Lisa rolled out her back one last time before changing into her uniform black pants and gray search and rescue t-shirt. Her back was feeling better; the few days off she'd taken and the lighter work week she'd had at the end of January had done wonders, taking away the exhaustion she was feeling and the aches she felt in her muscles.
Her hair was still wet from her shower, leaving dark spots on her t-shirt, so she grabbed a cup of coffee and sat on top of the counter, allowing herself a little bit of time to relax and her hair a little more time to dry before heading outside into the freezing cold February weather. She wasn't foolish enough to walk out there with wet hair, not after doing it as a little kid and breaking off a frozen strand.
She sipped her coffee, glancing up at her kitchen clock. It was early. She hadn't been able to sleep in this morning, waking up at 6:00 AM, even though she didn't need to be at work until 9:00 AM.
February was always a hard month. It was Max's birth month, and for the past eleven years, it marked the time that passed, the years that she didn't get to live, the months that she got and Max didn't.
Lisa had known that big moments would be hard. She'd skipped her own high school graduation, too upset to walk across the stage without her best friend. She'd stumbled through freshman orientation at college, feeling lonelier than she'd felt in her entire life. Lisa had found a friend in Rosé, but that friendship came with an overwhelming sense of guilt, a sense that she was moving on and forgetting.
The big moments were hard, but the small ones surprised her. The small ones were just as painful, just as crippling, sometimes even more so, since she didn't have time to prepare for them.
She drained her coffee mug, set it in the sink, and hurried out the door, feeling suffocated in her small house and in just her own company. By the time she got to the station, she'd cleared her mind of anything other than the workday ahead of her.
"Morning, Frank!" Lisa called, nodding her head toward where Frank was sitting in the lounge. She tossed her bag into her locker and headed straight for the coffee machine for her second cup of the day.
"Manoban," Frank greeted, eyeing her over the rim of his coffee mug. "How are you?"
"I'm all right," Lisa said honestly, pulling a mug down and pouring coffee into it. "The lighter days were nice. I think I needed a break."
Frank nodded. "Feeling good with the start of a new month?" he wondered, asking so much with that singular question.
She turned around and met Frank's eyes, knowing exactly what he was asking without using the words.
"I'm ready for spring, but I'm feeling okay," Lisa answered with a tight-lipped smile.
"Last year you said you felt like shit, so this is progress," Frank replied with a warm smile.
"It ebbs and flows," she shrugged, taking a sip of coffee and letting the liquid warm her body.
"Know what they say about the ebbs and flows?" Frank asked, his warm smile never dropping as he fixed Lisa with a look.
"What's that?" She asked, leaning back against the counter.
"Best to ebb and flow with company," he winked, slapping his knees and getting to his feet. "You're in charge. I'm headed to get some breakfast."
"Bon appetit," Lisa said, offering Frank a smile and taking her own seat in the lounge where she could listen for any incoming calls or radio alerts.
——————
"Ooooh, you brought a sexy dress to work," Jisoo cooed, looking at the black dress in Jennie's hands.
The doctor rolled her eyes and stuffed the dress and her large coat into her locker. "It's the only thing appropriate for the place my mother chose for dinner tonight."
"And here we were thinking you had a hot date," Jennie sighed, pulling on her scrub top.
"Nope. Just two hours of 'Oh, dear, but we loved Paul!'," she grumbled, pulling on her scrubs and tugging her curls into a high, loose bun.
"Ew," Jisoo said, wrinkling her nose and making a face.
"How can Mama Jane say that? She's amazing in every other aspect of your life," Crystal asked, slipping into the sneakers she wore in the hospital.
"The fact that his mom is my mom's best friend really doesn't help matters," Jennie replied. She dropped down onto the bench and laid down, covering her face with her arms.
"Have you actually told her how much he sucked?" Jisoo asked. "Have you told her that he put you in danger?"
"Whoa, danger? I never heard about that," Crystal scoffed, tapping Jennie's legs so she'd lift them up. Crystal dropped onto the bench and let Jennie put her legs onto her lap.
"He raced a car down the 5 even after I repeatedly asked him to stop. And that happened more than once. He's a bit of a hothead," Jennie sighed, hating the memory of spending time with Paul, of giving him parts of herself she wished she hadn't, of trusting him and being burned by that trust.
