dr. rupert fitzgerald carlisle shield ⛰ [kili] (nadad) wrote in dunhavenic, @ 2018-03-20 17:22:00 |
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In the past several years, Nina was certain that she had made a handful of very good decisions. The catalyst of many revolved around her decision to sign up with Doctors Without Borders; it had driven her to end a relationship she wasn't very invested in and wasn't going anywhere, widen her resume with experiences that had been difficult and were held very close to her heart, and had introduced her to the British man that now held that same heart. She'd made the move to Dunhaven, which had given her a life that was the pace that she needed in a small town she'd come to appreciate more than she'd anticipated. She had taken the position at the local hospital, where she felt more at home within than she ever had at Johns Hopkins. She had taken the chance in Virginia that she hadn't allowed herself to in Africa. And then she had bought a puppy. Nina had grown up with dogs and she'd known it was only a matter of time before she got one for herself, though now she wasn't sure why she hadn't given into that impulse sooner. Though the days since she'd brought Sam home had been hectic with puppy pads, teeth marks on her favorite pair of shoes, and getting used to middle of the night barking and early morning walks, it had been a rather delightful change of pace. It helped, she figured, that he was the cutest puppy in the whole world -- not that she was biased. Said puppy was now fast asleep on the floor, sprawled on his back with his little paws twitching now and again as he succumbed to dreams. Nina carefully stepped over him, both to not trod on him, but also to not disturb his sleep, with a glass of wine in each hand. Pausing at the couch, she gave one to Rupert before she took her seat directly next to him, not hesitating as she leaned into his frame gently. With all the decisions Nina had made, she knew that none of them made her feel as warm as Rupert did. Her career was important, as were all of the lessons that she'd learned and experiences she'd cultivated, but he was something else entirely. He represented something she'd never been interested in or bothered trying before he gave her the opportunity -- a relationship that let her envision a future and flirt with the idea of permanency. Rupert wasn't someone to simply hang out with and have fun with for a bit, but someone she wanted to hang out with and have fun with for the foreseeable future. It was a change of pace that she had been ready for, but one that she knew she couldn't have had with anyone but him. Nudging her glasses up her nose with her free hand, Nina glanced down at Sam before looking up to Rupert. "I don't think I could sleep in that position. I'd wake up with a stiff neck. And back… and shoulder." She scrunched up her nose, tipping her head to the side and considering with a smile. "All signs point to me getting old." When Rupert had joked that there wasn’t going to be enough room in his heart for Nina and the puppy, it’d been before he’d met Sam, and once he had -- No, he couldn’t even finish that thought. He knew instantly that the puppy would wiggle its way beneath his ribs just like Nina had. Rather than feeling like there wasn’t going to be enough space, it felt like his world was going to expand to fit her new family member -- their new family member, he corrected. It was a stretch to jump so far ahead and he knew it, but it felt right. He dropped his arm across her shoulders. “You’re not old, you’re …” He paused for a moment to consider his answer, very carefully. “Vintage. Like a fine wine.” He probably wouldn’t be off the hook entirely for that, but he grinned and tried to look hopeful. “I understand, though. I haven’t been able to sleep like that,” he nodded his head towards the puppy, “since my first residency. Now…” He cringed. He was working alongside doctors much younger than he was, but much less experienced. It was more exhausting at his age. "Mm," Nina responded, her smile not quite hidden as she took a short sip of her wine. "I think that might just make you vintage, as well. I'm not sure if you're a fine wine or a whiskey, though. Maybe bourbon. I'll have to think on that." “Excuse you,” Rupert started with mock offense, “I’m a whiskey.” Even though he wasn’t Irish or Scottish -- perhaps he could be bourbon, after all. She adjusted on the couch, crossing one leg over the other as she tipped her head back just enough to let it rest on his arm that draped across her shoulders. "I think it's great, you know," she said, a touch more serious as she looked to Rupert's face. "That you're taking the time to go back and do your residency again. It's dumb that you have to do it all over again, but just that you are is pretty impressive." She shrugged a shoulder and admitted, "It might sound lame, but I admire you for it -- and not just because you must have the patience of a saint to deal with all of those kids." Nina had a feeling that the rest of the doctors going through their residency alongside Rupert wouldn't be too pleased to be called "kid", but what they didn't know couldn't hurt them. Truthfully, and maybe it was because he hadn’t seen any other option, he didn’t know what was so impressive or admirably about it. He’d been frustrated to learn the rules in America, how his education somehow wasn’t enough for them, despite his Oxford pedigree. He was certainly glad she was proud, but as far as he was concerned, he