After a few agonizing minutes of standing in front of the vending machine, all spent trying to figure out which drink best suited Lauren, Bo finally settled on buying two bottles of water. It was the safest choice to make and that itself put another dent in her ego. Why she was not on the woman's Christmas list, they had spent a rather great deal of time near each other over the recent weeks. The ER was never overflowing with doctors vying over who got to treat the kid with the bloody noise whose parents fully believed the child was going to die. Yet, during her whole time at the hospital, she never really got Lauren.
Most people around the hospital had their opinions as to what Lauren was like but they generally seemed to stick to what would it took thirty seconds to realize. The consensus was that Lauren was nice, dedicated and honest. All of which are fine qualities, they even gave the woman a rather attractive charm to her, but none of them revealed anything truthful. There was something else, beneath all the reassurances that distracted anyone from looking further, Bo was sure of that.
Opening the office door Bo walked in fully expecting the smell of Thai food, which instead was completely absent. The office was also missing its usual occupant. A good ten minutes had passed in her efforts to get them drinks and that should have been more than enough time for Lauren to walk to the lobby and back.
Though having a moment alone in the office would give her the chance to investigate the woman without having to ask obvious questions. Nothing would actually be touched, certain boundaries had to be respected amongst colleagues, but a look around couldn't hurt. There was just something enticing about being able to see whom Lauren was when work did not involve the rush of screaming patients to deal with.
Setting the water bottles on the desk, Bo glanced around the room. There really was not much to look at. A large wooden desk mostly took up the little floor space that existed in the office. A light brown upholstery couch took up most of one wall, which were mostly bare except for a large window centered behind the desk and a few framed diplomas. Last of the furniture was an office chair, which looked exactly like the very uncomfortable ones at the nurses' station, pushed into the empty gap within the desk.
There were no personal effects around the office. No picture frames, trinkets or even an out of place coffee mug full of pens and pencils. All that seemed to be around was what came with the office and what the woman needed to work. The only thing occupying the desk was the papers Bo had agreed to assist with. How anyone could accept, begrudgingly or not, the responsibility of correcting what had been three months' worth of work, and to it within 24 hours, was beyond her.
Before Bo could start over analyzing every sparse detail, the door handle clicked open and in walked Lauren, balancing two Styrofoam containers in one hand. Bo moved to close the door behind the blonde woman, thus allowing their lunch to reach the desk safely rather than ending up on the floor.
"I have no idea what you ordered." Lauren prided herself on understanding other cultures and engaging in them, but Tai food was one of the few unknowns and she now had to trust Bo had ordered something edible.
Bo took a second to take in the annoyed look on Lauren's face why the woman was staring down at the unopened containers. The confused tone in the woman's voice brought a smile to Bo's lips, which she quickly tried to hide. "It is called Pad Thai. The dish is a great one to start with if you're not familiar withThai food as it is not overly spicy, if done right."
"What do you mean if done right?" The wide-eyed look on Lauren's face was something Bo wanted to remember. Crazy people in the ER, demanding Committee members, and a mountain of paperwork did not even seem faze Lauren but spicy food apparently terrified the blonde.
"Sometimes they do not blend the peppers and the sauce properly, which can make it a bit hot." Bo empathized the last word right as she stopped in front of the blonde. She was in no hurry to leave the personal space either, slowly picking up a set of plastic utensils, reaching for the bottle furthest from her and only retreating to the couch after a final warning. "Just be careful and don't keep eating if you can't handle the spice."
"Right." Lauren, picked up the remaining counter, tentatively, and grabbed her bottle of water before moving to sit behind the desk. The food smelled normal enough but instinct took over as her fork started poking at the dish and moving some of it around, hoping to uncover anything hazardous before she ate it. Concerned that she might look like a completely helpless fool laid low by a pepper, Lauren missed the amused look on Bo's face as a pair of sharply focused eyes that watched her slightly panicked movements.
After the show was over, and Lauren seemed satisfied she wasn't trying to kill her with lunch, Bo sat down on the couch, using the arm of it that was closest to the desk as a miniature table. Based on the first few bites the food was exactly what anyone ordering Thai food from a takeout restaurant in the city would expect. It passed the safety inspection and didn't entirely taste like the container it came in.
