Scrubs and CuB fans alike get the opportunity to revel in both on none other than Valentine's Day!
"Claude! If you don't move your lazy ass, I'll fire you this second!" Luke shouted behind him as he stormed into his back office. With normal employees the threat of losing employment was a motivating factor. But Claude was not a normal employee. Luke knew the other man would just shrug his shoulders and go on with what he was doing before his boss walked in. Somehow Lucky thought that Luke's constant firing of Claude may have something to do with the bartender's deaf ear where the management was concerned, but Luke disagreed. It had to be something else.
Sitting down at his desk, he carefully opened the lowest desk drawer and pulled out the bottle of Scotch he kept there. Grabbing a shot glass from the low shelf behind him, Luke poured himself the first shot of the day. Laura would frown at the drinking at lunchtime, but he was bar owner damn it. He had a reputation to maintain. Somehow a nasty rumor had started that he had gotten old after Cameron had been born. He may have a grandson but he was not old. Snapping his fingers, Luke scratched a note out on a random file folder to have the motorcycle checked. It was making that pinging sound again and if there was to be any success in getting Cameron on that bike, it had to run perfectly.
Even through the thick oak door, he could hear the door to the main floor slam shut. Had it finally happened? Had Claude actually taken him seriously and left? His family had warned him for years it would happen but surely it really hadn't. He waited for a moment to hear something, anything but heard nothing but silence. When he reached his office door, he flung it open wide and bellowed "Claude! You better be out there or I really will fire you!"
"Sorry to disappoint, Uncle Luke..." Patrick drawled, throwing his jacket in one of the empty chairs near the entrance.
"Nephew! You are always welcome!" Luke went to slap Patrick across the back in greeting. He shook his finger in Claude's direction. "I should fire you for not telling me The Lady-killer was here." he threatened.
"I don't know about Lady-killer." Patrick answered noncommittally. "Got any scotch?"
Shooting him an incredulous look, Luke gestured towards his office. "Did I not help raise you right? Back to the office my boy."
"I don't want to drink alone." Patrick told him, already heading toward the office.
Pointing to the already opened bottle and used shot glass on his desk, Luke laughed as he closed the door. "Have a seat and don't tell your aunt I had already started."
"As long as you don't tell Aunt Bobbie anything I tell you."
Setting down the second glass, Luke poured a full measure. "Barbara Jean? What does she have to do with this? Did you track more mud on her carpets again?"
"Ha-ha. No, but I don't need anymore bad publicity."
"There is no such thing as a Spencer with bad publicity."
"Tell that to Robin."
"Little Scorpio? What does she have to do with this?" Luke shook his head confusedly. He sensed danger. Something involving feelings was coming up. There was a reason he and Laura had an agreement about this stuff. She would take care of the heart stuff and he would do the fun stuff. Damn these kids for screwing with a well-established deal.
"She's making my life miserable." Patrick grumbled.
Luke poured himself another drink and immediately tossed it back. He was so going to need a new bottle before this was done. "Go on."
"It was so much easier before. She couldn't stand the sight of me. The feeling was mutual. Now, I'm stumbling all over myself trying to avoid a fight."
"You two have never avoided fights before." Luke remembered vividly some very loud Christmases during Robin and Logan's brief marriage.
"I don't even know how to explain it. Cruz blackmailed me into helping her with her bakery, there was a bathing suit, and now she's mad at me for something I didn't even really have anything to do with." Patrick swallowed the shot, cringing as it bubbled against the thin layer of his throat.
"You lost me at bathing suit."
"It was just supposed to be about mutual attraction." Patrick waited for his uncle to interrupt, expected the incredulous, 'What are you talking about? You hate the girl,' he had gotten from everyone else. He grabbed a second shot glass, filled each to the rim, and threw them down his throat one right after the other. "I guess I've always just been a little too curious for my own good."
Luke lifted an eyebrow. "Oh just a bit. Your aunt still blames you for Lulu's broken arm when she was six."
"You dared her to climb that tree." Patrick countered with a wave of his hand. "I just didn't dissuade her."
"Tell that to Laura. So this curiosity has gotten you into trouble with Little Scorpio has it?"
"Yes. I thought things were going so well. We made this deal of sorts, and she seemed fine with it. Now, it's like we're back to Square One and I just know I'm going to be blamed for everything."
"Why would anyone blame you?"
"They always blame me when Robin is involved." Patrick replied instantly. Begrudgingly, he added, "And I might be partially responsible."
