Boris sat in his office, his mind focused on the papers before him and his heart in the guestroom one floor below him. He regretted that he hadn't been able to stick around while Hank had processed what he'd said and what he'd meant but the phone call he'd had to take had been in reference to one of his many other properties and Boris had felt that he could not put it off any longer. Now that the call was done - several hours ago, in fact - he was fighting hard against going back to talk to Hank.
The sounds of Frank Sinatra filled the courtyard as an engine purred and then shut off. It distracted Boris to the point where he stood to look out the window that looked out over the entrance to his home.
A tan-colored Mazda with tinted windows was parked off to the side, seemingly out of the way in the vast courtyard. With the windows rolled up, Boris could no longer hear the crooner but the faint beat on the read window told him that the driver had yet to fully turn the car off. Simultaneously, the beat faded into nothingness and the driver door opened, revealing a rather attractive young woman whose blond hair shone in the sun as it was shaken and then put into a ponytail.
Boris watched as the woman almost hesitantly walked over to the door and knocked. As discreetly as he could, he then went to the door to his office, stepping partly out so that he could hear whatever conversation there was to be had.
"Hi, I'm here to see Doctor Lawson," her alto voice, ringing with unsurety and possibly nerves, announced to Dieter whom had answered the door.
"Is he expecting you?" the butler asked, unwilling to let a stranger into the house.
"I believe so, yes," she said, though the way she said it implied that they did not have an appointment to meet. There was silence as - Boris assumed - she waited for Dieter to allow her entrance. But when no such offer came she added, with a bit of impatience, "Can you please tell him that Doctor Montgomery is here?"
Ah, so she was a doctor. There was one mystery solved. Now there was the problem of whether she was currently involved in Hank's concierge practice or whether she was currently residing as Hank's doctor.
Supposing that he would find out in time, Boris closed his office door anew and went back to his desk. Willing his heart and brain to focus on the deed papers on his desk, Boris attempted to read them for the fourth time since having received them. He didn't have much hope for being successful this time either.
oOo
Aurora followed the relatively short man up the rather large and imposing staircase with awe filling her chest and discontent settling into her stomach. Even though it was ridiculous, she tried to keep her steps soft while maintaining the confidence that she'd hoped filled her stride as she'd stepped out of her car. As was the way with anything as fancy as all this, she worried about breaking anything and that included the tile that was beneath her feet.
She hadn't been told much by the younger Lawson when he'd called her about working for HankMed for a couple weeks. All that she knew was that Doctor Lawson wasn't currently able to fulfill his duties to the company. She assumed that he'd been injured and that was why he wasn't able to oversee patients but she was wanting to wait until her suspicions were confirmed before she said anything to either her boss or her husband about the brief job change.
They stopped before a heavy-looking door where the butler knocked and then pushed said door open. The room was expansive. It could easily have fitted her living room and quite possibly her dining room as well inside it. Hoping that she hadn't allowed her mouth to drop open and the sheer size of it, she stepped further in and stood with her hands folded in front of her as she attempted to locate the man she was here to see.
The ornate bed was freshly made, looking as though it hadn't been slept in at all. Upon closer inspection, Aurora could see small wrinkles where someone had sat on top of the covers, rather than within them, and she saw the evidence that someone had dragged themselves from the middle of the bed to the edge opposite of where she stood.
Allowing the obvious to take over, she began scanning the rest of the room for Doctor Lawson and soon found him stretched out on a antique-looking couch with his right leg supported by a couple throw pillows and his computer on his lap. His gaze was so focused on the screen that she didn't dare interrupt him and patiently waited for him to not only notice her but to invite to come closer.
The sound of the oak door closing grabbed his attention and hazel eyes squinted before finding her.
Annoyingly, her heart fluttered a bit at the sight of him. Yes, she was happily married and had two beautiful kids, but that didn't mean that she couldn't appreciate an attractive man when she saw one and Doctor Lawson was certainly one of them. His face was set into an angry-looking scowl upon first withdrawing from the computer screen, lending a hardness to his beautiful eyes that made Aurora hesitant to draw nearer. But then, the anger seemed to evaporate, leaving behind a warm smile and a softening to his entire demeanor that practically invited her to join him in the small sitting area without him having to say a word.
"Sorry to disturb you," she apologized as she put her large purse into one of the armchairs that sat by the bed. After a moment's hesitation she stepped around the bed and stood before him, allowing him to make his own judgments all the while.
