Ziggystardust1994: thank you so much, I'm so glad to hear you think I did Lester's character justice; cause he's so sweet and bumbling and completely not confident in anything. And I'm also very glad to know you like the little things between Lorne and Liv; they're not very little this chapter, they're actually kind of big - but I'm loving writing them. And another thing I'm very glad to hear is that you think I'm blending her into the story, because I'm trying very hard to make it as seamless as possible; in my head I'm watching it as the show, so I've been hoping that it read like she's just a continuation of what's going on. So in short, thank you very much for review :)
Olivia walked down the hall to the room the nurse had pointed to, and smiled when she saw Lorne sitting on the table. "My last patient seemed to be under a lot of stress, you wouldn't by any chance know why that was, would you Mr. Malvo?"
He sat and pondered for a moment before shaking his head. "No, Dr. Anderson, I'm afraid I don't," he told her looking at her perfectly innocent.
She might have been fooled if she didn't know him better, she knew how manipulative he could be when he wanted something – only she'd always been able to see through him, and now she knew him enough to know the moment he looked at her what he wanted. "You're full of shit," she said grabbing a new pair of gloves, hearing him chuckling at her back. She found a swab and the hydrogen peroxide solution and turned back to him to finally check him over.
"That's no way to talk to a patient," he said when she stood in front of him, spreading his legs around her and forcing her closer, "especially one with a head injury."
Rather than answering him she began cleaning around where the steering wheel had broken the skin, seeing it had developed a nice scab overnight. She stood between his legs brushing his hair out of the way as she cleaned the dried blood he hadn't let her the night before, feeling his hands trail up her sides. "What part of, I have to be professional, do you forget when you sit on an examination table?" she asked him at the feel of his hand on her breast.
"The part where I have this fantasy of you in a little nurse's outfit coming in, asking me what hurts."
She looked at him not believing him for a second, though the look on his face made her laugh. "That's not happening," she said before tossing the swab in the trash and lifting his shirt. All evidence of a smile left her face at the sight of the dark bruise over the right side of his ribcage, which looked even worse under the stark pale hospital lights than in the hotel room. "On a scale of one to ten?" she asked, having asked him that same question enough he knew the end to it.
He shrugged feeling the muscles over his ribs stretch, and of course her eyes had caught the tightening of his mouth – he sometimes forgot how much she cared about him. "Four, four and a half," he answered easily.
"So a seven," she said looking from his ribs to his face and waiting for him to nod before she turned and grabbed the ibuprofen. "I should have wrapped them yesterday," she said grabbing the compression bandage roll.
"Yeah, let me see your hips," he said when she came back to him, his hands reaching up to either side of her waist. "You're not in any better shape than I am."
As much as she wanted to agree with him, because it'd make him happy for her to let it go, she knew it was hurting him. "It doesn't hurt when I breathe, in fact I can barely feel it. Where as I can't even place my hand," doing as she said and placing her palm on his ribs she heard him inhale sharply, "would you like me to continue?"
He gave her a look before lifting his shirt so she could wrap him, knowing she'd never stop until she did. She ran the roll around him gently making sure she didn't add any pressure against where he was bruised, she was gentle and thorough – she made a great doctor.
She looked up at the feel of his hand brushing a stray hair behind her ear, his thumb reaching out to stroke her cheek; she knew she worried a lot when he was hurt, it was her job as a doctor. And seeing his tenderness, even if it was forced for her benefit, made her smile. Though nothing in his eyes had prepared her for him to pull her mouth to his, at him forcing his tongue past her lips, at her own desperate need as her fists wound in his shirt and pulled her closer against him. She felt him smile against her mouth, not knowing he had caught sight of Lester Nygaard, not knowing Lorne was adding only more fuel to the fire that burned in Lester against his wife; she didn't know any of this, she was too lost in him to care.
"How many times," she breathed pulling away from him, straightening his shirt and her own coat as she sat back on the stool. "I could get put on suspension for something like this," she told him seeing his smirk and knowing he'd done it on purpose. "When you decide to come back to the motel you can finish what you started, until then you're free to go," she said standing and reaching for his chart to sign him out.
"I haven't kissed you like that in a while," he said seeing he'd flustered her, and she made it so easy all she needed was a little desire and she melted completely in his hand.
She sighed leaning against the counter. "No, you haven't."
"Would you like me to later?" he asked stepping down from the table and moving behind her.
His face blank when she looked up at him, leaving the answer entirely up to her. "If you want," she said filling out the last bit as his arms wrapped around her waist.
He held her against him and breathed in the smell of her shampoo. "I think I'll like it here."
She looked up at him to see him thinking as he leaned against her; she knew that look. "Just don't kill everyone," she told him softly, lifting her face as he bent to kiss her cheek. "I should be back by eight," she said handing him the papers to give to the lady at the front desk.
The chief let her go a little early, she hadn't really been assigned to work anything other than her little boy that day – she'd only stayed and helped in the E.R. as a favor when the chief said they were understaffed. And so when eight rolled around and Lorne returned, he found her sitting with three books open on the bed and one in her lap as she sat against the headboard. "Hey, how was your day?"
He moved a book and sat to pull his shoes off. "Well enough, how was yours?"
She shrugged as she reached into the chip bag beside her. "I'm working tomorrow probably in the E.R. again, and I'm not closer to finding anything to explain what's happening with Frankie, well at least not anything we haven't already tested," she said turning another page and seeing more useless words. Nothing she found was of any use, and the boy was having seizures more frequently; none of their tests were coming back positive for anything. "I'll have to rent a car tomorrow so I can actually go into town," she said setting the book aside and grabbing another chip.
"I'll do it for you," he said laying down beside her, not being entirely honest when he'd already gotten her one; but he planned to use it tomorrow before he left it with her.
