corpatrem

               ben   was   the   reason   olivia   never   let   anyone   see   her   phone.      god   forbid   he   end   up   texting   her   while   someone   else   has   eyes   on   the   screen   and   they   read   one   of   his   messages.      if   she   scrolls   through   their   history,   there   will   be   a   lot   of   flirtatious   messages.      some   tame,   and   some   not   so   tame.      it’s   one   of   the   reasons   olivia   prays   that   TARU   never   has   to   go   through   her   data.      god   forbid   an   entire   department   know   her   private   business.

               she   takes   a   sip   from   her   coffee   just   as   the   phone   buzzes   again.      swiping   unlock,   she   reads   the   first   message   and   laughs.      right   away   she   starts   typing   a   response   before   she   even   glances   at   the   next   messages.

               [   TXT   :   ben   ]      don’t   get   too   excited,   it   wasn’t   kinky   at   all.      i   was   arrested   for   trespassing.

               when   olivia   reads   the   next   messages,   she   feels   a   blush   creeping   up   her   neck,   and   the   room   suddenly   feels   like   it   increased   a   few   degrees.      she   rubs   the   back   of   her   neck,   willing   herself   and   her   body   to   calm   down   because   this   was   no   place   to   be   getting   worked   up   like   that.      but   still,   it   fills   her   head   with   images   she   can’t   ignore.

               [   TXT   :   ben   ]      i   guess   that’s   just   all   the   more   motivation   for   you   to   come   home   quickly

               she   casts   a   quick   glance   to   the   door   to   make   sure   no   one   is   about   to   enter   before   she   sends   the   final   text.

[ TXT: olivia ] Call it done. I'm going to see if I can't wrap up London quicker than the plan so I can get back home to see you.

Jesus Christ he was smitten. Did he really write that? Ben stares at his phone, wondering if he came off as a little too eager. He just got to London. What was he doing?

Still, her next texts that come through make Ben grin, ( it is scary how easily content she makes him feel ) as he pauses for a moment, and then shoots out the next couple of texts.

[ TXT: olivia ] Oh, you smooth talker.

[ TXT: olivia ] You know how to really boost a man's ego, huh, honey?

SHIT.

My mouth opens, then closes. I can feel the nervousness in my body, in the way my hand shoots to the back of my neck almost subconsciously before I force it back down, straighten up, and look at him, trying to gauge just how badly this is about to go.

"I..."

Honesty. That's what this needs. Even if it might get me a black eye. A lie will probably lead me to the same result.

"Yes. I'm seeing Theodore."

That sounds strange, but it's how Ben said it, and maybe it's what he's most comfortable with. We're dating. But if I told him that his son calls me boyfriend (and worse things he has no right to know), it would not bode well for me.

"I didn't know. When we first--I didn't know he was your son. Not until recently."

I explain myself, pausing whenever I can't find the right words, and even if finding that out hadn't made any real difference. My hands want to move again, gesture, fidget, anything to burn off the nervous energy, but I keep them still.

"How long have -..." Does he want to know? Fuck. How much does he want to know? He's using 'we'. Ben catches onto that quickly, and suddenly, he realizes how much more serious this was than what he had originally believed.

Though she’d never admit it aloud, Carol has always had an increasingly soft spot for her dear old friend, but wasting so many years on the fickle Doug Ross had resulted in her missing her window with Cooper. Now he’s married, and happily so, or so it seems. Whatever the case, Carol is far too much of a coward to express her unrequited feelings now. No, in this case, the Girl-Next-Door position is what she’s fated herself to.

“Fired? What for?”

Disagreement? The life of show biz was no doubt rocky and tumultuous, but to think Cooper had been dropped from such an important role left Carol confused, at best.

“Are you going to be okay?”

COOP TRIES TO BRUSH PAST IT. As far as he's concerned, there wasn't a point of looking back once it was all done and dusted. But Carol looks more than a little concerned, and he didn't like to see that expression on her face when it came to him.

"I didn't agree with what they were tryin' to sell." He shrugs, taking a sip of his coffee as he glances out the window, the television still droning on about Vault-Tec, and then back over to @medicusfemina

Frowning skeptically, she sighs and joins him, sitting on the corner of the settee so she can slide her hands onto his shoulders. If anything, she can offer him a massage to encourage some semblance of physical comfort.

Despite her reservations, Carol supposes he doesn't need a hospital. After all, she's here to care for him, and she has an array of supplies at her disposal.

"I don't believe you 'fell' for a second, but if that's the story you want to stick with, I'm not gonna press."

Still, she hopes he'll eventually be forthright with her.

The feeling of soft lips against his temple and nimble hands kneading his shoulders making him drop his shoulders, not realizing the tension that he'd had bottled up there.

HE'S SMOOTH. Really. The amount of women he had been with -- not that this was a brag, but simply ... Ben, it wasn't as if he had to try very hard. But that was... that was the problem, wasn't it? With Addison, all he had ever done was try.

That innocent tone doesn't fool me for a second, not with that glint in his eyes. No, no, he knows exactly what he's doing. What he thinks he can get away with.

THERE IS THAT FAMILIAR THRILL when Teddy hears that edge in masterful dominance that Oliver is a natural at and that Teddy is more than happy to submit to.

She feels absolutely terrible for him, cooped up in recovery with no visitors. At least Six-Thirty was here to keep him company. Still, Lucy wants to try and make this as comfortable a stay as possible for Calvin. After such a terrible accident that nearly claimed his life, he deserves that much.

“You’ll be here at least another week for monitoring. We want to make sure you aren’t in danger of slipping back into a coma before we release you.”

THE MORE INFORMATION SHE GIVES HIM, the worse he starts to feel. Another week being questioned and probed and what have you, just in case he fell into a coma. At this point, Calvin thinks being in coma or dead is preferable. A hand comes up to drag down the side of his face, exhaling slowly as he glances out the window, still not having said much; angry and frustrated more than anything that his body does not work the way he wanted it to work.

                   abbot's certainly had it, squirming under the weight of trying and failing to justify his shoddy decision making -- if not opposite to ben, then certainly his therapist. find a hobby. likewise: you can't live only for your work. takes one to know one, and he'd claim to know ben very well. what does that say about abbot, exactly?

"Like what?" He repeats to buy himself a little time. "I'll tell you like what," Ben says matter of factly, glancing back over to the bar to consider if he could just get another drink anyways -- he's a full grown man, wasn't he?

" okay, don't freak out. " it's a request that will fall on deaf ears, she knows. she's staring into the mirror as he walks in — dabbing blood from her split lip, swollen and beginning to bruise. she pauses to turn toward him, gripping the sink behind her. " i lost a patient in childbirth. her father showed up too late, and he started panicking when i gave him the news. then, he just ... he swung. blindly. i'm fine. "

THE LOOK ON HIS FACE IS CONTAINED ANGER. Not at her, of course not at her. But as Addison begins to tell him what happened, there's a muscle in his jaw that twitches as it locks, his lips pressed firmly together. Ben strides forward until he's only a few inches away from her, and a tender hand comes to hold her jaw, turning it gently so that he can see.