Chapter Ten
"I can't believe that you've never seen Whatever Happened to Baby Jane!" Dillon was incredulous. "It's a cult classic. Completely messed up."
"If it's so messed up, then why is it so great?" Georgie wanted to know.
The two were sitting on Dillon's bed in his hospital room, facing each other. Georgie's legs were sprawled over Dillon's lap. They had been yapping nonstop for the past two hours.
"Because all the elements somehow come together," he explained. "And that's what makes it work. Like, using another example, this scar-" he traced a faint line beneath her bottom lip - "right here? Some people might call it a flaw. But your face is so, so perfect, so there's no way it can be, you know?" Georgie blushed, but didn't say anything. "And yeah, on someone else, the same scar might detract from their beauty, on you, it just, blends in. See, nothing exists where all the elements are perfect. Perfection comes when all the fallible elements fit together in a perfect solution."
Georgie closed her eyes. Dillon's fingertips were gently caressing her lips. She kissed the tips of his fingers shyly. "Dillon, my face is not-" she was cut off by his lips.
"Shhhh..." he pulled back just enough so that his lips still brushed faintly against hers every few words. "Yes, it is. When I look at your face, my eyes see perfection."
"I think that blow to the head may have affected your vision," she giggled quietly. He pulled her closer, so she was practically sitting in his lap. They both felt their breathing increase.
"My vision," Dillon almost growled, "is perfectly fine."
He caught her lower lip in between his and kissed her fiercely, wrapping his arms around her waist. Georgie's arms went around his neck and she drew her fingernails through his hair. Dillon almost groaned when Georgie nibbled lightly on his bottom lip. For a girl with next to no experience, she knew exactly how to drive him crazy. He traced the tip over his tongue over her lips. She opened her mouth only enough to let the tip of her own tongue slip out to paint his lips, teasing him. Dillon couldn't handle it anymore. He pushed her lips apart, plunging his tongue into her mouth. Georgie gave up the teasing and swirled her tongue around his in an intricate pattern. For a girl who was a stranger to the art of french kissing, Dillon thought, she was doing extremely well. He ran his fingernails along the side of her neck, by her ear, causing Georgie to moan loudly into his mouth. Dillon couldn't take it. He pulled his mouth away from hers and grabbed her head in his hands, tilting it. He kissed the spot his fingernails had just been, groaning as she threw her head back to expose more of her neck to his ravaging mouth. Georgie was raking her nails roughly through Dillon's hair, her eyes closed as he kissed her neck. He sucked gently on the juncture where her shoulder met her neck and she cried out throatily.
"Oh god! Dillon!"
Hearing Georgie call out his name like that was the sexiest thing Dillon had ever heard in his life. It took every ounce of strength he had not to flip her body underneath his. In a split second, before he lost all sense of right and wrong, he tore his mouth away from her neck and scooped his arms under her legs and lifted her from his lap. "Georgie, no, we can't!" He placed her down so that she was on the bed next to him, instead of on top of him.
She leaned her head back, her eyes closed, her rapid breathing matching his. "You didn't like..." she trailed off, sounding a little hurt.
"No, no, no, that's definitely not it, it's just-"
"I wanted you to know that I can," she interrupted.
"Can what?" Dillon was perplexed.
Georgie turned her head away. "Rock your world. Faith said that she could and I couldn't." Her voice sounded broken.
Dillon wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her tightly. "The only good thing Faith can do to my world," he told her gruffly, "is stay the hell out of it. As for you, Miss Jones-" this elicited a small smile from her - "you have been rocking my world since the first second I laid eyes on you. Or," he teased her, "should I say, since the first time you laid lips on me?"
She smiled and blushed at this but quickly grew serious again. "So then why did you want to stop?" she wanted to know.
Dillon shut his eyes and kissed her on the corner of her mouth. "I didn't," he whispered against her lips and cheek. "That's why I knew I had to. Because this hospital room is probably one of the top ten places I shouldn't be thinking about making love to you."
"Making love to me?" she whispered, disbelieving.
