Hey, guys. I wasn't planning on writing, but my youngest daughter decided she didn't want to sleep last night, so I ended up working on this. I do must of my writing then, so I guess you all should thank her, instead of me, for the quick updates. She's five months old, so I guess it isn't entirely her fault. Fun fact - her name is Charlotte. I actually laughed when I heard Lauren comment that she liked that name on the show.
This is what I would consider a "small moments" kind of chapter, and it isn't very long. Basically it's just a quick snapshot of a moment in the relationship. Hope you all like it.
Enjoy!
Bo's eyes scanned the document in front of her as a smile spread across her face. It was a grey Thursday in late March, but despite the chilly temperatures of a Spring that refused to warm, Bo was having an amazing day. The morning had started with a plea on a case that she genuinely didn't think was going to work out, so things had started on the right foot, but even better was the fact that when she had come into her office this afternoon there was an opinion from the appellate courts sitting on her desk. It was from a case she had tried months, maybe even a year, prior. She had won, but the defendant had appealed, and as much as she didn't want to acknowledge it, she thought there was a good chance she would lose the appeal.
But today the opinion had been delivered. And she had won.
It was more than winning – because of this decision, case law favorable to the State had been created. That was huge. That was exciting. There were a lot of days when Bo felt like her job was just slogging through the muck of society, but today – today she felt like she had done something good for the victims of certain crimes, something important and permanent, even if most people would never know about it.
She re-read certain parts of the opinion again, verifying to herself that she was right, that she really had won. When she had finished reading the holding three more times, she grabbed her phone and dialed Lauren's number.
"Hello?" Lauren said. Her voice was clipped and agitated.
"Hey, baby, how's your day going?"
"Ugh," Lauren answered.
"What happened?"
Lauren sighed. "It's just…is it so hard to ask for other doctors to be competent? I mean, really? Is that an insane request?"
Bo leaned back slightly in her chair. "Doctor Myer?" she guessed.
"He's completely incompetent!" Lauren exclaimed.
"What did he do today?"
Lauren began recounting the events of her day to Bo, and Bo could hear the barely contained frustration straining her voice. At a few moments Bo could tell that Lauren wanted to raise her voice, but she kept herself in check, always mindful of the fact that even with her office door closed there was a chance she would be heard.
"I just need to get out of here. I need to get away from him for the day. If I have one more interaction with him, I might say something I regret. I mean, it's not enough that he doesn't do his job correctly, he has to belittle me in front of patients? Really? When I'm correcting the errors he made? And the way he talks to the nurses – it's no surprise that nurses have the attitudes that they do about doctors with people like him around."
"I'm so sorry," Bo said, when Lauren paused for a breath.
Lauren's voice softened when she spoke again. "It's not your fault. I'm sorry for unloading."
"Don't be sorry for that. How soon do you get to leave?"
There was a second's pause while Lauren looked at the time. "I can probably get out of here in the next hour. Hopefully I can just work in my office until then."
Bo nodded, even though she knew Lauren couldn't see her. "Well, just get through the next hour, go home, and relax. Once you can get out of there for the day, things will seem better. I promise. Just go home and take a bath or something. Things will be better tomorrow."
Lauren let out a slight breath of laughter. "You promise?"
Bo smiled. "I promise."
Lauren got home about two hours after getting off the phone with Bo. She hadn't run into Dr. Myer any more, which was a blessing, but her mood was still sour. Still, Bo hadn't been entirely wrong – just leaving for the day had made her feel a little bit better.
More than just leaving, though, she felt slightly better for having talked to Bo. In a way, it didn't make logical sense; talking to Bo hadn't changed anything, but just hearing Bo's voice and telling Bo what was going on seemed to take some of the burden off Lauren. Intellectually Lauren knew that this was a psychological shift, a construct of the mind, where now her burden was shared simply by being spoken, but more than that Lauren felt that it was something intrinsic to Bo herself, something about their connection to one another that had improved her feelings.
For tonight, Lauren just needed to reset. Bo was right – a mental break would make tomorrow seem better. She kicked her shoes off into her bedroom closet and grabbed sweatpants and a tee shirt. Once she was changed, she walked barefoot back to her living room. She would watch TV for a while, then take a bath and maybe read before going to bed early.
She had just settled onto her couch when she heard a knock on her door. She crossed the room to open it, and was surprised to see Bo standing on the other side, holding a bag of groceries.
"Bo, what are you doing here?" she asked, surprised.
Bo smiled. "Hey. I know you had a shitty day, and I'm pretty sure you weren't going to bother to make yourself dinner." Lauren thought back over her plans and realized that Bo was right. "So, I decided to come take care of it for you."
Lauren stepped aside to let Bo in. Bo crossed to the kitchen, setting the bag on the counter. She produced a bottle of wine and handed it to Lauren. Lauren accepted it, looking at Bo, bewildered.
