A/N: Happy friday lovelies! A long(ish) chapter for you to enjoy this weekend! Opinion was mixed on whether to include Emma but i'm thinking I won't, sorry if that disappoints anyone. I might write a fluffy oneshot with Emma at a later stage if people would be interested? But in the AU of this story, she does not exist.
Her transfer request was denied. It wasn't the end of the world but it certainly took the spring out of Zosia's step the following morning. AAU was under a lot of pressure because of the trauma unit and needed every pair of hands available, even if those hands belonged to a feisty junior doctor who'd rather be in cardiothoracic's.
She tried not to let her disappointment affect her treatment of patients and continued with her vow not to ruffle any more feathers. Lack of passion and mental stimulating challenge however lead to a distinct lack of concentration. While her body continued to treat each patient with the confidence of a doctor who'd been practicing for years, her mind wandered to daydreams and visions of her new lover.
Zosia sauntered over to the nursing station to offload her patient charts and see what the small gaggle of nursing staff were so animatedly gossiping about. If she was forced to stay on AAU, she might as well make the effort.
"Did you see Jac Naylor's hickey?"
"What! No way?"
"I didn't even know she was seeing anyone!"
Zosia froze, shit. She'd forgotten she'd even done that. Jac would be furious. Not only that Zosia had marked her flawless lily white skin in so prominent a location like a horny teenager but that everyone had seen and it made her the subject of salacious gossip.
"You used to be on Darwin Zosh, come on who's Naylor shacking up with?" All eyes turned to her, it took all her might not to vomit.
She could just own up then watch as her colleagues fell at her feet. No one would dare bother her again. She'd have legendary status, the girl who conquered Jac's icy cold heart. But in the brief post-coital chat they'd shared, Jac had threatened never to return the favour if Zosia told a soul so she stayed the picture of ignorance.
"No idea, sorry. Best not let her catch you talking about this!" She added, half jokingly knowing she'd bear the brunt.
Darting away before any more questions were asked, Zosia returned to her patients with a small smile on her lips.
Jac was not so blissfully happy. She had slept through her alarm that morning and only discovered the monstrosity on her collar bone after she got out of the shower, by which time she was already running late and could do little more than dust the skin with her blusher and fasten her blouse to the collar.
By her morning break, the powder blush had all but rubbed off and the incriminating mark was peeking through. For fucks sake. The classic Jac Naylor glare was enough to scare off a few F1's and nurses she caught staring but by lunch time the word was out. From Darwin to Keller and probably even the ED, Jac Naylor had a poorly disguised love bite on her neck and everyone knew it.
Of course no one had the guts to ask her about it to her face because they knew she'd just scream them down. But knowing she was the subject of much speculation made her increasingly angry. That bloody girl. She cursed Zosia March and her full pink lips and her dark sultry eyes and her incredibly skilled fingers.
Later that afternoon she returned from surgery to find a scribbled note on her desk attached to a tube of concealer. The note read, "Sorry – Z x" and a hastily scrawled phone number, as if it was an afterthought.
Jac sat back in her chair and pulled out a compact mirror from her bag to admire the offending patchwork of pink and purple bruises that began at the swell of her breast and transversed her chest to the more visible point of her collar bone. The girl was thoughtful, she'd give her that, but what use was there in covering it up now when the whole hospital had already seen it?
She pocketed the concealer and turned her attention to the phone number. The ball was in Jac's court now and she intended to play it to her full advantage. As clichéd as it was, she was fully invested in the 'treat them mean' method. Zosia would certainly have to wait to hear back from her. Let it be known that Jac Naylor doesn't beg for anyone ever.
Zosia had a rare day off and intended to spend it sleeping. Her housemates had other plans and saw that she was promptly awake by the time most of them had left for work.
It was still relatively early and she could have probably fallen back to sleep if she'd really tried but the sun was up and her cheap curtains provided little cover from the bright rays.
Kicking off her duvet, Zosia lay on her back in the middle of her bed and gave out a deep sigh of frustration. In part because her lie-in plans were thwarted but mostly because she'd gone to bed with her phone on loud every night for a week in the hope that she'd finally hear from Jac but no such luck. No text message, nothing.
It was only good courtesy to contact someone within days of sleeping with them wasn't it? It couldn't be because she didn't enjoy it because Zosia knew she did. Reactions of the body in the throes of passion are involuntary, even Jac's icy cold demeanour unravelled with the intrusion of Zosia's hand in her trousers. Plus she'd never had any complaints before. There had to be another reason for Jac's cold shoulder after all she was the one who told her in no uncertain terms to "do it."
Zosia closed her eyes and re-imagined their encounter for the millionth time. Jac looked so attractive even on her back with her usual poker straight hair tousled and slightly damp and wavy at her temples as she worked up a sweat to match the tempo of Zosia's ministrations. She almost didn't care that Jac hadn't returned the favour yet because the memory of the woman's face as she came made Zosia incredibly flustered. Her hand was about to wander to cup her own breast when her housemate appeared in the doorway.
"Bloody hell! Ever hear of knocking?" She immediately pulled the duvet back over herself, clamping her arms by her sides. She hated house shares.
