just_muse_me | 8.7.6 Lady Boss
Co-written with scrubbedup
It was 2am and time for Matt's nightshift dinner break. He had started work at 9pm, so he really was starving. He remembered nights from when he was a student nurse, but not that he was fully qualified, it was a little more hard going. PPTH was the biggest hospital he had worked in, with the more extensive range of medical services offered. He loved both the ER and the Surgical Department, and had met some great people. He was still a little thrown that his Nursing boss was in hospital, in the ICU, no less. He did look really sick, too, and his family and friends were clearly worried. Matt had subsequently learnt that Patrick could even end up in a wheelchair once we woke up, and it wouldn't be the first time. He couldn't even begin to imagine what it must be like for his husband, who apparently was some massively successful sports car driving executive from New York with his own company, but had begun nursing Patrick back to health after he got sick each time. That was huge. Matt wanted to be that in love one day, if he met the right chick, of course.
He came into the staff room, arms laden with everything from a couple of sandwiches from the vending machine, a packet of chips, a coffee, a can of Coke, a Mars Bar, a packet of peanuts, chocolate milk, and some cold pizza he brought from home. He was trying to stifle a yawn as he dumped it all on one of the tables, making sure none of it spilled over to the floor and became inedible. He always had a healthy appetite. His scrubs pants got caught on the edge of the table in the process and inevitably got tugged down over his hips, exposing his butt. He squeaked in surprise and quickly tugged them up, spinning around to make sure no one else was in the room.
Of course, that meant his acting boss was standing there, didn't it?
Georgina had been sucking down on her large juice, her bundle of supplies healthier than Matt's. She used to eat the way he did, nothing but junk at 2am in the morning, but slowly the sugar had stopped giving her a rush, and she'd wound up just more tired and lacking in energy. She still had a coffee in hand, the one addiction she was not giving up. George's eyebrows had gone up at the sight of his incredibly sexy ass, and she cursed Riley Browne for ever pointing out that she was Matt's superior and therefore bedding him was a no-no.
She released the straw slowly from her mouth, and ran her tongue over her lips as she continued to stare at where his exposed bottom had been. "Is that how you greet everyone, or am I special?" she asked, smirking.
Matt did have the decency to blush, but only slightly, and only because she was his boss and it really wasn't the image he was trying to project. Man, who's ass fell out the first time they worked with their boss, really? He had a firm grip on the elastic of his pants, lips pressed together as he rapidly tried to inwardly regain his composure. He cleared his throat and took a tentative step away from the table so it didn't tear his pants off completely. "I, um... sorry," he offered with an embarrassed laugh. "They just got caught, and I... they..." He gestured with his hand in lieu of more words that would probably make him look like an even bigger dick. Oh thank fuck his dick hadn't dropped out!
George continued to smirk, moving forward to place her things on the table to free up her hands. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail that had seen better days, or at least better hours, and she pushed some of the loose locks back from her face as she turned around. Without thinking too much about it, Georgina pulled her own scrub pants down to show him her butt, and winked at him from over her shoulder. Her olive skin was smooth and flawless, after a moment, her ass once again covered as she pulled her scrubs back into place. "There, now you don't have to feel so awkward. While I would say you haven't got anything I haven't seen before, I don't think that would exactly make you feel anymore at ease, would it? It's fucking embarrassing having something like that happen, and I'm probably never going to let you forget. However, now we've seen each other's asses, we can just try and move on."
"Or I start to feel doubly awkward that my boss just showed me her butt," Matt pointed out with a laugh having tried to avert his eyes from the sight but come on... he was a twenty four year old bloke and really liked the female butt. Especially one looking like that. Oh hell, no way could he be perving on his boss! He flopped down heavily into the nearest chair and fumbled with his chicken and mayo sandwich. "If it's any consolation, you have a very, uh... bossly butt." He snapped his mouth shut after that. It was officially the most stupid thing to ever come out of his mouth. Ever.
George started to laugh as she sat across from him. "I like to think of myself as a harsh but fair mistress, so a bossly butt makes sense. You have a very sexy subordinate ass," she returned with a smile. "I'm sorry if I did just make you feel more awkard. I was just trying to help."
