dana x emma drabble bc i can't stop thinking abt them
“How you doin’, kiddo?”
Emma jerks from her position against the wall, straightening. “Oh! Me? I’m- yeah I’m good!”
“Mhm.” The corner of Dana’s lip ticks up in that way Emma’s starting to get familiar with. “Wanna try being honest this time? C’mon, I won’t bite, kid.”
Emma’s belly goes warm. She really wishes Dana would stop calling her that.
“I’m good,” Emma repeats, nodding. When Dana only raises a brow, she rushes to continue. “Really, I am. I just…”
Dana slinks forward – that’s the only word Emma can think of to describe the way the older nurse moves. She leads with her shoulders, chin dipping as she moves until there’s hardly a foot of space between them.
“You know… the, uh…”
“The bugs?”
Emma nods, deflating slightly. “The bugs. I have a… a thing, I guess.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Do you guys see that- see stuff like that very often?”
“Honey, we see everything often around here.” Dana smiles more fully, knocking their shoulders together anf shifting that much closer. Emma sucks in a sharp breath, pressing herself against the stairwell wall behind her. Gosh, she hopes it’s not obvious that she’s blushing. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. Gonna have to if you stick around.”
Dana tucks her hand into her pocket – they’re so close that Emma can feel her every movement, oh wow – and digs out her pack of gum, popping a piece into her mouth.
“I want to,” Emma offers. “Stick around, that is. This place is, uh, pretty nice.”
“Ha!”
Emma’s lips twitch up into a nervous smile and she stands a bit straighter, fingers twisting together. “No, no, I mean it! You guys keep everything really clean here, and… and the lights, you know, they’re not the kind hospitals usually have, the ones that give you a headache.”
“You just haven’t been here long enough, kid,” Dana says, but her smile has softened.
“And the people!” Emma rushes to add. “Gosh, the people here are so helpful. It’s like there’s always something to do, and nobody- nobody makes you feel silly, right? I- yeah, I like the people.”
“Aw,” Dana clicks her tongue. Emma swears she sways in place. She can smell Dana’s breath. She has got to get a handle on herself. “We like you too, honey.”
Dana reaches out to pat her hip and Emma jerks in place at the little squeeze she gets on the soft part of her. Her lips drift open slightly, breaths puffing through them. She hopes the other woman can’t hear her heartbeat.
“Take another minute, steel that stomach of yours. Then come back out there to us, yeah?”
“Yeah. Yeah, yeah, of course.”
Dana smirks, she smirks, and she winks. Emma thinks she might faint.
“Good girl.”
Between one blink and the next the older nurse is gone, the door to the hallway opening and letting in all of the Pitt’s noise and light before clanging closed and leaving the young nurse to herself again.
Emma collapses against the wall dramatically, hands lifting to cover her face and muffle her groan. She is so, so, unbelievably screwed.
