RP Log with geniuscowboy & rhythmictherapy | Awaited Meetings

[cutandlearn]

Trying to find a time for Chris to meet Serena's brother had proved to be almost impossible. When Serena wasn't on shift, and Chris didn't have his hands full with something for Rick, Drew seemed to have a client meeting. When Drew didn't have a client meeting, and Serena didn't have a shift, Chris needed to be with Rick during a rough patch. And indeed, when Chris didn't need to be with Rick, and Drew didn't have a client, Serena had to work. They had finally honed down that evening as matching all three schedules... at least, until Chris had met with Bella and things changed. That evening, Chris had to be at home to monitor Rick on the hour. There was no getting away from being more worried about his brother all of a sudden. Bella hadn't committed herself to anything, but Chris just knew there was something not right. Then there was Bella seeming to be ill and Chris not being allowed to say anything to Rick, and that was before he even stopped to think about Eva leaving. Things Chris hadn't even had a chance to tell Serena about. Plans were changed and with MT1 on the quiet side, Proctor let Serena take a longer lunch break, and Chris now found himself sitting at one of the picnic tables outside in the hospital grounds with a chicken and avocado wrap sitting on a disposable plate in front of him while they waited for Drew to arrive to have lunch together.


With a small scrunching of his nose and lips, Chris looked at Serena's lunch and then back at his. "Wasn't there something with... I dunno... grease? Chips? A burger?" He unpeeled the wrap and started to dig all the avocado off it, muttering something about looking like snot as he worked to pile it up on the side of his plate. He even had some sort of flavoured water to drink. No Coke, no Red Bull and he had a sneaking suspicion she was trying to subtlely ninja him off the energy drinks. At least it wasn't salmon. But still. You never knew with these trendy deli sandwiches, so he picked up a piece of chicken between his thumb and forefinger to make sure no wayward pink fish was hiding underneath it.

"I watched them make it," Serena said as she watched him in amusement. "There's absolutely no salmon. And I made them change gloves just in case there was a chance of contamination. It wouldn't kill you to eat something without grease. Especially considering you're not running around like a mad thing between traumas. You're looking after Rick, and that means you need to have all your vitamins and stuff. Protein. Good energy," she continued with her sweetest smile. She couldn't help if she wanted to try and make Chris eat something a little healthier than usual. "I'll make you a burger for dinner. You like my burgers, right?" She glanced over Chris' shoulder just in time to see her brother coming and waved at him. "Deep breath, baby. It's brother time."

Chris dropped the chicken back onto the wrap unceremoniously and looked up, finding a blond guy making his way across the courtyard with a satchel bag slung over his shoulder and an iPod in one hand. He looked between the guy and Serena a few times. It was kind of freaky how alike they looked. Chris could definitely see they were brother and sister. It was still hard for him to fathom that Serena even had a brother. For some reason, it just seemed like she was an only child, but that was only because he didn't know much about her in the early days. Strangely enough, everyone thought Chris was an only child too, before Rick rocked up on the scene. Eva had known he had an older brother, but she had never met Rick prior to that, either. Chris had only mentioned him once of twice in passing and never much wanted to elaborate on the issue. But now most people knew Rick... knew of him, at the very least, and all of a sudden Serena's big brother was on the scene too. At first glance, he was nothing like Chris expected and he rested his elbows on the table, squinting in the sunlight as he waited for the guy to get to the table.

Sometime over the weekend, Drew's patient had been admitted to the hospital with an increase in pain levels, but she had been adamant she still wanted his services. In fact, despite the pain, she had repeatedly told him how much more positive she felt since he had started his treatment plan with her and he was more than happy to continue with it if she was up to it. He grinned when he saw his sister at the table with her boyfriend and waved back as he approached. He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. "I seriously just bumped into the most gorgeous doctor. Long curly brown hair, big brown eyes, hot body. Dr Watson," he whistled, impressed and then laughed as he gave Serena a hug. "Shame she looked at me like she wanted to strangle me with her stethoscope. She mustn't be into blonds."

Serena started to laugh with her brother as she hugged him back tightly. "Oh, she likes blondes. You're just from the wrong stock. Sorry, big brother." She kissed his cheek before letting him go so she could introduce him to her boyfriend. "Drew Warren, this is Chris Deleo. My exclusive, my one time yoga partner, and fixer of my clicker." She gave her brother another squeeze. "And this my big brother, my best friend, and fixer of my thought train when it gets derailed."