Matt held his sandwich in both hands. "You didn't really," he assured her with a smirk. "I'm just not going to verbally admit to your face I was perving on you. That can be an elusive mystery of all time." He took a large bite of his sandwich, watching her across the table as he chewed, still smirking a little.
"Alright, well, I was definitely openly perving on you," George admitted, returning his smirk as she took another large sip of her juice. She swallowed, wetting her lips as she worked on opening up her chicken salad. "Which apparently I shouldn't be doing since I'm your boss and all, but it's incredibly hard not perving at someone with an ass like yours. Even when it's not all exposed." She pointed at him with her plastic fork. "And your not admitting is an admittance. You're saying that you weren't to cover your bases, but I didn't say anything about perving."
Matt licked some mayonnaise of the corner of his lips and took a sip of his chocolate milk. "Well, thank you, and I can be very clever like that." He tugged a piece of lettuce from between the bread and gestured to her with it. "Don't you wonder if you're going to be next in the curse line?" he asked out of the blue. If they kept talking about butts and perving, he was going to get in trouble and he was coming to really like his job here.
Georgina frowned as she tilted her head. "What do you mean?"
"The Surgery Boss Curse. It's apparently a thing. I mean, there was the guy before Dr Chase who had a heart attack and couldn't come back to work. Then Nurse Preston, who is in here again as a patient, and Dr Chase, who had cancer? Apparently? Has cancer. I haven't met him, of course, but I've heard a lot about it. It was a real shock. Dr Cameron in the ER said everyone was stunned about it. It came out the blue," Matt explained and then held up his hand. "I'm working on hearsay here with everything but what Dr Cameron said, and I realise I'm a newbie and people could just be telling me shit to wind me up, but I was just saying.
George pressed her lips together, and nodded. "It's all true. It all sucks, but it's all true. Only Pat being a patient is hardly a curse. It's just his sickness. And he's the head nurse, he's not in charge of surgical, so he's an exception to the curse. As I hope I am, because I really don't want cancer, or a heart attack."
Matt nodded. "Yeah, I think they were just being shit heads. Something about Surgical management having bad luck and finding it amusing to call it a curse. But then, apparently the gossip mill around here is really questionable to start with and it makes me wonder why people don't have better hobbies. I, um, went up to the ICU, just because I was curious. I didn't realise at that point you were taking Nurse Preston's place. Do you do that when he can't be here?"
"Part of being his second in charge," George told him with a smile. "They used to ship in someone else when I was still being trained up, but lately the hospital powers that be trust me to keep things ticking over. Actually, the idea of you starting freaked me out a bit. Pat's much better at the whole mentoring thing. I wish I had half the skill he did at it, so I'm sorry if you don't feel like I'm giving you anything. It might just take me a little while to find a rhythm. As for the rumour mill, it's a hospital and we all spend a lot of time here. It keeps us entertained, I guess. Actually, Dr Riley Browne's wife is the best at corrupting the grape vine. She's made it a personal hobby to see how insane she can make the rumours, and still have people believe them. How did you feel seeing Nurse Preston in his hospital bed?"
Matt shrugged and poured out a handful of peanuts into his palm, offering some to her. "I just need you to train me, you don't need to mentor me. I've learnt pretty well to ask for help if I need it, but otherwise I'm pretty proud of what I've achieved and seem to have good feedback about my work. I don't want to be a zit on your butt and be the annoying new kid on the block when you have a load of other stuff going on." He nodded. "Yeah, I met Riley, and I met Lachlan too..." He trailed off a little, remembering how weird the whole encounter was and it sent a small shiver up his spine. "Doesn't she worry she'll hurt people? Yeah, I felt really strange. He looks really sick, everyone seems worried and there was this dude who looked so much like him, I bumped into the watercooler because I rudely staring on my way out."
