The Seahorse: Chapter 4
**
Chapter 4: Areion
It's been a week after Jared's fight with his father, and his mood hasn't improved since. Jensen, gets to the hospital for his evening shift, and the first thing he does is check in on Jared. He's got his usual visitors, Sandy and Milo. Jensen walks in, knocking on the door, catching Jared mid-sentence.
"-and I'm just trying to think of someone else, who actually wants a kid right now," Jared says, touching his stomach. He's five months along now, and it's become painfully obvious that he's carrying around someone else's weight.
"Hello Dr. Ackles," Milo almost yells, stopping Jared from where he's been pacing back and forth. "My, what a lovely evening." Milo laughs nervously and Sandy rolls her eyes.
"Real smooth," Sandy mutters under her breath. Milo huffs at her.
"I can come back later if I'm interrupting," Jensen says nervously, drumming his fingers on his clipboard. "I mean, visiting hours are over now, but I wouldn't want to cut you guys short."
Jared shakes his head. "No, no, it's fine, we were just-"
"We'll see you tomorrow, Jay," Milo says as he and Sandy get their stuff together to leave. "Wanna go to the diner?" he asks her as they walk to the door.
"Yeah sure, I could go for something," Sandy answers, flipping Jared a wave. "See you soon!"
Jared presses his mouth tight as they leave, longing look in his eyes.
Jensen tries to joke his way out of the moment. "Hospital food finally starting to wear on you, seahorse?"
"God, I would kill for a crappy diner burger and fries right now," Jared says, falling back on the bed and holding out his arm so Jensen can get his blood pressure. He's used to the routine by now.
Jensen sits in the chair by Jared's bedside and pauses, before asking a rhetorical, "What am I sitting on?" Jensen twists around and pulls a hooded sweatshirt out from under him.
Jared laughs and his cellphone starts buzzing almost at the same time.
"Yeah, Milo, we found-I mean, I have your sweatshirt," Jared says answering the phone. "What? Ugh hold on, that's ridiculous." Jared cups the phone with his hand and turns to Jensen. "They're not letting him back upstairs because visiting hours ended ten minutes ago. Can you do anything?"
The idea pops into Jensen's head right away, and he grins wickedly. He knows Jared's already on thin ice with his family, but he's just-Jensen wants to do this for him. He can tell Jared's just clawing at the walls, itching to get out again.
**
"C'mon, kid, visiting hours are over, you can see him tomorrow," Jensen says as they walk past the security guard. Jared snickers under his breath. He's wearing Milo's oversized hoodie, which is so gigantic that it's baggy enough to hide Jared's stomach, and the hood is so big that you can only see his nose and mouth poking out from underneath.
The guard nods at Jensen as he walks by, pushing the hooded man to the elevator, and making sure he gets inside. "Five minutes," Jensen whispers as Jared presses the button for the ground floor and Jensen goes back into his room. He waits around, then stuffs the bed with pillows, and turns out the light.
"I think he's asleep for the night, but page me if there's anything," Jensen says to the guard as he leaves.
He meets up with Milo, Sandy and Jared in the lobby, and they're laughing and smiling. "Thanks again, Jensen, that was really-" Jared starts.
Jensen holds up a hand. "Hey, no big-"
"So, you're coming with us, right?" Sandy interrupts. Jensen doesn't say anything; just stares at Jared like a deer caught in headlights. Jared's face goes pale and he turns an annoyed look on Sandy.
Milo smiles and nods. "Oh yeah, you're definitely coming."
"I, uhh." Jensen shakes his head dumbly.
"You can't say you have work, because we know Jared's your only patient. And you can't let him out without y'know, a doctor nearby. Just in case, right?" Sandy urges him on.
"Well, I, uhh," Jensen stammers.
"Just go put on normal clothes already. She's totally got you by the short ones," Milo says.
Jensen thinks that he's extra-doomed tonight as he trudges off to the locker room.
