Saving the Doctor Pt. 02

Everyone cheered and clapped as the song ended. Carly saw Elaina smirking begrudgingly off to the side, Doug having left her to dance with his wife halfway through the song. She looked like she had to be happy that people were having fun, but annoyed it wasn't on her terms. Jon walked over to apologize to her and she reassured him.

He said he'd let Doug DJ for a bit but that they would change it back at dinner. A live version of Freebird was evidently next up in Jon's song library and everyone relaxed and started chatting again at the slower music.

Their jacuzzi group of six found each other at the side of the deck again.

"Well what now?" Jeff asked.

"I think I"ve spent enough time in the tub, or else I'll become too big of a fall risk," Jon said.

Grace laughed, "Yeah that'd be my assessment too."

"I've a got a bocce ball set if you guys are up for it?" he ventured.

"Yaaaassss!" Grace called out "Guys vs Girls!"

"Yeah let's do it! Refills first though," Beth said

Everyone agreed.

They came back out on the deck with fresh drinks just as Sweet Home Alabama started to play and Doug was trying to get people to dance again, only succeeding with a few of them. Jon and Jeff started nodding their heads to the beat and their walk turned into a strut. That's all the support Doug needed and he let out a "rock and roll!" as he joined the group and they started grooving out.

Grace started doing the twist with Jeff. Beth and Jared started dancing like they were in a club. Carly shimmied up to Jon and he bounced up against her. She loved the way he looked down at her as they danced gradually closer. Everyone was still in their bathing suits. She slid her hand up his chest as he put his on her hip and slid his thumb along the curve of her waist. She wished they had put their drinks down to let them get into it more, but maybe it was for the best, helping keep things appropriate.

They started dancing more as a group. She bumped her hip playfully into Jeff and laughed. Grace tried out her dance club moves on Jared, while Jeff scoffed, and then had a dance-off with Doug.

Carly fought off a pang of jealousy when she saw Beth dancing with Jon. She watched as she slid her hand sensually up his chest and around his neck, then spun around and pressed her back up against him, looking up and over her shoulder, as she wiggled her her ass over his groin, and slid her hand down his hip. Jon only put a hand over her stomach, but the brief embrace had a very sexual feel. To Beth's credit she seemed to quickly realize she was getting a little too into it, and Carly was surprised to see HER blush as she broke away. Jon seemed a little uncomfortable but played it off cool. Carly decided she needed to try to stop paying so much close attention to him. She was reading too much into things.

The song ended as they all laughed, and they went to find the bocce ball set.

They played the game on the lawn in their bathing suits as they dried off in the late afternoon sun. They were pretty evenly matched, but Grace was the all-star, clearly having played a lot before, and rubbed it in to the guys team teasingly. The guys tried to step it up. Mostly by bumping chests and acting like they were playing football instead of throwing small colored balls onto the grass, but it was funny nonetheless.

Carly was surprised when Beth asked her what skin products she used. "Your skin is so creamy and smooth I'm jealous."

She told her the brand she usually used, but mentioned she wasn't too strict about it, "I usually stay covered in the sun and don't tan a lot," She offered with a shrug.

"Yeah I'm realizing more now that I gotta cut that out," she agreed.

Carly noticed Jon oddly stiffen up a bit and look away.

"It's bad for ya," Jeff butted in. "Cancer risk and everything."

"Wait, it causes cancer??" Jared asked. "What the hell?"

"Babe there's warnings, They make you sign that thing." Beth reminded him.

"But I thought that was just some legal thing no one reads... Fuck, it really causes cancer?"

"Increases the risk," Jeff said with a shrug.

"Shit babe, I gotta stop tanning!" He started looking at his skin in genuine concern.

Carly and Grace shared a silent chuckle.

Elaina interrupted them to pull Jon away to help with the food. She wouldn't accept anyone else volunteering to help though, so they ended the game and split up. Carly and Grace decided to just put their dresses on over their dry swimsuits in case they wanted to use the jacuzzi again later. Grace introduced her to a few other people she knew from the hospital. Eventually the music changed to some soft classical quartet piece which was evidently the cue for dinner.

