zhlflu: thank you so much, I'm really glad you're liking it.
ziggystardust1994: I'm very glad to hear you liked both chapters, and that you think I'm not completely ruining Lorne - that makes me feel better about writing him. I'm also glad you liked the deer scene, I quite enjoyed writing it cause I think it's one of the only scenes in the show itself where we see he's got a soft spot somewhere in there - and I just really enjoyed adding my OC to it. I hope you had a good holiday weekend too, I know I enjoyed the Monday off, it was nice to sleep in.
She stepped in the holes his footfalls made, the snow coming up to her calves making walking difficult; and he'd shortened his strides when he'd looked back to find what she was doing, and knowing she hadn't thought of it but it could turn out as a good thing to have only one set of footprints leading away from the car. "Hey look," she said when he'd helped her over the pile of snow and onto the road, and he turned to see the headlights in the distance. "Think they'll stop?"
Within five minutes the truck stopped in front of the two, Lorne keeping Olivia at his back as he waited to see who they were taking a ride from – willing to kill them and steal their truck if the need arose. "What are you fellas doin' out so late without a car?" a young man's voice asked as he jumped down out of the truck and came around the side into view: he was no more than nineteen, just a kid.
"We hit a deer," she answered seeing Lorne was sizing the kid up, feeling his hand come around her waist and hold her behind him.
"Aw geeze I bet it wrecked your car," the boy said looking around. "Is that it there?"
Lorne turned to the taillights glowing from their car and rolled his eyes. "You see anyone else stranded on the road?" he asked rhetorically, looking down at Liv when she hit his arm.
"He's a kid," she said sternly, "you're not hurting him." Yet his arm tightened around her when she made to move forward, and she dug her knuckles in his ribs hearing him grunt. "I mean it this time, Lorne," she hissed, not knowing how long it would take her before she could stomach his face if he killed this boy. "Yeah it is our car, you wouldn't happen to be going near Bemidji, would you?"
The boy looked to see her come out from behind the man and he smiled. "Yes ma'am, that's where I live. Let me get your bag."
Lorne watched him closely as he stood near Liv, a hand by his side prepared to grab his knife as he moved with his case around the back of the truck. "What are you doing out so late, son?" he asked, giving her a look at having to play nice.
"Tommy," he answered before taking the suitcase and her bag and loading them in the bed of the truck. "I can take that," he offered reaching for Lorne's case, though he recoiled at the look on his face. "I was seeing my girl, she lives over in Wilson. She's not as pretty as you ma'am," he said smiling shyly.
"Olivia, and thank you," she said moving around the truck for the door. Lorne's hand on her waist kept her from sliding in the middle and she bit back a smile when Tommy climbed in and turned to find Lorne sitting against him and her on the other side. "Do you know where the hotel is by the hospital, they said it was literally right beside it?"
Tommy nodded looking around the man to see her. "Well don't you know it, I live no more than five minutes from the very same place," he said taking his eyes from the road to smile at her, though his smile fell at the sight of the man's face and he turned back to the road. "So are you, you uh, you her dad?" he stuttered uncomfortable with him sitting so close; and he chanced a look at the man to see his hard eyes still boring into his face.
"No," he answered without blinking, without even moving.
"Oh," the boy said now wishing he hadn't stopped; the lady was nice, sweet as pie his mother would say, but the man sure wasn't. "Oh," he said again realizing what that meant, "so you're together then?" he asked shocked at seeing the older fella had managed to snag such a pretty woman, and young too. "Well golly," he exclaimed smiling, "you're a lucky man finding a woman such as herself." Though the man's eyes were still no friendlier when he turned to him, but the woman smiled kindly from around him. "My girl, Margie, she's pretty great too. Oh, you know, her cousin hit a deer once too about two months maybe three, or a year ago I'm not really sure. But she said the car didn't run no more, was completely ruined."
Lorne sat thinking of killing the kid just to shut him up as he continued talking and he turned his hard eyes to the reason Tommy was still alive, seeing her smiling as she looked up at him. "Thank you," she said softly, knowing he was loathing every second of it.
That wasn't quite was he was expecting; he'd turned to her with the intention of letting her know he was anything but happy with her – and he'd planned to remind her later that if he wanted to kill someone she had no place refusing, something he'd reminded her of before – but her quiet 'thank you' told him she knew he could take whomever's life he so chose, and that she knew he hadn't because she'd asked him not to. Two simple words, used in passing everyday, and yet he knew exactly what she was thinking. "I'm starting to think you're the pain in the ass," he told her, taking the hand she had on his arm and bringing it to his mouth, feeling how cold her skin was and knowing he'd have to get her gloves.
Tommy, having turned to look at them briefly, saw the man facing her with her hands in his as he warmed them – and he smiled to himself as continued driving.