**
The car ride is quiet at first, when Jensen got to the parking lot Jared was sitting in the backseat, arms crossed, staring daggers at the backs of Sandy and Milo's heads. Jensen figured it out when he realized they were sitting in the backseat together. Next to each other.
A little voice in Jensen's mind is screaming at him to just put a cork in the whole situation, but then Milo sighs and turns on the car stereo. "Well if you're going to brood about the whole thing," he mutters, sliding a CD in the player.
Jared immediately perks up. "Is this my mix?"
"Yeah, yeah," Milo grumbles, and the car is filled with the bouncy beat of Erasure.
Jensen bites his mouth so hard to keep from singing along with Jared during "A Little Respect." God, this couldn't get any worse. First Jared had to be fucking gorgeous and funny and tall as hell and sweeter then anything and a Texas boy to boot.
And now Jensen's falling for him even harder because he likes Erasure. Which is Jensen's secret all-time favorite guilty pleasure. He usually hums "Sometimes" when he's working through a mountain of paperwork at the hospital.
Thankfully the diner isn't that far away. It's a typical diner, buzzing with hungry bar-hoppers and kids and families enjoying their Friday nights. There are couples at the little two-person tables making goo-goo eyes at each other. They all slide into a booth, Jensen and Jared both out-maneuvering Sandy and Milo's efforts to get them to sit next to each other again. Instead they ended up facing each other across the table. Date-style.
Jensen sighs, thumbing through the menu while Milo tries to convince someone to split chili fries with him.
"No, I know exactly what I want. I've been craving it for weeks, man!" Jared says, leaning back into the booth. "Cheeseburger with onion rings and ketchup and mayo and cheese fries and lots and lots of extra pickles, crinkle-cut."
"Aww, c'mon, dude, you always split chili fries with me!"
"No, you always ask to split fries with me, and then dump your nasty-ass chili on them when I'm not looking."
"Let him have what he wants! Sheezus, you two," Sandy clicks her tongue. "Milo, you can take them home in a doggie bag if you don't finish them."
"But they're only good fresh," Milo whines. "Dr. Ack-erm, Jensen? I mean, Dr. Ackles. Wanna share?"
Jensen winces from behind the menu. "Uhh, 'Jensen' is fine tonight. And, um, thanks but I'm going to get the chicken special."
"Shit! Why'd you have to say that? I want that honey mustard sauce now."
"Awww," Sandy says, rubbing his shoulder.
"Yes, I have cravings, goddamn it, and it's not adorable. I can almost taste it slathered on my fries, ugghh, all sweet and mustardy and creamy delicious." Jared pouts, picking up the menu.
Jensen shrugs. "You can have mine."
"Really?" Jared looks up at him, like he's just handed him a piece of the moon. Sandy elbows him and he shakes it off, blinking and shoving his hands in the pockets of Milo's hoodie. "Um, thanks, I'd like that," he says quickly.
The waitress comes for their order soon after, and food comes just as quickly. Jared makes little noises until Sandy smacks him again in the shoulder and says he's being a pig. Then Jared just makes more happy noises, deeper ones.
"Ohhhhh, french fries, so, uhn! So! Good!" Jared says, pounding the table with his fist.
"Quit having foodgasms! We have company," Sandy says, smacking Jared's shoulder harder and pointing to Jensen.
Milo snickers. "You should see what he did to a hot dog this one time..."
"It wasn't funny when he got us kicked out of a Giants game!" Sandy says, shaking her head while Milo just laughs harder. Jared kind of looks like he wants to crawl under the table, so Jensen leans over and murmurs.
"Man, that is nothing compared to what Mikey-uh, this friend of mine did last Cinco de Mayo," Jensen says with a wink. Jared perks up, leaning closer. "So my friend, Marky, he deep-throated a longneck of Corona, but ended up inhaling the lime by accident. I had to give his drunk ass the Heimlich."
Jared laughs into his hand. Jensen beams at him and goes on.
