The Nurse's Station

My Hug

“Jordan! There you are!”

The voice was like daggers through her head and she whipped around, nearly slamming into Perry. “What,” she snapped, “do you want?”

“Well, Jorderoo, I just wanted to remind you that tonight is your turn to take care of our darling baby boy but your panties are in such a knot, no doubt due to the fact that you just didn’t have time to make it to that lingerie sale down in that big old red fiery place because your heel broke, that maybe I’ll just have to call the baby sitter and tell her that you’re not up to being the mother you’ve always wanted to be and waste another two hundred dollars on something you should be fully capable of doing yourself!”

Jordan gave him her best I’m-going-to-kill-you look and when that didn’t seem to help, she added, “Or maybe, just maybe, we need to refurnish an entire lab because somebody didn’t have his usual booty call to let out all of his anger on because said booty call was on vacation in Hawaii without you and while you never wanted to admit you might possibly have feelings for him, the lack of DJ’s warm, supple body falling asleep next to yours is making you want to destroy yet another lab and make my job even harder than it already is.” She smiled at Perry’s sudden frown. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did I hit a sore spot?”

“At least I have a booty call,” Perry snapped back. “And, unless you’re capable of not rubbing it in my face, which I’m pretty sure you aren’t, Barbie still has no idea that you’re just dying to get in her pants.”

Jordan glanced around the hallway to make sure nobody noticed because turning back to Perry. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she hissed.

“Don’t I?” he asked, suddenly serious. “On the contrary, I think I know exactly what I’m talking about. Be at my place at six to pick up Jack, okay?”

“Yeah, whatever,” Jordan muttered, suddenly deflated. Perry pushed past her, leaving her to stand at the nurses’ station, too angry and confused to move. How did he know that? She certainly hadn’t told him, that was for sure. And considering that she didn’t even know what she wanted herself, how was it that he could pick up on it?

Seeming to read her thoughts, Perry turned around and shouted from halfway down the hallway, “You talk in your sleep!”

Jordan immediately flushed, resting her elbows on the counter and her head in her hands.

“He’s right, you know,” Laverne said, looking up from a file.

Jordan hardly looked up, just managing to lock eyes with the nurse. “What are you talking about?” she mumbled, flinching when it didn’t come out nearly as menacing as she had hoped.

“Go talk to Elliot,” Laverne said. “You wouldn’t want her to hear that from someone else, now would you?”

Jordan narrowed her eyes. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Laverne snorted and walked over to Carla, saying something while pointing in her direction.

Jordan got up and stalked away, slamming open the door to the nearest room. Nervous Guy was sitting on the couch in the break room watching TV, but he ran out the second he saw her walk in. Jordan took his place and started flipping through the stations, praying something good was on. There wasn’t, and she angrily flipped off the TV as she heard the door open and someone walk in.

“Get out!” she yelled. “And so help me god if that’s you, Perry.”

Instead of her ex-husband Elliot came around the couch and sat down next to her, same cheery smile, as always. “Hi, there!” she said happily, grabbing the remote from Jordan’s hands and turning the TV back on.

Jordan glared at her, not sure what was happening. It didn’t seem like Laverne or Carla had told her, but you never could tell with Barbie. She settled on saying angrily, “Give me that back,” and grabbing the remote from Elliot. She turned off the TV again and threw the remote across the room before crossing her arms and staring angrily at the blank screen.

“Having a bad day?” Elliot asked. “Because when I’m having a bad day, I find it really helpful to–”

“Barbie, I really couldn’t care less was makes you feel better,” Jordan snapped. She watched Elliot out of the corner of her eye, watched Elliot carefully studying her before leaning over and wrapping Jordan in a bone crushing hug. Jordan let out a scream of surprise before immediately pulling away, sliding backwards until she was pushed into one corner of the couch. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she yelled. “Seriously, I thought even you had more common sense that that.”

Elliot grinned. “No, not really.” Her smile softened as she added, “Besides, Carla told me what Dr. Cox said, so I figured you wouldn’t mind all that much.”

Jordan continued to glare at Elliot, trying to read the other woman. “What,” she said carefully, “are you talking about?”

Elliot’s smile flickered for a moment, then came back full force. “That you wanted to be with me.”

Jordan tried to make herself relax and moved back towards the middle of the couch, towards where Elliot was sitting. “And…?”

Elliot looked confused for a minute, then laughed. “Oh, yeah, sort of forgot to say what I felt. Don’t you hate it when that happens, when you’re talking about something really important and just assume the other person knows exactly what you’re thinking? JD does that all the time, and let me tell you–”

Jordan whistled, a trick she learned from Perry. “Barbie! Focus!”

“Oh! Right!” Elliot scooted so her side was pressed against Jordan’s. She wrapped one arm around Jordan’s shoulder and rested the other on the back of her neck. Instead of kissing her, she pulled her into another hug, waiting until she felt Jordan hug her back before kissing the soft spot right below her ear. “Yes,” she whispered.

Jordan tightened her grip on Elliot, smiling despite herself. Once she could tear herself away from Elliot, there was going to be some serious rubbing in.

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My 40 Snapshots

by Nicole Merrill