"A bit?" Jisoo scoffed, rolling her eyes.
Paul had always been quick to anger, not caring about anyone who got hurt in the process. And Jisoo would never forget the nights that Jennie came over, worried about his safety or her own.
The breakup was what had led both of them to accept jobs in Anchorage in the first place. Jennie had needed a blank slate, and Jisoo needed her best friend.
"He was an asshole," the older added.
"It all makes sense now," Crystal hummed.
Jennie removed her arms from her face and narrowed her eyes at Crystal. "What does?"
"You and the firefighter. Lisa. You're scared of the danger. You're scared to fall for another Paul," Crystal said softly.
"You're not wrong," Jisoo whispered, watching Jennie digest Crystal's words.
"You two need to- just not," she grumbled, putting her arms over her face again. "I am perfectly happy with my nights in, with a book in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. I'm happy," she repeated, almost as if by saying the word she would actually feel it.
"Tell that to the puppy dog eyes I see every time the E.R. doors open and it isn't her or every time Rosé comes over after work," Jisoo said.
"You maybe... never mind," Crystal shook her head, deciding to mind her own business.
"Just say it, Crys," Jennie sighed, knowing her new but true friend would just sit on these words and eventually bring them up.
"I mean... just- Do you ever feel like maybe you're punishing her for the job she's chosen? For the wrongs Paul did and not the ones she's done?" Crystal asked, wincing as she finished the question.
Jennie was saved from answering when all three of their pagers went off simultaneously, signaling the start of a busy day at Anchorage General.
——————
Lisa had expected a slow morning. It had been quiet the past couple of weeks. She might even go so far as to say the past couple of weeks had been boring. Rosé had taken to jogging on the treadmill in the station's gym to keep herself busy, and a few of the other firefighters had worked on cleaning and maintaining gear.
Of course, it was when Frank was gone, when Lisa was left in charge, that the sense of boredom turned into chaos. It was the Sheriff's Department that had radioed to let them know that two hikers had been called in missing and they were requesting Search and Rescue.
It was that chaos turned dread that had Lisa and Rosé and two volunteer SAR guys in a helicopter, flying over the Chugach Mountains.
"I'm gonna go blind," Lisa said, staring at the snowy mountains that were reflecting sunlight directly into her eyes.
Rosé held a hand over her ear and pressed her phone closer. "I gotta go. I'll be home for dinner. I love you," she yelled, hanging up the phone and then turning to face Lisa. "We're going in blind?! I just told Jisoo not to worry!"
"No, I said I'm gonna go blind because it's so bright. I'm gonna fly lower. You should really be searching," Lisa said, focusing on the helicopter and leaving the searching up to Rosé and the two guys in the back.
"Sir yes sir," Rosé replied, looking out the window and keeping her eyes peeled for the hikers, a flare, any sort of sign.
"Also, glad you're in love or whatever," Lisa added with a tiny smile.
"It's the best," Rosé sighed happily.
"That's cute," one of the guys, Wade, said from the back.
"It's one of the new doctors, right?" the other guy, Charlie, asked.
"Jisoo Kim, from L.A.," Rosé confirmed with a nod and a blush in her cheeks.
"The other one's hot too," Wade said with a shit-eating grin.
"Shut the fuck up, Wade," Rosé snapped. "Focus up, you dick. We've got lost hikers."
"Jesus Christ," Charlie mumbled under his breath, looking more intently out the window.
"You too, Charlie," Rosé tossed over her shoulder. She reached out and clapped Lisa on the back, the action meant to be comforting.
She steered them higher up the mountain with a firm grip, her entire body tense. She knew Jennie was attractive. Charlie and Wade and everyone else with working eyes could see that. She'd spent months flirting with her; she wasn't oblivious to how attractive Jennie was.
That being said, she didn't need to know what other people thought about her. She didn't need to think about Jennie saying yes to a date with someone like Wade. She was in the middle of thinking about those green eyes when she just barely caught a glimpse of gray smoke, peeking up over the side of a mountain just west of them.
"Smoke," she murmured, craning her neck to get a better look.
"Take us closer, Lis," Rosé replied, pulling on her gear. "We've got to find a place to land."
——————
"You look great, dear," Ruby said, stepping in for a hug inside of the restaurant after they'd shed their large winter coats.
