Work Text:
Lance sits up as Bobbi’s rolled back into the room.
“How’d it go?” he asks, crossing his arms over his chest so he doesn’t reach for her hand.
“Everything went fine,” Jemma says, looking over a few of the machines. “Perfect, even. She won’t be able to put any weight on it for the next couple days, but that’s expected. After I clear her, she can start using crutches to get around.” She looks up at Lance with a smile. “She’s going to be fine, Hunter, don’t you worry."
He slumps forward, elbows on his knees, with a relaxed smile and looks up at Bobbi. The bruise on her eye has faded and the cuts on her face are healing. She looks like she’s sleeping peacefully and he’s stroking a hand over her hair before he can stop himself.
“Alright, I’ll leave you be. Just, call for me when she wakes up, please,” Jemma says with a smile and Lance nods, hand stilling.
He slips his hand into hers and scoots his chair closer to her bed, dozing off in a matter of minutes.
-
Bobbi blinks awake to a sharp pain in her knee and a whine escapes her lips before she can bite it back.
“Bob?” Lance’s grip on her hand tightens and she squeezes her eyes shut.
“Leg,” she spits between gritted teeth, back arching off the bed. The pain flares up and she just barely resists the urge to scream. She breathes harshly through her nose, focusing on the action and not on the way her leg is screaming at her.
The pain eventually begins to subside, replaced by a warmth flooding her body. She relaxes back into the bed and blinks slowly, a smile gracing her lips.
“Feeling better?” She turns her head to face Lance and her vision swims, making her giggle. “I’m gonna go with yes,” he chuckles, starting to pull his hand away.
“Heeeeyyyyy,” she slurs and moves her fingers, trying to keep a hold on his. He’s quick to put his palm back to hers, leaning on her bed. She looks up at him, eyes unfocused, and she grins.
“Hey,” she says again, finger tapping the back of his hand, “your hair looks really fluffy.” She trails off, eyes going back and forth slowly between his hair and his chin. “Can I pet your beard?”
His expression shifts and he moves backward. “Can you what my what?” She blinks a few times, her eyelids growing heavy, and she yawns.
“‘m kinda sleepy,” she mumbles into the pillow, shifting for a moment before settling into the mattress.
“Go to sleep, love,” he murmurs against her forehead, pursing his lips. She tries to open her eyelids (when did she close them?) and she manages to see a tired, happy smile on his lips just before sleep draws her under.
-
She drifts into consciousness at the sound of people talking. She sees Lance first, laughing with his head thrown back and she grins.
“Well, hello sleepyhead!” Jemma exclaims and Bobbi turns her head to look at her. “The boys are just yelling over football again. How are you feeling?” Bobbi gives her a thumbs up, not trusting her voice yet. “Any pain?” Jemma nods at the way Bobbi snorts. “You’re on a fairly high amount of morphine, you probably wouldn’t even feel it if I pinched you."
"We could test that theory," Bobbi murmurs with hooded eyes and a devilish grin, looking Jemma up and down.
"Yeah, I'd say she's feeling better," Lance chokes out, just barely stifling laughter, and Jemma gives him a funny look. "Bobbi only gets like this after she's had one too many drinks."
"Yes, and you prefer me that way," Bobbi chimes in, lifting a finger. He takes her hand in between both of his and pats it.
"So, what you're saying is that we get to see Bobbi with lowered inhibitions," Jemma says slowly, and Bobbi grins, all teeth. Fitz nearly falls out of his chair in the corner of the room from laughing so hard.
"Oh, this is gonna be brilliant," he says, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye.
-
Bobbi’s eating jello, giggling as it wiggles back and forth on the spoon.
“So, someone’s feeling better, I see,” Lance says as he walks into the room in a fresh set of clothes. She sticks her spoon towards him and wiggles it.
“Look at it!” He puts his hand over hers and gently directs the spoon to her mouth.
“I see.” She laughs through her nose as she slurps it down, smacking her lips after it’s gone. “Anything special you’d like to watch today?”
She shakes her head as she runs her tongue over the roof of her mouth. He flips to a soccer game before turning to face her. “Any pain today?” She grins and shakes her head again.
“Nooope,” she says, drawing the syllable out, tilting her head to the side. She traces over his face with her eyes, clutching the spoon tighter so she doesn’t lift her hand to do so.
“I like you,” she murmurs around a yawn, which makes Lance grin. He takes the spoon and empty cup from her and sets them on the table next to her bed.
“I like you too, Bobbi.” She doesn’t even try to resist as he lifts the covers to her shoulders, and she turns into the pillow.
“Can I tell you something?” she asks, cracking an eye open, and he nods. “I still love my ex-husband.” She closes her eyes, shifting under the blanket as his grips it tighter. “But shhhh, you can’t tell him,” she says with her pointer finger to her lips. She feels him pat her shoulder lightly as he mumbles something, and she falls asleep with a smile on her face.
