muse_write | 16. Pain

May 02, 2010 19:31

[Follows Miami Medical 1x05 and THIS]

Co-written with geniuscowboy

The day had brought a pretty full-on shift in Miami Trauma One. Chris never liked the days they actually lost a patient, even if she did get to them too late. It still brought a sensation of failure, like if only there was one more thing that could have been done. You knew there wasn't, though. It was just life... and death, and it was being a trauma surgeon. Those days, he was just glad to see the back of and rain really wasn't doing much to lift his spirits. It was absolutely lashing down now, and even though Tuck had given him a lift home while Serena made good on her offer to Eva, Chris still was left with a sensation like he had been stuck under a heavy rain cloud. Thank hell for small bursts of brightness, though. He was glad Eva found her mother's earring and he was also highly amused about the fact she got puked on.


Still, a restlessness settled in once he was home and took a shower. There was nothing on TV, and his thoughts inevitably turned to what Serena might be up to that night. It was a school night, so there was no boozing at the Crab Shack to be had, and he really could have used a drink tonight. On top of all that, he was starting to feel little off. Maybe a bit warm, maybe a bit lethargic, maybe a bit achy. Getting a flu shot had been at the top of his list before their patients came in. After that, it slipped his mind and the nurse had shut up shop by the time it crossed his mind again and he got to the clinic. He was seriously hoping the virulent flu bug hadn't already ninjaed under the radar and infected him. Right now, he was praying his health and fitness would be on his side, but he downed a large glass of orange juice and a vitamin pill just in case. After standing in the kitchen with his hands resting on the edge of the sink while he watched the rain pour down outside, in a moment of spontaneity, he grabbed up his keys and wallet then called a cab to meet him at the front entrance of his apartment block. Sex fixed everything, right?

About twenty minutes later, he was standing at the door of Serena's place, slightly damp now from getting caught in another heavy down pour running from the cab to the door. He wasn't the sort of guy to have the foresight to bring an umbrella. In fact, he probably didn't even own one. He was never more relieved to get into the foyer of her apartment complex and he was now standing at her door, his forearm leaning on the door jamb as he waited for her to answer the bell.

Serena had freaked the second she'd heard the doorbell. No one was supposed to be visiting her. No one had called about visiting. She'd been sitting on the sofa in her PJ bottoms and a sweater with a green beauty mask plastered all over her face. She'd scrambled to her feet and nearly lost her balance and face planted the floor in her rush to get to the bathroom to try and rinse off as she shouted a hurried, "Hang on!"

She had no idea who it was on the other side, but if they wanted to see her this badly they could wait a couple moments as she cleaned up. Her skin tingled from the mask, and she made a face in the mirror as she looked at her dishevelled hair. She quickly pulled out the hair band, and then put it back up again as she made it back out and to her door. She checked the peep hole before opening it up, and gave Chris a smirk. "Well, if it isn't Dr Flu Bait. Had that shot yet?"

"I'm too awesome to need it, I decided." Chris stayed leaning against the doorframe, looking her over for a few moments and then pulling his lips to the side. "I sent you the flowers." He let the words hangd there for a few moments while he contemplated a quick duck back out into the rain to cool down. It was humid from the rain and her apartment block felt stuffy. Didn't anyone hear of airconditioning in the management?

Serena looked up at him, still not sure if she had green goop smeared all over her face, or not. Then she gave a snort of amusement as she rolled her eyes. "You? Yeah, right. You know, if you're not careful I'm going to begin to think you're wanting more than just friends with benefits. First you were jealous of HRG and the text messages, and now you're jealous of Flower Guy."

Chris laughed at her and gave his head a small shake in confusion. "What makes you say I was jealous?" He pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "But okay. Don't even ask me in. I'll go haunt Eva, or maybe I could stop in on Proctor and offer to order a pizza with him." Even if the thought of pizza right now made his stomach do this funny little clench, churning thing.

Serena reached out to grab the front of Chris' t-shirt and pulled him inside as she shut the door behind them. "What makes you think I wasn't planning on inviting you in? So this is where I live... welcome. And I know you're jealous. All the questions, and the prodding, and the information gathering. You're trying to work out if another man's cutting your grass. There's no one else cutting your grass, Deleo. Did you really send the flowers?" The flowers in question were sitting in prime position on her coffee table, and she glanced at them as she smiled before looking back at him. "You're wet. Hang on..." Serena disappeared back into her bathroom and came out with a towel. "Here."

Chris took the towel and wiped his face with it and then moved onto his arms. "I question and prod everyone. This is what happens when I get bored, and I thought we were adamant you weren't my grass, anyway." He looked around her apartment, eyebrows raised a little before his blue eyes landed on the flowers. He'd actually paid a lot of money for them, the only arrangement he really liked being with a florist on the outskirts of the city and they wanted extra to deliver them to the hospital. Then they wanted extra because he wanted to change the pink roses to red and the other yellow thingos to purple. So, he was picky with things like that. He didn't want to pay out for an arrangement identical to the one some other chick was getting on the other side of Miami because her husband fucked around on her or something. "Who else do you think sent them?" he asked her calmly, with a hint of a challenge in his tone.

