I apologize for the wait between chapters. Don't worry, I have not, and will not abandon this fic. Life is just busy right now :) Hang in there with me, and enjoy another chapter. Please read and review, let me know what you think.
Monday comes and goes while Regina recovers. The fever breaks in the wee hours of the morning, her coughing easily controlled with over-the-counter medications and mentholated cough drops. By the time her alarm goes off Tuesday morning, she showers quickly and feels surprisingly refreshed and healthy.
When she casually walks into the lobby of the vet clinic, a little before 8:00AM, Gabby and Zelena are laughing with one another, no doubt gossiping about someone or something. The older woman looks up over the counter at the sound of the door, but Zelena is lost in one of the kittens that still remains at the clinic.
The red head is nuzzling with the spotted grey and white ball of fur, the last of the litter that still remains, all the others having found loving homes already.
"Well look who decided to grace us with her presence." Gabby states in a sarcastic tone, but the kind smile on the woman's face takes the bite from her words.
Zelena looks up then, her green eyes narrowing at Regina, "What are you doing here? You sounded awful on Sunday. There is absolutely no way you can be well already."
"I'm actually feeling much better." Regina states, cringing at the cracking of her voice. She is feeling better, so much better, but she doesn't sound it. The glares of disapproval and lifted brows directed towards her tell her as much.
"I'm fine." She says in response to the concerned faces in front of her before walking past the counter and through the door to the rest of the clinic until she reaches the shared office in the back of the building.
The day flies by, and although she still feels worn, is dragging slightly behind between appointments, it is nice to be at work and out of her bed. Moving and socializing makes her feel alive again, a little less like a hermit. Zelena fills her in on the illusive boyfriend. David tells her about a date with Mary Margaret, and how they have another planned already. Gabby and Tink gossip about the woman with all the cats who wanted to adopt one of the kittens.
Her phone buzzes during one of her afternoon appointments, but is long forgotten in the sea of puppies that scamper in and keep her busy until she has to race to Henry's daycare, still not making it on time. Henry is fine, always enjoys a little extra time with Mary Margaret, and the other woman is beaming this evening, her date with David having done some good apparently.
Once dinner is warmed, the last of the leftover soup from Robin, and eaten, Henry and her settle comfortably onto the sofa. They read half a dozen books, an alarming amount of Elmo present in the pages, and Henry soaks it up. He loves his books, loves to try and read them to her, and most of the time, his tales match up pretty well with the actual stories.
Finally, she has him tucked in his sheets, nestled beneath his comforter, and she sits herself at the kitchen table with a glass of red wine. Exhaustion simmers in her bones, through her veins, deep in her tissues and muscles. This feeling isn't unusual, in fact, just the opposite, she is quite used to it as a single mother, but it drags at her more today, and she knows she probably should have taken one more day to recover.
She pulls her phone from her purse, sees an alert for a missed call as well as a text message which she swipes to check.
"How are you feeling, Beautiful?"
She smiles, lets it widen, lets her cheeks flush, because he can't see it anyway, no one can, so there is no reason to feel self conscious. The missed call is from him also, but he hasn't tried to get ahold of her since this afternoon; something she appreciates.
"I'm feeling quite well. Must be that soup. ;)" She responds, sets her phone down before reclining against the wooden chair, sipping at the rich liquid that tastes like berries and something smoky.
"I'm glad to hear it. Good enough for our date? Tomorrow night perhaps? You're on call Thursday night, correct?"
She informs him that yes, she is on call, every Thursday, and that she should be able to make it out with him Wednesday, tomorrow night, as long as she can find someone to watch Henry. He asks if he can pick her up, and they decide on a time, but he is rather secretive of their plans, tells her it'll be a surprise.
She showers, lets the steam seep into her skin, and finds that the moment her head hits her pillow darkness overwhelms her, pulls her into a deep sleep.
Wednesday morning Mary Margaret agrees to watch Henry for the evening, says she would love to spend some extra time with him, and gives Regina a knowing smile and coy wink. The day is busy at the vet clinic, each appointment slot crammed full, drop ins popping up on the schedule, and at 4:00PM, when they are already running thirty minutes behind schedule, Emma and Killian walk in with two dogs they picked up on an ordinance call.
"They must have been in a fight or something," Emma states, gesturing toward the many lacerations and punctures on both dogs. They don't seem overly aggressive, calm even, but Regina is still cautious, muzzles them as a precaution before examining the many injuries.
"It definitely looks like a dog fight," she says with a sigh before glancing at the clock, and excusing herself from the exam room, leaving Killian and Emma with the two canines.