-
She wakes to Lance talking to Fitz as he flips through the TV channels. She blinks her eyes a few times, adjusting to the bright light, when she sees the TV clearly and sits up in bed.
“Stop!” she yells and Lance is on his feet immediately, rushing to her side.
“What, what’s wrong?” he asks frantically, hands brushing over her skin.
“I love this movie,” she mumbles with a soft smile, pointing at the screen. He slowly turns around to look at the screen and pinches the bridge of his nose.
“You’re gonna kill me one of these days, Bob,” he mutters before leaning down to kiss her forehead. She grins as he stands up straight and slowly pushes her back into the bed. The little fish on screen starts to bounce on his dad, trying to wake him up, when Jemma enters the room with three plates of food.
“Oh! You’re awake.” Fitz takes two of the plates from her arms, passing one to Lance and keeping one for himself while Jemma stands awkwardly in the doorway. She looks down at the sandwich on her plate and back up at Bobbi, her face screwed up in thought.
“Jem, just make her some tea. She’ll probably fall asleep before she can eat anything,” Lance says and Bobbi wrinkles her nose up in his direction. He looks over at her and she sticks her tongue out at him, crossing her arms over his chest. Bobbi turns back to the door to tell Jemma that she doesn’t need tea, but Jemma’s nowhere to be found.
“Dammit Hunter,” she grumbles, leaning her head back on her pillow. Fitz looks back and forth between her and Lance, eyebrows furrowed. Lance rolls his eyes and picks up his sandwich.
“She’s not the biggest fan of tea. Neither am I, shocker, I know, but…” He trails off, taking a bite of his sandwich and making a pleased noise. Bobbi turns back to the TV, effectively blocking him out, and the scowl on her face turns into a grin as the dad fish takes the little one to school.
It’s hard to concentrate on what’s going on around her and the movie; she’s already having more than enough issues trying to follow the plot, even though she’s seen the movie more times than she can count on both hands. The little clownfish and his friends are sneaking off when Jemma comes back in with the cup of tea and Bobbi remembers why she left in the first place.
Jemma smiles as she hands Bobbi the cup of tea and Bobbi finds herself smiling as she takes a cautious sip of it. “Hey, this stuff isn’t half bad,” she mumbles into her cup and drinks some more. Lance laughs loudly and it startles her enough to make her tense up, and she feels a twinge of pain, even through the morphine. Tea sloshes over the side of the cup and onto her hospital gown and she frowns at it.
“You guys made me ink,” she grumbles and Jemma pouts through a smile at her, dabbing at the spot with a paper towel. Fitz is wiping away tears as Lance chokes on his sandwich and a giggle bubbles out of Bobbi’s lips before she can stop it.
“How are you doing? Any pain?” Jemma asks as she sets the paper towel down on the table to the side of the bed. Bobbi shrugs as she finishes off her cup of tea, holding it out to Jemma.
“I did feel some, yeah. Nothing I can’t handle though.” The corners of Jemma’s lips turn down at that and it takes a bit more convincing before she finally sits down and eats her own sandwich. Bobbi leans back into the pillows and turns her attention back to the movie, drifting back to sleep just as the dad fish meets the blue one.
-
The next time she wakes up, Lance is sat next to her, idly tapping at a tablet. She notices a slightly blurry man across the room, looking over her charts, and does her best to blink the sleep out of her eyes. The man turns and she hums contentedly and reaches a hand out to Lance.
“Hunter?” He hums distractedly, eyebrows furrowed as he reads over a bit of information. “Who’s the cute doctor across the room?” She turns her head, eyes wide in alarm, as he starts choking on air, and she hears a loud squeak come from the general direction of the man.
“Okay, maybe it’s time to turn your morphine dosage down,” Jemma says from her other side, and it takes Bobbi a second to piece things together. She starts laughing as she takes in Fitz’s dark red face, and Jemma mutters under her breath as she fiddles with the IV bag hanging from the bed.
“Jesus, Bob, you’re gonna kill us all, aren’t you,” Lance manages out in between coughing fits as Bobbi covers her mouth with a hand, trying to stifle the laughter.
“Probably,” she giggles.
“You might feel some pain start to come back. If it gets unmanageable, please let someone know, Bobbi,” Jemma says as she walks over to Fitz. Bobbi nods and Jemma smiles at her before guiding a still-red-in-the-face Fitz out of the room.
“Not that I mind, but here’s hoping some of your inhibitions come back,” Lance mutters and Bobbi settles back into the bed with a sigh.
“That might be for the best,” she responds, pausing briefly to yawn. “It’d also be nice to not sleep all the damn time.”