"Thank you for stopping for us," she told him when he pulled up to the motel.
Tommy nodded as he grabbed her bags. "It was nothing miss," he told her scuffing a foot on the ground as he smiled.
She shook her head at how sweet he was and turned to Lorne. "I'm gonna get the key."
They both watched her go and Tommy looked back to the man warily as he reached into his pocket. "For your trouble," Lorne said holding out two twenties and waiting as he thanked him before grabbing his case. "You should be thanking whatever god you believe in she was here," he told him seriously. "I would've taken your truck and let you freeze to death."
After several minutes talking to the woman at the front desk, who had spent most of her time telling Olivia some story she was too tired to care for, before she finally returned to Lorne. "You scared him away," she said at seeing the kid was gone and he was smirking as he reached for her suitcase. "I can get it," she told him though he shook his head and followed her to the room that had been bought for her. "You should let me look you over," she said dropping her purse on the table and turning on the heater.
"I'm fine, Liv," he said putting their bags down and pulling his boots off. Though she wouldn't be told no and he sighed before letting her clean his head and taking the ibuprofen she handed him. "Get in the bed," he told her when she tried to lift his shirt, knowing she'd leave to find a convenience store if she saw the bruise.
With a hard look she sighed. "Fine, but you're coming by the hospital tomorrow," she told him sliding her pants off and crawling in the bed beside him and laying her head over his chest. "I could've died," she said softly, having woken knowing she'd go through the windshield – and she would've, if Lorne hadn't thrown her back. It's what he'd known too, the moment the car slid off the road his arm had come out to stop her from going forward; leaving his head to slam into the steering wheel and his ribs into the seatbelt.
He woke to her dressed and sitting beside him, her hands warm and gentle over his bruised side. "I'll come by the hospital," he assured her, knowing she wouldn't leave without his word.
"I will come back with bandages if you don't," she told him, returning his tired smile before kissing his cheek and leaving. It was already passed noon - having met with the chief who'd expressed his gratitude at her coming, said hello to the young boy she'd come for and seen the relief in the mother's eyes as she nearly cried at seeing a face she trusted, gotten her tour, and taken up hours working the E.R. under the request of the chief – before she saw him sitting in the waiting room.
She'd gone to the desk to see about her next patient, a man with a broken nose, to find the nurse away from the desk with his file.
"Yeah, I'm coming for Pete's sake," she heard a man exclaim, and she rounded the corner to find her broken nosed man and Lorne staring up at him; and from the look in Lorne's eyes she knew he'd started something, and he nearly smiled when he saw her behind the nurse.
"Oh Doctor, I'm so sorry for the delay, I asked Mr. Nygaard to come back at least five times," the nurse said when she took notice of the woman behind her.
Even Lester stared at her guiltily knowing he'd taken up her time for her to come out here. "It's alright, I'd say he's had a rather rough day," she smiling kindly at the man, seeing the relief in his eye as he smiled in return. Though her smile thinned when she turned to the man still sitting in a chair, and he looked up at her innocently. "There's a bin right there for your can," she said pointing to the recycling can against the back wall.
Lester looked at the man surprised at the way she'd spoken to him, not quite so friendly as she'd been to him, and remembering how serious he'd been about killing a man – though Lester saw the man's eyes were trained on the doctor as she walked away, and he followed his line of sight to see his eyes were watching the sway of her hips. Quickly he looked away embarrassed, hoping no one had seen where he'd been looking, and he looked once more to the man – only he now had his eyes aimed directly at Lester.
"Mr. Nygaard?"
"Oh, yes," he said turning not sure what she'd said before, he'd been trying to shake off what the man had said before, and the feeling that he knew the doctor.
She sighed seeing Lorne had gotten in his head. "On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad would you say the pain is?" she repeated gently as they walked to the room she would see him in.
He paused as he thought of how to answer. "Oh well uh, it's about a, um I guess you could say it's a, well uh. Aw heck," he said not even able to tell her straight what he thought; he didn't want to say an eight because she'd probably think he was weak, but he didn't want to say a number too low in case she didn't give him anything.
"Mr. Nygaard," she said gently seeing he was distressed, and knowing Lorne probably had a big hand in that, "I've had a broken nose before, it hurts quite a bit doesn't it?" He nodded relieved she'd understood his bumbling, his shoulders slumping as he followed after her. "Okay, I'll get you something for it first before I check it out," she said sitting him down on the examination table and looking through the cabinets for ibuprofen or acetaminophen, until finally she found it and a numbing skin ointment she stumbled upon. "I have to ask you, Mr. Nygaard, and I don't want you to be offended," she started as she dabbed the cream on as gently as she could, "but was this a domestic incident?"
