Ave Maria

Fourteen

Chapter 14

"Well?" Jane arched a skeptical eyebrow, arms folded across her chest demandingly. Her eyes twinkled. "Spill; what happened to you and Thor?"

Maria smirked at her friend. "Nothing"

She knew Jane would find out sooner or later what had happened but that didn't mean Maria was going to make it easy for her. It was too much fun to miss. Maria busied herself with the babies in the room, all sleeping soundly in their incubators, while Jane hovered by the door, grinning eagerly to hear all the gory details.

"You left the club, right?"

"We left the club." Maria nodded affirmatively, bending over to check the temperature of one of the cases.

Her eyes flickered to the clock. 11:53 pm - not long until her shift finished. Then she and Thor could go home and be free of Jane's interrogation.

Well, Maria would be free. Thor wasn't even here to endure it in the first place! Having seen how much he'd suffered that first day, she'd tried to make it easier for him somehow, so he wasn't stuck spending hours around no one other than pregnant and birthing women. Instead, she'd managed to organize some other work around the hospital for him to keep him busy. Porting work had suited him fine, she recalled with a smile. Young, fit, strong, and hansom - what sort of person was better for wheeling patients around the hospital? Plus, no one could deny that Thor was interesting. They'd never be bored. Maria was more glad than ever that she'd sent him off; Jane's questioning would have broken him. She wanted to deal with this privately.

Jane seemed to fill in some gaps herself and skipped to the things she really wanted to know. "So..." she grinned mischievously.”Are you two together, or what?"

Maria hesitated, hand hovering on the glass over a tiny premature baby. "I don't know what we are." She confessed quietly. Sure she didn't like him as just a friend anymore, but officially nothing had changed. There had been no grand declarations or confessions of love, so... what did that leave her with?

"Bull." Jane dismissed instantly, moving clear of the incubators to lean by the door. No escape. "You like him, right?"

Maria blushed profusely. "Yes."

"And he likes you, right?"

"Well... I don't know."

"He kissed you, made you breakfast in bed, and gave you his shirt, right?"

Maria's blush flamed deeper. "Yes."

"Then he likes you!"

A small smile flickered over Maria's face, and she too wondered to the front of the room, free of the rows of lined incubators. "I don't know..." And she didn't. "That's just what he does." she said dreamily, trailing her hand over the paper strewn desktop, "That's just Thor..."

"Maria." Jane whined, slumping her shoulders. Maria glanced up to her friend. "You aren't half stupid sometimes."

Maria sighed a chuckle and lowered her gaze again, filled with such uncertainty. She didn't know what to feel. She didn't know what she dared to feel. Caring was a risk. She'd loved and lost before, and it hurt. By God it hurt! Did she really want to risk that again? With someone like Thor? Someone who wasn't really hers to lose in the first place...

"You go." she finally said, moving back amongst the infants as one stirred and let out a cry. She angled a less than convincing smile at her friend. "I'll just get Aaron to sleep."

XXX

Thor was grinning as midnight struck and he waltzed back up the maternity unit in search of Maria. He'd had a most invigorating day. Well - night. When Maria had told him she was to be working the night shift, he hadn't been happy, but she'd cheered him up when she'd revealed it was the last shift she would have to do for her training.