"Evie? Nah, she just does it to stop the original rumours hurting people. Like, if the rumour's that you and me were caught in some tryst in a janitor closet, she'd turn it into something completely insane so that people just didn't take it seriously. She actually helps, believe it, or not. It's just been hard since her husband's been a subject of the rumour mill a lot." Georgina leaned forward to take a couple of peanuts, smiling in thanks. "Oh, so you met the Kilted One? He's something, huh? He's a great guy. And you're not annoying, or a pimple. I just don't want you to not feel welcome, or whatever. Pat's always good at making people feel like part of the team straight away, and not just another worker." George chewed on the peanuts before she broke into a grin. "That's Cameron. He's Pat's identical twin."
"He has?" Matt asked. "Why has he been part of the rumour mill? Maybe it's died down because I didn't hear any rumours, but I did hear one that the Head of Oncology was sleeping with Dr Cuddy, only that really does seem like something way out of the left field. I've met both, and they were real nice." He moved onto the Mars Bar after eating a whole mouthful of peanuts. "I did, and he was... well, he was extremely nice. Didn't think it was weird I showed up there or anything. Said something about singing ABBA and then, well, I realised who he was," he admitted.
He pointed with a laugh. "Yeah, I figured that one out a little too late. They look so similar, only different as well. My parents are English, but moved here before I was even born. I've subsequently connected all the dots. My Dad likes following Liverpool. I wouldn't know English football if it bit me on the butt, but it's a small world."
George looked away, checking to see if any other staff were about to enter. She wasn't sure about sharing Riley's secret completely, but Matt seemed trustworthy enough. Still, she better play it safe. "He was involved in an incident in the ER, and for a long time after, the rumour mill wouldn't stop turning. Oh yeah, that one... it's old. I swear it comes out ever couple of months. If you believe what people say, Cuddy and Wilson haven't stopped having sex for years now." She gave Matt a wink. "Yeah, well, disco is Pat's life blood. It was worth a shot trying to sing. Ah, so you remember the shooting? Still manages to come back and haunt him. Poor guy."
"English, huh? Very cute. I'm part Russian, English, and Irish. Figure that one out," George said with a grin.
Matt's forehead creased. "An incident, huh?" But he just left it at that. He wasn't going to pry and he could tell she was being purposefully evasive. "Maybe they should just do it and shock the shit out of everyone. That's probably what I would do, but I'm not as innocent as I look." He nodded. "He did sing, and he's damn good, too. I was in Princeton for Christmas that year, and we live just a few blocks away, so we were watching it on TV as it happened, as they were working on him. It was scary. Everyone expected him to die, every ticker that came across the screen we expected to say he had died. Then he was just there and talking to me. I must have looked like I saw a ghost."
"You're a bitsa. I won't hold it against you," he said, smirking.
"Needlestick. Some asshole patient decided to get agressive while Riley was looking after them. Or at least trying to." George snorted. "I'd almost pay to see that. And you really shouldn't mention the fact that you're not innocent when I'm still wondering what it would be like to jump you. He's got a band. They play The London a lot. Actually, Riley's sister co-owns the place with her husband and she's in the band with Lachlan. She's a crazy good singer, too." George combed her fingers through her hair, and leaned back in her seat, her appetite gone as she remembered that Christmas. "It was scary, and intense, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. It was hard on his fiancee at the time. She's now his wife. Lachlan's been through a lot. All because of some psycho bitch."
"Good to know. I want hold being British against you. Or at least first generation American," she replied.
Matt looked at her seriously, not saying anything at first. Had to have been aggravating issues with the whole thing because healthcare workers got needlestick injuries all the time. "Did the patient have Hep C or something? Not to dilute the needlestick thing, but unless there is evidence the sharps were infected, it's generally no big deal if an accident happens," he pointed out. He raised his eyebrows. "Are you allowed to jump your peons? Are you trying to sell the band to me, or something else?" he laughed. "He did mention that, that she was his wife now. I had no clue what went down after the main hype. My parents were a friend of a friend of his wife's parents at the time, but that's about it. It was some chick who was stalking him because he was a relative's doctor or something. That just freaks me out, but I guess every job has it's downside."
He smirked at her again. "I can be anything I need to be."
George shifted in her seat. "Patient had HIV, and a stomach virus." She stifled a yawn as she reached for her coffee, the drink thankfully still warm. "Every job definitely has a downside. Just ours can sometimes seem to have serveral. There's the long days, the shitty patients, the occasional violent incident, bodily fluids covering our scrubs..."
