trueaussiedoc | With itsrainingmen || Playing doctor...

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With itsrainingmen || Playing doctor...

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It took way longer than anticipated for Chase to get all his end-of-case paperwork done. It had been a longer case, with a ridiculous amount of investigatory examinations, along with the patient crashing no less than 8 times for the duration. Luckily, he managed to have a 'House moment' where it hit him what was going on, and once they realised what it was, it was one of those things that felt stupid that it took so long to figure out. But that was the name of the game, after all.

He was worried about Alex, though. The guy had a perfect attendance record, and he never even showed up late. For him to take a sick day, it had to have meant he was pretty laid up. Considering everything that had happened between them, Chase needed to go see that he was okay because he had been thinking about it a hell of a lot since it happened. As promised, he sent Alex a text when he was leaving the hospital and was now on the doorstep of Alex's apartment, ringing the buzzer. Alex hadn't replied to the text, so there was a chance he was sleeping it off. Checking his watch, he decided he'd only wait a few and wouldn't ring again. He didn't want to wake Alex if he was asleep.

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Alex had gotten the text, but managed to doze off again before Chase arrived. The buzzer startled him awake, and when he fumbled himself up into a sitting position in the bed, his stomach churned in protest. He gave a small, miserable moan, nursing his stomach as he got up to head to the door. He still had his bathrobe on, this time at least. He had spent the night dragging it on and off himself with the hot and cold chills and the cat he was babysitting for a neighbour was probably extremely put out with how much he had been up and down during the night with her bed in the hall across from the bathroom.

He got to the door and opened it when Chase was turning to leave. "Hey, sorry. I crashed out again. Come in. Ignore the fact I look like hell and pretend I'm totally hot or something," he joked but the humour there was weak, at best. He wasn't feeling well enough for their usual banter.

It was impossible to ignore how Alex looked because Chase hadn't ever seen him look this bad. Not even the time Alex had pulled a double shift for another department and had been so run off his feet, he passed out in the staff room from dehydration. That had been exceptional circumstances, though, when they had been on high alert for an epidemic and they needed all Infection Diseases specialist hands on deck. "Don't apologise," he replied, hitching his messenger back up onto his shoulder before he reached to feel Alex's forehead with the backs of his fingers.

"You're burning. What was your temp when you last checked?" he asked and ushered Alex back inside to close the door behind them. He dug around in his bag and pulled out his electronic thermometer, capping it and gestured for Alex to come a little closer so he could take the reading.

Edited 2014-03-29 13:37 (UTC)

"Like, 102 last night," Alex replied and took the thermometer. Before it went near his mouth, he held it up. "You seriously brought your call-out bag to examine me? Don't you know all doctors make horrible patients?" He obediently put it in his mouth, though, but it didn't stay in there long enough to get the reading. The nausea abruptly threatened again and this was exactly what he hadn't wanted to happen tin front of Chase, and it had nothing to do with the fact he was his boss.

He grabbed the thermometer from his mouth, messily shoving it back into Chase's hands with a panicked mumble of, "Oh god--"

Well, Chase knew that he personally made an atrocious patient, but Alex was less of a human hemorrhoid than Chase was. He had been poised to make some sort of joke but he didn't get there. Alex had that look that doctors knew all too well in their patients. Without thinking too much about it, he spotted an ornate metal bucket that was by the door with a couple of umbrellas in it and said umbrellas were dumped on the floor unceremoniously and caught Alex just before he was about to try to run off to the nearest bathroom.

He only narrowly avoided a mess, holding the bucket in front of Alex for him. "Here, it's okay. Just sit back on the bottom steps here, mate," he coaxed, his free hand going to Alex's arm to help him sit down and then sat beside him, beginning to rub his back while he was sick. "The things people do to get a day off work, huh?" he teased gently to show Alex he wasn't bothered by this at all. He waited a few moments to make sure Alex was stable where he was sitting and then hunted down the nearest bathroom to bring him back a cool cloth to press to the back of his neck.

It took a little while before Alex managed to get a bit of composure back, albeit not much. He couldn't help being embarrassed and he was kind of glad he didn't trust himself to lift his head from the bucket that he had gripped in his hands just yet. "Sorry," he mumbled breathlessly, and fuck, did that cool cloth feel nice. He leaned over and rested his head on his arm when it felt too heavy to hold up. He couldn't be sure yet if he was done or not.

"Pretty sure I'd pick work over this any day," he lamented quietly. "You need to go home and crash. It means a lot you checked in on me, but I'll survive. I'm just better horizontal right now. Hn, I feel like hell..." he moaned.

