In The Army

|persistent & Date

Song: On my mind by Ellie Goulding

Laura was busy marking up paperwork while working the front desk of the clinic, checking patients in for routine doctor's appointments when Ross came strolling up. She hadn't noticed until Hannah nudged her and cocked her head in his direction.

"Do you have an appointment?" She didn't think he did but kept it professional just in case.

"No."

She sighed, throwing her pen down on the desk and leaning back in her chair. "And now my day is complete."

"It's nice to see you too." He wasn't going to be deterred from his goal no matter what she said.

"Whatever it is, no."

"No? What kind of answer is that? You haven't even heard the question yet."

"I don't need to."

"Right," he nodded once. "I thought we'd have dinner tonight." Persistence and patience, persistence and patience, he chanted to keep his nerve up.

"Why would I want to do that?" It irritated her that he dismissed her and kept talking.

"I'm heading out to the field tomorrow. I won't be back for six weeks."

"Sooooooo?"

"So I wanted to see you before I left."

"You're looking at me right now."

Damned if she didn't look cute as she put on a fake smile and act all chipper. "Okay then. I'll pick you up at seven." He turned around to leave.

"No, you won't." Is he deaf?

"See ya then." He tossed her a smile over his shoulder and took off, unwilling to take no for an answer.

"But-but," Hannah looked at her with a half-smile. "I-I said no," she said weakly.

"You're on your own with this one, Laur."

_____________________

Hannah disagreed with the way Laura had treated Ross, calling her a hypocrite. After screaming at him two weeks ago at the track for having disregarded her feelings in the past, she should have thought to take his into consideration when "all the man wants is to spend some time with you before he goes away."

Fine, point noted and yes, she felt a bit guilty, but he'd taken her by surprise showing up at her work the way he did. She assumed he'd given up and gone away when she hadn't seen him in two weeks so when he popped up out of the blue, it was a case of her mouth going on auto-pilot; it was the only way she knew how to deal with him.

Oh, she'd certainly done some thinking over the last couple weeks, it couldn't be helped. She could tell Calum wasn't trying to push her into giving Ross a chance, all he'd done was provide some missing information to help her better understand the experiences that shaped the man she knew today. And though Ross's past didn't excuse his behavior, at least now she understood, really understood where he was coming from. Inevitably her mind kept going back over the argument she'd had with him at the track as well. Actually, it wasn't even an argument. He hadn't disagreed with her once, except to say that he never thought of her as a whore or a conquest. Come to think of it, he'd always denied it, or at least tried to at the mall when she accused him but then kept cutting him off.

As for giving him a chance, was she ready for that? Was he truly ready for that? Could she see herself 'with' him? It was difficult to imagine him playing the role of the caring boyfriend but it wasn't like he was incapable, right? Could they get along, could they get past, well, 'the past'? And if they did, this wasn't just his heart on the line, she'd be putting herself out there too, taking just as much of a chance as he was. Was it possible to start over with him, on the right foot this time? Was that what he was trying to do when he came by, talking about going to dinner? Did she want to try and start over?

Knowing what she knew now and remembering the way he looked that day at the track had her irritated with herself. It would be too easy to give into the stray puppy syndrome, the one where she wanted to take him home and make him better. Would it really be so bad to at least try? And if he did wind up being the love of her life and she hadn't given him that chance, could she live with always wondering 'what if'?

There were more questions than answers and truthfully she didn't feel it was fair to make any decisions without hearing him out. To do that would not only require spending time with him but also to give him the benefit of the doubt. But damn he'd made her so nervous this afternoon, showing up like that and acting the way he had. The only typical Ross-like rude thing he'd done was to ignore her when she said no to dinner. It was unnerving. Him. Acting so, so unlike himself that at the time she'd brushed it off, thinking he couldn't be serious in suggesting they go to dinner... until now.

"Soooooo, care to tell a guy why you're not dressed?"

She was stretched out on her bed in baggy sweats, watching TV with a bowl of popcorn by her side. "What the hell are you doing in my room? HANNAH!?" She sat up straight and looked over at her smiling roommate. She should have known Ross would be resourceful enough to figure out which room was hers and that Hannah would let him in.

"Catchya later, Laur." She winked at Ross, grabbed her jacket and left.

She watched him walk over and sit on Hannah's bed across from hers. Damn he looked good. Underneath his well-fitting black dress jacket she could see he wore faded blue jeans with black converse sneakers, a plain white v-neck t-shirt, really bringing out the bronzed tan in his skin, and his dog tags resting proudly against his chest. Turning back to the television, she tried to get a grip on her nerves. She didn't know how to deal with him and-and... damn he looks good.

"I said I'd pick you up at seven," he said matter-of-factly.

"And I told you no. So please leave." Okay, if he's really serious about this whole relationship thing, then let him prove it to her. If he was? Maybe. It all depended.

He smirked and shook his head at her. "Not to be extremely rude here, but I don't really care what you said. I'm not leaving 'til you get dressed and come with me." That got her to look his way.

"Oh my God! Are you for real?" He reclined on the bed and crossed his hands behind his head, fixing her with his trademark smirk and she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt he would stay right where he was. It was sort of sweet that he was serious about going to dinner and since there's no way I want to be alone with him in my room for any length of time... fine. She'd go, but that didn't mean she'd make this easy on him. Rolling her eyes before getting up, she refrained from the urge to smack the irritating smile off his face and went to her closet. "We go, we eat, we're done. Got it?"

He watched her pull out a cute little yellow and white print sundress and sweater then head off to the bathroom to change. "Yes, ma'am." he saluted her even though she couldn't see him. As long as she let him take her out, that was a start. A few minutes later she re-emerged, her hair pinned up in a twist with a few strands draping down to frame her face. He sprang up and went to open the door for her and smiled when she scowled at his gentleman-like gesture.

She walked ahead of rather than beside him as they went down the hall and she just knew he was all smug at having succeeded in getting her to go out with him.HA! She did whatever the hell she wanted to do and she wanted to see if he was truly serious about being with her. It was her decision to come with him since the only way to find that out was by spending time with him... or so she rationalized. She wasn't 'going out' with him; she was waiting to hear what he had to say, how he acted, nothing more.

He followed behind her closely, hands stuffed in his pockets when she glanced back to inform him.

"This is so NOT a date."

"Whatever you say," he purred, thinking this was exactly what it was. He felt almost giddy that she was letting him take her out because if she really didn't want to go, she most definitely would have kicked his ass right out the door, physically if she had to. She'd given him that small spark of hope that he just might win her affection yet.

A/N: date coming up soon ;)

What's gonna happen next

💋= they may kiss.

💜= have a successful date.

💌=Ross gives her flowers

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Bye!