Slumber Party

...

Jackie somewhat begrudgingly lays her pillow and blanket out on the couch. “....I feel like I’m 12.” She complains.

“Oh come on Jackie, no negativity! It’s Casey’s celebratory welcome home slumber party.” Sienna counters.

“Plus, you can’t fool us Jackie. You don’t want Casey out of your sight any more than we do.” Elijah adds.

“And although I do really appreciate the gesture guys, this might be just a little bit overboard.” Casey reveals, unplugging her air mattress once it’s completely inflated on the living room floor.

“Well, it’s partly because we all want to observe you overnight. So humor us.” Aurora admits.

Casey smiles at her roommates as they continue to fuss over her, Sienna fluffing her pillow, Elijah attempting to tuck her in comfortably. “Well, I feel great about my chances of making it through the night with all this medical attention.” Casey quips.

“I call doing the resuscitation if Casey needs it!” Jackie claims.

Before anyone can respond to that, the doorbell chimes. Aurora strides over to open it. Casey smiles when she spots Bryce in the doorway, Keiki beside him with a sleeping bag tucked under her arm.

Keiki launches herself across the room, hugging Casey tightly.

“Hey! Be careful, she’s still recovering!” Bryce calls worriedly.

Keiki starts to loosen her hold, but Casey pulls her in tight before she can pull away. “It’s good to see you again too Keiki.” Casey assures.

“Where’s your sleeping bag?” Aurora questions as she closes the door behind Bryce.

“Only have one, which Keiki is using. So I figure I’ll just sleep on the floor.” Bryce replies.

“Don’t be ridiculous. We can share.” Casey insists, scooting over to give Bryce room.

“You sure? I want you to get a good night’s sleep.” Bryce insists.

“You know I sleep better in your arms.” Casey counters.

Bryce smiles widely, and Jackie pretends to gag. Bryce makes his way over, carefully crawling onto the air mattress so not to jostle Casey too much.

“Can we watch a movie before we go to sleep? It’s my first sleepover.” Keiki reveals.

“Yes!!” Sienna quickly affirms. “Now, the classic sleepovers movies are Mean Girls, The Notebook-” Sienna suddenly cuts herself off, tears welling in her eyes. “Me and....Danny watched The Notebook a few weeks ago.” She reveals, voice breaking.

Elijah places a comforting hand on Sienna’s shoulder, while Casey reaches out to the neighboring air mattress to sweetly squeeze Sienna’s hand.

“So Mean Girls it is.” Jackie eventually breaks the uncomfortable silence that’s descended on the group once Sienna’s sniffles have quieted.

Aurora grabs the remote and starts the movie, and Jackie cuts the lights.

Now with at least the semblance of privacy due to the darkness, Bryce places a gentle kiss to Casey’s shoulder. She snuggles her back against his chest, interlacing their fingers under the covers.

Sienna offers Bryce and Casey a smile over her shoulder despite her still watery eyes. “No funny business you two.” She teases.

“I second that!” Keiki adds.

“Relax, we’re not going to do anything. Casey’s not even back to 100% yet.” Bryce insists.

“I keep trying to tell you guys that I’m fine.” Casey insists.

“And we keep telling you that you’re a terrible patient Dr. Valentine.” Jackie retorts.

THE WAY TOBIAS MOTHERFUCKING CARRICK PULLED THROUGH THIS CHAPTER.

COLOUR ME IMPRESSED.

Alan Ramsey and Naveen after seeing their son on TV and hearing him say he’s not single:

Bring Your Child to Work Day

Bryce x MC

A/N: follows Storytime

…

Bryce gently pushes up the sleeves of Kehlani’s shirt, washing her tiny hands and forearms in an attempt to make his baby compliant with surgical scrub in procedures.

Kehlani babbles happily, kicking her chubby little legs in excitement. Bryce smiles, ducking his head forward to press a kiss atop her dark curls before he scrubs in himself, rubbing his own forearms much more rigorously than he’d just done with his daughter.

He steps away from the sink, turning to smile at the surgical nurse on his service. “Ready to save a life Sarah?”

Before Sarah can respond, Dr. Harper Emery strides into the room. She takes in the sight in front of her. Dr. Bryce Lahela, completely scrubbed in for surgery, surgical mask and all, with Kehlani strapped to his chest in a front facing baby carrier.

The baby offers her a toothless grin, and Harper can’t help but momentarily grin back. Kehlani is so damn cute, a perfect blend of Bryce and Casey. Harper has schooled her expression back into her patented intimidating deadpan before she returns her attention to Bryce. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“What? It’s bring your child to work day!” Bryce counters emphatically. He’s been excitedly anticipating this day for months.

“Dr. Lahela, take your child to work day is for children old enough to be considering their future career prospects.” Harper retorts. “And furthermore, they do not enter active operating rooms.”

“I’ve got to start her early if I want Kehlani to be a surgeon. Her mother, god mother, and honorary aunts and uncle are all in internal medicine. This is an uphill battle, Dr. Emery.” Bryce insists.

“…you can’t be serious. You’re planning to cut open a patient with your baby strapped to your chest? What if she starts crying?” Harper continues her objections.

“Kehlani is a really good baby, the best baby. She only cries when she’s hungry, or needs to be changed, and she’s been fed, burped, and put in a fresh diaper so she’s ready to go.” Bryce explains.

“You don’t think blood is going to make her cry?” Harper asks, how very much she doubts that evident by her tone.

“Nope! We’ve been watching videos of my past surgeries all month to prepare.” Bryce counters proudly.

“…..does your wife know all this?” Harper pulls her trump card.

“….please don’t tell her.” Bryce concedes.

