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It was a rare happenstance when the majority of you had any time to go out and enjoy night life like regular people but this was finally one of those days. It had started as just drinks between you, John and Ellis. Then you’d invited Abbot, it was partly a joke at first not thinking he’d want to, but you’d all shared beers after shift enough that he knew he’d enjoy the company he just wish he’d asked the location as well.
It wasn’t until you arrived at the bar with Abbot in tow that you also noticed Emery and Garcia had joined the party. They were currently facing away from you, thankfully, so you immediatly caught John’s eyes and in that moment he learnt truely what the phrase ‘if looks could kill’ means
“Did you invite her?” You mouthed trying to also not let Abbot see your expression. John just raised his eyebrows at you twice teasingly in response. You thought that was bad enough and then Ellis leaned over to see what John was looking at and when she caught your eye she gave you a wink before loudly exclaiming your name causing Emery and Garcia to wip their heads around to look at you.
“Nice of you both to finally join us! We’re getting rounds its too fucking busy to be messing around.” Garcia hollered trying to be heard over the sound of the abnoxious music. You slid in the booth beside John and Abbot slid in besides Garcia, it was usually more convinent for him to have his prostetic stretched straight instead of cramped under a booth table.
The moment you sat down there was a cocktail placed in front of you and the night went like that. You could almost guarantee that is was John who chose the bar, you would also guarantee that by the time you left here there'd be significant ringing in your ear based on the decibel volume of the music alone and that was before you encluded the chorus of chatter you had to be heard over to speak. Still the energy was high and after a few drinks youd ignore the fact your feet slightly stuck whenever you tried to take them off the floor.
You waited until everyone was about 3/4 through their drinks before getting up to head to the bar and begin your round. You didn't even need to ask everyone's orders you were all creatures of habit, your job was stressful and chaotic enough something had to be consistent.
Going in rounds was much easier and also meant no one came along to steal the booth. It also meant that once yours and Aboots rounds were done every time someone got up to get a round it was a small game of musical chairs. That was how you somehow ended up seated next to Emery, you knew it was either John or Ellis’ doing you just couldnt figure out how.
It wasn’t a huge deal, you were only thinking about how far away you were sat. Are you moving too much that it’s weird? It was only now you were considering if you could breathe weird? You’d focused a bit too much on your posture that you hadn’t noticed how quickly you’d got through your drink. However Emery noticed straight away, she’s been not-so-subtly paying attention to you all night but you’d put so much effort into not staring at her too much you hadn’t noticed.
“Can I get past?” Her voice whispered in your ear and you were convinced all the heat ran to your face at once, suddenly you were lucky for the abhrasive neon lights above. For some reason you didn’t think about the proximity you just turned your head towards her voice, you found yourself doing that a lot lately. However this left you both cheek to cheek considering she leant in to whisper in your ear.
You both jump apart at the sudden contact, a cough suddenly erputing from your chest as you mutter something that was crossed between ‘of course’ and ‘yeah sure’ as you shoved John out of the booth without even saying anything to him. You ignored his mutters of irritation and confusion and continued pushing him until he was stood up and you let her out of the booth. It like the cogs starting turning again in John’s head because he tried to dive back into the seat, to enevitably force you to sit together again, but you got there first firmly planting yourself in the corner.
You couldn’t help the way your eyes followed her through the crowd. It wasn’t intentional at first, your eyes just always seemed to find her even across a room. She dissapears out of your eyeline as she rounds the corner towards the bar leaving you pulled back into the conversations happening around the table.
You were midway through a sentence when you noticed the tray of cocktails placed on the table. You looked up making direct eye contact with Emery for a second before she quickly looks away and hands everyone their drinks. She placed yours infront of you, her face getting warm despite not even looking at you. That was when she placed an empty cup and also a cup full of cocktail umbrellas in front of you, the same one you had in your current cocktail as well even though it didn’t come with it last time.
“The fuck?” John’s voice cuts through the shared confusion as everyone was looking between you, the cups and emery.
“I’ve noticed when they’re drinking they like to pick apart the umbrellas, I just asked the bar if they could give me some and put one in the drink.” Emery had to address the response to John, almost referencing you like you weren’t there. She didn’t want to know your reaction to the gesture but you wanted her to so badly look at you.
It was a pretty common habit of yours you were well aware of it, similar to the small habit of picking off a label from a beer bottle but most of the time you deconstructed it onto a napkin so it was easy to throw away. You’d assumed because it was just something small you played with that no one had ever noticed it, no one had even mentioned it before now.
“Oh so you just asked the bar?” The playful tone in Ellis’ voice caused Emery to immediatly stare at her with dissaproval, a hilarious juxtaposition from her previous bashful expression.
“Just something I noticed, no big deal.” Emery tried to keep her tone dismissive from Ellis’ comment without making the gesture seem meaningless. Even Abbot made an unconvinced face at Emery’s comment. She mumbled something about ‘just lettings it go’ and took her seat back in the booth.