When she steps into the back of the clinic Tink and Wendy bombard her with questions, inform her of the next client waiting for her in another exam room, and David is clearly visible in the small glass encased operating room apparently working on an emergency case. It's Wednesday, Zelena is on call tonight, and a glance at the schedule tells Regina that the red head is currently in with a sick cat, taking xrays, drawing blood.
She goes into the next appointment with Wendy. Vaccines, simple enough, and asks Tink to prepare some sedative for the two dogs in with ordinance control. It looks like she is going to be here late, like they are all going to be here late.
Another hour passes quickly, and in that time Regina manages a quick call to Mary Margaret and a text to Robin. The brunette will drive Henry to her own home and Regina can pick him up after her date, and Robin doesn't text back before she is pulled back into the room with Killian and Emma, administering sedatives to each dog and explaining estimates for the needed procedures.
"That all sounds fine Regina. Can you put it on our account?" Killian questions while helping Tink lift one of the pups from the floor to the exam table.
Tink answers for her, nods, and says, "I'll get it taken care of," before gently tugging the estimates from Regina's hands and pulling both officers to the front lobby, presumably sending them away with an invoice and a promise to call once the dogs are conscious.
It is 5:00 PM when she checks her phone again. Robin was supposed to pick her up at six, and now she finds herself wondering if the evening is completely shot. She'll be working on these two dogs until at least six, and Henry is now at Mary Margaret's apartment, and can't be put to bed at 8:00PM unless she picks him up and brings him home. If she drives home to get ready for their date, Robin and her are only going to have an hour together at best before she should pick up her boy.
There is a text waiting for her, telling her to call him when she is free, and a scowl crosses her face at the thought of their whole night, their first actual date, swiftly slipping from her grasp. David is still in the operating room with what turned out to be an exploratory on a vomiting labrador. Zelena is anxiously moving from one room to the next meeting with clients whose appointments were scheduled as early as 4:20 and have been patiently waiting (and not so patiently). She sends a quick 'okay' in response before carelessly dropping her phone onto her desk.
"Ready?" Tink walks in the office smiling, clearly undaunted by the deep frown marring Regina's face, and this girl is always so cheerful, always so happy. Normally Regina adores it, doesn't admit to that fact, but loves how light the atmosphere feels surrounding the blonde and her happy attitude. Right now, she does not adore it. Right now, she wants to strangle the petite woman, wants to wipe the smile away from those pink lips. With a sigh Regina mentally scolds herself. None of this is Tink's fault.
"Sure. I'll need some suture material, a syringe and saline for flushing, and a number ten blade." She says to Tink while pulling a scrub top over her shirt, tugging her hair in a low ponytail and slipping on two latex gloves. "Let's go."
The time is nearing 6 when David pops his head into the exam room curious about the two canines she is working on. His exploratory went well. They removed what appeared to be scraps of a blanket from the yellow lab, and now he is recovering under Wendy's close supervision. She fills him in on the two dogs. She is cleaning and suturing the wounds on the second one at the moment, telling David how the first pup had over forty punctures and lacerations combined sprawled from muzzle to tail.
"Didn't you have a date tonight?" He asks after she finishes her detailed description of injuries, and she sighs, explains that, yes, she did, and that she is fairly certain she no longer does. There is at least another half hour of work to be finished on the second dog, and then she'll have to wait for Emma or Killian to pick them up, and she'll have to make her notes in the file along with three others she had set aside when the afternoon picked up pace.
When she finally finishes, steps from the room leaving Tink to wake the dogs, Zelena and David are both scrawling their notes on files, preparing treatment plans for the hospitalized pets, and neither of them notice her walk past. She cleans up, discards the dirty scrub top in a hamper, and lifts her phone from the desk sighing defeatedly when she sees that it is half past six. She opts for calling Robin rather than texting. There is no way they'll have time for their date, and she wants to break the bad news actually talking to him instead of a hurried apology text.
"Hello love. I was beginning to worry I wouldn't hear from you." His accented voice sounds over the phone, and she tilts her head to the side, bites her lower lip, because she loves that voice. "Is something wrong?" He continues after her sigh, concern etching his words.
"No, no." She responds quickly, sighs again. "But I am still at work, and unfortunately, I don't think I'll be out of here before I have to pick Henry up and take him home." She fiddles with a pad of paper on her desk, sighs again, and she realizes she's been doing that a lot today. "I'm sorry. I hope this doesn't ruin your entire evening."
"Of course not. I understand. Are you still at the clinic now?" He asks.
"Yes. I have a lot of notes to make, and I'm waiting for ordinance control to come get some dogs they brought in earlier."
"Alright. Well, I hope it isn't presumptuous, but you do need to eat, right?" He questions.
