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When Emily pulls back she rests her forehead against mine and kisses the tip of my nose "I've waited a long time for that" she murmurs, I can hear my heart pounding in my ears, all I can do is rest my head against her chest and hold her close to me. "I want to stay like this Kait, but I need to shower and I need to eat" I pull my head back and look up at the woman before me and smile softly, bringing my hand up I trace her lips and reach out to kiss her again softly.

"Well go for a shower and I'll order you some food, what do you want?" Emily just grins down at me and shrugs her shoulders before stepping out of my embrace.

"Whatever you fancy, there's some menus in the drawer next to the sink. Take your pick. I won't be long." I wait for her to enter the bathroom and close the door, once I hear the water begin to run I do a little spin and squeal quietly in glee. I've just kissed Emily, she's just kissed me.

In a daze I order some Chinese food and pay the delivery guy when he arrives and start plating it up as Emily walks back out the bathroom towelling her hair. My mouth goes dry at the sight of her in a pair of basketball shorts and what looks like a soccer jersey as she pads into the kitchen bare foot. She grins when she sees me standing at the counter and drops her towel into a hamper by her washing machine before closing the distance and walking up behind me and wrapping her arms around my waist.

I immediately melt into her embrace and smile so wide I feel like my face is going to split in two, her breath on my ear makes me shiver slightly and stop what I'm doing "I think I could get used to having you in my kitchen" she murmurs into my ear before kissing it lightly.

I laugh loudly and put down the now empty carton on the side before turning in her embrace, quirking an eyebrow at her I wrap my arms around her shoulders and meet her eyes "five years of radio silence and one kiss doesn't make it better, you have a lot of making up to do."

She feigns hurt and brings a hand up to her chest "ooh, low blow. But I'm up to the challenge" she runs her nose along the length of mine and kisses the tip lightly.

If I was that kind of person I'd probably swoon at that admission but I'm not so I choose to try and play it cool "you'd better be, I'd hate to be disappointed." I push her away lightly and pick up a plate from the counter "eat, sit and let's talk" I point her in the direction of her living room and push her gently on the back to get her moving "do you have anything to drink?" I ask before she walks out of the kitchen completely.

"Yeah, should be some beers in the fridge" she calls out over her shoulder, turning to the ice box I find four bottles and not much else. I shake my head before grabbing two and picking my own plate up from the counter and joining her in the living room.

I hand her a beer and she unscrews the top and takes a mouthful from it "I need this, thanks." I follow her lead and sit with my legs tucked underneath me at the other end of the couch.

"I'm not surprised, there's nothing in your fridge apart from beer. When do you eat?"

She chews the food in her mouth and swallows before looking at me, I notice how tired her eyes look before she speaks "at the hospital usually or I order in. I work ninety hour weeks, I'd work more if they'd let me. But they have a maximum hour limit for residents" she takes another mouthful of food before continuing on "would you be ok with that? I mean, I'm going off of the assumption that you'd want a relationship with me. I mean I hope that's what you want. What do you want?"

I can't help the giggle that bubbles up as I watch her fumble with her words "Emily, I've wanted you for a long time. I never thought I'd see you again never mind sit here in your apartment, discussing the possibilities of having a relationship with you." Suddenly my appetite disappears and I start pushing the food around on my plate "I need to ask Em, why did you stop talking to me?"

Emily looks away from me and stares vacantly at the television for a moment, her eyebrows furrow above her eyes. I don't want to see her like this, but I want to know why she just cut me off without so much as a word "Charlotte saw us dancing together, saw how close we were. She brought it up with me after we moved in together and gave me an ultimatum, either commit to her and our relationship. Which meant cutting you off, or she'd go back to London. I made the wrong choice, again." Emily looks back at me with such a fierce gaze, I feel my skin burn under it. She shakes her head and looks away again "I am so sorry Kait, I don't want to waste more time with the wrong person. So when she walked out and buggered off back to England, I wanted to reach out I really did. But I didn't know how it would go down. But I'm glad it was me that stitched you up today" she turns to grin at me and I return it, her hand reaches out and she pushes a lock of my hair behind my ear, her fingers trailing slowly down my neck. "I'm glad I get a second chance at this."

