Lily sat down in the lab after a hellishly long day, a pair of tweezers in her hand to pull out the multiple anaconda teeth lodged in her own flesh.
After Keeton's little 'slip' about their encounter this morning, she was left to explain the situation to her colleagues. Keeton just stood idly by with a smile on his face while she scrambled to clarify the meaning behind his comment – he was no help at all. While all five pairs of eyes - including Keeton's - were trained on Lily's flaming face, she tried to play down the whole incident, blaming Tommy since he was the cause of her seeking a shower at the waterfall in the first place.
If Lily could have strung Keeton up then and there, she would have, as the smug ass was enjoying this a bit too much. What was she, his personal plaything? Was she put here for his own personal amusement?
Keeton loved to watch the play of emotions across Brenner's face. The blush that tinted her cheeks and neck was a delight to see, knowing that he was the cause of it.
Shortly after the clinic opened, a call came in about a male wildlife photographer in his late twenties whose subject, a snake, apparently wasn't ready for his close up. Determining that Lily was scared of snakes, Keeton recruited her for the rescue mission. Great…another test.
Truth be told, Keeton just wanted her close - yet another opportunity to figure out what made Brenner tick.
After crossing a fraying rope bridge over a gigantic gorge that threatened to snap under the weight of a rat, let alone a human being, a snake-bite kit proved to be unnecessary as the snake was an anaconda – a non-poisonous snake that was presently wrapped 'snugly' around the photographer.
While crossing the river on foot, since the rope bridge couldn't accommodate a rescue party holding a stretcher, the anaconda chose that moment to release the victim, leaving him to potentially bleed out from his internal crushing injury. After a mad scramble to get the man to shore in order to stabilize him by using the canvas from the stretcher as a make-shift tourniquet, it was then Keeton saw the blood on Lily's shirt. Only then did she realize that she'd been bitten by the anaconda. The snake left Lily a souvenir – a dozen or so teeth plunged into her arm that she now had the pleasure of removing.
After one horrendously long surgery and being witness to a marriage proposal, Lily was frapped. The photographer had survived, but Lily might not - this heat was a killer.
One…Lily's sharply in-drawn breath from the pain bounced off the walls of the lab as she pulled out the first tooth.
She assumed that everyone was gone for the day, since night had fallen and the clinic was quiet except for the odd beep and hum from equipment in the ward. Jungle night sounds were in full swing, adding to the loneliness of her task.
Two…she bit-back a moan that threatened to escape her lips as she was finally able to extract a particularly stubborn tooth. These tweezers were crap.
"These work better." Lily jumped as Keeton's low voice cut through the night - in his hand, a pair of needle-nose pliers. It seemed that he'd done this before.
"Here," he offered as sat down and gently took Lily's arm.
Catching a glimpse of what looked like an archaic cell phone Keeton read the display, "Smile. Don't kill anyone?"
"This…is my doctor crutch," Lily replied sheepishly.
"What does it mean?" he asked.
Lily proceeded to tell the man she was insanely attracted to about her fiancé, and how one morning after he had eaten the last of the cereal, she'd been pissed off and sent him to the store to get more. While he was out, he had texted her, "Smile. Don't kill anyone." She remembered smiling when she'd received that text.
Her breath hissed as Keeton twisted the tooth in order to remove it. "Sorry," he whispered, his low voice gliding over her like silk.
My god, she was on fire. What was going on with her? Was she so far gone that she broke out in a sweat the moment he was near? Lily was certain she would go up in flames where he was touching her arm.
"Cute. I hope you cut him some slack when he got home," he teased with a smile as he gently extracted the last tooth from Lily's arm and placed it in the jar.
"He never got home," Lily replied quietly. "A car hit him 3 blocks from the house."
Keeton's head shot up, his horrified stare searching out Lily's quietly resigned one.
"It's been 2 years," she whispered. "He's gone, but I'm still here," Keeton nodded, "…and I have to let go." Keeton's gaze took in her flushed cheeks and her glassy eyes.
Tearing his eyes away, Keeton reached for the Betadine. "This is going to sting a little," he said, soaking a large cotton swab before gently rolling it along Lily's wound, her sharply indrawn breath causing him to lower his head to gently blow on her skin. Realizing the intimacy of his gesture, they both looked up at each other.
Reacting, Lily raised her right hand to gently touch Keeton's hair, feeling the soft texture between her fingers, her eyes still trained on his. Her hand gently moved to cup his cheek, her thumb running lightly over his eyebrow. "Eyes the colour of the ocean after a storm," she said in a faraway voice, "I see your eyes in my sleep."
And as her fingertips moved gently along his skin, once again to thread in his hair, she leaned in and touched his lips with hers…and he was lost.