, maybe a little.

Catra smiled when the sun rays touched her skin. It had constantly rained since the beginning of the new year. Catra had missed the sun. She closed her leather jacket because the cold of january was biting. Thank god, she was well protected under the layers of her motorcycle safety undersuit that Scorpia obliged her to wear. She'd threatened to sell her bike behind her back if she ever learned of Catra not wearing it.

Catra was sure Scorpia would do it. She cared about life anyway. She wouldn't risk losing her skin- literally- in a bike accident.

"Hey baby…" she grinned when she saw her black Honda waiting peacefully for her next to the dozens of other motorcycles in the parking space. Half of them belonged to surgeons of course. Orthopedics had all big engines, for some reason. They were so cocky. GI surgeons owned more diverse models. Then there was Shadow Weaver, who drove a red Vespa.

Catra snorted as she walked past her chief's engine. She had been tempted to scratch it to piss Shadow Weaver off, but that wouldn't be fair to the Vespa.

Bow 2:34 PM

You're done soon?

Catra typed a quick answer then put her phone away. She tied her hair in a low ponytail, put her helmet and her gloves on, then straddled her bike.

"Here we go," she said with delight once she turned the engine on and started driving, the wind in her hair, the speed and noise making her heart race. She would never get over the sensation. The only thing missing was someone to share that experience with, she guessed.

Just as she passed the emergency room building, she slowed down and squinted to see if she could recognize the health care agents smoking outside. No blond ponytail. Too bad.

Catra wondered if Adora liked bikes.

The mall was buzzing with life. It was saturday afternoon after all. First day of the weekend, ideal to go shopping. There were too many people for Catra's taste. She had to be really motivated to go to the mall on a Saturday. What Bow wanted to tell her had better be worth it.

Catra 3:05 PM

Where are you?

Catra put her phone back in her pocket. She headed towards the coffee shop that Bow had chosen as a rendezvous point. Her stomach grumbled at the sight of sandwiches, small cakes and other sweet things. Since she was here, Catra decided she might as well have lunch while she waited for Bow.

The line was short, thank god. She ordered a salmon sandwich, her favorite, then sat at a table adjacent to the massive glass window, allowing Catra to peek at people shopping without having the inconvenience of hearing them or touching them.

Perfect.

Half a sandwich later, Catra was completely lost in her thoughts, wondering if she hadn't forgotten to fax the XR prescription to check on the nasogastric tube she had put on a patient this morning. She was so lost in her thoughts she jolted when a hand grabbed her shoulder.

"Bow! What the fuck!"

"Hi, Catra!" Bow grinned as he sat across from her. Pfff, that stupid grin. She had forgotten how incredibly happy her friend was all the time. Like Scorpia. Way too positive, way too soft. Way too huggy. Catra still didn't understand why she was drawn to these people. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Bow added as he saw her glare.

"It's fine. It's good to see you! What's up?" Catra resumed eating her sandwich.

"Not much. I love my internship. This time I'm in a much heavier ward, I told you, right?"

"Yeah, you did mention you have to handle ten suicide attempts a day."

"Come on, you're exaggerating," Bow brushed it off and laughed.

"Am I though?" Catra smiled, cocking a brow.

"Okay, you're not far. But it's so great to help! I feel so useful! This unit has convinced me. This is definitely what I wanna do later."

He looked so proud and blooming. It was heartwarming to see. There had been a time when Bow had doubted his motivations for becoming a psychiatrist. There'd been a time when he thought he was pursuing it for the wrong reasons. He had been tempted to quit. And if it had been the case, he would have quit the medical area altogether. He would have had to go back to square one, at 27.

"Glad to see you're thriving," Catra said, then looked away, feeling embarrassed about her next question. "So, um…"

"You always keep your eye on the ball, don't you?" Bow smirked. "I did promise to tell you about Adora. Don't worry, I didn't forget."

Catra rolled her eyes. "I didn't agree to meet with you just to speak of Adora. It's been ages since we've talked face to face."

"Aww, so you do like me!"

"Don't push it," Catra said with a smirk.

"So what happened exactly for you to ask me that all of a sudden?"

Catra shrugged, "I don't know. I was just being my usual delightful self yesterday, when she snapped at me. It was weird."

"She's been a bit tensed lately. I think she's made a few mistakes at work, and it's the sort of things that can drive her crazy."

"She didn't tell you anything about it?" Catra asked, confused.

"Eh, not really…" Bow looked sad. "She only says she needs to work more and study more. I think she wants to prove herself she can be what she thinks people expect her to be."

"What does she think people expect? A flawless doctor? That doesn't exist."

"Go tell her, not me," Bow chuckled then grinned devilishly as he leaned closer to her. "Now it's my turn to ask you something."

