DISCLAIMER: The characters are not mine. This has been written solely for my personal pleasure and those who choose to read it. No money involved.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Love Thy Mother
By ncruuk
Maca was not having a good day. Nothing particularly bad had happened, she just wasn't having a good day. It had started when she'd woken up to discover Esther not in bed with her: Esther's mother had been suffering with the flu, so Esther had been sleeping at home so that someone was on hand in case her mother felt bad in the night, which, Maca knew, was important. It was just...well...she missed Esther in the morning.
Her day hadn't improved much when she had got to work. Instead of finding her office quiet and boring, it had been full of paperwork which she'd somehow managed to always avoid doing, either by finding a child in need of a doctor, or by bugging Esther. Unfortunately, for the first two hours of her shift, there hadn't been any children and Esther had been in the operating theatre. Still, at least she'd done her paperwork before Cruz yelled at her again.
Maca had been hopeful about lunch time. She'd gone down to the cafeteria hoping to catch Esther whilst she was eating her lunch, only to discover she'd missed the nurse and Rusti...as entertaining as he and then Theresa were at lunch time...it wasn't the same.
"Maca?" She was shaken from her thoughts and ever elaborate doodle by Theresa.
"Yes?"
"There's a boy...with a headache..." began Theresa, gesturing to the admission file which one of the nurses had just brought to the desk. She got no further.
"I'll take it!" declared Maca, snatching the file from the surprised Theresa and heading out towards her patient. A boy with a headache wasn't as good as Esther, but it was something.
"Theresa?" Esther wasn't having a good day. Her mother was starting to recover from the bad bout of flu she'd been suffering from and the danger of being alone at night was passing. As much as she loved her mother and staying with her at home...she slept better with Maca there in bed with her. Too many times in the night she'd woken up reaching for her lover, only to sigh in frustration when she remembered why she was hugging a pillow instead.
"She's seeing a patient," explained Theresa, not needing to look up from her magazine to know what Esther had been going to ask her. Really, it was hard for anyone to begrude them as a couple, they were just too romantic, thought Theresa, as she watched Esther trudge towards the files, looking for some work to do in the last few moments of her shift. Maca had the same expression when she hadn't had a patient to treat.
"How's your mother?" enquired Theresa when it became clear that Esther hadn't found any work to distract her moping.
"Better," confirmed Esther, glad of the distraction from her musings.
"Well enough for you to go home?" asked Theresa, surprising Esther with the ease to which she referred to Esther staying with Maca as 'home'. Whilst the older woman had been ultimately supportive, she'd also been uneasy about them as a couple.
"Nearly...she slept through the night last night so, if it happens again tonight..." Esther trailed off, a soft smile gracing her face as she thought about the joy of being able to return to Maca.
"That's a nice smile," murmured Maca, coming up behind Esther, surprising her.
"It's a nice thought," agreed Esther, turning back to look at the grinning Maca.
"Does it involve me?" teased Maca, noticing but ignoring Theresa's rolled eye expression. She didn't care if they were being 'cute'.
"Maybe..." teased Esther, enjoying being able to finally have a moment with Maca, only for it to be interrupted by Theresa.
"She was thinking about coming home to you," explained Theresa helpfully, earning her a look from Esther that was far from friendly.
"Really? Tonight?" asked Maca enthusiastically, unable to conceal the gleeful delight she felt at that thought.
"No." As much as she wanted to say otherwise, Esther really didn't think she could leave her mother alone tonight.
"Oh." Maca's face fell. Ordinarily, she would maybe start teasing Esther about missing her but she didn't this time, partly because she felt so rotten about spending another night alone but also because she knew how important Esther's mother was to the nurse. Some topics just weren't for teasing about.
"Tomorrow night," confirmed Esther, suddenly determined that, no matter what, she was spending tomorrow night with Maca, even if that meant they both had to 'mother-sit'.
"Tomorrow night," confirmed Maca with equal determination, her eyes communicating such love and desire that Esther felt her breath catch in her throat.
"Yes," confirmed Esther, unable to break eye contact with her lover for fear of losing their moment.
"Esther?" Theresa had no such problem, her question prompting Esther to reluctantly drag her gaze away from a frustrated but possibly relieved Maca. If they hadn't had the interruption, she'd probably only been seconds from kissing Esther senseless...not a good plan in the middle of their shift in the middle of the waiting room.
