One Shots - Claire Browne and Neil Melendez

Boundaries

Summary: They all go to a charity event for the hospital. This is mostly just fluff based on a prompt I found on Pinterest. Not an established relationship. 

Claire was not used to being at work wearing a nice dress. She was usually wearing scrubs, rushing about to look after all of her patients, and discussing treatment possibilities with her co-workers. 

It was also weird seeing everyone dressed up like they were tonight. Sure, she had seen some of them dressed up before, but it was just something else seeing your colleagues look so different than you were used to. 

Lim had been bugging them all week, or possibly even month, to wear something nice and to charm the donators a little bit so that they could donate some nice sums to St. Bonaventure. 

Most of all, Claire had wanted to stay at home, but Neil had encouraged her into going anyway. Her mother had passed away a couple of months ago, and if she hadn't formed her friendship with Neil she would have kept away from this event and sat at home in her misery. Maybe she would still be sleeping with different guys. 

But Neil had managed to pull her out of that. He had been there for her, gotten her out of her apartment by going on runs with her. She was grateful for that. 

"Ready to turn up the charm?" Neil asked. She hadn't seen him walk in and he was now standing beside her. 

She scoffed. "After a drink or two, yes," She turned to smile up at him for a brief moment. They both observed the room with men and women dressed in fancy suits like they were really important. 

"Come on, you can't convince me you haven't already had one," He teased her and she blushed slightly because of the fact that he was indeed right in his statement. 

"I might have," She scrunched her nose and he chuckled. 

"Well, better go charm some guys with heavy pockets." She said as she began to make her way into the room. 

"Claire-" Neil spoke, and she turned to look at him again with a puzzled look. 

"You have something in your hair," He stated. "Do you want me to get it out?"

"Yes, please," Claire said, and he moved closer so he could take it out of her hair careful not to mess it up. She hadn't done anything fancy with her hair though, it was just a half-bun. 

"It might make it harder to charm anyone with leaves in your hair," Neil said as he held two leaves up in front of her. She had no idea how they had gotten in there. 

She scoffed again as she wanted to come with a sarcastic remark, but nothing clever came to her mind. She muttered a "thanks" instead and left to go talk to some of the others.

Claire had done her job. She had been smiling, talking, and encouraging rich people to donate money all night. She was rather successful if she should say so herself. But she was tired, and she wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep for a very long time. At least until her shift the next day. 

After taking a look around and finding everyone occupied, she decided that it was okay if she slipped out. So she made her way to the door, discreetly, she had done her job, she deserved to go home and get some rest. Before she made it to the front doors, a voice stopped her. 

"Claire," It was Neil. "Are you okay?" He asked. He was standing at the top of the stairs, and she had just made it to the bottom. She sighed, relieved it wasn't Lim trying to talk her into going back in there. 

Claire smiled. "Yes, I'm just tired." She replied, honestly for once. 

Neil nodded, and they shared a moment of comfortable silence. 

"You can always call me," He stated as if she didn't already know that. She liked his constant reassuring, though. "Even if you don't have a reason to," He held her gaze. 

For a moment she was lost for words until she gave him another smile and bid him goodnight. 

She unlocked her door, threw her bag on the kitchen table, and found a glass of water for herself. She sighed. 

She knew she was telling herself that there was more to it than there actually was. That had to be the case. 

But she couldn't help herself. In those moments, alone with her thoughts and the stars in the sky, she allowed her feelings for Neil to reach the surface briefly. To feel those feelings that she daily buried so deeply. It was strictly forbidden, it could not happen. But when he looked at her like that, when her name fell from his mouth oh so gracefully, she could not help but think that maybe, just maybe, he might feel the same. 

But hope was dangerous, and she could not let her feelings be fueled by that hope. She hates the way her breath catches in her throat when his gaze finds hers for just a moment longer than it should. She hates it because it scares her. But everything was okay when he smiled at her when she got to hear his voice. Whether it was calmly giving her instructions in the OR, or laughing at one of her jokes while on a run, his voice admiringly always gave her a certain amount of comfort. 

That's also why she ended up calling him that night as she was sitting on her couch, unable to fall asleep. It was 2 am, and she knew that she probably shouldn't, but something in her longed for him, even if this was the only way she could have him. At least right now. 

She had expected him to sound tired, but he sounded joyful when she greeted him through the phone. She had no idea how long they talked, but if it wasn't for her being so damn tired, she could've talked to him right until the sun was shining brightly through the windows. They fell asleep with the other on the phone that night, and somehow, she knew. 

She knew what they had was more than friendship, she knew he was aware of that too. And most importantly, she knew that one day, they would have their shot at happiness. With each other. They also both knew that now was not the time for that, but they were holding on, patiently waiting, even when he impatiently wanted to feel her body in a not-so-friendly way. Even when she desperately wanted to invite him inside. They both knew there were boundaries, boundaries that could not be broken. Not yet. 

But God, breaking boundaries was a beautiful thing.