#CLOSING TIMMMMEEEEEEe

[wafflesetc]

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 |Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 |AO3

Closing Time - Chapter 12 

Claire Beauchamp is a second year medical student. Due to many late nights with her clinicals, and studying for her pharmacology class, she’s at wits end. One Friday night she decides not to join Joe Abernathy and her other friends out at Church, their local hangout spot, but instead winds up in a dive bar close to her flat with a very nice whisky selection. In fact, one of the best one she’s ever seen. When the bartender calls her ‘Sassenach’ and pours her a double, Claire gets a feeling in her chest she’s never felt before.

@kkruml​ This chapter is a LONG TIME COMING and needed HEFTY edits because I’m a ONE HANDED FOOL. 

I slept that night the soundest I had in weeks — although the nurses had come in every 3 hours to check on Jamie and his pain, I slept through it all.

I woke to Jamie’s large hand as he pushed a curl behind my ear. Coming to my senses slowly, I placed my hand over his, getting tangled in an array of IV tubes.

“Och, Sassenach, ye dinna want to move too much to yer right, or ye’ll pull the tube outta my hand! Here, let me help ye.” Jamie chuckled as I felt his hand grab mine and moved some of the tubes around.

“Ye slept like a rock last night.”

“Well when your boyfriend decides to almost go and die on you and then stay in a coma for a few days…..One will lose a lot of sleep.” I spoke softly as I turned my head up towards the monitor. “Good news, your O2 levels and heart rate are steady.”

“Claire.” Jamie said as he used his hand to turn my face towards him. “Ye dinna have to be in doctor mode, ye ken? Ye can just be Claire…. I’m no’ goin’ anywhere.”

I looked down towards his hands slowly, assessing the ports and paper tape, as I scanned down his stomach — his hospital gown half open showing a slope of hard muscle and smooth skin, half covering him, as I noted the gauze pads and ace bandages covering his back.  

“Jamie.” I said as the emotion caught the best of me, “I…. Everyone I have ever loved has always left me and you were very close to doing the same as well.” I carefully tilted my head back up towards his once more.

“I promise ye, you will never be alone, again.”  Jamie said firmly as a small cough interrupted us at the end of the bed.

“Sorry to interrupt the two of you.” Joe said as he gave me a daring glance, a smirk on his faces and his eyebrows furrowed together. “But, I have good news.”

Jamie nodded as I slid off the bed and walked over to Joe, throwing my arms around him in a rib-crushing hug. “Joe! It’s so good to see you.”

“It is nice to see that you have gotten some sleep, finally.” Joe said as he kissed my cheek. “It looks like Jamie is going to be able to discharged around noon. A nurse practitioner from plastics is going to come down and show you how to change the bandages and handle his medications… I told them his girlfriend is a doctor, but it’s just protocol.”

My pulse quickened as I heard my new title – hearing it from Jamie’s sister was one thing, as the experience of the past few days had bonded us in some fashion, but hearing the term from someone who was as close to family as I had was something else. I crossed my arms across my chest and looked back at Jamie as I flashed him a wide smile, and turned my face back to Joe as he was nodding his head in approval.

“Aye, I ken. Nay bother.”

“Then, you all will be free to go.” Joe said as he placed his hand on Jamie’s foot, giving him a big smile. “I am glad for our lady’s sake, you didn’t die.”

“Me too.” Jamie responded as he blushed lightly. Joe turned his attention back towards me.

“And you, Lady Jane, since midterms are over and we have your shifts covered for the next two weeks… You are going to be this gentleman’s personal doctor and get some recovery yourself…. Understood?”

I shook my head as Joe signed off on Jamie’s chart and left us.

“Well, Fraser, I think it’s time we worked on getting you home.” I quipped as I grasped his face in between my hands and kissed him thoroughly.

Getting Jamie discharged and home was easier said than done. Due to all the bandages on his back, he needed three blankets to cover the seat to even allow him to be comfy enough for the 2 hour car ride.

Two hours was not all that long, but for a 6’5” Scottish Highlander and the small back seat of my Range Rover, it was quite a task.

Seeing as Jenny had left us the night before, it took us almost 4 hours to drive from Edinburgh through the Highlands to Jamie’s childhood home — Lallybroch. While I was able to handle the drive on my own, I had convinced Jamie to pop an extra pain pill just for the drive home, to make it as manageable as could be.

Had Jenny stayed and driven back with us an extra set of hands to help keep him comfortable in the back seat would have been appreciated, but we made it work—even if I had to stop three times to adjust his body a few times.

Oh the things you do for love, or so I could hear Joe saying in the back of my head.

I looked in the rearview as the GPS guided me to ‘Take the next left’ and ‘The destination will be on your right’ and saw a small smile on Jamie’s still medicine induced face.

A stone archway greeted me as a large stone house with matching bricks filled my point of view.

“Well you come from humble beginnings.” I muttered as I pulled my car next to the truck.

“My father built this place. His blood and sweat are in this very stone. He and my mother… Well, my grandsire didna want them to get married, so they ran off, and built Lallyrboch.” Jamie said. I turned in my seat and reached in the back and unfastened his seatbelt.

“I was just giving you a hard time — it’s beautiful, the three minutes I have seen of it. Seems like the kind of place that every child dreams of growing up… Where your mom calls you in for dinner and you’re way up in the hills and you come running back but your plate is cold.”

Jamie reached up and touched my cheek, gingerly, running his finger along the lines of my cheek.

