Anyway, this one might seem a little weak in the plot department but I thought it was good to air out some of Wick's thoughts. It seems he's pretty aware of his feelings but also very determined in his intentions. Tomorrow morning I get on a plane and fly to a blissfully warm state where I will lay in a heated pool and try not to think too hard. As a result that may mean no chapter tomorrow. If I find the time to edit though I'll try and make a point to post. Other than that I just want to say another thank you to anyone reading. Hope you're still enjoying the ride!

Wick's POV

Perhaps it would be easier to just forget about their little argument. Wick would love if he never had to think about what had happened between them again. And it wasn't because Raven said mean things and it had nothing to do with how his feelings were hurt. It was entirely related to the fact that he felt nothing but guilt every time he thought about the look of betrayal in her eyes as she confronted him. She may not trust him, she didn't seem to trust anyone and he hardly blamed her, but that didn't prevent her from getting stabbed in the back regardless.

He had known it was wrong every step of the way. He knew it was something she would hate as they all sat around the table talking that night. It ate away at him when he went that night and the feeling didn't alleviate each time he thought about it from there on out. Raven was a private person and he had exploited his means of getting information about her. These were stories that were hers to share, no one else's. Maybe in different circumstances, if she wasn't Raven and he wasn't Wick, it wouldn't be such a big deal. But he knows that what he learned that night was a story that she should have had the right to share, or not, with him.

When she confronted him it was a knee jerk reaction to be defensive. That was just how he handled most confrontations. It didn't matter if it was at work or with family or his friends, he always had some excuse, some reason, and almost definitely a counter-argument. But with Raven he knew exactly what she needed to hear. Probably, he thinks, because it was exactly what he needed to say.

The first thing he had expected was a flushed, angry face and more venom filled with words. The last thing he'd expected was for her to ask him to teach her how to drive. He'd just kind of assumed that someone like her, who stood in the freezing cold and tinkered with his truck to the point that it ran smoother than it had in years, would know how to drive. It made sense; she was quite a bit younger than him after all. Not to mention, as she'd bitterly pointed out, it wasn't as though she had a car to learn with.

Wick didn't want to admit to anyone, himself included, that he was more than happy to agree to her request. Everyone should be able to learn how to drive, he tells himself as reasoning. (It's one more reason to see her) he thought immediately when she'd mentioned it.

Despite the drama, life carries on much the same after that night. He finishes out his last two weeks over at the other hospital and is beyond pleased at the opportunity to go back where he belonged.

The night shift welcomes him warmly. Harper pats him on the back as he walks in, cart in hand as she makes her way down the hall. "Good to have you back," she says as she walks past him. "I'll save a bed or two for you to change tonight."

"Can't wait!" he calls back, happy to be socialising with his usual night crew once again.

Monty is all smiles when Wick walks in to the lab a few minutes after seven. "I know that look on your face isn't because you're that excited to see me," he says as he moves to boot up his computer.

"Sure I am!" he answers, grin only growing wider. "You're my only friend on overnight, the better half, if you will."

"I won't," Wick mumbles, raising an eyebrow at Monty. "Let me guess, Miller finally kissed you.

The rate at which Monty changes colour is comical. "Maybe," he smiles unabashedly. Wick could tease him for weeks on this one moment alone. "How about you? Raven plant one on you yet?"

Wick scoffs. It was the easiest way to pretend that he hadn't thought of such a thing before. "Don't really know what you're smoking, but that isn't ever going to happen." Raven didn't need a boyfriend, he reminds himself yet again.

"What, don't you find her cute or whatever?" Monty pretends to be busying himself with work but Wick knows an interrogation when it's happening. This group of friends gossiped like a bunch of middle school girls. The heavy stuff tended to stay buried, hidden away from outsiders and rarely discussed within the group. But when it came to the petty, little stuff…that was trotted out daily and examined for any signs of promise. Monty and Miller would satisfy the wolves for all of a day or two before they would be back to making silent bets on Clarke and Bellamy.