"I still can't believe this is happening, I had such a crush on you" that makes her laugh and I can't help but join in. Emily sets her empty plate down and gives me a look so full of desire that I'm afraid I'm going to melt into a puddle on her couch.

"Only HAD a crush? Past tense? Kaitlyn Suarez, you wound me..." she shifts close to me on the couch, taking the plate from my hands and putting it on the table next to it. Her face is so close to mine, her breath warm on my sensitised skin making it tingle with anticipation.

"Pretty sure I still have a crush on you, but I think I should kiss you again. You know, just to be sure?" I try my best to feign indifference but I can feel my face heat, once again my heart is pounding so loudly I'm surprised the neighbours can't hear it.

"I think that's a good way to establish that..." she murmurs before pushing her lips against mine, one of her arms drape around my shoulder, her other pulls me at my waist holding me close. I can just about manage to tangle my fingers into her still damp hair and pull her face hard against mine. When I feel Emily run her tongue along my bottom lip, I shiver in her embrace and open my mouth willingly to her. Her tongue touches mine causing me to moan into the kiss, that one sound causes a change in the way she kisses me. Her lips become more demanding against mine, her grip on me tightens and I feel her push me back against the couch. My heads swimming as it fills with the sensation of her surrounding me, her weight on top of me, the way she moves her lips away from mine to kiss along my jaw line and up to my ear.

When I feel her tug at the lobe with her teeth my eyes snap open, rationality wins out and I have my first cognitive thought "Emily, Em... Stop" she pulls up abruptly and looks at me, her chest heaves as she catches her breath. I sit up and smile at her sheepishly "I think we need to slow down" I explain, cupping her cheek with my hand "I want to, holy shit I really want to but we'd be going about it wrong if we were to just jump into bed together right now and I don't want that and I know you don't either" she doesn't say anything, she just wraps her arm around my shoulder and pulls me to her. Leaning my head against her chest, I can hear her heart beating fast beneath my ear and it makes me smile to think I have that effect on her.

I feel her lips press against my hair and she sighs "you're right, of course you are. Besides if I'm being honest I'd probably fall asleep half way through and I imagine you wouldn't be pleased." I giggle against her chest and shake my head.

"I can leave if you're tired. How many hours did you work?"

"I'd just come to the end of a 36 hour stint when I first saw you, and then I was there for another five hours this evening and it was hell. I don't want you to leave Kaitlyn, I've just got you back." I notice the change in her voice and sit up and move away from her. She looks at me in confusion but I stand and take her hand in mine and lead her to the bedroom.

"Don't get the wrong idea Doctor Forester, but you need to sleep" I pull my sweater over my head and kick off my jeans so I'm standing there in just my t-shirt and panties. Hands on my hips I try and look stern when I see Emily's mouth fall open and her eyes roam the length of my body. "Close your mouth you're catching flies, they're just legs. You don't want me to leave, honestly I don't want to go, so we're going to get into bed and you can tell me how it was for you tonight or we can just go to sleep. But you will go to sleep" I point at her and motion for her to get into bed with my finger before I pull the covers down and climb in.

It takes a moment for her move, but she does, I hold my arm out for her and she looks at it before taking the invitation and snuggling in close "I can't remember the last time someone actually held me. It's usually the other way around" she sighs as I pull her tight to me and kiss her hair, running my nose through it and inhaling her still familiar smell.

"Not even Charlotte?" She stiffens in my arms and I can't help but roll my eyes "Emily you were with her for a long time, I'm not going to shirk your past like it didn't matter." She looks up at me through the darkness and I can see the faintest smile play on her lips.

"You're quite grown up aren't you?" I can't help but laugh at her observation but I shrug my shoulders and kiss her temple.

"I surprise myself sometimes. How bad was it tonight? I saw bits on the news but I fell asleep."

Emily shudders and goes quiet for a second, I let my fingers trace small circles over her back. Still revelling at the fact that I'm laid in bed with the woman I've been pining after since dinosaurs roamed the earth "it was bad. I've seen a lot in the last two years, multivehicle collisions, robberies gone wrong, stabbings, assaults, the weirdest accidents. But tonight was something else, it was chaos. I'm training to be a surgeon so I have a pretty solid stomach but some of the things I saw..." I feel her shudder again and tip her face up to look at me with the fingers I curl under her chin.