Serena held his gaze. "Maybe we were both mistaken." She continued to study him quietly for a long moment. She still wasn't sure he was serious, but then he had this habit of always keeping her on her toes. "But flowers are romantic... They mean... It's a romantic gesture. Why would you offer me an anonymous romantic gesture like flowers? They're beautiful and I love them, but why?"

"Maybe I just thought you deserved flowers, plain and simple," Chris suggested and then pointed to her sofa. "I need to take a load off." He was already moving over to sit down before he was even invited and found himself staring at the flowers right in his line of sight. The florist really did do a good job, and they even managed to remember the little fake lady bugs stuck to some of the leaves like he basically demanded after seeing them on another arrangement for a new baby. He really had trawled the whole site that night, and they would probably never let him be a customer again.

Serena dropped down beside him. She'd studied the flowers for ages. She'd seen the little fake lady bugs, and she'd noticed the way the colours went together. She'd even maybe Googled the florist to try and get a hint, but the arrangement was like none she could find. "You thought about it. You thought about how you wanted them to look, and you chose each aspect of the whole thing..." She bit her lip as she turned her head to look at Chris. "Thank you. Thank you so much for them."

Chris gave a small shrug. "I was paying for them, I should get what I want," he replied quietly and then rubbed at his nose when it started to itch. "Maybe I should send some to Eva. For Happy Getting Puked On Day," he added with a mischievous smirk. "A whole flower arrangement to look like a technicoloured yawn."

Serena rolled her eyes again, but she started to laugh. "You trying to go out of your way to make her start hating you, or something? What happened to you two being Trauma's hottest couple? People might start getting suspicious." After a moment she stopped smiling, her eyes searching his. "What did you want?"

"Nope, it's just too much fun not to push buttons that are sitting there in front of me all shiny and pushable." Chris pulled at the collar of his t-shirt and looked around her apartment. "This place is bloody hot. Are your windows painted shut or something?" he complained and felt sweat trickle down the back of his neck as he puffed his cheeks out with a breath and started to fan his face with his hand. He nodded at the flowers. "That's what I wanted."

"Are you alright, Dr C?" Serena leaned forward to get her hand to his forehead and frowned when she felt him burning up. "My windows are open. I can't not have them open when it's muggy. Jesus, Chris... I think maybe your luck just ran out. You've got a temp. Looks like you really aren't all that awesome to fight a flu just on your own."

"What?" Chris looked at her in disbelief and reached up reflexively to put his hand to his own head. Only, hers was still there and instead of connecting with his skin, his hand covered hers and he stilled, meeting her gaze. It probably looked as weird as all hell, but after a couple of moments, he cleared his throat and opted to feel his cheeks instead. They really were quite warm. "No. No, I'm sure it's not that. I'm going to get the shot in the morning. It'll be all cool."

Serena hadn't though it was weird. In fact, she was more kicking herself for just how much she enjoyed the brief contact between his hand and hers. When he felt his cheeks she dropped her hand away, and got up to fetch a thermometer she had in her medicine cabinet. She returned and held it out for him, arching an eyebrow almost in challenge. "If it's going to be all cool, you won't have a problem double checking, will you?"

Chris opened his mouth to say something but closed it on second thought. If he protested, he could well find the thermometer shoved up his nose... or worse. The truth was, if Chris got sick, he didn't tend to deny. He was a doctor, afterall. It was just a pain in the ass if he did fall ill. He wasn't a particularly pleasant sick person, either. He was just wondering now if he could still manage to dodge the bullet and subsequently not end up yurking all over the place. This was like karma taking a huge chomp out of his ass all of a sudden. However, he just smirked at her and then opened his mouth obediently, waiting for the thermometer.

Serena looked at him in amusement and stuck the thermometer under his tongue before pushing his lower jaw up with her hand so he'd close his mouth. She gave him a pat on the head as she grinned. "Good boy. If you manage to not come out of this with a temp, I promise to make it all better and we'll start with the sexual healing." In the back of her mind Serena was trying to imagine what Chris was like as a patient, and if he'd actually let her take care of him. Truth was if he did have a temp she really wasn't keen on the idea of letting him out of her sight, or apartment.

