Lorna Ramon + Phil Fitzsimmons
Mentions of Trauma, but mostly cute | complete
Getting out of the fearscape still haunted her but she worked on putting it behind a closed door and right now she was more worried about Phil right now than she was anything else. She knew when anyone came in injured it was difficult for him, especially when there were kidnappings and she just, in general, wanted to check on him.
It was pretty late in the evening and Lorna didn’t find him at his home or other usual haunts so she headed to where she knew he must be. She didn’t think he was working the night shift tonight but she figured she’d check on him.
Knocking on his office door she leaned in holding up a takeout box. “Hey,” she smiled.
Technically, Phil wasn't scheduled for the night shift, but after a bad mission like the last, there were more patients than normal. There were the initial injured agents, the recently awoken coma victims - like Lorna herself - not to mention the rescued and the ordinary day to day injuries. All hands were needed for treatment and the accompanying paperwork. He hadn't really noticed how late it was. He looked up the knock and smiled tiredly. “Hey,” he said. “How are you doing?”
She didn’t like how tired he felt, she didn’t like how anyone was feeling lately but she tried to push out everyone else nearby and focus on Phil. “Have you eaten?” She asked holding up the takeout box.
Phil’s eyebrows drew together as he saw the takeout box and considered the question. Lying to Lorna always came with the obvious pitfall. She'd know. “There were donuts in the break room earlier,” he answered. That had been… around eleven maybe? “And I had an energy bar.” He’d skipped lunch in favor of a nap on the basis that he was probably still shorter on sleep than food and had Coulson and May's family dinner to look forward to which - he glanced at the time - he'd completely missed.
He stood up and waved to the sofa that took up one wall of the office. The pillow and blanket he'd been using through the week were still stacked on one arm of the couch. “Are those egg rolls?”
“Donuts,” Lorna repeated. She wasn’t judgemental about food mostly because she seemed to be able to eat whatever she wanted and still never really gain weight. She knew she was really lucky. “And an energy bar.” The only thing she could think of that it wasn’t enough.
Smiling she headed to the couch sitting down and pulling out the boxes. “Four orders.” She confirmed as she continued to put more and more boxes on the table. “Sesame chicken, fried rice, dumplings, General Tso’s, a few soups, lo mein, a mai fun, kung po chicken, moo shu, beef and broccoli and crispy duck!”
Phil gave her half a smile. “I know,” he said. “I know what I'd say to a patient who told me that, but they were good donuts.” As she pulled out box after box, narrating as she went, his eyes widened. After the crispy duck, he laughed aloud. “How many people were you expecting?” he asked teasingly, but his stomach rumbled at the smell and description.
He sat down next to her on the couch and picked an egg roll first. He felt hungry enough, now that Lorna had reminded him of food, to swallow it whole, but he forced himself to go slowly instead, savoring the crispy wrapping and the spiced shrimp and cabbage. “You're my hero,” he said when he finished. “I still can't get over how much flavor everything has now,” he added. It was a far cry from their own time, like the color and the music were. Phil did keep an eye on Lorna, as he ate, however. The past week, trapped in the fear coma, on top of all the injured and missing, was not something he would wish on anyone, especially not her.
“Hey, 1/4th is for you and the rest is for me!” She teased her heart swelling a little bit as she could feel the fact that he was hungry and glad it was there
Lorna was putting a few things on a plate as she watched him stuff food into his mouth. “I think you are supposed to chew the food.” She said lightly nodding. “I can’t get over how vibrant everything is here.” She almost brought up being jealous of Sam, the other empath, she seemed to handle it better than Lorna did but Lorna had been in a very different Atlantis.
“You mean you just brought it here to taunt me?” Phil teased back. “I take it back then.” He smiled. “I know. Even the hospital has its little touches of color. The nurses’ scrubs, the pictures on the walls, holiday decorations-” The wreaths and holly had come down a few weeks ago, but Phil had recently seen one or two pink and red hearts start to pop up in places, along with a few paper dragons. “-and hardly anyone seems to think twice about it.” Visitors of the coma patients had done everything from telling jokes to singing to their loved ones. That too, would have been forbidden back home.
