You Want Me To What?
by zeilfanaat

Category: Drama/Humour
Ratings: G/K
Disclaimer: DOC does not belong to me. The show is created by the Johnson brothers.
Spoilers: 3x56 - "While You Were Snoring"
Summary: Missing Scene - While You Were Snoring: How does Nate convince Beverly to sew the tennis balls to her pyjamas... and who does the actual sewing...?
Challenge: i2eye's 3rd Anniversary Missing Scene Challenge, 2010, DOC#6
A/N: This missing scene has been on my computer for ages, but it never felt right. Finally I asked tisme73 to have a look and see if she felt like something was missing too. She did. Enter light bulb and voila, here it is at last. Thanks to tisme73 for looking it over for mistakes (twice). Hope you enjoy!
Finished: 24th of November, 2010

A knock on the door spurred Raul into action.

"Hey Clint!" he said excitedly.

"Hey Raul, how are you holding up?" Clint replied, as he stepped inside the Jacksons' apartment.

"I'm good," the boy said. Then he lowered his voice. "Though I'm not sure what Nate's up to. He's gotten a bunch of tennis balls, and now he's looking for a sock… or something."

Clint's eyebrow rose, and with a chuckle he asked, "He's doing what?"

Raul nodded. "Exactly!"

"Hey Clint," Beverly said as she moved from the bedroom to the living room.

"Hey Bev, thanks for asking me over for supper. Especially on such short notice."

"It's no problem, you know that. We'd been planning to invite you and Nancy over for dinner anyway, we just forgot to ask this morning. Where is Nancy by the way? Nate said he went by her apartment but she wasn't there. We left a message on her cellphone."

"Oh, she's gone to a conference in Atlantic City. So, what's Nate up to? I hear he's looking for a sock, which has something to do with tennis balls?"

Beverly noticed that Clint seemed to skip over Nancy being away, and she studied him for a moment, but decided she may just have been imagining it.

"Yeah. He doesn't sleep very well lately, because, apparently I'm… keeping him awake." She sounded a bit frustrated about it.

"I know," Clint said. "Don't worry about it Bev, lots of pregnant women have that problem. It's natural."

Beverly smiled. "Thanks Clint."

"So, what do tennis balls and a sock have to do with him not sleeping?"

The pregnant woman started to answer when a voice from behind her interrupted. "Well, when you went to give Derek a second opinion, Doctor Crane, ehm, found me in the coffee area, and he had a suggestion to handle this problem," Nate said, entering the living room with the tennis balls and a long sock in his hands, along with Beverly's pink nightgown.

Clint snorted. "What did he suggest? Tie the tennis balls over your ears with a sock?"

This elicited a laugh from Raul.

"Very funny, Country," Nate said, as he sat down on the couch, while Beverly went to the kitchen to check on the food, and Raul started setting the table. "Doctor Crane said I should sew the tennis balls in a sock, and then sew the sock to the back of Bev's nightgown, so she won't roll onto her back."

"And that way keep her from snoring," Clint nodded. For a moment he watched as Nate put the tennis balls into the sock. "And you agreed to this, Beverly?" he asked.

"Well, I can't say I'm exactly crazy about the idea, but if it helps Nate get some sleep, I'm willing to give it a try. If it weren't for the fact that he looks positively exhausted, those tennis balls would not go anywhere near my bed," Beverly replied, putting the lid back on one of the pans and turning off the gas underneath it. "But, I am not doing any sewing. I've had enough of sock-repairing for a while, with all the holes my men manage to get into them."

Clint grinned when he looked at his friend. "Guess no amount of needling could get you out of that one, huh?"

"And he did try... hard," Beverly said with a smirk, while Nate rolled his eyes. "Very funny, Country," he said. "That's what Beverly said too, and then she handed Nate a needle," Raul helpfully stated.

Keeping himself from chuckling, Clint went back to the actual idea. "I'm not sure it will work though. Some pregnant women have difficulty falling asleep when they're not on their back."

