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The thing about working the weekend night shift in a college town is that you see your fair share of dumb, drunken college kids who have forgotten that physics are real and can seriously fuck you up.
Josie is exhausted. It’s a Saturday night after winter finals week, and she’s just finished tending to some kid who fell face first doing a keg stand. He’s going to need some serious dental work.
Just as she’s about to go grab a snack from the staff break room, she hears a voice call for her.
“Dr. Saltzman,” Wendy greets Josie in her usual no-nonsense manner. “A patient just came in with some minor burns. I don’t think it’s anything serious, but you’ll need to check her over.” She hands over the patient’s chart.
So much for her snack break.
Josie pushes aside the privacy curtain without looking up from the patient’s chart. Hope Mikaelson. 27. Admitted for minor burns. A little too old to be another dumb undergrad, Josie thinks to herself.
“Good evening, Ms. Mikaelson. I’m Dr. Saltzman, and I’ll be taking a look at your burns.” Josie finally looks up into the bluest eyes she’s ever seen on the prettiest face she’s ever had the pleasure of gazing at. The girl, Hope, is giving her a lopsided grin, and Josie could swear she hears a choir singing.
“One sec, doc. I gotta get this,” Hope apologizes as she pulls out the phone, which is loudly blasting some sort of Christmas choir music as it rings.
“Aunt Freya, I said I was fine,” Hope huffs out at the person on the other line. “No! Please do not send aunt Keelin here. It’s her night off and also yours.”
Josie chooses to block out the rest of the conversation to give Hope some semblance of privacy. Her eyes are glued to Hope’s chart, but she sneaks a few glances at her patient. It finally registers in her mind that Hope is wearing firefighter turnout pants with the suspenders hanging casually at the sides. Her tight blue t-shirt is emblazoned with the Mystic Falls Fire Department logo. She’s covered in what Josie surmises is soot, and there’s a burn on her left arm. Mostly first degree, Josie guesses based on the redness and swelling.
“Sorry about that,” Hope grins at her while putting away her phone. “My aunt is such a worrywart.”
“It’s okay,” Josie gives her a kind smile. “You have a dangerous job, and I’m sure it causes your family a lot of worry, especially when they don’t really know what’s happening to you.”
“She sees me at work all the time, actually,” Hope rolls her eyes good-naturedly. “She’s the chief. The one night she has off, and this happens. Someone at the station called her, and she freaked out. Made me go to the hospital.”
Josie moves a few steps closer to Hope, gesturing at her arm.
“Could you tell me what happened?”
“Someone lit that abandoned warehouse on Sixth Street on fire. We think it was probably a homeless person trying to stay warm,” Hope shrugged. “When we got there the place was empty, but I heard some noises and went to check it out. There was a stray dog with some newborn puppies. I stupidly took off my coat to wrap them up. As I was carrying them all out, a piece of the ceiling fell on me.”
Hope turns to give Josie a better look at her arm, and shoulder. The shirt was ripped where the debris struck her.
“Would you mind removing your shirt for me?” Josie asks distractedly as she leans in closer to examine the burned area.
“Not at all,” Hope quickly shoots back, lopsided grin back in place. Josie makes the mistake of looking straight into her eyes and notices the mischief in them. She feels her face flushing like some sort of teenage schoolgirl.
Hope whips her shirt off, and Josie leans back to give her some space. She tries to avert her eyes before remembering that she is a doctor and she will need to actually look at Hope to do her job. She clears her throat before grabbing some fresh gloves from a nearby box and putting them on.
Josie prods at Hope’s arm and shoulder around the burns, vehemently ignoring how extremely sculpted they are.
“So how’s your night been, Dr. Saltzman,” Hope asks softly, face inches from Josie’s. Josie can feel Hope’s gaze on her. She decides to indulge the girl.
“Pretty typical for this time of year. College kids with alcohol-related injuries, cold-weather illnesses, that sort of thing, ” she answers simply.
“Then I’m glad I provided you with some variety,” Hope says jovially, gaze still on the side of Josie’s head.
Josie takes a deep breath, before moving away from Hope.
“The burn itself is minor. There is a cut on your shoulder, and I’m going to prescribe some antibiotics for it, just in case,” Josie lists off methodically as she writes out her diagnosis. She’s trying her damnedest to avoid making eye contact with Hope. “I’ll apply some ointment on your burns and prescribe you some ibuprofen as well.”
