InsaneJournal

stormen stilnar, hugen fer; hjartet fylgjer, tveim blir ein
Who: Nish and James
What: A surprise birthday outing turns tragic.
Where: LA County Hospital, and elsewhere.
When: Wednesday, December 13, 2017, 6pm



Nish had been planning James’ birthday surprise for weeks; first finding the perfect place, then managing to get a reservation, then making absolutely sure he would be free that evening. It had been difficult to juggle it all, and she may have used her verbal influence a fair bit to make sure things fell into place perfectly, but it happened. James would be off work at six, and the reservation was for seven at her first choice of restaurants.

She strode down the hall of the hospital, wearing a moderately dressy top, jeans and a smile. She held a bouquet of flowers - very similar to the ones he’d brought for her a few weeks ago - and turned into the waiting room for the psych department. She’d made a deal with the receptionist, letting her know who she was and what was going on, and in order to make sure he’d be there when she arrived, she’d scheduled an appointment for him at 6pm for a ‘new patient’, who was really her. When she stepped into the room, which was nearly empty, she grinned and winked at the receptionist who flashed her a conspiratorial smile and then went off to find James for his next ‘appointment’.

Why in the fucking hell the front desk in the lobby of the psych ward scheduled him an appointment when he was meant to be leaving was a mystery to James - but he just went with the flow, as he always did. It was his birthday, and perhaps normal people would have taken the day off - but honestly, the older James got the more he realised it was just another day. And besides, Christmas was just around the corner - so he didn’t really expect anything and, save for the overpriced coffee drink (instead of a simple cup from McDonald’s or something) he’d treated himself to that morning, he was business as usual.

“Alright, so we’ve got - “ He was on his way to the waiting room, wearing his white doctor’s coat and carrying a clipboard, flipping through it, “...um.” Speaking of unanswered questions, why he hadn’t been given a name was also a mystery.

That was when he looked up.

“Nishka?” If he sounded surprised, well. He was.

Nish smiled like the cat that ate the canary, pulling the flowers out from behind her back and stepping towards him. “I’m your six o’clock?” she said with a hint of a question at the end. She closed the space between them and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him in for a kiss. “Happy birthday,” she murmured against his lips, then pulled away to a more appropriate distance. “I hope you don’t already have plans,” she said with a grin, “you’re coming with me, sir.”

“Ah, I see - you’ve been sneakily planning,” James laughed a little, and was still in a bit of a shock, though he accepted the flowers with a smile. Very rarely did men receive flowers - apparently it was undermining to their masculinity or something, but he didn’t give any fucks. He liked flowers, and they’d look nice in his office. “I think I can manage that, love. Let me just change and put these in water.” Safe to say, he didn’t have any plans besides going home and diving into the impossibly large Netflix queue, maybe ordering Chinese and curling up on the couch with a fat lapcat.

He wasn’t gone long, just enough time to ditch the doctor’s coat and put on jeans and a sweater and also put the flowers in a vase that the receptionist found on her way out - apparently it was stashed in one of the cabinets, who knew. “Alright then, off we go,” James joined Nishka once more, slipping into a leather jacket, curiosity apparent in those icy eyes of his.

Nish slipped her hand in his as they found their way out of the hospital, walking him to her car, away from his. “Don’t worry, I’ll drive you to work in the morning,” she said, unlocking the door and getting in. On the passenger seat a silver gift bag was waiting for James, with a nice icy blue theme to the inside wrappings and tissue paper.

“I have four years of birthdays to make up for, so I hope it’s okay I went a little overboard,” she smirked over at him from the driver’s side. She shut her door, not bothering to strap herself in or turn the car on until he’d thoroughly explored his gift first.

“No complaints, though you know you didn’t have to,” James insisted, and it was true - it was sweet of her to want to go all out, of course, and he wouldn’t ungraciously accept gifts. In fact, he was in the car opening them, curious about what Nishka had picked out.

They were quite personal, but perhaps not to anyone else. They harkened back to the first meeting the two of them had. Well, the maple syrup and stroop waffles certainly did, and James studied the maple leaf shaped bottle with a laugh. “The genuine artifact,” he said delightedly. “This will go great on my processed frozen waffles.” Wink. He also enjoyed seeing the reminder of the pub, the filled-with-snacks pint glass from Fado’s, and was somewhat enraptured by the U2 concert tickets. He’d never seen the band live and always had wanted to get a chance for it. Now it looked like he would be able to in the spring.

“That’s fantastic, love, thanks - “ He leaned over to give Nishka a kiss. “Everything’s perfect.”

She smiled happily, kissing him back, maybe a bit of a blush dusting her cheeks. “You’re welcome,” she murmured. “It took quite a bit of doing to get that glass for you. I think the poor guy at the pub might not actually remember that conversation,” she said with a bit of a wince, subtly hinting at her strange ability to talk people into what she wanted.

She started the car and took them out of the hospital lot, turning onto the main road and towards the restaurant. “So I hope you like this place, the pictures I saw online are amazing,” she said, pulling into traffic and glancing briefly over at him. “It’s on a farm, and the food is all locally sourced. The dining areas are mostly outside, in a gazebo or under the stars,” she said with a wan smile. “It just...it looked perfect.”

James didn’t necessarily approve of what, in his view, was mind raping some poor sod to get a present for someone but he wasn’t going to nitpick about it. Now was not the time nor the place. He simply chuckled, shaking his head, and buckled up to enjoy the car ride to whichever restaurant they were going to - which was apparently on a farm. Well, why not?

Plus, he was starving. He was surprised his stomach wasn’t eating itself by now - but the lunch break he’d taken this afternoon felt like quite the distant memory.

“Under the stars, how romantic,” he swooned teasingly, making Nish laugh out loud. “I’m sure it’ll be lovely, and I’ll have to hold myself back from ordering everything on the menu. An endless stream of patients works up quite the appetite.” And considering what he would have done for dinner? Chinese food delivery? Something a bit fancier sounded like a nice treat.

She smiled happily. “At least you’re getting time off for the holidays,” she said, glancing over at him, lacing her free hand with his. Then a thought occurred to her and she smirked. “We still need to put up a tree,” she added, glancing over at him. And that was when she saw it.

’NO!’ Loki screamed in her head. Out the passenger window she had a brief glimpse of a black SUV coming at them full throttle through the intersection before it slammed into the side of her much smaller car, directly into the passenger side door. What followed was a blur of confusion and pain, crunching metal and shattered glass. The car flipped over, but they were both held tightly in their seats, and when it was over, Nish was just able to look over at the horrible sight of a bloodied and mangled James before she passed out.