She had agreed with Brent before they came that she would stay for the evening and he would leave, hoping maybe he would change his mind, but he didn't, and left before the food was served, thanking Elaina profusely for everything. Carly told him she'd either find a ride or a cab home and he seemed uninterested in when she'd be back. She sighed as she watched him leave. She told herself she had no reason to feel guilty about staying, and that his lack of sociability wasn't her fault.

The meal was delicious, very high class offerings, and she wasn't sure if it was catered or if Elaina had slaved away the night before. Jon sat with Elaina and a few of her colleagues from the hospital. Carly sat with Grace and Jeff, and soon Beth and Jared joined them. She giggled with Grace as Beth explained to Jared what some of the things on his plate were, complaining that they needed to start going to fancier restaurants so he would know these things.

Carly still couldn't believe how much fun she was having, and she definitely hadn't expected to be making new friends. She had half-expected to change her mind and leave with Brent if the party sucked. It definitely didn't. The food had sobered them up a little, but they already started talking about what games they wanted to to play and whether to hit the jacuzzi again, and what other drink options they had...

It was going to be a fun night.

*****

Jon looked over at Carly chatting with Grace and Beth. He was glad she was having fun. He wished he was over there joking with them, rather than the drudgery of Elaina's and the other doctors' hospital-politics debate. He had to hand it to Elaina, the food was amazing, everything organized smoothly, the party was going well. Although he admitted some of the fun was happening despite her and not because of her. Their conversation kept revolving around medicine and he chimed in here and there, but he didn't find it alluring to talk about work during a party.

The food sobered him up fairly well. He had been getting fairly drunk in the hot tub, Jeff's joke about him falling over hadn't been way off the mark.

He hoped he hadn't been staring at Carly too obviously. Even in her sundress she shone. The way it hugged her chest and teased her thick soft thighs under the hem, he was already worried his eyes were wandering too much. Then when she walked out in that bikini... Holy shit. He was glad his lower body was hidden under the water of the jacuzzi as it took a while for his loins to settle down. Did he look like he was having too much fun dancing with her? He had hoped that with their partners around, the party would be a good environment for them to just act as good friends, and prove to himself that's all they were. It was not working out that way...

Beth hadn't failed to catch his attention either, but he felt he could say the same for most of the men there, and with her it wasn't as much of a shock as it had been with Carly. To his relief Beth had been acting appropriately... most of the time. He had felt fine around her until that dance. Good God that had escalated quickly. He hadn't been to a club in a long time and had forgotten how a girl who knew what she was doing could move her body over you and suddenly drive you wild. It was only a few seconds, he told himself. She probably didn't even think much of it. Jared was right there... That guy had actually grown on him throughout the day. Despite seeming like a bit of a douchebag at first, he had turned out to be nice enough. He and Beth seemed well matched for each other.

"Jon!"

He turned his head suddenly, "What?"

"Were you listening to me?" Elaina asked him in annoyance.

"Sorry I missed that, what did you say?"

"The desserts, can you please come help me put them out?"

"Yeah sure honey," he got up quickly to help her.

They went into the kitchen alone and brought the trays out of the fridge.

"Party's going well," Jon ventured.

"Is it?" Elaina asked, a touch of acid in her voice. "It's not exactly going as planned."

"It never EXACTLY goes as planned," Jon countered. "It's good to plan but you have to be able to improvise and let people have some fun."

"I want people to have fun," she defended. "I just... put a lot of thought and work into planning this. And you seem to be just be out there having f-..." she sighed, "...letting it get out of control."

"Out of control? Do you mean the dancing?" he asked.

"That was part of it."

"Everyone LOVED that, the mood was SO much better after that."

"It...would have been kind to ask."

"You would've agreed?" he raised his eyebrows at her knowingly.

She crossed her arms and tried to stab him with her eyes.

"Also I had told Beth we were waiting until the evening to use the jacuzzi, and then you went and told Jared the opposite!" she said.

"I had missed that detail of the plan I guess," he said with a shrug.