“So nothing serious, as I told my aunt. She shouldn’t have overreacted,” Hope chuckles.
“It was still good to get it checked out, Hope,” Josie finds herself saying sternly. She freezes when she realizes that she’s called her patient by her first name. Too familiar. Totally inappropriate, Josie chastises herself.
“I’ll be right back. I just need to grab some ointment,” Josie informs Hope before quickly making her exit.
God, what the fuck is wrong with me. Get it together, Saltzman!
By the time Josie comes back, Hope is furiously texting someone. She looks up when she notices Josie’s presence and quickly types out something else before putting her phone away.
“Hey, you’re back,” she says a bit too loudly. Josie notices her face is kind of flushed.
“Are you feeling okay? Do you feel feverish?” Josie asks, suddenly concerned.
“Hm? What? No, why do you ask?” Hope frowns in confusion.
“Your face is a little flushed.”
Hope’s eyes widen at that, and she stumbles over her words.
“Oh um, it’s just a little hot in here. I run a little hot. Always have. My friend Landon used to call me Johnny Storm,” she rambles nervously. Josie finds it entirely too endearing.
“Who’s Johnny Storm?”
“The Human Torch,” Hope supplies. “From The Fantastic Four. Landon’s a huge nerd,” Hope chuckles.
“My friend MG used to call me Dark Phoenix when I went through my emo phase,” Josie offers. She doesn’t know why but she likes that Hope shared a personal tidbit about herself, and Josie finds herself wanting to reciprocate.
“You had an emo phase?” Hope asks excitedly. “Oh man, I’d love to see that. Full disclosure, I always secretly hoped that my nerd friends would call me Wolverine instead of Johnny Storm.”
“Really? Do you identify with him?”
Hope makes a show of tapping her chin in thought.
“Well I used to have some attitude problems when I was younger. I’m not exactly tall,” she states bluntly and it draws a chuckle out of Josie. “And I’m a badass, obviously,” she concludes, pointing at her arm.
Josie knows Hope was indicating her burns, but she couldn’t help noting, yet again, how toned Hope’s arms and shoulders were. And the abs. Shit.
They’re both full on grinning dopily at each other now, before Josie collects herself.
“I’m gonna apply some ointment on your burns now. It might sting a bit at first, but it should really help with the pain.”
Hope nods and turns her body to give Josie better access. After a few moments, Hope decides to break the silence.
“So you know my full name. I think it’s only fair I know yours, too,” Hope says with a winning smile.
Josie sees no harm in it, so she replies, “It’s Josette. But my friends call me Josie.”
“Do I count as a friend?” Hope asks cheekily.
Josie chuckles quietly to herself, choosing to ignore that question.
“You know, this doesn’t hurt at all. Maybe you have the magic touch,” she says with a mirthful voice.
Josie chooses not to respond to Hope’s teasing, but she finds it hard to not smile at the girl’s audacity.
Josie finishes dressing Hope’s injuries and moves away so the girl can put her shirt back on. She hands hope the prescription she’s written out beforehand.
“Like I said, some antibiotics and ibuprofen. You should be right as rain soon,” she smiles reassuringly at Hope.
Hope looks at the prescription for a second, before glancing back at Josie, teasing grin back on her stupidly attractive face.
“So will I need to come back in for check ups?” Hope asks, voice full of something that Josie can’t name.
“Nope,” she answers earnestly.
“But can I? Come back and see you?” Hope asks with hopeful eyes.
“Hope,” Josie says warily. “That wouldn’t be appropriate. You’re my patient.”
“But you said I wouldn’t need a check up. So technically, once I walk out those doors, you’re no longer my doctor,” she reasons.
Josie bites her bottom lip, and Hope’s gaze drops to follow it.
“It’s not a good idea, Hope,” Josie replies regretfully, and Hope sighs.
“I respect that,” she says as she makes to leave. Just as she walks past Josie, she turns around to look at her.
“Just tell me one thing,” Hope says seriously. Josie nods. “If I hadn’t come in tonight, and you didn’t treat me. Would you want to go out with me?”
Josie takes a deep breath, and decides to tell the truth.
“Yes.”
Hope nods, a bittersweet smile on her face. Josie watches as Hope walks towards the entrance of the ER a little dejectedly. The girl turns around and smiles at Josie one last time before walking out the doors and into the night.
Josie pulls up the long driveway of the looming mansion. The grounds are lit up by tasteful lights and winter-themed decorations. There’s soft jazz music floating from inside.
