liminal spaces

Grace wrapped a blanket around herself when she was awoken from her sleep by banging on the door. After she peered through the hole, the brunette sighed and opened it slowly. “Isabella? What’re you doing, it’s four in the morning.” Her voice had dropped hoping that she wouldn’t wake people up. “You have to move back, you’re putting pressure on the door and I can’t unlock the chain.”

“I--” she stated confidently.  “Am here to, A, get the uh, the---the stuff for pancakes.  Or B, get you to come with me to get pancakes.  I don’t really care as long as pancakes are involved.”  It was her drunk go to.  She huffed slightly and stumbled back at Grace told her to do so, although she was relieved she didn’t have to hang out in the cold hallways any longer.

The last time Steph saw Isabella was at the restaurant where the guy who came over to hit on both of them had spilled his drink on her. She remembers because that was the end of that evening for both of them. Isabella didn’t want to talk after that had happened, she just wanted to go home and get some well needed rest. So for her to show up now and a bit drunk was kind of a surprise. They were good friends and Steph liked Isabella, but she had never seen her show up to her door drunk before. 

“I don’t open doors for people who call me an asshole.”  Steph stood with the door open and the chain across it. She hadn’t seen Isabella in such a state before and she wasn’t sure what kind of drunk she was when she was like this. “It’s 2 AM, are you okay? Do you need me to call you a cab?”

"It was....It was said as a term of end--” she hiccuped “--of endearment.” She stated confidently,  She did have a tendency to call friends rude names to show her love, it was just how she worked.  “Now are you going to keep treating me like i’m a stranger with a weapon or are you going to let me in?” she whined, only to lose her balance slightly and catch herself on the door frame.

“I don’t need a cab, I need someone to come out with me and get pancakes at IHOP with me.  Now are you going to be that person or not?”

If it hadn’t been for the fact that he had caught the shadows moving under the door crack Theo would have probably gone back to bed without even realising that someone was knocking on his door, but his neighbours would most likely be happy that he finally opened the door so that the knocking would stop. Shirtless and annoyed, the middle Devereaux looked at her. “What do you want?”

Isabella stepped back in surprise as a shirtless man opened the door, when she had been expecting a gussied up woman instead.  Perhaps she had pre-gamed a bit too hard.  “Lookin’ for a cup of sugar.” she offered sarcastically.  “Is Gabbi here?”  In the haze of her mind Isabella hadn’t quite put together the fact that she had been knocking on the wrong door, instead thinking that her friend just had a gentleman caller.

He was woken up by the incessant banging on Charlie’s door, and he stirred against the other man’s chest as his sleep was disturbed. “Charlie, what the fuck…” He grumbled, hoping that the other would get up to answer the door, but to no avail. He allowed a few more moments to pass, hoping that whoever it was would go away, but it was starting to get on his nerves, and it was becoming unlikely that the noise would stop. “For fuck’s sake!” He sat up, running his fingers through mussed hair before grabbing his pants from where it had been unceremoniously discarded on the floor and pulling them on. He then lazily made his way to the living room, walking towards the door with a drag in his step, before answering it, only to be met with an unfamiliar woman on the other side. “Who the fuck are you?”

She stumbled slightly as the door was opened, as she had been leaning on it to keep her upright.  It took her a moment to rebalance herself once again, and when she finally did she looked at the person in the doorway brows knit together in confusion.  “----You’re not Charlie.” she stated, although it was a fairly obvious fact.  Did she go to the wrong apartment?  It took her a second to realize that just because someone else answered the door didn’t mean it wasn’t Charlie’s apartment, although she had to check the number on the door just to be sure.  “---I’m assuming this” she gestured to him somewhat sloppily “had something to do with Grindr?”

A nurse appeared out of no where like her hero, tampering with the machine in a knowledgeable fashion. Maybe it should be called magic, maybe it could be called patience. Whatever it was, it was something that Addison didn’t have. But now maybe she’d at least have coffee. Pressing the button that was supposed to bring coffee, the surgeon waited only to be disappointed by the result. “What if I pour the hot water over it? Maybe it’ll realize that it’s not coffee.” 

