darker_london | Unexpected (Abby, Stuart) (Reply)

Abby through her pencil across her office and it sailed past Stuart as he walked in. "Glad I didn't come in here three seconds earlier," he muttered, blinking at her. Then he bent to retrieve the pencil which had clattered to his feet after hitting the wall so perfectly on the point that the lead had broken off and flown to a location unknown, it's fate to be decided by a future vacuum cleaner. "I might have lost an eye."

"Then you'd match Quinn," Abby stated and immediately looked guilty. "Oh my god, don't listen to me!" She looked frazzled and she had about four other pencils sticking out of her hair, which itself was sticking out of the hair tie she had put it up with twelve hours ago.

"To be fair, Quinn is probably the last person who would ever take offense to your offensiveness," Stuart smiled. "He would make some remark about how if I was going to join the ranks of pirate, he would make me a cabin boy."

Abby chuckled. "You'd make a cute cabin boy. What's up?"

Stuart looked around her office and then through the window which overlooked the court yard. In the moonlight, the hospital's jumping castle looked a little creepy and Silent Hill-esque. "It's midnight. And...you're still at work."

"I'm going over patient files. I cannot figure out what to do with goddamn Nicholas Kinsey! Besides kick him in the arse."

"I think you'll find most registration boards frown on psychiatrists kicking their patients in the arse in any way other than metaphorically." Stuart rounded her desk so he could stand beside her. Gently, he pulled the other pencils out of her hair. "Maybe you should sleep on it, Abigail."

"Maybe you should bite me!" Abby said with a laugh. "Literally, I mean. I love it when you bite me."

"You are, oftentimes, a confusing woman." Stuart smiled down at her and he tucked some of her escaping hair behind her ears before kissing her head. "And I love you. Evenso, I am not biting you at our place of employ."

"You're totally buddies with the boss, you brown noser!" Abby laughed and she stood so she could slam her notes shut with more force than she could have managed while sitting down. "And STAY shut! There. That felt good. I'll apologise to the notes tomorrow morning." She looked up at Stuart and she smiled. "I'm sorry I'm so late. I lost track of time. Is Mara-?"

"Spending the night with Spectre, because he's leaving for America in...oh, twelve hours? James and Marie are with them as well, so you're off the hook, Mum." Stuart went to retrieve her coat and he brought it back so he could help her into it.

"Well you must be tired."

Stuart shrugged. "I'll survived. And not at all because I was sleeping in my own office... Have you eaten at all, Abigail?"

Abby made a face. "I think I forgot."

"I think you're very silly sometimes." Stuart finished helping her with her coat and he turned her gently around. He placed a hand on her face and kissed her cheek. "We'll get you something to eat and then I can bite you at home if you still have energy left by the time we get there."

Abby giggled. "Somehow I think I can manage to keep my energy levels up. I could drink a coffee!"

"That is the last thing you need!" Stuart laughed and Abby darted away from him with a grin.

She was standing under one of the antique overhead lights so that her hair light up like autumn fire. She radiated beauty and Stuart found himself utterly breathless as she danced away from him. He watched her for a moment, the light playing off her porcelain skin, and then he said it without realising he was saying anything. "You're beautiful. Marry me."

Abby stopped smiling. She stopped dancing and laughing. She stopped breathing.

Stuart, realising he had incidentally set off one of Abby's greatest fears, stepped forward. "Abigail, I don't mean a big wedding. I don't even mean being engaged. I know...I know you don't want to do that. I know that isn't your thing. I just want you to be my wife. We can go to a courthouse and get it done that way. Simple and easy."

Abby, who had watched her previous fiance turn into a terrible and abusive man before her very eyes after saying yes to him, slowly came to the realisation that Stuart was not Aaron. And if Stuart ever did turn out to be even remotely like Aaron, her brothers would kill him. Still, she had known him since she was sixteen. He had been one of Thomas' closest friends since then. She should trust him. She did trust him. And she loved him. And he shouldn't pay for Aaron's mistakes. "Stuart? I would be honoured to be your wife. And I will marry you any way you want."

Stuart couldn't believe his luck. He rushed across the room and he lifted her into his arms. He spun her around and he kissed her. They ended up together on her office floor, and he bit her in their place of employ anyway, no longer caring about what may or may not be appropriate. This was something worth celebrating. And every time something worth celebrating came up, they needed to cling to it hard. Tomorrow would just as likely bring more pain.