Chase took a fresh bottle of water from his bag and twisted the cap off. "I told you, no apologies. Try to sip some of this for me when you're ready. Have you been keeping anything down? I brought a bag of fluids just in case. I'm thinking we should just hook you up anyway. It's not going to hurt. Then I get to demand you get your bare arse out for me again so I can stick something into it," he added and gave Alex a smirk. Innuendo was practically another specialty of his.

"It's going around. Hazard of the job. If that was your attempt to get rid of me, it didn't work." He paused, watching Alex in concern. "Come on, you know I'm not just here because I'm your boss," he soon added.

"This really isn't the situation I wanted you to proposition my ass again," Alex protested shakily. He put the bucket down between his feet, but he was still wracked with that shaky post-puke weak feeling. "Just water sporadically. Mostly not wanting to put anything in my mouth... hate to break it to you," he joked back with his own faint smirk when he took the bottle with a small, hesitant sip.

He only managed a bit before his stomach churned uncomfortably, so he didn't push it. "Isn't Cameron here to see you?" he asked but fell quiet at Chase's last comment. "You can't be anything but my boss. I'm going to be the one to say it because it pointless to dabble with any false hope. It just... was what it was. End of story. So, you're here as a friend. I appreciate it. But go home and get some sleep."

When Alex seemed averted to anything beyond a couple of sips of water, Chase's suspicions were confirmed and he took the IV bag of fluids out with a shake of his head, pointing at it. "This means I'm staying. I'm just desperate to get my fluids in you," he told him, continuing the light banter. "Right after I get you into bed. Everything else, I'm in charge. Just the way I like it." He wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"She is, yes. But she's catching up with friends she worked with at PPTH today and tonight. We're going to have lunch tomorrow. Bedroom upstairs?" He stood up and helped Alex stand, keeping a steadying hand on his shoulder while he woozily got his balance. "Depending on what 'it' is, it's not automatically out of the question. I think we need to talk about it, but when you're feeling better."

Alex looked up the stairs and let his eyes fall closed with a reluctant nod. "Yeah, upstairs. I have no idea what the fuck I was thinking buying this place," he mumbled. "Seriously, though, you don't have to do any of this. I know you're a real sweet guy and you just know how to naturally care for people, and all that. But this is really going above and beyond the call of duty, boss. I'm a big boy, I can throw up and wallow in my own self-pity all on my own."

He gave Chase a point. "You need to go home and sleep after that marathon shift. I'm feeling too sick to argue with you, so just... do as you're told," he said with a shake of his finger and a small nudge against Chase's shoulder. "How is anything depending on the 'it'? It was a one-nighter. We're only playing with fire if we make it more than one. When have you known a workplace fling to turn into anything positive?"

"Clearly it was the décor," Chase joked because it didn't look particularly masculine or even remotely bachelor-like, so Alex either had really girly tastes or he hadn't done any decorating to put his own stamp on the place since he bought it. "C'mon, we'll take it slow. Then I can make sure you get up there safely without passing out on me. I'm not leaving until I at least get the fluids hooked up to you."

He smirked again. "You're going to have to make me, because I'm not going anywhere yet." He didn't continue until they were upstairs and Alex was gingerly climbing back into his messy bed that he probably hadn't been very far away from in the last day or so. He sat down on the side of the bed and chewed on his lip before he finally continued. "I don't want to make the same fuck-ups I did in the past. Starting with letting a good thing just pass me by for a bunch of stupid reasons that make no sense because I'm scared of commitment, or change, or sacrificing shit for the unknown. Whatever happened, it happened for a reason, and when you're feeling better, I think we should talk about that. Because I'm getting too fucking old to just palm things off as nothing anymore. Maybe what happened happened because we both wanted it to. Now get your arse out for me so I can give you something to help with the puking."

Yeah, yeah. His décor was shit. He kept meaning to redecorate, but his roster was always so mental, he couldn't be bothered, so it had stayed looking like it belonged to a little old lady with all his bachelor-type style furniture sandwiched into it.

He sighed and turned over onto his side, pulling his pyjama pants down to expose his buttock for Chase to administer the injection. He wasn't facing Chase now, and he was glad of the moment to gather his thoughts. "I'm not getting any younger myself. I get it. Especially with everything going on with my ex reminding me how short life is. I wasn't long back from visiting when what happened happened and I figured it was just that." He closed his eyes, resting his head against his arm while he waited. "But it wasn't. That has just made me realise that I've been scared about getting in too deep with anyone else for it to just inevitably crash and burn. It just would have been a whole lot easier if it was just a fling and we could forget about it."