Josie had heard through work gossip that the Chief of Medicine at Mystic Falls General was independently wealthy, because of her wife’s family. She had no idea they were absolutely fucking loaded.
Like holy shit, this looks like something out of Downton Abbey.
There’s even a valet for the guests’ cars. A goddamn valet!
Josie steps through the doors, feeling underdressed. Logically, she knows she looks good in her ochre a-line dress. She’s even made her sister video chat with her from Paris to help her pick it out. But she can’t help feeling insecure standing in this grand house, among the elegantly dressed party guests, many of whom are her superiors at the hospital.
She looks around for a familiar face and spots Jade chatting idly in a corner with some of other people from the neuro department.
Jade looks over and catches Josie’s eyes. She grins widely and waves Josie over.
“Josie, you made it,” Jade exclaims a little too loudly. Josie guesses she’s been indulging a little too liberally in the free champagne.
“I said I would,” she shoots back.
“You always say you would, and then you end up spending the night binge watching Parks and Rec with takeout,” Jade chuckles. Josie’s cheeks turn pink with embarrassment.
“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little ‘me’ time,” Josie defends with an exaggerated pout.
“Aw hey don’t give me that face,” Jade whines. Josie doesn’t budge, and Jade finally sighs. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make fun of your quality time with yourself. But, honestly, it doesn’t hurt to blow off some steam, once in a while, Jo. You work too much,” Jades says more gently. She places a hand on Josie’s shoulder, and her thumb begins the gentle circular motion she always used to do when Josie was upset.
A part of Josie will never understand why it didn’t work out between them. By all accounts, Jade was the perfect partner. She is everything Josie had always dreamed of since she was a teenager, head full of fancy. Jade somehow manages to be both charming and playful without coming off as arrogant. She’s a talented surgical intern and a kind soul. And she always treated Josie with so much care and respect.
In short, Josie still has no idea why she broke it off with Jade after they’d dated for nearly six months. Jade even took the break up well, remaining a good friend of Josie’s to this day. Sometimes the mystery of why they didn’t work out would keep Josie up at night. She wonders if there is something wrong with her, letting someone like that go.
“Looks like our gracious host is making the rounds with her perfect family,” Jade comments looking over Josie’s shoulder.
Josie turns to follow her line of sight. There in all her statuesque glory was their Chief of Medicine, Dr. Malraux. Her hair is down and she looks stunning in a deep emerald gown. The blonde woman next to her, whom Josie assumes is her wife, is wearing a matching velvet tux. They do look like a match made in lesbian heaven.
Dr. Malraux has an arm draped around the small of her wife’s back. Her other hand is holding on to a cute little boy about 5 or 6 years old. Josie is so enamored by the Dr. and her wife that she almost misses the other woman hovering near them, head seemingly on a swivel. This woman is wearing a lacy, long-sleeved dress in deep burgundy, and it punctuates her fair complexion and red hair quite nicely.
It’s not until the woman turns around that Josie recognizes her. The woman who has been living rent-free in Josie’s mind for the last few weeks. The one who made Josie dust off her old ukulele to play Katy Perry’s “The One That Got Away.” The reason that Josie’s mind has been subconsciously seeking out silky red hair and piercing blue eyes wherever she goes.
Hope finally notices Josie standing there, and Josie should be mortified that Hope caught her staring. But Hope’s face lights up in a smile that crinkles her eyes, and Josie couldn’t care less.
And then Hope’s gaze shifts downward, and the smile on her face drops. Josie frowns, following her eyes, and she notices Jade’s hand still on her arm. Hope swallows and looks down, and Josie has to fight the urge to run over to her. To clarify that Jade is just a friend, and Josie is extremely single and ready to mingle.
Dr. Malraux’s wife turns to whisper something to Hope, who shrugs. She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.
“I heard that her wife, Freya, is the Chief of the Fire Department,” Jade informs her, swaying a bit on her heels in her buzzed state. Josie grips Jade’s elbow to steady her.
It finally clicks for Josie that the blonde woman is Hope’s aunt. And that the ‘aunt Keelin’ she overheard Hope talking about is the same Keelin Malraux who is Josie’s boss.
“Isn’t it awesome that we have a power lesbian couple right here in Mystic Falls?” Jade chuckles and Josie shoots back a half-hearted smile, their faces inches from each other.
