Lita feels supremely validated when Pete traces over his earlier writing, though she does find the frown etched on his normally open face curious. Lita narrows her eyebrows at that, watching him. What the hell could he be thinking just then? Was she actually right? Had he somehow screwed something up? Lita knew that wasn't true, she'd looked over the charts herself and knew them to be perfect. Still, she'd shaken something loose in her accusation; she'd just have to wait and see if it was something she could abuse. Then, just as quickly as it had appeared, the frown vanished, replaced with the cocky know-it-all grin she loathed. Good.
"See? And here I thought you were behind the times," Lita remarks indulgently, straightening the collar on her doctor's coat. "I'm glad you've finally seen the light. I can be very generous, you know. Not everyone gets some one-on-one time with the sole purveyor of intellectual knowledge. You should consider yourself lucky."
Pete's suggestive reply isn't completely out of left field but it makes her laugh out loud all the same. If it's his intention to be so obvious and gross that she roll her eyes and stomp off in a tizzy, Dr. Whelan is sadly mistaken.
"Oh Petey," Lita tsks, clicking her tongue against her teeth. "Look at this body." And he does, because why wouldn't he? Lita knows what she does to boys; she's known since she was hardly into middle school. Even someone as oblivious and up their own ass as Pete would be thrown by her looks and Lita is so not above exploiting that.
"It is a finely tuned machine. You think I would let you gunk up these gears? Please. I would ruin you for all other women, pal. I'm doing you a favor when I tell you you're barking up the wrong tree. You could not handle this."
From the stories Savannah has told her, Lita knows that to be untrue, but far be it for Lita to inflate this guy's already sizable ego. Besides, it was easy bait for him to fire right back at her. She'd been working herself to the bone, filling her days with surgeries and paperwork and clinical hours so she didn't think about all the shit that had hit the fan that was her life. But the bad thoughts were always skirting around the edges, creeping in when she let herself breathe for even a moment. With Pete, her mind was occupied in a way that obliterated the lingering upsetting memories as long as he kept tossing back whatever she threw at him. It was liberating in a way.
"Besides, wouldn't it be similar to taking your work home with you? Looking at lady business all day long and then trying to make it work for you at night? I can hardly believe your heart would be in it. That would be like me clocking out and then slicing and dicing people open in my spare time, like a..."
Lita stopped, horrified at what she'd almost said. All the terrible, dark thoughts she'd been trying so hard to keep at bay came flooding back immediately and she closed her eyes to them, trying t block them out. She tries to regulate her breathing and steady her hands. She couldn't let Pete see her like this, she wouldn't.