"Picture it, he's in a Hawaiian shirt, all red and puffy from drinking and coughing and dribbling beer down his chest on the beach, meanwhile his friend 'Timmy' is trying to get him to count how many fingers he's holding up because he's too drunk to know what you do with a guy who's choking."
And Jared loses it, falling back against the booth and clapping as he laughs. "Hawaiian shirt?" Jared asks when he calms down enough. "Fucking hell, he wears those damn suits all the time, but he's really a Hawaiian shirt guy underneath?"
"Totally, he even does the thing where he wears it all the way open, no t-shirt underneath. Ugh but don't get me started on that phase in college with the mesh sport jerseys. And cutting the sleeves off of every shirt he owned. It was like he was allergic to sleeves or something."
"I am never going to be able to look at him with a straight face again. Never! You've ruined me."
"Sorry for that, y'know, defiling you with stories of Mike's fashion don'ts."
"Uh-huh, well at least I still have my virgin-oops too late! Unmarried and pregnant. Well, there goes my shot at joining the Young Republicans, damn." Jared snaps his fingers.
Jensen tsks. "Sad really, you're so young, and you've already ruined your chances in politics. Now you're pretty much done for."
"Mmm, I'll have to find me a sugar daddy. Maybe some hot, rich doctor? Know any?"
"Hey," Jensen says, pointing at him with a cheese fry he's snagged from Jared's plate. "If there are any hot, rich doctors at Grace's Heart, I've got first dibs. Besides, you're already rich."
Jared looks to one side, muttering, "Not if my dad cuts me off..."
"What was that?" Jensen asks but at that very moment Jared's eyes go wide and he yelps, quickly vanishing from sight as he drops underneath the table.
Jensen furrows his brow, wondering what the hell is going on. He looks in the same direction both Milo and Sandy are, trying to see the door. There's a couple bickering, a girl with wavy brown hair and guy with short, spiky blond hair, just a dusting of blond facial hair as well. She huffs and stalks away to a table with a group of girls shouting at him and flipping him the finger. The guy scratches behind his head and almost leaves but then he spots their table.
Milo and Sandy both wave and Jensen tries to look natural as the guy walks over.
"Hey Chad," Milo says, giving him a nod. Sandy sits up straighter, trying to hide the fact that they're concealing a very pregnant Jared under the table.
"Hey Milo, Sandy," Chad nods at Jensen. "Uh, new guy?"
"This is Jensen, he's a friend of a friend," Milo explains and Jensen nods politely.
"So? I guess the rumors are true," Sandy snaps.
"Look-"
Sandy crosses her arms and scoffs. "You're such an asshole. I can't believe Sophia's put up with you for as long as she did."
Chad sighs. "We're working it out, okay?"
Milo offers a sympathetic smile. "Dude, maybe it's not the best time. Everyone's still kinda sore."
Chad takes a deep breath and nods. "Yeah, well I'll call you later then," Chad says sheepishly, avoiding Sandy's piercing glare. "And uh, whenever he feels like coming up from under the table, could you tell Jared to stop being such a damn pussy and return my fucking texts and voicemails?" Chad says, shouting over Sandy's head.
A hand peeks up from underneath the table and waves meekly. "Hi, Chad."
Chad laughs quietly. "Fucking spaz, pick up your phone when I call your ass. Anyway, later!" Chad waves over his shoulder as he leaves the diner.
"Is he gone?" Jared asks.
"Yeah," Sandy answers, getting up, "I'm gonna go say hi to Sophia." Jared pulls himself up into the booth.
"Dude, what was that about?" Milo asks, stabbing another forkful of chili fries.
"Nothing," Jared says, but of course it's the furthest thing from the truth.
**
"So, what now?" Milo asks as they leave the diner.
"Yeah, I'm not tired at all, we should do something!" Sandy says, almost bouncing on her heels.
Jared smiles. "Movies? Y'know, Jensen should see at least one movie made in this century. We've got those talkies now, right?"
"Guys, we really should get back," Jensen says, biting his lip.