"Sor-ry! A few of us are going out tonight, one of the consultants from Keller is leaving. Do you fancy it?"
Zosia considered for a moment, a consultant leaving was a big enough occasion that Jac might actually show her face, which would be good because the setting would be inconspicuous enough that the pair could talk without raising too many eyebrows. On the other hand, if Zosia went and Jac wasn't there at least there would be drink.
"Yeah alright. In that case I'm definitely going to need more beauty sleep so bugger off!" She teased, launching a scatter cushion from her bed at the man in her doorway.
She rolled back onto her side and checked with one eye closed that her phone was still on loud before attempting to sleep again.
What has started out as a quick drink while they were getting ready to go out somehow escalated into something far more raucous. In typical student style, Zosia and her housemates had pre-drank to excess, eventually leaving for the party an hour late. A pack of playing cards sticky from alcohol lay scattered across the coffee table amongst potential outfit pieces and empty glasses. The clear-up became the problem of future Zosia, she was too tipsy to care.
Rolling in to the familiar bar often frequented by hospital staff for post-shift pints, the junior doctors were taken aback by how sombre the whole affair was. They stood out like tropical parrots in an aviary of pigeons. A respectable number of staff had turned out but splintered into small groups or couples, nursing long drinks to the dreary soundtrack of early 2000's Coldplay on the jukebox. This wouldn't do.
"Fuck this, I'm getting a drink." Zosia made a beeline for the bar while her friends queued up some livelier music.
They caught up with Zosia at the bar where she gave an appreciative grin at the sudden change in atmosphere. Something that sounded vaguely like Material Girl by Madonna suddenly replaced the dulcet tones of Chris Martin and Zosia boisterously whooped.
"Yes boys! Now get these down you!"
She proffered a tray of luminescent shots and jovially encouraged them on – much to their displeasure. Zosia somehow had the reputation as the heaviest drinker, must have started in her teenage years as an antidote to her poisonous father and only continued after her Mama's death.
Quickly knocking back her own drink, Zosia scanned the reasonably full room for Jac – to no avail, not a flash of red hair or angular cheekbone in sight. Of course Jac wouldn't come, she was above things like this. Zosia rolled her eyes and swallowed her disappointment.
She and the boys took up residence at a table of assorted Keller staff and took turns getting rounds of drinks. Zosia listened vaguely to the latest gossip, only too pleased to hear that Jac's love bite was no longer hot topic. It was something about her AAU mentors, the two middle aged co-clinical leads who she'd caught conspiring to oust her from the ward the previous week. The information probably should have interested her if she wanted to keep in with her colleagues on the ward but she honestly didn't care much for gossip, especially about people she only thought of in a strictly professional manner.
It definitely wasn't her round but her glass was empty and instead of waiting for her friends to realise and get her another, Zosia took it upon herself. She shocked herself by how unsteady on her feet she was as she approached the bar, only too happy to have something to prop herself up against when she reached it. She ordered and as she waited she pondered what Jac's drink would be, wine? A spirit? Definitely not a beer person. Probably red wine with food and then a strong, neat spirit like scotch or brandy. Zosia had an unquenchable taste for tequila and readily paid for her 4th or 5th tequila sunrise.
The tempo of the music changed and half an hour later Zosia found herself wrapped around some AAU nurse, dancing outrageously to a nondescript track which would have been more at home on the bottom level of a grimy nightclub. She wasn't interested in her dance partner, her head was fuzzy and she'd been complaining to anyone that would listen that she couldn't feel her kneecaps.
"Let's go home Zosh!" Her housemates were positively sober in comparison to her and were not sharing in her buzz.
"Fuck off! Can't you see I'm dancing?" She swung her arms wildly to illustrate her point before stumbling into a table laden with empty glasses. The girl she'd been dancing with had long given up with Zosia who was clearly preoccupied and trying to prove some kind of point.
"Zosia! Now!" They hissed, noticing that Zosia had landed unceremoniously on her backside at the feet of a rather displeased looking Jac Naylor.
The boys pulled her by her arms to her feet and only then, when she was eye level with the older woman, did she realise why the panic. Little did they know that she'd made headway thawing the ice queens heart and wasn't as humiliated as they thought she should be.
"Well hello, stranger."
She drawled, filled with an unbridled confidence and a familiarity which frightened Jac. The 'stranger' comment was a dig at the lack of follow up text and they both knew it.
"Zosia."
"I didn't think you'd come." Zosia giggled, with an immature wink.
Her friends, still propping her up shared horrified glances that said – what the fuck is she doing?
Jac's look of displeasure turned sour, she noted Zosia's unsteady sway despite being the majority of her weight being held by the men who looked like they'd rather be anywhere than caught in the middle of this awkward exchange.
"Let her dance boys, I'll see she gets home."
While she'd rather not spend any time with the girl while she was this inebriated, it suddenly occurred to Jac that her lack of inhibitions might cause an irresponsible slip of the tongue and no one could know, not like this. The girl was a bloody liability.
"Thanks Ms Naylor." The boys nodded shyly, passing Zosia over like a fragile rag doll, only too pleased to be relinquishing responsibility for her.
A/N: Loved writing drunk Zosh. Review and let me know your thoughts!