"Yes?" She responds, curious as to what he might consider presumptuous.
"And I may have some food."
"Yes?" She asks starting to understand that Robin intends to see her tonight whether or not it is as planned.
"If you'd like, I could stop by your clinic with a couple sandwiches? I won't be a distraction. I promise." He says earnestly, but she knows that it's a lie, knows how distracting just his face is to her, not to mention his mouth, his lips, and that accent, but he is right. She does need to eat.
"If it is no trouble," she begins, and he eagerly cuts her off.
"Seeing you is never any trouble Regina. I'll be there in a bit." They say their goodbyes, and her lips lift at the corners just a little, a small smile, but it is the first semblance of anything other than a frown that has crossed her face during the last couple hours.
She spends the next several minutes checking on her patients, both seem to be recovering well, waking up groggy, but repaired, and Tink takes over their discharge, handles the charges, and phones ordinance control to let Emma know they can be picked up. By the time Robin gets there, David and Zelena are both making quick exits, saying they'll be in early to complete their notes and patient charts, and the technicians follow minutes later.
It is just the two of them. Gabby let Robin in through the lobby, then locked up and headed out herself, so for now, the clinic is empty other than a couple snoring pets recovering from surgery. He greets her with a smile, wide and bright and heavily dimpled. It brings one to her face in response as he pulls up a chair to her desk and sets a small bag next to her files.
"Busy day then?" He asks, gesturing toward the stack in front of her, but he already knows, already understands that she would not have cancelled their date for no reason. She nods, drops her pen, and grabs the bag he'd brought.
"What edible marvels have you concocted this time?" She asks, eager to see if there are any cookies or brownies present in the paper sack.
He laughs, a chuckle really. "I hope you are not stringing me along just to sample all the food I have to offer." He teases.
She isn't sure why, but she is feeling bold so she winks and teases back, "If I were stringing you along, I would not stop at sampling just the food you have to offer." She says it with a straight face, a small smirk, and she even manages to tamp down the blush she can feel covering her cheeks.
Robin doesn't recover as well. His cheeks turn a deep crimson, and he laughs, a loud hearty sound, a laugh that makes his eyes crinkle before he says, "That is very reassuring." He bites his lower lip, and smiles at her, one that she returns a little more coyly before pulling their dinner from the bag.
They eat and talk, and he surprises her with a couple freshly baked cookies wrapped tightly and carried in his jacket pocket. His company does prove to be distracting, so distracting that she only finishes one of the four files stacked on her desk before giving up completely on the thought of working while a handsome man sits beside her, his thigh brushing hers. She asks what their date was supposed to be like, and he informs her that he will not waste a good surprise, that she'll see eventually, on a future date.
At some point his arm moves to rest at the top of her chair, his hand resting near her shoulder, fingers absently twirling her hair. At another point, while she animatedly tells him a story about Henry and finger painting, her hand comes to rest on his knee. She really can't be sure when it happened, but at yet another point of time in their brief evening together they stop talking, and his lips move to cover hers.
He kisses her mid laugh, both of them smiling, and it is soft, tentative. Then she responds, and he swipes her lower lip with his tongue, begging for entrance. They sit there next to each other, his hand still in her hair, her hand still on his knee, well, maybe a little higher now, and they kiss and kiss again, until Regina can feel her breath coming faster, and a heat pooling low in her belly.
Somehow she pushes through the haze of arousal, and recalls with startling clarity that they are in her office, at the clinic, and that this is not the place to be making out with a man she hasn't technically even had a date with yet. Does this count, she wonders, thinks probably not, you can't call it a date if one of you works during a portion of it. She isn't sure where she finds the strength, but she pulls her lips back, rests her forehead against his while their breathing slows, her body calms down, and then she looks at him, his blue eyes a shade darker, and she tells him it is getting late, and she really needs to pick up Henry.
It isn't an excuse. She really needs to go. It is almost 8:00 PM already, and Henry gets unnervingly crabby at 8:01 PM. He smiles, nods, but pulls her close one more time, his hand at the back of her head, fingers twisted in her hair while he kisses her soundly, a slight nip to her lower lip as he pulls away.
"I will not keep you from your son any longer." He says as they part, his fingers slowly unraveling from her hair, moving to caress the side of her neck, then her shoulder. She squeezes his leg in response, smiles, and moves to stand.
She thanks him for dinner, tells him she'll even cook next time, prove to him she isn't only interested in the food he offers, and leaves him with another kiss before he opens and closes her car door for her.
By the time she picks up Henry, they arrive home, and are all ready for bed, he passes out in her arms, and she moves him to his tiny bed, nestles him under sheets and blankets, and kisses him goodnight.