“Hand over the baby and I think I can keep this quiet.” Harper negotiates.

Bryce sighs dramatically. “Fine,” he holds up his hands, “can you grab her? I’m already scrubbed in.”

Harper un-clips the carrier, holding Kehlani to her chest. “Good luck with your surgery.”

“It’s just an appendectomy. I could do this blindfolded with one arm tied behind my back, with my baby strapped to my chest.” Bryce insists. “Plus, the patient said it was okay.” He continues to argue his point.

“No Dr. Lahela.” Harper says, turning away and heading out the door towards the daycare center. As soon as she’s out the door, she runs into Dr. Casey Valentine-Lahela.

Casey looks from the door, to Harper, Kehlani, and the baby carrier, and quickly seems to put things together. Her eyes narrow. “He’s in so much trouble when we get home.”

My heart!!!

Storytime

Bryce x MC

Now with follow-up

…

Dr. Bryce Lahela looks a little out of place, sitting crisscross applesauce on a plush sky blue carpet in his white coat and surgical scrubs. He’s also much bigger than the small children he’s surrounded by. But it’s not an unfamiliar sight for the staff of the Edenbrook daycare center. Dr. Lahela tends to stop by a lot nowadays. 

The kids all love him, as evident from their rapt attention as he reads aloud from ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. 

“On Thursday, he ate through four strawberries, but he was still hungry.” Bryce reads emphatically, holding the book out so his rapt audience can all see the illustrations.

 Dr. Zaid Mirani enters the brightly painted room, nodding at the daycare center director. “Hey Claudia, I’m signing out Gabriella for the day.” He announces. 

“You might have to wait a minute, she seems to be pretty entranced with storytime.” Claudia reveals. 

Zaid looks around the corner, spotting Bryce amongst Edenbrook staff’s toddlers and babies. Zaid can’t help but roll his eyes. “Oh for crying out loud, again?!?” Last time Bryce did this, Zaid had to wait twenty whole minutes for him to finish the book since his daughter refused to leave without throwing a fit. 

“On Saturday he ate through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice cream cone, one pickle, one slice of swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon.” Bryce reads with an incredulous tone. 

Gabriella tskks, leaning over to whisper to Sienna and Danny’s 2 year old son. “So greedy.”

Zaid checks his watch. He really needs to get home to Ines and their newborn. He clears his throat, gesturing for Gabriella to come over. She shakes her head no, short pigtails swinging.

Zaid frowns, walking over now and interrupting Bryce mid sentence. “If you don’t mind Dr. Lahela, Gabriella is needed at home.” 

“But she’s going to miss the moral of the story Zaid! You don’t want that, do you?” Bryce returns.

“Daddy! I want the moral!” His toddler insists.

“Princess, I’ll read the book to you at home.” Zaid insists. 

Gabriella pouts. “But I want to hear Dr. Lahela read ittttttt.” She whines. 

“You can’t deprive Gabriella of Dr. Lahela storytime Dr. Mirani! She’ll be left out of all the daycare water cooler talk!” Bryce insists, complete with charming smile that just irritates Zaid more if anything. 

Zaid is about to retort, but he’s interrupted. “Bryce!” Casey calls out irritably. Zaid really enjoys watching the smile fall off Bryce’s face. 

“Uh oh.” Bryce mutters, lifting his 6 month old daughter Kehlani from his lap up to his face to hide behind as Casey storms into the room from the hallway.

“She’s never going to get used to daycare if you keep doing this Bryce!” Casey insists. They just enrolled Kehlani two weeks ago, after Casey took four months of maternity leave, followed with Bryce taking two months of paternity leave.

“But if I don’t come by every couple of hours, she might forget who I am!” Bryce argues, ridiculously. You’d think he’d been on paternity leave for more like two years based on how ridiculously attached he got.

“Don’t you have surgeries to do?” Zaid cuts in. 

“Yes, thank you Dr. Mirani! You have a job to do Bryce.” Casey adds. 

“There’s no job more important than being Kehlani Lahela’s daddy.” Bryce retorts, pressing a kiss to the top of Kehlani’s dark curls. 

“Well that’s cute and all, but it’s time to get back to the job you’re paid to do. Give me our baby.” Casey insists. She has a very hard time being stern with him when he says cute things like that, but her husband really needs to stop visiting the daycare center multiple times a day. For his sake as well as Kehlani’s.

Bryce sighs, getting to his feet and reluctantly handing Kehlani over to her mother. He bends down to press a kiss to his daughter’s forehead. “I’ll come back to finish the story later.” He mutters to Kehlani under his breath. 

“I heard that Bryce.” Casey retorts. 

All my open heart dreams have come true!!

I drew Cole from Lovehacks for @choicescocappreciationweek Day 1, because I love him. Everything he does is amazing and hilarious.

I hope there are others out there who put the emphasis on the last syllable of “Obsidienne.”

Omg Jen I love this so much!!! Cole is amazing!!

Distant shores: *goes on hiatus*

Open heart: *goes on hiatus*

Me:

LoveHacks is over?! But I want to see Mark and MC get engaged and married and have cute little nerd kids! I’m not ready for it to be over!

#LoveHacks is pure gold.

Still my favorite not quote but it is in my head lol

So Horatio’s his nephew… Why. Why didn’t I see this sooner… I’m die,

#LOVEHACKS + CHARACTERS

I’m replaying lovehacks and they added new diamond scenes and I’m like take my diamonds TAKE THEM!!!!!

the holy trinity of mostly unproblematic books that are Not That Deep™ and provides lighthearted genuine entertainment

Oh my god if Kyra dies and Bryce blames himself for suggesting this risky procedure

STOP

NO

But honestly... that’s my prediction. 😭