Perfect Timing and a Perky Redhead

Chapter 11

Beca instantly closed her dropped jaw as her girlfriend came in through the door, and took a deep breath. This cannot be happening right now. She forced out a smile. "Hey Kristen, glad you could find me."

Chloe turned around to see who this 'Kristen' girl was. As she turned around, she practically threw a temper tantrum. The taller girl had long brunette hair, green eyes, and, begrudgingly, Chloe noticed the woman had a good body, too. "Hi, I'm Dr. Beale, I'll be stitching up Beca today," Chloe said to Kristen, forcing a smile out worse than Beca had.

Kristen smiled politely and walked over to sit on a chair near where Beca sat on the bed. "So what caused this…" Chloe faltered slightly as she saw Kristen instantly reach over and grab Beca's uninjured hand. The redhead cleared her throat, "incident?"

Beca stared at the ground, not daring to make eye contact with the girl. Kristen looked over curiously at her girlfriend, and decided to speak up when the shorter girl still had not. "She tripped and tried to catch herself on a desk, but there was a glass cup there. She broke the glass into her hand."

Chloe registered what Kristen had said, but had not taken her eyes off of Beca. She tried to study the woman, as if she could learn everything about her from the past three years strictly from nonverbal scrutiny. "Is this true, Beca?"

Beca's head slightly lifted as she heard the redhead's sweet voice say her name for this first time in so long. "Yeah, that's it. Do you think we could do this already? I'm bleeding through this stupid gauze."

Chloe's medical instinct kicked in and she nodded, ignoring the standoffish behavior of Beca. The redhead put on a pair of gloves and then carefully unwound the gauze around Beca's right palm. The blood became more and more apparent, when finally the gauze came all the way off. The side of Beca's hand was torn open, about a good inch and a half, and the skin started turning blue at the edges where they disconnected. Luckily though, it had stopped bleeding by this point…mostly.

Beca stared at her own hand with interest. Blue skin? Great, a bigger reason to be referred to as a Smurf. However, the taller brunette was less fascinated and more…nauseous. Kristen closed her eyes tightly and accidently put more pressure on Beca's uninjured hand.

The DJ noticed and looked over at her friend, ignoring Chloe's close proximity on her right. "Are you okay, babe?" Beca asked, sincere concern evident. The redhead's ears pricked up at the use of the pet name, but she continued inspecting the wound, not wanting to mess anything up on her first solo medical assignment.

Kristen forced out a smile, not opening her eyes. "F-fine…just, uh, not so good…with b-blood." She opened her eyes slightly to look at Beca, and could have sworn she saw the redheaded doctor smirking.

Beca squeezed her hand in Kristen's slightly. "Go wait for me out in the waiting room, and I'll be right there, okay?"

Kristen began to protest but Beca leaned forward without letting her hand slip from Chloe's grasp. "It'll be fine," Beca reassured. Whether she said that to reassure her girlfriend or herself, even Beca wasn't too sure.

Kristen nodded, and leaned over to give Beca a quick kiss. "Stay strong, DJ," Kristen said playfully.

Beca genuinely smiled for the first time in the hospital. Chloe took notice of this. "Always," Beca replied, trying to convince herself to stay strong for a countless amount of other reasons.

Kristen got up and left, leaving the two girls alone in the room. It suddenly seemed a lot smaller to the young DJ. She said nothing.

"Well, you cut your hand pretty deep, but it looks like there wasn't any permanent damage," Chloe stated after a few moments of silence once Kristen left the room. "You're lucky, about a millimeter deeper, and that hand could have been seriously messed up for the rest of your life. Unfortunately though, since it was cut on glass, I need to give you tetanus shot and make sure the wound won't get infected. Then I can start stitching it up once it's numbed. Sound good?"