didn’t really have a lot of options if he wanted to continue to practice medicine. He shrugged and ducked his head, feeling a little self-conscious. “It’s important to me. My work. To be able to do my work,” he answered simply. “Honestly, I thought about leaving, early on. But then I wouldn’t have found you again.” He leaned in for a quick, gentle kiss. “And that’s worth every second.” Nina smiled for just a moment, then leaned in for a second kiss, punctuating his statement. She didn't like throwing around words like fate or destiny, not only because she believed that her life and the decisions she made were in her own hands, but also because both words had a tendency to sound a bit hokey. But with Rupert? Their journey in and out of the other's life felt too important to simply be called coincidence. "Do you ever wonder what might have happened if we hadn't been so stubborn about our feelings in Kenya?" Nina asked, leaning forward for just the briefest of moments as she set her glass of wine on the coffee table, then fell back into position next to him. "I guess -- well, I suppose this was how it was meant to have happened," she continued, reaching up with one hand to brush her fingers along his jawline almost absently, "but sometimes I wonder what we'd be up to now if we'd gotten that headstart. Like..." She paused, considering an example of a change. Her eyes lit up as she smiled. "We might have two dogs by now." “We might be married,” he blurted out, not thinking for a moment how that might sound to anyone else’s ears but his own. That was something he’d assumed was on the horizon one day, but truthfully, he had no idea what she might want. “Ah -- I mean --” Rupert had imagined what their life might look like if they had confessed their feelings earlier, though. Many, many times. Most often, their lives took them to new exotic places. Sometimes they found a way to stay in Africa. Always, it involved them making a home together, wherever they were. His cheeks burned. “That is to say, yes, I’ve wondered about that.” Though they weren't the words that Nina had been expecting, they had an immediate effect on her. She smiled, albeit with a hint of shyness at its edges, and a warmth blossomed from her heart as her hand stilled, dropping from his jaw to land gently on his shoulder. It was easy to imagine being married to Rupert. It had become almost a requirement in her daydreams about their future together in a way that was new to her. Nina had always assumed she'd get married one day, but she'd never had someone in her life that she actually wanted to marry before -- until now, at least. She didn't know when they would settle down together, get married, and maybe even start a family of their own, but it felt inevitable with him. "Married," she repeated, almost breathing the word as a sigh. "We'd be Doctor and Doctor Shield. Doctors Shield." Her eyes narrowed slightly as she considered, still smiling. "I could get used to that." Hesitant, Rupert looked at her, eyes still wide. “Yeah?” He breathed, then, remembering that he’d been holding on in anticipation of what she might say. “Me too,” he admitted, though he supposed it wasn’t much of a confession when he was the one who’d brought marriage up. “I was worried it was too soon to say something like that.” Even though it felt like they’d known each other for ages, they hadn’t, and he’d worried she wasn’t at the same place he was. “And don’t worry, it’s not for a green card.” Nina shook her head slowly, though she then added a flash of a grin to the gesture at his mentioning of a green card. "It's not too soon. At least, I don't think so." Like Rupert, she felt as though she had known him longer than she knew they actually had been acquainted. Even with the time that they had spent apart, their correspondence having grown infrequent as they both became busy with their own lives before they had been brought together again, it was sometimes a bit baffling to remember that it had only been a couple of years, rather than the lifetime it sometimes felt like. Maybe it was just an illusion thanks to a happy relationship or maybe it was that spoke even deeper of their compatibility -- Nina didn't know and she doubted she ever really would. That was okay. She hesitated a moment, an expression on her face that made it clear she wanted to speak. Stopping herself a few times as she argued with herself how best to express her thoughts and feelings, Nina's gaze popped back to Rupert's as she decided that the simplest way was often best. "I love you, you know." She smiled before adding, "An almost embarrassing amount, even." Rupert waited, sensing that there was more she had to say, and when the words finally tumbled out of her mouth, his face split into a bright grin. He didn’t even consider playing around with her a bit like he usually did; it wasn’t the right moment for that, especially when he felt the same. Instead of answering in words, he reached up to cup her jaw and to pull her close for a kiss. He tried to pour everything he was thinking into it: love, of course, and also passion, appreciation, hope. Only once he was satisfied he’d gotten it all across (and once he needed to stop to take a breath) did he vocalize those thoughts: “I love you an embarrassing amount, too.” It was the sort of kiss that Nina read about in the romance novels that she claimed she didn't actually read, though so much better because it was real and it was them. When he broke away, she was half convinced that she was seeing stars, a