She turned to him suspiciously. "You're leaving soon," she said seeing on his face she was right, and that he wanted to know how she knew. "You're never just nice," she muttered crunching on another chip and turning on the tv. She didn't pay much mind to him taking her hand as she flipped through the different channels; it wasn't until she felt his tongue on her skin that she turned to find him staring hard at her as he brought her thumb to his mouth. She watched his lips close around her thumb, his tongue running along her skin, his teeth grazing her flesh; his dark eyes never left hers as he moved, tossing the books aside as he settled on top of her. "Hi there," she said softly as she stared up at him, feeling his hand under her chin as he brought her mouth to his.
…
She woke to her watch beeping and she reluctantly sat up to turn it off, not quite ready to start the day. Lorne was warm at her back, his arm still around her waist, and she looked at their clothes scattered on the floor. "You should brush your teeth," he mumbled behind her, having been awake when her alarm had gone off.
"I'm trying to decide if it's worth it," she said looking over her shoulder at him to see his bare chest – she just wanted to lay back down and sleep for another hour.
He looked up at her smirking. "You could stay, repeat last night."
She smiled shaking her head; "I may never leave," she told him before standing, not bothering to grab anything to cover herself with as she made to take a quick shower.
Most of the day she spent once more working the E.R, one man coming in with appendicitis she'd done surgery on, but mostly she spent the day running her sick little boy through x rays and MRIs, PET scans; all she'd found was his brain had somehow grown smaller – which from the lack of anything on the other scans, she had no cause. She'd eaten dinner at the hospital again, because Lorne was doing something with the rental car, before walking the short distance back to the hotel where she washed the hospital smell out of her hair. The chief had asked if she'd work through tomorrow til Thrusday morning, and so she'd settled down for the night knowing she'd be exhausted come Thursday. She was already so close to sleep that she didn't take much note of the door opening, she didn't even know he was there until she felt him lay around her.
"Hey," he said in greeting, grabbing the wrist of the hand she'd brought to his face and held her there; enjoying the feel of her for the moment.
"You planning on coming back?" she asked proving she knew he was leaving.
He smiled briefly as she turned into his chest. "I'll try to call, but it'd be best if you had no ties to me so I'll stay in another hotel for the night. And it's Duluth," he said before she could ask where he was going. He felt her nod as she burrowed further against him knowing she'd fall back asleep within minutes; though instead of leaving the moment her breathing evened, as he would've done any other night, he continued lying with her against him simply breathing. But he was gone when she woke, and she was still turned as though to face him, leaving her to sigh before pulling herself out of the bed and into to the bathroom to get ready.
She ran blood work and a tox screen, any test they had to do she gave the poor kid hoping to find something; but there was nothing.
"We've run all the tests we can and we haven't been able to find anything," she told his mother after she'd pulled her out of the room. "I'm not sure there's much else to do but wait and hope his condition doesn't worsen, and pray that a cause is found." She'd waited with the mother as she tried to gather herself, held her as she cried, assured she would stay – Olivia didn't have the heart to tell her with how quickly his condition was declining she didn't think he would make it a month, she'd had to leave that with Frankie's actual doctor because she didn't know if she'd be able to look at either of them without crying.
And so when lunch came around she stepped out of the hospital almost relieved to be taking even a short break to pick up some food.
Lester looked up from Lorne Malvo to see the woman who had walked in, and he waited until she'd ordered before speaking. "Dr. Anderson," he said calling her attention to him.
"Mr. Nygaard," she said surprising him by her knowing his name, "how's the nose today?"
He brought a hand up as though to touch it before nodding. "Oh i- it's good, still hurts but not nearly as much," he told her as she stepped closer.
She looked at the small bandage covering the stitches. "Do you mind?" she asked waiting for him to nod before she peeked to see how they were. "Well I'm quite impressed, he set your nose quite well. I don't think you'll be able to tell it was broken."
Lester smiled; "Aw heck, that's good to hear. So how are you today?"
Her smile faltered slightly, enough for Lorne to notice as he watched her face closely. "It's good," she said glad to see Lester bought her false cheeriness, not wanting to have to explain what it was.
"Did something happen?"
Both Olivia and Lester turned at the sound of Lorne's voice, though his eyes were staring hard at her as he waited for an answer. She pressed her lips together and shook her head. "No, nothing has happened," she said knowing he'd understand what she meant. She turned in relief when her order was called to take the bag from the woman behind the counter.
Lester had watched the way Lorne's eyes followed her, at the depth of his stare; he realized at Lorne's question that she hadn't been honest when she'd said everything was good, and he thought again of Lorne kissing her and what it meant. "Do you know," he made to ask but the words died in his throat the moment Lorne turned his eyes to him and Lester looked away from his quickly and back to the doctor.
"Come by in a day or two and have them removed," she told him before she made to leave.
"Could you," Lester started, "could you do it?" he asked before he lost the nerve. "The, the uh, the other doctor," he said swallowing, "he wasn't very um, he wasn't, you were real nice," he said finally, looking up at her briefly before turning away.
She smiled softly at his stuttering knowing he'd never be the same again now that he'd met Lorne. "When you come in ask for me, and if I don't have my hands in a body cavity then I'm all yours," she told him kindly, waiting as he stumbled over a thank you before leaving.
Lester saw the man raise a hand as she passed by him, brushing his fingers against hers, and Lester nearly saw her sigh in relief as though she'd needed that touch just be able to breathe. They were a strange pair, he thought as he looked from Dr. Anderson to Lorne to find the man once more staring hard at him – his eyes saying all Lester needed to know to never speak a word of her.
Well this is the end of the first episode and I'm now on to the second. Do you guys want me to do that, say when I finish with an episode so it might be a little easier to follow along?