[Part One] Turn of Events | With nothingunderit
[Follows THIS, THIS and THIS]
Braden stood at the nurses' station in the Emergency Room of the Royal Edinburgh Infirmary filling out the ambulance call sheet for their latest patient, a forty two year old man with chest pains and abdominal discomfort. It had been a long night, but it was now the wee hours of the morning and their shift would be over in just a couple of hours. It had been absolutely impossible for him to not think about the previous night in their tiny handful of quiet periods. He paused in his writing and casually glanced over his shoulder to where Kenzie was stripping the gurney of the used sheets and getting some replacements from the stores. Part of him was still processing the fact that they had slept together. It wasn't just sleeping together, though, and he knew it starkly. If it was just sleeping together, he wouldn't have stayed and slept in her bed, he wouldn't have slept again in her bed when she asked him to stay in the morning, there wouldn't have been kissing beyond sex, there wouldn't have been spooning or intimate dirty talk about her body... there wouldn't be a yearning to do it all over again. He didn't know what he was supposed to think, and at the moment, he hadn't had a chance to seek out his usual support network for advice. As it was, he didn't even know how he would bring something like this up with his brothers without them being tempted to the pull the piss. Braden really didn't want the piss pulled with this one because it had left him so damn confused. There was a hint of a sense that he had done something wrong, only not, because he knew he had wanted it. He would never have agreed to go back to her place if he hadn't wanted it.
Things between them hadn't been too bad. It was still friendly and comfortable. Kenzie had made an attempt to bring him a breakfast in bed of toast, cereal and fruit, but he stuck to just an apple and a piece of toast before he got some sensitive niggles in his gut and knew he had to pace himself. It could take a good week or more for a stomach to heal after a bug like he had just shaken. The last thing he wanted was to start vomiting in the middle of their shift or - worse - a dose of the runs in the middle of a call out. They spent the time between when he finally pulled himself back to the land of conscious and awake and the start of their shift pretty much just treating each other how they always did... and it only served to confuse Braden even more. Kenzie had been right under his nose for months, and now this had him starting to feel something a lot more deeper for her than just a work mate. It hadn't just been sex. The chemistry between them meant it was never going to be just sex. But if it wasn't just sex, then what the hell was it? With a small sigh, he signed off the sheet and then handed the carbon copy over to the nurse in charge. "That's us. Nay doubt see you again soon," he told her with a smile and then headed back over to Kenzie. "Ready to go, love?"
Kenzie glanced at him tiredly and kicked the breaks of the gurney so she could push it back out of their ambulance. She couldn't really complain, their last patient had been a cooperative sweetheart and it was an easy run. She was grateful because her energy levels were waning. The night before must be catching up with her. All she could think about was crawling into her bed and sleeping, but the only thing was, everytime she anticipated it in her head, it was on the tip of her tongue to ask Braden to crawl into bed with her again. Not even for sex, just more of that secure cuddling he seemed to be so good at. "Aye, and it's your turn to drive," she told him, taking the keys from the pocket of her overalls and tossing them at him as they exited the automatic glass doors out into the ambulance bay. They didn't even get half way to the vehicle, though, when she was suddenly hit with a horrible, nauseating wave of dizziness. It was so abrupt and without warning that she couldn't even be sure if she had blacked out, but she just lost her grip on the gurney was the feeling increased and engulfed her.
Braden hadn't picked up on anything amiss until she was suddenly as white as the sheet on the gurney and slumping against him. "Kenzie!" he said sharply as he reflexively caught her, wrapping his arms around her and keeping her upright before she hit the concrete and hurt herself. Her head dropped against his chest as it seemed she really did pass out, albeit momentarily. "Kenzie, can you hear me, love?" he coaxed, giving her arm a squeeze to try and rouse her.
It was just a woozy haze to Kenzie, but she felt it disperse and came aware that she was being held up. That didn't mean she was feeling better, though, because she really, really wasn't. A small, strained moan escaped her as she tried to wade through the dizziness. At least she wasn't roadkill on the drive, so that was something. Her legs felt weak like they couldn't hold her up anymore, but they didn't need to because Braden was, right? Hopefully it was Braden and not that huge scary-looking security guard in the ER who looked like he belonged on a Harley with a mug shot. But with the dizziness came an intense wave of nausea and as her stomach contracted, she managed to choke out, "I'm gonna be sick," in warning before she started vomiting with a sensation that once she started, it wouldn't stop.
