Hello, Doctor

[MARIUS DAKANIS]

"just give me a call and let me know what time I'll see you on Thursday." He'd hardly gone on dates since he'd moved to Scriptor Bay. It was hard to date with a career like his and although at the moment he knew he had Thursday off there was no telling if he'd draw the short straw and be stuck on call or not. Even still that didn't mean they couldn't still go out and have a nice evening. He'd surely have to call, likely Wednesday, to confirm their date and be sure that he wouldn't be called into work. By then he'd know his schedule for sure.

Before he had a chance to say another word he heard a little jingle playing and he grabbed at his pockets instinctively. He knew it wasn't his ringtone but it was a habit, when a phone started to ring he reached for his own. It was ridiculous, especially since his phone was currently on vibrate and he wasn't expecting any phone calls. He was already at work.

From the sound of the conversation, Abby had someone waiting outside to pick her up and he was glad to hear that. He didn't know if she had driven herself to the hospital or not but she shouldn't be driving on that foot. When she said it was her mom he gave a little "ah," and a head nod. "Mothers are something, aren't they?" He offered, listening to her explain why she was speaking a foreign language on the phone. He had to admit he was impressed and wondered if she had Italian heritage. He thought she most likely did.

"You speak it as if you're from Italy. I always thought the language was beautiful," he told her honestly. "Would you mind showing me how to get out of here? I know I'm going to get lost," Marius had to join in with her laughter and agreed, opening up the door and allowing her to head out first. "To your right," he explained so she knew which way to turn, tucking her chart under his arm and following slowly so that he could give her a chance to get use to the crutches.

"I would love to learn Italian someday," Marius said, going back to the conversation that they were having before she asked for directions out of there. "And Spanish. It seems that would be a very helpful language to speak here. There are so many who don't know English that it is unfortunate. In my country Romanian was the national language but there were many places where they spoke German. You didn't go to those places unless you were going to learn the language." He didn't know how she felt about others learning the national language, and although America didn't have a 'national' language - which in Marius' opinion was ridiculous - almost everywhere it was English that was spoken. Hell, he'd learned English.

His eyes flickered over to her and watched her curiously. She was so petite and he couldn't stop himself from thinking that it was what made her so pretty. He was still trying to figure out how he'd mustered up the courage to ask her out on a date, but that didn't matter now. She had accepted and he could live with his accomplishment without worrying about if he'd been turned down.

[ABIGAIL JAMES]

Abby was glad Marius agreed to walk her out. More time to spend chatting with her future date! It was still a surprise to her that she had a real date set up, but she was very excited for it. She had to admit, being under a love potion and being incandescently happy made her want to try again, for real this time. Gavin had been fun, and they were still quite friendly, but he wasn’t boyfriend material. Maybe, just maybe, she could find what she needed in Marius. She loved the hope one felt just before the first date. It was all so fresh and exciting. The good doctor held the door open for her, as a gentleman should, and she thanked him, taking a right out of the door as he instructed. Crutches were strange contraptions, but it didn’t take her too long to figure out how to use them. She was glad to be off her foot.

“I would love to learn Italian someday.” Abby smiled wide, glancing up at him. “Oh yeah?” “And Spanish. It seems that would be a very helpful language to speak here. There are so many who don’t know English that it is unfortunate.” Abby had to agree with that statement. Luckily for her, Spanish and Italian were very similar, and she could understand it for the most part, but she didn’t speak a lick of it. If she spoke Italian in return, a lot of the time she got blank stares. “In my country, Romanian was the national language but there were many places where they spoke German. You didn’t go to those places unless you were going to learn the language.” Abby followed him through the corridors as they spoke, and she assumed that meant he spoke German, too. How interesting! “I had a Romanian teacher in high school. She was really funny because she didn’t hesitate calling students dunces, but it was all in good fun. She told us how popular German was in Romania. I always thought that was interesting. Her name was Mrs. Lucanu.” She gave him a smile, though she was a little hunched on the crutches.

“But if you really want to learn Italian, I could teach you,” she told him with an almost playful air. “My grandmother, she’s from Italy, a town near Naples called Avellino. She always spoke to my mom in Italian and so my mom taught me Italian. I used to go to Avellino every four years or so growing up. I couldn’t afford it now, but my grandma’s always asking me to visit her.” She laughed a little, thinking of how her grandmother would talk to her once a month from Italy, having moved back in her old age, prattling on and on about the handsome Italian husband she could find. Who needed a handsome Italian husband when she had a handsome Romanian date, though? “If you can learn Italian, you can learn Spanish. Spanish is like a simpler version of Italian.” Her smile was sweet as she glanced up at him again. “Maybe I’ll teach you a few phrases on Thursday.” Somebody just walking by would assume she just had another appointment with the doctor on Thursday; only they knew it was really a date, but she still felt a little devious bringing it up in a crowded hall. There was an impish glint in her eye, betraying the little tease hiding inside of Abby, but she wouldn’t show him the full extent of her playful nature. Not yet anyway.

