noteasytobepink | Ah, those phonecalls ~ AU Bill/Clarice

Ah, those phonecalls ~ AU Bill/Clarice

It had been a few days since his new patient appeared. Appeared being the operative term since Bill and the girl both had filled him in. On one hand, he was an old man and he didn't like the world getting set on it's ear so much. On the other, well, he'd always believed there was more out there, enjoyed X-files shamelessly when it was airing, and felt that Clarice was an excellent opportunity to observe alternate biology pathways.

Plus she was a cheerful, if bad patient.

It was the second part that had him on the phone to Bill.

Well, Bill's answering machine. "Bill, it's Dr. Mitchell. I nearly have all the proper paperwork done boy, and certainly not too soon. She's one of those type you know? Needs to be doing something. I nearly had to tie her arm to her side to keep her form doing arm exercises. As if she'd lose muscle mass that quickly! And the room, don't get me started on her cleaning, and moving, and sneaking off to read to the kids in pediatrics..." No, don't get him started.

"....who think she's a fairy by the way. I guess this is a roundabout way of asking if you've found anyone with a hunting cabin she can hole up in yet."

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"Well, I just left a message about her you see." He chuckled and waved toward the little chair by his desk. "Have a seat boy. She's...well, you want the good news or teh bad news first?"

"Oh."

He chuckled as he took the seat, but the laughter faded and his head lifted swiftly on Mitchell's words.

"Bad news? What's wrong? What happened?"

Two things went through Bill's mind. Something went wrong with Clarice's recovery, or something went wrong with the papers they'd been working on getting.

"Oh don't look like that she isn't dead or anything." He snorted and leaned back in his chair, the picture of innocence. Really. Surrrre. "The bad news is in what Ive observed, that's all. She's a woman of action, doesn't know the meaning of rest, and as far as I can tell has been in combat of one kind or another almost her entire life. PTSD is just the tip of the iceberg." He sighed.

"She has nightmares, naturally, and tends to end up sleeping on the floor where she feels safer instead of in a bed. She's scarred up, better than most, her scar tissue doesn't pull or ache like some people's does, but all them funny little marks she has? Scars, not tattoos. I don't know how she'll adjust to not being in constant life threatening situations. The GOOD news is that the paperwork is almost done and she really is a good person. As much as she's driving me nuts by NOT staying in bed, she'd doing things like wandering off to read to pediatrics kids or doing minor chores when no one notices. She's got a good heart, she needs out of the hospital before she drives us all crazy."

Bill knew about more than a couple of those things first hand, but wasn't about to admit to, or talk about them.

It was a bit troubling to hear, because if she was that wound up, a small town like Wheelsy might be about the worst place for her.

He was glad to hear the doctor's assessment of her being a good person, though. That made Bill feel better about his decision to help her, and let her stay.

"Well it's your call on when she's well enough to go," Bill replied, scratching the back of his head. "I um... I think I might've found a place for her for awhile."

Yes, well, Clarice was always willing to talk, and was frightfully honest at times? So, if he'd had questions she'd answer, easy.

"Now, part of it may be being injured at all. No one feels safe when they're injured you know. Hell, I knew guys when I worked ta the VA hospital that were right as rain when they were healthy, it was just the helplessness of wounds that made them have bad moments." Ah, coffee was gods gift to doctors. Coooffffffeeeeee. "And she has never hurt or even scared anyone here, she's just very tense and she pushes herself right now trying to make sure she's back to fit as soon as possible. I've had to lock up the weights." He flipped open a folder and eyed the documents inside.

"Oh, and I fudged a birth record for her, filled out one of the 'oops, we found this in an old box' reports us little hospitals get and they assigned her a social number easy as pie. She was born in 1978 just so you know, the year this hospital got partially burned. We still send off stuff we're finding sometimes so they don['t even ask twice anymore." And well, some things were worth the trouble? "Where are you stashing her? And also you might want to start thinking of ways for her to repay you. I finally convinced her that if she gets me off and back to a place of my choice for vacation that she'll have made up the med bills, but that's me and not you."

