I received 13 amazing reviews on my brief 'Zollie' one-shot that I wrote a month ago so I thought I'd write another short one! I am taking a break from writing long stories at the moment because they take up a lot of my time but I had this idea and it wouldn't leave me alone...

I said in 'After A One-Night Stand, What Comes Next?' that I could write a follow-on one-shot about their date but I haven't written that one yet, this is a completely different storyline :)

Stitches

Oliver Valentine had just walked past the nurses' station on Darwin and was hoping of popping down to the café to grab a quick caffeine fix for the remaining few hours of his shift only as he turned the corner to head for the lift, he bumped into the junior doctor whose relationship status had recently been agreed as 'friends'.

"Whoa, what happened?" He demanded as he assessed the two inch long laceration along the back of her hand, running from the base of her thumb to the knuckle of her index finger. It was slowly oozing with blood which she frequently mopped up with a square of surgical gauze.

"Professor Hope's letting me take the lead on my first transmyocardial laser revascularisation and Arthur says he always practices in the wet lab before he does a new operation so I thought I'd give it a go but someone came in the wet lab and I wasn't technically supposed to be in there so I jumped and… well this happened." Zosia explained disjointedly.

"With a scalpel?" Ollie demanded.

"Can you suture it for me?" She requested.

"Zosia, you should go down to the ED."

"Ollie, please." She pleaded quietly. "I'm due in theatre in less than an hour."

"You're not seriously still considering going into theatre are you? Zosia, even if I did suture it, the local anaesthetic wouldn't wear off in time. Look, TMR procedures are performed here at least once or twice a week, if not more so I'm going to have to tell Professor Hope that you can't lead today and that he'll have to perform the operation."

"But–"

"I will tell him that you'd like to lead on the next available opportunity. Then, and only then, will I suture your hand. Okay?" He said insistently. Zosia tried to think of a way that she could still perform the operation because she'd been working really hard on it and didn't want to let her mentor down but unfortunately, she couldn't think of an alternative and had to give in.

"Fine." She sighed dramatically.

"Go to the staffroom while I'll tell Elliot and then I'll get the equipment for suturing."

Pushing an equipment tray in front of him, Ollie entered the staffroom where Zosia was sat down on a chair, resting her injured hand on a table and holding the gauze on the wound with the other.

"Has it stopped bleeding yet?" He asked. Once he'd pushed the metal trolley to where he wanted it, he went back to close the door to muffle the noise of the ward so that he could suture without distractions.

"Yes." Zosia replied unenthusiastically.

"Now, you aren't allergic to anything are you?" He asked as he pulled on a pair of white latex gloves.

"No." She huffed.

"I know you're disappointed that you can't perform the TMR but I am doing you a favour here so I'd appreciate it if you could at least hold a conversation with me because this is going to take a while." Ollie informed her as he laid a surgical drape on the table so that he had a sterile working space.

"Sorry."

"It's quite alright." He smiled as he used a cotton wool ball dipped in rubbing alcohol to cleanse the area where he was going to inject the local anaesthetic. "How much would you hate me if I got some of this in your cut?" He grinned.

"Not as much as you'd think because I've already gotten some hand sanitiser in it so it already stings." She replied bluntly.

"Why did you put hand sanitiser on when you've got an open wound?" He half-laughed.

"I didn't think."

"Why change the habit of a lifetime?" He quipped. "Sorry." He apologised amusedly.

"I forgot how much it hurt, but I got out of that wet lab so quickly that I forgot to wash my hands."

"What were you working with?"

"A cow's heart."

"Oh great. So if we have an outbreak of mad cow disease, I know who to blame."

"Can you just get on with this please?"

"Sure." He smirked. He picked up a syringe from a metal kidney dish filled with a transparent liquid and placed the tips of his gloved fingers on her knuckles just to steady her hand as he moved the needle towards her. "Now you might feel a bit of a sharp pinch." He said slowly.

"Yeah yeah, I know– ow!"

"I did warn you." He grinned as he slowly pushed the plunger down to push the liquid out of the syringe. "At least I don't have to bore you with the usual advice patients get." Ollie stated. "And I suppose you've got your flatmates to keep you company this evening. You shouldn't really be alone in the next 24 hours."