Nate looked up at his friend and threw him another glare. "Don't. Just, don't. Let's just see whether it works. If it does, good. If it doesn't, I'll get back to you."

Clint smiled. "Ok, I hope it does work." The doctor noticed that his hostess was just filling the plates, and he stood up to help. Beverly shook her head, and pointed to the set table. "Oh no, you don't! You're a guest tonight, and guests don't need to help."

The country doctor shrugged, and answered with a smile, "Maybe they don't need to, but if they're willing, why deny them?"

Beverly smiled, and handed him a plate. "Fine, that's yours. Now sit down, and let us do the rest."

Clint accepted the plate, and sat down with a resigned sigh. Raul carried one plate to the table as well, and Beverly got the other two plates. "Nate, dinner's ready."

"I'll be right there," the police officer said, as he tried to get the tennis balls neatly lined up in the sock. Instead, the balls just slipped downward, and bunched together. "Right, guess I'll fix that after dinner."

That's how, after dinner, Clint ended up looking at Nate as he tried to sew the tennis balls into place in the sock. He finally managed, after sticking himself a couple of times. Proudly looking at his handiwork, he showed it to Clint, who feared for Beverly's nightgown. Raul also got a look, and he was more vocal. "Nate, I don't think Beverly's going to be happy if you're going to sew that sock to her pyjamas."

"What do you mean? It works!" Nate objected.

"But it looks so messy," Raul complained. Clint pointed at the small hole in the sock that Nate had managed to make somehow in his attempts to sew the tennis balls into place. "And I think Beverly would like to wear this gown again…"

Nate looked down at the sock in his hand, and had to admit, it didn't look very neat. And, if he wanted to keep the tennis balls in place, he should probably try and sew that hole closed. "Well, how do you suggest I do it then?"

Just then the phone started ringing.

"Especially since I am not sewing it myself," Beverly interrupted, appearing once again from the bedroom to pick up the phone. "Now where is that phone?" The ringing item did not seem to be in one of the usual places. Great - why did they get a wireless phone again?

Nate made a motion for Raul to take the sock with tennis balls. "You give it a try." Raul shook his head, backing away. "Uh uh, I don't want Beverly angry with me."

Clint sat up and looked around for a moment. Then he reached behind his chair, and pulled the ringing phone from where it lay on the carpet. Apparently it had fallen down there at some point. The ringing was about to switch to voicemail so Beverly motioned for him to answer.

"Jackson house, please hold on," Clint said as he rose to hand the phone to Beverly. The surprised voice at the other end stopped him for a moment. "Clint?"

"Nancy?" Clint replied with equal surprise.

"Hey, what are you doing there?" Nancy asked, feeling a little uncomfortable, without really knowing why. She still didn't remember she had been supposed to go to lunch with Clint today.

"Uh, I was just here for supper." Clint wondered if she had returned yet from the conference, and whether she was still with Richard Black.

"Oh. Ok." There was a moment of awkward silence, during which Clint debated if he should ask whether she needed to be picked up from the airport or not - afraid he'd be told Richard would bring her home, and Nancy hoped he wouldn't ask her where she was.

"Uhm, is Beverly there?" she finally asked. Clint blinked, and realised where he was.

"Yeah, here you go." Without further comment, he handed over the phone and sat back down. As Beverly started talking to Nancy, Raul suddenly exclaimed triumphantly, "I know! Clint is a doctor, so he knows how to sew, right? So he can sew the sock to Beverly's pyjamas, and everyone will be happy."

Clint had not been paying much attention, mostly still focused on the phone conversation Beverly was having with Nancy.

"That's a great idea, Raul," Nate said, turning towards his friend. "So, what do you say, Clint?"

"What?" the doctor asked, forcing himself to pay attention to the man sitting next to him instead of the phone conversation that wasn't even meant for him. Nate held out the nightgown and needle.

Clint sighed and raised his eyebrow in question, but Nate looked at him with pleading eyes. "Alright, I'll give it a shot. Though I must say, I'm more adept at stitching up people than I am at stitching socks to nightgowns."

