What Have I Done To Deserve This?
You know how when you are making a bad decision and you know it’s a bad decision, you feel really good and kind of rebellious before the guilt sets in? Well, that’s what Regulus probably would have felt if he could feel anything other than complete embarrassment.
Barty is his best friend. He doesn’t know what the two of them were thinking.
Because now, Barty leaves extra early so they can avoid any sort of interaction at all, trying to save both of them from the embarrassment.
Turns out, that actually isn’t very helpful because when they are all in the lockers waiting before rounds and Evan and Dorcas do not let it go unnoticed.
“What’s going on with you two?” She asks, leaning against the metal.
“Nothing.”
Evan takes a seat on the bench, “You know we are going to find out, right? Might as well just tell us.”
Barty shuts the door aggressively, “Nothing to tell,” he shrugs.
“That means there is something to tell.” Dorcas points.
“Definitely.” Evan agrees.
Regulus pushes by them, “There’s nothing to tell you guys.”
They all file out for rounds, Dorcas and Evan shouting out random scenarios to try and figure out what went down between the two of them.
Dorcas is the one to present for Dr. Mckinnon, once they enter their first room. “Keith Paulus, admitted last night with chest pains. Status post-acute M.I., no family or personal history of heart disease. No cardiac risk failures.”
The woman sitting on the couch beside him looks up and smiles, “He’s as healthy as a horse, doctors.”
“If a horse has a heart attack.” Keith jokes.
Mckinnon checks his vitals, “Mr. Paulus, unfortunately your scan shows what looks like a mass around your heart, a very, very large mass.”
“Mass?” He looks at Mckinnon, “Is that some sort of code word for tumor?”
His fiancee is standing up, “Tumor? Keith can’t have a tumor, he's incredibly healthy.”
She shakes her head, “We won’t know until further exploration. Which is why I would like to do an angiogram today.”
“Alright,” Mr. Paulus sighs.
Dorcas stays with the patient, the other four heading to continue. Barty yanks Evan’s hand back, the two of them falling out of earshot from the rest of the group—well, Regulus and Mulciber.
“What?” Evan asks, intrigued.
He looks sick, “Did Regulus say anything to anyone about anything?”
“No,” Evan shakes his head, “Are you going to dish?”
“No.”
Evan groans, “You suck.”
The next patient room they walk in is for a child. It’s Dr. Potter’s patient. Regulus slips behind Evan, not wanting to get too close to Barty right now.
“Shawn Begleiter, eleven years old, in for intractable vomiting after a minor head injury,” Barty tells Potter, teeth gritted. He’s trying to stay professional right now, he really is.
The boy has two fathers, one of them a bit hasty in correcting Barty, “I wouldn’t exactly say minor.”
The other one fills in the gaps of the story, “He was hit in the head with a baseball.”
“Playing first base,” the first one adds, like that is a necessary piece of information. “That little jerk hit my Shawn when he wasn’t looking and you know what? This is my fault.” He freaks out, James beginning to examine Shawn’s brain. “It’s clearly a dangerous sport.”
“Rick,” the taller one begins, “let the doctors talk.”
“They wanna know what happened, Michael.” Rick tells him.
James steps back from the kid and looks at them, “We are going to keep a close eye on him. Any recommendations?”
Regulus speaks before Barty, a sad attempt at keeping him and James as far away from each other as possible, “Traumatic brain injury could indicate anything from a concussion to intracranial hemorrhaging.” He starts, watching Rick begin to imagine all the worst case scenarios. “I'd begin with an H&P, do a thorough neuro exam and get a C.T..”
James doesn’t look at his intern, instead he stares at the chart. “Good. Take him there.”
He leaves the room, heading down to Tucker’s room, ready to discharge him. Not only that, Mary lets him hold baby Tuck, named after his father.
Dumbledore stops in, wondering how he’s feeling after everything. When Mary comes back in, she greets all the boys, taking her baby from James, who is sad to see him go. He loves kids.
〚*〛
Evan finds Regulus when he’s updating Shawn’s chart, “So, what did you do to Barty?”
“Nothing,” he says, like a practiced answer. “How do you know Barty didn’t do something?” Regulus counters, trying to act normal. Nonchalant.
“Normally, I think he would. But Crouchy looks pissed and you’re acting weird, probably feeling an emotion other than disgust.”
Regulus rolls his eyes, “You’re not funny, Rosier.”
“And you’re not telling the truth.” Evan points out, stepping forwards, “C’mon, we have to take him for the scan.”
