thinking about how this smile is either when she sees Leyla or right after their hug but her smile is genuine either way (in a hospital where everyone tends to annoy her).
The thought that Lauren easily gets annoyed by everyone but probably could listen to Leyla rant about her day for hours without getting annoyed or bored is something that makes me feel hnnghhh,,,
More Leyren Headcanons cause they’re not coming back this week 😔
Leyla does not mind that she’s the one cooking most of the time while Lauren usually brings takeout. However, she did catch Lauren meekly searching up how to make popular Pakistani dishes. While she found the sentiment extremely heartwarming...
“Don’t use recipes from those blogs.”
“What? Why? They seem good!”
“They literally whitewashed the recipes! Hell, they’re using measurements? Real Pakistani cooking involves putting in spices until everything tastes right!”
Admittedly, Lauren was conflicted. On one hand, she depended on the measurements to make sure it tasted right. On the other, she did work well without intricate introductions. Cooking can be like jazz, right?
So the dish did not turn out to be the best. But Leyla was more than happy to be able to share a part of her history with Lauren.
Their first huge fight had occurred a month into their relationship. Still fragile, but could not risk shattering.
It wasn’t they were mad at each other. But Leyla had a a hard time driving assholes, Lauren had to deal with ignorant assholes in the ED, it was all but a messy day.
Usually, they would talk it out but the build up of bad things happening one after the other, their breaking point could’ve been just about anything.
So when Lauren came home, with no takeout, and saw no dinner on the table. She couldn’t help but recall the dread she felt coming home back before she met Leyla.
And that was their tipping point.
“Where’s dinner?”
“Oh I thought you were cooking dinner-“
“I can’t do everything, Lauren.”
“But I was too exhausted to drop by and get din-“
“And I’m too exhausted to cook dinner! I can’t do everything around here!”
“Hey-“
“No! I’ve had a terrible day where one bad thing happens after the other, I can’t deal with this right now!”
Lauren’s old instincts kicked in, telling her to run away.
And she did. She pretended to check her phone. “They need me back at the hospital, understaffed.”
“No, you’re not going to overwork yourself again. I know you’re lying.”
But Lauren had already left.
It wasn’t until the morning that Lauren had come back from the hospital with dark bags under her eyes.
Leyla was on their shared bed, having awoken when she’d heard Lauren’s footsteps.
“Hey I’m really sorry for running away...”
Leyla sighed, tugging at Lauren’s arm to coax her to lay next to her.
She was hesitant at first, unsure if she was allowed to hold her but when Leyla had buried her face into her neck, it was her cue to hold her close.
“Listen, we’re both too exhausted right now. We can leave this until we’re both rested.”
And Lauren listens, holding Leyla close and let’s her steady breath lull her to sleep.
They get better at handling their fights after that. They make sure both of them are at the right mindset, then they talk it out.
We know Lauren has no self-preservation skills but I like to think that Leyla sometimes lacks in that department. (Girl saved a patient’s life even though she had no medical license yet and could’ve risked going to jail-)
So when one of her passengers attempted to pull a knife on her other passenger...well, she got caught in the middle of the cross-fire.
So now she had a knife stuck in her abdomen. Yikes-
Fortunately, the ambulance had been called due to the multiple amounts of witnesses but when Leyla realized she was going to New Amsterdam’s emergency department...well, she’s gonna be in for a scolding once she’s better.
The ambulance crew had rushed her in and the moment her name was called, Lauren felt her whole world freeze.
“Lauren? Lauren?!” Casey was not about to let his boss get distracted by emotions. “Listen, I know you two are really close but right now she is your patient.”
It takes her a moment to ignore her broken heart at the sight of her girlfriend in such a fragile state.
Soon enough, Leyla was sent to surgery.
It lasts longer than she had expected, seeing as she had finished her shift and was seated on the chair right next to Leyla’s bed.
“Hey Dr. Bloom! Working overtime again?” She was greeted by one of the nurses making rounds, pausing for a moment till she realized she was still in her lab coat.
“Oh uhm- not exactly?”
It takes a few seconds before the nurse realizes. “Oh! Okay I’ll leave you to it!”
The nurse leaves and Lauren finds herself holding Leyla’s hand.
“Overtime again? Your reputation precedes you.”
Lauren looks up, seeing an exhausted Leyla looking at her with tired eyes.
“Oh thank god you’re okay...”
Despite her initial hesitance, the anticipation, the nerves and worry, she had taken Leyla’s face in her hands to kiss her appreciatively.
That causes a chuckle out of Leyla, not expecting the sudden rise in affection.
“PDA? In your own work place? Who are you?” She teases.
“Someone who was and still is extremely worried for you. What the hell happened?”
“Eh. Asshole passenger.”
Lauren merely sighs, ignoring the stares she gets from her other colleagues who are more than surprised to see her being affectionate with someone.
