beautiful mistake - joe burrow

26

Once in Nick's office, Joe didn't let go of Elle until she was safely seated in the chair on the other side of the desk. After the men briefly whispered unintelligibly to Elle, Joe mumbled some excuse and left the room, leaving Nick and Elle alone.

"Feeling better?" Nick asked as he sat down in the desk chair. Elle nodded. "What was wrong?" She shrugged. "Stress, I guess" "how long has it been since the last time?" "three months or so"

Nick sighed "Ok, you stay here for now and rest some more. I'll sort it out, someone will cover your shift and I can give you a quick ride home" he stood up. "Wait, Nick, you can't take me home. We have enough stress as it is without the others having to do my chores too"

"Eleanor, you just had a panic attack, do you really think I'm going to let you keep working today?" Nick looked at her seriously but worriedly. "We don't have a choice, Nick. There's enough on the line that needs to get done"

Nick sighed "alright, I won't drive you home, but you stay here in my office, lie down on the couch and get some real rest for now, ok?" Elle was about to retort something when Nick raised his finger in warning. "That wasn't a question, it was an order" silently Elle nodded.

"Ok, give me your walkie-talkie" confused Elle looked at him. "If you don't get what's going on, you might stay here longer, so give me your walkie-talkie" she knew that arguing with Nick wouldn't change anything, so sighing she pulled her walkie-talkie out of its cradle and handed it to Nick.

"get comfortable, maybe get some sleep. I'll lock the door so no one disturbs you, ok? I'll come back later and check on you" Nick walked to the door. "Nick?" Elle stopped him just before he was out of the room. He stuck his head back into the room questioningly.

"Can you please not tell my parents about this? They're worried enough as it is, my mom will think I'm still working myself to death" in Elle's mind, guilt spread at the thought of worrying her parents.

"The worries are not unfounded Elle" Nick replied sighing and stepped back into the room. "Please, Nick, I can handle this. My mom is floating on a cloud of happiness right now because of Eric's new girlfriend. I don't want to ruin this" Elle pleaded.

Nick ran a hand through his face. "alright, I won't tell your parents about this..." "thank you Nick, really" Elle interrupted him relieved. "...But, I don't want you to take every night shift for this, ok? Let everyone else work late too, and give yourself a few nights in your own home. You need that, or you're going to have another panic attack soon."

"But everyone except Michael and I have family and partners they want to go to in the evenings. There was no one waiting for Michael and me at home. We don't disappoint anyone if we're not home in time for the good night story or dinner. I don't want to be the reason Roberto's kids don't see their dad as much anymore" Elle replied.

"And I don't want to be the reason you can't work anymore because of a burn out or worse. I promised your dad that I would take care of you, Elle. I'm not saying you can't work anymore at all. Just let the rest of us work the evening shift too" Nick looked at her worriedly. Elle sighed, "alright. I promise I'll take it slow and not take every shift" Nick nodded in satisfaction. "there you go and you start today. I'll stay here tonight, you go home, no arguments".

Nick opened the door a second time, closed it again, and turned once more to Elle, who by now had made herself comfortable on the couch. "One more thing, Elle. Have you considered going back to therapy?"

Elle shook her head. "Don't you think talking might do you some good?" Nick asked cautiously. She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, maybe. But I don't have time for it, Nick. I can't fit in a weekly session with a shrink on top of work, my personal life, and the household."

Nick nodded a bit absently, seeming to ponder somehow. "well then...I'll just be your shrink. We'll sit down once a week and you just talk. About your worries, what's bothering you or whatever you want to get rid of, ok? I have absolutely no qualifications to give you a professional opinion, but I did minor in psychology for a couple of semesters, so we'll just pretend I have a clue, ok?" he suggested.

Elle had to grin. "You'd do that for me?" "Either that, or I'll cut you some hours so you can go to a professional. The choice is yours, Elle. I just don't want you to break down from the stress and keep it all bottled up" Nick shrugged.

"Thanks, Nick. I'd love for you to be my sort-of unprofessional therapist" Elle grinned. "Me too. Then you get some rest and we'll see when else for our weekly sessions, okay?" Elle nodded. "See you later" Nick said goodbye with a grin and pulled the door closed behind him. The door could be heard being locked and he slowly moved away before everything around Elle went silent.

She must have fallen asleep, because the next thing she knew, was Nick shaking her lightly by the shoulder, waking her up. "Well, sleep well?" He asked, grinning, as Elle sat up, startled, brushing the hair that had come loose from her braid out of her face.

"How long did I sleep?" she asked, stretching. "Almost three hours. I was here before, but you looked so peaceful and relaxed, I didn't want to wake you up" Elle yawned nodding.

"do you feel up to working again today?" Nick asked as Elle stood up and smoothed out her clothes. "I guess so" she shrugged. "Great. Then you get to take over a few more checks right away" Nick handed her a clipboard, which Elle briefly skimmed. Inconspicuous complaints from players that should just be checked.

"In ten minutes the first one will be up. I've asked Michael to get your stuff together. It's just outside the door. Get ready, pull through until nine, and then go home, okay?" Nick looked at her questioningly. Elle nodded. "All right. Here's your walkie-talkie. If there's anything, radio me, otherwise I don't want to see you again until the pre-meeting tomorrow" Nick put the walkie-talkie on the table, winked at her and left.

Elle stretched a few more times before grabbing her walkie-talkie off the table, grabbing her bags outside the room and disappearing into the nearest bathroom. She didn't look as bad as she'd thought. Her mascara was smeared, her hair was standing up in all directions, but otherwise she made a pretty solid impression.

She quickly removed her makeup, decided it was unnecessary to reapply mascara, and therefore just yanked the hair tie out of her hair, combed it through, and tied it back into a braid before stuffing it all back into her bag, which she quickly took into the conference room and then hurried into the treatment room.

It felt like a dream when she unlocked her apartment door at just after ten.The checks on some complaints had taken longer because the events of the incident at noon today had apparently spread so quickly that everyone wanted to know how Elle was doing first, and it did look like something more drastic with Logan, so Elle had taped him from his elbow to shoulder to stabilize him.

Happily, she cleaned out her bags, stuffed everything into the laundry and packed her bag for the coming days, which, however, she would probably not always stay away. She showered extensively before sending first her mother and then Celine over ten-minute-long voice messages, in which she recounted in detail what she had only summarized in terse messages over the past few days.

After a thrown-together dinner of noodles and a few vegetables that had luckily survived their time in the fridge, she dropped into her soft bed with a sigh. She didn't realize how much she had missed having so much space and not having to wonder if she would be on the floor the next time she turned around.

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Question: When did you start using Wattpad, did you read stories on others apps or websites?

my answer: i started using Wattpad when I was like 12, I think, because one of my close friends was using it. It was the time where fanfictions become really popular and many people posted them on their Instagram instead of here.
I stopped using it for about a year before I came back and published my first story, which I deleted again after two weeks lol.
But since then I stayed on Wattpad and published a lot of stories, some of them are still on here.
I don't read on another website, I tried AO3 but I don't understand the concept of this website so Im staying here on Wattpad.

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