A/N: I had to re-write the end of this chapter because it had descended into fluffy sweetness, which I don't want a ton of yet [for once], lol! Their thoughts are in italics and the title of the fic may be changed! Read and Review, please tell me what you think of this. Lee x
"Robbie would you mind dropping me off round the corner, I feel like going in to see an old friend?" Jackie was sitting in Robbie's car, they had just finished work and he had offered her a lift home. "Yeah that's fine but remember not to be out too late, because you've got work in the morning!" He was just teasing her so she rolled her eyes as he pulled up outside the block of flats that he guessed she would be going into.
"Thanks Rob, see you tomorrow!"
"Aww do I not even get to come and meet him?"
"It's a she Robbie, and she is happily married with kids!" looking at the excited expression on his face, "And anyway I wouldn't want you to miss out on having your beauty sleep!" She grinned at him.
"You know me too well Jackie Reid!" They were both smiling when they looked into the others' eyes. Robbie didn't think about what he was doing and leaned over to her and kissed her on the lips. It only lasted a fraction of a second but they both felt the impact of it.
"I am so sorry Jackie, I didn't mean that!"
"It's fine Robbie, it was only a kiss, right?" She couldn't look him in the eye when she said it and resorted to laughing it off, while getting out of the car as quickly as possible.
When Robbie saw her disappearing into the flats he took a deep breath and put his head in his hands. He couldn't believe what had just happened, he should not have kissed her but it was what he usually did to girls, Yeah but she's not one of you normal girls, she's the only girl that you can't have fantasies about, never mind a relationship with! You do not kiss her! She is off limits, no matter what you have tried to do to her in the past! He was trying to reassure himself but it wasn't really helping.
Jackie, meanwhile, had ran up the stairs to the correct floor and had raised her hand to knock on the door but suddenly lowered it. She realised that she wouldn't be able to concentrate on what Jane would be saying so she rested against the nearest wall and took a few deep breaths. A few tears escaped from her eyes and rolled down her face, Why did that just happen, I know I've wanted it for longer than I could have imagined but he's my DI, my colleague, God he's one of my best friends, it shouldn't have this stupid effect on me!
Jackie started to make her way down the stairs but then the kiss was replayed in her mind, she could feel the heat of his breath on her lips and taste the slight moisture from where he had licked his lips under a minute before he had leaned over to her. She hurried up and lost all concentration of where she was going, she missed a step and went falling down the current flight of stairs and the following one, she was knocked unconscious before the end of it. Robbie, obviously had already driven away by that time, so Jackie was lying at the bottom of the stairs until a passer-by noticed her and called for an ambulance.
~~R.A.R~~
Jackie slowly came round and could instantly feel pain in her left side.
"Afternoon Jackie!" She recognized the voice without even looking at his perfectly styled hair or his shirt that was unbuttoned more than necessary,
"Hey Robbie, where am I, why are you here and why the hell am I in so much pain?!" She rolled her head onto it's side so she was facing him,
"You're in the hospital; you have been since last night. I'm here because I got a phone call after I left work today and came straight over. And for the last question you somehow fell down the stairs and were knocked unconscious until a minute ago, and you've broken a few bones." She remembered the accident when he said that,
"How many is a few?"
"Well the doctors have yet to confirm it but they think you have broken at least two ribs, ankle, leg and elbow."
"I guess I've got a couple of bruises on my face because it's a bit uncomfortable when I talk." He grinned at what she said,
"You could say that, your forehead is completely black and blue and you are quite badly cut on your cheeks." It was getting worse by the second for Jackie,
"I must look great!"
He smirked, "I just can't wait to tell Stuart and Matt this, it will make all my mistakes look so miniscule. Oh and Matt was angry that you didn't turn up this morning so he sent me to look for you when you didn't answer his calls, that was when I started to get worried about you." She liked the way that his cheeks turned a little red while he was saying all these things.
"The doctors must have found your new number from inside my bag, that was probably why you were the first one phoned." Jackie was glad that it was Robbie that they had called because that meant that she could have a bit of a laugh with him.
"Jackie, what the hell were you thinking about when you fell, it's so unlike you to go off balance?!" She bit her bottom lip, trying to work out if she should tell him the truth or not, she decided that her situation couldn't get much worse if she admitted it,
"You and the kiss. So basically it's your fault that I'm in here!"
"Really?! Sorry, and just for the record it didn't mean anything" Yeah course it didn't, you haven't been dreaming about it for 24 hours or anything! "and unless I am incredibly stupid it won't happen again!"
"It's fine Rob, and may I just say; I might be starting to see why women kiss you so much." She was meaning for it to come out as a joke but she meant every word of it.
"Do you think I could get away with overdosing on painkillers because this is fucking agony!" Robbie went to try and find a doctor or nurse and within two minutes he was back with young, blond nurse who Jackie envied in every way. While the nurse was helping Jackie, she was flirting with Robbie and she was good at it, Jackie noticed, but Robbie either was ignoring her or he wasn't attracted to her which was never going to be the reason for his actions and Jackie knew it.
As the nurse was leaving she, not so slyly, dropped her phone number on the floor for Robbie to pick up. When she was finally out of ear-shot, Robbie and Jackie just had to look at each other to start uncontrollably laughing,
"Why the hell didn't you say anything to the poor girl? She was desperate to grab your attention!"
"You think I'm going to chat up a girl while one of my best friends is lying in a hospital bed? I thought you knew me a bit better than that!" She smiled a little but then felt the drugs kicking in and started to drift off into a deep sleep.
After a while Robbie fell asleep as well and although he wasn't really allowed to stay overnight, the nurses couldn't bear to wake him so left him to sleep on the chair next to Jackie. In the morning Robbie woke up and looked down at his watch; he was already about ten minutes late for work and he was further away from the station than normal so quickly got up, made sure Jackie was still asleep and drove quite fast to work, getting ready for the shouting match with Matt when he got in. "Fuck!"
He was right. Within one minute, Matt was questioning where he had been, "What the hell are you playing at?! 3/4 of an hour late! And Jackie hasn't turned up again, did you have any luck in finding her yesterday or did you go to the pub instead?!" Robbie was trying to stay calm but could feel his anger surfacing,
"Sorry! And I know that Jackie hasn't arrived because I've just spent the whole bloody night with her in the hospital! That's why she didn't phone in yesterday; she had been fucking unconscious for twenty-four fucking hours!" The calmness has completely disappeared and he was about to storm out of the room when he saw Stuart's face, he looked stunned and scared,
"Why? What's wrong with her?" Robbie sat down again and looked at the floor, avoiding eye contact with either of the two men standing next to him,
"She fell down stairs outside her friend's flat the other night and her left hand side is now a little screwed up so she'll be in there for a while." If Matt or Stuart could see his face at that moment, they would be able to see that his eyes had began to go all glassy as if he was just about to cry. So instead of going out of the room feeling angry, he left it feeling quite upset and worried for Jackie, knowing that he would go to the hospital as soon as he left the station that evening.