"Thanks, Mom," Jennie murmured. She wrapped her arms loosely around her mom and returned the hug.
"Who knew Alaska would look this great on you?" Ruby hummed, pressing a soft kiss to her daughter's cheek.
Jennie smiled softly and wiped the lipstick from her cheek as she stepped back from the hug.
"Thanks," she repeated, running a hand through her hair nervously. She hadn't seen her Mom since she moved, not having gone home for the holidays because of poor weather.
Ruby Jane looked the same, with a warm smile and kind eyes. Even if Jennie always felt slightly judged, slightly below the standard in the eyes of her mother, she couldn't deny that it was good to see her.
"Right this way," the hostess said, leading them to a table near the back of the restaurant. She placed two dinner menus and a wine menu on the table and left them to mull over their options.
She immediately reached for the wine menu and started flipping through it. She wasn't on-call tonight, and she was going to need something stronger than water if she was going to field questions for two hours while feeling like every answer she gave was never enough.
"Are you still enjoying Riesling?" Ruby asked, watching her daughter from across the table.
"I'm more into Pinots now," Jennie replied absentmindedly, turning to the next page.
"I love Pinots," her mother smiled, hoping that something she said would bridge the chasm that seemed to have formed between her and her daughter.
"Since when?" Jennie asked, almost scoffing at the idea.
"Your dad took me wine tasting in Napa, and I gave Pinots another shot," Ruby said.
"Huh," Jennie offered in reply, her eyes still tracking over the wine list.
"He sends you his love. We've all missed you," She added softly.
Jennie finally looked up from the wine list, meeting her mom's eyes. "I miss you guys too," she replied, her voice equally as soft.
"But we're really proud of you. Moving here was probably a scary step, and we're proud of you," Ruby assured, not wanting Jennie to read anything wrong.
"A necessary one, actually," she mumbled, Jisoo's words about telling her mom about how bad things had been with Paul, things that had pushed her out of L.A., bouncing around in her head.
"Why's that?" Ruby asked, her eyebrows scrunching together in worry.
"You know why, Mom," Jennie sighed, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms over her chest.
"I know that things with your relationship took a turn, but I don't know much at all. You didn't tell me. Maybe I didn't make you feel like you could. Maybe I wasn't available," Ruby sighed.
Jennie pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and looked away from her mom's soft gaze, from her open expression.
"Do we know what we'd like to drink?" their waiter asked, unaware that he was interrupting an important moment.
An awkward silence descended upon the table as Jennie looked pointedly away from her mom and the waiter, her eyes unfocused and her lip still held between her teeth.
"We'll take a bottle of the Kosta Browne," Ruby said, naming the first bottle of Pinot Noir on the menu and handing the waiter the menu.
"Right away, Miss," the waiter replied with a nod and then left as quickly as he had appeared.
"Jennie, I'd really like to know if you're willing to talk about it," her mother said softly, resting her hand on the table and wishing that she could reach out.
It took a few moments, where Jennie briefly considered ignoring her mother's plea or simply getting up from the table and leaving. But she'd run from this conversation, and from her mother. She'd run all the way to Anchorage, Alaska. She couldn't keep running.
So, she stopped running. The words flowed out of her, words full of pain and regret. They flowed easily, easier than Jennie expected them. She told her mom everything, every reason why her relationship with Paul had soured. She told her mom about staying up late into the night shaking with worry because Paul was off on some new "adventure" as he liked to call them, adventures that would always bring him to the brink of danger. He was a loose cannon with a taste for thrill and a hothead, and it had ultimately led to their falling out.
Jennie spoke as the wine arrived, as she and her mom drank glass after glass of it, as their plates of food came and went. She spoke until her throat was raw and her eyes burned, but thankfully, the ghosts of the memories didn't haunt her. It was as if by speaking them, she released them and their hold on her.
"You're my daughter, and you're all that matters to me. You being safe and happy is all that matters to me. Screw Paul, and screw Paul's parents," her mother said, shaking her head, her jaw clenching and unclenching. "I'm sorry I made you feel like you couldn't just talk to me about it. I'm sorry if I made you feel like you had to come all the way out here to get away from it."
"I didn't want to disappoint you," Jennie choked out quietly, using her napkin to swipe at the tears pooling in her eyes.