Regulus helps Shawn get situated, a thin hospital blanket over his body. “Alright, Evan, I did something.”
Shawn pipes up, “One time, I put a raw egg in my sock drawer for a month, then I smashed it in my teacher’s grade book.”
Evan makes a face, “Ew.”
Regulus looks at him, “Well, what I did was worse than the egg.”
“Cool.”
“Yep.” Regulus presses the button, what he really wants to say is no. Not cool. Not cool at all.
〚*〛
Mckinnon is standing in the O.R., Barty and Dorcas both assisting. Dorcas is closest to Marlene, taking everything in when she suddenly whispers towards him, “You need to stop pouting.”
“I’m not fucking pouting.” Barty snaps his head at her.
Dorcas scoffs, “I don’t even have to look at you to know. I can feel it. And whatever Regulus did just get over it already he wouldn’t do anything on purpose, you’re like his only real friend.”
Mckinnon clears her throat, trying to get the two of them to pay attention. They both mutter apologies and focus their attention back on her.
Barty looks at Dorcas, ignoring Mckinnon’s gesture, “If you knew what he did, you’d understand.”
“No, I don’t understand. I don’t even wanna know.” Dorcas tilts her head to the side, “What I want is to analyze this angiogram, book this sucker into surgery and move on.”
Barty is looking at the screen, “That doesn’t look like a mass to me.”
Dr. Mckinnon sighs, “That’s because it’s not.”
Once they are out of the O.R. and the patient is awake, they explain what happened. Well, what is happening.
“What we thought was a mass,” Mckinnon begins, “is actually a coronary artery aneurysm with a fistula into one of your heart chambers.”
Mr. Paulus looks at his fiance, “Well, is it. . . I mean—is it easy to fix?”
The woman beside him begins to speak, something she tends to do a lot of when she is nervous. “I just wanted to let you know we are getting married. And I’ve been waiting a long time for this. I have a dress and a venue and everyone I know is coming. So, you know, it’s supposed to be the happiest day of my life. It is. And you have this morbid look on your face, Dr. Mckinnon, and Keith and I are more silver lining kind of people.”
“Oh, honey,” Keith sighs, “it’s fine. Let’s hear them out.”
Dr. Mckinnon has Barty shut the door, in case emotions get high.
“You have some options.” She starts off by saying, “we can operate on the aneurysm, try to repair it. But the downside to that is that this type of lesion is extremely delicate. The chances of it rupturing in surgery are high.” Mckinnon warns him.
Keith’s voice lowers, a twinge of fear in it, “What keeps it from rupturing if I’m just walking down the street?”
“Nothing.”
Amy looks terrified, utterly terrified, her shaky hand covering her mouth.
“The risks are high either way.”
She’s in shock, “This isn’t happening. . . this.”
“It’s alright, Ames.” He grabs her arm.
“It’s not.”
Marlene’s voice is gentle, “I know it’s a lot to process,” she says, “but if we’re going to operate, we need to do it as soon as possible.”
Amy is crying, “We’re getting married. We are getting married.”
This is when Dr. Mckinnon decides to leave the two of them alone together. Hopefully making a decision sometime soon.
“They seem nice,” Barty adds, sourly.
“They don’t deserve this,” Marlene watches them through the blinds. “Nobody does.”
Barty tilts his head, “I believe in karma, though.”
Dorcas quips, “So, all these people dying must be bad people because they’re sick? How can you be a doctor and think that?”
“I’m not saying everybody but definitely a lot of them.” Barty explains.
“Just most of them?” Dorcas questions.
Barty is so annoyed right now. She is not helping his bad day in the slightest. “You know exactly what I meant.”
She pretends to be confused, shrugging.
Meanwhile, Mckinnon is laughing, “Good God, Crouch, what the hell did Baby Black do to you?”
〚*〛
Rick is waving his hands at Dr. Potter, “I’m sorry I don’t understand. What exactly do you mean when you say blood in the ventricle?”
“It’s only a small amount of blood,” he answers, trying to ease their worries, “and usually these injuries resolve themselves.”
“And if it doesn’t?” Rick starts, his husband sighing, “I mean, what if he loses I.Q. points? Shawn is very smart. Do you think we should sue the kid who hit the ball?” Then he has a different idea, “Do you think we should sue the coach?”
Michael, Shawn’s other parent, reminds him that, “Shawn loves the coach.”
“Shawn’s brain is bleeding!”
