Things I Love About You - part II
Part II of loony_daydream's fic.
Title: 10 Things I Hate Love About You
Prompt: Caroline's Top Ten Reasons Why She's In Love With A Certain Dr. Macartney // Mac's Top Ten Reason's Why He's In Love With A Certain Dr. Todd
10 Things I Hate Love About You - Part II
Mac sighed and rubbed his face with his hands. He’d been at this for ages, and it was… fucking hell, almost one a.m.! He looked down at the piece of paper on the desk in front of him. The white of the page had almost disappeared under black biro doodles, except for a rectangle in the centre which contained the words: ‘10 Things I Love About Caroline,’ followed by a list of numbers. After number one he had written: ‘I love you because…’ but that was about as far as he’d got.
He’d started with a clean sheet of paper at about ten o’clock, and quickly scrawled down seven things he loved about her. But that was the problem: writing, ‘I love her because she has the most enchanting eyes,’ didn’t actually mean anything. ‘She,’ could be anyone, and Caroline Todd wasn’t just anyone to him; quite the opposite really.
So he screwed up that page and ripped another one from the pad, copying out all his points in the second person: but now they were directed at Caroline, they still didn’t sound right somehow. ‘I love your messy hair,’ just wasn’t romantic enough. It wasn’t what he wanted to say at all, nor how he wanted to say it.
So he’d begun yet again, with a third sheet… and he’d been sat staring at it now for almost three hours. It wasn’t that he doubted he loved her, because he did; of course he did. It was just putting it into words. If he had been any good at poetry he’d have done English, not medicine. He could note down figures - measurements, dates, readings from machines - and concise patient histories, but that was all impersonal; had nothing to do with him, or what he thought or wished or really felt.
He wanted to write simply, ‘I love you because you are completely wonderful,’ but that seemed to defy the point of the exercise.
Jesus, why was this so difficult? Over the past hours his mind had wandered over her, and everything about her. He’d become so lost in memories and fantasies (of various types and intensities) that he’d ceased thinking about the list and just enjoyed thinking about her. Which was all well and good, but it wasn’t going to help him finish and get to bed this side of Christmas.
No, he needed to concentrate and just write down the first things that came into his head; that way it would be spontaneous and meaningful - and hopefully even slightly romantic. Closing his eyes, he pictured her again; smiling, laughing, teasing him about something… kissing him in her bathroom, in the lecture theatre, outside the hospital, inside the hospital… sacrificing herself so he could go and be a father to Mackenzie… looking so utterly adorable in scrubs, in her normal clothes, in that little blue nightie which she stubbornly insisted was a dress…
Yes, she was definitely stubborn - and he liked that. She was much stronger than she seemed, and yet at the same time much more fragile too. She just wanted to be loved, protected; looked after when she was having a bad day… and all the rest of the time too, for that matter.
And he wanted to be the man to do all that for her, and more.
He realised suddenly that he’d filled in numbers one to nine with utterly honest, heartfelt things he loved about her. Smiling to himself, he completed the final point, folded the sheet of paper into four and signed the top quarter: ‘All my love, Mac.’
Now it was definitely time for bed - he’d worry about how to explain it all to her in the morning.
II
Title: 10 Things I Hate Love About You
Prompt: Caroline's Top Ten Reasons Why She's In Love With A Certain Dr. Macartney // Mac's Top Ten Reason's Why He's In Love With A Certain Dr. Todd
10 Things I Hate Love About You - Part II
Mac sighed and rubbed his face with his hands. He’d been at this for ages, and it was… fucking hell, almost one a.m.! He looked down at the piece of paper on the desk in front of him. The white of the page had almost disappeared under black biro doodles, except for a rectangle in the centre which contained the words: ‘10 Things I Love About Caroline,’ followed by a list of numbers. After number one he had written: ‘I love you because…’ but that was about as far as he’d got.
He’d started with a clean sheet of paper at about ten o’clock, and quickly scrawled down seven things he loved about her. But that was the problem: writing, ‘I love her because she has the most enchanting eyes,’ didn’t actually mean anything. ‘She,’ could be anyone, and Caroline Todd wasn’t just anyone to him; quite the opposite really.
So he screwed up that page and ripped another one from the pad, copying out all his points in the second person: but now they were directed at Caroline, they still didn’t sound right somehow. ‘I love your messy hair,’ just wasn’t romantic enough. It wasn’t what he wanted to say at all, nor how he wanted to say it.
So he’d begun yet again, with a third sheet… and he’d been sat staring at it now for almost three hours. It wasn’t that he doubted he loved her, because he did; of course he did. It was just putting it into words. If he had been any good at poetry he’d have done English, not medicine. He could note down figures - measurements, dates, readings from machines - and concise patient histories, but that was all impersonal; had nothing to do with him, or what he thought or wished or really felt.
He wanted to write simply, ‘I love you because you are completely wonderful,’ but that seemed to defy the point of the exercise.
Jesus, why was this so difficult? Over the past hours his mind had wandered over her, and everything about her. He’d become so lost in memories and fantasies (of various types and intensities) that he’d ceased thinking about the list and just enjoyed thinking about her. Which was all well and good, but it wasn’t going to help him finish and get to bed this side of Christmas.
No, he needed to concentrate and just write down the first things that came into his head; that way it would be spontaneous and meaningful - and hopefully even slightly romantic. Closing his eyes, he pictured her again; smiling, laughing, teasing him about something… kissing him in her bathroom, in the lecture theatre, outside the hospital, inside the hospital… sacrificing herself so he could go and be a father to Mackenzie… looking so utterly adorable in scrubs, in her normal clothes, in that little blue nightie which she stubbornly insisted was a dress…
Yes, she was definitely stubborn - and he liked that. She was much stronger than she seemed, and yet at the same time much more fragile too. She just wanted to be loved, protected; looked after when she was having a bad day… and all the rest of the time too, for that matter.
And he wanted to be the man to do all that for her, and more.
He realised suddenly that he’d filled in numbers one to nine with utterly honest, heartfelt things he loved about her. Smiling to himself, he completed the final point, folded the sheet of paper into four and signed the top quarter: ‘All my love, Mac.’
Now it was definitely time for bed - he’d worry about how to explain it all to her in the morning.
II