Work Text:
Soto, Daphne, and Morgan run down the corridor of the hospital, where Oz and Karadec were. Karadec and Oz had gone out to pick up a suspect for their latest case. Upon arriving at the suspect’s house, they were ambushed.
They first find Oz sitting outside of one of the rooms, with some bruising on his face.
“Oz!” Daphne cries out, “Are you okay?!”
“Hey, Daph. I’m fine. Just some bruising, that’s it.”
“Where’s Karadec?” Morgan asks.
“He’s in there; they have to give him stitches.”
Morgan’s eyes widened, “What happened?! Is he okay?!”
“When we got to the suspect’s house, we saw the door was left ajar. We went in, the house was empty…or so we thought. Next thing we knew, our suspect and his friend snuck up on us, and we were ambushed. The suspect’s friend threw a nice right hook to my face. But our suspect took out a knife on Karadec, and he got cut in his ribs. Paramedics said that his cut is deep, so they took him in to get stitches as soon as we got here,” Oz explains.
Morgan’s mind started racing after hearing Oz’s explanation. What if Karadec had bled out? What if his cut got infected? What if –
Soto looked over at Morgan and saw that she was in a daze, “Morgan, he’ll be okay. He’ll get through this.” Morgan nods at her reassurance.
A doctor comes out of the room Karadec is in, “Are you guys here for Adam Karadec?”
“Yes, we are,” Morgan answers immediately.
“Ok, we’re finished with our examination and giving him stitches. Mr. Karadec ended up with an inch jagged laceration in the lower, left quadrant of his abdomen. Due to the excessive bleeding, we had to put him under mild anesthesia before providing the stitches. He’s cleared to go home once he wakes up. He’ll need to come back here in 2 weeks for a follow-up examination of the area. Until then, Mr. Karadec is directed not to perform any vigorous activity and to make sure the stitches stay intact. I would also discourage him from driving as the wound can be affected as he twists and turns.”
“Got it. I’ll drive him home when he’s up,” Morgan volunteers.
“Morgan, are you sure? We can take him if you want. What about your kids?” Daphne asks.
“My kids are with Ludo this weekend. I’m fine. You take care of Oz. I’ll take care of Karadec.”
Daphne nods in agreement, “Okay, we’ll wait with you for him to wake up. Then, we can all leave together.”
After an hour, Karadec wakes up from the anesthesia. Before his discharge, the Doctor gives him one last examination and gives him the same instructions as he had given Morgan and the rest of the squad.
Once Oz and Karadec were discharged, Morgan drove Karadec back to his place, using his car, and Oz and Soto rode with Daphne back to the station to pick up their cars.
“Give me your keys, I’ll open the door,” Morgan sticks her hand out to Karadec once they get to his front door.
“Morgan, I don’t think opening my apartment door counts as ‘vigorous’ activity and is going to rip my stitches out.”
“I don’t care, the doctor said you’re supposed to be taking it easy. Now, give me your keys.”
Karadec sighs and hands over his keys with no further argument. Morgan opens the door. Once inside, she leads Karadec to his bedroom. Karadec sits on the edge of his bed.
“Thanks for dropping me off, Morgan. I can take care of myself from here.”
“Absolutely not! I’m staying with you to make sure you’re okay.”
“Morgan, I’ll be fine. Go home, your kids are waiting for you.”
“Nice try, partner. You know me better by now, and you know that Ludo has the kids this weekend.”
“Morgan, I’m serious. I can take care of myself. You don’t need to worry about me.”
“Adam, I’m also serious. We’re partners, you can count on me, remember? So, let me take care of you, please.”
Morgan looks at Karadec with a pout and a doe-like expression in her eyes. Damn it. Karadec thinks to himself. He can never say no to her, especially when she has this look on her face. She looks too adorable – Adam, what are you doing? She’s your partner. You can’t think of her like that.
“Fine, you can stay.”
“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
Morgan orders Chinese food for delivery from their go-to restaurant. Once the food arrives, they sit together and talk about everything and anything but work.
“Ava has an art exhibition for that class she’s been attending at Oberlin Design Center. She wanted me to extend the invitation to you guys. It’s next weekend. I already told Soto and Daphne about it. You know – before we got the call about you and Oz.”