"Yes?"
"Your mother," explained Theresa, holding out the telephone.
"Hello?" Suddenly nervous about why her mother might be telephoning her at the end of her shift, Esther found herself instinctively reaching for the reassuring hand of her lover.
"Yes..." Unable to hear what was being said, Maca attempted to not obsess about why Esther was frowning but instead just keep running her thumb over her lover's knuckles in what was hopefully a supportive, soothing caress.
"You're sure?" The frown shifted to a look of puzzlement.
"No, there's no reason..." Maca was getting nowhere with trying to guess the conversation topic, but whatever was being talked about, it was obviously causing Esther to relax rather than tense.
"I'll get you some supper..." offered Esther, turning to smile at Maca, obviously reaching an amicable agreement with her mother.
"Ok...I'll bring Maca..." laughed Esther, prompting Maca's eyebrows to raise in shock. What was Esther planning?
"Yes Mother."
"Mother!" Whatever had been said, Theresa couldn't help but laugh at the surprised and shocked expression it had caused Esther to have.
"We'll be around soon," agreed Esther, before carefully returning the handset to the cradle.
"We will be?" asked Maca good-naturedly but curious.
"Yes...for dinner with my mother..."
"She's feeling better?" speculated Maca, not daring to get her hopes up.
"She's decided she's feeling better than we are," explained Esther, sharing a knowing look with her lover.
"So we're having dinner with her?"
"And then you're taking me home." Esther's tone was shaded with enough flirtation for even Theresa to know what she was leaving unsaid, even without the extra hint of the nurse's fingers reaching to play with the ends of the drawstring ties on Maca's scrubs.
"Ok..." As the tall, sometimes aloof pediatrician easily agreed with Esther's statement, Theresa wasn't sure she'd ever seen Maca look quite so....gooey...in fact, if she hadn't been following this little conversation with rapt attention, she'd have never believed it could happen at all.
"I should go..." decided Esther finally, as the gentle hum of the waiting room pervaded her fuzzy haze once more.
"My patient..." agreed Maca, gesturing towards the curtain area.
"My shift finishes at 6..."
"Mine too." They were caught in the never-ending conversation, when both were just content to stand there, eyes locked and hearts pounding. Unfortunately....
"Ok then..." Esther knew that, no matter how enjoyable it was to stand here, she and Maca had to work. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to turn away from Maca's expressive eyes and look at the file she'd left on the workstation, forcing Maca to do the same. Immediately, the doctor's professional instincts kicked back in as her test results told her the source of the boy's headaches.
"See you in a bit sweetie..." murmured Maca quietly, but not quietly enough for Theresa to not hear and be charmed by the genuine tender inflection, before Maca strode off towards her patient, her step a little lighter.
Lying on her back, waiting for Esther to come to bed, Maca found herself, like she had every night this week, contemplating the ceiling. Prior to this week, it wasn't something she'd given much thought to but now…
"The ceiling needs repainting…" she decided, surprising herself when she declared this thought aloud.
"It does?" asked Esther, slipping into bed and immediately snuggling up against Maca, resting her head on a convenient shoulder.
"Maybe? I've spent a lot of time looking at it this week…" admitted Maca shyly, feeling embarrassed.
"Ah…my mother's door needs re-varnishing…" admitted Esther, smiling as she recalled the wooden door of the spare bedroom.
"It does?" asked Maca, grinning at the symmetry of their thoughts.
"Maybe? I've spent a lot of time looking at it this week…" admitted Esther, tracing a light pattern on Maca's chest with her fingertip.
"You want to redecorate?" asked Maca lightly, enjoying having Esther in her arms again, not caring what they were doing or talking about.
"No…I'd much rather kiss you…" decided Esther boldly before pushing herself into a better position and doing exactly that, much to Maca's enthusiastic agreement, judging by the long, languid kiss they shared which reminded them both so much of what they'd missed during the past week but also promised what the night held for them.
"I've missed you…" murmured Maca when the kiss finally ended, carefully lifting some errant hairs from Esther's brow.
"I've missed you too…" agreed Esther, settling herself so that she was lying on top of Maca, their bodies instinctively fitting together.
"I love you…" whispered Maca, before resuming their kissing.
Neither had started with a good day. As the moon rose over Madrid, both shared the very best kind of ending….loving each other.
The End