Chris couldn't help the fact that his hackles were up as soon as he heard that Drew had been perving on Bella. It was reactionary, and it was slightly predatory protectiveness for his brother that he wasn't particularly used to experiencing. It was probably a miracle he didn't growl or bite Serena's brother's hand. "Hey! That's my brother's- nothing." He stopped himself before he completely fucked up. "My brother's... nothing. Hi, I'm Chris," he added sheepishly and held his hand out, shooting Serena a look of apology. In his head, he had anticipated trying to be the cool boyfriend when he met her brother, not the idiot with verbal diarrhoea.

"Your brother's nothing...?" Drew asked, raising his eyebrows a little. He took Chris' hand and shook it firmly, with a general nod at Chris. "His brother's nothing," he repeated to Serena with a smirk. It was hard not to pull the piss. It was hard not to clamp down on the dude's hand to lock him into place while he gave him the once over, too, and the handshake did linger slightly longer than it should have as he quickly analysed the guy standing in front of him. Drew had seen him briefly that day in the hospital when the guy looked stressed out and distracted. He still had a little bit of an air of that about him even now, but at least they were finally meeting. Drew had been waiting patiently for this. He would have waited a lot longer, too. This was the guy who apparently made Serena fall head over and he planned on finding out all about the dude. "Drew. I've heard a lot about you. I might not bite, but I will smash your face into the nearest wall if you make my sister cry."

"Drew!" Serena couldn't help but exclaim as she slapped him in the chest. "We haven't even eaten yet, you could at least hold off with the threats until then. Jesus. I want you two to play nice. I know it's been a long time coming, but we'll all professionals with busy schedules." She gave both the boys a warning look as she put her hands on her hips. If she could deal with Uncle Angry, she could deal with her brother and boyfriend. Even if it did make her a little proud as a sister to know her brother would smash a guy's face into the wall for making her cry. Fucked up, but still proud. She waited another moment before she combed her fingers through Chris' hair as she took a seat next to him and then rubbed her fingertips against the base of his skull to make him relax. She hadn't missed the slip about Rick's nothing, but she also knew it wasn't really something Drew should know about.

It was true. It was something Drew shouldn't know, but Chris hadn't been firing on all cylinders for weeks now, and he found himself once again running off at the mouth. "I won't make her cry if you stop trying to hit on my brother's... thing!" As soon as it was out, though, he made a small squeak and slapped a hand over his mouth. He wasn't sure if calling Bella a thing or the fact he had just spilled the beans in a fit of protectiveness shocked him the most, and his hand went from his mouth to covering his eyes with a groan. "I'm dead. I'm dead meat," he resolved with a shrug.

Drew slowly took his seat across the table from them, his eyes widened a little as he remained quiet and started connecting the dots in his head. The brother was the thing's... thing? He wasn't sure if he should actually comment on anything, but he also couldn't just sit there in silence. That wasn't him. He had to say something. "No hitting on any doctors. Check," he said and met Serena's eyes with a shrug of his own. But still, his own mouth had gotten him into trouble enough over the years, too. "Your brother's dating his doctor? Seriously? And I thought you two were playing with fire."

"They're not dating," Serena felt the need to clarify. She tucked her fingers around Chris' hand and gave it a squeeze. "Drew's more into nurses anyway, so doctors were always going to be safe. They're not really... That's why Chris doesn't know what to call her. It's just that Rick really likes her." Serena bit her lip as she looked between the two men and tried to gage if this was actually going well, or not.

"I would do a doctor if she wanted me to! I would!" Drew had to argue, only he quickly held his hands up like a shield. "Only, not that doctor. Not touching that doctor at all," he added quickly and then reached over to pinch half of his sister's sandwich. "Look, dude. I'm not gonna say anything. I don't have anything to do with Doc Watson. That's the first I've ever seen her. She could have walked up and bit me on the toe and I wouldn't have known who the hell she was. I'm not gonna pee on your brother's territory, even if it's not certain territory. I'll stay over on my grass with this very nice chicken sandwich with... ew, who puts sprouts on a sandwich?"

