- Book: Open Heart 2 (Chapter 3 – Deli Scene)
- Pairing: Tobias Carrick x F!MC (Casey MacTavish)
- Title: A Deli…ghtful Meeting
- Rating: Teen
- Summary: Re-write/interpretation of the deli scene where Casey & Tobias meet in OH Book 2/Ch. 3. - Both like what they see…
- Category: Fluff?
- Warnings: None
- Words: 1900 ish
- A/N: So, this is the kickoff of my Casey/Tobias AU. I’m excited about this, lots to explore.
- A/N 1: For this series, I will do rewrites and supplemental scenes (where necessary) of their interactions in OH2 and OH3. Outside of supplemental scenes, most original writing will come at the end.
- A/N 2: For those reading Delaying the Inevitable, Tobias will be different in this universe, especially at the beginning. Casey will be slightly different in attitude, but she will be basically the same character.
CHARACTERS BELONG TO PIXELBERRY STUDIOS / TEXT IN BOLD IS DIRECTLY FROM THE PB STORY
- Book: Open Heart 2 (Ch. 3 – Deli Scene)
- Pairing: Tobias Carrick x F!MC (Casey MacTavish)
- Rating: Teen
- Summary: [Re-write of the deli scene in OH Book 2 Ch. 3] Casey & Tobias meet during a chaotic scene at a local deli, and both like what they see.
- Category: Fluff
- Words: 1900
- A/N: The start of my Casey & Tobias “Canon” 💕 This was originally packaged as a series called “Their Start,” but I decided to break this down into individual fics that tell their story from the day they met, which is today…
CHARACTERS BELONG TO PIXELBERRY STUDIOS
TEXT IN BOLD IS DIRECTLY FROM THE PB STORY
Tobias x Casey Masterlist
After a couple of grueling days at the hospital, Casey was delighted to finally have a day off. She decided to make a proper breakfast for once; her usual staple of two cups of black coffee and perhaps a banana or stale cookie was growing old. Grabbing all the ingredients for making pancakes, she was off to her task.
Aurora joined her in the kitchen just moments later. Casey always marveled at her, it was her first day off in a week, and she emerged from her room fully dressed in a matching ensemble, not a hair out of place. And here she was in a 5-year-old Henley, a pair of jeans that had seen better days and a self-diagnosed case of bedhead. At least a few tears in jeans were considered fashionable now. At least, that’s what she told herself.
“Hey, Aurora, don’t you look amazing first thing in the morning.”
“I’m just sticking to my routine. What are you doing?”
“Making pancakes. Would you like some?”
“Perhaps, but don’t you need eggs to make pancakes?”
Casey looked up awkwardly, “You do?”
“Yes, and we’re out. Do you see why we usually leave the cooking to Sienna? Look, why don’t you get dressed. We can grab something down at Boston Pocket and go eat in the park.”
“Aurora, I am dressed.”
“Oh, um, OK, then….”
“But I’ll go comb my hair. I wouldn’t want you to be embarrassed being seen with me in public.”
“I wouldn’t be, I….”
“Lies!”
A half-hour later, they were in the long line at Boston Pocket.
“Wow, I don’t know what to get! Everything looks so good, and my eyes are definitely bigger than my stomach.”
“If you were talking literally, now that would make for an interesting case!”
Suddenly, the man in line behind them clutched his chest and crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
“I’m getting his pulse!”
Aurora whipped around to his other side and pointed directly at a man standing nearby.
“Sir, I need you to call 911!”
“I’m dialing now!”
“I’ll start compressions.”
“Casey, stop! Look at his fingernails.”
Aurora held up his hand. The tips of his fingers were turning blue.
“His lips are turning blue too, which means….”
“This isn’t a heart attack. It’s a pulmonary embolism. Chest compressions could stress the lungs or dislodge the embolism.”
“Good thing you stopped me!”
Just minutes later, the doors of the deli flew open, Rafael and a fellow paramedic rushed in.
“What have we got, doc?”
