I never knew what this thing called love could do

[Rory King]

In the past few days Rory had worked himself up into something of a caffeine-fuelled, sleep-deprived frenzy which meant that, sure, he had managed to cycle to work in record time that morning but he probably should have just crashed in the staff room rather than actually go to work on the ward itself. The slightly jittery, manic state had been amusing when entertaining the kids on the ward and it had cheered up even the most down-in-the-dumps individuals but it wasn’t so great when it came to decision making. The reason for his lack of sleep was the same as ever – one Olivia Andrews. It had just so happened that a couple of days ago (about the time the ability to sleep started to elude him, funnily enough) he had seen a photograph of Olivia on Radhika Kumar’s Facebook page. A photograph of Olivia wedding dress shopping with her and the bride-to-be Rose Turner. A photograph of Olivia trying on a wedding dress ‘for fun’. And then it had hit him that there was a very really possibility that this would be reality at some point in her future; she would marry some bloke because she was funny and brilliant and gorgeous and lovely. And if he wasn’t careful, he’d have to somehow fake enough enthusiasm to attend said wedding as a friend and project an air of being really, really happy for the couple or else she would probably never speak to him again. Not that Rory or Olivia had recently had any meaningful, or even lengthy, conversations since Rory had banished himself to an exile of sorts to try to get over his crush once and for all. It hadn’t worked and the photograph had pushed him right over the end into ‘manning up’ territory… although perhaps that was more the caffeine talking.

That was why now, at the end of his shift, he diverted course away from the staff room and instead headed to the ward he knew for a fact she had been working on that morning. Spotting the familiar shock of red hair he didn’t waste any time (lest his natural defence mechanism kick in and he run away, as usual) and instead headed straight for her, in the meantime completely ignoring the waiting room full of patients she was clearly meant to be attending to. As she stood at the Healer’s station with her back to him he tapped her on the shoulder, "Liv? I have to talk to you, well… I’d say I need to talk to you actually. I’ve needed to talk to you for days, weeks, months, screw it years about this but yeah… " he babbled, his speech mostly sounding like stream of consciousness than anything actually thought-out.

"Yeah because I don’t think I did it very well that time we were babysitting and I just sort of blurted stuff out about not actually being gay and then I ran off. I always run, I’m sort of used to running actually; it’s a defence mechanism, like when armadillos curl up into a ball to avoid predators? It would be worrying if it wasn’t so pathetic. Point is, I need to talk to you now," Rory concluded (though what argument he was making right then was anyone’s guess at this point), leaning forward and fixing her with a determined look as if to impress upon her the seriousness of what he needed to discuss with her.

[Olivia Andrews]

Olivia bit her lip and looked at Rory with a slightly confused expression on her face as he fumbled over his words and she tried to decipher what he was trying to say to no avail of course. She glanced down at her clipboard and the patient’s forms. “I uh, well,” she gestured to the waiting room and winced.

“You mean he isn’t gay?” piped up one of the elderly men.

“Oh hush Vernon!” his wife Agnes nudged him. “Can’t you see they’re trying to talk.” Olivia glanced over at the two elderly couple and the others in the waiting room, “Well go on dear,” Agnes said flapping her hands at her as if to better communicate her need to leave with Rory.

Olivia turned to one of the other Healers, “Um, Penelope, would you mind taking over for a minute,” she asked the woman nodded her head, “Of course dear.”

Olivia then grabbed Rory’s arm and lead him out of the waiting room and into the hall around the corner. “Now, what is it you wanted to tell me?”

[Rory King]

Rory looked from a rather confused-looking Olivia to the old man which piped up then. “I can categorically state I am not, repeat not, gay,” he assured the man confidently and then smiled grimly to the woman who was clearly his wife. He stood awkwardly as Olivia passed on her work to someone else and allowed her to lead him out of the waiting room and further down the hall. “Alright, here it is,” he started, taking in a deep breath and then launching into a rather rambling, hyper (mostly caffeine-fuelled) explanation, “I should have stayed to explain why I was so taken aback that you thought I was gay. The truth is I didn’t want you of all people to think I was gay, I couldn’t believe that you’d thought that for years because the truth is I really did like one girl, one girl for years and years and well… it's you,” he finished with a slight flourish of his hand towards her. “It has always been you. That’s why you’ve never seen me seriously with any other girl. Because the only girl I liked, the only girl I wanted, heck the only girl I’ve had a pathetic crush on for years, didn’t know about it… and to top it all off she thought I was gay. Can you see how distressing that was for me?” he asked.

“Look, here it is. I’ve loved you for years, I really think I’ll never like a girl as I like you and… yeah… I think you like me too, maybe not in the same way at all. But the point is… it would just kill me if I didn’t ever tell you and I had to go along to your wedding to some random bloke and pretend to be happy for you when really all I was thinking was ‘what if I‘d actually manned up and told her, that could have been us’. So, this is me telling you, properly, and not running away for once,” Rory sighed heavily, looking at her worriedly – it really didn’t seem like as great an idea now he was stood in front of her as it did when he was thinking it over the night before.