Chris dropped his hands back down on the table and looked at Serena's brother in bewilderment. That was exactly the same thing he had pulled the piss out of Dave about all those weeks ago. He should probably love the guy just by default. Sprout kismet. It was a relief to not have a reason to want to tear the dude's head off, though. He really did not have the energy for that. "Sorry about the whole..." He waved his hand, not sure of an adequate way to say 'dickhead tendencies'. "It's been a long week. Just out of curiosity, did she look sick?"

Drew looked confused at the weird question. "Nah, dude. She looked fine to me. Had a bunch of students following her around and she had the doctor mojo thing going on. She didn't look sick at all."

"Bella's sick?" Serena asked in confusion. She'd been smiling over the two men finally finding some common ground. The sprout hate wasn't lost on her, she knew exactly how Chris felt about them. It also wouldn't do either of them any harm to eat some. Serena batted her lashes at her brother before smirking a little deviously. It would teach him for pinching her sandwich. She pushed a third plate that had been sitting there towards him with something more sprout free.

Chris shook his head as he surveyed the strange mess he had managed to make of his lunch. "She wasn't feeling well when I spoke to her earlier, but it must have just been nothing." He sat up a little and stretched out the muscles in his back that were still stiff from the yoga session. "She wants me to bring Rick in tomorrow for more tests and monitoring. He's got some weird swelling thing going on and hurting when he pees." He glanced at Drew. "Sorry, dude. But yeah, she's... I don't know what I'm supposed to think. It's why I had to pull out of anything tonight. I need to keep an eye on him, get him drinking as much as he can handle. He's already in a shitty mood, so it's going to be an interesting night."

It hadn't escaped Drew's memory that Chris had been trying to nurse his brother through cancer, and although medical things in the flesh had a tendency to make him squeamish, he really had no problems with the dude here trying to offload the worries about his brother. Drew probably would have been doing exactly the same thing in his shoes. "It's fine, man. Seriously, just go ahead. You've got a lot going on and I do appreciate you stopping for this, though. I just needed to know that my baby sis is in hands I can trust. I don't just let her away with any random dipshits, and trust me, she has tried it on with her fair share of those. Jeez, this one dude in college, total nutball. Granted, he's probably a millionaire genius like Bill Gates now or something, but that's beside the point."

Serena reached out under the table with her foot to kick her brother. "Hey! Way to make me sound romantically retarded. He wasn't that much of a nutball. I mean, okay, he had that thing he used to do with his nose, but still. There are genuinely bigger nutballs around." Serena rubbed her hand against Chris' back and took a bite of her sandwich. "You really can be rest assured Chris isn't one of those nutballs, okay? He's real. He's the best I could have ever hoped for. More than. I'm sorry to hear she's not feeling well, that really sucks. Rick's learning to deal with you taking care of him pretty well, I think."

"That was a big nose thing," Drew snorted cynically. "And that thing with hose braces that time? That was totally weird. I didn't even want to stay in the same room as him in case his nutball rubbed off on me. I have a reputation to uphold, you know. Someone had to keep the cool in the Warren name." He reached under the table and smacked her foot out of the way so she couldn't kick him again. He was watching Serena's other half closely, though. The guy's body language was saying a lot more than he was. He was geniunely scared about this development with his brother's condition. "Isn't swelling a sign of kidney failure? I mean, I'm no doctor, but I had a patient with renal cell carcinoma once. All she employed me for was to put a good mix tape together for her funeral so people wouldn't be depressed. I was stunned. I still am. It blows my mind how strong these cancer patients are."

Chris had lost his appetite. He had gone back to just staring at the disassembled sandwich in front of him and moving bits of it around the plate to put up a guise that he was doing something with it. "Yeah, that's one of the things she mentioned, even if she sugarcoated a little by saying one of the things she wanted 'to rule out'." For some reason, he reflexively went to scratch at the side of his torso around the place Rick's incision had been when he had his first kidney taken out. Chris' mind had jumped to a transplant and he was starting to get more and more worried about that prospect as the minutes ticked over. Did he really want to just give up a body part? "A mix tape? She employed you for a mix tape? Shit man, I'm in the wrong job."