[MARIUS DAKANIS]

"Maybe I'll teach you a few phrases on Thursday." He didn't know why but her talking about Thursday made him feel good, knowing that she likely didn't intend to bail on him at the last minute. It gave him a little more confidence and he smiled at her clearly pleased with what she said. "That would be wonderful." He confirmed, even though they were still inside the hospital with others walking around them he knew that nobody was listening to their conversation. A few nurses looked in their direction but that was only because they were expecting him to give them instruction on patients.

"Ah, I nearly forgot," it was as if a light came on in Marius' head as he realized he hadn't written her a prescription yet for her ankle. He didn't want to give her anything that was too strong but enough to take the edge off the soreness of it since she would surely be sore for a while. He flattened his hands against his chest, patting it a few times before he realized that the prescription pad was in fact in the breast pocket of his lab coat and pulled it out with his pen and began to scribble on it. Of course his writing was just like every other doctor out there, a bunch of illegible lines that pharmacists magically knew how to read. "It's not too strong, but it should help if you're in pain."

He didn't hand over the prescription just yet but he did rip it off the pad and return it along with his pen back into his pocket. He didn't want her to try and figure out how to put the prescription away when she was trying to walk with the crutches. "I'll just hold onto this until we get you safely in your mother's car," he explained so she wouldn't think he was holding onto it just for the sake of holding it.

As they came closer to the waiting room he stopped walking and held a finger up as if to tell her to wait. "Just a moment," he arched his shoulders back and slipped his arms out of the lab coat and set it on the nurse's station just before they went out into the general waiting area. "Marion would you be so kind?" He asked the closest nurse who scooped up his lab coat and nodded. It left him in just a light blue button up dress shirt and his light and dark blue striped tie. He began to unbutton his cuffs and roll the sleeves up to his forearms. "If I go out there in my coat we'll be mobbed for sure," he told Abby with a playful tone but it was true. The few times he had gone out into the waiting area of the ER in his coat he'd been swarmed by patients wanting to be checked out. It only took him five or six times before he realized that he needed to go out there without the coat on if he wanted to leave with his limbs intact.

The waiting area wasn't very big and although he didn't have his coat on some of them eyed him and the girl suspiciously. But for all they knew he was someone who was helping her outside, whether he were a friend or something else. He didn't look like a doctor now. Well, he sort of didn't.

A large black woman was out in the waiting area waving a piece of paper around trying to fan herself as beads of sweat ran down her head. She didn't seem to want to sit down and was making quite a commotion. "I need a cold pop or sumthin'! An' a doctor! I can't be sittin' around all up in here with these people! Ain't nobody got time for that!" The black woman was close to the pair of them and she was swinging her arms and rocking from one foot to the other. Clearly she didn't care if she was taking up so much room by shifting and rocking the way that she was and hip checked Marius when they were walking past.

And that's when things became interesting.

Marius wasn't expecting the woman to bump into him and he definitely didn't expect to bounce off her hip as if they were driving bumper cars. He lost his footing and stumbled directly into Abby. His eyes widened with fear that he was going to knock her to the ground or worse, she was going to try and take a step with her bad foot and injure herself more. So he did the only thing he could think of and wrapped an arm around her from behind, his hand pressing against her stomach and pulling her into him and lifting her partially so that she couldn't place her right foot on the ground. "Shit!" He exclaimed sharply under his breath, contorting himself in a very awkward position. His torso was twisted in a weird way so that he could keep her up and pressed to him while he had one foot under him and one out to the side keeping his own balance. "........."

Meanwhile, Big Mama was standing there giving them a look as if they just tried to do the mambo in the middle of the waiting area. "Mmhmm!" She said between pursed lips with attitude.

