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Josh closed the front door to Wolf’s house — their house — behind him, happy to be out of the cold. It was much warmer inside and he shed his coat gratefully, hanging it up on the coat rack. He’d had a very long day and he was looking forward to unwinding with a glass of wine, preferably with his favorite person.
He saw light coming from the den and headed straight there, feeling excited to see Wolf even though he’d just seen him at the hospital earlier that evening. It felt good to have somebody to come home to. He didn’t take it for granted, even though it had been months since they’d moved in together.
Josh found Wolf sitting on his leather couch, wearing the noise canceling Bose headphones that Josh had bought him to use on flights and staring intently at his phone. Wolf was wearing his readers and Josh could see what looked vaguely like a graph reflected in their lenses.
He knew that if Wolf wanted to listen to music at home, he preferred listening to his record player, even though Josh had gotten him an Idagio subscription. So he was curious about why Wolf had his headphones on.
As soon as Josh walked into Wolf’s field of vision, he looked up with a big smile and set his phone down on the side table, along with his headphones. He stood up and greeted Josh with a kiss, draping his arms around him in a loose hug.
“Hi,” he said, sounding almost shy.
“Hi. Sorry, my surgery went long. The tumor was close to her optic nerve.” Josh rested his hand lightly on Wolf’s cheek. “I hope you didn’t wait for me to eat dinner.”
“Nico let me know you’d probably go long so I ordered Thai. There’s leftovers in the fridge for you.”
“That sounds a lot better than the protein bar I ate at the hospital because I was starving,” Josh said wistfully. “Hey, what were you listening to just now?”
“Brains,” Wolf said nonchalantly.
Josh stared at him.
“Patients’ brains,” Wolf said, attempting to clarify. “Microelectrode recordings.”
“Oh! Right. Why were you listening to those?”
“Mr. Roland’s aDBS surgery is in three days.”
“I’m aware, I’m performing that surgery,” Josh said, not unkindly.
“It’s going to be my first time in there solo. I won’t have Dr. Ellis to verify the placement.” Wolf’s brow furrowed with concern.
“She’s confident that you’re going to be fine. And she said that you’ve learned everything that she can teach you. Do you have a crush on Dr. Ellis? Are you going to miss her not being there?” Josh grinned.
“This is serious, asshole.” Wolf let go of Josh and pushed him away playfully. “I just want to make sure I get everything right. Accurate electrode placement is absolutely critical to getting the best results. I can’t fuck up.”
“Fuck up? She said that your placements are perfect. Better than hers, even. You’re more than ready to do this by yourself.” Josh could see that Wolf was unconvinced. “And you’re not going to be alone. I’ll be there with my team. And you get to tell me what to do when I place the electrodes. You like that, don’t you?”
“Actually, I like it when you tell me what to do,” Wolf said, biting his lip.
Josh opened his mouth, said nothing, then closed his mouth. Wolf hooked his fingers under the waistband of Josh’s jeans and pulled him close for a hungry kiss that made them both forget about the upcoming surgery. Josh had picked up pretty quickly that Wolf got off on him being commanding, although it didn’t do anything for him personally. He was more than happy to do it because it made Wolf beg and moan and squirm, and he really enjoyed that.
He was about to ask Wolf if he wanted to take things upstairs, then reconsidered.
“Let’s take things upstairs,” Josh said sternly.
Wolf raced up to their bedroom with Josh close behind.
“That’s it,” Wolf said confidently. “That’s the globus pallidus. Keith, can you lift your left arm?”
The surgical team watched as Keith Roland raised his left arm and watched his left hand closely. The tremor that had been so noticeable before they had started the surgery was gone. Keith gasped in surprise as the team exchanged smiles.
Wolf was concentrating hard on what sounded like bursts of static coming from the headphones he was wearing to help him map Keith’s brain. He didn’t notice the reactions of Josh’s team, and even though it was clear his job was done, he wanted to reassure himself that he’d done everything humanly possible to give Keith the best outcome.
The team looked at the monitor displaying the readings from the adaptive DBS neurostimulator, observing the changes as Wolf ran Keith through a series of other simple movements. Once Wolf was satisfied with the results, Josh would be able to cap the holes that he’d drilled in Keith’s skull. Parkinson’s couldn’t be reversed or cured, but his symptoms would be much more manageable, and he’d be able to reduce the amount of medication he had to take to function.
“I don’t know how you do it,” Josh said, his voice slightly muffled by his surgical mask. “It mostly sounds like static to me.”
“When you listen to it enough, it starts to sound like music,” Wolf said. “Looks like you’re all set here. Page me if you need anything. Otherwise I’ll see you at home?”
Dr. Ross and Dr. Young exchanged glances and Josh frowned at them briefly, then turned his attention back to Wolf.
“I’ll see you there. Excellent job, Dr. Wolf.”
“Excellent job, Dr. Nichols. It was good working with you,” Wolf said warmly.
“I liked working with you too,” Josh said, then cleared his throat as Dr. Ross tried to stifle a laugh. “Uhh, I mean, yes. We work well together. I look forward to doing it again.”
Wolf nodded and left the OR. He thought about the first time he’d met Josh, and how he would have never imagined him saying something like that, or that he would ever feel the same way.
He went home and watered his ferns, then settled on his couch and put his glasses on to read a medical journal, just like he’d done so many times over the years. Only now, he knew that he would be interrupted before he could finish, and he wouldn’t mind the interruption at all.