"I told you last night. I said we could all go in after dark and that the lights would be impressive."

"I didn't think that was set in stone, or that we couldn't do both," he said, raising his hands helplessly.

Her repressed anger turned to tears suddenly, "I just wanted it all to be perfect," she sobbed quietly and fell into him.

He suddenly felt incredibly guilty and embraced her in a hug.

"Hey... Hey honey it's okay. I want you to be happy I really do, but there's no such thing as perfect."

"Why not?" she sobbed into his shoulder and hugged him.

"Well, maybe it's hard for you to understand cause you're perfect, but you're an anomaly."

To his surprise she gave a small laugh and looked up at him sniffling.

"Everyone's having fun," he reassured her. "Everyone's impressed with the house, impressed with YOU, you look gorgeous, the food's delicious. It's going to be an amazing, fun night, just let it happen and enjoy it," He said looking in her eyes. It was so rare for her to cry, part of him was worried what it meant that she was that stressed out, but part of him was amazed and even relieved that her human side was breaking through.

His words thankfully seemed to reassure her and she relaxed in his arms.

"I love you," she whispered, "don't forget that I do."

"I love you too," he whispered back, as she buried her face back into his shoulder. He furrowed his brow at the possible subtext... was there another reason she was crying? Was she seeing more than he thought?... His guilt heightened.

Jared suddenly walked in. "Hey is this where we pick up desser- Oh! shit sorry Dr. Davids- I mean Jon, I..."

"It's okay Jared, we were just having a moment," Jon reassured him as he broke away from Elaina as she wiped away her tears. "We were just about to serve them."

"Oh uh, okay cool. Hey I can help you- OH! Hey Beth's a waitress! She should totally do it too!" he gleamed, proud of his revelation. "Hey Beth! Get over here!"

Elaina took too long to realize what was happening as she was still recovering from her breakdown. She stiffened up when she saw Beth walk in.

"What?" Beth said, looking annoyed at Jared.

"Let's serve the desserts Babe!"

She looked at him and her frown slowly faded. "Actually that'd be kinda fun." She looked at Jon and smirked, "Can we?"

Elaina moved to tell them no, but Jon squeezed her shoulders, "Let them do it honey, they'll be fine. Let's go sit down and let someone else do the work."

She looked at him with a concerned face and he could taste the effort it took her to say, "Okay". He almost felt proud.

"Oh my God these look amazing! Elaina did you make these?" Beth asked as she expertly stacked plates over her arms.

"Yes I did in fact," Elaina said, looking surprised at the kind compliment.

"Well I'm crazy impressed, the ones they serve in our restaurants don't look half as good as these," Beth smiled.

"...Thank you," Elaina slowly smiled back. "Oh be careful!" she reached out, bewildered at how many Beth was carrying at once as she watched her walk out of the kitchen. Elaina put her hand over her chest and breathed out.

She turned to Jon and placed a delicate hand on his arm.

"They seem like a good couple don't they?" she asked, searching his face.

"Yeah definitely," he said, and watched her give what looked like a relieved smile after he said it.

"Well let's go sit down honey," she said, and took him by the arm proudly to walk back to their table.

The desserts were delicious, everyone agreed. Elaina beamed at the compliments.

Beth and Jared were quick and surprisingly professional in serving the whole room, more so than he and Elaina would have been. They even cleaned up the plates without asking as everyone chatted and looked satisfied. The meal ended perfectly.

Elaina stood up and made a short speech thanking everyone for coming and that they were all welcome to stay as long as they liked.

Everyone slowly started to stand up and spread out. They chatted a while more with a few of the other doc's from the hospital, thankfully the subject wasn't work related and they talked about their engagement plans, receiving some good advice about some of their potential venues that the others had been to for conferences and charity dinners. Elaina moved her hand affectionately over his back as they talked and smiled proudly at the congratulations and well wishes when the conversation ended.

They made their way into the kitchen to find that Helen, Grace and Carly had taken it upon themselves to start washing all of the dishes. Elaina tried to stop them, but they were already well underway, so she resigned to helping them out, and started showing Grace where to put things away. Jon left them to it, accidentally catching a very generous glimpse down the front of Carly's sundress as she leaned over the sink.