“Male, 40’s. We think he’s had a pulmonary embolism. Get him on anticoagulants right away.”
“Will do, Doctor. Amazing save.”
Casey & Aurora stepped outside with the paramedics, but once the gentleman was safely aboard the ambulance, they began to walk home.
“That man is sure lucky that we were out of eggs,” Aurora stated.
“I know, I’m glad we were there, but can I be honest with you… no judgment?”
Aurora side-glanced at Casey, “I’ll try… no promises.”
“Wasn’t that awesome!”
Aurora chuckled, “It was, wasn’t it? It felt like something out of a T.V. show.”
“I just wish the server had shouted, ‘Is there a doctor in the house?’”
“That would have been so cheesy.”
“Hey, I like cheese. I live for cheese!
“Doctors! Wait! You forgot your breakfast!”
The women turned to find the man who dialed 911 chasing after them, brown paper bag in hand.
“I guess in the commotion, we lost our appetite and forgot,” Casey stated as the man ran toward them.
“Yeah, quite unusual… at least for you.”
“HEY!”
“Oh, Thanks!” Aurora smiled, accepting the bag from the man.
And what a man it was. Casey inconspicuously eyed him from head to toe, careful to avoid being caught. Not that it took much to evade him, he didn’t seem to notice that she was alive; his full attention focused on Aurora.
Damn! Aurora got the correct diagnosis, and now the hot guy is all into her. That’s what I get for leaving the house in the ratty old Henley! I need to start getting myself together in the morning. I need to up my game.
“You were really something back there.”
“She’s one of the best doctors at Edenbrook,” Casey jumped in.
She did want to upsell her friend, but she also wanted the handsome stranger to at least glance her way. Wish granted because glance at her he did. It wasn’t for more than a second, but when his sparking aqua-blue eyes caught hers and the slightest smile tugged at his lips, Casey started feeling things that she had no right to after being in his presence for less than sixty seconds.
“I don’t doubt it,” he said with a broadened smile.
That smile! It sealed the deal. Casey felt her knees getting weak and other body parts doing… other things.
I am truly pathetic. She self-admonished. I need to get out more. I see one hot guy not wearing scrubs, and I’m reduced to a damn puddle.
“It takes a very cool head under pressure to catch a detail like a cyanosis.”
Cyanosis? Did he say cyanosis? Is he a doctor?
“Cyanosis? Are you a doctor too?”
Sigh. Of course, he is more into Aurora. She can actually formulate a sentence while I stand here drooling like some idiot that is seeing a man for the first time in her life!
“As a matter of fact, I am. Over at Mass Kenmore. Our trauma always needs cool, motivated doctors.”
He took a business card from his pocket and handed it to Aurora.
“Let me know if you’re ever looking for a change of pace.”
He turned his head to Casey, and his eyes fell to her feet before he slowly trailed them up to her head, making it very clear that he was. He offered her a smile, a very different smile from before, inviting yet dangerous. If only she could speak.
But all she could do was stand there in silence. A man, a mere mortal, was rendering the Casey MacTavish silent. She was the same woman who dared to stand up to Ethan Ramsey on her second day as an intern, but a semi-sexy glance and she found herself stupified.
She deflated a bit when it looked like she had let her chance pass. Watching as he turned and jogged back to the deli. Aurora watched him go, her jaw hanging open, but for very different reasons than Casey’s. When he got to the door, he turned around and looked back, winking in her direction.
Did he wink? Oh my… I think he winked…
“That… wasn’t a real job offer, was it?”
“I think so. That’s crazy!”
“That’s not the craziest thing…he didn’t even know my name.”
Casey took the card from Aurora’s hand.
“Dr. Tobias Carrick. Hmm… You should give him a call, Aurora; it can’t hurt to see what he has to say.”
“It’s not as if I’ve been looking to leave Edenbrook, but the idea of being someplace where I can make my mark, where I’m more than just Harper Emory’s niece, it is appealing.”
“So, are you going to call him?”
“I think I will.”
“Good for you!”
“Now, I have a question. Are you going to call him?”