"Aww, c'mon, I'll pick a really bad horror movie with lots of blood and tits," Jared says.
Jensen shakes his head. "Oh yeah, two things I just don't get enough of at work. Bodily fluids and naked women."
Jared ignores him. "Is Hell Hazers II: The Reckoning out yet?"
"Because Hell Hazers I left you with so many unanswered questions," Jensen says, rolling his eyes and following Jared towards the cinema. It's a short walk from the diner; Jared's got his hands jammed in the pockets of the hoodie, pulling it down in front to hide the telltale bulge, it makes Jensen's stomach pang, just a little.
They continue chatting, not minding that Sandy and Milo have fallen behind the two of them. They're both so obvious about trying to get Jensen and Jared together; but then again, Jensen is kind of letting them.
Gravitating towards each other is easy, their conversations, and their quiet little jokes. Jared looks at him, and Jensen knows he's giving him the exact same dumb look. Stupid smile, eyes trained directly on each other, blinders on for the rest of the world.
But not completely, because Sandy and Milo aren't walking towards the theater Hell Hazers II is playing in. Jared stops in his tracks. "Hey, guys the movie is in here!" he calls out to them.
"Uh yeah." Milo shifts his weight around.
"We decided to go see the new Cameron Diaz movie," Sandy says.
"Mmm-hmm?" Jared gives Milo an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I lo-" Milo swallows. "Love me some Diaz. Especially when it's a chick flick where she doesn't take off her shirt. Yep." Sandy swats at him.
Jared rolls his eyes. "Geez, why don't you just lock us in a supply closet or something next time?"
Jensen laughs quickly, and ducks his head as both groups separate. Inside the mostly empty theatre, they pick out the same row, almost directly in the center.
"I mean, c'mon, they're just-" Jared leans down in his seat and drapes his long legs over the one in front of him. "Uhh, you know, right? I mean fucking everyone knows, even my dad."
Jensen sips his soda, chewing on the straw. "Yeah, I know."
"Oh. Well, um. Good." Jared nods, affirming it to himself.
Jensen bites his lip, trying to focus on the screen, but he feels like, well maybe he should say something, just be professional. But before he can say anything, Jared interjects.
"I mean, I'm not stupid, I know I can't do anything. I know we couldn't do anything, not that I'm assuming you feel the same way about me, because c'mon, that's impossible and I'm your patient and pregnant and even though you're into guys it doesn't mean all guys. I know that, the logical part of me knows that, but the part of me that is crazy horny and hormonal and feels like an awkward sixteen-year-old whenever I look at you doesn't care. I talk too much when I'm nervous and fucking hell I'm so nervous right now because this is the closest thing to a date that I've been on since the night I got fucking wasted and impregnated on St. Patrick's Day and please stop looking at me before I start telling you anything that could possibly embarrass me more."
Jensen blinks. "Where am I supposed to look?"
"Wherever, just not at me."
"Okay," Jensen says sitting back in his seat. "And you're right, even though we-we can't do anything," he says just as the movie starts, main title music going and screen focusing in on the first buxom blonde victim.
"What?!" Jared almost yells. Someone shushes him from the other side of the theater.
"Shhh, movie's playing, I need to pay attention in order to keep track of the complex plot," Jensen says, jokingly.
"What the hell did you mean 'even though we'?" Jared whispers harshly. Jensen drops the piece of popcorn he was lifting to his mouth.
"I, uh, did I really say that?" Jensen asks, Jared nods. "Well, um, shit."
"Hey, be quiet over there! Some of us are tryin' to watch the movie!"
"Oh fuck off! There are gonna be like seventeen more death scenes in this movie, you can miss one!"
"Jared!" Jensen tugs at his arm, shushing him. "Sorry about that!" he says and then nods his head towards the door. "Let's take it outside, okay?" Jared nods and unfurls himself from his sprawl on the two seats, following Jensen outside of the theater.