"You have never, in your entire life, disappointed me. I don't think it's possible for you or your sisters to disappoint me. You three are the best thing I've ever done," Ruby said gently.
Jennie smiled through her tears and finally took her mother's hand, gripping onto it tightly.
"I love you, Mom," she murmured, her voice still weak after all the talking.
"I love you," Ruby replied, her tone quiet but fierce. "I think it's a good night for dessert."
Jennie laughed, the sound loud and warm and free. It came on without permission and simply bubbled up out from inside of her.
"There's my girl," her mother grinned. "So, are there any Alaskans who are catching your eye? Is it even possible to be interested in people buried under all the coats and hats and gloves?" she teased.
Her laughter died a bit as she schooled her features. She took a long sip of her wine, hoping to dodge the question, even if she knew that wasn't possible when it came to her mom.
"Do we need another bottle?" Ruby asked, pouring a little bit more wine into Jennie's glass as soon as it was back on the table.
"I think I messed it up before it even started," she blurted, her cheeks warming with the admission.
"I highly doubt that. You're quite a catch," Ruby said, running her thumb over the back of her daughter's hand.
"I told her I didn't want to see her outside of work," Jennie mumbled.
"She works at the hospital? You can always tell HR you're dating and clear that up if you're worried about dating a coworker," Ruby said.
Her lips twitched up into an amused smile at the way her mom immediately went into fix-it mode.
"She's an accident-prone firefighter who makes a lot of visits to my E.R.," Jennie corrected, her smile growing at the thought of Lisa.
"And you don't want to date her?" Ruby asked, looking a little confused about why Jennie had turned the firefighter down.
She sighed and dropped her eyes to her wine glass. She ran her fingers up and down the stem of the glass, her face drawn in thought.
"She's as close to danger, if not more so, than Paul. It hurt too much to go through that once, and I don't know if I can again," Jennie replied softly.
"I see," she nodded, taking a sip of wine. "I get the hesitation. Can I ask a question? You can correct me if I have it wrong."
She smiled at her mom. "You can always ask, Mom. No guarantee of an answer," she replied.
"Did you hate the dangerous situations that Paul got into or the lack of purpose and reason behind those dangerous situations?" Ruby asked, her eyebrows still furrowed in thought.
Jennie opened her mouth to reply and then hesitated. Her mom's question wormed its way into her heart and systematically knocked down the walls she'd painstakingly built up over the last year. She found that she had no answer. She had no answer because she didn't know the answer.
"Because it sounds like you hated that he searched for danger without a reason. He's an idiot with an anger issue. But it sounds like this woman is in a dangerous field in order to save other people. That's a pretty important reason to face danger, even if it is a little scary," Ruby added gently.
"Well shit," Jennie sighed, leaning back in her chair, shaking her head slightly as she took all of her mom's words to heart, as she realized how true they were.
"Another bottle or some chocolate cake?" Ruby asked with a laugh.
Before Jennie could answer, her attention was captured by the television at the bar and the BREAKING NEWS bulletin that flashed across it, causing a hush to fall over the restaurant.
"We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you breaking news. The two missing hikers from Chugach State Park have been found, but the SARS team in charge of extraction suffered two serious injuries. All members of the hiking crew and rescue team are being sent to Anchorage General."
Jennie's heart stopped in her chest. She worked through her wine-fogged brain and recalled that Lisa and Rosé were part of the volunteer Search and Rescue crew. It took her another second to process that if they were the ones sent out to Chugach, that meant one or both of them could be seriously hurt.
She looked away from the television, fixing her mom with a panicked look. "We have to go," Jennie declared, her words rushed.
"Where?" Ruby asked, not hesitating to wave the waiter over and pull her credit card out of her wallet.
"The hospital," Jennie replied, a pit forming in her stomach at what could possibly await them there.
——————
"Dude, you okay?" Rosé asked, looking down at her friend.
"Peachy," Lisa nodded, trying to pull her hands out of the blanket that the EMTs had essentially swaddled her in. She wasn't concerned about herself. She'd been fine enough to get back up to the helicopter and fly them to the closest clearing where an ambulance was waiting for them. She was worried about Charlie and the hikers, and she knew she wouldn't be able to do anything to help if she was stuck under heated blankets, getting poked and prodded by the EMTs.