Serena wasn't fooled with the guise, and while she flashed her brother a smirk as he pushed her foot out of the way, her gaze was soon back on Chris as she frowned with concern. It was still hard to know how much she could get away with pushing him in front of her brother. Chris didn't exactly open up easy, but he was still talking with Drew. That was a good sign. It had to be. The nervousness at having the two men meet was replaced by concern for her boyfriend's own big brother. Her gaze flicked down to where his hand was and she wasn't far off from thinking about the transplant option. "She also isn't the sort to bullshit you. She might have sugarcoated, but she didn't lie. Eat something, baby. Please. When did you last eat?"

"Uh... um..." Chris had to literally stop and try to figure out when he last ate. "Last night. Leftover hot dog from Wayne's World at lunch time. In my own defense, I did go to to eat that leftover pizza in the fridge for breakfast, but it had mould on it. I'm not talking a little bit, either. It was practically alive. If you looked close enough, it might have even been moving. I just didn't have time to stop, I had to get here to catch her. I just didn't expect things to go from Rick telling me he couldn't--" He stopped again. That probably wasn't something he should be talking about. "Anyway, I just didn't expect her to get all efficient doctor on me. I thought it would just be the chemo stuff." He did pick up a piece of lettuce, though, and stuffed it into his mouth.

Drew was quiet as Chris continued to bounce his concerns off Serena. They seemed to have that much working for them. He wasn't hiding shit from her and he was offloading. That was an important thing, but at the same time, he knew how much Serena wanted to help people and she had to be struggling with this when there was just no real way to completely help. "So, worst case scenario... well, almost worst case... he'd need a kidney transplant, right?"

Serena stuck her tongue out as she visibly shuddered. "I swear, men should just not be allowed to have fridges when they live alone. All it ever gets filled with is food that's left to reproduce asexually until it's a whole colony of furry little pizzas. You know that when I move in, there'll be actual groceries and some real food, right?" Serena smiled a little at him and kissed his temple when he managed to eat a bit of lettuce. Her attention when back to her brother and she nodded. "Yep, transplant. With both kidneys riddled with the cancer, he'll need a transplant to get a kidney back in there to help him function."

Drew went back to watching Chris, putting the pieces together. "You want to give him a kidney, dude," he guessed and then nodded, clearing his throat. "I'd do the same thing," he admitted quietly.

Chris looked up, his forehead creasing with a helpless frown. He looked between Serena and her brother, trying to put them in his and Rick's shoes to just get a clearer picture. Of course Drew would do it unconditionally. He and Serena had been close from day one, but that was lacking in Chris and Rick's relationship. Suddenly Chris felt like a huge selfish fucker for starting to have second thoughts about a decision he thought he had already made. "I guess..." he finally replied.

Chris had asked Serena on their little getaway when they'd both just needed some time to themselves, and time to talk, how she'd feel about him giving up a kidney for Rick. She hadn't really been able to answer the question, slipping into Stupid Doctor Speak, but now she had a clearer perspective. A lot of that had been to do with being able to talk to her brother about it all. She was still relieved to have Drew around right now, even if she spent most nights with Chris. It was just nice knowing he was in Miami, and not Chicago. "You're having second thoughts?" she asked softly.

"I-I don't know," Chris replied awkwardly, this time his appetite really zapped and he pushed the plate away. "I don't know what to think anymore. I guess I stopped thinking about it too much. Bella seemed too good, and maybe I fell into a delusion that once he started the chemo, it'd all be fine, but now suddenly she's talking about swelling and more tests and infections and kidney failure. I don't even know what I'm supposed to think anymore. It's not like it matters that much anyway, because Rick never knew and he would probably as soon as die than let me give him a kidney."

Drew sat forward. "Hey, dude. It's alright, you know? It's not an easy thing, and there is no right or wrong answer. It's a body part, one that we were given two of for a reason, but you guys are doctors, you know there is always bodily loop holes. You also don't need anyone telling you that you have time to think about it, because you'll get pissed off knowing the last thing your brother probably has is time. But dude, you're still a person. You're still a great bloke, but you're you. You weren't put here to be your brother's keeper. You need to think about you too. And I guarantee you, as a big brother myself, yeah, he's not going to take it without a fight. He's going to want to protect you, no matter what your past is. But it's okay to not be sure about something like this, because at the end of the day, isn't the biggest rule in surgery that it always comes with risks? See? I do listen to my little sister sometimes."