"Jensen?" Jared asks, wringing the sleeves of Milo's shirt.
Jensen rubs his temples. "Look, I misspoke, I'm sorry. This whole thing, getting you out of the hospital for a night, it was to help you feel better. Stress isn't good for the-it isn't good for you and your condition. But I shouldn't be here, and my personal life isn't any of your business."
"Bullshit! You made it my business!" Jared yells.
Jensen holds up his hands, trying to quiet him down. "Jared, you're upset right now, you're not thinking clearly-"
"Oh and I guess Dr. Rosenbaum's drinking antics aren't my business either. And my personal life isn't any of yours and-!"
"I didn't ask you!" Jensen says, losing patience and shouting back. What the hell was he trying to fight him for?
"Well, I didn't ask you to come!"
"This isn't a date!"
"Who said it was?"
"You did!" Jensen throws his arms up and Jared grabs his face with both of his hands, holding him still and kissing him. Jared's eyes are closed but Jensen's stay wide open, his arms slowly dropping to hang stiffly at his sides.
Jared's quiet when he pulls back, covering his mouth and looking at Jensen like he's expecting something. "... I like old movies. Black and white ones and Weimar cinema, especially-I took an elective in college on it. But mostly I watch nature documentaries and marathons of stuff on Discovery Channel."
"What?" Jared asks.
"You asked what kind of movies I liked."
Jared nods. "Yeah, like a month ago?"
Jensen swallows. "Well, I'm telling you now."
"I like bad horror movies and French films and ever since this whole thing started I keep watching the Food network-I think it's replaced porn for me. Which is ironic because I am so goddamn horny-" Jared says with a groan.
"That's perfectly natural, I mean, the second trimester."
"-that it takes all my strength not to do anything about it when you're around. All my fucking strength not to touch myself, all my strength not to kiss you when you lean in to take my pulse or listen to my heart."
Jensen sighs. "You said it yourself, we can't do this."
"I don't want another doctor. Please don't make Dr. Ferris take over. She scares the crap out of me and I think she wants to see me cry or grow a vagina or something. I like my dick, Jensen. I like it a lot."
And then Jensen doubles over, laughing. Jared looks all scared, big puppy eyes as he talks about his fear of Dr. Ferris castrating him to set things right with the universe and he just can't take it, ends up sitting on the floor wiping tears from his eyes. Jared starts to wander back into the movie, muttering, "I really, really hate you..."
Jensen heads in to find Jared eating popcorn and stretched back out over his two seats. The guy who was yelling at them before is necking with some girl. Jensen sidles into the row behind Jared, and hops over the back to get to his seat. He picks up his soda and sips it, watching as brainless kids get hacked to pieces for their own stupidity.
"Hey Jared," Jensen whispers, Jared ignores him, nibbling on Sour Patch Kids instead. "Jared..."
"What?"
"I promise not to let the mean lady take your dick away," Jensen says, winking. Jared sticks out his tongue, stained red and green from the candy.
"You're such an asshole. I can't believe I liked you."
"Oh, but it's over now?"
"Yep, you're a terrible kisser. Totally didn't feel the floor fall out from under me or have visions of little butterflies and bunnies or anything."
Jensen smirks. "I'm glad you're over it."
"So over it," Jared says.
Sometime in the middle of the movie, Jared nods off, his head pillowed on Jensen's shoulder.
When Jensen finishes his night shift, and finally gets home the next morning, he calls up Tom, and leaves him a voicemail.
**
"Hey, hey you with me?" There's a hand waving in Jensen's face-he finally recognizes it as one of Tom's gigantic meat paws.
"Space to Jensen Ackles..." he sing-songs, flash of white teeth in his smile.
"Yeah, sorry about that," Jensen says, stirring his dinner idly with his fork. It's linguini with clam sauce, lots of oregano or something else that's green. He's barely touched it.
"Eyes bigger than your stomach?" Tom asks, biting into a meatball.
