2.
Once in the hospital, they have to wait with the rest of the sods who've being unlucky enough, or stupid enough, or both to get knifed, shot, or beaten that night.
"You smiled at him." It comes out before River has a chance to think it through. "You smiled…"
"You are jealous," she looks at him stunned.
"I am not jealous," he quickly denies. "This isn't jealousy. I just want to know…"
She waits.
"You smiled at him, and he then… and he then… He was aiming at you! He could've…you," he chokes on his own words and can't continue.
"Breathe," Stevie says softly. "In and out."
"Don't tell me what to do!" He glares at her. "Who are you protecting? Is he your… boyfriend?" the word tastes worse than all the drive-through burgers and Chinese crispy ducks combined.
"Would it be so surprising that I had a boyfriend?" Stevie's smile is so sad, that the taste in his mouth gets worse. "Haven't you ever wondered?"
River just can't believe…this. Any of it. "You don't tell. I don't ask."
Stevie isn't smiling anymore, "You are never curious…"
This whole night is a disaster, River thinks, and being shot seems not to be the worst of it. "So, this is the kind of block you go for..." He is chocking again, but he can't stop now. "If it is sex you wanted…"
Now, it looks like Stevie is about to cry. "Then what? You would've given it to me?"
River can't find any better response than to scoff.
Stevie gets coffee, which River waves off. It doesn't happen too often, but right now he wishes one of his dead 'buddies' would just show up and make him not think about this… About Stevie.
"You took a bullet for me," she says softly, staring into her cup.
"I would do anything for you," is what he wants to say. "Anything." But he only shrugs his right shoulder instead.
"Thank you," she continues undeterred.
River scoffs.
"And I don't have a boyfriend," she finishes.
There is a long pause, when River thinks that he should say he doesn't care either way, and that it is none of his business, and that they are just partners, and… And… Or turn to Stevie, and… And what?!
"Then tell me who it was," he says at last, when he manages to plow through all the nonsense that clutters his brain tonight. Honestly, all of his ghosts together couldn't have rattled him as much as this… Whatever this is. "Tell me."
Once again Stevie looks like it is she, who's got shot, it is she, who is in pain, and River begins to actually loath that look.
"You are a police officer, who was being shot at!" Feeling that at last he's found a footing in this conversation, he is confident. "You are my partner. How am I to keep you safe? How, when you won't say who he is? What if he tries again?"
"He won't." Stevie says it, as if she doesn't quite believe it herself. Then she continues with more conviction, "I told Chrissie where to start, and I promise, we'll go to the station and I'll give the official statement. Tomorrow. After we take care of your shoulder." That look of hers, the one River's come to loath, is back, and his confidence recedes. "I promise," Stevie repeats.
River knows he has no choice but to give in. Still he makes the last push, "You are not leaving my sight until we sort this thing out."
Stevie, her blue eyes suspiciously moist, bursts in laughter. "Aya aya, captain!"
It is hours before his shoulder is examined, x-rayed, and patched. Thankfully, the bullet hasn't hit anything important. There is just a fairly deep graze, which requires stitches, a patch, and some painkillers.
They make it to River's flat by morning. River practically falls on the couch, and he is quite sure he won't be able to move from it for a while. Stevie looks as exhausted as he feels, but she insists on getting him out of the blooded clothes. With his left arm in a sling, River is more a hindrance then help. Besides, his meds make him woozy. Still for the next ten minutes he obediently turns, bends and twists at Stevie's command, while she is peeling his coat, jacket and shirt off of him. By the time he is in a fresh shirt, they both are breathless.
"We need to get you to bed," Stevie says, looking down at him, as if surveying a difficult project. "The doc said you've lost a lot of blood. You need to rest and drink more fluids."
"Hmm," is all River can manage at the moment. Frankly, he isn't sure what's wrong with him resting on this couch, until, let's say, tomorrow.
"Should I make you some tea first? Coffee?" She can be quite overbearing, River muses, but he'd rather have her here, pestering him, than out and about, endangering herself to… "River?"
He glances up at Stevie, standing over him, and realizes that in the bright light of the window behind her Stevie seems to shine. River thinks that the meds probably make him not only woozy, but high as well. He smiles anyway.
Predictably, Stevie comes to the same conclusion. "To bed with you then," she reaches for his right arm.
"Give us a minute, will you?" Unable to handle all that light any longer, he drops his head on the back of the couch and closes his eyes.
"Alright, but only a minute," River hears Stevie says, as she plops next to him, and he smiles again.
He wakes up hours later. He is still on the couch, the meds have worn off, and his shoulder hurts like hell. He is also thirsty. "Chinese," he thinks in disdain. And then stops thinking altogether. Stevie, slumped by his side, her small hand on his chest, whimpers softly in her sleep. The breath puffs push lightly at the strands of her hair. He moves just a little, so he can see her face. Make sure that she is actually here. That she is alright.
Stevie…
"Oi." Erin is standing in the doorway. While they've being looking for her body, the girl's taking a habit of showing up at his flat. Eating his food. Giving silly advice.
"I'm bored," she says. "You?"
River looks at her, then back at Stevie. "So if you are scared to death of losing them…"
"Yes," the girl nods.
"…if you can't imagine what would happen to you if they are not around, if would you survive at all…"
"Yes," the girl nods again.
"…if you want them next to you always, even when they are annoying, and loud, and you don't mind it when they make fun of you, or ask you to sing, or…"
"Yes," the girl says. "Yes. All of it."
"So this is?"
There is no one to respond. The girl is gone. But Stevie is still here, asleep by his side. So, River smiles and answers himself, "…love…"
