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He sat back down. Not a fight, then. He pulled the last stitch and glanced at them. Not a truly friendly conversation, though, right? Surely Garrett wouldn’t actually like Kurt after what he’d seen. But Kurt had always been charismatic. Everyone had always liked him. Same as everyone always liked Garrett.
“You’re all good.” Maxwell put on his doctor’s smile and patted the prisoner’s shoulder. “The stitches were ugly, and they’ll leave a scar, but it’s healed well.”
“I think the scars will look dashing.” The woman grinned at him. “Thanks, doc.”
Maxwell turned to wave over the next patient, but Garrett approached him before he could. With his back to Kurt and everyone else, Garrett’s face morphed from friendly to disgusted, and the obvious dislike in his expression allayed Maxwell’s fears. Garrett didn’t like Kurt; he was still on Maxwell’s side.
“He says he’s been having abdominal pain.” Garrett’s curled lip told Maxwell how much he believed that. “Thinks he needs a proper physical.”
“Of course he does,” Maxwell muttered. “Let’s get this over with.”
Maxwell tossed his gloves aside and snapped on a new pair as he turned to Kurt. Kurt’s lips stretched into a smile as he watched Maxwell approach, but he waved a hand at Maxwell.
“Don’t worry about me, sweetheart,” Kurt called to him as he walked across the room, and embarrassment flooded through Maxwell’s stomach at the public endearment. “I can wait. Help everyone else first.”
Maxwell snapped his glove and then forced a calm smile and a nod. “Alright then.” He turned to one of the older prisoners, who looked like she hadn’t had a proper meal or night of sleep in months.
Garrett caught his shoulder before he could call her over and stepped close beside him to whisper. “Do you want me to get rid of him?”
Maxwell shook his head. “No. He might need medical attention.”
“You know that’s not why he’s here,” Garrett growled.
“I don’t—” Maxwell’s lips twisted, and he wanted to grab the heavy block of soap and hurl it across the room again. Kurt had trapped him, and he hated it more than he could verbalize. He took a steadying breath. “I don’t want you to upset him.”
“Upset him?” Garrett bared his teeth in a look usually reserved for klah’eel or Sebastian. “Who the fuck cares if he gets his feelings hurt?”
“I care,” Maxwell snapped. Because he knew what Kurt could do if he got his feelings hurt. “Please don’t cause a scene.”
Garrett’s chest rumbled with that low growl again, but he nodded. “Alright.” He squeezed Maxwell’s shoulder, and Maxwell sighed with relief when he didn’t find a trace of resentment or stubbornness in his face. “What do you want me to do then?”
Maxwell patted Garrett’s hand on his shoulder, then pushed it off. “You’re doing enough.”
As soon as Maxwell stepped out from the shelter of Garrett’s body, all he could feel was Kurt’s green eyes on him, boring into him and lording over him. He led his next patient to the examination table, sat on the stool, and readied himself for a long night. Kurt was going to wait, Maxwell knew. He would wait all night if he had to, to get Maxwell alone. And in the meantime, he would be there. Just on the periphery of Maxwell’s attention, never quite out of sight and never quite out of mind.
And once, Maxwell would have found that sweet. He’d been so stupid.
Maxwell patted his current patient, waved the next one over, reached for another pair of gloves, and felt his hands hit the bottom of the box. He looked up just in time to catch Garrett’s dimpled smile as Garrett passed him a fresh box, and his chest loosened.
But maybe that was stupid too. Just Maxwell replacing one bad decision with another.
He rubbed under his glasses at his sore eyes, then pulled on a fresh pair of gloves and forced his attention back to his work. People needed him. That was what mattered. Everything else could wait.
After an eternity of eyes boring into his back and wearing on his nerves, Maxwell swiveled on his stool to see only one last man in his waiting area.
Kurt stood with a grin. “Finally got some time for me, doc?”
“Just barely.” Garrett stepped past Maxwell and motioned Kurt over to the examination table he’d just set up. “It’s gonna be light out soon, and I think everyone wants to go to sleep. Luckily, you don’t look too bad.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it’s nothing.” Kurt walked to the examination table and clapped Garrett on the shoulder as he went. He sat on the table and gave Garrett his most charming smile. “You can head on off to bed. Maxwell won’t need you for this.”
“Oh, I don’t mind.” Garrett passed Maxwell his stethoscope as Maxwell walked numbly over, feeling like a passenger in his body. Once Maxwell sat on the stool next to the table, Garrett hopped onto the counter beside him. “Every doctor needs an assistant.”
Maxwell put his stethoscope in his ears and lifted it to Kurt’s chest. His hand shook slightly, but there was nothing he could do about that. He licked his lips. “Need is a strong word.”
“No, it’s not.” Kurt chuckled, and the rumble rolled up the stethoscope and down Maxwell’s spine. “I remember what it was like back home when you took over the hospital. I was so proud of you.”
Maxwell didn’t reply and moved his stethoscope to the other side of Kurt’s chest. Kurt had been proud, in a way. Maxwell could remember how his green eyes shone with it as he’d walked across his clinic some days and wrapped him in his arms. But then he’d take him home because it was so selfish of Maxwell to be there when Kurt needed him to himself for his brief time between missions.