"Nah, just distracted for a second. I'm back now," Jensen says, swirling the pasta around his fork and taking a bite. "Mmmm mmm..."
Tom scrunches up his nose. "You have such a cute accent." Jensen resists telling him that he really doesn't have an accent so much as a lilt, but Tom's fucking gorgeous. Gorgeous people like that have a pass to say those things.
"Y'know, I've got this new patient-from San Antonio originally, he moved to California when he was a teenager-anyway his drawl's way thicker'n mine."
Tom raises his eyebrows. "His drawl?"
"Yeah, he totally said something the other day, what was it," Jensen muses, sucking on the prongs of his fork.
"He said." Tom cocks his head to one side.
"Yeah, gimme a second."
"Jensen, you're a gynecologist."
"Yeah?"
"Since when are your patients 'He'?"
Jensen blinks a few times. "Um, well in obstetrics sometimes, uh, sometimes, you um," he fumbles.
"Are you like, doing proctology now too?" Tom asks.
"Um, no I'm just," Jensen stammers, "I'm just helping out another one of the doctors, the patient load is getting really bad so I'm uh, doing consulting work with the endocrinology department." It wasn't a total lie, he was regularly checking Jared's hormone levels.
Tom shrugs, "Cool, must be a nice break from all that pussy."
Jensen forces an awkward laugh. "Yeah, it is," he says, twisting his fork around his plate. Things have been definitely more exciting ever since Jared came to Grace's Heart. It's going to be strange when he leaves, for Jensen to go back to his routine.
And Jensen realizes, that when that happens, Jared will just be, gone.
"-So?" Tom says, breaking through Jensen's inner monologue. He shakes his head slightly.
"I'm sorry?"
"I said, I hope you're saving room for some dessert, y'know, back at my place?" Tom says, running his foot along Jensen's leg under the table. His hand is getting dangerously close to touching Jensen's on the other side of the table. Jensen pulls it back immediately, tugging his ear.
**
"Mmmm, I love dessert," Tom coos into Jensen's ear.
"Shhhh," Jensen hushes, turning to nip at his bottom lip, gently taking it with his teeth.
"Oh baby," Tom moans and pulls them closer together as they make out on Tom's couch.
"Don't say 'baby'," Jensen whispers into his ear, wrapping arms around his neck as Tom's thick fingers run over his backside, squeezing him through the denim of his jeans. "Don't call me that."
"Y'want me to call you freckles?" Tom asks as he pulls off his shirt.
"No," Jensen says, sharp edge in his voice as he tears off his own.
"Jensen..." Tom murmurs, placing his hands against Jensen's chest, kneading. "Wanna make you come so hard."
Jensen buries his face in the groove of Tom's neck. "Stop," Jensen says, voice barely above a whisper.
"What's that?"
"Stop." Jensen blinks.
"Okay," Tom says, pulling away from Jensen, looking concerned.
"We need to stop. We just-we need to stop. I'm sorry."
Tom quirks his mouth to the side. "So, we stay friends but no benefits?" Jensen nods and Tom shrugs. "Fine by me. Mikey's not gonna be happy though."
Jensen snorts. "Why the fuck does Mike care so much about my damn sex life?"
"Well, y'know, he told me we couldn't fool around anymore and I should just give you a call. Only we still fool around. But y'know, I figured I'd at least give it a shot?"
Jensen's mouth drops open.
"What?" Tom asks.
"You and Mike? I thought, that was just college! He said he was a Kinsey 2!"
Tom laughs. "Yeah that's what he tells me too, right before I suck his cock until he passes out at his desk. Why do you think I took the job as his receptionist?"
Jensen presses his mouth together. "I thought it was because you loved alphabetizing things and answering telephones?"
"Well there's that too. But mostly it's for the free orgasms."
Jensen lets out a bark of laughter. "Ohhh that asshole. That hypocritical little bald asshole."
"Hey!" Tom says, pulling his shirt back on. "I like that little asshole."
"I'm sure you do," Jensen says, gathering up his own shirt.