Brushing my lips against hers softly I rest my head against hers and whisper "you can stop if you want..."

"I don't want to, honestly it's nice to be able to talk to someone about it. It was the families that made it worse, they flooded the hospital demanding to know where their loved ones were. Whether they were alive or dead, as a second year resident we're given a group of interns to mentor so I set one of mine with the task of keeping them updated so I could scrub in on one of the trauma surgeries. I found them crying in the ladies toilets when I got out because she had to tell a man that his wife and two kids hadn't made it. She found their bodies in the morgue, she had a great idea to photograph everyone that came in with one of those polaroid cameras and set up two notice boards, one for survivors one for the deceased and had the family write their names and info on them." She pauses for a moment and I hold her tighter to me "anyway, this one guy wouldn't stop hounding her so she asked for descriptions and that's how she found them. I felt for her, it's one of the first things you learn to do as doctors. One of the most important as well, that doesn't make it any easier."

"And you do this willingly because?" I joke, feeling her laugh against me.

"Because when it goes right, it feels amazing. I spent a few weeks working on the paed's floor a couple of months ago and there was this kid, joe he was called. Eight years old, he was born with a rare form of cancer and had gone through 77 different surgeries since he was born, along with radiation treatment and chemotherapy. Anyway long story short, he'd been on the donor list for a new kidney for about eight months, all being well and we found a match that would be it. His surgeon had managed to corner that bastard to his last kidney and honestly it was touch and go for a while. But when we got that call and he came out of surgery successfully, I saw the joy on his mother's face and that made all the shit you go through day in day out worth it. They kid has a shot to live for another eighty years and I played a part in that."

The way she speaks so passionately about it is so endearing to listen to, I feel my heart swell as I listen to her go on about it "you know, I don't think I've ever heard you talk about something like this. You always used to be so stiff and formal, well most of the time."

Emily chuckles against my chest "yeah, if I remember rightly you used to ask me where the stick had gone?" I laugh at that memory and roll my eyes through the darkness.

"You remember correctly, in the strangest way I actually missed fighting with you a little bit."

"Me too, always got me hot when you'd tell me to go fuck myself. I like them feisty" I squeeze her tighter, trying my hardest to ignore the burning feeling of desire in the pit of my stomach. She reaches up and pecks my lips quickly before chuckling lightly "don't worry I'm not gonna jump you."

"I'm not worrying, I'm more worried that I don't think I'd stop you if you did, and I meant what I said earlier." I whisper, feeling all my good intentions vanish in an instant when I picture the woman in my arms naked and writhing under my ministrations.

Emily pulls me down for a slow, lingering kiss before rolling away from me, pulling me with her so I'm spooning her from behind "I know you did baby, I'm glad you said it." She links her fingers between the ones on my right hand and brings them to her lips "tonight I'm more than happy to sleep like this" she yawns loudly and I cuddle in close behind her.

"Go to sleep Em" I murmur into her neck, feeling sleep creeping up on me. I want to stay awake and savour each moment with the woman in my arms. Her warm body against my front, the way she fits perfectly against the contours of my body as though we were made to be like this together. But as her breathing evens out, sleep drags me down and I succumb to it quickly.

***

When I wake in the morning neither one of us has moved, I still have my arms wrapped around her, her fingers are still laced through mine and it makes me smile. I risk a glance at my wrist watch and groan inwardly, even though it's still early, if I'm going to make it to work on time and still be able to go home to shower and change. I need to leave now.

Slowly and carefully I try to disentangle myself from Emily without waking her, I have no clue if she's working today but she needs to sleep. I'm certain I've gotten away with it as I shift out of the bed and begin pulling my jeans on quietly. When I hear her speak, I jump out of my skin "sneaking off without saying goodbye Kait? Nice." I stand still and watch her roll over and prop her head up against the pillow.