[ABIGAIL JAMES]

“That would be wonderful.” Abby was beginning to melt at that smile. It was almost shy and a little crooked, and it just made him even more attractive. Even better, he wanted to learn Italian. She could just kiss him. “Ah, I nearly forgot.” Abby stopped limping along, watching curiously as he started patting his chest before finding a prescription pad. Oh, yay, she got pills! Not that she really needed them; she had potions for that. Maybe they would knock her out, though, and help her get some rest. As he scribbled, he said, “It’s not too strong, but it should help if you’re in pain.” “Thank you!” she piped for about the thousandth time. He was just so nice and helpful, how could she not thank him? But then he stuck it in his breast pocket again and she wondered if this was a game. Was he teasing her? “I’ll just hold onto this until we get you safely in your mother’s car.” So it wasn’t a game, but she wouldn’t mind going fishing for it. The thought made her smile, but she nodded and continued to follow him out.

As they neared the front, they stopped again, and she waited patiently as he started taking off his coat. Why was he doing that? He asked one of the nurses to take it and she smiled curiously as he rolled up his sleeves. “Are we going on a mission?” she asked playfully. She couldn’t help noticing how muscular his arms were, something which she found surprising in a doctor, but hot too. “If I go out there in my coat, we’ll be mobbed for sure.” “Oh,” she replied, laughing. She could only imagine the reception they would get with the patients all impatiently waiting out in the lobby. Seeing him without his lab coat, though, he looked even more handsome, if that was possible. The blue of his shirt brought out the blue in his eyes and she fought back a blush. She was so swoony today.

At last they made their way out, Marius walking beside her as Abby hobbled along. Some of the patients were eyeing them, but Abby just brushed them off. What caught her eye the most was a big black woman swaying side to side, sweating and fanning herself. “I need a cold pop or sumthin’! An’ a doctor! I can’t be sittin’ around all up in here with these people! Ain’t nobody got time for that!” Abby wondered what Marius would think of that English, but she didn’t ask him for the moment. Instead, she just smiled to herself and kept making her way to the front, hoping she could squeeze by the swaying woman. She was managing that, but Marius wasn’t so lucky.

Chaos ensued.

Marius came flying at her and instinctively she gasped and made to step on her bad foot, which had been hanging in the air like a pink flamingo’s. She was waiting for impact, but instead his arm came around her and pulled her to him tightly, pulling her off her feet some. Her left crutch clattered to the ground as her left hand covered his in surprise, a little yelp of shock escaping her. “Shit!” She was afraid he was going to slip or something, but instead they just stood there in a long silence, her body pressed against his tightly. When she was certain they weren’t going to topple over, her heart raced and she realized her fingers had laced with his on her stomach. Her eyes looked to Big Mama, looking at them like they were crazy. “Mmhmm!” Abby couldn’t help but giggle, looking over her shoulder at Marius. “If you wanted a hug, you just had to ask,” she teased quietly so really only he could hear. She grinned wide, noticing how close they were, and glancing at his lips. Her heart fluttered a little as she blushed lightly. Her smile faltered a little as she looked back up at those blue eyes and she knew she was in trouble if she didn’t look away. The whole exchange only lasted a couple seconds, but she felt like the whole waiting room was suddenly watching. She cleared her throat and looked to the ground and saw her crutch lying there, wishing she could get it herself and stop troubling Marius.

[MARIUS DAKANIS]

“If you wanted a hug, you just had to ask,” The giggling and her words threw him off more than the large black woman who was making disdainful noises in their directly, not to mention all the people who were staring at them like they'd just done a distasteful dance. His face was close to her ear though, close enough to get a whiff of the scent that her hair gave off. He thought it was almost.. earthy and clean smelling. He swore he could even smell a bit of the salty ocean in it which made sense since she had been at the beach when she'd injured herself.

Of course he hadn't expected Abby to turn her head to face him and when she had his face was right there not far to meet her, his eyes on her warm brown ones and inhaled deeply then holding his breath as if he were worried about breathing on her. Then in an instant she was pulling away from him and reaching for the crutch that had toppled for the ground. "Let me," he insisted and reached for the crutch after fixing his posture but an older gentleman beat him to the punch and picked it up, holding it out for Abby to accept.

Marius stood up straight and looked around at all the eyes that were on them and felt himself getting a little uncomfortable by it. He was a quiet man who enjoyed solitude, not being the center of attention. He thanked the old man gently and then placed a hand on the small of Abby's back. He'd already practically cuddled up to the woman so leading her outside with a guiding hand didn't seem so taboo now.

Stepping outside and into the bright afternoon took time for Marius' eyes to adjust. He'd been inside all day long that the sunlight hurt his eyes. He squinted a bit and realized he had no idea where her mother would be parked. He saw a few cars with people in them but it didn't mean any of them were the right one and he didn't want to guide her in the wrong direction. "Is your mother here yet?"