Bill nodded his understanding about injury, and hoped it was true for Clarice and she'd be alright outside the hospital.

"That's good, was worried 'bout that one," he said about her paperwork and social. "Makes the rest of it a lot easier."

Shifting a bit on his seat, Bill wondered about the next part of his plan, and if it wasn't a bad idea.

"I did some checkin' into cabins an' the like, but with Deer Cheer an' the huntin' season comin' up in awhile, most of 'em are gonna be gettin' filled an' used. The department can't afford t'stick her up in a room somwehere, an' I know that I can't so... "

Bill hesitated a moment, fiddling with the arm rest on his chair.

"So I thought, I got a spare room that ain't doin' nothin'."

In truth, there was quite a bit of reasoning Bill had behind the idea. One, it would let him keep an eye on her, just in case. It would also mean he didn't have to ask someone else to take her in, rent free, and he could keep helping her with things in this world until she figured it all out.

"I was a little worried too honest, but they sent it just as simply as they did Nana Shari's and all that business from a few years ago. If I were a dishonest man I might feel a bit worried about the inherent trust of our government." He chuckled, passing the folder to Bill. "That's her papers." Some of them at least? Things like a drivers license would have to be gotten the old fashioned way.

His face went carefully blank at Bill's plan though. There were a lot of reasons an old man like him might worry about a young girl in anyone's house but..."Starla know? You talk it over with her? And then talk it over with Clarice? I got the impression she was more than willing to camp in the woods if it came to that. She's not the imposing type."

Bill accepted the folder and rifled through it. His hands stilled on the doc's questions.

"I ain't heard from Starla in awhile. No reason she should mind."

Closing the file, Bill cleared his throat to push down an ache, and shook his head.

"Wanted t'see what you thought about it first, an' if you thought it'd be any good for her. I ain't lettin' her live out in the woods, though. That's just stupid an' crazy."

Not when he or someone else could put her up. Especially with winter on the way, and who the hell lives out in the woods, anyways? Moonshiners and hill folk, both of which are usually crazy and trouble.

The folder had an older seeming birth certificate for one Clarice Creed, and no he wasn't going to answer questions about how he'd aged it thank you. IT also had a social security card, immunization records (only the date was changed on those, as it looked fishy for her to have gotten them ALL yesterday), and some random bits of made up medical history, including the unfortunate dye incident while on an immuno-supression drug that resulted in generally...perma-pink. Bets he could come up with really. All her early attending doctors on the file had been those lost to the slugs earlier.

Yes, oddly skilled old man.

"Starla might, you know. You're her touchstone while she's working out Hollywood last I heard and word got back to me a while back that you were worried she might be pregnant with her temper. Shame on you for that risk by the way, may be why she hasn't called?" He was a doctor, yes, but also a meddler who'd seen the whole years worth of crush going on. "And you know Clarice will probably accept your offer, but you NEED To come up with some way for her to pay for it else she'll be cooking and cleaning and generally never, ever resting like an idiot. Cops, soldiers, and apparently vigilantes make TERRIBLE patients."

"That's not-- she ain't-- small town gossip," he finally finished after a flustered stammering.

"She's just been busy. Hollywood's a lot of work. An' I ain't always the easiest to get a hold of when I'm workin' here, so... "

He shrugged; he was used to making excuses for Starla, from the reasons she married Grant, to the reasons she left after the slugs.

"I'll put Clarice t'work soon as she's healthy enough for it. There's plenty to be done at the department without a badge, or I could even get her set up at the courthouse or somethin'."

Fixing the doctor with a look, Bill shook his head.

"I ain't lookin' to take advantage of no one here, doc. I'm just tryin' to help her out. It'd just be temporary anyways, 'til she can afford somethin' on her own. An' hell, I ain't home more'n half the time anyways, so it ain't like there's much cookin' or cleanin' she can do in an empty house."

"Busy, I see." He snorted. "You may still want to call and tell her before the gossips get ahold of the fact she's moving in with you." Even if temporarily. Bill was a good man, but he was also a bit of a confirmed Bachelor, a hopeless romantic, and someone elses' property as far as the town was concerned.