Chris resisted the urge to spit it back out again and resisted the urge to joke about her sticking things in interesting places. He didn't actually know how he felt about sex at that moment. The orange juice he had at his apartment was sloshing around in his stomach, making him feel nauseated. Before, he hadn't really felt fluey, but now that it was out there and on the table... maybe he did. Hopefully it was just the power of suggestion because he actually had to be on shift tomorrow at six for the on-call rotation. He suddenly wasn't a fan of life being random. When the thermometer beeped and she took it from his mouth, he exhaled slowly, leaning forward. "I sort of feel like I'm going to puke," he admitted, not actually intending for it to sound like that was his answer to her sex proposition.

Serena had already forgotten the sex proposition as she moved back around the sofa, and got her arms around Chris to start guiding him into the bathroom. "I think we should get you somewhere I can clean up a lot easier then. Come on, Dr C." She let go of him with one hand just to check the thermometer and scrunched her nose up. "It's not menopause, I'm afraid. Looks like you haven't dodged the flu bullet after all. Sucks to be you right now."

Chris groaned as he pulled himself up to follow her. It wasn't a huge urge, but he didn't want to mess her apartment up and create her more work. In fact, right now, as he glanced at her nervously, he wasn't exactly sure he wanted to puke in front of her either. That thought was enough to make his gut clench and he paused. "You know, I think I'm feeling a lot better. Must've just been a passing thing. I should just go home, maybe?" Man, his head was hurting. Why didn't he realise that before?

Serena pulled up short and propped Chris up against the wall near the bathroom as she looked him over. "You're not going anywhere, Chris. Not unless you let me drive you, and even then I think you're not in much shape to go out into the rain again. Are you purposely trying to make it harder on yourself? If you're not going to puke anymore, fine, I'll just set you up in my bed and you can crash here for now. We'll see if the rain's cleared in the morning. You're also going to call in sick. Do yourself a favour. Or do me a favour and just take some time out before you wind up spewing on a patient. I can take the puke. I've dealt with worse."

Chris was listening to her, he really was. But somewhere between when she started talking and and when she stoped, he felt that hot, anxious feeling of warning rush over him and he realised he probably looked a lot like that nurse in the OR earlier that morning... right before she hurled all over Eva. He wasn't even actually afforded the capacity to process the fact she had just suggested he stay at her place for the night while he was sick, and he was about to protest the calling in, but he didn't have a chance. His attempt to turn away was pointless, and all it did was cause him to vomit down one half of her when his stomach lurched abruptly. He had reflexively tried to put his hand over his mouth too, which was never a good idea. It always just made more mess. If this wasn't karma, nothing fucking was.

Serena was caught by surprise, but she didn't scream, or make noises that suggested she was grossed out in anyway. She was a doctor, bodily fluids were a daily fact of life. Usually it was better if she didn't wind up covered in them, but sometimes it was just unavoidable. She rubbed his back as she slipped her arms around Chris again, this time skipping the bathroom and just going to her bedroom. She eased him down onto the bed before tugging his t-shirt off him, and checking his pants to make sure the rest of him was clean. "That feel better?" she asked him with a slight smirk as she patted his leg. She knelt down in front of him to slip off his shoes and then pulled back to take off her own top. She had on a tank top under the hoodie, no bra. She dropped the dirty clothes in a pile before getting back up and pulling the covers back before she nudged Chris into a lying position. "You planning on puking again before I grab a bucket, or are you going to be okay for a couple minutes? I promise I'll be right back."

Chris felt dazed... and sick. He couldn't deny it anymore. He nodded, frowning a little and he went to reach for her hand, but quickly thought otherwise of it when he realised it was his left one, the one he had tried to prevent the inevitable with. "I'm sorry. That was so wrong," he muttered and couldn't help but laugh slightly. Eva had mocked him about this, as soon as she knew he hadn't had his flu shots. "Wait... wait, Serena... you don't have to do this."

"Yeah, I do," Serena told him softly as she kissed his forehead. She disappeared, and when she came back she had an empty bucket, and a bowl filled with warm water and a cloth draped over her arm. She set the bucket down next to the bed, and perched herself next to Chris as she set the bowl on the night stand and brought his left hand into her lap as she started to wipe it tenderly with the cloth, cleaning it. "Don't apologise. I know you didn't do it on purpose. When you gotta hurl, you gotta hurl. No point holding it in."

It was true. Yurking all over the place really was embarazoso. He was trying not to let on that he was, though, it was just feeling impossible to keep up any sort of stamina when he was feeling like this. Once the flu had him by the short and curlies, it had dragged him down in a crashing heap. It was even more of a pain in the ass when everyone had warned him about it, too, and he had witnessed countless staff members with it. With a sigh of frustration at himself for getting sick, he watched Serena cleaning his hand and took in the fact he was lying in her bed shirtless, and no sex was on the menu. This was another realm and he wasn't sure if he should be awkward about it or not. "No piss-pulling about karma and deserving what I get?" he asked, his lips kicking up a little at the sides with a small, amused smile. "Eva would be having a field day with this by now."