Serena gave her brother a proud smile as she took Chris' hand and linked their fingers. Now that they were out in the open she didn't have to worry about holding back. She didn't need to stop when it came to comforting him. She had been surprised to hear little gossip about them on the hospital grapevine, even when Eva was suddenly not around. "I knew it had to sink in sooner or later, big brother. And Drew's right. I wasn't trying to imply you had to give him your kidney, but it seemed like an option you were ready for before. And of course there's risks, there's loads of risks, and it's okay to take time to consider them. You don't even know that his kidneys are shutting down. Maybe he just overworked his groin."

"He didn't overwork anything, he couldn't get it up." Chris just put his hands over his face with a sigh. He had no control over his mouth, and maybe there was just part of his brain that needed to talk about this. He knew they weren't his issues to be spreading about, but it wasn't really spreading it around, right? It was Serena, and Serena's brother, who Chris had come to the conclusion he could trust by default. They weren't his issues, but he was the one trying to nurse Rick through this and understand it. It just seemed to get more and more confusing by the minute. "That's when she found the swelling."

"Um, okay, I could be wrong here, but wasn't your best mate the dude who survived cancer? Maybe I'm on the wrong track here, but the cancer doc is going to clamp down on the confidentiality because you lot are all doctors here. Your brother is still her patient, so he's going to be her priority. She'll want to give him any facts before anyone else. But maybe you should chat to the other dude? He'll at least know what could be going on here, right? He'll know the process and all the... I dunno, cancer speak?" Drew suggested with a small shrug. "What random swelling might mean, at the very least. Just to put your mind at ease a bit."

Serena gave a nod. "Absolutely, you should talk to Dave. It might help him, too. Just know he can talk to you about that part of his life. I know none of this is easy, Chris. I know it's gotta be hard trying to process it all, and we're always here when you need to chew over it some more and just have a couple of sounding boards. But Drew's right. Bella's your brother's doctor here, but at least Dave has perspective and you don't have to worry about treading on toes." She bit her lip for a moment and raised her eyebrows. "Also not about to pass comment about not getting it up, but... there was a second meet between them?"

Drew couldn't help it when he started to snigger. He tried to stifle it by putting his hand up to his mouth, but he was still a guy. "I am. I like the dude, what can I say? Cancer, and still manages to get a hot doctor in bed. I'm jealous. I'm so jealous, it's not even funny.

Chris shot Serena a look, but he eventually smirked in amusement at her brother. "I'm struggling to believe you two have the same blood right now," he replied. "Does Dave even have time to scratch himself? I spoke to him online. He's missing his family, but he was on his fourth shift. He wants to spend his days off sleeping. Then Eva went and freaking called in sick because she's-- shit, I really need to learn how to shut my mouth. Why don't they have a goddamn injection for verbal diarrhoea?"

Serena reached up to pinch his cheek as she grinned at him. "Because you're so cute when you ramble." She looked over at her brother and arched an eyebrow. "Whatever happened to that naughty nurse anyway? There's nothing wrong with nurses, you know. You don't always have to go for the doctors. And Dave's... struggling. But I think he just wants to prove himself so badly. I told you about that shit that was being said. I'm surprised Eva called in sick when she knows how hard it is being short staffed, but hey, maybe she really is sick. I don't know. Where is Dave's family?"

Drew scrunched his nose up. "She got transferred to Orlando. I'm in mourning, seriously. I'm grieving terribly."

Chris growled in annoyance, feeling like he wanted to smack anyone who gave his best mate a hard time. "He doesn't need to prove himself, he's an amazing surgeon. Proctor wouldn't have him there if he wasn't. He just feels behind the eight ball because he was sick. He thinks people are going to assume he's weak, and some do, you know. The bastards. Dave's from Jacksonville, a few hours drive from here. Maybe six, give or take. Drive from here directly up the coast and you'll eventually hit it. Then from Jacksonville, drive directly west for about five hours and you'll hit my shithole of a home town. Eva's..." He paused and turned to Serena with a frown. "She told me something last night after everything went down and I didn't take it well at all."

