Page 17 of The Entire Team

“Its ‘tomorrow’. You aren’t supposed to be here and what does ‘Acusha’ mean?”

Red hit the call button; she needed meds. “You thought I wasn’t supposed to be here,” he answered with no accent. “AcushLa,” he corrected with his natural accent, “Um, a pretty important person.” Changing the subject, “Can we go back to sleep, I don’t get the opportunity to wake up with someone I want in my arms very often.”

“You can’t say stuff like that. You don’t know me.” His grip tightened as she started to push away.

“I know at great risk to yourself you tried to help multiple people yesterday. I know that you do that for a living, hopefully fewer guns in general. It tells me what I need when I’m here watching you weather the storm after, Acushla.”

Pushing back so that she could look Red in the eye, she squinted and set her jaw. His lips started to quirk up. “You need to stop calling me that.”

He set his mouth, “No.”

Hearing the nurse coming up the hall, he reluctantly started to untangle his arms from her and push off the bed. “Your meds are here.”

The nurse walked in right behind his statement and Ashe’s eyes darted between the two people standing in the room. Red walked around to make space for the nurse and decided to use the bathroom while she did her thing. As he shut the door, he heard the nurse and Ashe arguing.

“He isn’t supposedto use the bathroom. There are visitor ones in the hallway.”

“There’s also one right here not being used. He’s not messing with any output tracking unless the toilet does that automatically now.”

“It’s policy,” the nurse tried again. Red waited in the bathroom when he was finished to hear how it was going to end, although she had already stood up for him.

Ashe nodded in understanding. “I forgot my toothbrush in the rush to get here yesterday. Could I get one, please?” Red looked at the sink and there was already a toothbrush there.

“It should have been in the room when you arrived,” the nurse answered slightly confused. It was how they prepped rooms every time.

“Maybe that’s what hit the floor when I was puking last night. Please?”

“Of course.” She turned and disappeared to help the next patient.

Red stepped out of the bathroom smiling, “You stood up for me.”

“It’s a dumb policy,” she retorted. A Medical Assistant came in with a toothbrush, handing it to Ashe and spinning on her heel back out of the room.

“I know you have a toothbrush in the bathroom already. Is that for me?” he stepped toward her. Turning her head away from him she held out the toothbrush, barely. He made sure he touched her hand when he took it out of her grasp. Smiling to himself that she wasn’t doing so well trying to drive him away.

When he stepped back out after brushing his teeth, he helped her to the bathroom. She already had managed to maneuver herself to nearly standing, he snatched her up smoothly and took the three steps into the bathroom. “I don’t need to be carried.” He set her down in the bathroom and she saw a set of scrubs that he got for her; her continence softened in that knowledge.

“Does your head hurt?” Ashe nodded. “Does your stomach hurt when you’re trying to brace yourself to move?” Ashe nodded. “I can carry you.” After a beat he added, “One time I got a concussion so bad that when my feet touched the ground it reverberated into my brain. The headache just pounded to each step.”

Ashe looked into the sink mirror to meet his gaze. Around brushing her teeth, she asked, “What do you do?”

Red paused for a beat. “I’m a troubleshooter.”

Ashe had put the toothbrush down by the time he answered and was looking at him through the mirror in disbelief. “All the panties come off when you say shit like that to the ladies around here, don’t they?” Red looked at her surprised. “Oh, come on,” Ashe turned to look straight at him. “That’s not that subtle. We’re on an island covered with military.” She started to shuffle toward the toilet, one hand on his stomach signaling him out of the bathroom. She shut the door on him, when he heard the toilet flush, he opened the door watching her shuffle back to the sink guarding her side. “Beards AND body…yeah, you might need a new cover story around here.” As she was berating him, he noticed she’d already slid the scrub bottoms on. He grabbed the scrub top and waited to hand it off to her to switch with the standard gown.

“Thank you for this,” she muttered.

“I don’t like your ass hanging out for everyone,” he said bluntly, knowing they were keeping up the Tete tat. He picked her up and headed back to the bed, raising the head so it would be more comfortable sitting. “Maybe I’m purposefully trying to impress you.”

“Oh well, ok. In that case, like I said, all the panties, right?”

“Whose panties,” Stitch said stepping into the room. He was followed by the rest of the team, stuffing the room.

“No one,” Red answered.

Rave set a bag down on the foot of the bed as he stepped in. “Sylvie got you some clothes. Said it was a lifeline when Genie did the same for her, when she was stuck in the hospital. I told her you’re a paramedic, so she probably went shopping for herself.”

“Sylvie is Rave’s fiancé,” Genie cleared up coming in behind Rave.

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