Uh-oh. That had to be a personal question.

"Okay?" Catra sweated already.

"Why are you so interested in-"

"Uuuugh, Bow! For the love of God, check up your phone!"

Catra felt relieved that Bow got distracted from his question by the newcomer's voice, which Catra could swear she knew. She turned around and her eyes widened.

"Catra?!"

"Sparkles?!"

Both women suddenly snapped their heads around to glare at Bow.

"Heyyy, guys… What a funny coincidence that you're both here… At the same time… At the same mall… With your best friend Bow..." Bow tried sheepishly.

"Nice try, genius."

"Yeah, you could have told me it was Catra you were waiting for. I would have left earlier." Gimmer said as she put some of her shopping bags in Bow's hands.

"Don't worry, Sparkles. I'm not gonna stick around," Catra said as she stood, holding her food tray in one hand and her helmet and leather jacket in the other.

"For the last time, my name is Glimmer."

"Sorry, I didn't hear that."

"Glimmer!"

"Again?"

Gimmer groaned loudly. "Why do you always try to bring us together, Bow?! It always ends up like this!"

Catra rolled her eyes. Glimmer was right though. Bow couldn't stand the idea of two of his closest friends disliking each other. Therefore he regularly tried to set up fun plans that would finally soothe the fire between the two women, in his dream world. It had only pushed the two hotheads further away from each other.

It had been a while since his last setup. Catra hadn't expected it. To be honest, she had completely forgotten about Glimmer since she'd left the surgery ward.

"Come on, guys. You're always blowing this out of proportion! You look like teenagers!" Bow complained.

Well he wasn't totally wrong. Catra and Glimmer had actually met when they were in high school. Their relationship hadn't really changed since their sweet sixteen.

"I really need to go anyway, I'm not lying," Catra said. She already had a foot outside of the coffee shop, knowing fully well that Bow wasn't done trying.

"Catra, pleaaase. You know," he lowered his voice, "if you want to get closer to Adora, you'll have to at least tolerate Glimmer."

"What the-"

"Excuse me?!" Glimmer shouted, who had totally heard that. "That's what you're doing right now? Setting them up?"

"I'm not!" Bow's voice cracked. "Catra and Adora are just friends! And so are Catra and I! So, I'm just anticipating because someday Catra might be invited to a slumber party to our place-"

"You're 27, for fuck's sake. Who does slumber parties?" Catra snorted. She was walking fast now, followed close by Bow and Glimmer who were struggling with the shopping bags.

"Well, I can't say out loud we would actually play drinking games. There are children around us!" Bow whispered.

Catra rolled her eyes for the twentieth time today. She had reached the escalators by now, heading towards the parking space. Bow walked down a few steps ahead of Catra in order to catch her gaze. Glimmer followed him, her big bags almost making her trip all the way down.

"Fuck, I shouldn't have bought a new comforter. It takes too much space," she grumbled.

"Don't worry, Sparkles. It's barely noticeable next to your ego."

"Not your best spike, kitty cat," Glimmer smirked. "Everything alright at the OR? I heard from Peekablue that Shadow Weaver is giving you a hard time."

Oh, she was not going there.

"Wow, you miss GI so much that you even ask your old friend how I'm doing? That is so sad."

"Not as sad as spending much more time than needed at the ER to get noticed by a girl who doesn't even care."

"GUYS!" Bow's voice cracked again. What did he expect exactly? Glimmer and Catra would never get along.

"Fuck you, Sparkles. We don't have to finish this."

Catra walked down the stairs, pulling away from Bow's grasp in a wide movement. At the same moment, one of her feet got stuck on Glimmer's comforter bag.

What was bound to happen happened.

Catra fell down the escalator.

Glimmer tried to catch her, to no avail. Catra buried her head in her arms, softening the blow. Her left arm exploded with pain at the contact of the metal. She rolled down several steps before her body finally came to a stop.

"Catra! Oh my god, are you okay?"

Catra was too stunned to answer. She barely noticed when she got lifted up from the escalator. When she came back to her senses, she was safe on the steady ground, sat down against the wall. Bow was talking to the security guy while Glimmer was making a cringing face as she inspected her arm.

"Fuck. The cut is deep. You're gonna need stitches."

"What?" Catra blinked. She tried to get up, but Glimmer pushed her back against the wall.

"Don't move," she warned. She had lost the angry voice she always used with Catra. Now she had her serious nurse tone. "You're lucky I always have cloth bandage on me."

"Always ready to be a hero."

Glimmer chuckled. "Good, at least you don't have a concussion. Does it hurt anywhere else?"

"I'm fine, really. Look, I can move my legs," Catra said as she raised and folded her legs one at a time. "I can move my arms, too. Nothing broken."