“Me? No! Did you hear him try to recruit me? And who could blame him? He just watched me nearly kill a man. I don’t think I made a great first impression.”
“Girl, did you not see him wink at you?”
Casey turned to Aurora with wide eyes, “Oh my God! Did he? Did you see it too? Are you sure it was for me? How do you know he wasn’t winking at you?”
Aurora chuckled, “I knew it! I knew you were standing there looking all thirsty!”
“No! Please tell me I didn’t. I was trying so hard not to! But, fuck, the man is beautiful!”
“Well, I am not going to lie. You did look like someone who saw a juicy hamburger after being starved for a week, but, in all reality, he didn’t seem to mind. So, are you going to call?”
“Mmmm, as much as I’d like to, I don’t think it would be helpful to you. I mean, you’re making a professional connection, and your thirst queen friend standing next to you calls like, ‘Hi, by the way, I want to have your first six children.’”
Aurora burst out laughing, “Case, you don’t want to have anyone’s six children.”
“No, but I would love to pretend to with him!”
The women’s laughter was interrupted when they were startled by a car’s horn. They looked to the left, where a black Jaguar was stopped at the red light. Behind the wheel? None other than Tobias Carrick. He tilted his head, a salacious smirk on his lips.
“Hey, be sure to call me!”
“I don’t know, Casey, but I’m feeling like that ‘call me’ was directed toward you.”
“Jesus, Aurora! You don’t think he heard any of our conversation, do you?”
“I don’t think so, but who knows? Maybe he wants to pretend to make six babies with you too.”
Casey playfully smacked Aurora’s shoulder.
“Well, there goes any chance of me living out any fantasies with Dr. Hottie. If he heard, I’m officially too mortified to ever see him again.”
“I doubt he heard us.”
“It doesn’t matter. I am sure he has dozens of women throwing themselves at him anyway. Ugh. Tell me to shut up.”
“Shut up.”
“Thank you! But, never mind me, you do have to call him. You owe it to yourself.”
“You know, I think I am. It can’t hurt. But, can we keep this between us until I know more?”
“Of course, but if you get the job, please keep everything else we said away from your new boss. But be sure to give him my number.”
_________________________
About five blocks away, Tobias pulled his car into the carport of his South End townhome. He walked to his front steps with the bag containing his breakfast order in one hand and his cell phone pressed against his ear in the other.
“Hey, it’s Tobias! You’ll never believe who I just happened upon at the deli, Harper Emory’s niece, Aurora.”
“I know who she is because I make it my business to know. But I have to be honest, this isn’t someone I’d like to bring over solely to lure Harper. She knows her stuff. This guy collapsed behind her, and she called it. She saw cyanosis and called a pulmonary embolism just before her friend nearly killed the man with chest compressions.”
“Yeah, honestly, I think she’d be a great addition to the team. I gave her my card. Hopefully, we’ll hear from her.”
“Oh, one other thing. I need to get her friend’s name. How can I do that while retaining a quarter of an ounce of professional integrity?”
“Hah! That’s cute. You actually think I have any personal integrity.”
“Why? Well, because I think I might be in love.”
“Bro, relax. Not real love, but the Carrick variety… for sure!”
“Lovesick fool, you say? Laugh all you want. But you didn’t see her. I did. So now, if you ever get the chance, I get dibs.”
“Oh, I’ll find her. She’s a doctor, she works at Edenbrook, and she’s a freaking blonde goddess. How hard should it be? Plus, you know I’m relentless. Maybe I’ll head over to Donahue’s tonight? Can’t hurt.”
“OK, I’m gonna go. I’ll catch you later!”
He sat down on the steps and pulled his sandwich out of the brown paper bag. Taking a bite, he stared into the distance with only one person on his mind. Visions of her flowing blonde hair, sapphire blue eyes, and a couple of other things had a hold on him. The way she was ogling him did nothing to deflect his interest, but it sure did inflate his already oversized ego. He tilted his head and let out a little snort. Oh yeah. He was going to have her name… and her phone number… and he was going to have it soon.