"Your lips were- are basically blue. You look like you motorboated a Smurfette. Get your hands back under that blanket right fucking now," Rosé said sternly, tucking the heated blanket tighter around Lisa.
She snorted at Rosé's ability to joke around in the back of an ambulance. Her sense of humor was one of the things she loved most about her friend; it had been what made them fast friends.
"Yes, ma'am," Lisa shivered, her teeth uncontrollably chattering together.
"You're such a dumbass, Lis," Rosé sighed, running her hands through her hair.
"Why do you say that?" She asked, her shoulders shaking under the blanket.
"I told you the ice was thin. I told you not to go out there."
"And I was just supposed to leave tweedle dum out there?" Lisa asked, referencing one of the hikers they'd found who'd dumbly wandered onto the ice.
Rosé groaned and fixed Lisa with a hard look. "No... but I would have gone. I was going to. I told you I had him."
"It would have broken anyway, and then you'd be on this bed, and Jisoo would kill me," Lisa chuckled, her laugh cut off by another shiver.
"She'd kill you first, then me, then me again," Rosé chuckled, reaching out to tuck the blankets tighter around Lisa again, making sure they weren't slipping and letting any heat out.
"I want to go home," she mumbled, blinking her eyes slowly and gritting her teeth to stop them from chattering.
"We're going to the E.R. We don't fuck with hypothermia," Rosé replied.
"Can we go to a different hospital?" Lisa whined.
The taller rolled her eyes. "Jennie isn't working tonight so you can stop wasting energy trying to get us to go somewhere else."
Lisa hated that her heart dropped a little at the realization that she wouldn't get to see those green eyes, even if they didn't want to see her.
"Jisoo's gonna smack you," Lisa shivered, feeling the ambulance jerk to a stop.
"Why? My ass didn't go through the ice."
"Because she cares about you," she mumbled. "She looooves you."
Rosé blushed slightly and ran a hand through her hair again. "That's enough out of you," she replied right as they arrived at the hospital.
One of the EMTs jumped out of the ambulance first, pointing the doctors, interns, and nurses toward the other three ambulances first, knowing that the two hikers and Charlie needed attention first.
"See, I'm the last one who needs attention. I could warm myself up at home," Lisa shivered.
"Like hell you can," Jisoo called out, stepping up to the ambulance. She gave Rosé a quick once over, checking to make sure she was okay and intact.
"I kept her safe and sound," Lisa smirked, her teeth starting to chatter again despite her tight jaw. Jisoo shot her a grateful half-smile in response.
"She decided to test the integrity of a frozen lake," Rosé explained, helping Jisoo get the gurney out of the ambulance.
"I decided to pull a hiker off of a frozen lake. Let's not put all the blame on me," Lisa defended. "How was I supposed to know the lake was already cracking?"
"Has she talked this whole time?" Jisoo asked quietly, pushing the gurney into the E.R. with Rosé's help.
"Haven't been able to get her to shut up," the taller grumbled good-naturedly.
"Just keeping my vocal cords warm and toasty," Lisa teased.
"It's actually a really good thing. We'll get you fluids and warm you up. We also need to get you out of these clothes," Jisoo said. She and Rosé pulled the gurney to a stop once they'd gotten to room one, the door shutting behind them. Jisoo pulled the cord of the blinds to give Lisa some semblance of privacy.
"That's what she said," Lisa winked, her chest shaking with each shiver that ran through her body.
"You get to wear a gown, Lis," Rosé teased.
"And a few layers of blankets," Jisoo added, tossing Rosé a gown as she searched for the heated blankets in the cabinets.
"Do I get coffee?" Lisa asked, pulling off her soaked shirt and tossing it onto the floor.
"Hot apple cider. Jennie brought some in yesterday- I mean that's all we've got stocked," Jisoo replied, adding to the pile of things in Rosé's arms with every heated blanket she found in the cabinets and then gave her to hold.
"You're both gonna stay here and watch me strip, aren't you?" Lisa asked with another shiver as she pulled the belt off of her pants, pointedly ignoring the way hearing Jennie's name made her heart race.
——————
Jennie was out of breath as she ran into the E.R., her green eyes wild and taking in as much as she could as she looked around the room.
"What are you doing here?" Jill asked, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion as she took in the girl's panicked expression.