He stared at her startled at the thought before shaking his head. "No, oh no Dr. Anderson, my Pearl wouldn't, I mean she'd never," he stuttered continuing to shake his head.
"I didn't think she did," Olivia said assuring him, "it's a mandatory question we have to ask with these kinds of things," she explained putting him once more at ease only to have to make him uncomfortable again. "Though I do have to ask what happened."
He nodded knowing he had to tell her and not wanting to out of embarrassment, already hearing how his wife would tease him. "Well it was, you see it wasn't a uh incident per say, it was just a misunderstanding," he said looking at her to see her listening; and he really didn't want to have to look her in the eye and tell her what had happened, and she was so pretty and nice and he knew she'd laugh at him. "A uh a, a friend of mine, or I guess he's not a friend, he made to punch me and I hit the, the, the uh, the window and my nose just it just well," he trailed off looking at his hands in his lap not wanting to see the look on her face, not when she'd been so nice before.
"Mr. Nygaard?" she asked softly forcing him to look up at her meekly, "would you like to press charges?"
"Oh, no no that's not, it was nothin' you know, just a little uh, prank," he said quickly not wanting to have to admit this to anyone else, least of all his wife.
She nodded understandingly before gently prodding around the skin of his nose. "Does this hurt less than before?" she asked and waited for him to say yes before she returned to the cabinets and looked for the sutures. "Well it looks like you'll need about two stitches, which you won't have to keep in even a week," she told him seeing him swallow at the sound of stitches.
"Dr. Anderson, a patient is here requesting you, Dr. Bakus was gonna have a look at him but he was askin' for you," a nurse said.
Olivia nodded knowing exactly who it was, and she turned to Mr. Nygaard – who didn't really want her to go; he couldn't remember the last time anyone had been so nice to him, had actually made him feel like he was worth caring about. "Mr. Nygaard," she said looking at him firmly, "I don't know you but, I would say you deserve a lot better than what you're given." With a small smile she bid him a good day, leaving him to stare after her entirely touched by her words.
It was several minutes before he finally left the room, a bandage across his aching nose, and the sound of Dr. Bakus laughing behind him about the wimp that he was; he wished Dr. Anderson had stayed, she wouldn't have been so rough with his nose, she would have spoken in her sweet voice and made him feel better about everything. Lester, out of habit, looked to his right at the sight of a half opened door – glancing in and prepared to keep going – and paused at the sight of a long blonde ponytail and the man he'd spoken to earlier. He'd been the one to ask for her, and Lester watched as Dr. Anderson sat wrapping the man's ribs and Lester watched shocked as he reached a hand to her face – it was such a tender gesture, one that didn't suit the man at all from the way he'd been talking about killing, but it made her smile as she looked up at him. The two obviously were on very familiar terms, he couldn't remember a time his wife had ever looked at him the way she looked at the man. And Lester watched unable to look away as the man took her face in his hands and kissed her – he didn't know if he could call it a kiss, it looked as though he literally wanted to devour her and she seemed only so willing to let him.
Lester's mouth opened and a chocked gasp escaped him when he realized the man was looking at him, still kissing her fiercely, and as quickly as Lester had stopped he hurried away; leaving Lorne smiling as he closed his eyes once more and pulled Liv closer.
…
Molly stood with Vern beside the crashed car going over what she'd found when she arrived. "I noticed a mark in the snow over here," she said going around to the passenger's side, "I thought maybe someone tried to open the door, don't know from inside or out though," she said not seeing even the smallest signs of footprints.
"You wanna open it up, see if it matches?" Vern offered with a shrugged. Molly looked to him and waited for him to nod before she pulled the handle and slid the door open, stopping where the bottom edge had hit the snow the night before and left the mark. "I'd say that's a match," Vern told her.
Molly nodded. "Doesn't say who opened the door though, could be a second person," she said catching sight of something glinting as it floated past her head. "What's that?" she asked trying to follow it and seeing another glint of the sunlight on it before she lost it on the wind.
Vern looked to where she stared. "What was what?"
"I think it was a hair," she answered, not happy it had gotten away, "maybe blonde."
He nodded looking at the car again. "I guess make a note of a possible blonde having been in the car, could be from somewhere else," he said not concerning himself with it too much for the time as he circled back around to look at the driver's side.
Molly followed after him scribbling in her notepad of a possible second passenger with long blonde hair; and if she were an out of towner, she'd certainly be easy to notice if she was still in Bemidji.
So I got excited to get to Lester and the hospital scene, which is why the chapter turned out so long. I wasn't expecting writing the accent and their manner of speaking, and Lester's character as well, to be so difficult. So please let me know if it's not good so that I can find a way to fix it for future chapters. Thanks for reading everyone, hope you're enjoying it!