Interns

11

"Hey what you doing? I thought you were working today?" Ben asked.

"I just finished cleaning my apartment up and remembered I took off because Tucker is moving in today. I'm on my way to pick him up from the air port now.

"Ohh yeah." Ben said remembering. "Alright I guess I'll talk to you later maybe we can go get drinks or something tomorrow." Ben suggested.

"Oh yeah I would really like that." Miranda smiled driving. "Are you on break?" She asked.
"Yeah I'm on my lunch."

"Okay well talk to me until it's over." Miranda suggested and Ben smiled beginning to tell her about his morning.

Miranda picked Tucker up from the airport and now they were back to her-well their apartment. She helped him with all his bags and assisted him in unpacking.

"What's for dinner?" Tucker asked. 

"I'm making Garlic Chicken Pasta." Miranda replied.

"Ohh that's one of my favorites." Tucker commented.

"I know." Miranda mused.

Tucker turned around and pulled her into a hug, kissing her lips. "I'm so excited to be with you every single day. Dam I love you."

"I love you too...you finish unpacking and then I'm going to go get started on dinner. "

Miranda made her creamy garlic chicken pasta and then she made her Italian pasta salad.

"Babe dinner's ready." Miranda called out.

Tucker came out of the room and she sat his plate on the counter. She stood by the stove and put her Italian pasta salad in prep bowls.

"What'cha doing?" Tucker asked.

"Oh I'm meal prepping." She answered.

"For two weeks in advance?" Why so much?"

"Oh no, this is for me and Ben."

"Oh." He voiced dryly.

"Yeah, he buys the groceries and then I meal prep for the week."

"Why does he need to buy you groceries. I'm here now so that can stop."

"He doesn’t buy me groceries. He buys the groceries for the meal prep. It's his way of contributing, he buys it, I make it and we both eat it."  Miranda explained.

"Oh I'm sorry. It's just I've been gone for a while and I don't want him to take the roles that are suppose to be for me."

Miranda nodded. "So how many job interviews do you have ?"

"Tomorrow I have 3 and then the next day is two. Fingers crossed that everything works out."

"I'm confident that you will get the best one and you could just drop me off at work tomorrow and take my car, I know it's going to take a while before your car is delivered." Miranda stated and Tucker nodded.

The next night Miranda was waiting in the lobby for Ben to go out for drinks.

She looked down when her phone started ringing.

"Hello husband. How was everything today?"

"It was good they are going to call me tomorrow with their offers and things. What are you doing?"

"I'm about to stop pass Joe's bar for a drink and to hang with-

"I just got here Miranda. We only spent one day in the house together and you want to hang with your friends instead of me. We could have went out for drinks."

Miranda palmed her forehead. "You're right honey. I'm sorry I didn't even consider that. It's a habit. I'm still getting use to you being here. I will be home in a few."

Ben came out and reached his hand out to pull Miranda up. "You ready?" He asked.

"I can't go out with you for drinks. This is Tucker’s second night in Seattle and I should hang with him." Miranda voiced and Ben's face fell.

"I know I’m sorry" Miranda pouted.

"Can you drop me off home?"

Ben looked at her questionable. "I let Tucker keep my car since his won't get here for ad least a week."

Miranda got into the car with Ben and they laughed and joked. Ben was singing "if this isn't love" and trying to perform and it was making tears of laughter appear in Miranda eyes. "You so dam silly boy." Miranda laughed hitting his arm.

"Thank you." Miranda praised as she leaned over and hugged him after he parked in front of her apartment.

A week passed and Miranda was trying to juggle hanging, calling, and talking to Ben with her husband now here and she felt that she was neglecting Tucker a lot and she needed to cut back with Ben.

Miranda walked into the on call room and she smiled when Ben walked in.

"Hey I bought these tickets to the wine tasting festival you wanna go?" Ben asked walking inside.

"I can't." Miranda sighed.
"You've been saying I can't to everything." Ben voiced sadly.

"I know and I’m sorry but It's probably best if we stop hanging out with each other as much and lessen our phone conversations and text messages. He's back home now. So I should give him all my attention."

"Where does that leave us and our friendship. We can still have a friendship even though your husband is here." Ben replied annoyed.

"I know we can still have a friendship but I'm saying we lessen what we do and how we interact." Miranda voiced reaching out for his hand but he stepped back and rolled his eyes at her.

"Why are you so angry Ben?"

"Because I can't understand this Miranda." Ben yelled. "I understand that you are married and I haven't crossed any lines with you and I want to respect your boundaries but you're my best friend and you're just pushing me to the side. You're gonna act like these past nine months we didn't build a friendship. The best friendship and you are just throwing it away." Ben yelled putting his hand on his head.

Miranda sighed. "I'm not throwing us away...Please don't make me choose between the two." Miranda begged.

"Okay Miranda." Ben sighed. He was in love with her and this hurt like hell that she was walking away from him.

Miranda reached out to touch his arm and he moved out of her embrace still upset. In that moment the tears that were already building fell.

"I'm not saying we stop all together Ben. I'm saying we see each other at work but outside of this we can't. Be my work best friend." Miranda tried.

"Alright." Ben relented turning to walk out of the on call room.

Two weeks went bye and Ben and Miranda kept up with the same routine of talking at work and eating lunch together. Both of them hated that they couldn't go out to eat, or to the bar, or watch movies or pretty much do anything together on their days off.

Ben was going to stop pass his dad's house, him and Curt together.

"I tried to call dad earlier but he wasn't answering." Curt stated as they walked up the driveway.

"Yeah I spoke to him last night and he said he wasn't feeling well. He said he was feeling a little nauseous...so I order him some medicine for nausea and some food and had it delivered yesterday while I was on shift." Ben explained knocking on the front door.

They both waited a while but got no answer. "Here let me call him." Curt voiced pulling his phone out. They waited and got the voice-mail.

Ben clicked his teeth. "Dad!" Ben yelled hopping he would hear him.

"Should we call the police and have them do a wellness check." Curt asked.

"Hold on, let's just look around. I heard the TV on, maybe it's too loud for him to hear us and his phone is on silent." Ben voiced walking around the side to the kitchen window. "Dad" Ben called out again.

He grabbed the chair near by to stand on so he could see into the window.

Ben peered inside and he look around. He gasped when he saw his father's body laid out by the kitchen floor.

"Oh my God." Ben yelled jumping down.

He ran around to the front door and Ben looked at the door. He knew the weak part of the door is normally where the lock is mounted. Ben kicked the door hard and you could hear the splintering sound of the wood cracking. He stepped back and kicked the door harder and watched as it flew in.

Both Curt and Ben flew inside. "Dad." Curt called out and Ben ran over.

He felt his pulse "It's weak." Ben voiced listening for his breath.

"He's not breathing. Call 911 while I do Cpr." Ben insisted as he started Cpr.

The ambulance came and they continued Cpr until he was breathing. He was still unconscious though.

Ben drove behind the ambulance and let Curt ride inside. He was freaking out but trying to remain calm. The closet hospital was Mercy West so they were on their way there.

Ben reached for his phone and he dialed Miranda's number. Only she could make him feel better. She always knew what to say.

He didn't know how long his dad wasn't breathing, if their was going to be brain damage. He needed to figure out what caused him to be unconscious in the first place.

Miranda laid on the couch with Tucker and they were looking at a Movie. She heard her phone ring and she sat up. She saw Ben's name and she sighed. She really wanted to answer but was really trying to be consistent with spending all her time with Tucker. So she turned the ringer off.

Ben blew out a breath when Miranda didn't answer and threw his phone in the passenger seat.