The suggestion is ludicrous, but stating so would hardly prove Kyle's point. "Raven is…" he pauses in an attempt to find a neutral word. "She's plenty pretty."

"Pretty?" Monty questions with a tone of shock. "Dude, I'm gay and even I would feel honoured to be hit on by her. She's hot."

As if she would hit on anyone. "I'm Raven's friend. That's all."

"As if you don't want more." Monty doesn't even pretend to be focused on his work anymore, crossing his arms and fixing Wick with a hard look. "You're totally smitten for her."

"Who says smitten?" he asks. The idea of being more to Raven was not one he was opposed to. But he knew what happened when people were more to each other. There was no going back to less. If he let anything happen between them, it could mean the difference between having her in his life as a friend and no longer knowing her at all. He wasn't interested in losing what they'd built so far. "Besides, I'm not looking for a relationship right now."

At no point did Wick think that Monty would just leave it at that. But surprisingly he just mumbles a, "sure thing" and leaves the issue alone.

Of course, now that he's brought the idea up at all, Kyle had a hard time forgetting it. It had been a lonely few years. The fact of the matter was that he missed having people in his life. Someone to care when he was coming home, someone asking him what he wanted to do for dinner, someone to say goodnight and good morning to.

He wasn't avoiding finding a person to fulfil those things. It was more like he didn't know where to start. Besides, he was busy enough as it was.

The one thing he did know was that Raven Reyes was not meant to be that person. She was a someone of course, but of a completely different capacity.

"Yes, Aunt Mary Ann, work is going great."

It didn't matter that he was a grown man, on his own for years now and doing just fine. His aunt still insisted on checking in. She'd been his mom's older sister. Something which his mom always said made her impossibly controlling. Wick got the smallest piece of that controlling every week or so. He didn't necessarily mind. It was nice having someone check in on him, even if she did treat him like a child.

"Good," she says from the other end. She sounded distant, worried even. "And you'll be over on Christmas Eve, won't you?"

Work would have been the perfect excuse, and he almost uses it, but then he thinks about Christmas with no one, not even his aunt or his cousins or his mildly weird uncle. The idea is not one he likes. "Aren't I always?"

"I know, I know. Just don't forget-"

"To check my oil before I make the trip." He cuts her off. This was a regular conversation. Anytime he even so much as thought about visiting her she was insistent he check his oil. Of course there were many components of a car that should be checked before travelling seven hours north, but Aunt Mary Ann had only experienced an issue with her oil, so that was all she worried about.

She huffs on the other end. She didn't like being interrupted. "Do you have anyone to bring with you this year, Kyle?" she asks, her voice hopeful.

With no one left around in their family besides her family and him, he wasn't surprised she wanted him to find someone. She probably worried he would go under financially and she'd be forced to take him in. Or maybe she was just concerned for his overall well-being. The last few years had allotted for a lot of concern from all sorts of places. "Not this year," he answers truthfully.

She answers with a sigh so pitiful he almost hangs up the phone. "Well alright, maybe next year."

Way to make him feel welcome. He hangs up a moment later, thinking about how he should have just said he had to work.

"You can't tell me this doesn't at least have potential!" Kyle shouts, hands moving wildly throughout the air in frustration. It's a few days after he's first come back and he's across from Raven at her desk once more. She didn't miss a beat of destroying his plans and hard work, essentially telling him he was useless for the hundredth time.

With a shake of her head she just pushes the sketch back across the desk. "It's shoddy work, Wick. Why would I even bother making all these adjustments just to ruin the work I've already done?"

There might be a point there, Wick thinks, but then decides there's not. He would really like to be right just once. "Because undoing the work you've done is the only way we're going to get this thing even close to working."

"Are you saying I did it wrong?" she asks, crossing her arms over her chest and challenging him as she sits up a little taller. "Or just that you can't work with others?"

He groans, hands running through his hair in frustration. "What I'm saying is that you can't get it to work, and I'm proposing that this might be the answer to all three of the problems you're having."