And of course, she stays with Leyla the whole night despite protests.
“You stayed with me after the chemical spill incident. I’m not leaving you alone.”
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
So yeah, that’s a thing that happens now. And to Lauren, who never felt this comfortable next to someone else in her whole life, it’s scary how not scary this feels.
She’s not accustomed to having someone take care of her, but for the first time it feels good to know that there’s someone there.
or
It may take a while, but Lauren learns to let herself be happy too.
I've seen a lot of talk about how Leyla and Helen will bond over their disaster significant others but not at all about how meanwhile Max and Lauren will gush together about how their girlfriends bring the best of them and how lucky they both are
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: New Amsterdam (TV 2018)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lauren Bloom/Leyla Shinwari
Characters: Lauren Bloom, Leyla Shinwari, Kenmai Candelario, Casey Acosta (New Amsterdam 2018)
Additional Tags: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, post 3x12, Canon Compliant, A soft interpretation of events unseen, There was no Leyla in 3x12 so I did it myself, Lauren is terrified and knows exactly why
Summary:
Balance doesn’t come all at once. Yet, balance isn’t even a factor when you’re hurtling into an unknown fall with no way to see the bottom.
or
Lauren’s good at taking care of others. Really good at it. But there’s nothing scarier than realizing she’s the one who has to be taken care of.
Since it was Lauren’s first proper relationship, she was hesitant to initiate any form of affection. Leyla was the one who’d occasionally offer quick pecks to her cheek before work, hold her hand, etc.
She gets better though! It starts off simple though with quick hand squeezes and eventually it becomes habit for her to give Leyla a kiss before work.
One time she back-hugged Leyla while she was making breakfast and the poor woman was caught so off guard she dropped her spatula.
Movie nights!! It’s a rule that they have to have at least one movie night a week to fully relax, especially with how hectic Lauren’s schedule can be. Rom-coms become their thing because they just enjoy criticizing the shit out of the protagonist’s choices.
“Is- is she quitting her job for him??”
“I know right? He looks bland.”
I doubt they’d ever be caught doing it/making out. Both of them seem to value their privacy so PDA is always kept to a minimum.
Leyla will sometimes scold Lauren for overworking. Her workaholic gf even tried to go to work when she was sick due to exhaustion. And if it wasn’t for Leyla literally dragging her back to bed, she may have actually went to work.
“Come on, I’m not even that si-“ *Sneezing ensues*
“Uh huh sure and I thought you went to medical school.”
When Lauren first introduced Leyla to Casey, she was hoping they’d get along.
And they do! Granted, Casey makes a few jokes about Leyla living in the closet but they’re brushed off easily.
And that’s all I can think of at the moment, feel free to add your own!
you know what’s unrealistic? not one patient in the ED not! once! has ever mentioned how excruciatingly beautiful doctor bloom is and i believe that’s an emergency we gotta attend to real soon it’s just unrealistic and i’m personally offended
Here's a completely self-indulgent scene for what I hope happens in 3x12
Read on AO3
"Hey, Dr. Goodwin, does this mean I get hazard pay for being in the trenches with Bloom all day?" Casey asked as Reynolds adjusted the medicine cocktail they determined would nullify the chemical effects in his IV.
One bed over Max laughed, "Just as soon as I find place in the budget for that hazard pay."
"Casey, I'll pay you out of my own pocket after today." Lauren said, her bed on Max's other side before looking at Helen who was checking the IV hooked up to Lauren, "Are you sure Candelario was informed about Mrs.-"
"Yes, Lauren, for the third time she's been fully briefed on all the patients from the ED." Helen said, half exasperated, half amused.
"They warded some of them just down the hall, I could-"
"No," Helen and Floyd said at the same time.
"Right now you are my patient which means you don't check on your patients," Helen said as she moved to check on Max's set-up.
Iggy walked into the room, "Good news. I just talked with the biohazard team. By tomorrow the ED should be fully cleaned and cleared for use again."
"Oh, and I was kind of hoping for a day off," Lauren said.
Everyone else in the room stared at her for a few seconds, long enough for Lauren to look at each of their faces and read the disbelief there.
Lauren frowned, "What?"
"Should we page Dr. Kao?" Reynolds asked, "Could the chemicals be making her delusional?"
"No one else presented with delusions or erratic behaviour," Helen said.
"I don't need a neurologist because I was hoping for a personal day."
"A normal person might not, but you..." Casey said.
Lauren glared at him a few seconds, "You can forget about hazard pay."
"I'll get Kao," Iggy said.
A voice rang out through the ward, "Lauren!" And a slim figure slipped past Iggy and into the room.
Casey sat up to see over Max, "Isn't that-"
"Hey," Lauren's voice softened, "What are you doing here?"
She reached her hand out, Leyla taking it.