[ABIGAIL JAMES]

“Let me.” Abby felt bad that she kept troubling Marius today, but she was surprised when an older man picked up her crutch for her; at least Marius wasn’t troubling himself now. She smiled brightly at the older gentleman, thanking him for his help before she tucked the crutch back under her arm. She failed to notice the amount of eyes on them, still trying to get her heart to stop dancing in her chest. Her eyes went to Marius as he placed a hand on her back and she smiled a little before hobbling along at his direction. She hoped she’d feel those arms around her again in the next few days. Abby liked to cuddle, and right now she was trying not to imagine actually cuddling with Marius so she could concentrate on getting out of the hospital.

Once outside, the late afternoon sun was bright and took some adjusting. Her eyes roamed the cars sitting outside the ER, trying to find the black Corolla her mother drove. “Is your mother here yet?” Just the question she was asking herself, when she saw a car pulling out of the queue of cars and driving up to them. The black Corolla had arrived. “Yup, there she is!” she announced, waving to her mother and father while still leaned on her crutch. Her dad was sitting in the passenger’s seat, obviously there to drive her car home. Abby looked very much like her mother except for her wide-set mouth and strong jaw—those came from her father. Her father had gray hair that had once been black and smaller blue eyes, very different from Abby’s large brown ones. She smiled up at Marius playfully, saying, “We haven’t even gone on a date yet and you’re meeting my parents.” She giggled, smiling bright, before turning back to her mother and father who were getting out of the car.

Her mother was a small woman, standing at 5’1” where Abby stood at 5’5”, making Abby seem tall. She came hustling over to Abby, fretting over her only child as she always did. “Abby, are you okay? Is it broken?” she asked as she approached. “I’m fine, it’s just a sprain,” Abby replied with a smile. Her mother gave her a big hug around the neck, making Abby giggle. “Mama, I’m fine. Marius patched me up,” she said, turning her eyes to the good doctor with a smile. “Marius? Who’s Marius?” Abby nodded to Marius, making her mother turn and look at him. “Mama, this is Marius Dakanis, the doctor who helped me today,” she introduced. Sophia moved to him as her father walked up and gave her a gentle hug. “Hi Daddy,” she greeted softly as her mother talked excitedly to Marius. “Thank you so much for helping her!” She was already shaking Marius’ hand warmly and Abby grinned as she watched. There was something very amusing to her about Marius meeting her parents before they even went on a date. Her mother turned to Abby as she was shaking his hand, her eyes a little surprised. “Lui è così bello!” Abby laughed, nodding. “I know! Vi dirò di più in macchina. But we should probably let him get back to work,” she said, glancing to Marius. Sophia finally released the good doctor’s hand with a smile and made her way back to the car. “Well, it was lovely to meet you, doctor.” “Yes, thank you for patching her up.” Her father chimed in from beside Abby. He was quiet compared to his chatty wife. Her father helped Abby hobble to the car, but Abby smiled over her shoulder at Marius. “Thanks again. I’ll see you Thursday,” she said cheerfully. She was so excited for their date and even more excited to tell her mother about it. She would be ecstatic.

[MARIUS DAKANIS]

When the black Corolla came to a rolling stop in front of them he could only assume it would be her parents. Them or it was just someone who was rude enough to stop right in front of them and block their way. He really didn't like when people did that. But Abby confirmed that it was in fact her parents and waved at them.

He stood there as her mother and father came out of the car, hugging her and making sure that she was going to be alright. "She's going to be just fine," he interjected and put on his best polite smile. He wasn't the smiling type but today he was smiling all over the place. He had a feeling Abby was just one of those people that when you came into contact with them they infected you with their good mood and positive energy. They were always good to keep around in case you ever needed your day brightened up.

When her mother asked who Marius was he gave her his attention as she thanked him for helping Abby. "The pleasure is all mine, I'm just glad that she's going to be healed in no time." He nodded, trying his best to be as polite as possible. Sometimes he had a hard time, but this wasn't one of them. He just didn't need manners much when he was around sick patients all day long, he just needed was his PhD.

Abby and her mother began to say something in Italian and although he didn't know what they were saying when Abby said "But we should probably let him get back to work," he knew that they were talking about him. He just hoped it was nothing bad. "Ah, yes. There is still a waiting room full of people needing to be seen," he said trying to keep the conversation light. Her parents thanked him and he gave his little 'your welcomes' to be polite before his eyes fell on Abby.

"Thanks again. I'll see you Thursday," Marius nodded and held a hand out to wave. "I'm looking forward to it," he told her and waited for her mother to pull away from the curb first before he walked back into the hospital. The rest of the day was going to be a breeze now that he had something to look forward to at the end of the week.

END THREAD