Chase took out what he needed for the injection. As much as he was never opposed to a naked bare arse in his personal time, there was a time and a place for that sort of thing, and it wasn't now with Alex this sick. He took a antiseptic swab from the injection kit and tore it open. "You never said what it was that led to you splitting with him. It had to have been something pretty epic if it has you this fearful about kicking off any new relationships."

He gave the injection quickly and then tugged Alex's back up over his hip. "All done. Hopefully that gives you a bit of respite so you can sleep this off. But I think we both know that we can't just forget about it. We don't need to talk about it now, though. Get some rest. I'm sticking around, I'll crash on the sofa. Just in case you get worse before you get better."

Alex turned over onto his back again and pulled the covers up around him when he felt a wave of exhaustion come over him. He had started feeling sick after dinner the night before, and then ended up spending practically all night in the bathroom. He felt like he could sleep for a week. "I've always lived on the safe side. Played it safe, took the less risky route. I liked to have some control over my life, to know what was mapped out, at least in the short-term. But Beau... he's a cancer survivor. He might be facing the relapse now, but since his first remission, he lived life like there was no tomorrow. He was spontaneous. He would do this far out things like take up ballroom dancing classes just because he could, or donate a whole pay check to a homeless shelter. Drive three states to ride one rollercoaster just because he woke up figuring that day was the day he wanted to do it. And it was amazing. He's an amazing guy, but I couldn't do it. I tried, but he was such a free spirit and it started to cause niggles with us. We ended it and stayed friends, which I'm truly grateful for, but he was the one that got away. Now all I do is wonder if playing on the safe side has meant I've missed the perfect person for me out there somewhere."

He sighed and looked at Chase tiredly. "No matter how much I protest, you're going to stay, aren't you? Look... Chase... you don't have to do this. I'm not just saying that to give you a get out of jail free card. You're my boss, we work together every day. Anything more than a nice night is just going to be complicated and the last thing I want to do is make things weird between us."

Chase stood and hooked the IV bag off the rail of Alex's curtains of the window just beside his bed. He unwound the tube and took out his tourniquet to clip around Alex's bicep. "Make a fist for me," he directed and took Alex's hand to tap the back of it, trying to find the best vein for the IV line. "Are you looking for a safe relationship then? Or are you looking for someone who completes you rather than fits you? See, Allison fit me. We worked together, we were good friends before that, we got along, we laughed... but we never completed each other. We were never going to either."

"Rob," he corrected quietly with a faint smile. "So, you wasted a poignant part of your life hiding from living in the moment, without the structure, without the reigns. I wasted part of mine trying to avoid complicated, and all it got me was heartache and loneliness. I'm not saying anything would be easy, but can you look at me and honestly tell me that the other night was just sex, end of story? Because I haven't been able to stop wondering since it happened if maybe what I was looking for was right under my nose the whole time."

Alex looked away momentarily. He might be a doctor, but he had never been a fan of seeing needles stuck into himself. "I'm just looking for contentment," he admitted wryly. "But that seems about as manageable as finding the Holy Grail. I know it takes a lot of balls and courage to stay friends with someone you used to love. But it helps you cherish them even more that they could still stay in your life."

He raised his eyebrows a little. Chase had always just been known as Chase. Of course everyone knew his full name, it was plastered on the door of his office, but Alex had never heard him correct anyone from addressing him by his surname before and there was something that told him that meant a lot. "Rob," he repeated in a murmur. "Why me, though? You could have anyone. Within reason, of course. Anyone you felt could handle all your baggage, which you've told me yourself."

Chase nodded slowly and then lowered his gaze, a small frown of thought appearing. That was probably what he was looking for too. Maybe he had just been complicating everything and using his baggage a security blanket to avert potential relationships out of fear of it all crashing and burning on him again. After everything, he had just been left wondering if he was just ridiculously flawed. He couldn't seem to get something to work right when it came to love. Though, he knew with Cameron, the complexity of the extenuating circumstances had been unique and difficult to navigate through. "So... would it be right to deduce that you are scared about having another relationship with a friend in case it burns for you again?"

He met Alex's eyes again with a smile. "You're already handling my baggage," he pointed out to him softly. "You basically know about... well, I'll say 90% of it. The other 10% is just pretty huge, and it's something I'd rather talk about if we do get closer. If not, no big deal. I'm not forcing you to see if this is going to be anything. I don't want things weird between us," he admitted and carefully insert the canula into the back of Alex's hand.

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With itsrainingmen || Playing doctor...

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