"You still got a wound which isn't gonna stop bleeding if we don't dress it."

"Bullshit, it's just a scratch." Catra finally looked at her left arm. She scowled when she saw the wound. Four inches long, and… Yep, Sparkles was right. She did need stitches. That wouldn't have happened if she had kept her leather jacket on her shoulders. Better, that wouldn't have happened if she hadn't come to the mall at all. Damn it. Plus the blood was stainting her very good jeans now.

"Oh maaaan…" Catra groaned. "I don't wanna go to the ER! Not from the patient's side!"

Glimmer smirked. "Lucky you, Adora is working today."

Adora was going to see her like this, wounded from a stupid accident. Just what Catra needed.

Adora was just back from her lunch break when she almost ran into Dr. Moon.

"Oh, sorry, sir!"

"There's no problem, Adora," he answered with a smile. "Once again, you are allowed to call me Micah in private. You've known my daughter for what now, two years?"

"Yes, sir!"

Micah rolled his eyes, still smiling. "I was looking for you, actually. Glimmer is here."

"Glimmer? What happened?" Adora felt her blood run cold. This was what she always dreaded. This was what she had also prepared herself for for years. This was-

"Nothing happened to her, don't worry."

Adora exhaled. Her heart was thumping against her ribcage. It annoyed her. She was always calm when patients came in, close to death, but as soon as it involved people she knew… She was definitely not ready to become a doctor.

"Glimmer is here with Bow, because they brought a friend who fell on the escalator at the mall and needs stitches."

"Oh, okay. You need me to do it for you?"

"That would be very kind of you. The patient is trying to teach my student how to dress her wound by herself, and I couldn't bring her to stop, so Glimmer told me to make you intervene."

Huh? Who would try to-

Adora squinted at Micah as she started to understand what was happening. "Who is that friend exactly? Do I know her?"

"It's that surgery intern who looks like she's here all the time for some reason. Catra Hobeika."

Of course it was Catra.

Adora thanked him and headed quickly towards the traumatology box. Just as she was about to knock, the door got opened wide from the inside, revealing a very pissed Glimmer.

"Ugh, I give up. Adora! Finally!" Glimmer gave her a hug. She definitely looked like she needed a nap. "I can't stand her anymore. Good luck!"

Adora raised a confused brow. She came in.

"These instruments are absolute shit."

Adora smirked. She leaned on the wall of the box after she closed the door, unnoticed- or ignored- by Catra who was fighting with her right hand against a needle-holder. A student who looked pretty terrorized was trying to help her by holding the sterile container where Catra had put the instruments and the needles.

"For fuck's sake!" she cursed.

Her left forearm was laying on a table, covered with a pierced sterile field to expose the wound. A couple of stitches were already knotted on the far left of the cut. Not very well knotted, it seemed.

"Need a hand?" Adora finally said, barely hiding the amusement in her voice.

Catra just rolled her eyes. She didn't even acknowledge her. Cocky bastard.

"I'm fine, thank you. I would be even better with real surgical instruments."

"You know you shouldn't dress your wound by yourself, right?"

"You know you're not the first person to tell me that, right?" Catra finally looked up at her. She looked tired. And annoyed. Her eyes were still electrifying though. Adora forgot to answer. "Anyway, this poor kid put the first stitches and they looked like shit, so I had to teach him how it's done. Since none of you actually took the time to do it..."

The student in question looked positively depressed at that brutal comment of his work. Adora wasn't particularly pleased either to be called out on her supervising.

She stood in front of Catra and held the container in the student's place. "Leave me this one, okay? Next wound is all yours," she told him gently. The student nodded and left. Adora ignored Catra's glare as she threw the disposable utensils. They were soaked in blood anyway. Adora took a new set that she opened and put on the table. "No touching," she warned Catra. "How did you even find the surgical gloves?"

"I made Mr. Whiny find them for me."

"You mean my student?" Adora crossed her arms beneath her chest.

Catra glared again. "Are you gonna patch me up or not? I don't wanna spend the night here."

"Keep on being a prick, and I leave right now."

Catra groaned but didn't reply. She let Adora examine her wound. It was clean and it had stopped bleeding. It wasn't that deep. Simple stitches to oppose the edges would do just fine.

"Did he inject the local anesthesia?" Adora asked, as she poured antiseptic on the pads of the set.

"Duh. I'm not a wuss, but it's four inches long. I'm not hurting for an hour, not even for your pretty eyes," Catra smirked but then seemed to realize what she said so she looked down at the wound with intensity. Adora didn't say anything. She had to stop herself from biting her lips. She turned around and went to wash her hands in the sink. She opened a set of gloves, disinfected her hands, then put them in and came back to sit next to Catra.