"Search and Rescue," Jennie panted, struggling to catch her breath. "The hikers."
"Hikers are in their own rooms with some serious hypothermia. One of the Search and Rescue team members is in surgery," Jill said, flipping through a chart on the front desk.
Jennie felt her knees give out, and thankfully, her mother was right there with a strong arm around her waist. She could barely breathe, let alone think, her mind hardly processing that Lisa could be the one in surgery.
"And the other team member?" Ruby asked, directing her question to Jill.
"Jisoo's with her. She's got a mild case of hypothermia but as far as we know nothing else. She won't stop talking, either," Jill answered.
Jennie let out a strangled sigh of relief. "That's Lisa," she all but gasped. "Oh thank God."
"What are you doing here on your night off?" Jill asked again, putting a hand on her hip.
Ruby gave Jennie a small push on the back, sending her back toward the rooms. "I got this, dear," she whispered, setting her sights on Jill, ready to explain away Jennie's arrival and maybe even knock Jill down a peg or two.
Jennie hurried through the E.R., feeling oddly out of place without her white coat. Her heels clicked against the tile floor as she made her way to room one. She forced a small smile on her face when she saw who was standing outside of it.
"Hey, what're you doing here?" Jisoo asked quietly, keeping a hand on Rosé's forearm. The two were standing outside of the room, talking softly with one another.
"Is she okay?" Jennie managed, her arms crossed over her chest and her forehead wrinkled with worry.
"It's just a little hypothermia," Jisoo assured.
"Did you run labs? Get her on warm fluids? I left hot cider here in the break room," Jennie pressed, pushing her friend on this even if she knew she didn't have to.
"She drank the cider and is under tons of heated blankets right now. She just fell asleep, and her temperature is going up," Jisoo said patiently.
Jennie let out another small, strangled sigh of relief. "Right. Okay. Thanks, Soo."
"She wasn't in the water long," Rosé added quietly. "A minute tops."
Her gaze hardened as she looked over at Rosé. "A minute too long. What the hell was she doing out there? Why'd you let her get in the water when it's negative 12 outside!"
"A hiker was on the ice. She didn't know the ice was cracking. I didn't know she was gonna try to walk out to him," Rosé said, defending herself.
"It's Lisa, of course, she was going to try! You shouldn't have let her. She could have-" Jennie faltered, her voice breaking slightly.
"Hey, let's not point fingers," Jisoo said calmly, letting go of Rosé and reaching out for her friend.
"I've got it from here," Jennie murmured, taking a step toward the door and away from them.
"You smell like a winery," Jisoo whispered. "Jill isn't gonna let you work like that."
"I'm not here to work," she replied softly, narrowing her eyes one final time in Rosé's direction before walking into room one.
She let the door fall shut behind her, clicking into the place. She leaned back against it and took in the sight of Lisa, who usually seemed larger than life, looking small and scared and pale and shivering under a pile of blankets.
"You already saw my boobs. What more do you need?" Lisa asked, her eyes still closed in the hopes of finding some sleep.
When she didn't get a response, the girl cracked an eye open to look at the door.
"Chae?" Lisa asked.
"She's outside," Jennie murmured, offering her a weak half-smile, feeling any lingering buzz seep out of her.
"Oh..." Lisa breathed out, clenching her teeth even more to keep each and every small shiver in and unnoticeable.
"Do you want me to get her?"
"That's okay," Lisa said with a shake of her head.
"Do you need anything? Another blanket, maybe?" Jennie asked, her words soft as she kept moving her eyes across Lisa, almost as if she were making sure Lisa was really here and really okay.
"I think Jisoo must have put six on me, so I'm good," Lisa said, offering a small smile. She watched the way Jennie awkwardly stood against the door. She didn't look as confident and put together as usual, and it took Lisa a little longer than it typically would have to figure out why. When she did, though, she couldn't stop noticing it.
Jennie wasn't in scrubs. She wasn't dressed the part. She was in a down coat, the zipper unzipped to reveal a fancy black dress. Her heart sank even lower. This was worse than being turned down.
The idea of Jennie being with another person was what had made her tense up in the helicopter, and here she was living that nightmare in real-time.
"Nice dress," she mumbled, staring up at the ceiling and blinking her eyes slowly closed. She released a shaky breath, finally letting her body shiver slightly, not quite as aggressively as she had been before the cider and the blankets.