"You're going to cook for me?"
Bo hesitated. "Yes. I'm going to cook. I'm definitely not going to just dump food that was made by someone else into bowls and call it dinner, because I'm an adult, and therefore I know how to cook. Hey, unrelated, can you turn around for a minute?"
Lauren laughed and grabbed wine glasses and bowls out of the cabinet. "So, you don't cook?"
"Only if you want botulism," Bo answered, pulling the food out of the bag.
Lauren smiled and walked back to Bo. "It smells good," she commented.
"I didn't know what you want, so I got a few different things. Everything is of the pasta variety – I figured that was good comfort food. Oh, and I got that cheesecake you like for dessert."
Lauren looked at the food packages. "The cheesecake is from a different place than the pasta."
"Yeah," Bo said. "I knew you liked this one, and the first restaurant didn't have cheesecake on the menu, so –"
"So you went to a second restaurant just so I could have a dessert I mentioned I liked?"
Bo glanced at Lauren and shrugged. "It's no big deal."
Lauren looked a Bo for a few moments and then pulled her in for a long kiss. When Lauren pulled back, Bo was breathless. "If that's how you thank me, I'm going to start bringing you dessert every day."
Lauren laughed and gave Bo a quick peck. "You're incredible."
"I brought dinner. You have really low standards," Bo joked. She started pouring the wine into glasses. "So, tell me more about today."
Lauren groaned. "He shouldn't even have a medical license! He misdiagnosed appendicitis."
Bo hesitated. "And that's…hard to do?"
"It's something a first year intern would be able to diagnose! He's been a doctor for, what, 15 years? It's amazing he hasn't killed all of his patients." Lauren continued to tell Bo about her day while Bo transferred the food from containers into bowls. She grabbed two forks from the silverware drawer and walked back to where Lauren was standing, handing her one. "And he has the nerve to act like he's God's gift to medicine or something. It gives the hospital a bad name, honestly, and eventually it could lead to a lawsuit."
"What do the people above you think about him?" Bo asked, twirling pasta around her fork.
"That's the thing, they love him. They treat him like a medical genius. I just don't get it."
Bo and Lauren continued to talk while they ate their dinner. When they were done, Bo grabbed the bowls and carried them to the sink, beginning to wash them.
"You really don't have to do that. You brought dinner, the least I can do is clean it up," Lauren said.
Bo waved her off. "I showed up at your house unannounced. Dinner was my idea. I'm not going to make you clean up after me when I wasn't invited."
"You're always invited," Lauren said with a laugh, taking a sip of her wine.
"I am?"
"You're my girlfriend," Lauren said. "You can come here whenever you want."
Bo smiled. "Be careful, I'll start taking you up on that."
Lauren walked over to Bo and kissed her on the cheek. "Good."
When the dishes were clean, Bo and Lauren sat on the couch. Bo flipped through the channels and landed on Wheel of Fortune, which was almost over.
"Leave it here, Jeopardy comes on next," Lauren said, yawning, leaning against Bo with her head on Bo's shoulder.
Lauren's yawn triggered Bo's, and Bo smiled and dropped the remote, winding her arm around Lauren and rubbing her arm gently. "Does this make us old and boring? Watching Jeopardy on the couch and yawning before 8?"
Lauren snuggled against Bo. "Maybe. Who cares?"
Bo kissed the top of Lauren's head, and Lauren hummed happily. "I don't care either."
The intro music to Jeopardy started, and Lauren and Bo sat quietly and watched, waiting for the game to start. "We've spent all night talking about my day," Lauren said. "What about you?" Bo could hear the edges of sleep tugging at Lauren's voice.
"I'll tell you later," she answered. The game show started, and Bo kept rubbing Lauren's arm until she felt her breathing deepen and Lauren fall asleep against her.
Lauren woke up at 2:00a feeling groggy and disoriented. The TV was on and Lauren noticed that an infomercial for a blender was playing. She turned her head slightly and found herself reclined on Bo, who was sleeping.
She turned off the TV and gently nudged Bo awake. "Hey," she whispered.
"Hey," Bo said. "What time is it?"
"About 2," Lauren answered. She stood up and tugged Bo's hand, making her stand as well. "Come on."
"Where are we going?" Bo asked, her voice foggy with sleep.
"To bed," Lauren answered.
She kept hold of Bo's hand and led her to the bedroom. She went to her dresser and grabbed a tee shirt for Bo. "What time do you need to be up tomorrow?" she asked, handing Bo the shirt.
"6?" Bo said, stripping off her clothes and dropping Lauren's shirt over her.
Lauren set the clock and crawled between the sheets, signaling for Bo to join her. Bo climbed into the bed and pulled herself close to Lauren. They shared a light kiss before wrapping themselves around each other and sinking back to sleep.
Thoughts are always welcome