"Yeaaah..." he drew out the word. "I know I said that I didn't expect to make love to you and I don't, but that doesn't mean I don't think about it or that I don't want-"
"I want you too Dillon," Georgie interrupted him. "I'm just not-"
"-ready to actually plan to do it," he finished. "It's okay. I'm probably not either." He turned her face toward his so he could kiss her mouth slowly. They stared into each others' eyes and, finding nothing else to distract them, leaned in to kiss again. They started to open their mouths to each other and Georgie pulled away swiftly.
"So," she said brightly in her best 'what, who me, no my tongue was not just in your mouth' voice, "what about National Velvet?"
Dillon laughed out loud and snuggled her to his body, kissing her on the cheek with a resounding smack. She giggled. "Too contrived for my taste," he responded, in answer to her question. "Valiant effort though."
She swatted him lightly. "Give me a break!" she insisted. 'Until I met you, my idea of a classic movie was "Dirty Dancing."
"Well," he conceded, "the 80s movies do have a certain cultural appeal about them. They really are a genre in and of themselves. Speaking of which, rumor has it that "Heathers" is being rereleased next year for a fifteenth anniversary-type thing. We have to go."
"I can't," Georgie whispered.
"What do you mean, you can't?" Dillon was bewildered. "What, do you have another date that night?"
"No," Georgie insisted. "It's just that-" she blushed, "-it's rated R."
What she was saying dawned on Dillon. "Oh, that's right," he said. "I forgot what a young 'un you are."
She tickled him. "You be quiet!"
He ticked back for a moment and then pulled her down so she was lying flush next to him. He held her head against his chest and listened to her breathing, which almost matched his heartbeat. Both slowed down to a serene level as she closed her eyes. They lay quietly for several minutes, Dillon stroking Georgie's hair absently.
"What are the other nine?" she asked him, breaking the silence.
"Nine what?"
"The other nine of the top ten places you shouldn't think about making love," Georgie reminded him.
Dillon laughed. "Hmmm...how about a morgue, a chem lab, any house of worship, a nursery school, a convalescent home..."
"...a cemetery, a public washroom, the school cafeteria on meatloaf day..." Georgie added, laughing.
"...and the opera," Dillon finished. "There's nine."
They laughed, hugging each other tightly. Dillon pulled Georgie's mouth up to his and kissed her again. He couldn't help himself. He had come so close to losing her - he just couldn't stop kissing her. He nudged her lips with his tongue again, but this time she didn't tease him, just opened her mouth slightly to grant him access and sighed into his mouth as he deepened the kiss-
"Never fear, the concussion cavalry is here - hey! Get a room!"
Dillon pulled his lips away from Georgie's to glare good naturedly at his cousin, who was being wheeled into the room by Zander. Emily held the portable DVD player in her hands. Behind Zander was Lucky, who was wearing a backpack and carrying a tray with five large paper cups on it.
"This is a room," he growled at her. She grinned and stuck her tongue out at him.
"My cousin, the married woman, ladies and gentlemen," Dillon mocked, partially to cover up his embarrassment at having been caught with his tongue in Georgie's mouth for the second time that day. Damn, hadn't people ever heard of knocking? But really, he was more amused than anything.
Lucky put the tray down on the table and walked over to the bed. "Hey darlin'," he said to Georgie in a manner that reminded her of Luke, "how you feeling?"
Georgie was a little embarrassed to know that Lucky had spent the better part of his evening carrying her through the corridors of General Hospital as if she were four years old, but she was too grateful for Dillon's safety and for the fact that she was lying in his arms to care too much. "I'm much much better," she told Lucky, a little shyly. "Thank you for, well, thank you for taking care of me today."
Lucky leaned down and hugged her tight. "Anytime doll."
"So, what do you mean, concussion cavalry?" Dillon wanted to know.
"Well," said Zander, "Bobbie came by to tell us that you were OK, but that you needed to stay awake so you and Georgie were sitting up all night.."
"And I," continued Lucky with an air of superiority, "happen to be an expert when it comes to head injuries."
"That's the truth," quipped Em. "I think I've been present at more of your concussions than your birthday parties."