She made herself comfortable. This wouldn't last an hour, since Adora was pretty used to dressing wounds, but it would still require a dozen stitches. She started with the stitches her student made. She took the scissors and cut them off. Then she took the antiseptic pads and cleaned the wound again.

When she was satisfied and had localized where she would put the new stitches, she took the needle-holder and expertly grabbed a needle with it. She opposed the edges with her fingers, on the middle of the wound, and started her work.

Catra was oddly silent for about ten minutes. Adora almost forgot it was her that she was fixing, until Catra sighed.

"I don't know how you work with these things," she said, in a much softer manner than earlier.

"Disposable utensils can't be as handy as yours but you get used to them."

"Yeah. You're doing good."

Adora smiled. There was the soft Catra she had caught a glimpse of occasionally.

"So what happened? I heard you fell on the escalator."

She could feel Catra shrug next to her. "That's all there is to say. I fell on the escalator. It hurt."

"But what circumstances brought you to fall? You were with Bow and Glimmer, right?"

"Yeah."

Catra was not in the mood to tell her anything, it seemed. Adora let it go. She focused on her job instead. She was halfway done.

"I'm sorry I'm a jerk sometimes… Often."

Adora raised a brow. That was unexpected. "You're not a jerk," she retorted. "Well except earlier, you were a jerk to my student. And the ER. And me."

"Yeah, okay… Sorry."

Adora made a short pause to glance at Catra. She looked disturbed. What was happening up there in her mind? "It's fine," Adora just said.

"Did you get the marshmallows yesterday?"

"I did," Adora smiled. "They were delicious. Thanks for that."

Catra looked happy. It gave her face a younger air. More genuine. It suited her.

"You're welcome."

For a second, Catra looked like she wanted to say something else, but then she shook her head and averted her gaze.

Adora pursued her work in silence. She finished patching her up in five minutes, then cleaned the freshly dressed wound, put a bandage over it, and threw the trash away. Catra was ready to leave, helmet, jacket and backpack already on her valid arm.

"Wait in the sitting room," Adora ordered. "I just need to give you a painkillers prescription and another one to take off your stitches in ten days."

"No need. I can do that myself."

"Catra…"

"What?! It's a non-sterile gesture, and I can do it at home. I have the right scissors for that," Catra stuck her tongue out.

Adora laughed, "as you wish, but I gotta give you the prescription anyway. It's legal."

"Alright, doc," Catra winked. They left the box together. Bow and Glimmer were waiting for them in the sitting room. Bow looked up at them, anxious. Adora gave him a thumbs-up, which seemed to relax him immensely. She left to write the prescriptions as promised, along with the report for Catra's visit at the ER.

When she got out of the office, she found the trio waiting in front of the exit door. Catra was in a hurry. She really didn't like being a patient. Glimmer was standing next to her. They were bickering in a low voice. But it didn't look as bad as earlier at least. Later, Adora would definitely ask her roommates the details of Catra's accident.

"I would leave you there if I didn't have to drive you back home," she heard Glimmer grumble.

"You were the one who insisted I couldn't drive my bike. I could have come here by myself, but you forced me into your stinky car. That's on you, Glitter."

"Here are your papers, Catra." Adora handed them to Catra, interrupting the argument without any remorse. "Next time, wait for me before messing with my ER tools."

"Thanks, Princess," Catra answered softly. "Next time, I'll patch myself up at home, because I'll make sure I have everything I need over there."

If Adora knew she was joking, Glimmer certainly didn't catch her tone, because she complained about Catra's lack of respect for protocols and the job of her fellow co-workers, putting herself at risk of an infection or a nasty scar out of pride.

Catra only grinned at her and wiggled her eyebrows before leaving the ER.

"Honestly, Adora," Glimmer said. "Why her?"

"I'm sorry?" Adora asked.

Glimmer blinked several times, then stared at Bow, who just shrugged. Then Glimmer groaned again and left.

"Why her what?" Adora asked Bow, then blushed. "Does she still think I have a crush on Catra?! Why did you have to tell her that, Bow?"

"I'm sorry!" Bow exclaimed in a whisper. "But, don't pay attention to her. Or me. It's fine, really. Be yourself."

"What does that even mean?!"

Bow couldn't answer. He had to catch up with the other two. He waved at her and left. Now Adora was all alone in the ER, confused about how the whole situation made her friends believe there was something that did NOT exist between her and Catra.

Catra was hot and funny. They liked to tease each other. It made Adora feel good about herself. But it didn't mean anything. She could stop it at any moment.

Did you get the marshmallows yesterday?

Any moment at all.

I hope you liked it! Please leave me your thoughts!

:)