Re: ER Ward: Playing Hero [Jake/Open]

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn flinched and pulled her hand away from his, not wanting to think about what her state of mind would be like if he weren't here. She kept her eyes away from his and replied stiffly, "It's - I would've - de nada," she stuttered, hating herself for sounding so flustered. "Just doing the right thing." She lifted her head and grabbed her coat again. Her voice softened despite her unwillingness to seem too friendly. "You should really lie down. You were in pain earlier."

[Guest]

"I'm fine, well actually one of my stitches is loose so I need to go back to the OR tomorrow have them stitch me up again. It hurts like bitch but now I'll have 12 instead of ten." Jake spoke about this nonchalantly.

"How was the dance though? I heard it was at the Plaza. Very classy." Jake said, grinning.

He had only seen the Plaza from the outside, in all his years of living in New York he had never been in.

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn shifted from one foot to the other, feeling her head start to spin a little from all the dman drinks she and Connor had been chugging. She wondered absently if he was still at the bar. "Um....it was nice."

She glanced at the clock on the wall. 9:30. She'd been here more than half an hour already?! Between texting and eating and dozing off, she hadn't realized it. "It's entertaining," she added.

She hesitated. Why had she even come here? Not to leave him alone again! Evelyn sucked in her breath and then moved her coat aside and hesitantly sat down, trying not to wrinkle her poor dress. She played with the ends of her hair, not quite able to bring herself to meet Jake's eyes. "It's just been a couple hours though. James told me they're starting dinner..." She was rambling. What was with her today?! Evelyn clamped her mouth shut and tugged nervously at the ends of her hair extensions, the curls slipping between her fingers. Why she was so nervous around Jake of all people, she didn't know.

[Guest]

"Oh."Jake wondered why Evelyn was acting so nervous? She usually wasn't like this around him.

He glanced at the clock and realized though that Evelyn had barely stayed at the dance. She was only there a couple of hours or so.

"Why did you leave?" Jake asked her carefully.

[Tiger-Lily]

She bit her lip and wondered if she should give him the "considerate" answer or the real truth. Which she wasn't clear about yet.

It was a good question. What kind of idiot ditched her very handsome date (and she had to give James props for keeping his eyes on her when there were so many girls ogling him, many of them surpassing her in looks), and went to hang out in an unconscious guy's hospital room, when that guy would most likely be out or too in pain to talk to her, during the biggest social event of the year? She couldn't lie, she had known there was a huge chance Jake would be knocked out. And she would have just sat here for three hours even if he hadn't woken.

She wanted him to move on though. So she didn't tell him she'd come here because her formal was ruined by the thought of him being alone all night. She said simply, "I got bored. I figured I might actually catch you awake for once since Ashton told me he was talking to you. You always seem to be asleep when I visit."

[Guest]

"I've noticed, and you've been leaving behind little ducks. Which were very tasty by the way. And clever Red." Jake laughed.

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn was relieved he bought her story. He wouldn't get why she deliberately waited for him to fall asleep before entering. She didn't get why herself.

She managed a small, but genuine smile, admitting to herself she'd missed his infectious laughter. "Take it as a promotion of patriotism," she replied simply. She rubbed her aching forehead and her vision blurred a little. She blinked a few times and then looked up at him at last. "Although it took you an awfully long time to eat three small ducks."

[Guest]

Jake hadn't noticed that she had realized it had taken him awhile to eat the ducks. He didn't want to tell her it was because they were from her he sort of wanted a little reminder of her around, hence him not eating them. "Yeah well they were pretty darn good, wanted to save them. But the first time you brought them Ashton ate my last one, and now... I'm guessing you couldn't resist either." He smirked at her.

[Tiger-Lily]

She shrugged. "Again, I'm half-French. I should have the obligation to try one of them, you know?" She paused and added sheepishly, "And i haven't eaten since breakfast."

[Guest]

"You hungry? You can have anything here from Candy Mountain. Umm... I would offer you anything else or tell you to get something from the cafeteria but the food isn't that great." Jake pulled a face reaching over and grabbing candy to give to her.

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn flashed a small smile and took the candy bar from him. Mini-Kitkat. Nice. "It's fine. I was hungry enough to eat dry grass," she informed him.

She couldn't figure out why she still felt so uneasy around him. But she was already de-stressing ever since she'd set foot in here. Evelyn stifled another tired yawn. Again, she wondered if she was coming down with some weird illness. To distract them both, she picked up her phone and flicked to the Seth/Geogiana video, before scooting over a little to Jake and holding out her phone so they could both see the screen. Her muscles tensed at this but she fought down her nerves. "Oh, this is what you missed."

She hit play and let the show begin.

Georgiana strutting into the banquet hall and Seth challenging her the moment he set foot inside the Plaza. Evelyn felt her lips twitch into a grin.