Looking over at the blonde, just to make sure the food was okay, Bo noticed that there seemed to be more poking and less eating again. "Is it too spicy or just generally awful?"
Lauren shot her head straight up, having almost forgotten that someone else was in the room. She must have looked like one of the patients suffering from paranoid delusions by the weird look the woman was giving her. It took a few seconds before someone turned on the lights and she was able to offer a reassuring response.
"No, the food is great." Intent on proving that point Lauren took several large bites of her food faster than anyone should because they will end up choking. After a couple minutes of drinking water and slight coughing the room returned to silence as they ate and worked on correcting the budget.
Bo was lost in trying to decipher the strange symbols Lauren claimed were letters and eating her food when she glanced back over to the enigma in the room. Instead of finding the senior attending with her brown eyes lost in similar paperwork, the woman was just staring at an unopened folder. She made an effort to ignore but after a couple more minutes there was just no getting around it.
"Okay. Obviously, you liked the food well enough and this is your office, so it can't be the setting. That means either I have done something since showing up that upset you or you really just like torturing your food and trying to read through a paper cover. Which is it?" The words came out harsher than intended but not being able to understand someone was really quite infuriating and Bo wanted some sign she hadn't mistaken the woman's actions not an hour earlier.
Lauren sighed as she sat folder next to the closed up container on the desk as she moved to the couch. "Can I ask you something?"
Bo was not sure that exchange really took place. She pretty much took the woman's head off and all she got in return was a rather meek question. Though if the blonde was that distracted by whatever was on her mind it made sense to at least let the question be asked.
"Sure. I am an open book." Trying not lot the sudden, intimate, proximity get to her Bo leaned back against the armrest of the couch, regaining some the distance Lauren had removed. There were a number of questions that Bo would like to hear, and a number that she expected, but she rather doubted it would be anything shocking.
"Do you and any of your exes get along?" Lauren loathed gossip, or talking behind someone's back, but she had overhead the exchange between Bo and Nadia earlier and it had stuck with her as a consequence of her actions that had now unfairly impacted someone else.
That was not a question that Bo was expecting, wanting or really felt anyone was justified in asking. "Despite what the gossip mill might have to say about it I have not slept with half the nurses in the ER over the last couple months why my boyfriend was kept waiting across town so someone could keep my hair back when Saturday night returned to haunt me Sunday morning." The comment was delivered without an ounce of anger, though it wasn't missing any sarcasm. Her personal life was not some mess of problems people could offer her their deepest sympathies on, even if it was technically getting to the problematic mess stage.
"I didn't mean it like it, I was just wondering because I know relationships can be tough and you've mentioned leaving a bad break up behind that sounded pretty serious." Lauren definitely felt like backing away and hiding in a hole somewhere. They really did not know each other well enough to be discussing personal details like that.
"Dyson, my ex, and I do fine now days. Distance and not working together any more helps." Just moving to the other side of the city and a new hospital might not seem like much, but for Bo it was a fresh start. "It's not perfect of course, but we can be in the same room without it being an issue."
There was no vocal response from Lauren, just a slight nod before the overstepping doctor prepared to get back to work.
For Bo she was not going to let it be that easy. "Crazy girlfriend didn't like you changing the locks?"
By the sudden absent of any movement, except a slight dropping of the jaw, there was a definite chance that Bo was getting better at getting underneath the perfect skin of the perfect doctor. "I found it strange sometimes just staying over at someone else's apartment a couple nights a week for the few months I tried it. The thought of having that shared existence as a lead into a permanent situation, waiting there every night, seems like it could be rather overwhelming."
"Living together is not all that different from dating someone for a while; there are subtle differences but mostly it just a continuation of the relationship with the added bonus of carpooling." Lauren responded with a lack of enthusiasm on the topic, which even surprised her a bit. No one had really asked how things were going with Nadia before their breakup but she never figured that her response if they did would have been that lackluster.
"What stayed the same? The bad habits? Irritating friends? Mind blowing sex?"
"Bo!" The admonishment was said rather quietly as Lauren felt her cheeks turn a slight hue of pink why shifting her eyes to the door, half expecting a group of people rushing into her office and wanting details.