Isabella waited with baited breath to see if her fairly reliable trick would work.  Upon seeing it didn’t, she couldn’t help but hit the side of the useless piece of junk again, swearing at it under her breath in spanish.  She was here for coffee too, after all.  “Honestly, at this point I think it’s a lost cause.  I just love how this--” her volume increased, making sure anyone in the vicinity would be able to here “--damn hospital doesn’t like to take care of it’s staff!”  This was not the way to start the day, that was for sure.

Harper narrowed her gaze towards the male as she bit her lower lip and nodded her head. “Well, in that case, I think we need to find the security.” The last statement was muttered softly as she peered at the brunette on her side. “You wanna ask Diane?” Her head tilted towards the receptionist at their left while she kept her gaze on the male in case he tried anything.

Despite Isabella’s burning fire, she was glad to have backup.  Two was always better than one, after all.  “I don’t know, let’s give this idiot a chance to rethink his choices, shall we?”  Cocking her head, she raised a brow at the man, shooting a look that clearly told him to get the hell out if he knew what was good for him.  And man, if looks could kill, that boy woulda been on the floor.  But instead, he held up his hands in surrender and quickly walked away.  As he did, Isabella’s squared shoulders rolled back and she let out a sigh of a relief.

“Thanks for the backup, there.”

      “ Forget your keys? ” Sage wasn’t quite sure what was so funny about the situation. Whether it was the fact that she was drunk, the angry look on his face or the fact that she was the more responsible of the two, he couldn’t help the series of chuckles that emitted from him as he looked at her through the crack in the door. “ What would you have done if I hadn’t been home? ” he inquired, shaking his head as he pulled back and opened the door more to allow her to come inside their apartment.

As he teased her, her lip jutted out and her brows furrowed, making her look absolutely comical, not that she could tell.  Leaning against the door so she could as much of her face through the crack to see her roommate she swore once again as he questioned her.  “Knocked even more?” she grumbled, knowing she didn’t really have a retort for that one.  What would she have done?  Honestly, probably she would’ve parked her ass outside the door and waited.  She must’ve looked pitiful as he eventually opened up the door to let her in.  “But where were you?  I texted you like a thousand times tell you to--” she hiccuped “--Get down to Two Dragons.”  she pulled out her phone as she spoke to dramatically show him all her unanswered texts, only to realize she hadn’t been texting him at all.  “---Oh, not you.  Well, that explains it.”

      “ This isn’t a competition. No. ” The edges of his lips twitched into a soft smirk upon his statement. “ A competition would be if someone, hypothetically, said that we paramedics can perform the fastest under pressure. ” It was the dynamic of their relationship to tease one another, specially when their professions went hand in hand. Sadly, Noel had a habit of taking things a little too far for the simple fact of seeing the brunette’s temper flare and it was in those very moments that he wasn’t sure how Lieutenant Laurent didn’t walk on egg shells at home.

“Although, if it was...I’d win.” She finished, an annoying smug smirk firmly planted on her lips.  “Or if, as you said, hypothetically, someone said that nurses were just better at everything in general, had a more rounded out skill set.”  The smirk grew into what might be perceived as a friendly smile, but was obviously false.  Isabella had always been competitive, although, she had tamped it down for most of her life, too afraid to fail to actually go after something and claim she was the ‘best’ at it.  But she knew her place now, and she wasn’t afraid to be confident.

“Hey if you really want to you could babysit for me during nap time and I’ll take over the shifts.” She said chuckling.

“I mean, I should probably say that I’m great with children and love them to death just so I can make this dream a reality but...I really wouldn’t advise leaving your child with me.  You’d be a really horrible mother to do that.”