“Tell her thanks for the invitation, and I’ll be there.”
“Will do. She’ll be happy to hear that you guys are coming. Soto and Daphne agreed to attend as well. Daphne said that she’ll pass the invitation to Oz.”
“Oz is going to come, Morgan. We haven’t missed any of Ava’s art shows yet since she started inviting us.”
“Correction, you haven’t missed any of Ava’s art shows yet since she started inviting you guys. There have been some shows that Oz, Daph, and Soto couldn’t attend.”
“Well, she invited me, so I’m going to show up. And if I remember correctly, you said I have no social life, so what else would I be doing on my weekends?” Karadec teases.
Morgan smirks and then throws a balled-up napkin at Karadec, “Hurry up and finish eating. I have to change your bandages.” Karadec smiles at her, “Ok, Mom. I’m hurrying.”
After they were done eating, they returned to Karadec’s room. Karadec sat on the edge of his bed.
“Morgan, I can change my own bandages.”
“Adam, we went over this already. I’m here to take care of you. So, I’ll change them. And you’re not supposed to be twisting your body so much because it can rip your stitches, remember? Doctor’s orders.”
“Fine, first aid kit is in the bathroom, bottom cabinet under the sink.”
“Thank you.” Morgan heads over to the bathroom and finds the first aid kit exactly where he said it would be, then returns to the bedroom.
It doesn’t surprise Morgan at all that Karadec has a fully stocked first aid kit. She puts on a pair of gloves before tending to his dressings. Karadec partially lifts his shirt, just enough for Morgan to see the bandages.
“You know this would be so much easier with your shirt off.”
Karadec looked at her with wide eyes, “What?”
“I said, this would be easier with your shirt off. Otherwise, you’re going to be holding onto your shirt until we’re done.”
“I’m fine like this, Morgan.”
“Okay, suit yourself. But in case you want to change your mind, I’m completely fine with it. You have nothing to be embarrassed about. And it’s just us, partner. You know you can feel safe around me.”
Karadec nods because Morgan was right. She would be able to do a more thorough changing of his bandages if his shirt weren’t in the way. Karadec started lifting his shirt.
“Here, let me help,” Morgan stands up to take his shirt off. Morgan takes his shirt off to the side of the bed. Morgan then sits beside Karadec to start changing his bandages.
Once she was seated beside him, it took everything in her not to get distracted. Morgan knew he was fit, but she could never have imagined he was this fit. His slightly oversized dress shirts for work didn’t do his physique any justice.
Karadec’s shoulders were broad, and he had a thin layer of hair on his chest. She saw that his abs were defined but not overly defined; she also saw that he had a slightly defined Adonis’ belt, leading down to his—Focus Morgan, she thinks to herself.
“Ok, almost done.” Morgan pressed over the bandage one more time to make sure it was secured in its place.
Once she was done, she cleaned everything up and helped Karadec put his shirt on again.
“Do you think you can keep yourself alive for the night, so I can sleep in my own bed? I can come check in on you again in the morning. I left my car at the station, so I’ll have to use yours. Which is a good thing because I don’t want you driving off in the middle of the night.”
Morgan starts heading for the door when Karadec grabs her hand, “Morgan, it’s late. I don’t want you driving by yourself at this hour. You can sleep in the guest room. I have an extra toothbrush somewhere in the bathroom, and you can borrow one of my old shirts to sleep in, if you want.”
“Ok, I’ll stay.”
Karadec gets up and goes into his closet to pick something out for her to wear for the night. On the way to the guest room, they stop by the bathroom, and Karadec finds the extra toothbrush and hands it over to her.
“Here’s the guest room. I’ll let you get ready for bed. Thanks for taking care of me, partner.”
“No problem, big guy.”
“Good night, Morgan.”
“Good night, Adam.”
Morgan lies down on the guest bed, staring at the ceiling. She was trying to shake off the image of seeing Karadec, shirtless. But in true Morgan fashion, she couldn’t forget what she saw. Her mind then started imagining being curled up against his bare chest, after they just had –
“Nope, nope. Morgan, he’s your partner and your friend. You can’t think of him that way,” Morgan whispers to herself, shaking her head. Morgan forces her eyes shut and eventually drifts off to sleep. But not without dreaming about Adam Karadec.