"You're really not helping me follow that whole good girl thing and not sleeping with my peons. One of them, anyway. I have no idea, I think it's only something we have to follow if it will interfere with our work. Still, clear lines and all that..." George shrugged as she took another sip of coffee. "We're all adults. I'm not about to exploit you."
Matt paused, his Mars Bar a few inches from his mouth and he watched her over it. He averted his eyes just a little to a pot plant in the corner as he thought. Riley was wearing a MedicAlert bracelet. Matt remembered noticing it during his first shift, but hadn't thought much on it. Figured the guy must be diabetic or something. Only now, maybe it wasn't as straight forward. "Oh," he finally said as he met her eyes again. "That must have been a scary thing for him to go through, the wait and everything..."
He shrugged a little. "Shame we only have fifteen minutes of our break left, and patients probably needing a ruptured appendix removed."
"He had a lot of time off work," George told him softly. "It was agonising for him." She poked at her salad before finally pushing it away. Eating this early in the morning was still hard for her. She licked her lips, and waggled her eyebrows. "Hey, fifteen minutes can be plenty when it's just about being hard and fast. I don't think we're shooting for epic."
Matt moved onto his second sandwich, ham and tomato this time. "I saw the MedicAlert bracelet," he told her. "Whatever's behind it is his prerogative to tell. I didn't see any evidence that it impeded him being a great doctor." He started to pick the tomato off. He hated it, and there had been no plain ham sandwiches in the machine. He glanced up at her again. "Oh, I don't know. I really think I need to be a good boy right now."
"It is, but you did ask about the rumour mill. Oh, and there was the time everyone thought he'd been secretly fucking Dr Chase. So just be prepared to listen to most stuff with a pinch of salt." George gave a nod as she watched him. "Which I am fully planning on respecting. I'm not into pressuring anyone. If a tumble's on the cards, it is. If it's not, then I at least have memories of your ass to keep me warm for the rest of the shift."
"It wasn't really in relation to Riley, but I appreciate the ample warning in case I start hearing he caught cancer off Dr Chase or some crap," Matt said in slight amusement. He couldn't be sure if his boss was trying to come onto him or not, but he chose to play it cool just in case. It wasn't like this had happened to him before, and he really wasn't sure if he could lose his job over something like that or not. "Likewise," was all he added, but he was watching her with curiosity.
Georgina held her hands up, palms facing him. "I'm sorry, I feel like I've fucked up. I wasn't trying to harrass you. Just you're cute, and I wouldn't mind some strings free fun. I should have maybe kept my mouth shut, but now that I have seen your ass, I just can't stop thinking about it."
Matt swallowed his mouthful of sandwich and licked his lips. "It does feel a little weird," he admitted honestly. "I don't really want to lose my job and I've only been here a few days, so I don't all know what strings are where. Not that I don't think you're hot, because I do, but I just really don't want my training to fuck up. I hope to be here for a very long time. I mean, this is my first qualified nursing job, and I really like it. I feel like I could fart in the wrong place and fuck up right now, so it's no offense, I promise."
"Hey, it's cool. Totally get it. Even if I think you don't need to try that hard. This place isn't about causing you stress." George gave him a reassuring smile. "I promise you don't have to be that scared. You're doing great. You're already gaining the respect of the doctors which is a huge deal. And the patients like you."
Matt smiled. "Cheers for that. It's not something I can be opposed to hearing right now. I know I'm probably coming across as all that consistent a personality right now, but nerves and curiosity aren't a great mix. Still, once I find my feet, who knows what might happen," he added, raising his eyebrows as he took another bite of his sandwich.
"Like I said, I get it. I remember what it was like to be new. And again, I'm sorry for coming across as strong. Don't be scared though, I'm not go all Fatal Attraction on you." She laughed a little, and raised her coffee cup in a toast. "Here's to finding your feet."
Matt held up his can of Diet Coke. "Cheers," he returned with a smile. If anything, at least his boss wasn't a sixty year old Hitler-type.