I smile sheepishly as I fasten my jeans and pick my sweater up off of the floor "I have to go to work and I need to go home and change. I didn't want to wake you." I pull my sweater on and crawl back up the bed to Emily where I kiss her firmly. When I pull back I know I'm grinning like a loon when she reflects my smile back at me "how about dinner tonight? My treat." I ask as I run my nose along the length of hers, she bites down on her lip and shakes her head.

"I can't I was meant to be working from noon, but I've been given the morning off by my attending but it means I've got to pull the graveyard shift tonight." I can't fight the look of disappointment on my face, but that's fleeting when I have a different idea.

"What time do you usually finish?"

"Probably around six am why?"

"Because... you should come to mine after you finish and I'll make you breakfast. Or dinner or whatever you call the meal you have after you finish a night shift." I kiss her cheek and the tip of her nose and watch the smile that breaks out across her features.

"That may be the best offer I've had in a while"

"Good, I'll write my cell and my address down and leave it in the kitchen. You should go back to sleep." I kiss her one last time before reluctantly pulling away and standing up. Stubborn as always, Emily throws the covers back and walks me to the door, I can't hide how glad I am though when she kisses me one last time before I leave with the promise that she'll call me before she starts her shift and let me know if she has to stay at the hospital late.

I leave reluctantly but nothing that happens today is going to ruin my good mood and it seems like Lady Luck is on my side. The first cab I flag stops for me and gets me back to my apartment in record time meaning I have plenty of time for a long shower and a quick change of clothes before heading out the door and walking briskly to the theatre.

Work is uneventful and by the time my lunch break comes I feel like I've checked my phone a million times. I want Emily to call, in the few hours I've been away from her I miss her voice. But I think back to how it felt when she first kissed me and how wonderful it was to wake up this morning wrapped up next to her and I find myself running my fingers across my lips and smiling like a love sick teenager.

"What are you so happy about?" Gregory, my boss, finally asks me. I'd noticed him watching me with interest throughout the day but he'd bitten his tongue until now.

I sigh contentedly and clutch my hands to my chest "I ran into an old friend from school last night and it was awesome." His eyebrows raise into his hair line and he smirks at me "what are you smirking at?"

"Does this friend have a name?"

I sigh again and file away the papers he hands to me "Emily, she graduated pre-med my freshman year but we were... close. She went off to Harvard med school and we sort of lost touch."

"But now you're back in touch and that has you giddy like a school girl?"

"Pretty much, yeah." I retort "it's crazy, we had this connection back then but nothing could happen because she had a girlfriend. But now, no girlfriend and still this insane connection. I stayed the night and no nothing like that happened." I point out before he asks "but when she kissed me. Fireworks Gregory. Actual fireworks."

He looks on at me in amusement and laughs "I don't think I've ever seen you this smitten before. It's nice to see, reminds me of when I first met Simon."

A small smile plays on his lips as he gets a faraway look in his eyes, clearly recalling some distant memory I'm not sure I want to know about. "you guys are perfect together" I chide as I slap him gently on the arm. Thankfully, that's the last I hear on the topic of my love life and the rest of the afternoon flies by.

As I fumble with the keys to my apartment, balancing grocery bags in precariously in my arms, my cell decides to ring. Rushing in and dumping the bags unceremoniously on the counter I answer it quickly, holding my breath in the hope of hearing my favourite English accent.

"Hello?"

I'm not disappointed "so, I wanted to call earlier but I got a call from my attending with the offer to scrub in on an awesome surgery if I got there quickly so I made my choice. And I don't regret it." I can hear the smile in her voice and it makes me giggle.

I wedge the phone between my ear and shoulder as I begin unpacking groceries "I'm not even mad, I can practically hear you smiling. Other than that how's your day been babe?" I ignore the fact that I've just called her babe and get on with the task at hand.

"Fine, slept most of it. Not as well as I did last night but I was shattered. Plans for tonight?"

I sigh and close the fridge door before leaning against the kitchen counter "dinner for one, watch some trashy TV and head to bed early. Seeing as I've offered to cook breakfast for some wayward Brit and some ungodly hour in the morning." I smile at the sound of her voice through the phone and chew on my bottom lip.