"Anna, have you seen Chloe and Barney?" Holly called as she made her way back into cubicles, "I'm sure I asked them to stitch up and discharge the lad in 7."
Nodding Anna replied, "They were with him, until his egotistical friends decided to hit on and then wind up Chloe... Barney took her out the back to let her cool down."
"Chloe, Chloe, Chloe…" Holly murmured, unsurprised by this revelation, "Could you go and find them please and tell them both to go and plaster the kid in nine's wrist?"
"Sure."
Hastily filing the patient record she held, Anna made her way out of the double doors at the back of the department. Knocking before she poked her head into each of the two On Call rooms she found nothing but thin air and an eerie silence in them. She turned around ready to look elsewhere when she walked past the staff shower cubicle and saw a fine mist of steam seep from under the doorframe.
Again she knocked before opening the door a crack, "Chloe?"
No reply came so Anna opened the door a crack further and peered in to find Barney's and Chloe's shoes and odd items of scrubs outside the shower curtain. She couldn't help but smirk to herself as she stepped inside and forged her best stern face while clearing her throat very loudly. The two faint outlines behind the curtain froze.
A smile quickly stole over Anna's face despite her attempts at a stern facade. Chloe and Barney were busted and they knew it. Tapping her foot like an impatient mother waiting for a child, Anna crossed her arms over her chest as Chloe popped her head around the side of the curtain, trying to put on her innocent face.
Anna watched as Barney's shadow crept to the other side of the curtain and stuck his head out before she said, gleefully smirking, "Busted!"
Although hopeless, Chloe still attempted to squirm her way out of the situation, "Anna, it's not what you think…"
"Really?" Barney retorted, as both Anna and he raised their eyebrows in surprise; wondering how deep she could dig a hole for herself this time.
Chloe whacked Barney in the arm causing him to flinch a little while she stared at him in an attempt to make him play along, "Yeah really… Barney put me under the shower to cool me down after that guy decided to provoke me..."
Disbelievingly Anna nodded her head. She wasn't buying it and Chloe knew it, "So your clothes just, y'know, fell off then… Or did the shower fairy take them?"
"Okay… Okay…" Chloe reluctantly replied, defeated. She knew Anna would have a field day with this piece of gossip, especially as she was the first to know, "It is what you think. Happy now you got your gossip?"
The grin across Anna's face was all the response needed, "When you two are finished playing 'grab arse', Holly wants you both in cubicle 9 to plaster up a kids wrist."
"Fine," Chloe irritatingly answered, rolling her eyes and whipping the curtain shut as Anna softly chuckled to herself on the way out.
Barney lent against the tiled wall smirking at Chloe. She couldn't see how he could be so cool about the situation when Anna was well known for being the biggest gossip in the department. Truth be told, he didn't care. He wanted the world to know that he was with Chloe, even if it was a 'friends with benefits' relationship.
"Don't worry about it Chloe…" Barney commented in his Scottish drawl while pulling on his semi-dry scrubs trousers, "if she tells people it doesn't matter."
Chloe mirrored his actions, "It does matter… If she lets it slip, which let's face it she will, then people are going to get the wrong idea about us."
That last comment hit Barney's heart like a hot poker; but he didn't show it. Showing how he truly felt would mean the end of their little agreement and quite possibly their friendship as well. He knew that if he were to ever tell her how he truly felt, she would turn and bolt for the exit. So for now, this situation would have to do.
"Well we can put them straight; we're just friends. Always have been, always will be."
Barney slipped on his trainers and stepped toward Chloe, placing a hand on her abdomen and splaying his fingers across her exposed skin before placing a simple kiss on her cheek. As he opened the door he hesitated before leaving, "Your place or mine tonight?"
Chloe smiled, "Yours. I'll be round at 8."
As the door shut behind Barney Chloe put her head in her hands, trying to rid her brain of the thoughts it had created. Despite their agreement she wanted nothing more than to be able to say that she and Barney were together. She spited herself for saying some of the things she had just said when she had in fact wanted the complete opposite. If she were to ever speak those words though, it would be the end of their agreement and quite possibly their friendship. So for now, the situation would have to do.
Yes, the situation was not to be questioned and never to be resolved.