Words: 3672 | All muses referred to with permission and come from the princeton2nyc verse
It was 2am and time for Matt's nightshift dinner break. He had started work at 9pm, so he really was starving. He remembered nights from when he was a student nurse, but not that he was fully qualified, it was a little more hard going. PPTH was the biggest hospital he had worked in, with the more extensive range of medical services offered. He loved both the ER and the Surgical Department, and had met some great people. He was still a little thrown that his Nursing boss was in hospital, in the ICU, no less. He did look really sick, too, and his family and friends were clearly worried. Matt had subsequently learnt that Patrick could even end up in a wheelchair once we woke up, and it wouldn't be the first time. He couldn't even begin to imagine what it must be like for his husband, who apparently was some massively successful sports car driving executive from New York with his own company, but had begun nursing Patrick back to health after he got sick each time. That was huge. Matt wanted to be that in love one day, if he met the right chick, of course.
He came into the staff room, arms laden with everything from a couple of sandwiches from the vending machine, a packet of chips, a coffee, a can of Coke, a Mars Bar, a packet of peanuts, chocolate milk, and some cold pizza he brought from home. He was trying to stifle a yawn as he dumped it all on one of the tables, making sure none of it spilled over to the floor and became inedible. He always had a healthy appetite. His scrubs pants got caught on the edge of the table in the process and inevitably got tugged down over his hips, exposing his butt. He squeaked in surprise and quickly tugged them up, spinning around to make sure no one else was in the room.
Of course, that meant his acting boss was standing there, didn't it?
Georgina had been sucking down on her large juice, her bundle of supplies healthier than Matt's. She used to eat the way he did, nothing but junk at 2am in the morning, but slowly the sugar had stopped giving her a rush, and she'd wound up just more tired and lacking in energy. She still had a coffee in hand, the one addiction she was not giving up. George's eyebrows had gone up at the sight of his incredibly sexy ass, and she cursed Riley Browne for ever pointing out that she was Matt's superior and therefore bedding him was a no-no.
She released the straw slowly from her mouth, and ran her tongue over her lips as she continued to stare at where his exposed bottom had been. "Is that how you greet everyone, or am I special?" she asked, smirking.
Matt did have the decency to blush, but only slightly, and only because she was his boss and it really wasn't the image he was trying to project. Man, who's ass fell out the first time they worked with their boss, really? He had a firm grip on the elastic of his pants, lips pressed together as he rapidly tried to inwardly regain his composure. He cleared his throat and took a tentative step away from the table so it didn't tear his pants off completely. "I, um... sorry," he offered with an embarrassed laugh. "They just got caught, and I... they..." He gestured with his hand in lieu of more words that would probably make him look like an even bigger dick. Oh thank fuck his dick hadn't dropped out!
George continued to smirk, moving forward to place her things on the table to free up her hands. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail that had seen better days, or at least better hours, and she pushed some of the loose locks back from her face as she turned around. Without thinking too much about it, Georgina pulled her own scrub pants down to show him her butt, and winked at him from over her shoulder. Her olive skin was smooth and flawless, after a moment, her ass once again covered as she pulled her scrubs back into place. "There, now you don't have to feel so awkward. While I would say you haven't got anything I haven't seen before, I don't think that would exactly make you feel anymore at ease, would it? It's fucking embarrassing having something like that happen, and I'm probably never going to let you forget. However, now we've seen each other's asses, we can just try and move on."
"Or I start to feel doubly awkward that my boss just showed me her butt," Matt pointed out with a laugh having tried to avert his eyes from the sight but come on... he was a twenty four year old bloke and really liked the female butt. Especially one looking like that. Oh hell, no way could he be perving on his boss! He flopped down heavily into the nearest chair and fumbled with his chicken and mayo sandwich. "If it's any consolation, you have a very, uh... bossly butt." He snapped his mouth shut after that. It was officially the most stupid thing to ever come out of his mouth. Ever.
George started to laugh as she sat across from him. "I like to think of myself as a harsh but fair mistress, so a bossly butt makes sense. You have a very sexy subordinate ass," she returned with a smile. "I'm sorry if I did just make you feel more awkard. I was just trying to help."