Emery felt very validated when she saw you instantly picking one of the umbrellas out starting to deconstruct them one by one. She carried that high for the rest of the night and honestly for the next couple of days.
The first time you’re back on shift together is 3 days later. 72 hours is a lot of time to sit and overthink about a ‘simple gesture’ from a colleague while getting drinks. You think if you mention it to Ellis one more time that she might kill you by 1000 pricks with said cocktail umbrellas.
You knew that Emery gets in about 6 minutes after you each shift. Not that you’d tracked her or anything strange, you’d just noticed her getting out of her car as you sat outside contemplating life before walking in. After that it became just another casual habit, noticing her in every space you share wether that’s a hospital parking lot or a trauma room.
The air was heavy with the heat creating an uncomfortable level of sweat across anyone that dared to be outside. You knew despite the weather that Emery would have the same hot coffee, just the same as John having an iced coffee despite the tempreture.
Emery wasn’t prepared to see you walk out of the elevator onto their floor, usually it was her coming downstairs to see you. She had no clue what you wanted but with the smile on your face she’d give you anything you were about to ask for, but instead you gave her something.
“I brought you coffee.” You squeezed your words out, not even a hello just an announcement of the gesture. Emery let out a small laugh in response, the warmth in her voice feeling hotter than the cup in your hand.
“Bribing me before the shift even starts.” Her voice was laced with teasing but in a way that was very new. Emery had let off many a sarcastic comment while you were around but there was a fondness to this you weren’t used too. Her eyes didn’t leave yours as she took the cup from your hand, you can see her fingers itch towards yours for a second but she pulls it tight to the cup so fast you could think you’ve imagined it. It wasn’t until she took a sip of her cup that her gaze finally broke from yours.
“You got me a cortado?” The teasing note in her voice had been replaced by true excitement.
“It’s your favourite coffee, theres a place near me that sells them.” You shrugged off the obvious gleeful smile from your face trying to copy her cool demenor from the other night.
“You know most people would assume and get me a black coffee.”
“You’re not the only one who can notice things,” This time your the one who's face was heating up. You avoided her eyes the exact same way she did to yours at the bar, electing to try and look around the floor hoping to remain casual.
It wasnt until Emery looked down that she noticed a number scrawled across the holder of the cup and her inner glee at the situation instantly died. Of course someone had given you theyre number you were magnetic in a way she couldnt describe. Patients, nurses, hell even doctors from other departments always seemed to gravitate towards you.
“Is everything ok?” Your voice cut through her overthinking as she stared at the cup with a vacant expression, “Em?”
Her head then snapped to look at you. This wasnt the first time youd called something other than her title, it wasnt even the first time youd called her by this nickname. It was the first time youd ever said it like that.
“Yeah im great, looks like your popular today though.” She laughed out tapping the number on the cup hoping she was giving off casual instead of jealous. Her resolve wavered slightly when she saw you raise an eyebrow at her but it didn’t show on the outside. She began the crack, like a suspect under interregation, a little as a smirk began to spread across your lips.
“It’s for you, actually,” There was something about the teasing tone as well as a new found bravery laced in your voice that had the hairs stood straight on the back of her neck. For a moment she let her mind wander about where else you’d speak to her like th— “It’s my number.”
“So I’m the popular one today then?” The sheer confidence in her response had you wondering at all if the gesture had phased her, it most certainly had she was currently short circuting and running on auto-pilot. It was just lucky that her auto-pilot was cunt.
“If you play your cards right you could be,” You took a step closer, the distance between you two boarding her on unprofessional, to her lowering your register as you spoke trying to keep your coversation as discreet as you can. You took a small step to the side giving a bit more space back between you both but as soon as you did it both of you craved the closeness back.
Despite both of your hearts beating fast enough to be genuinely worrying to any medical professional it had almost proven to boost your confidence rather than thwart it. Emery made a bold decision, especially considering you were both very much at work, and turned her face towards you meaning you could feel every word of hers on your skin.
“Next gesture is on me then, are you free after shift?”
She wasn’t fully prepared for you to immediatly match her energy and turn your face towards her, mirroring your action from the bar however this time it was intentional. Your noses couldn’t have been more than a small step apart and the minute Emery noticed the balls of her feet flexed upwards instinctually wanting so desperatly to take the small step.
“You’ll have to text me to find out,” And just like that you started to retreat back towards the elevator the tension stretching the further you went like a magicians trick, “See you later, Dr. Walsh.”
Emery stood there for a moment feeling like her feet were rooted to the spot, she couldn’t move until the lift doors closed again. She swung around trying to ignore the look Garcia was giving her but also the way she felt when you called her Dr like that. She definetly didn’t spend the rest of the day plotting on how to make you call her Dr like that again.