“Wait a minute,” she shouted. Though, whoever was on the other side of the door didn’t want to wait any minute longer. A sigh left her lips while she made her way out of the shower, slightly frustrated that she wasn’t prepared to receive anyone at home, not when she looked like that. Opening the door, she stared at the woman on the other side. “If you take a picture of me like this, I won’t be responsible for my following actions, okay?” While she was merely joking about doing anything to the woman, she still hoped Isabella wouldn’t do such thing to her. “Come on in. You look…” drunk. That was the word. But she didn’t use it.

As she was told to wait, Isabella let out a high pitched whine, stamping her boot clad foot to the floor to show her disdain in being made to wait.  Although, perhaps that wasn’t the best of ideas, as she almost lost her balance as she did so.  “No, Gabi, I’m not coming in.  You’re coming out.” She insisted, trying to make a grab for her friend’s hand.  “---Fabulous?” she asked, striking something that resembled a pose.  She was feeling herself, that much was for sure.  “C’mon, take off your bonnet and let’s go out.” She stretched out the last word, making it sound as if she was begging.

“Oh wow, that sucks I am sorry.” Kathryn replied, sending her a reassuring smile. She knew that she herself would never be able to work such long and intense hours. Kathryn didn’t have the mental capacity to deal with half of the stuff that people in the medical profession had to. “Sometimes coffee is a lifesaver.”

“I absolutely agree, which is why I think baristas deserve way more credit than they get.  Hell, when parents are thanking you for saving their kid, they should also thank the baristas, because it wouldn’t be possible without them.” Sure, she was exaggerating a bit, but coffee was a huge part of practically every hospital worker’s life.

                              “Oh, no, I’m good,” Eric waved a hand with a chuckle. “I was just jokin’ before. I’ve had my fair share of encounters with bodily fluids.” A pause as he tilted his head hopefully, “You a doctor or something?” At least he hoped she was — it didn’t seem fun to have to deal with all that stuff if it wasn’t her job to.

“You sure?  You seemed really interested.” she teased, waggling her brows.  “No, I just sell scrubs with bodily fluids on them like girls sell their underwear.  It’s a nice market.” She deadpanned, pausing for a few moments too long before conceding.  “Better.  I’m a nurse. --- But what about you?  Just why are you interacting with bodily fluids so much?”

      Luna went ahead and pressed her back against the wall next to the woman. It had been too long of a day not to take a moment and reflect on it all. She stuck her hands in the pockets of her scrubs and rolled her eyes. “No matter how small this town is, they sure make it seem huge with how often they’re here,” she added. “I was originally going to move to New York. Practice medicine there… How do people deal with so many idiots….”

“Thought about New York City too, until I realized how little nurses get paid and how expensive that damn city is.” she commiserated.   “I mean, of course you expect the fire fighters and cops to come in, although it’s never fun to see them, but...It’s like even desk workers are ending up here with these crazy ass injuries, and sometimes I just want to shake them and be like ‘How?!’, you know?”

“What the hell?” Bastian muttered as he came to a stop before the boarded-up shop. “When the hell did this close down? I thought this shit was booming with business.” Then again, he had been gone for three years. Shit.

She had been walking home whens he overheard the man talking to the empty storefront.  Stopping, she stood next to him, looking at the once great but now desolate restaurant as well.  “Yeah, well, they hired a new cook and...Well, just be glad you weren’t around for it’s downfall.”

                              Brows furrowed, Andrew stood at the quaint intersection, head shifting this way to that. “I…” face falling, his hand lifted to point down one street, only to turn on his heel and look down another, as if caught in indecision. “I coulda sworn this was the right way…” Scrubbing a hand over his face and into his hair, a sigh escaped him. This just wasn’t his day — or month, really.

Isabella was not a good samaritan.  She was not the type to stop and help unless it was a medical emergency, so she was surprised at herself when she started to slow down as she came upon the obviously helplessly lost out of towner.  Despite growing up in a city much larger than the small town of Devinstone, she too had gotten lost her first few months here.  Sighing, the nurse came to a stop.  “What’re you looking for, dude?”