"Actually, Dom's on-call and Arthur's got to help his F1 practice surgical techniques in the wet lab tonight so I'm home alone this evening." Zosia replied.

"You should have someone with you tonight." Ollie said concernedly. "A relative or a friend… Even a colleague." He suggested.

"Are you offering?" Zosia raised her eyebrows.

"Wh- me? Oh god no." He protested. "Sorry, I didn't mean that you're… I just meant that… well it'd be weird wouldn't it?" He asked curiously. Moments ago, he'd thought there was no chance of them spending the evening together but her calmness surrounding the topic intrigued him as to whether she was considering it.

"I don't know. It'd satisfy Elliot's idea of 'ZO' if he caught us coming into work together tomorrow."

"I thought Elliot called us 'OZ'." Ollie frowned.

"He did. But it's not fair that your initial goes first so I changed it." She replied innocently.

"But 'OZ' is alphabetical." Ollie pointed out.

"Nobody said anything about– ah." She grimaced as he inserted the needle further to spread the local anaesthetic deep into her muscle.

"Sorry," He apologised as he slowly injected the last of the anaesthetic before he removed the needle and placed it back in the kidney dish. "Is it feeling numb?" He asked as he gently pressed his finger around the laceration to check how much she could sense.

"Completely. I can't feel a thing." She confirmed.

"Well then, you might want to look away right about now." He stated as he picked up the half circle suture needle that had a length of thread trailing behind using a pair of forceps and grabbed a pair of metal scissors in the other hand.

"There. Now that is some very neat stitching there, even if I do say so myself." Ollie said smugly as he pulled off his latex gloves. He'd sewn 6 neat stitches in a line along the back of her hand and she couldn't deny that they weren't neat; all of them were tied in the same way on the same side of the wound. "Now, assuming you're going to be on ward duties for the rest of your shift. I thought it'd be best to bandage it so that it's not painful to wear gloves, okay? Well, that and the fact that we don't want you scaring patients."

"Well at least the stitches will be dissolve. You can't get rid of your face." Zosia quipped.

"What was that? Thank you Dr Valentine for stitching my hand and saving me from spending all evening in the emergency department?"

"I don't think you should talk to your patients like that, it's a little patronising." Zosia remarked as Ollie unpacked an elastic bandage.

"You're not my patient, you haven't been admitted." He protested pedantically before he began wrapping the bandage around the palm of her hand, either side of her thumb until he had used the roll up. He tied a small knot and tucked it under the last layer so it couldn't be seen and then put the empty plastic packet into the kidney dish where he was storing the waste. "Right, you can't drive after this on your hand because it'll still be numb–"

"I don't even have a car, how could I possibly drive home?" She protested humorously.

"Well then that's sorted then, isn't it? We both finish at five. I'll drive you home and we can order a takeaway." He stated as he stood up. He grabbed the kidney dish containing everything as well as the drape that had been laid under her hand before he disappeared from the room before she could protest. Had he just arranged a date with his 'friend'?

"Sorry about the mess. Dom would live in a pigsty if he had his way." Zosia stated after entering the apartment she shared with her friends.

"It's alright. It reminds me of being a student. Besides, my flat isn't much better." He admitted as he looked around the open plan living room and kitchen dotted with various items of clothing, used crockery and empty booze bottles - Dom definitely liked to take advantage of the whole 'Thursday is the new Friday' thing. Leading off of it were four doors; presumably 3 bedrooms and a bathroom. "Is your hand hurting?" He asked as she swallowed a tablet with a sip of water by the kitchen side.

"Yes but this isn't pain relief. It's lithium carbonate." She stated.

"Oh right. You should take some paracetamol. Your hand will only get worse once the anaesthetic has completely worn off."

"Paracetamol reduces the effect of lithium and Ibuprofen disrupts how my body gets rid of lithium leading to a build-up of it. I can't have either without serious consequences so I avoid painkillers when I can." Zosia replied.

"Ah, drug interactions. The bane of doctors' lives." He quipped. "So what do you want to order then?"