Shawn looks at him to say, “I’m fine, Dad, jeez.”
Dr. Potter agrees, “He’s awake, alert, minimal pain, these are all very good signs. I just would like to monitor him over the next forty-eight hours.”
“Okay,” Rick nods, “Good, good, good. Don’t be scared, Shawn.”
He shrugs, “I’m not.”
“I am.”
Michael and Shawn both say, laughing, “We know.”
〚*〛
Evan and D0rcas are eating lunch when he gets paged to the pit. He leaves her with Barty, Regulus nowhere to be found.
When he’s down there, he recognizes the patient immediately.
Deni Duquette.
One of the nurses is speaking, “He’s on a donor list for a new heart.”
Sirius is the one who paged him. “You’re familiar with her, correct?”
Evan nods, “Very.”
“You’re on this case then. I paged Mckinnon, handle it.” He says, exiting the trauma room and heading back towards another.
Evan faces the paramedic, “What did she get in the field?”
“Forty of Furosemide. Rhythm didn’t change after six of Adenosine.” He answers.
Mckinnon steps in, “What do we got, Rosier?”
“It’s Deni.” He tells her, “Transplant candidate. She’s got acute dysrhythmia and C.H.F vitals all over the place.”
Mckinnon checks it out for herself, folding her stethoscope back up, “Her heart rhythm is a mess. She’s in heart failure.”
Evan pulls information out of his brain as quickly as he can, “Bisoprolol can reduce the chance of mortality. Can we try that? What about ace inhibitors?”
“Slow down, Rosier,” Mckinnon orders, “she’s holding on for now.”
Evan can’t, “Isn’t there something more we can do?”
“The best we can do is get her to I.C.U. and wait and see if her heart will stabilize. Are you going to question me again, Rosier, or back off?”
Evan steps back, not willing to get thrown off the case at this point.
Deni is his patient, nobody else’s.
Being her doctor is already hard enough, the only thing worse is the idea that someone else would be her doctor. Someone other than Evan, who knows. Who cares.
〚*〛
Dorcas is checking his heart rate, asking, “Have you made your decision?”
Keith Paulus has a strange expression on his face, “We’re still talking about it.” He nods, looking over at Amy. “We were thinking about waiting until after the wedding.”
Dorcas steps away from the patient, updating his chart.
His fiance, Amy, reties the back of his gown for him, looking at Dr. Meadowes to wonder, “How is he?”
“The same.”
“Well,” he licks his lips, “that’s good, right?”
Dorcas doesn’t think so, “With your condition, you are going to be okay until you’re not. And if you opt against the surgery and if you leave now, it’s just a matter of time. You might make it to your wedding and you might not. And you won’t know.” She clicks her pen, “You’re just going to be okay until you die.”
Mr. Paulus laughs, clearly affected by what she’s saying, “Is that supposed to comfort me?”
“No,” she’s blunt, “I’m trying to tell you that in my professional opinion, I truly believe your best bet is to let Dr. Mckinnon operate on you.”
Amy crosses her arms, “So he can die today instead?”
“He might die today anyways,” Dr. Meadowes reminds her, “But Dr. Mckinnon is the very best, it’s your greatest chance.” Dorcas says, leaving them with that.
And speaking of Dr. Mckinnon, she is standing at the nurse’s station on the phone outside of Deni Duquette’s patient room.
Evan is lingering beside him, impatiently.
“Is everything alright, Rosier?” She questions him.
He closes the chart he was pretending to read, “It’s just not fair, you know? It’s really not fair. We treat assholes all the time. Patch them up, send them off, whether or not they deserve it. Because we are doctors and that is what we do. But Deni? I’ve gotten to know her and she’s a great girl. A really great girl with a bad heart and all we can do is wait.”
Dr. Mckinnon stuffs her scrub cap in her pocket, “I know, Rosier, I’ve been treating Deni for a very long time.”
“So you know she doesn’t deserve this.”
“What he deserves is the best cardiac care. And that is what we are giving her.” Mckinnon replies. She stares through the window to see into Deni’s room, “You really like her, don’t you?”
Evan doesn’t know how to answer that, at least professionally, after a hesitation, he shrugs and says, “She just doesn’t deserve this. That’s all.”
〚*〛
Dr. Potter has to push past Shawn’s parents to get to Dr. Black, who is by Shawn’s bedside. He doesn’t have to ask before Regulus fills him in, “I was doing his routine neuro check, I noticed he was altered. Most likely a clot.”
