As the patient with cyclical vomiting and her father left, Nic turned to look disapprovingly at Mina, crossing her arms. Once they were out the door, she started in on her. "Did you get all of those medical supplies from Chastain?"
Mina nodded. "They were free samples," she said flatly.
"Free samples that were meant for the hospital!" Nic grimaced as she thought about the implications of all of this. "This is so illegal. Practicing out of your home and stealing supplies... What are you thinking?!"
Mina sighed and sat in one of the chairs in the back room of her apartment where the makeshift clinic was set up, the one facing the bed so she could sit whilst examining patients. Nic sat on the examination bed, which they had just finished cleaning, and looked at her expectantly. "This neighborhood, its occupants cannot afford to go to the emergency room, and it causes problems that could have been easily resolved to be fatal." She told Nic a story about a surgeon that she'd looked up to in her youth who'd had a heart attack in Nigeria, where there just weren't enough resources to help him. "I don't want that to happen here."
Nic ran a hand through her hair, stressed and worried. "That makes sense," she relented, concerned for Mina's neighborhood now.
"Most things I say do," Mina replied. "I am not Conrad Hawkins."
"True," Nic said, chuckling, "and thank goodness for that. I don't think Chastain could handle two."
Mina laughed as well. Nic had never heard her laugh before, but now she wished that it would happen more often. She was very impressed by Mina's whole apartment, not just her ability to set up an entire clinic within it without anyone, presumably even her landlord, finding out or reporting her, but also the amazing dresses she'd seen on the way in, which she could only assume Mina sewed herself.
Nic was impressed, captivated even, by Mina herself as well, and she had been for a long time before she'd been to her apartment. Mina was beautiful, but she didn't skate by on her looks. Mina was also the sharpest person Nic had ever met, and somehow managed to handle Conrad and Devon's antics with some semblance of sanity. Nic struggled with that. Now, Mina was breaking her oath, but for reasons that upheld it, and it was all for the people around her. Nic was convinced that she didn't have a selfish bone in her body.
"Mina," Nic started, taking one of the other woman's hands in both of her own, resting their hands in her lap. Mina seemed to consider recoiling like she usually did when somebody touched her without warning, but apparently decided against it, allowing Nic to hold her hand. "I get that you're worried about accessibility of medical care in this neighborhood. After seeing several people who live here needing medical care within one day, I'm worried too, but this isn't the answer." Nic sighed. "If you get caught, you could lose your license, and then you wouldn't be able to help anyone. Hell, you could even lose your visa."
"I know that," said Mina. "I need to do what I can to help." It was clear she wasn't going to budge on her stance.
Nic half smiled. "You are such a good person, you're making the rest of us look bad."
Mina moved and sat next to her on the bed, careful not to disentangle their hands as if she was afraid that if they stopped touching, they would never touch again. "You could not look bad," she said, looking into Nic's eyes. Neither of them blinked for a while, looking into each others' eyes as if they could find the secrets to answer all of their problems in the other person's eyes, until Mina looked away and added, "Irving, I'm not so sure."
Nic laughed again. "I know you say it's not on purpose when you're funny, but I find that hard to believe."
Mina smiled. "That's one secret that is going to stay a secret."
Nic hummed in response. "Does that mean I get a free secret?"
The surgeon shook her head. "You already found out about my sewing and my illegal clinic. I think it's my turn."
"No way," Nic replied. "I told you about my sister already!"
"By my count, you're still one secret ahead," Mina said, shaking her head.
"Ask away, then, I guess." Nic laid back on the bed (she was still sitting on it horizontally, so her head was flush against the wall), taking Mina's hand with her, removing one of her own in the process and placing their two remaining hands on her chest.
Mina laid back as well. "I can't think of anything at the moment." She chuckled. "You caught a lucky break." Mina turned her head to look at Nic and they both started laughing again.
Nic took a section of hair that was falling into her face, in danger of getting in her mouth, and twirled it absentmindedly around the index finger of her free hand as she smiled at Mina, mostly looking into the surgeon's eyes and trying to communicate with her that way. It seemed easier than speaking aloud about her feelings, but that wasn't something that humans could do. "Mina, I think you're amazing."
Mina raised her eyebrows. "But?"
"No but. I just wanted to make sure you knew," Nic said and smiled.
Mina took a moment to consider that answer before speaking. "Nicolette Nevin, you are Chastain Park's best asset."
Their faces had somehow gotten closer together, and Nic could feel Mina's breath on her lips. "God, you're beautiful," Nic murmured, not realizing she was speaking aloud until it was too late.
Mina chuckled and tucked the hair Nic was messing with behind the NP's ear before taking her other hand.
"Can I kiss you?" Nic asked abruptly.
When Mina nodded, she wasted no time, pressing their lips together so quickly that she didn't take the time to aim properly and missed almost completely, causing more laughs to erupt from both women.
"One more try, okay?" Nic said before going in again, this time capturing Mina's lips perfectly. Mina smiled softly into the kiss and squeezed Nic's hands.
When they pulled away from each other, Nic said, "I just thought of a secret I could show you before we go back to work." They had somehow ended up so that Mina was still half-laying on the bed horizontally with her legs hanging off starting just above the knee with Nic on top of her, straddling her hips, her hair hanging down in a curtain of blonde, obscuring the outside world as Nic held Mina's hands on either side of her.
Mina tilted her head inquizitively. "What's that?"
Nic smiled and lowered her voice as if she was concerned that someone would hear. "If you'll have me, I'll show you what color my underwear is."