"Er I don't mind. There's a pile of menus on the table there." Zosia stated. "I'm just going to get changed out of my work clothes." She said before she disappeared into one of the bedrooms and closed the door behind her, leaving Ollie alone.

It was a nice place, he thought. It felt far more homely than his place and he'd only just arrived. The vast DVD collection stacked besides the TV told him that Zosia, Dom and Arthur had spent many evenings sat in the communal area, relaxing after a long day at the hospital. And the picture collage on a pin board on the wall showed him that the trio had also had their fair share of days and nights out together. After glancing at several pictures, he came back to reality and thought he'd better have a look at the menus on the coffee table so he went to one of the sofas, sat down and picked up the pile from the table in front of him.

"Do you want a glass of wine? Or I think we've got some beers if you prefer." Zosia offered after she'x exited her bedroom with her wavy hair down, just past her shoulders. She had changed into a pair of leggings and a navy blue knitted sweater from Hollister.

"Are you implying that I'm not driving home tonight?"

"Have you got somewhere better to be?"

"No, I suppose not." He couldn't help but smile. "I'll have a beer please." He requested and a minute later, she sat next to him on the sofa and placed a glass of white wine and a bottle of beer on the table in front of them.

"Decided on what we're ordering?"

"No, not yet. I do know that Nandos are trialling a new delivery scheme for their takeout menu."

"Really? I love Nandos."

"Me too. Especially peri-peri nuts." He smiled. "Don't tell me, you like the lemon and herb marinade." He guessed.

"I like my chicken hot actually." She protested.

"Really? So do I."

"Well then, I think we've decided what we're having for dinner." Zosia concluded.

It was getting late and the pair had worked their way through the only bottle and couple of beers left in the flat whilst watching a film and eating Nandos. For Ollie, it was the best Friday night he'd had in a long time and he'd really gotten to know Zosia in the couple of hours that they'd spent together. He knew it was cheesy, but he was just about to wrap his arm around her shoulders as the film came to an end but he jumped when the front door opened and the lights switched on.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't know you had company." Arthur apologised.

"It's okay. How was Morven?" Zosia asked with a cheeky grin. She and Dom had teased him over recent weeks because he was mentoring his first junior doctor and he wanted to get it right. But Digby being Digby had taken it to the extremes of setting her extra work to do, which he had to mark in the evenings and surprisingly, she was just as enthusiastic as he was – they'd found him a perfect match at last. Even if he wasn't yet aware of it himself.

"Er, her suturing leaves a lot to be desired but she's come along well." Arthur replied. "Don't worry, I won't intrude; I'm going straight to bed." He sighed.

"Oh, we were just going to call it a night too." Zosia stated. "I'll just get the blankets for the sofa." She added before she went into her bedroom leaving Ollie rather disappointed, though he hid the feeling.

"She needed stitches in her hand after she slipped with the scalpel and I didn't want to leave her alone after the local anaesthetic, just in case." Ollie explained to Zosia's flatmate but he appeared to be too tired to take any of it in as he walked towards his bedroom. "Night."

"Yeah night." He muttered before he closed his bedroom door and presumably crashed out on his bed.

"Has he gone?" Zosia whispered and Ollie looked up to see her poking her head out of her own bedroom.

"Yes, why?"

"Come on." She ordered and he frowned before he slowly walked over to her room. "I had to tell him you're sleeping on the sofa because otherwise he'd tell Dom and then the whole hospital would find out including my Dad and then your career would be very closely watched." Zosia explained as she closed her door behind him.

"So I'm not sleeping on the sofa?" He concluded.

"You're not sleeping at all yet." She smiled as she pulled her jumper up over her head to reveal that she had been wearing nothing but a black and pink lace brazier underneath. Ollie froze. He'd done some stupid things in Mexico but was he ready for a real relationship since his late wife? Then again, it had been over 2 years so if he wasn't ready now, he never would be. He mirrored her action and pulled off his sweater and shirt in one move before the two souls became one and they embarked on a night of passion.

Thank you for reading, please leave a review if you have a moment :)