“Acute hydrocephalus.” James mumbles. “We need to remove the pressure right now.”
Regulus looks at James, “The cranial access kit is ready.”
Rick doesn’t look okay at all, “Cranial access? What does that mean? Is Shawn-”
Dr. Potter waves his hands, “Vance, get them out of here.”
She does, quite quickly.
James grabs the drill, Regulus assisting him by his side. It’s nice to work with someone who James doesn’t have to teach. Regulus predicts his every movement, can visualize the steps in his head and offer James anything at the blink of an eye. He doesn’t have to speak, doesn’t have to gesture, Regulus just knows. He puts the catheter in as soon as James pulls the tool out.
“Pupils are reactive.” Regulus checks. “Pressure is stabilizing.”
“Is he okay?” Rick knocks on the door, Emmeline still guarding it.
Dr. Potter pulls his gloves off, not making eye contact with Regulus, “Neuro checks every hour and increase the supervision.”
〚*〛
Evan is standing over Deni, watching her heart beat irregularly on the monitor. Mulciber is looking at the patient, then back at Evan.
“We’ve got to get her heart rate under control,” Rosier mentions, the monitor beeping irregularly, “push three-hundred of Amiodarone, now.”
Mckinnon finds her way back into the room, looking at Evan for the update, “Status?”
“Atrial fibrillation,” he answers, “her heart is beating too fast.”
“If we can’t get it to slow down. . . it’ll give out.” Mulciber sighs, watching the two doctors.
Mckinnon puts a hand on her hip, “Let’s try synchronized cardioversion. And how about pushing five of Morphine?”
The nurse gets on it, Deni’s eyes shut when the name leaves her lips, “Evan?”
“You’re awake.” He points out.
She tries to laugh, too weak for it to sound like one, “I was hoping I’d get to see you, Rosy.”
“You’ve been working me pretty hard around here,” Evan gets more comfortable, watching both Mckinnon and Mulciber file out of the room, better things to do than watch small talk happen.
Deni smiles, “Is that what I have to do to get your attention, hm?”
Evan feels the need to protect her, instead of flirting back, he begins to warn her about the upcoming procedure, “Deni, we are about to send a wave of electric currents through your body. Hopefully the shock will be enough to slow your heart rate down to normal.”
Mckinnon comes back in, equipment by her side. “Did Rosier explain everything to you, Deni?”
“Is it going to hurt?” She asks, voice small.
“It won’t be easy,” Evan tells her, “but you know, I’ll be right here the whole time.”
“Will you hold my hand for a second, just the before part?” Deni sighs, embarrassed to have asked.
Evan looks at his superior for guidance, Mckinnon just shrugs. Evan holds Deni’s hand.
Mckinnon says clear, Evan lets go, and Deni starts screaming in agony.
〚*〛
Barty is angrily making a cup of coffee when he sees Amy, his patient’s fiancee, sitting at the table.
She’s in shock, he believes.
“You know,” she stares at the table, “I read that you should keep all the receipts for your wedding.”
“Oh.” Barty says, trying to act like he gives a fuck.
“I did that,” she points to the binder in her purse, “every single one. My mother said I was crazy. That it was bad luck. But I did it anyway.”
Barty puts his cup down, watching her carefully. Mary Macdonald made him take a video seminar on patient and visitor bedside manners because he was oftentimes a little too curt with them. He acts as nice as he can, “Amy, this isn’t your fault.”
“I waited so many years to fall in love. We were just about to start out life and now he’s slipping away, you know? It’s not supposed to end like this. I know that much.” She stands up, carefully stepping out of the room.
〚*〛
Regulus is sitting at the bottom of the stairs, eating a banana where he’s at.
Dorcas finds him, accidentally, “What are you doing?”
“Hiding.” He mumbles, annoyed.
“All right, so you slept with Barty. Who cares? He is a slut anyways.” She teases, pulling her braids into a ponytail.
“He told you!” Regulus whips his head over.
Dorcas looks like she might be sick, “Uh. . . no.” Then she starts to laugh at Regulus, “I was just kidding. But I guess it’s not like I should be surprised.”
“Why not?” Regulus takes offense.
“Because when your life is sucking, you get drunk and sleep with inappropriate men, it’s like your thing.” She shrugs, watching Regulus throw the peel into the trash can violently.
Regulus fires back, “You sleep with inappropriate women, so we are even.”