Okay, she had lied to Jake completely. The formal was not boring in the least. He'd figure it out soon enough but she wanted to put that off. She tilted her head closer toward his as she turned the screen so he wouldn't have to strain himself too much.

[Guest]

Jake leaned in a little closer and watched the video and burst out laughing. Of course leave it to Seth to get into a fight with a drag queen on the night of formal! And just when they were getting there.

"Oh man... ha ha!" Jake laughed, it had been a good while since he laughed that hard and it made him hate that he had missed that part of the night. But damn if this was going on it hardly seemed like a formal with Seth and a tranny would be considered boring, unless he settled down after that.

"Can't believe I missed that, Ash let me know that he and Lo recorded it too. That's just too great, if Seth ever gets married this is so playing on his wedding night or something." Jake said, making sure he'd get a copy of that.

[Tiger-Lily]

"Would you believe," Evelyn said, bracing herself on the bed with a hand so she didn't tip over onto him as she flicked to a few pictures, "That this is still going on? Ashton messaged me when i was leaving to say Georgiana finally snapped after two hours of Seth-attacks and punched him in the face after a table-top dance-off." She smiled suddenly at her phone. It was a picture of Seth and Georgiana face-to-face. "She was all, hold mah earrings," Evelyn mimicked Georgiana's ghetto tone, laughing a little, "and threw her earrings at Rose and then got up in Seth's face all, you punk-ass wanna be ghetto bitch! It was awesome - definitely something he wasn't used to."

[Guest]

"WHATT?!" Jake exclaimed and started laughing again, "Whyy! I'm so jealous I hate all of you! I can't believe this! Its just... wow."

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn wished she had seen the whole thing. "Don't be. I didn't get to see the whole thing either.. Most of us were at our table and I was at the bar with Connor when most of the tabletop dance-off occurred."

[Guest]

"Wait a minute... you, were drinking...with Connor?!" Jake had a hard time putting that picture into his head, from what he remembered. Connor wasn't exactly Evelyn's biggest fan. He should know since he had to try and stop Connor from running her into the ground.

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn looked away from him, frowning a little. "It was an interesting formal," she said quietly. She wondered if Connor was still there. He had seemed, unlike everyone else, to be the only person there besides her who wasn't enjoying himself. "He probably left. He was kind of....down." She didn't let on to her own mood, figuring Jake had enough issues to handle.

[Guest]

"Oh that sucks, it probably must be because him and Seth sort of had a falling out. Its probably bothering him." Jake figured, he remembered trying to talk to Connor earlier trying to get him to make up with Seth but they were both being pretty stubborn about it.

[Tiger-Lily]

"No," Evelyn disagreed, thinking back to Connor's accidental word vomit. "He...he was stressing about, well, everything. He said he was probably going to fail his exams, he was worried about Alexis and..." Evelyn stopped herself and cringed. She toyed with one of her extended curls. "Anyways...yeah, I guess you could say we got along out of mutual aggravation."

[Guest]

"Ahhh I see, hence your drinking. Damn Red, no wonder you were making all that noise in here earlier. You were drunk as a skunk." He said punching her in the arm playfully.

[Tiger-Lily]

She flashed him a weak smile, half-afraid all her drinks would come back up. "Should you be punching anyone? I don't want the nurses accusing me if your arm suddenly decides to detach itself or something."

[Guest]

Jake stretched his arm out and grinned, "Nah old righty here is good! It was this arm that knocked out that douche at the basketball game, and well not to brag but got me my championship belts in boxing." He bragged, smirking.

[Tiger-Lily]

"Not to brag?" Evelyn echoed. She almost punched him but caught herself. Her eyes narrowed at him and she adjusted the folds of her long skirt. "I could take that guy, you know?"

[Guest]

"I know you could have, you're a tough girl. You've managed to bruise me on more than one occasion." Jake snorted.

[Tiger-Lily]

"Not true!" Evelyn protested. "That telephone pole, the fire escape...that was not my fault! It was your incredible karma coming back to kick you in the butt after too long."

She put her phone down, feeling exhausted all of a sudden. She had to keep an eye on the time else she'd end up having to bus it back at two AM. She was so tired though. Evelyn massaged her forehead, feeling the world spin. A bitter taste of fire-whiskey rose in her mouth.

"Jake, I'm sorry for keeping you out that Friday, after the game," she blurted out suddenly. The whiskey was making her loose control, clearly. "If I hadn't..." She paused and gestured to his wound, trying to keep her face from crumbling. A heavy weight settled on her chest. Evelyn swallowed a bitter lump in her throat and blinked hard to keep her eyes from getting wet. "You would have been having fun tonight. Instead, you're in here alone even though I messed up." Okay, stop. Blurting it to James is one thing. To Jake is another! Obediently, she shut up and fiddled with her phone, texting Ashlee.

Hows formal? James okay?

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