Though she tries to hide it, he doesn't miss the way she glances back down at the paper. "I think you're wrong."

It would be so very easy to lose his cool right now. Somehow, Wick manages to keep his composure. "I'm going to be on my deathbed and still making these damn sketches for you."

Raven shrugs, "Hardly my fault that all your plans suck." If it weren't for the ghost of a smile playing on her lips he might actually bother to be offended.

Ever since the confrontation a couple of weeks ago Wick had worried that Raven would start closing him off. For a while he didn't see her at all. He was still at the other hospital and making special visits suddenly felt weird to him. But once he came back it almost felt like it'd been too long, and now there was something sitting between them. Every time he got her to smile felt like a promise that things were still okay, even if the smile is generally in his expense. "Well it is your fault for being insufferably stubborn."

"Only because I'm right." Every conversation with her felt like a challenge. No matter what they started out discussing, it somehow ended in debate. She didn't let him off easy on anything.

"Well then I guess you're stuck with me for a while," he jokes and winks in her direction which earns him an eye roll. A very small piece of him considers that maybe that was the idea. This rocket project of hers kept them together in one way or another. It was an excuse to talk to each other. When there was no other reason, they had this.

"We all have to bear our own burdens," she replies solemnly.

This, Wick thinks, is the sort of burden he'd happily carry every day. "Whatever, Reyes," he grumbles as he snatches the plans back. "Don't expect me to come back after Christmas with a whole new set of plans worked out."

"Please," she says with a wave of her hand. "I'll probably have the damn thing finished by the time you come back."

"Only because you're secretly using my brilliant ideas and then taking all of the credit." Something about this was always so easy. He missed having anything be easy like this. "Won't you be busy though?"

Raven furrows her brows and turns her head slightly in question. "Busy with…"

"Christmas?" he finishes. "Don't tell me you don't celebrate Christmas."

She bites her lip and shrugs. "Not really now that I'm older." He watches as she messes with loading paper into the printer and digging out some extra staples, busy work. "Octavia usually gets me something, but I don't really do the whole gift thing."

It shouldn't be a surprise, he knows that. She was working her ass off day in and day out just trying to stay afloat it seems. Why would she bother with something as silly and meaningless as Christmas? Realistically he knew there was no room for a tree in her trailer or time for traditions in her life. Regardless of how logical it all might be though, the idea still makes him sad. "So are you just working?"

What really catches him by surprise is when she shakes her head no. "The grocery store is closed and someone else was assigned the Christmas holiday. We're not allowed to switch."

"So you're just going to spend Christmas…"

"Like I would spend any other day," she answers easily. "That and fixing this damn rocket if for no other reason than to rub it in your face next time I see you."

"Ah, the true holiday spirit," he jokes. And next thing Wick knows the words, "I'm going to my aunt's for the holidays and it's kind of crazy and they're a little weird but you're totally welcome to come if you want. She always wants me to bring someone along anyway," are spilling out of his mouth without any permission. There's no way to stuff them back in so he's just left sitting there, watching her half confused/half shocked expression.

The words rushed out of him faster than he could keep track of. For all he knew he could have just asked her to travel to Africa with him. Barring from the face she had fixed, it wouldn't surprise him. "You want me to…go with you?"

Wick shrugs. "My holidays have been pretty different in recent years and even though I'm not alone I still kind of am, you know?" She doesn't respond with more than a half nod. "And I would hate the idea for you to be alone. Plus, it'd be great to get my aunt off my back. And…we could get some work done too." He tacks on the last bit in what might just be the lamest attempt of convincing her. He's pretty sure she can see right through him but he's suddenly so wrapped up in this idea that he doesn't even care.

There's several seconds of dumbfounded silence before Raven eventually nods her head. She shakes it a few too many times before stopping and blinking in an attempt to reorient herself. "I guess sure, why not?"

Wick smiles. "Let's just hope you don't regret asking that question."

Raven laughs in response. Maybe this Christmas wouldn't be quite so lonely after all.