Luke shook his head. "I might actually be getting old because I'm still not getting this." He shook his finger in Patrick's direction. "Do not tell anyone that."
"Your secret is safe with me, gramps." Patrick teased and then went on, "I knew Robin would never go into a casual relationship with anyone, so I offered her an ultimatum...one that, until a couple of days ago, she was completely fine with. I didn't expect Laura to drop off Morgan or I never would have been there in the first place. It was one of the things she had told me she didn't want when we first started this fling of ours." Patrick almost choked as he spoke the words "relationship" and "ultimatum."
So that's why his wife had been walking around in a daze for the past few days. He had come damn close to succeeding in getting Cameron on the bike before she had even noticed what was going on. They had actually made it to the garage and had Lulu not chosen that exact moment to come through the door, Luke was convinced he would have gotten away with it. "So what's happened since then?"
"Nothing. She got all huffy and I left." Patrick replied, shaking his head at the half empty bottle of scotch.
"After that?" Seeing his nephew's confused look, Luke shook his head. "You have talked to her since then haven't you?"
"I don't think I'm wrong."
"You may not be. But you can't let her know that."
"This is most complicated fling I've ever had." Patrick buried his head in his hands, leaving the empty glasses on the table to his right.
"Probably because it's not a fling anymore. It's a relationship my boy."
Surely Patrick hadn't heard him right. "But I didn't make any promises." He protested.
"Did you have an agreement about what you two would and would not do?"
"I wouldn't call it an agreement per se."
Luke nodded in understanding. He didn't call his nephew "Lady-killer" for nothing. "Were you seeing some other beautiful thing at the same time?"
"I would have, but she was in the hospital, and then when she got out she admitted that she didn't want to share me."
"And you agreed?"
"She wouldn't see reason until I did. She needed to be able to trust that I wasn't going to hurt her."
"So you're not seeing anyone else. You've discussed things in some manner or another. You want her trust." Luke raised his newly filled glass towards Patrick. "Congratulations my boy. You are in an actual relationship."
"I don't want her trust; I'm just trying to avoid a fight, damn it. And stop saying the 'R' word."
Luke rolled his eyes. "Don't be dense boy. I know you are smarter than this. Use the word or don't, you are in a relationship." He shrugged his shoulders. "It happens to the best of us at one time or another."
"How did this happen?" Patrick demanded, slamming his palm against the table.
"If we knew that, we wouldn't be in relationships."
"If this is the part where you tell me it's all worth it, you can save your breath. I've seen what relationships and love get a person. Look at Noah." Patrick sighed.
"Your father is a piss poor example and you know it."
Patrick knew his uncle was right. How had he entered into a relationship with Robin without even knowing it? She must have had something to do with it. And he thought she could handle casual. HA! She had roped him into a committed relationship. "What do I do?"
"The better question is what do you want to do?"
"If I go back now, I'm admitting that I was wrong and I just don't think I was." Did that mean he was ready to call it quits? Could he really walk away from Robin after everything they had already been together? In that moment he wanted so badly to tell Luke about his infection. He snatched up the bottle and poured himself a final shot.
"So pick the fight." Luke paused to raise his eyebrows in a mock leer. "Sometimes the making up is the best part."
Three days. It had been three fucking days since he had tried to surprise Bobbie with breakfast in bed. Three days since she had successfully distracted him from even asking her anything remotely important outside of the bedroom. Since then she had avoided him, scheduled meetings and used his own desire for her as a weapon against him. As much as it shamed him to admit it, it really had been only a few hours since Cruz realized she had been playing him. He thought that he had outgrown hormone lead thinking but apparently he was wrong.
He paused to run his hand through his hair before he walked through her backdoor. The timing had to be perfect. Last night he had managed to sneak a glance at her day planner. Bobbie had no appointments with clients today. He had heard Patrick bitching over the phone yesterday about Robin using Morgan to hide from him again so he was reasonably sure she wasn't baby-sitting today. This was it. Nothing was going to stop him today.
Opening the door, he smiled as he caught sight of her sitting at the small kitchen table. A half eaten sandwich and an empty glass sat next to her elbow. She was so fully engrossed in a magazine article of some sort that she hadn't even heard him come in. Her red hair was clipped to the back of her head, leaving messy tendrils hanging down. Cruz smiled even wider when he recognized the oversized blue dress shirt she wore over jeans was one of his that he had thought the cleaners had lost.
