[For Eli]

[doctorprescott]

Michael had the remains of a croissant on a plate in front of him, the paper he'd been intending to read next to the plate, and his phone on top of that. In his left hand, he still held the coffee he'd ordered, but it was hovering just shy of his mouth.

He was staring at his phone like it was a rattling snake rather than drinking his coffee and seriously kicking himself for giving the number to this particular new mother. After the first two calls he'd let her go to voicemail, to no effect, she'd just called back after leaving the message to make sure the message went through.

When five full minutes passed without it ringing, he decided to brave a sip of desperately needed coffee.

Comments

[elidixon]

His morning routine is slightly overhauled this morning. Due to his arm, he nixes his normal morning run at the docks. So he has an extra hour to spare because he didn't bother to reset his alarm. Instead, he wakes at his regular time and starts his day. That's why he's in Quill earlier than usual. The change has thinned the crowd some and presented a whole different set of faces than he is used to seeing. Except the crew behind the counter. They greet Eli with big smiles and sighs of relief that he's okay after the island. They even give him his normal pecan cinnamon roll on the house. He pays for a iced coffee then goes to find a seat.

Spotting Michael is fairly fast. He is sitting at the table beside the one Eli usually picks. Except when Eli comes at his normal time that table is always empty, with the exception of sometimes a stray newspaper. From the way Michael has everything arranged neatly, he would guess he's a regular too.

Michael doesn't see Eli right away, but he takes a chance and grabs the opppsite chair. "Hey! So we meet again."

[doctorprescott]

Michael almost jumped when he heard Eli's voice and put a hand to his chest. "Eli! Hi. Sorry. I don't usually react like a startled cat when people say hello," he gave a nervous little laugh, not pausing to wonder why he'd feel nervous at all. "I've got a new mother driving me batty and I was so sure she was going to call again and waiting for the phone to ring, hearing a voice instead offset me a little."

[elidixon]

He arranges his fork and plate in front of him and hits his straw against the table to remove the paper, smiling to himself at Michael's dramatic reaction when Eli sat down. Michael appears so well put together, a professional doctor, but then he literally just yelped, hand over the heart and everything. Eli doesn't know, but there's something oddly endearing about it.

He plops the straw down into his drink, takes a sip, and it's the first iced coffee from Quill he's had since getting back. It's awesome, sweet and delicious, just the way he likes. "It's okay. I didn't mean to scare you. So even off the clock you're still on the clock?" he asks, sounding a little amused. He's already gotten that Michael works a lot.

[doctorprescott]

"What's the old saying, doctors and cops are never off duty?" Michael laughed, rubbing at the bridge of his nose before settling back in his chair. "It's my own fault for giving them my cell number, but it's a small town, small clinic, and usually it's just a parent looking for reassurances that everything's all right. I don't mind it all that much." He eyed his phone then continued, "most of the time."

He looked away, then over at Eli. "How are you feeling? No lingering issues from the shoulder wound?" He paused, grinned. "This is your friend talking, not the doctor."

[elidixon]

It's amazing how similar Michael's interactions with parents sound to his. He often thought of himself as a peacekeeper, advice giver, and cheerleader when it came to taking parent phone calls. It is school policy that all teachers provide contact information, so his phone tends to ring every evening with questions and other things. It's part of his job, so he'd learned to live with it.

He picks at the outer layer of his cinnamon roll, flecking off a piece to pop into his mouth. Swallowing, he gestures at himself with raised eyebrows and a hint of a smile. "It's okay. Still hurts, but it's okay. I mean the shoulder I can handle, it's the taking it easy part that's tough. School starts in two weeks," he says.

[doctorprescott]

"Good. That's good. You had some nastiness going on," Michael commented, remembering the state of the guy's shoulder. Clearly. Too clearly. He took a drink of the coffee in his hand to shift his mind's gears a little. "So in two weeks it's going to be strenuous?" he asked, guessing. "That should be plenty of time for it to heal up well enough to push it a little further."

[elidixon]

"I hope so," Eli nods, as he continues to eat his breakfast. He would probably head up to the school later this week, check out his classroom. He still needed to make his annual supply runs. Things he kept around just for emergencies or students that needed assistance. Eli doesn't mind the work, back to school is his favorite part of the school year.

"It's not strenous. Just chaos. It's always great to meet the new kids though," he explains. "It's not easy, but I like it." He takes another long sip of coffee washing down his food. "So do you live near here? I live just up the block. Quill keeps me well fed."

[doctorprescott]

"Just a few blocks that way," Michael nodded, pointing back over his shoulder. "I stop here sometimes, when I just need a little quiet and lack of antiseptic smell. By which I mean I eat mostly at the hospital cafeteria between patients and rounds. Dinner tends to be whatever microwave wonder I picked up the last time I was at the store."

He smirked, a little self-deprecating expression but nonetheless humorous. "The glamorous life of a doctor, huh?"

[elidixon]

He notes with a nod that Michael lives in the same area of town. Even a few blocks away, it's probably only a short walk between here and there. He isn't sure why that's important, but it's still nice to know. "It sounds it. Beach rescues, late nights, crazy parents, and microwave dinners," Eli says, smiling just a little. Still, he finds he's interested to know more.

"But what else do you do? For fun..."

[doctorprescott]

"Fun?" Michael laughed. "Honestly, I think I forgot how to do things like that. I walk on the beach sometimes, read a little. Med school, especially during residency, free time is something you use for sleep, maybe eating. There isn't time for much else before you're being rousted off a lumpy old couch to work again." He smiled, so Eli wouldn't think he was playing for pity over it - he wasn't. Residency was what it was, and had been for years. One of the prices you paid, and it had taught him a lot about focusing, even in the face of exhaustion, on what needed to be done.