“One inappropriate woman. Who I actually am in a relationship with. You? You’re just a mess, Black.” She corrects him. “Barty’s not going to get over this. And honestly, neither will James.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” He breathes out.
“Crouch was in love with you, Regulus, I promise he’s going to care that you two slept together.”
Barty scoffs, standing at the top of the stairs. He folds his arms and looks at Regulus, “You told her?”
“Barty.”
Barty stomps down the stairs, Dorcas backing away slightly, unsure if she wants to watch how this plays out or take off running.
He gets to the bottom floor, eye to eye with Regulus, “You’re unbelievable, actually.”
“Barty, I didn’t even tell her,” he points at Dorcas, “she guessed it because you’ve been walking around all day pissed at me.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
Regulus cannot believe this, “Why wouldn’t you be? Are you fucking kidding me? I thought this was purely casual.”
“It was going to be until you fucking called me James!” Barty snaps, realizing it’s just the two of them. “So I don’t want to be casual, I don’t want to be friends, I don’t want to look at you or anything. I just wanted to keep my mouth shut, let the whole thing blow over and if you didn’t avoid me every time you saw me, you’d know that.”
Dorcas is long gone, the two of them fighting in the stairs like children.
He turns to storm up the stairs when Regulus grabs his sleeve, pulling him back, “What about me? You knew I was fresh off a breakup and still came after me, what did you expect would happen? That I would be over him in seconds? After months of being with him I was supposed to forget the second you whipped your dick out?”
“For as smart as you are, Regulus, you would think that you would know the difference between Barty and James.” He says, no longer yelling.
His face is twisted in an expression mixed with guilt and pain.
Something Regulus has never seen him wear.
So he leaves.
Like always, Regulus steps away, taking solace in the elevator for one single floor before James Potter steps in.
He’s not smiling, not like he usually is.
It’s somewhere between the second he steps in to the second the door closer that Regulus finally comes to grasp with the fact he has made the worst decisions of his life in the past few days.
Regulus needs this, just to hear his voice. James won’t speak first, not after everything. Regulus has to be brave for a moment to get what he wants.
The words that come out don’t sound good, “I did a terrible thing.”
James turns to him, surprised that he spoke. His response is almost immediate, despite the concerned reaction, “We all do terrible things,” he notes, “it’s about how you fix them that matters.”
Regulus hasn’t ever been a fixer.
He’s more the ruination of it all.
“I did a terrible thing. A really bad few things. I was sad and I. . .” he leaves out the part where he finishes his sentence to say missed you, opting instead to explain that, “I think I’m going to lose all my friends.”
“You won’t lose me, you know.” It comes out quiet, like James is half-sure about it.
Regulus laughs, haphazardly, “You’re not my friend.”
“Yes, I am.” He says, “I could be, at least. I’m a great friend. One of the best, I think. Why can’t I be your friend for now?”
It’s so easy to fall back into normal with him, even if none of this is the way it’s supposed to be.
Regulus doesn’t know how he is so okay right now. He shakes his head, not wanting to make this any more complicated than it already is, “We cannot be friends.” Regulus needs to figure out what they are and this friendship will not help anything.
“We can be friends,” James squints, “you’d be lucky to have me.”
“How could we be friends?” Regulus huffs, frustrated.
“We could uh. . . hang out. I try to walk every morning before breakfast. You could come.”
“Right.”
“It might even be fun,” James says, carefully.
Regulus feels like he’s fucking with him, watching the doors open, “We can’t be friends.” Not when he wants to be more than that and can’t be.
Regulus is so bad at love that the more he feels it, the worse off James is.
Things got serious and the person who would be least likely to leave a relationship in the entire universe, ran from Regulus.
He doesn’t blame him.
Not really.
James left and the first thing Regulus did was crawl into bed with his best friend. James, who sees the good in every person, couldn’t find enough reasons to stay with someone like Regulus.
Well, he feels like he proved James right then.
Being friends won’t fix him, if anything, it will be a constant reminder that Regulus is incapable of having something good in his life.
〚*〛
Deni watches Evan like he’s a television, not wanting to miss a single thing. “Oh, I’m just adding nitro,” he explains, believing she was confused about what he was doing. “Good news is that your blood pressure is stable now.”
“Good,” she blinks.
“How are you feeling?” Evan asks.
Deni licks her lips, adjusting her head against the pillow, “Do you, um, well, do you believe in karma?”
The nurses have been talking about karma all day, a hospital-talk that’s circling after the topic was originally brought up on Mckinnon’s case with Meadowes and Crouch.