"It's okay, love, it's okay..." Braden assured her quietly, managing to help her lean over quickly and pull her hair back from her face just as she began to vomit forcibly. It was the first time he had seen Kenzie ailing in any way, shape or form and it had taken him well by surprise. Of course, his mind immediately leapt to the notion that he had given her bug, even if he had been sure it was out of his system and not catching before they did anything together, otherwise he really wouldn't have agreed. He kept her hair tucked back, massaging the nape of her neck with his thumb in an attempt to comfort her. He glanced around and spotted a steel bench a few paces away and when it seemed like she had stopped being sick for the moment, he dipped his head, to see her face and try to analyse if she was still going to pass out on him. "Can you walk, Kenz? There's a seat just over here... you can sit down, rest for a wee bit," he coaxed, but after just a moment thought, he scooped her petite form up into his arms and carried her over to the seat so she could sit down.
If she wasn't feeling as sick as a dog, Kenzie probably would have exploding in excitement at him carrying her. But it just came with a rush of relief to be off her legs that were feeling like jelly. Once she was sitting, she hunched forward and leant over, looking woozily down at the concrete between her feet. Luckily the gurney was still near the sidewalk and not in the way of any ambulances that might come in. Good thing, because wasn't in any state to do much about it. In fact, only a few moments of sitting passed before she was retching again and throwing up on ground between her feet.
Something wasn't right here. This had come on extremely suddenly and she hadn't mentioned feeling unwell, she had seemed fine for the whole duration of the shift until Braden had heard the tiredness in her tone just now as they left the ER. The virus he had was slow until it hit him, but there had been definite signs of it in the lead up, even if he missed them. The draining lethargy and urge to just sleep, even if he had struggled with it on the drive to Surrey. His stomach had been upset on and off for a good day or so before the bug set in, too, but he had just put it down to lack of sleep. He knew Kenzie wasn't reckless, she would have alerted him to the fact if she hadn't been feeling too well because as her partner, he would have to have her back on the job. He remembered the time about three months after he became her partner when he started running a temperature on shift as a precursor to a messy flu that was going around. She had been the one to tell him they had to keep the lines of communication going so they could carry each other if it was needed. She would have told him, which was what made it all the more unnerving. He rubbed her back and watched her in concern, a small frown furrowing his brow.
Kenzie knew it was passing when the embarrassment at hurling in front of Braden started to set in. In fact, when she was down, she remained hunched over with her elbows resting on her knees just so she didn't have to meet his eyes right away, even if the alternative was to keep staring at the mess that had just come out of her. "I'm okay... it's passing..." she finally assured him through a heavy exhalation. She swallowed back the horrible taste in her mouth and realised she had broken out into a heavy sweat. She pushed back and forced herself to glance at him with a tiny, embarrassed laugh. "I think I need my bed. A night of awesome sex followed by a nightshift is rough on the constitution," she joked, trying to get him to stop looking at her like that.
Braden briefly bit on his lip and then gave his head a shake. "Nay, this isnae lack of sleep, love... maybe we should head back inside so you can get a wee checkover?" he suggested gently and pushed some strands of hair off her face and tucked them behind her ears. "I dinnae even have an tissues in easy reach for you to wipe your face and mouth. You passed oot for a few moments, has that happened to you before?"
"No," Kenzie had to admit with a sigh. She pressed her lips together and frowned, looking at him with a small hint of annoyance that he wasn't just going to drop this. Truth was, though, she knew he was right. "Doesnae happen. I think it's maybe happened twice in my whole life, and once was from heatstroke in Benidorm on holiday. Dinnae be all thinking you've made me ill, either. We work aroond sick people every day. You wouldnae have still been contagious by the time the temp went." She pressed her hands to her face, which was flushed but didn't feel overly hot. "And look, nay fever. I feel much better after throwing up. I'm fine. I dinnae need to be checked over," she insisted.
Braden just watched her closely and then he raised his eyebrows a little when she stopped talked. "Please? For me? We know the nurses, they'll push you through Triage quickly. I'll call HQ and tell them you've taken ill and finishing the shift early." His hand was resting on her shoulder now as he looked over her face. "How are you feeling now? You went down right quick there. You're still really pale."
Kenzie nearly winced at his soft, urging request. Damn him for being so sweet. There was no way she could say no to that, especially not when they were sitting just a few steps away from the Emergency Room. She felt like she was coming down with the flu, but now she had Braden really concerned about her, so at the very least she knew she had to placate him some way. "Aye, okay," she agreed with another sigh. "But only because I owe you one."
Braden shot her a small smile and then kissed the top of her head as he stood up. "You dinnae owe me anything, love. It was a two-way street. You stay here for a wee minute, okay? Get your breath back and stay off your feet. I'll go and let them know, and then be right back." He paused before moving away though, rubbing her shoulder softly. "We're mates, aye? You can trust me with more than just having your back at work. I promise," he added before he was already seeking his cell phone out of the zipped pocket of his uniform to make the call as he headed into the ER to pull some strings.
Kenzie watched him move away and then let her eyes fall closed as she nursed her head in her hands. "Aye... friends..." she mumbled to herself.