Hope chooses this moment to look over at them. She watches them intently for a second before taking a deep breath and excusing herself from the group. Freya watches her niece walk away with worried eyes.
“I’m gonna go to the bathroom,” Josie tells Jade quickly. “I’ll be back.”
“Don’t get lost in this big house,” Jade shoots back.
Josie felt like a stalker as she trails behind Hope, who’s making a beeline for the backyard. Well, calling it that is a bit of an understatement. The estate leads straight into the woods, with a winding pathway lit up by lamps and strings of fairy lights. Hope seems to be making her way into the trees.
“Hope,” Josie calls out.
Hope freezes, but doesn’t turn around immediately. Josie can see her shoulders rise and fall, seemingly taking in a deep breath.
When she finally does turn around, there’s already an attempt at a smile on her face. It just makes her look sadder.
“Hey, Josie. You’re here,” Hope comments pointlessly.
“You didn’t tell me your aunt was the Chief of Medicine,” Josie questions with a raised brow. It makes Hope fiddle with her dress nervously.
“Well, I didn’t want you to feel awkward about going out with me. Although, I guess that’s kind of a moot point, now,” Hope chuckles without humor.
“Listen, Hope,” Josie begins but she’s cut off by Hope.
“She’s pretty,” Hope says quietly. Josie frowns in confusion, so Hope clarifies, “Your date. The blonde.”
Hope can’t bring herself to look at Josie, and she looks like she’s about to dart into the woods.
“She’s not my date. I mean we used to date, but not any more,” Josie explains.
Hope finally looks up at her, eyes hopeful now. The way the soft lights are catching in them makes Hope seem to shimmer, like a mirage. Josie aches with want at finally having Hope in front of her after weeks of beating herself up for letting Hope walk away.
“I’m single,” Josie adds, just to really drive the point home. Hope smiles brilliantly, and Josie melts just a little.
“We should do something about that,” Hope says with her trademark lopsided smirk.
Josie feels like she’s floating as they move closer together. She doesn’t know who kisses whom first, but the meeting of their lips is soft and addicting.
Hope’s tongue softly traces Josie’s bottom lip, and she opens up to deepen the kiss.
Hope kisses her senseless, and Josie couldn’t be happier to lose herself in that moment.
“You know, I told my aunt Freya about you,” Hope comments as she leads Josie by the hand towards a corner of the sprawling backyard. “She almost went to the hospital under the guise of visiting Keelin just to see you, but I made her promise not to.”
“Oh God,” Josie exclaims in terror. "Is that who you were texting that night when I came back in?"
"You noticed that?" Hope asks, looking embarrassed.
"I mean I didn't realize it at the time, but I may or may not have spent the last few weeks overthinking every detail of that night." Now it was Josie's turn to be embarrassed. Hope just smiles at looks at her adoringly.
"I was actually texting my best friend, Maya," Hope admits shyly. "She was the one who told me to ask you out."
“Well, thank Maya for me. And also thanks for stopping your aunt from coming in to the hospital to see me. I don’t know what I would’ve done. She looks so intimidating.”
“Nah, she’s secretly the biggest softie of us all. She even let me keep Blaze and her babies.”
“Blaze?” Josie scrunches face in confusion. Hope points at something and Josie follows her finger.
It’s some sort of wooden shed that looks a bit out of place next to the elegant, manicured lawn and hedges.
Hope holds a finger up to her lips, signaling to Josie to stay quiet, as they approach the shed. She opens the door gently for Josie to peer inside.
Inside the shed is decorated with a few strings of Christmas lights. The floor is lined with several dog beds and cushions. And in the corner, piled on top of each other, is a small dog with wiry hair and four tiny puppies, all dozing peacefully. Josie nearly squeals at how cute they are.
“Those are the dogs you rescued,” Josie whispers excitedly. Hope nods proudly.
“Yep. Blaze is the mom. There’s Torch, Smoky, Sparky, and Flare,” Hope lists as she points to the puppies.
“They’re so cute, Hope,” Josie coos.
“They are. Makes my trip to the hospital totally worth it,” Hope looks over at Josie. Her gaze traces the details of Josie’s face, and it makes her blush. “Plus I got to meet you there, so they’re kind of the reason we’re together.”
“Are we now,” Josie raises an eyebrow in challenge. Hope simply grins at her.
“We will be,” she says surely.
Josie’s only response is to kiss her soundly on the mouth, set to a soundtrack of snoring puppies.