"No, please," he said, "I welcome the change of company."
Aurora smiled, unsure as to what to say to that. She put out a hand to still him when it looked as though he were going to attempt to stand. "No, please, sit," she bade, not wanting him to cause himself pain in moving. Instead, she sat down in an armchair that looked like it belonged in Pemberly rather than America and folded her hands into her lap so that they were on a more even playing field. "I gathered you wanted to meet."
It was a statement of fact but it was also a question. She'd already been on her way to Shadow Pond when she'd received a call from Evan Lawson, asking her to stop by the castle and visit the older brother. If she were in Doctor Lawson's position, she would have demanded a face-to-face before he'd even seen her patients and so she afforded him the same courtesy.
"Yes," he said, sitting up straighter and depositing his now-closed laptop onto the coffee table. "Thank you for coming. I just wanted to touch base before Evan sent you out into the world."
His smile helped to soothe the situation but she could still sense his unease about her filling in for him and she silently empathized.
"Fair enough," she said, hoping that she smile she offered showed her understanding. "What would you like to know?"
She had been tempted to start from the beginning of her schooling history and just go from there but she figured that if she let him take the lead, the interview would be over much quicker and go much smoother for the both of them.
"How long have you been working at Hampton's Heritage?"
"About three months," she said, inwardly wincing at how little that had sounded. Under the circumstances, it made sense but when interviewing for a job, it sounded pathetic. "My family and I recently relocated here about three and a half months ago from the southwest and we took a couple of weeks to get settled while I looked for a job."
Doctor Lawson nodded, listening intently, but he remained quiet and so Aurora continued. "Before we moved, I worked at UNMH for about three years, not including residency."
"UNMH?" he asked, not understand what the initials meant.
"University of New Mexico Hospital," she answered, blushing a little. "Sorry, I forgot that not everyone knows the acronyms."
"So you lived in New Mexico?" he prompted, apparently wanting her to tell him more.
"Yeah, I went to undergraduate at Iowa State University and then moved down to Albuquerque to do my graduate and residency there."
"What made you move to New Mexico?" he asked, his arms crossing over his chest as he settled in for the conversation.
"My sisters lived there and I wanted to be closer to them. I met my husband while preparing for the MCAT and here we are."
She inwardly winced at how open and shut she made it all sound, not to mention how cold and unwilling she sounded, but she really didn't want to spend time in her past. Whatever had happened was over and done with and while it had helped to shape her into who she was now, it wasn't relevant otherwise.
Evidently understanding that, Doctor Lawson nodded and moved on.
"Jill tells me that you're good with patients," he said, the statement a leading question so that she could take over.
Ah yes, Doctor Casey. She'd forgotten that Doctors Lawson and Casey were not only well acquainted but had a history as well. It didn't surprise her that he'd called Jill for a reference as well as assurances that she would be good at the job.
While most assumed that it was a requirement to care about your patients as a doctor, Aurora had seen many cases where that was entirely not true. Most of the time, the doctor cared more about their own careers and reputations rather than the people they treated. It made them really good at their jobs but it also made them lousy with people. Aurora had striven to find the balance between career and people and she now felt that she'd accomplished it. She'd risen to where she'd wanted to - a resident in the ER - and she was favored among the patients.
"If she says it than it must be true," she mildly joked. When his smile froze on his face, she knew that she hadn't achieved what she'd wanted to and cleared her throat. "Sorry," she apologized again, "my sense of humor chooses to rear its ugly head at the most inconvenient times." She cleared her throat again and fidgeted a little under his scrutiny. "I'm not one to toot my own horn but, yes, I'd say that I'm good with patients. I listen when others would ignore and I see people where others see profit."
He smiled at that, this time it warmed his eyes and spread across his face. Yes, she'd looked him up as well and she knew that that would have struck a chord with him. It wasn't why she said it at all, but it didn't hurt either.
A knock on the door interrupted the one-sided interview and Aurora inaudibly - hopefully - breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Come on in," Hank bid, his eyes remaining on Aurora for a minute before switching to the door.
A beautiful Indian woman walked through, stylishly dressed with her thick black hair dangling about her in curls that Aurora doubted she could ever achieve and her head bent to focus on the phone in her hand.