"On the radio, the news,” She was a little out of breath, “I heard about the chemical spill. They said the ED was shut down and I knew you were here and," Leyla's eyes quickly took in the set-up around Lauren, the IV, the monitor hooked up to her. "What happened? What are they treating you with?"
Lauren started giving a rundown of what happened and the medications they were using to treat it. Leyla interjected with some questions, why they'd use one medication over another, what symptoms Lauren presented with. The others in the room watched in shocked silence. Partly because Lauren made no attempt to water down any of the terminologies, mostly because here was Lauren Bloom, the Head of New Amsterdam's Emergency Department holding this woman's hand, her fingers moving in slow circles on the inside of her wrist.
"Hey, hey," Lauren said finally when Leyla started asking redundant questions out of a sense of worry. She gently pulled on Leyla's hand, "Stop looking at my readouts. Look at me."
Leyla's eyes shifted from flitting over the machines to Lauren.
"I'm okay."
Biting her lip, Leyla didn’t look convinced, "Are you sure?" She rested her palm against Lauren’s cheek.
Leaning into the touch, Lauren nodded, "I'm okay."
Leyla turned to the others in the room and after a quick scan, she stopped on Helen, "Is she? Okay?"
It took a beat for Helen to snap herself out of the surprise, "Yes. She will be. Everyone's been responding to the medication.”
“Bloom was exposed the most,” Reynolds added, “So we want to keep her overnight for observation, but she's responding well so far."
"Exposed the most?" Leyla looked at Lauren again.
Lauren gave a shy shrug.
"The pipe blew right over her head and even after we realized it was a chemical spill she refused to stop treating the patients in the ED," Casey said.
"Lauren,"
"I wasn't going to let another doctor expose themselves when we didn't know what the chemicals were."
A soft sigh, "You reckless noble fool." Leyla leaned down and kissed her and kissed her and kissed her.
"Oh," Helen said simply.
The others room reacted like a wave had hit them at once. Max's head cooked to the side and Reynolds blinked, sharing a look with Iggy.
"You just had to get hospitalized when it's your night for the dishes," Leyla said in the space between their lips, drawing a soft laugh from Lauren.
"Mariana owes me thirty bucks. I knew there was something happening," Casey said, snapping his fingers.
"You knew about this?" Reynolds asked.
"Not this," he gestured to the kissing couple, "Specifically, but that's the closet crasher Bloom was smuggling in here."
"Ah," Iggy, Helen and Max said together.
“That makes sense,” Iggy said.
"Closet crasher?" Reynolds asked.
"Dude, where have you been?" Casey looked perplexed, "You've been working in the ED."
"Yeah, even we heard about it up in psych."
“Hey, the spill impaired my vision, not my hearing,” Lauren said, shooting a dry look to the others. But the usual effect of her chilled expression was diminished by the fact she’d only shifted her attention to them for a moment, her face held in Leyla’s hands the entire time.
“So, are you going to introduce us?” Iggy asked.
“No,” Lauren answered instantly.
“Lauren,” Leyla admonished softly.
Lauren exhaled before going down the list of everyone’s name. “And, everyone, this is Leyla, my…” She hesitated, looking at Leyla, “girlfriend?” Her voice pitched up, landing somewhere between a statement and question.
Leyla’s eyes were so soft as she said, “I’d hope that’s what we are at this point.”
Casey did a small fist pump, “And that’s another twenty from Brunstetter.”
“Looks like you got your hazard pay Casey,” Lauren said, voice dripping with sardonic ire, “Good thing too because I’m going to kill you for making bets about me. Just as soon as I’m not hooked up to an IV anymore.”
“Sharpe there isn’t any chance you make my drip go faster than hers? Just so I can a headstart.”
"I would if I thought a headstart would do you any good," Helen said, chuckling.
“Can I stay with you tonight?” Leyla asked Lauren.
“You should go home,” Lauren urged, “You’re just going to watch me get drip-fed meds all night.”
“Please.”
Lauren sighed, fighting a losing battle against a smile, “Max, is it okay? I know it’s well after visiting hours.”
“Yeah,” Max said, his smile warm, “We make exceptions for family all the time.”
“Okay, in that case, dinner is on me. Only the very finest of from the hospital cafeteria,” Reynolds said.
“Oh, yes, I saw they had Cesar on special today,” Iggy said, join him.
“Hey! Reynolds get me the mac and cheese!” Casey called after them, “And with the hash brown side. None of that green shit Max forced on us.”
“Hey,” Max clutched his chest.
“No offence,”
“Offence taken.”
Helen laughed, looking away from Max, catching Lauren’s eyes. The look she gave said they’d be having a conversation about this later before saying, “Boys wait on me,” and following Iggy and Floyd.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Medical Director getting chemical exposer from trying to find the source himself,” Leyla said, looking to Max.
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