Chapter Text
The list of reason’s Harvey considered himself a hypocrite had only been growing since med school. Despite the constant reminders about healthy lifestyles he gave to his patients, he’d been trying to quit smoking with no success for a few years now, his diet mostly consisted of top ramen and frozen meals from Joja mart, and his sleep schedule was absolutely horrendous. Tonight was just like every other night, Harvey sat on his balcony at 2 in the morning, smoking a cigarette, and enjoying a slice of cold leftover pizza.
It was nice though, quiet except for the chirping crickets, the fall air was starting to get a little chilly but not enough to bother him, it was peaceful enough to actually think for once.
Except he didn’t really want to think right now at all, it had been a week since the Festival of the Moonlight Jellies, and he and Ava had barely spoken. It wasn’t entirely his fault, fall was a very busy season for any farmer after all, but he also couldn’t deny that he had been avoiding her. She’d still been coming in to the clinic to say hi every couple of days, but he’d been making excuses about having too much paperwork or needed to prepare for appointments. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk to her, the exact opposite in fact, he wanted to talk to her more than anything, he wanted to joke around again, and hear all of her farm stories, and tell her all of his feelings and finally get them off his chest, but he just…couldn’t.
Every time he saw her all of his emotions came crashing down, love, admiration, comfort, anxiety, shame about feeling any of this at all for a woman who clearly only wanted to be his friend and didn’t ask to be involved in any of this.
He sighed and snuffed out his cigarette on the banister. It was time he get to bed anyway, he had to wake up early tomorrow to open up the clinic,
As he was about to turn out the lights he heard someone banging on the door.
Fuck , nobody would come to the clinic at this hour for anything good.
He didn’t bother getting dressed, just grabbed his glasses and threw on a pair of shoes and rushed down the stairs to the clinic, the person on the other side of the door was still banging on it desperately.
Did George have a heart attack? Someone’s having a stroke? He opened the door to see Ava on the other side cradling her right arm, he felt his heart drop for a second as he frantically looked her over, No visible head wounds, blood stains on her knees, her horse is here so she was able to ride…
“How’s it going doc?” She joked but winced and cradled her shoulder again, “Sorry to wake you,”
“Get inside” he ushered her into the exam room, “What happened?”
“Well I was in the mines,”
Of course she was, did I not warn her about the dangers enough, maybe if I had been more persistent she wouldn’t have-- focus Harvey! She’s hurt and she needs your help now.
“Everything was going fine but I fell off one of the ladders climbing back up, I caught myself but I landed on my arm and it hurts like a motherfucker”
He didn’t doubt it, the dirt on her face was smudged with a few tears, “Can I see it?”
She moved her other hand out of the way,
Visible displacement, bruising at shoulder area, upper arm swelling, lack of mobility in joint..
Harvey held back a sigh of relief, “Looks like it’s just dislocated, you’re lucky it’s not broken,” He grabbed a set of gloves and an arm sling from the cabinet next to him,
“So… what now?”
“I’m going to have to preform a closed reduction--”
“In a language I can understand please,”
“I have to pop your shoulder back into the socket manually,”
She flinched a little as he touched her injured arm, “Is that going to hurt?”
“You’ll feel some pressure…”
“Harvey…” She gave him an exasperated look, “I am in too much pain for you to lie to me,”
“It’s going to hurt a lot. But on the plus side it can’t be too much worse than what you’re feeling right now, okay?”
“Okay,” she looked away nervously.
“On the count of three, one, two,”
She screamed as he pushed her shoulder back in, “Sorry,”
“What the hell, that was not three!”
“I know, I’m sorry, I have to do it when you aren’t expecting it so you don’t tense up, I’m sorry. Does it feel any better,”
“Uh.. yeah, still hurts but not as horrible as before,”
“Good,” Harvey sighed, and helped her arm into the sling. “I’m just going to check some other things now. Did you hit your head?” He shined a flashlight into her eyes, pupils normal,
She squinted at him “No I managed to catch myself, I got a few scrapes but I’m mostly fine”
He bandaged up her knees and cleaned the rest of the scrapes and cuts. He grabbed a notepad from the table and started jotting down notes, “Make sure to come in tomorrow and get a tetanus booster I don’t want to take any chances, come back for a follow up next week to see if you can stop wearing the sling,and make sure--”
“Harvey, are you okay?”
“What?” He glanced up from his writing,
“You’re shaking,” she looked concerned, “ you only shake like that when something’s wrong”
“It’s nothing, you should focus on yourself you’re the one who’s injured”
“It’s not nothing, listen I’m sorry for bothering you--”
“You could’ve died down there! Okay? If you’d hit your head, or it’d been your leg instead of you're shoulder and you couldn’t climb out, something could’ve found you, or--”
“Harvey, it’s alright, I’m fine. You don’t need to worry,”
“Of course I worry, I love you!” Holy fuck did I actually just say that? His brain couldn’t keep up with his mouth as he just started rambling, “you’re my best friend, you’re the nicest person I know, you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night,” oh shit when did I start crying, “And I can’t, I don’t want to, imagine a world without you in it…”
“...last person I want to talk to…” her face lit up, “That’s from ‘When Harry met Sally’”
“Ava I’m being serious!”
She chuckled, “I know, I know, I’m sorry it’s been a weird night. Just come here,” she motioned towards herself with her good hand
He hesitated before leaning in closer to her, “Listen I’m sorry about this i shouldn’t have said any of that, if you’d like we can just forget this and--”
She cupped his face and pulled him into a kiss. She pulled away after a moment.
He looked at her in shock,
“I love you too, idiot,” she tapped his nose,
“You do?”
“Harvey I literally tried to kiss you, last month, but you pulled away so quickly I just assumed you didn’t feel the same way,”
“You said I had something on my face, i just thought you were being nice,”
“Seriously?” she groaned, “god we’re so fucking stupid. I brought you free coffee for a month and a half!”
“To apologize for breaking the machine,”
“It wasn’t about the machine, did I ever bring Maru coffee?”
Harvey cupped his mouth, “God, I’m an idiot”
She ruffled his hair, “It’s okay, I still love you,”
“I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to you saying that,” he smiled,
“Too bad, cause you’re gonna hear it a lot. If I'd have known all I had to do to get you to say you love me is get injured I would’ve done it way sooner,”
“Do not even joke about that,”
“Sorry,” she chuckled, “But hey, that was pretty sweet. I should make you watch more rom-coms. How about Pride and Prejudice next?”
He just laughed and pulled her in for another kiss.