"Apparently Evan thinks I need to stop by here before I finish for the afternoon," she said, her English-accented voice relaying her annoyance at being told anything by the younger Lawson. She stopped abruptly when she noticed Aurora sitting in the chair and said, "Oh, I didn't realize that you had company."
"Doctor Aurora Montgomery, this is Divya Katdare, my physician assistant," Hank introduced. His hand moved from one woman to the other as he said their names.
Aurora stood, wanting to greet the woman that would be her coworker for the next couple of weeks.
"Nice to meet you," she formally said, making sure to smile with as much sincerity as she could.
Insecurity was always her biggest downfall and so she was always wary of meeting a new woman. Especially if she was as pretty as the person in front of her.
Divya smiled just as warmly and shook her hand. "Likewise," she said as her eyes traveled briefly over to Doctor Lawson.
"We were just getting to know one another," Doctor Lawson said as the two women moved to sit down.
"And how is that going?" Divya asked, sounding skeptical.
"Pretty good, actually," Doctor Lawson assured. "I was just about finished interrogating her."
"I wouldn't necessarily call it an interrogation," Aurora interjected, though in truth it had felt like one. "More like an intense "getting to know you" session."
"So in other words, interrogation," Divya summarized with a smile. She looked over at Doctor Lawson and chided, "Had I known that you were going to meet with her I would have told you to wait so that I could help."
"I think I'm capable of conducting an interview," Doctor Lawson returned, his smile caught between uncomfortable and indulgent. "See, I'm even sitting down."
"That's not what I meant and you know it," Divya answered, her tone a warning. A silent understanding seemed to pass between them that Aurora was not privy to and then she turned to Aurora. "So," she said on a sigh but with a friendly smile, "since Hank didn't wait for me to come before he began the "interview" why don't you tell me everything you just told him and then we can move on to the schedule for the next few weeks."
Oh boy, Aurora thought on a sigh. This was going to be a long day.
oOo
Divya watched Aurora leave the room with satisfaction. Despite Evan being a complete and utter moron, he had chosen well for Hank's replacement. She was capable, somewhat stubborn, friendly, and confident in her ability to fill in for Hank. The fact that she had a caring heart - proven when, sometime during the interview Hank had begun to display signs of pain, she had asked with sincere concern if he was alright - only helped to seal the deal in Divya's mind. Discreetly, she looked over at Hank, trying to gauge if she was going to have to talk him into it as well. Upon seeing contentment on his face, she knew that she wouldn't have to worry about it; Aurora had done that for her.
Now that that whole mess was finished, she moved to the chair that Aurora had previously occupied and faced Hank so that he didn't have to try and pivot to look at her. Though he insisted that he was fine, Divya - and Aurora she suspected - knew that he was lying and now she wanted to determine how not-fine he was.
The crows feet around his eyes were wrinkled, as they usually were when he was smiling or happy. This time pain was the culprit, however and she hated it. His eyes kept narrowing, as though he were trying to pull something into focus and his whole body seemed to be taut with strain.
What was hurting him, it was hard to say but since she doubted that he'd been icing the knee like he should have been she immediately went to the HankMed bag and grabbed an instant ice pack. Without a word to her friend she activated it and gently placed it on top of his braced knee. It took awhile but eventually the signs of pain eased and he relaxed into the uncomfortable-looking couch.
Honestly, why do people buy this stuff when it's barely tolerable to sit in? Her mother and father's house had plenty of furniture like this one and Divya couldn't understand why they had kept it all around when they never sat in them.
"I like her," she said just to make some sort of conversation. She'd managed to talk Aurora into taking her afternoon appointments - actually, the blond had generously offered - and so she was free to sit here and talk with Hank - something she'd been wanting to do for the past day and a half or so.
"Yeah, I think she'll be a good addition to the family," Hank absently responded, his mind somewhere else entirely.
She wondered if it was in the guesthouse where the other two Lawson men were no doubt getting into some sort of trouble or if it was one floor above where a certain German nobleman happened to be at the moment. She minutely cocked her head to observe his expression and while there was frustration and exasperation there, there was also something bordering on happiness. So, not the two Lawsons, then. Now how to get him to open up to her…
"What's on your mind?" she asked, hoping but doubting that a direct approach would work.
Hank seemed to come back to himself then and he offered a smile that was about as believable as any lie he could spit out. "Nothing," he lied, proving her point. "Just letting my mind wander."
