[Open] Catch Me While I'm Sleeping

[reese]

It was close to nap time when Reese sat on a hospital bed with Nathan laying besides her. With a soft voice she was reading him a story about a fish in a big ocean, exploring the water around him. Just like his mother Nathan loved books and everyday Reese read to him before nap time and before he went to sleep at night. It made him calm and usually he would drift off to sleep without any problems. Not that it was really hard to get him to bed for his nap every afternoon but this way there would be no confrontation and everything would go smoothly. Besides, she loved to read to him and have a little one on one time with him between tending to patients.

Being a single mom wasn’t easy and being a working single mom was even harder. Still you would not hear Reese complain about it, not ever. Every drawing, every smile, every hug she got from Nathan, watching her little one be happy and grow was rewarding enough for her. Reese didn’t put too much value to things like having expensive jewellery or fancy clothes -sure she loved all those things but that was not what made her happy- she liked a cuddle from her son, a random kiss from the one she loved, a smile from a student she fixed up again much and much more. Little things like that was what made Reese happy.

Running her fingers through Nathan’s soft blond hair she smiled down at him. His eyes were slowly closing and she could already tell he wasn’t paying attention anymore. “Sweet dreams honey…” she whispered, while watching him a little longer. There were these moment he looked SO much like his daddy. Especially when he was sleeping. Sometimes, when it was close to Jake’s birthday or the day he died, it was hard to stay strong and pretend like everything was okay. Nathan would run around, demand his mothers attention like he always did without noticing the tears in his mothers eyes or the faint smile on her lips. But at the same time it made Reese happy to know there would always be a part of Jake inside of Nathan, it made her feel like she hadn’t lost Jake entirely. For some reason that always made her smile at the end of the day.

Today it had not been a really busy day. In fact, at this very moment, there were no patients at all in the wing. This morning Reese had restocked the potions cabinet which had been her goal for the day besides tending to her patients. Since no one had walked in just yet there wasn’t anything else she could do today. Which in fact was a good thing for the students and the teachers. Also it gave her the opportunity to spend some more time with Nate.

So for now Reese decided to sit with Nathan as he slept while she read some kind of romance novel until someone besides her son would need her attention. It did not take much more than ten minutes before Reese too drifted off to sleep. With her back resting against a pillow she had a sleeping Nathan laying against
her while the book she had been reading in layed open on her lap. A small smile lingered on her lips as her chest rose and fell peacefully.

[kris]

Kris had passed the Hospital Wing quite a few times today. The first time, Reese had been busy talking to one of the Professors and he'd slipped into the shadows quickly. Then he had seen her rummaging through her stuff, talking to her baby son and reading a bedtime story to him. It had been that last thing, the interaction between the dark-haired nurse and her blonde son, that made him walk in hesitantly in the evening. If she was so kind and sweet to her own son, surely she couldn't be too bad?

He was sporting a rather big bruise on his cheekbone, and a black eye to match it. One of the 'customers' at the club hadn't reacted too kindly to his decision not to spend the night with him. Kris had let him take out his anger with one hard punch, only wincing when the man had left. There was some strength in him apparently, that made him stand tall and not give in. Even if he sold his body, he wouldn't ever do anything than strip on stage. His virginity was sacred.

Slipping into the wing, he looked around for a cupboard where he could find some cream to get rid of the bruise. He didn't want Louis to see! To Kris, it didn't matter much whether other people saw, he doubted they'd even care. But his best friend, he'd want to know where that bruise came from, and when it came to lying, Kristian was not good at doing so.

[reese]

Reese had just put Nathan down for the night after a few first and second year girls had walked in, asking if they could play with Nathan for a bit. Nathan seemed to be a real charmer as he managed to make every girl that laid eyes on him be all like ‘ahh’ and ‘what a cutey!’. To Nathan though that meant attention and like every young child did: he loved to get attention. So after the girls played hide and seek with him in the wing Nathan had finally fallen asleep while hiding behind a pile of folded clean blankets. He’d had been leaning against the pile but as it took the girls a bit too find him he had been fast asleep by the time he was found.

As Reese almost closed the door to his room, present in her living quarters that was at the end of the wing itself, when she heard something. Even though there had been no patients to tend to, people had been walking in and out constantly. So eventually it had turned out to be rather busy afternoon, a fun one, but a busy one. Walking to the ‘front door’ of the living quarters she opened the door softly and stepped into the wing itself. It didn’t take more than a second before she noticed the Ravenclaw moving throughout the room. She didn’t know his name but she had seen him sitting at the raven table a few times during meals.

“Can I help you with something?” she asked softly, closing the door behind her to make sure Nathan wouldn’t wake up. The Raven was obviously looking for something which most people did who came in here. It would not been the first time someone would come in, try to take what they needed and walk out again. Nursing didn’t work that way though. Reese never allowed anyone to just take something even if it was something small like a cream or some bandages. She always needed to know what for they needed it.

[kris]

Kristian flinched when he heard the voice of the nurse, holding his head so she couldn't see the marks on his face. He wouldn't want her to ask where he got those, because lying? Wasn't one of his best skills. In fact, it'd be more of a flaw. He couldn't lie. So if this nurse, this Reese Mackenzie person that he'd heard about, would ask him what had happened... He would have to tell her the truth.