rather dazzled expression on her face. He'd gotten the point across, that was for sure, but it was the words that echoed her own that really drove it home for hers. "Well, thank god for that," she replied, leaning in to press a quick, far less thorough kiss against his lips before she continued. Though her tone was teasing, her eyes were soft and downright adoring. "I'd be pretty embarrassed if you didn't. Not to mention the mixed signals, with that very nice kiss." “The mixed signals would have been downright cruel,” Rupert said, nodding. “Good thing my signals are very, very clear. Even if I should have started sending them much earlier.” On the floor, Sam startled himself awake with a whimper. He looked around, confused, like he wasn’t quite sure where he was for a moment, and then he caught sight of Nina. Rupert laughed. “He looks like me when I wake from a dream,” he commented. “I feel better when I see you, too.” He paused. “Okay, maybe that was too cheesy.” "Nope." Nina leaned forward as Sam got to his feet, pausing for a stretch before he padded over to the couch where his favorite humans were sitting. She leaned down and lifted him up, shifting back against Rupert as she cradled the dog in her arms; he would almost certainly find his energy again and wiggle out of her arms in no time, but she would enjoy the snuggles while she could. (When she brought him home, she had resolved to keep him off the furniture. That had lasted just shy of two hours, when she relented as he stared at her quite pitifully from the floor.) Immediately returning her attention back up to Rupert, she repeated, "Nope. Not too cheesy. There is no amount of cheesy that I won't accept from you, so don't hold back." “Oh, well, now that I have your permission…” Rupert started, fully prepared to launch into some other completely cheesy turn of phrase to explain just how in love with her he was, but looking at her now, his mind felt -- not blank, but like it was taken over by one very specific turn of phrase. The way the light hit the back of her head illuminated her hair with a halo. “You look very… elven right now. Ethereal. Like... you walk in starlight in another world.” Had she not been looking at Rupert when he said it, Nina's gaze would have jumped straight to him at the word elven. Though she was sure he was just being poetic, thoughts of her oddly memorable dreams came to mind. Dreams of herself as an elf, growing up and living in the woods alongside another elf that looked and reminded herself of Lennox. Dreams of complicated feelings for a dwarf that looked and reminded herself of Rupert himself. Without her permission, one of her hands rose, her fingers grazing the helix of her ear; to the untrained eye, it might have looked like she was just brushing her hair back. "Yeah?" she asked, the edges of her lips tipping into a small smile. "I think you might have elevated from cheesy to downright romantic with that." Rupert looked triumphant. In his mind, cheesy and romantic were often the exact samething. As long as Nina didn’t mind, he’d keep doing it. “Mission accomplished. Although now I think it’s your turn to be cheesy slash romantic.” "Oh boy." Nina paused to think, just as the time limit on snuggles came to an end and Sam began squirming in her lap. She helped him to the floor, his little puppy legs making her nervous about the jump, and he immediately scampered across his room to find something to chew on in his pile of toys. Hardly noticing, she kept her attention on Rupert. She had thought it might be harder to find something to give back in this battle of cheese, but then the words just started. "I've had relationships before you. All of them -- just utter nonsense. I didn't know love -- this love -- " She reached out, pressing her fingers gently to his heart. "Until you." Nina paused for just a brief second, then added, "You make me feel alive." The words felt right, but also familiar, just as his had. That was, easily, the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to him. Even though she’d already told him that she loved him, hearing her phrase it like that, in the exact same way he was feeling, left him speechless. He was so very lucky, and suddenly very overcome with a desire to not just tell her how it made him feel, but to show her. “How do you think Sam would feel if I stole you away somewhere a bit more private,” he asked, hoping she caught the suggestion in his voice. “Or do we need to take him outside first?” Nina's smile spread slow, definitely catching the suggestion as approval shown clear in her expression. Normally smooth lines weren't her forte and she didn't feel like that had been a line anyway, as she'd meant every syllable. She was just glad that she'd been able to express her feelings in a way that not only made sense, but had clearly meant something to Rupert in the same way he meant a lot of things to her. She turned to glance over toward Sam, whose ears perked up when he noticed Nina's attention. Looking back to Rupert, she raised an eyebrow. "He does have to go out, but I think he'll allow us to slip away after if you bribe him with half a biscuit before he goes into his crate. Think you can handle that?" Warmth was pooling in his stomach already in anticipation, but he found himself nodding in agreement. It was what he needed to do, yes, but he wasn’t really sure he could handle it. He’d have to get used to interruptions in his life if he meant to stay around, and he absolutely meant to stay around. “I’ll certainly try.” |