"I know you aren't the sort to take advantage, but I also think you aren't the sort to fully understand what living with a woman is like." Take it from a man who was married for forty five years and widowed only a few years back. At least she hadn't got taken by slugs. "She'll be driving you nuts by the end of a week, even if you have her doing work somewhere else. Just adjusting to another person is hard and it isn't something you've had to do before."

"I'll give her a call," Bill relented. He really didn't want this getting twisted around before it reached Starla's ear.

He quirked half a smirk at the doctor.

"I think you're forgettin' that I was raised by my mama."

To Bill's mind, that was experience enough in living with a woman.

"Good, see that you do. Else I might have to call her just to check on her mental health and all." That effectively put a time limit on things so Bill didn't keep 'putting it off' until he wasn't busy! Sneaky doctor?

"Your mama wasn't someone you might find a bit distracting, Bill." Deadpan.

Bill's smirk vanished when the doctor called him on talking to Starla, and Bill knew he'd have to get that done soon.

"Distracting?" Bill arched a brow, not getting the doctor.

"As long as she ain't in the way when I'm gettin' ready in the mornin', or leavin' those creepy little portal things around the place, we outta be good."

"...Bill, sometimes it's amazing you're single. Then you say things like that and it suddenly makes sense." The man snorted and waved at hand at the clueless sheriff. "Go invite her then by all means, and if you find her lifting anything with that arm yell at her for me."

"What?"

Bill felt slightly wounded, but decided it wasn't something he wanted to pursue.

Standing up, he tucked the file under his arm.

"How long 'til she's out of here?" Because Bill knew she was going to ask. She always asked.

"As soon as someone takes her in. She's as fit as a girl with busted ribs and a stitched shoulder can be. All I can really insist on here is that she eats more and checks in with me, and me personally, every few days. Tell her if those stitches get popped or infected she is getting tied to bed here for weeks though."

Bill nodded.

"I'll see what I can do 'bout her eatin', an' I'll tell her the rest."

Leaving Mitchell's office, Bill turned down the hall and went searching for Clarice.

"See that you do," he called amiably through the doorway as he left.

Clarice was...in her room actually. In her room, behind the bed, apparently doing situps because she was bored? She had her bad arm tied to her chest though, she was being careful, honest! She was also still wearing hospital gowns because, well, they were free? "Hey Bill..." she noted when next her head popped up past the level of the bed. "Check in time already?" Yep, the attempt NOT to sound like she was bored out of her skull and distracted enough to not watch the time crawl by...failed. Utterly.

He didn't see her at first, but when she spoke and he saw what she was doing he nearly jumped into the room.

"What're you doin'?"

Setting the file he was carrying down on a tray, he rounded the bed, holding his hand up in a stopping motion.

"You're gonna hurt yourself or somethin'."

"Fuss fuss fuss..." She grumbled quietly. "I'm not doing curls, my ribs aren't getting crushed, I'm JUST working my stomach muscles!" Grumble grumble grumble. What else was she suppose to do really? She wasn't allowed to touch patient files, which meant she'd gotten in trouble for trying to help with clerical work. The kids in pediatrics were napping, the older patients thought she was weird, she got in trouble if she picked up a broom...

"Relax!"

"Yeah, well, the stomach bone's connected to the shoulder bone an' all of that, so could you get up?"

He offered her his hand, hoping she'd stop and take it.

"An' Mitchell said if you tore any stitches or anything he was gonna tie you to the bed. An' probably end up yellin' at me."

"Stomach is an organ, Bill. It doesn't have bones." Just so he knew and all. She did relent and take his hand with her good one though. "Oh, kinky doctor." Yep, trying to drag the conversation away from serious!

Bill made a face.

"I really didn't need that image."

Helping her up, he took a step back and retrieved the file.

"So, I got some good news for you. Doc says as soon as you got a place t'stay you're outta here."

"Don't you believe that the elderly still need their fun?" She asked innocently. What? It was fun to make him blush!

Her eyes went to the file though, her smile fading into a thoughtful, and worried, look. "I'm sensing a hook here. I can go, if I have a place? What's the catch?"

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