A VERY ODD COUPLE
Part II
Ok, this is going in a slightly
different direction than I originally intended
(It’s still not a slash fiction, but it’s more serious
than the previous installment)
Previously on <my> ER
Following some manipulation by Randi,
Luka was persuaded to let Dave move in with him
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One evening, a few weeks later Dave and Luka were watching TV. At least Dave was watching. Luka was trying to read a medical journal.
“Luka,” said Dave. “I’ve been thinking.”
“Does it hurt?” asked Luka without looking up.
“Ha Ha. No, I was thinking that we should have a house warming party.”
This got Luka’s attention and he looked up from his journal. “Unless I’ve got my customs mixed up, isn’t a house warming usually done when you first move into a house? I think I’ve been here too long to qualify.”
“Yeah but I haven’t. Anyway it could be fun. We just pick a day when neither of us are working, and invite everyone.”
“But what about everyone who is on duty?”
“No problem, we just make sure the party lasts long enough so that everyone has a chance to be there.”
“Won’t it take a lot of organization?” asked Luka who was not too keen on the idea.
“Not really. A little bit of food, a lot of drink, some good music, no problem.”
“You sound as if you’ve done this sort of thing before.”
“Oh yeah, back in college there were parties almost every week. Didn’t you have any when you were in college?”
“I was too busy studying to go to too many parties.”
“Oh, you missed out on one of <the> reasons to go to college. I remember once my girlfriends house held a party. Man it was a blast. A couple of hundred people must have showed up.”
“Did she have <that> many friends?”
“Oh she didn’t know half of them. One of her friends was working in a coffee shop on campus. Every customer she had, she told about the party and invited them. Most of them showed up. It got so wild that Kendra and her roommate came back to my place to get away from it. When they got back the next morning there was a broken window, cigarette burns everywhere, a couple of their plants even ended up on the garage roof.” Dave looked at the shocked expression on Luka’s face and realised that this might not have been the best college story to tell him. He quickly back-pedalled.
“But this was a college party, with a bunch of kids. I’m sure everyone we invite will behave better than that.”
“Hmmm. So who would you want to invite?” asked Luka.
“I thought we’d just ask everyone from work. At least I can ask the residents and med-students, and you could ask the attendings.”
“What about the nurses, are we going to include them?”
“Oh of course. Unless you fancy waking up with plaster casts on all four limbs.”
“They’d really do that?”
“If we didn’t invite them, they could do worse.”
A thought struck Dave. “Hey maybe Carter will be back from his sabbatical by then. He could do with a party to cheer him up.”
Luka looked at Dave suspiciously, while wondering if his comment was just a random one, or if he was fishing for information. Kerry had informed Luka and the other attendings of Carter’s true whereabouts, but the rest of the staff had been given the story that Carter’s injuries had been aggravated by an incident with a patient, and that he was taking a medical sabbatical to recover fully.
Luka hoped that Dave would not pry further into Carter’s absence. While he respected Carter’s right to privacy, he did not like the idea of lying to Dave.
“Won’t all this be expensive?” asked Luka in an effort to get off the subject of Carter.
“Not really. What we can do is, say, whip up a large pot of soup, get in a crate of bread-rolls and then ask everyone to bring some of their favourite food or drink. And the best bit is, we get to keep the leftovers. If everything works out we won’t have to buy any food for the rest of the week.”
“So long as we don’t mind living on week old sandwiches”
“Been there done that.”
“Hmm. I’ll think about it. We’ll talk about it later. Just don’t start inviting people yet.”
And so they left it at that.
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The next morning over breakfast.
“How can you be so cheerful at this time in the morning?” asked Luka.
“Years of practice and lots of coffee,” replied Dave as he dished up Luka’s fried breakfast. It had become a habit of theirs to take turns in making breakfast if they were both starting work the same time. The only drawback was that whoever made the breakfast chose the menu. Luka tended towards porridge or croissants. Dave on the other hand was convinced that you couldn’t start the day without a good fried breakfast, and the greasier the better.
“You know,” said Dave through a mouthful of fried eggs. “If this gets out about us cooking for each other, people are going to start believing all the rumours going around.”
“What rumours?” asked Luka.
“They probably wouldn’t be repeated in front of you. I’m talking about the rumours about the two of us. You know the <real> reason people think we’re sharing.”
“Because you keep my motor running?” asked Luka in confusion.
“That’s one way of putting it,” said Dave with a grin. “But I know you’re talking about your car. No, I’ve heard people speculating that we’re more than just friends.”
The penny finally dropped for Luka. “You mean they think we’re lovers?” he gasped in shock.
Dave nodded, enjoying Luka’s embarrassment.
“I hope that you corrected them immediately.”
“Nope.”
“But why not?” A thought struck Luka. “You’re not? I mean I don’t have a problem if you are …” his voice trailed off.
“Me? Nah. I’m as straight as they come. Just ask all my ex-girlfriends. But if I start protesting, they’re going to think I’ve something to hide.”
“Methinks the man doth protest too much,” quoted Luka.
“Whatever. Anyway, I figured I could have more fun stirring up the rumours than trying to stop them.”
“Aren’t you afraid it will damage your reputation with the ladies?”
“One thing you really need to know about women my friend, is that they <love> a challenge.”
Luka looked at him skeptically. Dave continued, “and trying to convert a gay guy is about as big a challenge as you can get. Mark my words; if you ‘came out’ in the middle of the ER you would have half the nurses throwing themselves at you straight away. Mind you some of them are doing that anyway.”
“Hmm. I think you are, what is the phrase? Full of it.”
Dave grinned. “So do you want me to try and stop these rumours?”
“Do what you wish. I just want to make it clear that I have absolutely no physical desires for you whatsoever.”
“But you don’t know me well enough yet,” said Dave in mock despair. “Just kidding. I’m not interested in you either.”
“Well I’m glad we got that sorted out,” said Luka.
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The day passed uneventfully at work, which was good for Luka as he was taking a double shift. As Dave headed for home he called out to Luka, “See you later.”
“Don’t wait up,” Luka replied.
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Dave was looking forward to having the house to himself for an evening. Not that he objected to Luka’s company but sometimes he liked to be on his own. A couple of bottles of beer, an extra-large pizza and a few new videos and this was going to be a great evening.
Suddenly he groaned as he remembered how little money he had in his wallet. He <had> meant to go to the ATM near the hospital, but now he was over halfway home with not enough money for beer <and> pizza. Oh well, there was an ATM not too far out of his way.
The ATM was deserted when he got to it. Surprisingly it was working, in spite of all the graffiti sprayed on it. Dave balanced precariously on his bike as he made his transaction. It wasn’t until he turned around ready to cycle off that he realised he was no longer alone
Two youths were standing there, blocking his path back to the street. By the looks of them they were junkies and one of them was carrying a baseball bat. Dave swore to himself. He knew this area had a bad reputation for muggings but he had figured that at this hour of the day it would be safe enough.
“Give us your watch and your wallet,” ordered the bigger of the two.
“Hell no,” said Dave as he suddenly rode straight towards them.
Taking them by surprise, he almost got away but the thug with the bat swung it wildly and somehow connected with Dave’s left arm. Dave tried to keep his balance but couldn’t. He swerved wildly and then crashed to the ground. Before he could get clear of the bike the two were on him.
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To be continued