"Thief!" he called out teasingly, causing her to jump and drop her magazine.
Bobbie lifted one hand to her chest, feeling it race beneath her fingers. Granted Cruz generally made her heart skip a beat or two, but that was from more pleasant pursuits. She smiled, willing her heart to slow down. "Declaring war on the phrase 'hello' are we?"
He leaned down to pick up her magazine, kissing her check when he rose up. "Hello."
"Hello to you too."
Cruz glanced at the magazine in his hand and threw it to the table. "A thief and a traitor. Reading the competition now are you?"
Reaching out to snatch her copy of P.C. Gazette from his hands, Bobbie stuck her tongue out at him. "It's research."
Holding it just out of her reach, he lifted one eyebrow. "Research?"
"Yes." She stood up and succeed in grabbing it back from him. "I was researching just how much superior The Insider is to this rag."
"Very clever."
"Thank you." Bobbie tilted her head and laughed. "Not that it took much research. They aren't even nominated for the SPJ awards." She had meant it as a compliment but too late Bobbie realized she had accidentally brought up the one situation she had been hoping to avoid. It his fault for sitting there looking so damn desirable, distracting her from her game.
He smiled slowly. "Well that is true. You know..." he drawled out. "The award dinner is coming up next week."
"Is it? I had forgotten." Lie. She memorized the date the second he had told her.
"Yes."
"So will your mom be able to make it in?"
His mother? His mother couldn't afford the plane fare up to upstate New York. Bobbie knew that. Cruz suppressed the urge to smirk. "No she can't."
"Well I'm sure Laura, Lucky, and Patrick will cheer loud enough to make up the difference."
"If they were coming, I'm sure they would. But Lucky has some awards thing or another to attend himself and Laura already promised to baby-sit Cam. Patrick has a job lined up with clients he actually likes, so he's not pissing them off."
"The staff?" She felt her heart dropping. There was no way she would let him go to something so important all alone. It was just too sad to think about it.
"Only Axe." This was working too well. He was pretty sure he wasn't going have to argue with her nearly as much as he had anticipated.
"Just Axe?"
"Well he is the one who wrote the article. And he's the longest serving staff member besides me."
Bobbie bit her lip and Cruz decided it was the perfect time to ask. It perfectly clear that she was feeling sorry for him. He wasn't above using her pity to get what he wanted. She may have him almost completely whipped but he was still a man. "Since you brought it up, there was something I was wondering about the dinner."
"Is there?" She braced herself. Here it comes.
"Why don't you come with me?"
She paused. On one hand she wanted to be with him on such an important night for him. But yet, it was a giant step for them. Going with him to such a public dinner, with his peers and at least one staff member? The stares. The gossip. Could she sit through an entire evening of it?
"Look I know what you are thinking." Cruz started, reaching out to take her hand.
"Oh you do?"
"It's more public than we normally do. And crawling with press. And you are right. Sort of. Trust me. No one actually covers this award dinner. They don't give a shit who came with whom; they just want to blow their own horn if they win. And most are too drunk an hour or so in to remember anything the next day."
"How are you the expert? You've never been before this year." She pointed out.
Cruz shrugged. "I asked some friends at other papers. I read some blogs. All the same story."
"Oh you read some blogs. That makes me feel better." She rolled her eyes.
"Look it's not like there's going to be a red carpet. It's being held in the banquet room at a Holiday Inn."
"Even if the rest of the room is drunk, there is still the issue of your staff. They know me or at least of me."
"Staff? What staff?"
"Cute. I have met Axe before as you well know."
"Axe? Axe can't remember names of people he's known for years. Patrick is Photograph dude. Lucky is Music Man. I'm convinced he calls me Boss Man because he doesn't know my name."
"He could tell Becca."
"Becca dates him and doesn't understand him half the time. You need a code book to understand him. Even if he did remember you, no one would understand him enough to figure out who he was talking about."
"I still don't know."
"Just think about it. That's all I ask. Think about it." Cruz squeezed her fingers and gave her his best puppy dog pout, the one Laura had always told him would get him whatever he wanted.
Bobbie shook her head at his puppy dog eyes. He was bringing in the big guns now. She knew she was most likely going to cave, but she was not going to do it now. He would think it was because of the eyes, but that was not the case. It was about the way he filled out those jeans he was wearing. And the fact that she did not want him to be alone.
"Fine. I'll think about it."