Matt held his sandwich in both hands. "You didn't really," he assured her with a smirk. "I'm just not going to verbally admit to your face I was perving on you. That can be an elusive mystery of all time." He took a large bite of his sandwich, watching her across the table as he chewed, still smirking a little.
"Alright, well, I was definitely openly perving on you," George admitted, returning his smirk as she took another large sip of her juice. She swallowed, wetting her lips as she worked on opening up her chicken salad. "Which apparently I shouldn't be doing since I'm your boss and all, but it's incredibly hard not perving at someone with an ass like yours. Even when it's not all exposed." She pointed at him with her plastic fork. "And your not admitting is an admittance. You're saying that you weren't to cover your bases, but I didn't say anything about perving."
Matt licked some mayonnaise of the corner of his lips and took a sip of his chocolate milk. "Well, thank you, and I can be very clever like that." He tugged a piece of lettuce from between the bread and gestured to her with it. "Don't you wonder if you're going to be next in the curse line?" he asked out of the blue. If they kept talking about butts and perving, he was going to get in trouble and he was coming to really like his job here.
Georgina frowned as she tilted her head. "What do you mean?"
"The Surgery Boss Curse. It's apparently a thing. I mean, there was the guy before Dr Chase who had a heart attack and couldn't come back to work. Then Nurse Preston, who is in here again as a patient, and Dr Chase, who had cancer? Apparently? Has cancer. I haven't met him, of course, but I've heard a lot about it. It was a real shock. Dr Cameron in the ER said everyone was stunned about it. It came out the blue," Matt explained and then held up his hand. "I'm working on hearsay here with everything but what Dr Cameron said, and I realise I'm a newbie and people could just be telling me shit to wind me up, but I was just saying.
George pressed her lips together, and nodded. "It's all true. It all sucks, but it's all true. Only Pat being a patient is hardly a curse. It's just his sickness. And he's the head nurse, he's not in charge of surgical, so he's an exception to the curse. As I hope I am, because I really don't want cancer, or a heart attack."
Matt nodded. "Yeah, I think they were just being shit heads. Something about Surgical management having bad luck and finding it amusing to call it a curse. But then, apparently the gossip mill around here is really questionable to start with and it makes me wonder why people don't have better hobbies. I, um, went up to the ICU, just because I was curious. I didn't realise at that point you were taking Nurse Preston's place. Do you do that when he can't be here?"
"Part of being his second in charge," George told him with a smile. "They used to ship in someone else when I was still being trained up, but lately the hospital powers that be trust me to keep things ticking over. Actually, the idea of you starting freaked me out a bit. Pat's much better at the whole mentoring thing. I wish I had half the skill he did at it, so I'm sorry if you don't feel like I'm giving you anything. It might just take me a little while to find a rhythm. As for the rumour mill, it's a hospital and we all spend a lot of time here. It keeps us entertained, I guess. Actually, Dr Riley Browne's wife is the best at corrupting the grape vine. She's made it a personal hobby to see how insane she can make the rumours, and still have people believe them. How did you feel seeing Nurse Preston in his hospital bed?"
Matt shrugged and poured out a handful of peanuts into his palm, offering some to her. "I just need you to train me, you don't need to mentor me. I've learnt pretty well to ask for help if I need it, but otherwise I'm pretty proud of what I've achieved and seem to have good feedback about my work. I don't want to be a zit on your butt and be the annoying new kid on the block when you have a load of other stuff going on." He nodded. "Yeah, I met Riley, and I met Lachlan too..." He trailed off a little, remembering how weird the whole encounter was and it sent a small shiver up his spine. "Doesn't she worry she'll hurt people? Yeah, I felt really strange. He looks really sick, everyone seems worried and there was this dude who looked so much like him, I bumped into the watercooler because I rudely staring on my way out."