“Maybe,” she teased taking another bite and nodding as he talked about the colors. “It’s still so strange.” After the fear coma she’d been back to right before she came to the past. “Sometimes I feel like I’m getting used to it but, I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to it.” She admitted. She took another bite and swallowed. “But, I think you need to get out of here,” she waved her hand around. “A little bit more.”
“I knew it!” declared Phil. It was good to talk and joke. The last week - the last few weeks really - had been stressful. “Sometimes,” he added more seriously, “I'm not sure I want to. It feels a little-” Selfish? Disloyal? “Unfair to the others.” Maybe it was selfishness that had made him so anxious for Oliver and Adelaide and Torbin to stay, that had been so relieved when Temple made that choice. Phil shrugged. “I'll take a break when we have more staff who can return to work. It's quieter, at least. Most of our patients have been discharged now.”
“Like we’re taking it for granted if we get used to it?” Lorna finished. That was how she felt about it, but she did know some things she was starting to get used to. Sighing she smiled softly. “What is it that doctors usually say? You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of others.” She countered. She worried about Phil spending too much time at work.
“A bit like that,” Phil agreed. “Why us?” Although, of all the people from home to be in the past with, he was glad for Lorna and more recently, Temple. He laughed ruefully at her argument. “And any doctor will also say that we make the worst patients.” Between their knowledge of everything that might go wrong with a given procedure and their propensity for pushing the limits of their own endurance, no doctor or nurse wanted another medical professional for a patient. “And look!” He held up the carton he was currently dishing from. “I have sesame chicken!”
Lorna didn’t know why them, or why so few of them decided to stay. She wished she had an answer but she knew in some cases it was hard to imagine not going back. She shrugged in answer, pleased with going with a different subject. “Yes, you do.” She confirmed. “Getting you to take care of yourself is almost a full-time job.” She teased. “Yes, yes you do.”
“At least, it's not an entirely thankless position?” said Phil. “I hope not, at least,” he joked. “I don't want my parents thinking they raised an ungrateful son.” Had he said it before? “Thank you,” he added just in case. “For the food and for seeing another human face.” Both helped quite a bit. He was still tired, but he felt less like he was going to fall asleep over the reports on his desk.
“It’s a position I happen to really like,” he didn’t need to say the words, it was nice to hear them, but she could feel it. “You’re welcome.” She added for good measure. “Think I can get you to leave your office tonight and get you home to actually sleep well?”
Phil smiled. “You’re very good at it.” That wasn't quite what he meant to say. “You’ve gotten a lot of practice,” he said. “I’ll make it up to you, one of these days.” He glanced at his desk and the stack of papers still to be reviewed. “I suppose none of these reports are going to grow legs and walk away overnight,” he conceded. There was a beat, and he added, “Probably.”
“There isn’t anything to make up for,” she insisted with a soft smile. Looking at the paper sitting on his desk she nodded. “I think they’ll still be here tomorrow for you to tackle.” She didn’t want to mention that this was Atlantis and one never knew. Nudging him slightly. “Pass the fried rice unless you’ve eaten it all,” she teased.
“All right, all right,” said Phil in a similar tone, passing over the carton. “There's still plenty. I suppose you're right,” he added with another glance at his desk. In this time period, one could be entirely certain about very little, even the reliability of inanimate objects to remain inanimate. Friends, though, could be relied on.
Taking the fried rice she took a big bite of it and nodded as she chewed. It took her a moment to swallow before speaking again. “Good, you need the rest.” She could feel how much he needed it.
He'd needed this. “After dinner,” said Phil. “But I'm not the only one. You need a break of your own.” Lorna spent so much time worrying about others that Phil was concerned she often didn't get help when she needed it. That might have been a side effect of her empathic ability - he imagined that it was difficult not to try to help when the pain of others was so tangible and Phil admired her compassion - but it didn't make her invincible, either. Having her parents here could be a support, but he had his doubts as to whether she remembered to reach out for that support.
Smiling softly she looked down before looking back up at him. “Yeah, I could probably use a good nights rest too.” She admitted taking another bite of an eggroll. After swallowing she added. “But after dinner.”