“Aye. And I’d be covered in dirt and grime with my Da trailing right behind me, a big smile on my face. She’d hose me down before I could even go in the house.” I briefly turned my face to the palm of his hand and gave it a kiss. “I am verra glad yer here, Claire.”

“I won’t lie, I wish it were under different circumstances, but alas, there’s nowhere else I would rather be.”

“She looked at me and said ‘Fine, we will be married on St. Martin’s Day.’ I tried to tell her how we couldna do such a thing, but then I found myself standing at the alter saying I do.” Ian said as he pushed his plate in front of him.

Ian Murray was nothing like I had pictured him to be — tall and well built, but smaller than Jamie.  He too, had eyes as blue as the ocean, but strikingly blonde hair and an extremely laid back personality, compared to that of his married half, an undeniable Fraser.

“Aye, and ye havena looked back since… Have ye?” Jenny said as she wiped the tears from laughter off her face and grasped for his hand.

I sat the napkin on my plate, and pushed it forward, wiping my own happy tears off my face. I looked over to Jamie who was finishing his meal slowly— too stubborn to ask for help.

“Jamie… Let the lass help ye eat. She’s already seen ye nearly dead, the least she can do is spoon feed ye.” Ian said as he stood up, gathering all the dirty plates.

“Aye.” Jamie grumbled. My hand rested on his thigh, and I gave it a small squeeze as I took the utensils from his hands, knowing just what he wanted me to help him with.

Jenny grabbed wee Jamie from his booster seat and excused herself. “This wee one needs a bath and to go to bed. Ian will be in the kitchen shall ye need anything. Jamie can show ye where his old room is. The sheets are clean, I put three extra pillows on the bed and the towels in the attached bathroom are for the both of ye as well. I will see ye both tomorrow morning.”

Young Jamie squawked as Jenny tried to get a tighter grasp on her toddler as she reached the bottom of the stairs.  

“Claire…” Jamie said as he pushed my hand out of his face and made eye contact. “Ye dinna have to say yes, I can…. Probably figure it out myself, but I was wondering…. If ye would help be scrub off all the hospital, when we are finished eating. And then go to bed with me.”

“You do know, that you cannot get wet, correct?” I said as I shoved his mouth full of food. I watched his cheeks as they flushed a bright shade of red and he shook his head giving me the confirmation I needed. “So you do understand, that this means, a sponge bath?” I grinned from ear to ear—the idea of my hands on his bare skin sent a flush of heat to my face as I grinned from ear to ear.

Jamie nodded once more, as I heard Ian’s light footsteps behind us, as he was making his way up the stairs.  “Jamie Fraser, if ye dinna marry the lass who offers to give ye a sponge bath… Then ye have something wrong with ye!”

“I plan on it, Murray.” Jamie grinned from his chair as turned just enough to face Ian.

“Good. I like her, too. She may be a sassenach after all, but she fits in verra well around here.” Ian finished as he disappeared upstairs.

My eyes flickered as they looked over the plate and I filled another forkful of food for Jamie. I looked up at him, raising my eyebrows signaling if he wanted another bite. He nodded as I filled his mouth once more, neither one of us commenting on the statement he had just admitted.

My heart fluttered at it though, because while I had only been here at Lallybroch for a mere 5 hours, it felt like I belonged.

We sat in a comfortable silence then, as I finished feeding Jamie the last few bites of his food. I heard the soft hum of Jenny as she sang a nursery rhyme to wee Jamie, and the laundry machine going as Ian must have switched over a load.

As Jamie chewed his last bite, he leaned his head against the back of his chair, closing his eyes, listening to the sounds the old house made. The creaks in the floorboard as Jenny and Ian followed a toddler around upstairs. The gentle hum of the dishwasher in the kitchen— I could hear the low mum of the AC as it fluttered through the house. The house had a peculiar aroma to it too, something along the lines of fresh baked cookies, cinnamon, and lavender.

I took the napkin off my lap, wiping Jamie’s five o’clock shadow. Good god, he needed a shave.

He smiled as he felt the fabric touch his skin, but didn’t open his eyes.

His hand found mine, as I set the napkin on the table and he opened his eyes, looking right at me.

“With the bar, and the restaurant, I havena been back here in months…. It hasna really felt like home since my parents died…. But havin’ ye here, Sassenach, it feels more like home than it has in a long time Thank ye, Claire. For giving this feeling back to me.”

My heart stopped for a minute as my brain registered the words that had just come out his mouth. I pulled his hand up to my lips, and kissed his callous and bruised knuckles.

“You’re welcome.” I said as I kissed his knuckles once more and running his knuckles along my lips, my breath warm on his hands. “But you do smell like a sterile hospital room! Why don’t we go get you a bath and a bed, Fraser.”

I stood up, slowly, giving him my hands and helping him slowly up to a standing position. I looked up, to see Ian leaning over the balcony, eyes on Jamie and me, taking in the intimate moment he had just caught us in. He gave me a small nod of affirmation, as Jamie continued to help himself stand upright.

I smiled up at him nodding back — my affirmation that yes, I love your best friend, and wasn’t going to hurt him, I was in it for the long haul.

Ian walked off back into a room and I felt Jamie’s hands on my shoulders.

“Lead me, Sassenach. Up the stairs, slowly. Last door on the left.”

I placed my hands on top of his and as we started our slow journey towards his bedroom.

I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face because for the first time in my 26 years, my orphan heart finally felt like it had found a home.