"Evie? Nah, she just does it to stop the original rumours hurting people. Like, if the rumour's that you and me were caught in some tryst in a janitor closet, she'd turn it into something completely insane so that people just didn't take it seriously. She actually helps, believe it, or not. It's just been hard since her husband's been a subject of the rumour mill a lot." Georgina leaned forward to take a couple of peanuts, smiling in thanks. "Oh, so you met the Kilted One? He's something, huh? He's a great guy. And you're not annoying, or a pimple. I just don't want you to not feel welcome, or whatever. Pat's always good at making people feel like part of the team straight away, and not just another worker." George chewed on the peanuts before she broke into a grin. "That's Cameron. He's Pat's identical twin."
"He has?" Matt asked. "Why has he been part of the rumour mill? Maybe it's died down because I didn't hear any rumours, but I did hear one that the Head of Oncology was sleeping with Dr Cuddy, only that really does seem like something way out of the left field. I've met both, and they were real nice." He moved onto the Mars Bar after eating a whole mouthful of peanuts. "I did, and he was... well, he was extremely nice. Didn't think it was weird I showed up there or anything. Said something about singing ABBA and then, well, I realised who he was," he admitted.
He pointed with a laugh. "Yeah, I figured that one out a little too late. They look so similar, only different as well. My parents are English, but moved here before I was even born. I've subsequently connected all the dots. My Dad likes following Liverpool. I wouldn't know English football if it bit me on the butt, but it's a small world."
George looked away, checking to see if any other staff were about to enter. She wasn't sure about sharing Riley's secret completely, but Matt seemed trustworthy enough. Still, she better play it safe. "He was involved in an incident in the ER, and for a long time after, the rumour mill wouldn't stop turning. Oh yeah, that one... it's old. I swear it comes out ever couple of months. If you believe what people say, Cuddy and Wilson haven't stopped having sex for years now." She gave Matt a wink. "Yeah, well, disco is Pat's life blood. It was worth a shot trying to sing. Ah, so you remember the shooting? Still manages to come back and haunt him. Poor guy."
"English, huh? Very cute. I'm part Russian, English, and Irish. Figure that one out," George said with a grin.
Matt's forehead creased. "An incident, huh?" But he just left it at that. He wasn't going to pry and he could tell she was being purposefully evasive. "Maybe they should just do it and shock the shit out of everyone. That's probably what I would do, but I'm not as innocent as I look." He nodded. "He did sing, and he's damn good, too. I was in Princeton for Christmas that year, and we live just a few blocks away, so we were watching it on TV as it happened, as they were working on him. It was scary. Everyone expected him to die, every ticker that came across the screen we expected to say he had died. Then he was just there and talking to me. I must have looked like I saw a ghost."
"You're a bitsa. I won't hold it against you," he said, smirking.
"Needlestick. Some asshole patient decided to get agressive while Riley was looking after them. Or at least trying to." George snorted. "I'd almost pay to see that. And you really shouldn't mention the fact that you're not innocent when I'm still wondering what it would be like to jump you. He's got a band. They play The London a lot. Actually, Riley's sister co-owns the place with her husband and she's in the band with Lachlan. She's a crazy good singer, too." George combed her fingers through her hair, and leaned back in her seat, her appetite gone as she remembered that Christmas. "It was scary, and intense, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. It was hard on his fiancee at the time. She's now his wife. Lachlan's been through a lot. All because of some psycho bitch."
"Good to know. I want hold being British against you. Or at least first generation American," she replied.
Matt looked at her seriously, not saying anything at first. Had to have been aggravating issues with the whole thing because healthcare workers got needlestick injuries all the time. "Did the patient have Hep C or something? Not to dilute the needlestick thing, but unless there is evidence the sharps were infected, it's generally no big deal if an accident happens," he pointed out. He raised his eyebrows. "Are you allowed to jump your peons? Are you trying to sell the band to me, or something else?" he laughed. "He did mention that, that she was his wife now. I had no clue what went down after the main hype. My parents were a friend of a friend of his wife's parents at the time, but that's about it. It was some chick who was stalking him because he was a relative's doctor or something. That just freaks me out, but I guess every job has it's downside."
He smirked at her again. "I can be anything I need to be."
George shifted in her seat. "Patient had HIV, and a stomach virus." She stifled a yawn as she reached for her coffee, the drink thankfully still warm. "Every job definitely has a downside. Just ours can sometimes seem to have serveral. There's the long days, the shitty patients, the occasional violent incident, bodily fluids covering our scrubs..."