It was all in his eyes when he looked at her, the deer in the head light eyes perfected. Please don't ask, he thought frantically, clasping his hands together in front of him and casting his eyes towards his feet. "I...eh...I..." This was once again going extremely un-according to plan. "I need.."

[reese]

Still standing near the door Reese’s eyes watched the Raven for a moment when he answered her. Or rather, tried to answer her. The flinch, him not fully looking at her, the way he just stood there and the look in his eyes that told her something was up when their eyes met. Yet all Reese did was just smile at him. She recognized the signs, the way he tried to avoid her -even though he did needed her help- the tone in his voice and him looking at her as if she was going to yell at him any second. Something was up and she got the feeling it wasn’t just a simple cut or something similar that needed some tending to.

Walking over to Kristian she kept smiling to try and get the Raven to relax some. Some kids walked in here thinking she was a mean nurse that would poke you with her wand and shoved potions down your throat. Seriously, what was up with that? “Why don’t you sit down first and relax a little?” she asked, patting on the bed she was now standing besides and was located at the opposite side of Kristian.

“It’s okay, I’m not going to poke you with a wand.” she continued, a small smile still present on her lips. When kids came walking in looking all scared and tense like Kristian did right now there was always more to the whole thing they needed treatment for than would meet the eye. Usually it was embarrassment. Some other students had pulled a prank or a spell had backfired and they had seven toes or a sudden tail growing out of their lower backs. At ‘nurse school’ Reese had seen a lot of things so she wasn’t easily impressed anymore.

[kris]

Kristian looked towards the bed with one eye still on the nurse. She was still smiling, the same smile or similar that she gave to her son. He gave in, breathing uneven as he sat down on the bed, not facing her but not hiding the bruise any longer either. Instead he just stared at his shoes and twiddled his thumbs.

He honestly didn't know what to say and just sat there, thinking about last night. It had been a regular Sunday night and he was off a little earlier than usual either, because the boss said he'd done such a good job lately. He'd gotten a little kiss, which he hated, and some alcohol, which he hated even more but still downed. And then the guy had arrived, trying to get him to spend some time with him. Kristian knew very well what the man had wanted.

[reese]

Reese patiently waited for Kristian to sit down on the bed. “I don’t think we’ve ever met before have we?” she asked while moving around the bed until she was standing right on front of him. “I’m Mack, well officially Nurse Mackenzie but it makes me feel like I’m 40 or something when people call me that.” While Reese was trying to distract / relax Kristian somewhat by simply talking to him.

Her eyes looked worried though as she took a look at the bruise on his face, well as much as the Raven would let her. Reese had her fair share of bruises, cuts and black eyes in her past before she had met Jake. She wasn’t too naïve to think Kristian had simply run into a door or something. Usually that would be the excuse she’d be hearing. “Could you lift your head up a bit for me?” Reese asked, needing to take a better look at his black eye and bruised cheek.

[kris]

Kristian listened to her introduction, rubbing his hands on his jeans and knowing that he was supposed to be polite. His voice was barely above a whisper and he winced at the pain in his cheek. "I'm Kristian. With a K." Kris didn't know why he added it, maybe he was going insane, but he really didn't know why he was still in the Hospital Wing when he could be safe asleep in his bed.

Oh right. Louis. The Hufflepuff wouldn't find out tonight, but he would in the morning if he saw him at breakfast or in the hallways. And he'd ask, and if there was anything Kristian hated more than lying it was lying to his best friend. So he lifted his head up obediently, like the kind nurse had asked him.

[reese]

“Nice to meet you Kristian, with a K.” Reese replied, still smiling although she wasn’t making fun of him or something. “Thank you…” she responded when Kristian lifted his head up a bit. Very gently she took hold of his chin to get him to not move his face again. For a minute longer she studied his face without saying as much as a word. When she spoke again she let go of his face, “Well that looks like it hurts like hell doesn’t it?”

The question of how his face had gotten that bruised was laying on the tip of her tongue but Reese knew tending to him first was a better thing to do. If she asked there was a chance he would bolt the moment she would turn her back to him. “You’re lucky though, it seems like it’s just a heavy bruise. Normally I don’t treat bruises since the human body is very well capable of healing on its own but letting you walk around with that on your face isn’t an option either.” Course Reese wouldn’t let him walk around the school with a bruise like that, it would take at least a week and a half before most of the bruising would start to disappear. Walking around with a face that looked like it had been used as a punching bag wasn’t all that ‘fun’.

[kris]

"It does hurt quite a bit, yes ma'am" Kristian answered politely, letting her hold his chin even though he wasn't comfortable with the physical contact. It just reminded him of people that wanted to touch him, regardless of whether they were allowed or not. It reminded him of how he just wanted one person to touch him, and how he wasn't allowed to have that either.

If Kris was honest with himself he'd admit that he had feelings for Louis. It hadn't just happened over this summer, it was more of a gradual build-up during their friendship. In a way, Kristian had always thought that Louis was a safe bet - that he would be the one to stay, in the end. So far he had, but he was worried about being honest to him. How could he look the Hufflepuff in the eye and admit he'd kept a secret from him for years? How could he possibly still want to be his friend if he found out how dirty Kris was?