Lucky swatted at her. "Quiet, Quartermaine!"
Emily swatted right back from her wheelchair. "Hey, that's Quartermaine-Smith to you, Spencer!"
Zander pretended to pout. "You mean, it's not just Smith? Emily Smith?"
Lucky looked at him pointedly. "Would you give up the Quartermaine name?" he asked.
Zander nodded. "Okay, I see your point..."
"It carries a lot of power," Lucky continued.
"Which is usually used for evil," quipped Dillon, from the bed. Everyone laughed.
Zander held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, I give," he said."I'm a jerk."
"Never," Emily assured him. She grinned. "It's just obviously up to me to see that you become the perfect feminist."
Zander, Lucky and Dillon all groaned at this. Georgie lightly punched Dillon's shoulder, and Emily managed to smack Zander with her right hand while using her left foot to kick Lucky on the backside. Dillon was impressed.
"Okay," he said laughing, "finish telling me about the purpose of this infiltration."
The others laughed in response. "Like I was saying," Lucky continued, pretending to glare at Emily. "I know all about having to stay up after a concussion, so we brought the survival kit."
Dillon raised his eyebrows as Lucky walked over to the table and picked up two of the large cups, handing one to Dillon and one to Georgie. "Chocolate milkshakes."
Georgie took a noisy drink from her straw. "Yum! Thanks Lucky!"
"Yeah, thank you," echoed Dillon.
Lucky nodded and continued on, pulling things out of the backpack. "Mad Libs, deck of cards, portable radio, bottles of water, orange juice, carrot sticks and grapes, air popped popcorn with peanut butter M&Ms - a bizarre but enticing combination crazy Emily here introduced me to when I crashed my go cart and bashed my head on a rock-"
"-crazy Emily, my foot," she objected. Lucky pretended to ignore her.
"And of course, Em told me that you're a movie freak," he addressed Dillon. "So I got a bunch of comedies. Good for energy."
"You didn't get anything with Adam Sandler, did you?" Dillon asked cautiously, but jocularly.
"No way!" Lucky was indignant. "Just the good stuff!" He pulled out a stack of DVDs and handed them to Dillon for inspection.
"Monty Python and Mystery Science Theater." Dillon laughed approvingly. "Very nice."
"Well," said Emily, "which one should we watch first?"
"The Brain That Wouldn't Die, definitely," said Dillon. "But Em, are you sure you're okay? It's almost 2 in the morning."
"I'm fine," Emily assured him. "I've been resting a lot. And we won't stay all night."
"Unless we have to," spoke up Lucky in his big brother voice, looking at Dillon pointedly.
"Pipe down, Lucky," Emily laughed. "Georgie doesn't need a superhero to protect her against Dillon."
"But thank you for the concern," grinned Georgie, receiving a mock salute from Lucky.
"Even so," Dillon told Emily, eager to start the movie and end the particular strain of conversation, "Bobbie brought in a cot for Georgie. Why don't you take it? That is, if Georgie doesn't mind staying up here."
"Oh I don't mind," Georgie said, trying to sound breezy and failing miserably. Dillon laughed and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.
Zander pulled the cot over and lifted Emily out of the wheelchair, sitting her down on the cot and then sitting behind her, against the wall, so that she could lean back into his chest. Georgie's candy striper instincts kicked in and she slid off the bed to go to the closet and get out the extra blanket, which she handed to Emily.
"Thanks Georgie," Em said sweetly.
"Thank you," said Zander.
Georgie smiled at them and climbed back up on the bed, situating herself in Dillon's arms. Lucky finished setting up the DVD player, handed a milkshake each to Emily and Zander and took his own, settling himself in Emily's wheelchair, his feet propped up on the stiff hospital chair by the bed. The five young people focused on the screen. Lucky glanced sidelong at Emily and pouted.
"I think I would make a very good superhero, thank you," he said, objecting to her prior statement.
Emily nodded sagely.
"True, very true," she conceded. "You would look great in
tights."
Zander, Dillon and Georgie laughed out loud. Emily
barely dodged the handful of popcorn and M&Ms that came hurtling
toward her.