"Maybe you can give me some ideas. What do you do with your free time?"

[elidixon]

Michael is certainly turning out to be interesting, that much is certain. Maybe the man lives just like a typical young doctor, completely focused on his work and nothing else. Though, Eli suspects it's more than that. Maybe Michael means it when he says he's forgotten how to do that. How to have fun. Which should sound sad but instead sounds like an opportunity to Eli's ears. That's because Eli doesn't focus on the problems, he focuses to finding solutions. Plus, Michael had just referred to him as a friend a second ago. Eli takes care of his friends.

He smiles at the question. "I'm at the rec center pretty often, just shooting hoops. Though I probably won't be doing that for awhile---" He says, tilting his head at his bum shoulder in gesture. "I volunteer sometimes. Mainly at the community garden near the library...well, I mean started it up a couple years ago. So you should definitely come one weekend. We all have a good time, and the people who need it get food. Win, win for everyone."

[doctorprescott]

Michael was quiet as he considered. Sports hadn't ever really been his thing, at least not basketball. He'd played soccer in high school and managed a few pick up games during the early med school years, but he hadn't been on a field in forever.

"The community garden," he said at last, then looked over at Eli with a small smile curving one side of his mouth. "You take people who don't know their ass from a hole in the ground?"

[elidixon]

"Trust me, when it comes to volunteers I'll take nearly anyone," he says with a laugh. That is the truth. Eli just needs people willing to give up their time, he doesn't need professionals. Eventually everyone finds something they're good at in the end. Eli makes sure of that. Seeing as how Eli spends a significant amount of time at the garden anyone, he wouldn't mind it if Michael is there. Sometimes but he doesn't pay much attention to the thought.

He is always excited for new volunteers.

"I'm there a lot actually. But yeah. Come by some weekend and I will show you around," Eli says with a nod. "Someone always cooks too. So you won't even need to microwave that day."

[doctorprescott]

"I will. It sounds like fun and being outside after a long week in the hospital sounds really, really appealing right now. I don't do enough of it and I know I should. Take some of my own advice, right? Fresh air and exercise?"

And really, Eli's enthusiasm was a little contagious. That had to be it. Why else would he be feeling something like anticipation in his gut about the coming weekend?

[elidixon]

As he finishes off his breakfast, he wipes his hands and his mouth with the napkin, and then relaxes into his chair as he nods at Michael. "Everyone needs to have relax sometimes," he agrees with a smile. Eli isn't exactly the best at downtime, but he goes for a run every morning. It clears his head, gives him energy, and if the garden can help Michael out just a little, Eli is happy to provide it, invite him along.

"So---" Eli makes a motion at Michael. "This is great. I knew I liked you when I met you," he says, laughing. "I'm a very good judge of character. Unless you're just pretending to be nice..."

[doctorprescott]

"I'd say I was, maybe to give me a little bit of an interesting edge or something, but the truth is, I'm not that good at pretending." He finished off his coffee and set the mug down. "I'm really looking forward to the weekend now. Nice change from wondering what I was going to do with myself."

He wasn't going to think about the mild flip he'd felt in his stomach when Eli'd said he liked him. Probably just the stress of the new mother calls he'd been ducking all day.

[elidixon]

There's no need to pretend. Eli already finds Michael interesting on his own. He is curious as to why exactly the other man has nothing to with himself on the weekends. Eli knows Michael said his family lives out of town but still. Michael is nice, genuine, and kind, most people liked those qualities. For him not to have friends or other people in his life is kind of baffling to Eli. He really wants to ask more questions as to why, it's a very distinct urge he feels to know more, but he thinks Michael make think he's being nosy.

Instead, he just focuses on making a plan. It's what he's good at. "Hey, I know man. After we'll just eat at my place. I'll round up my other friends. Jason and Iris were on that cruise too, I know we could all use a good time."

He's already assembling things in his head. After he leaves he'll even give Iris a call. Maybe he can even invite Isaiah if he's out of the hospital.

[doctorprescott]

Michael shifted a little in his chair, crossing and re-crossing his legs. "Oh. Sure. That would be great."

Already the litany was starting in his head - don't fuck it up, Michael. He wasn't so much inept as he was socially awkward. He could tease a smile out of a child hurting from an ear infection, calm frazzled mothers and panicked fathers, but put him in a room with other adults? Things tended to go bad fast.

[elidixon]

Eli is pleased when Michael accepts the invitation. Though he sees Michael shift nervously in his chair, and Eli hopes he wasn't too forward. They did just meet. Perhaps Eli should assure Michael it's okay if he doesn't want to come over. He knows he has a tendency to push people into doing what he thinks they should. Michael barely knows him, and Eli is asking him to hang out with his friends and he could see how that might be too much. He almost says something, but Michael did accept. He wouldn't have said yes if he doesn't want to come, right? Eli finds he is too excited over the idea to say more.

"Cool," he says. "It'll be fun," he tacks on. He picks up his iced coffee, but realizes he has drank all of it in the middle of their conversation. He is almost tempted to order another. "I missed these while I was away," he says, plopping the empty cup onto the table.

[doctorprescott]

"Looking forward to it," Michael replied and he almost meant it. Spending time in the community garden, he was definitely looking forward to. It sounded like a lot of fun and definitely different from his usual shut-in ways. But dinner? With other people he didn't know? That wasn't tipping the fun meter a whole lot. Maybe things had changed, though, as he'd gotten older.

Maybe he wouldn't make a complete ass of himself.

Just then, his phone chimed and Michael sighed when he read the message. "I've got afternoon appointments starting in ten minutes. I'd better get back."