**
Jensen tries to put the whole movie theater and Tom ordeal out of his mind, and just get back to work. Then, Friday night Jared leans in while Jensen is taking his pulse and kisses his nose. Feather-light touch of his lips and Jensen can feel the flush growing on his face.
The next kiss is right on his mouth, Saturday morning. Jared's roped him into playing a game of chess, and Jensen is losing so spectacularly that he's started making up his own rules, declaring, "King me!" when he gets his little pawn over to Jared's side of the board.
Jared laughs and knocks over his king, smirking a declarative, "Checkmate." Then he blinks twice, standing up and leaning over the table, kissing Jensen right then and there. Jensen keeps his eyes open like the last two, but Jared's are closed. Jensen stammers something about a good game, and quickly leaves the room.
Sunday night he's coming off both his weekend overnight shift and ten straight hours of clinic duty. Dr. Ferris has penned him in to assist in an eight am surgery since a rash of the flu has left the residents short-staffed. All he wants is to check in on Jared once, then to curl up in one of the cots downstairs. Going home at this point just isn't worth missing an hour of sleep.
Jared is awake at eleven that night, watching TV.
"You really shouldn't be up so late, it's a strain on the-the baby too," Jensen says, trying to force away the intrinsic feelings of weirdness that still creep up whenever he talks about it.
"I was asleep, then I woke up."
"Nightmares again?"
"Katie and I watched Ghost last night, and she was, uhhh, she was making some bad jokes."
"Oh yeah?" Jensen asks, sitting down beside the bed. He's so damn tired he's barely able to stay upright.
"It's really not appropriate. For me to repeat." Jensen just crosses his arms, his eyes slipping shut, and head nodding. "Jensen?"
"I'm here," Jensen says from the corner of his mouth, and then he's gone. His body goes slack. Next thing he knows he's rolling over and hugging his pillow tight, sunlight pouring in. Katie standing in front of him with her hands on her hips, eyebrow raised.
"G'morning sunshine," she chirps.
"What time 'sit?" Jensen mumbles.
Katie pretends to check her watch. "Oh, it's about a quarter past you almost getting your ass handed to you. You've got surgery with Dr. Sam in like fifteen minutes, go drink some coffee and scrub in."
"Ugh, I don't even remember going to sleep last night," Jensen says sitting up and rolling his shoulders.
"So you don't remember?" Katie turns her head. "Look around, Jensen, does this look like the resident's dorm-room to you?"
Jensen looks, and, oh hell. He's still in Jared's room. Fuck, he's in Jared's bed. His shoes are off. But Jared isn't there, and Jensen is having a hard time telling whether that's a good or bad thing.
"What happened?"
"You passed out in the chair. Jared called me, and we shoved you in his bed. I had security open one of the other rooms for him to crash in. Also, I'm pretty sure if you don't show up to Surgery 18 in the next ten minutes, you're getting more clinic duty."
Jensen frowns, looking down at the bedspread. Not moving.
"Jensen! Go! Coffee! Surgery! Babies!" Katie starts barking, pulling him out of bed and shoving his sneakers into his arms. Jensen stumbles but makes it to the elevator. He puts on his sneakers, stumbling into the staff lounge and thank the lord, the espresso machine has decided to work. He's late to surgery but Dr. Ferris is too busy lecturing the other residents about the joys of maternal-fetal medicine to notice.
Jensen gets out of surgery by lunchtime; Dr. Ferris takes one look at the bags under his eyes and tells him to go home. Instead he doubles-back towards the elevator, heading up to Jared's floor.
Jared's sitting at the table, eating a brunch of Eggs Benedict and wincing at the hospital's sad excuse for hollandaise sauce. He's watching some guy with big thick glasses on the food channel go on and on about how tomatoes should never, ever be refrigerated because it damages the sugars.
Jensen sidles in quietly behind Jared, leans down and kisses his cheek, then bolts for the elevator before Jared can say anything.
**
Prolactin