"Uh- thank you," the doctor replied, her forehead furrowing as she watched Lisa shake on the bed. She stepped away from the door and grabbed the final heated blanket. Instead of putting it on the large pile on top of Lisa, she bunched it up and gently put it around the firefighter's neck and the back of her head. "Heat escapes from the top of your head, so," Jennie explained, wrapping the blanket around Lisa with a soft touch.
"Were you on call or something?" she asked, sinking into the heat that now seemed to surround her.
Jennie didn't want to, but she removed her hands from the blanket, crossing her arms over her chest so she wouldn't do something silly like fix the baby hairs that dangled down onto Lisa's forehead.
"No, I wasn't. I saw it on the news at dinner," Jennie replied, her eyes still moving across Lisa's blanket-covered body as if searching for some invisible injury, for some sign that there was more than just mild hypothermia to worry about.
"So you ditched your date to work? Have you checked on anyone else? Wade's in surgery, but he's definitely got a crush on you, so if you check on him, go easy," Lisa murmured, focusing her eyes on a spot on the wall to the right of Jennie.
Jennie finally looked at Lisa's face, at the hard line of her jaw and the distant look in her eyes. She felt a little thrown off by multiple questions and the dozens of emotions swirling around within those brown eyes, and she was even more thrown that Lisa wouldn't meet her eyes like she always used to.
"It wasn't- I just came for you," Jennie mumbled, her arms tightening across her chest.
"Definitely don't tell your date or Wade that," Lisa said, pulling her eyes off of the wall and letting them meet Jennie's green ones.
"My mom knows why I'm here," Jennie replied, completely perplexed as to why Lisa seemed so fixated on her having been out on a date or on the possibility of her going on a date with this Wade guy.
"Um, that's cool," Lisa said, confused about what Jennie's mom had to do with anything. "Do people hallucinate when they have slight hypothermia?"
The doctor's lips twitched up into the ghost of a smile. "I was out to dinner with my mom. And the minute we saw the news, we came right over," Jennie murmured.
"Because you're really dedicated to your work?" Lisa guessed, slightly wishing that the blankets would swallow her whole, just in case this conversation took a turn that would hurt even more than their last interaction.
"I'm not all work," Jennie replied, dropping down onto the edge of the bed. She quickly checked the monitors, noting Lisa's vitals and the strong number she was putting out. "You should sleep. I'll be here when you wake up, okay?"
"Are you sure I'm not asleep right now?" Lisa asked, her eyes shining with even more confusion.
Jennie made a split-second decision. She leaned forward and pressed a lingering kiss to Lisa's forehead before sitting back, ignoring the fluttering in her stomach that the gesture caused.
"Did you feel that?" Jennie asked softly.
"Yeah, but I'm known for my vivid dreams," Lisa whispered.
She chuckled and reached out to brush those baby hairs off of Lisa's forehead, every moment she spent in this room making her just a bit braver.
"You're not asleep yet, but you should be. I'll be here when you're done vividly dreaming," Jennie hummed, repeating the similar sentiment, the promise of being here when Lisa woke up.
"I'll hold you to that," she muttered, letting her heavy eyelids flutter closed.
——————
"Hey," Jisoo whispered, running a hand along her back.
Jennie's head shot up from where it had been resting against her crossed arms. She groaned at the bright light of the room and wiped at the small bit of drool coming from the corner of her mouth.
"What time is it?" she croaked, blinking her eyes open.
"9:30 in the morning," Jisoo said gently. "The nurses need to change the sheets."
She finally got her eyes open and alert enough to look at the hospital bed she was sitting next to and had fallen asleep leaning on.
But it wasn't occupied like she expected it to be.
It was empty.
"Where..." Jennie trailed off, turning around to look at Jisoo.
"She was discharged over an hour ago. She said she didn't want to wake you up," her friend answered.
Jennie swallowed the flashes of hurt and worry and got to her feet. She offered Jisoo a pained, weak smile and headed for the door, pulling her hair up into a bun and away from her face. She fixed the dress so it wasn't twisted around her torso and let out a long sigh.
Whatever progress she had thought they'd made last night clearly wasn't progress to Lisa. If anything, it seemed like they'd taken four giant steps backward.