"What?" Bo did her best to look innocent about what question drew the blonde's attention. Fortunately, she had gotten better at denial than when she first started working for Hale.
"My sex life, Doctor McCorrigan, is not something I discuss with colleagues over expense reports and lunch."
"I simply asked about the lack of changes Doctor Lewis. You mentioned discussing that one specific aspect of the relationship. Though, as a doctor, I could not live with myself if I did not inform you that sexual frustration, if left untreated, can lead to serious health problems." Bo offered the advice as if the other woman was actually a patient, after all the only people to call her Doctor McCorrigan were patients and Hale. With Lauren it was different though, the precise pronunciation made it sort of hot.
Lauren found herself smiling as she once again found herself the target of smart-ass remarks from the brunette doctor. It was strange but she found being engaged in yet another odd conversation with the hospital's resident mystery woman a rather amusing highlight on her weekend.
"If you must know Doctor McCorrigan," Lauren noticed a slight shifting in the brunette that seemed out of place but ignored it as nothing more than the poor lumbar support from the couch starting to take its toll as she continued on. "All the bad habits seem to stay the same except the sex."
The department head could feel a weight come off her shoulders as she said those simple words. It was not really a big deal; but there still seemed to be a distance between her and Bo that Lauren had assumed would fade as the final boundary was crossed. She did not want to burden a colleague but the internal debate would have to settle for mental kicking her later for casually engaging with the woman to where she actually moved towards the couch without considering her actions. "I know there is nothing I can do about it, that I shouldn't be upset, but she blames me for everything falling apart and now she's started taking it out on other people."
Bo was nervously trying to press into the back of the couch even further as the woman seemed to learn towards, despite there being no chance of contact even at their current distance. "Like random doctors that show up to take you out for lunch?" Why the other woman suddenly wanted to talk about her personal life, had to sit closer in order to have that conversation, or made her jumpy in general, Bo could not understand.
"On my way to pick up the food I stopped by the front desk to let her know her behavior towards you was unprofessional and it would not happen again. It's been five months and I've tried everything to make it better, to allow us to be friends, but"
"Even when she seems to hate you, there is something beneath that, like she's not going to be happy unless you take the clingy bitch back." The interruption got a smile out of Lauren, whom to Bo suddenly thought mist just jump off the couch, or jump on her, to celebrate the obvious conclusion to her own thoughts.
"Exactly. I always made the gesture to try to put any possible time we could have together above anything else, but I wasn't going to quit my job." Not only was it her work that had kept their condo paid for, something that she rarely brought up as it always started a fight, but Lauren enjoyed what she did, even on days when it meant triple shifts.
"Well, in all fairness to your ex, you did cohabitate and that usually suggests you intend to get married at some point. Once that happens people change and they start expecting you to meet all of their expectations because they assume you are ready for that change as well." Bo had pegged the nurse as the crazy kind of people, adding that to having lived together and she was impressed Lauren hadn't filled a restraining order against the woman.
"Spent a lot of time studying the ancient ritual of marriage?" Lauren was definitely annoyed that the younger, probably only had one serious relationship from what she could tell, brunette would defend Nadia's behavior and criticize that she had not done enough to address it.
"Not marriage but being the only woman usually not taking her clothes off at bachelor parties has offered some interesting insights." The look that followed from Lauren had a strange little glint about it that Bo had not seen before.
That little comment had intrigued Lauren. Normally she did not hear more than a few words about the duckling's past and none of them from the source. "What exactly does usually mean Doctor McCorrigan?"
"You can stop calling me Doctor McCorrigan at any time. My parents did actually give me a first name and it wasn't Doctor, or Bo technically, but Bo is just easier to pronounce." Bo was going to do her damndest to steer away from that slip up about a stupid mistake. It was not even something she had told Dyson, not fully anyways, and it was not anywhere near appropriate for a conversation over lunch with a colleague. A different topic, any topic, except that one, would be good right now.
"Okay, Bo, what is the story behind you only usually keeping your clothes on at bachelor parties?" It did seem like a strange subject to be hung up on but a chance to learn something embarrassing about the brunette was an opportunity Lauren didn't want to pass up.
"It was just a stupid incident that happened during my residency." Bo did her best to focus on the report in her lap hoping Lauren, like everyone else, would eventually give up.