He nods, “Actually, I do.”
“I think you might be mine.” Deni’s mouth curves upwards.
Evan feels better when she’s like this, joking and flirting. Back to normal, it feels like. He acts the same, “Well, you must have been very good to deserve me then, eh?”
“Must have.”
〚*〛
Barty and Evan are in the library, at minute forty-nine of Barty’s complaining about Regulus.
Eventually, Evan is fed up, “Bartemius? This pity show? Not good. I’m not your shrink, but I’ll tell you this before I’m cutting you off from saying anything else. If you want crappy things to stop happening to you then stop accepting crap and demand something more.” He closes his book, stepping up. “It’s not anybody else’s job to make you happy. That’s your own shit. Either deal with it or don’t.”
Ironically, Barty is paged just then, standing up and rushing to find Amy and Keith.
She’s clutching the binder to her chest, watching as the door is shut between her and Keith’s room, “You can tell Dr. Mckinnon that he’s having the surgery.”
Dorcas almost explodes with excitement, “That’s great!”
Barty is more focused on her actions at the moment, “What are you doing?”
She stumbles on her words for a few seconds before she can get anything out of her mouth, “I’m not strong enough for this.”
“Amy, you can’t leave him. I know it’s hard but c’mon. You will wanna be there when he wakes up.” Barty suggests.
She’s shaking her head, “No, I won’t. He’s not my fiance anymore.”
“You’re leaving him?” Barty stares.
“I’m not strong enough for this.” She makes an excuse.
“In sickness and in health parts of your vows, those just don’t matter?” Dorcas asks.
Amy begs them, “Just try to understand. I don’t like that I’m running but what other option is there? I’m not strong enough. I can’t do this.”
The nurse shoves out of the door, “He’s crashing!” She yells.
Dorcas and Barty hurry inside, Amy taking their absence as a good time to disappear. She leaves.
They end up rushing him into surgery.
〚*〛
At home, after maybe one of the longest days of his entire life, Barty debates on whether or not the best option here is to just move out.
Evan usually tells him what to do. But he’s at the hospital with Deni, like always. And besides, after their talk today, Barty is forbidden from whining.
Regulus steps in behind him, staring at Barty. “Why do you have a suitcase out?”
“I don’t know,” he shrugs, not bothering to turn and look at him, “not sure if I wanna live here anymore.”
Regulus chokes back his anger, doing something he never does. He apologizes, “I’m sorry.”
Barty turns on his heel, quickly, “Why?” He asks, “I just wanna know, why? If you were so distracted why would you. . .”
“I didn’t know I was going to do that, and I certainly did not do it on purpose.” Regulus assures him. “You were there and you were saying all these things and I was upset. And for a moment I thought maybe I was overlooking what’s been in front of me all this time.” He clears his throat, “You’re Barty, and you’re you. The point is, I didn’t know that was going to slip out of my mouth and I really didn’t know it was more than sex for you.”
“It’s not.”
“Then what is the deal? Did I hurt your ego or something?”
Barty scoffs, “Shut up. I hate you.”
Regulus agrees, “I hate you too.”
“Perfect.”
“Great.”
“So,” Barty pauses, “Can we go back to being best friends?”
Regulus is relieved, “Yeah. Let’s not talk about this anymore and just be normal, please. I can’t take it.”
〚*〛
Dorcas watches Mckinnon break the news to Keith, their patient. Who lived. He lived and Amy isn’t here to see it because she ran from him.
Dorcas doesn’t want to be the runner.
Not anymore.
〚*〛
Evan sits on the edge of Deni’s bed, “Hey.”
“Hey, you.”
He sets some food in front of her, his own tray on his lap. Deni smiles, “Feels like a date, Evan.”
“What?” He jokes, “This amazing meal for the two of us?”
“Mhm, not exactly what I’d envisioned though.” She sighs, looking at the tubes and wires, all the medical equipment keeping her alive.
Evan feigns a gasp, “Are you kidding? Do you know how hard I have had to work to get a cute girl in bed before?”
“Aw,” she takes a sip of the apple juice, “you think I’m cute?”
“Shut up—respectfully—and drink your juice.”
〚*〛
Marlene is reading a book in bed when Dorcas plops down, laying on her side, elbow in the pillow.
She puts her hand over the book, getting her girlfriend’s attention, “Marlene?”
“Yes?”
“I think I’m in love with you too.”