"You're really not helping me follow that whole good girl thing and not sleeping with my peons. One of them, anyway. I have no idea, I think it's only something we have to follow if it will interfere with our work. Still, clear lines and all that..." George shrugged as she took another sip of coffee. "We're all adults. I'm not about to exploit you."
Matt paused, his Mars Bar a few inches from his mouth and he watched her over it. He averted his eyes just a little to a pot plant in the corner as he thought. Riley was wearing a MedicAlert bracelet. Matt remembered noticing it during his first shift, but hadn't thought much on it. Figured the guy must be diabetic or something. Only now, maybe it wasn't as straight forward. "Oh," he finally said as he met her eyes again. "That must have been a scary thing for him to go through, the wait and everything..."
He shrugged a little. "Shame we only have fifteen minutes of our break left, and patients probably needing a ruptured appendix removed."
"He had a lot of time off work," George told him softly. "It was agonising for him." She poked at her salad before finally pushing it away. Eating this early in the morning was still hard for her. She licked her lips, and waggled her eyebrows. "Hey, fifteen minutes can be plenty when it's just about being hard and fast. I don't think we're shooting for epic."
Matt moved onto his second sandwich, ham and tomato this time. "I saw the MedicAlert bracelet," he told her. "Whatever's behind it is his prerogative to tell. I didn't see any evidence that it impeded him being a great doctor." He started to pick the tomato off. He hated it, and there had been no plain ham sandwiches in the machine. He glanced up at her again. "Oh, I don't know. I really think I need to be a good boy right now."
"It is, but you did ask about the rumour mill. Oh, and there was the time everyone thought he'd been secretly fucking Dr Chase. So just be prepared to listen to most stuff with a pinch of salt." George gave a nod as she watched him. "Which I am fully planning on respecting. I'm not into pressuring anyone. If a tumble's on the cards, it is. If it's not, then I at least have memories of your ass to keep me warm for the rest of the shift."
"It wasn't really in relation to Riley, but I appreciate the ample warning in case I start hearing he caught cancer off Dr Chase or some crap," Matt said in slight amusement. He couldn't be sure if his boss was trying to come onto him or not, but he chose to play it cool just in case. It wasn't like this had happened to him before, and he really wasn't sure if he could lose his job over something like that or not. "Likewise," was all he added, but he was watching her with curiosity.
Georgina held her hands up, palms facing him. "I'm sorry, I feel like I've fucked up. I wasn't trying to harrass you. Just you're cute, and I wouldn't mind some strings free fun. I should have maybe kept my mouth shut, but now that I have seen your ass, I just can't stop thinking about it."
Matt swallowed his mouthful of sandwich and licked his lips. "It does feel a little weird," he admitted honestly. "I don't really want to lose my job and I've only been here a few days, so I don't all know what strings are where. Not that I don't think you're hot, because I do, but I just really don't want my training to fuck up. I hope to be here for a very long time. I mean, this is my first qualified nursing job, and I really like it. I feel like I could fart in the wrong place and fuck up right now, so it's no offense, I promise."
"Hey, it's cool. Totally get it. Even if I think you don't need to try that hard. This place isn't about causing you stress." George gave him a reassuring smile. "I promise you don't have to be that scared. You're doing great. You're already gaining the respect of the doctors which is a huge deal. And the patients like you."
Matt smiled. "Cheers for that. It's not something I can be opposed to hearing right now. I know I'm probably coming across as all that consistent a personality right now, but nerves and curiosity aren't a great mix. Still, once I find my feet, who knows what might happen," he added, raising his eyebrows as he took another bite of his sandwich.
"Like I said, I get it. I remember what it was like to be new. And again, I'm sorry for coming across as strong. Don't be scared though, I'm not go all Fatal Attraction on you." She laughed a little, and raised her coffee cup in a toast. "Here's to finding your feet."
Matt held up his can of Diet Coke. "Cheers," he returned with a smile. If anything, at least his boss wasn't a sixty year old Hitler-type.
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