Serena rolled her eyes at her brother before sticking her tongue out. "Yeah, yeah. Real convincing, Drew. Maybe we should kidnap Dave's family and bring them down here, or something?" She blinked as she met Chris' gaze. "What did she say?" Serena had only felt guilty about her and Chris twice. The first time was in Proctor's office when he said he'd been expecting more from her regarding the secret keeping, and the second time was when Eva caught her and Chris and in the car park. She'd felt like her entire stomach was going to up end itself onto the gravel. She had only been imagining what Eva would have been saying.

"Road trip!" Drew cried with an enthusiastic nod. "I'm in. When are we going? I call ACDC on the stereo!"

"Do you have ADHD?" Chris found himself asking Serena's brother with a tired smirk. He rested his head on his hand with a sigh. "She- there was a job offer. I think she's going to move to Boston," he told Serena in a mumble. Eva hadn't told him not to tell anyone. It wasn't like there was a lot of time for her to, granted, but she didn't seem to be intent on keeping it a secret. Just that she hadn't wanted to hurt Chris in revealing it. "Just last night for her sealed the deal."

"It's never been proven," Serena responded with a smirk of her own as she nudged her brother under the table. She was looking back at Chris and her eyes had widened in shock. "Boston? Oh my god... Why hasn't she said anything? Why last night? Why us? I don't understand." She felt a surge of emotion well up inside her, and she clenched her hands into fists in her lap as she bit on her lip. "She should have said something... We should have said something."

"She probably didn't feel like she could tell me because I've had my head so far up my own ass lately! She told me that. Told me like she felt I had stopped talking to her that day I spoke to her at work, and I had. Maybe a part of her really didn't want to go, but now that all of a sudden it feels like the people closest to her here have been lying to her, what's the point of staying?!" Chris cried, his concerns since his fight with Eva the night before coming out in a large rush.

Serena frowned a little as she gave a shake of her head. "People fuck up. True friendship... She should be able to forgive us. But it takes time. Everything takes time. And now it just seems like we won't get that time. Maybe I should talk to her?" But even as she said it, Serena had no idea what she'd say. She looked to her brother for support, but Drew didn't even really know Eva. "We have to make it up to her..."

Drew raised his eyebrows. "What are you looking so scared for. She's your mentor, right? Maybe you should talk to her, lay all the cards on the table," he suggested, even if it might not actually be what she wanted to hear. In fact, Drew was pretty sure he was sticking his nose into business that wasn't his, but it wasn't like he was going to walk off and spread their secrets all over the place. Of course he wasn't. He was just a sounding board.

"She just said she wants to be happy to. I just feel like a giant fuck for not realising she wasn't," Chris finally admitted, getting to the root of why he had taken it so badly.

"She's even better at keeping secrets than we are," Serena murmured. "We weren't to know. It's not as if we asked, either. Neither of us. It's not just you. And I'm not scared, Drew. I'm just... nervous. She's my mentor but she's... It's just hard thinking about how to have this conversation. I don't even know what cards I'm supposed to lay out."

"You work with her every day? How can you not know. Just put your big girl panties on and jump in the deep end. No one is going to bite. The chick's leaving. At the end of the day, that's going to be the outcome. You can either let her leave with bad blood, or clear the air," Drew reasoned simply with a small shrug as he bit into his sandwich. He chewed and then swallowed, gesturing to Chris' plate with his own sandwich. "You should eat, dude. You don't wanna wind up looking like Justin Bieber."

Chris just shook his head. "Christ, why wouldn't this have happened at any other time? When am I going to get a damn breather?"

"I don't know, baby," Serena replied as she rubbed her hand against his thigh. "At least you're not alone. You have your brother... you have me. You even have my brother. And you'll have Eva. We just need to talk to her. I need to talk to her. I'm gonna get on my big girl panties and I'll just talk to her. I don't want it to end with bad blood."

Drew decided it was probably more than ample time to make himself scarce. "On that note, I'm gonna leave you two at it. I've got some stuff on this afternoon." He stood up and kissed the top of Serena's head before messing her hair up. "Thanks for the lunch, sis. Appreciate it. You take care of your other half, he needs it." Then he looked to Chris. "You fuck with her and you'll be wearing your balls as suspenders," he had to add before he grabbed his stuff up and left them alone with a wave.

"Suspenders..." Chris commented. "Now that's a new one."