Word Count | 2,227
Braden stood at the nurses' station in the Emergency Room of the Royal Edinburgh Infirmary filling out the ambulance call sheet for their latest patient, a forty two year old man with chest pains and abdominal discomfort. It had been a long night, but it was now the wee hours of the morning and their shift would be over in just a couple of hours. It had been absolutely impossible for him to not think about the previous night in their tiny handful of quiet periods. He paused in his writing and casually glanced over his shoulder to where Kenzie was stripping the gurney of the used sheets and getting some replacements from the stores. Part of him was still processing the fact that they had slept together. It wasn't just sleeping together, though, and he knew it starkly. If it was just sleeping together, he wouldn't have stayed and slept in her bed, he wouldn't have slept again in her bed when she asked him to stay in the morning, there wouldn't have been kissing beyond sex, there wouldn't have been spooning or intimate dirty talk about her body... there wouldn't be a yearning to do it all over again. He didn't know what he was supposed to think, and at the moment, he hadn't had a chance to seek out his usual support network for advice. As it was, he didn't even know how he would bring something like this up with his brothers without them being tempted to the pull the piss. Braden really didn't want the piss pulled with this one because it had left him so damn confused. There was a hint of a sense that he had done something wrong, only not, because he knew he had wanted it. He would never have agreed to go back to her place if he hadn't wanted it.
Things between them hadn't been too bad. It was still friendly and comfortable. Kenzie had made an attempt to bring him a breakfast in bed of toast, cereal and fruit, but he stuck to just an apple and a piece of toast before he got some sensitive niggles in his gut and knew he had to pace himself. It could take a good week or more for a stomach to heal after a bug like he had just shaken. The last thing he wanted was to start vomiting in the middle of their shift or - worse - a dose of the runs in the middle of a call out. They spent the time between when he finally pulled himself back to the land of conscious and awake and the start of their shift pretty much just treating each other how they always did... and it only served to confuse Braden even more. Kenzie had been right under his nose for months, and now this had him starting to feel something a lot more deeper for her than just a work mate. It hadn't just been sex. The chemistry between them meant it was never going to be just sex. But if it wasn't just sex, then what the hell was it? With a small sigh, he signed off the sheet and then handed the carbon copy over to the nurse in charge. "That's us. Nay doubt see you again soon," he told her with a smile and then headed back over to Kenzie. "Ready to go, love?"
Kenzie glanced at him tiredly and kicked the breaks of the gurney so she could push it back out of their ambulance. She couldn't really complain, their last patient had been a cooperative sweetheart and it was an easy run. She was grateful because her energy levels were waning. The night before must be catching up with her. All she could think about was crawling into her bed and sleeping, but the only thing was, everytime she anticipated it in her head, it was on the tip of her tongue to ask Braden to crawl into bed with her again. Not even for sex, just more of that secure cuddling he seemed to be so good at. "Aye, and it's your turn to drive," she told him, taking the keys from the pocket of her overalls and tossing them at him as they exited the automatic glass doors out into the ambulance bay. They didn't even get half way to the vehicle, though, when she was suddenly hit with a horrible, nauseating wave of dizziness. It was so abrupt and without warning that she couldn't even be sure if she had blacked out, but she just lost her grip on the gurney was the feeling increased and engulfed her.
Braden hadn't picked up on anything amiss until she was suddenly as white as the sheet on the gurney and slumping against him. "Kenzie!" he said sharply as he reflexively caught her, wrapping his arms around her and keeping her upright before she hit the concrete and hurt herself. Her head dropped against his chest as it seemed she really did pass out, albeit momentarily. "Kenzie, can you hear me, love?" he coaxed, giving her arm a squeeze to try and rouse her.
It was just a woozy haze to Kenzie, but she felt it disperse and came aware that she was being held up. That didn't mean she was feeling better, though, because she really, really wasn't. A small, strained moan escaped her as she tried to wade through the dizziness. At least she wasn't roadkill on the drive, so that was something. Her legs felt weak like they couldn't hold her up anymore, but they didn't need to because Braden was, right? Hopefully it was Braden and not that huge scary-looking security guard in the ER who looked like he belonged on a Harley with a mug shot. But with the dizziness came an intense wave of nausea and as her stomach contracted, she managed to choke out, "I'm gonna be sick," in warning before she started vomiting with a sensation that once she started, it wouldn't stop.
