Re: log: hospital - sam/louis
He smiled back at her. "I don't think we can blame all your good traits on that," he teased. "I don't think I would have hated it. How could I? I wouldn't have known anything else. That's like my saying you would have hated growing up with my parents. Lord knows you would as you are now, but if they'd taken you instead of me? You might have turned out a right, etiquette-perfect scottish lady." His smile had turned impish. "Or not, honestly I think you would have just spent all your time with Casey and driven them mad. It would have served them right."
Louis rolled his eyes. "There is a massive gulf of difference between cum and mashed potatoes, starting with consistency," he said, just as the nurse walked by the open door again. He looked up, blinked, and the woman turned and walked back in the direction she'd come from.
He cleared his throat. "Well."
He had never burped a baby before, and this particular moment seemed like an excellent one to do something distracting from the color in his cheeks. He pulled the cloth down from his shoulder and laid it on his knee, gently turning Joey over. "Matchmaker, matchmaker?" he intoned, still managing to smile a little despite the subject matter. "That's the trouble. This is Daniel we're talking about. He won't even leave the music store, and if he did, I don't think it would be for me."
He glanced up at her, listening as she theorized about the worriers. "Shane only worries about where Graham is and when he can next see his cock," he said, dry as a bone, but dropping in volume as he neared the end of the sentence. He glanced up subconsciously for the nurse, then guiltily down to Joey. "You have no idea what I'm saying," he said to her, reassuring them both.
He saw Sam blinking, wondered for a moment, then thought - Joey, that Joey. He smiled a little, but didn't say anything. He never knew Joey was well as Sam, and he hadn't stopped feeling that, a hint of responsibility for his brother's death. He'd spent so much time looking after Sam and keeping her safe. If he had devoted more time to Joey as well - if he'd totally given up on his semblance of a personal life at the time and spent it all on keeping an eye on family? But that was absurd and dramatic, even he knew it. Still, it was exhausting to feel as if you could work to the bone trying to keep a group of people safe, and that you could still lose, over and over again.
He liked her smile, though. It reminded him that he couldn't remember seeing her smile this much in a long, long time. "You need to promise me you'll hang on to that smile," he said. "I miss seeing it."