"Why so embarrassed? Did you not get any tips?"
"Why so interested in what it takes to get my clothes off?" Lauren asking annoying questions was something she could ignore easily enough. However, suggesting she could not part drunken idiots from their cash under any circumstance, let alone if she was trying to when she did not have any actual clothes on, was crossing a line Bo could not let stand.
"What?" The blush that swept up through Lauren's cheeks had to be borderline dangerous as it caused a sudden rise in temperature.
"It is a simple question Lauren. Why do you want to hear about me being half naked so badly?"
Lauren was going crimson by the time a stuttered response came out of her mouth. "I…uh…no I didn't mean…it was just…uh…you said it and I thought…well it just…"
Bo moved further down the couch, getting closer to the blonde as the incomplete rambling stopped in favor of Lauren just looking down at the floor.
"The next time you have a question you want to ask about my personal life, remember that we ended this conversation with you wanting details about me in an undressed state." There was that flash in those brown eyes as the blonde glanced over and despite, or perhaps because of, that look, Bo knew she had to end the game before something happened.
"Now, let us get back to work before we end up staying here all night." Quickly moving back to her abandoned seat, and paper work, Bo still smiled, despite her concerns, at the slow reaction of Lauren to do the same.
As the hours passed in relative silence, only the occasional few sentences over something work related, the two actually managed to finish the reports. Despite the questionable food, and unquestionably interesting conversation, by the late evening Bo definitely felt like going home. Her back hurt from sitting upright, her head pained from all the stupid numbers and she was certain she had developed asthma as every now as her chest would tighten. The last had to be the most aggravating of the problems as it seemed to come up right when Lauren would be asking her something, not the questions really, but just the sound of the woman's voice rattled her. Fortunately, it seemed to go unnoticed by her colleague.
By the time they reached the exterior side of the hospital entranceway, with the reports safely prepared for tomorrow, it had been over six hours since Bo had arrived. Of course given the time spent on waiting for lunch, talking about matters that had nothing to do with work and her having to decipher Lauren's hand writing it had not exactly been six hours of solid effort.
"Thank You for your help today. I did not think I would finish before tomorrow's deadline. Now, I can go home, get dinner and sleep in my own bed." The workload hadn't been split entirely even, but certainly the younger doctor had been of serious help and Lauren had to admit she regretted not entrusting the woman with more responsibilities.
"No worries Doctor Lewis." Bo wasn't sure where they stood with each other and on reflex had reverted back to a professional tone. There was something about the blonde though that triggered other instincts, baser instincts, and she had to control them, she couldn't afford to lose her job over another disastrous office romance.
"I thought we established Doctor wasn't a first name, Bo?" Lauren smiled as the brunette rolled her eyes, clearly not used to being on the receiving end of her own sarcasm. "I suppose I'll see you at work."
"Assuming the ER doesn't get shut down because of someone's shoddy record keeping." Satisfied with getting one last shot in against Lauren, who seemed to be able to verbally spare with the best of them, Bo glanced at the darkened parking lot trying to remember what space her car occupied.
"I'll ignore that last comment, instead of dragging you back in there to show you my dedicated filing system, because, thanks to you, I get to go take a nice hot bubble bath." Lauren wasn't sure where the trust between them came from, but she felt comfortable enough to hug the other woman before they parted ways. "My cab is probably waiting. Have a good night Bo."
Bo felt a sudden shiver run down her spine, which must have been from the complete lack of a breeze or the not sudden dropping temperatures, as those words rang in her head and a pair of arms wrapped around her for a second. It had to be the world's shortest hug, yet, by the time her eyes moved from the car door in the distance, Lauren was out of sight. There was something about a cab ride floating around in her head but the thought was lost to random words still trying to form sentences in reply. By the time she reached the car, Bo knew she would have to keep the roof down for the duration of the drive and there would be no risking a hot shower.
Well here we are. A Sunday update on Sunday, well in my timezone at least. Everyone doing the whole reading, follow, favorite or review thing - you guys are awesome and I appreciate every hit to my stories! I'm also posting this in honor of the succes Doccubus is having in Zimbio's Couples March Madness poll. If you want more info about that just follow the link in my profile.