"Did it happen to go one floor up and about two doors down?" she asked, hinting that she knew what he was thinking about.
Hank's smile faded and his attention on her grew exponentially. He seemed to straighten his posture as much as he could whilst sitting down, looking as though he were preparing for a battle of some sort. It was an expression that she often saw him adopt whenever he was dealing with an overly-pushy patient or his rather stubborn brother and she smiled.
"I'm not an enemy," she gently reminded him, recognizing that it was hard to open up to anyone, not just her. She reached out and put her hand on his arm and gave it a gentle squeeze. It wasn't much but all she needed it to be was a reminder to him that he could trust her and that she was his friend.
When he stubbornly remained silent, but a little more relaxed, she sat back a little, resting her arms on her knees.
"I noticed something might have been going on the other night," she said, thinking that if she brought it up first and pointed out that she already knew the gist of it that he would feel more comfortable talking to her. "There was a moment where you looked at him with more concern than a doctor a friend would have and it had me wondering. Boris' treatment of you during your stay has only confirmed what I've long-wondered on his side."
"He may have insinuated something to me this morning," he said, finally.
"This morning?" Divya asked, wondering how early they both had to have been up for that to have happened.
"Yeah, the sun was just barely coming up when he came in. We talked."
"And judging by that tone, it wasn't always a pleasant conversation," Divya guessed, her speech slow to show her confusion.
"No, it wasn't," Hank answered, his eyes becoming hard and almost unforgiving.
Divya desperately wanted to ask what they had talked about that had the normally gentle doctor so angry but she bit her tongue. It wasn't her place and it clearly still bothered Hank, so she would wait until he brought the subject up with her.
"I don't know what to do," Hank admitted, making the phrase sound light and as though he wasn't as lost as the words insinuated.
"Well, first I'd say you should decide whether or not you feel the same," she gently suggested, only somewhat understanding his dilemma. She couldn't imagine how it would feel to begin having feelings for a person of the same sex when you've spent a lot of your life preferring the opposite. She waited a moment and then asked, "Do you?"
He took a long time in responding, his face remaining blank all the while. When he finally did speak it was with such determination that he needn't have bothered saying anything at all.
"Yeah," he said, his head nodding a little, "Yeah, I think I do."
"Okay," she said, digesting this news about as much as he probably was. She didn't have a problem whatsoever with him having feelings for another man, Boris nonetheless. It was just a change and Divya usually handled change very slowly. "Now, what's holding you back?"
At this he looked at her sharply, his gaze seeming curious and wary. Evidently he was wondering what she knew and so she remained silent and neutral.
"There are...certain aspects of his life that I don't agree with," he replied vaguely. Had he been taking lessons from Boris on double-speech?
Though he hadn't said them, the words 'and cannot abide by' hung in the air as though there was a speech bubble surrounding his head. So, Boris had done something that had not only upset and infuriated Hank but it was also something that made Hank feel like, if he said yes to Boris, to this thing that was going on in between them, that he'd be saying whatever it was that Boris had done was okay, compromising Hank's morals.
Divya nodded to show that she understood. "Why don't you simply talk to him about it?" she suggested, hating how lame it sounded.
Hank winced; though that could have been because he'd moved. His hesitation to respond made her wonder something; something she spoke aloud.
"Hank, do you, on some level at least, agree with what Boris did?"
He looked hard at her, his expression defiant and indignant. Almost immediately, he deflated and scrubbed both hands over his face, wincing when he'd bent his injured fingers.
"I don't condone it," he slowly led with as though he were trying to figure out how to say what he was thinking. "But, to a very narrow point, I understand it."
"Well then, why don't you start from that point and your feelings for each other and see where it all goes?"
It felt a little strange to be giving Hank dating advice but it felt even stranger to be giving advice about dating Boris. Even so, technically it was her fault since she'd stuck her nose in and while it was all weird, it wasn't a bad weird; just something that she would have to get used to.
She sighed, feeling the stress of the last few days catching up with her. As much as she wanted to stay, she figured Hank could use some time on his own and she could definitely use some time to herself.
"Well," she said on a sigh as she stood up, "I'm going to go. You need anything before I do?"
"No, thanks, Divya, I'm good." He smiled up at her, his mind still buried within the depths of his thoughts. She left him be. He'd do better without her anyways.
TBC