"I would say that goes for a lot of people," Nate said, clearly relieved as he handed over the sock, nightgown, needle and thread. Raul grinned. "And it's hard to be worse than Nate…"

"Hey! A little respect please," the policeman said, ruffling Raul's hair. He couldn't be really angry because Raul was right: you would really have to try to do worse than what he had managed so far.

"Ok, see you the day after tomorrow then," Beverly said as she ended the phone call. "Was that Nancy?" Nate asked her, as she came to sit next to him.

"Yes. She couldn't come to dinner tonight, and had her cell phone turned off until just now. We agreed to have lunch the day after tomorrow. You're free then, right? We'll be having the baby shower at the clinic after lunch."

"Yes, I'll be off duty from lunch onwards that day," Nate replied, moving slightly to the side to make room for his wife, and pulled her close once she was seated. "Do I have to be there for the baby shower though? I mean... it's only going to be woman-stuff."

"Oh, come on, it won't be that bad," Beverly said lightly. She turned her head a little bit to look up at him, her head on his shoulder. "Afraid the estrogen is going to be too much for you."

"What's estrogen?" Raul asked.

"Female hormones," Clint replied, pulling the needle and thread through the fabric.

"Oh..." He'd heard of 'hormones' - apparently they caused girls to be in a bad mood. That's what Justin said at least, and he had a sister, so he probably knew better than him. Raul made a face. No wonder Nate didn't want to be around a whole group of women. He shuddered. Time to get distracted: he was too young to die. Well, maybe dying was a bit exaggerated, but in any case - comic books were waaay more interesting.

"I did not say I was afraid," Nate said, sending his wife a stern look. He wet his lips, before continuing, more hesitantly now, "but I could do with some backup..." He looked at Clint with a hopeful expression. "What do you say, Country? If I buy you lunch the day after tomorrow, will you be my backup?"

Clint chuckled, not looking up, "How about I just join you for lunch, and help you prepare for the following hours. Unlike you, I won't have the afternoon off, so I may not be much help after lunch."

"Thanks, Country, I can use any help I can get!" Nate said, "even if it is just for lunch. Hey, I could buy you another non-fat wheat germ bean sprout muffin," he said, perking up a little at the idea he would at least have some support for part of the day.

"Uh, no thanks, Nate, one was more than enough."

"That good huh?"

Clint looked up for a moment, and with a twinkle in his eye said, "It was almost enough to make me forget about cutting back on donuts."

Nate grinned, and Beverly was glad to see Clint actually smiling again. While Clint was handling the needle and thread with much more confidence than Nate had earlier, Beverly studied him. Something was off; he'd been the gentleman he was, and they had talked over dinner about everything and nothing just like usual, but he'd seemed quieter than usual.

Of course she could take a pretty good guess as to the reason of his quietness, namely, the absence of a certain Nancy Nichol. However, Beverly couldn't help but think there was more to it. Especially after the way he'd acted when he'd answered the phone. Something was going on that was putting a damper on the country doctor's normally good spirits.

But it wasn't her call, and Clint wasn't very forthcoming either. So, for now, she'd just have to leave it be. She of course didn't know Clint had seen Nancy and Richard Black share a kiss the other night, which if she had known, she would even be all the happier to provide some distraction to the doctor... until such time as she could get some sense knocked into Nancy that is.

A little later, the hole in the sock was taken care of, and the sock itself, tennis balls included, were sewn to the back of Beverly's nightgown.

"Alright, folks. I'm going to leave you guys to it. Good night. Hope you sleep well," Clint said, as he stood up. "And thanks once again for supper. It was delicious, Beverly."

"Thanks Clint. And you're welcome," Beverly replied. Once Clint had left, she turned to her husband. "Seems you didn't even need to needle much to pass on that needle."

Raul looked up from his comic book. "Clint just didn't want your nightgown ruined."

"Or he thought it would be nice if I wouldn't have to come knocking on his door in the middle of the night again," Nate suggested, trying to get away from the needle-subject.

"Yeah, that could be it too."

"I really hope this works, honey," Beverly said, kissing her husband.

The End