"It's okay, love, it's okay..." Braden assured her quietly, managing to help her lean over quickly and pull her hair back from her face just as she began to vomit forcibly. It was the first time he had seen Kenzie ailing in any way, shape or form and it had taken him well by surprise. Of course, his mind immediately leapt to the notion that he had given her bug, even if he had been sure it was out of his system and not catching before they did anything together, otherwise he really wouldn't have agreed. He kept her hair tucked back, massaging the nape of her neck with his thumb in an attempt to comfort her. He glanced around and spotted a steel bench a few paces away and when it seemed like she had stopped being sick for the moment, he dipped his head, to see her face and try to analyse if she was still going to pass out on him. "Can you walk, Kenz? There's a seat just over here... you can sit down, rest for a wee bit," he coaxed, but after just a moment thought, he scooped her petite form up into his arms and carried her over to the seat so she could sit down.
If she wasn't feeling as sick as a dog, Kenzie probably would have exploding in excitement at him carrying her. But it just came with a rush of relief to be off her legs that were feeling like jelly. Once she was sitting, she hunched forward and leant over, looking woozily down at the concrete between her feet. Luckily the gurney was still near the sidewalk and not in the way of any ambulances that might come in. Good thing, because wasn't in any state to do much about it. In fact, only a few moments of sitting passed before she was retching again and throwing up on ground between her feet.
Something wasn't right here. This had come on extremely suddenly and she hadn't mentioned feeling unwell, she had seemed fine for the whole duration of the shift until Braden had heard the tiredness in her tone just now as they left the ER. The virus he had was slow until it hit him, but there had been definite signs of it in the lead up, even if he missed them. The draining lethargy and urge to just sleep, even if he had struggled with it on the drive to Surrey. His stomach had been upset on and off for a good day or so before the bug set in, too, but he had just put it down to lack of sleep. He knew Kenzie wasn't reckless, she would have alerted him to the fact if she hadn't been feeling too well because as her partner, he would have to have her back on the job. He remembered the time about three months after he became her partner when he started running a temperature on shift as a precursor to a messy flu that was going around. She had been the one to tell him they had to keep the lines of communication going so they could carry each other if it was needed. She would have told him, which was what made it all the more unnerving. He rubbed her back and watched her in concern, a small frown furrowing his brow.
Kenzie knew it was passing when the embarrassment at hurling in front of Braden started to set in. In fact, when she was down, she remained hunched over with her elbows resting on her knees just so she didn't have to meet his eyes right away, even if the alternative was to keep staring at the mess that had just come out of her. "I'm okay... it's passing..." she finally assured him through a heavy exhalation. She swallowed back the horrible taste in her mouth and realised she had broken out into a heavy sweat. She pushed back and forced herself to glance at him with a tiny, embarrassed laugh. "I think I need my bed. A night of awesome sex followed by a nightshift is rough on the constitution," she joked, trying to get him to stop looking at her like that.
Braden briefly bit on his lip and then gave his head a shake. "Nay, this isnae lack of sleep, love... maybe we should head back inside so you can get a wee checkover?" he suggested gently and pushed some strands of hair off her face and tucked them behind her ears. "I dinnae even have an tissues in easy reach for you to wipe your face and mouth. You passed oot for a few moments, has that happened to you before?"
"No," Kenzie had to admit with a sigh. She pressed her lips together and frowned, looking at him with a small hint of annoyance that he wasn't just going to drop this. Truth was, though, she knew he was right. "Doesnae happen. I think it's maybe happened twice in my whole life, and once was from heatstroke in Benidorm on holiday. Dinnae be all thinking you've made me ill, either. We work aroond sick people every day. You wouldnae have still been contagious by the time the temp went." She pressed her hands to her face, which was flushed but didn't feel overly hot. "And look, nay fever. I feel much better after throwing up. I'm fine. I dinnae need to be checked over," she insisted.
Braden just watched her closely and then he raised his eyebrows a little when she stopped talked. "Please? For me? We know the nurses, they'll push you through Triage quickly. I'll call HQ and tell them you've taken ill and finishing the shift early." His hand was resting on her shoulder now as he looked over her face. "How are you feeling now? You went down right quick there. You're still really pale."
Kenzie nearly winced at his soft, urging request. Damn him for being so sweet. There was no way she could say no to that, especially not when they were sitting just a few steps away from the Emergency Room. She felt like she was coming down with the flu, but now she had Braden really concerned about her, so at the very least she knew she had to placate him some way. "Aye, okay," she agreed with another sigh. "But only because I owe you one."
Braden shot her a small smile and then kissed the top of her head as he stood up. "You dinnae owe me anything, love. It was a two-way street. You stay here for a wee minute, okay? Get your breath back and stay off your feet. I'll go and let them know, and then be right back." He paused before moving away though, rubbing her shoulder softly. "We're mates, aye? You can trust me with more than just having your back at work. I promise," he added before he was already seeking his cell phone out of the zipped pocket of his uniform to make the call as he headed into the ER to pull some strings.
Kenzie watched him move away and then let her eyes fall closed as she nursed her head in her hands. "Aye... friends..." she mumbled to herself.
Word Count | 2,227