Serena shook her head. "I'm not pulling the piss when you can't enjoy it. Besides, it would mean my sweater was always going to get puked on, and I haven't done anything to Karma. I don't think..." She looked at him as she slid the cloth between his fingers to make sure she got everything. "However, I will say that this teaches you for thinking that you're bulletproof when it comes to the flu. If it's going to get you, it'll get you no matter how awesome you are."

"I can still enjoy it. My stomach might be feeling like it's about to crawl out of my navel, but I'm not dying. I can still-" Chris paused, putting his hand to his mouth again when his stomach started to roil again, but he swallowed and exhaled sharply when it passed. "Can still have fun. Hey, if all those other people had their flu shots on time, I would never be sick. It's their fault. It's- ohhhh man. I have to call in sick to Proctor. Goddamnit it," he moaned.

Serena really did smirk this time. She leaned forward a little to wipe at his mouth and chin before she pinched his nose. "I'd do it for you, but we wouldn't want to raise any suspicions, do we? Maybe it's Proctor making you sick. All those confusing English metaphors have given you vertigo." She started to laugh softly, and dropped the cloth into the bowl. She looked down at Chris and rest her hand on the other side of him as she watched to see if he was going to need to puke again. "If you're not dying, that at least rules out the dreaded Man Flu."

"And a fever. Maybe he brought The Plague with him from the home country?" Chris joked, showing that he could mostly at least still hold onto his sense of humour. That might change if he started to feel any worse. He didn't get Man Flu, he generally just turned into a cranky asshole. Eva could vouch for it, she had been on the receiving end of him when he had colds and such in the past. "I might start dying around, oh 1.13 in the morning? I feel like just rocking up to work for the sake of it and making everyone else sick just like they made me sick. How dare we get patients that stop me getting to the clinic on time."

"Well, I've had my shot, so your powers are useless against me, Darth Deleo. You also don't want another reason for Proctor to send you home. You don't need it becoming a habit, even if everyone in the hospital might deserve a little revenge sickness. You need to take the high road here, remember that you're the Chief Resident, and clearly too awesome for such petty biological games." Serena's eyebrows drew together with concern even if she was smiling at his ability to keep joking. "I'll set my alarm so I can try and curb the dying."

Chris shifted so he could turn onto his side and curl up a little facing her. He took a few moments to indulge in feeling like crap, analysing what actually felt sick and sore. He was hot, feeling like he was boiling, even. Then there was his pounding head and all over ache. The nausea was increasing and he wrapped his arm around his middle as he tried to scratch an itch on his cheek by rubbing his face against the corner of her pillow. "I'm going to wire you tomorrow. I want to know what everyone says about my horrific misfortune so I can extract evil revenge when I can move far enough with puking again. If Eva says 'I told you so' just once, I'm going to put something funky in her coffee," he vowed. He rested the back of his free hand against her thigh, brushing his fingers back and forth a little. "Thanks for this. I don't think it's actually in the job description of friends with benefits."

Serena snorted in amusement, her eyes still fixed on his face. She couldn't deny there was a huge part of her that he was adorable and sexy when he was all exhausted and sleepy looking. Just like when they'd first crossed the line and she'd crashed in on him at his place. Now he was in her bed because he was sick, and Serena didn't want to think too hard on the fact she really didn't have a problem with him being there, or being the one to take care of him. She dipped her head to brush a kiss against his cheek. "Maybe not, but it's at least in the job description for the friends part of that. Just rest, okay? Don't think. Save your energy for wiring me because you'll have lots of access to my breasts, and you wouldn't want to not enjoy the free grope."

After shifting a little closer to the edge of the mattress and making sure the bucket was in an easy reached, Chris smirked up at her again, raising his eyebrows. "Well, there is that. And that cute little purple bra. Or is it the lemon one?" he asked, tugging the edge of her shirt up teasingly and pretending to try and get a free view. "I need to make that call. I'll do it soon. I might make a miraculous recovery as soon as I cop a perve of your breasts."

Serena winked at him before she pulled her mouth to the side. Her eyes sparkled as she tucked her hair behind her ear. "I'm not wearing a bra right now, so it might be a lot easier to cop a perve than you think. You ask nicely, and I might even just lift up my shirt to save you the trouble of exerting any unnecessary energy. There could also be a topless care taking policy in place if you promise to rest."

"Oooo, risky business there, Dr. Warren. You really like living in the fast lane, don't you? I hurled on you once, I could do it again," Chris pointed out with a faint smirk. He was losing his stamina and a small groan escaped before he could stop it. "I think I just need to rest my eyes for a couple of minutes, then I'll make that call," he resolved, but his hand was still tucked up under the hem of her shirt when he let his eyes slip closed.

Words: 4395

[ship] chris/serena, [co-written] geniuscowboy, [comm] muse_write, [with] chris deleo, [season] one, [episode] five

Previous post Next post
Up