He ran into Jared on the way back outside.

"Hey, thanks again for the help with dessert Jared!"

"Oh no problem man. Honestly thank YOU, Beth was getting kinda bored and crabby and that perked her up a bunch."

"You two looked really professional, I know she waitresses sometimes, but you looked like you knew what you were doing too."

"Oh thanks man, that's actually how we met, we worked at the same place, I was a bartender, but I filled in doing tables if they were short," Jared explained.

"Ahh, a bartender, I can see that. Maybe you can mix us up something special at some point?" Jon asked.

"Dude really?! I'd LOVE to. I've been wanting to do that all day but I didn't want to tread on Elaina cause she seemed really into it. You have a killer stack of booze in there but people aren't making much with it."

Jon thought and smiled "You wanna set up a bar?..."

"Who's setting up a bar?" Jeff butted in as he walked up.

"WE ARE!" Jared said excitedly. "Where?" he said looking around.

Jon thought, "Well the booze is all in the kitchen but that's kinda too far removed right?" They both agreed. "The deck would be ideal... Okay I got it, there's some folding tables in the basement that were there when we moved in, but they're clean and might be the right size."

"Lead the way Jon!" Jeff said.

They marched downstairs and each came up carrying a table.

As they walked by the kitchen Elaina noticed them and exclaimed, "Jon what are you doing!?" but was more confused than angry, to his relief.

Before he could reply, Grace came up beside her and directed the straw of a fresh drink up to her lips "Keep drinking girl you gotta catch up remember?" and winked at Jon.

Jon couldn't help but laugh as they continued towards the deck.

10 minutes later they marched back in to the kitchen, now with Doug in tow, and started gathering up all the booze.

"Hey they're stealing it!" Carly shouted.

"Jon why?..." Elaina asked, still confused but looking more amused.

"Because it's OURS! HA!" he laughed.

"Glorious Plunder!" Doug shouted as they each grabbed an armful of bottles.

"We're setting up a bar on the deck," Jared finally revealed.

"Actually that's a really good idea," Grace said. "Get to it men!"

"Leave us this one at least," Helen said grabbing a bottle of tequila from Doug's arms and slapping him on the ass with a smirk as he left.

"Woman's got fire in her tonight!" Doug exclaimed happily.

Elaina gasped and giggled.

They had a makeshift bar set up 10 minutes later with two tables in front and one behind with an impressive lineup of bottles and mix on display. They had found a tub to put fresh glasses in, an ice bucket, a bar towel, and had even lit two tiki torches on either side. Jared smiled and looked right at home.

Beth sauntered over, laughing, "Oh my God are you tending bar?"

"You know it," Jared said.

"Come here," She leaned forward and undid the top button of his polo shirt and popped his collar, "There." She dug her nails into his abs and tickled his nose, then walked away swaying her hips and looking back over her shoulder and said, "I'll take your orders," smiling flirtatiously.

"Ha! You're set man," Jeff laughed.

Jared mixed all 4 of them a new drink they hadn't had before, putting some flare into the pouring as they laughed and said "Cheers," as they complimented him on it.

Doug convinced Jon and Jeff to come join a game of charades that was starting just beside them on the deck. A good portion of the guests had left after supper, but the ones that had stuck around seemed more in the mood to party. A group had found the bocce ball set, and a few had even started to throw a frisbee around.

Beth went from group to group taking orders and making suggestions for drinks, seeming to love her new role.

Charades got going, the clues were movie-title themed and Jon did a terrible pantomime of "Shakespeare in Love," but got through it and sat back down.

The girls finally came back from the kitchen giggling and looking very tipsy.

They flowed over to Jared and handed him a mostly-empty bottle of tequila.

Grace asked him to make them something pretty, and they squealed and cheered as he performed some trick-pouring maneuvers to make a colorful layered drink for them.

Jon was taken off guard when Elaina suddenly plopped down onto his lap and put her arm around his shoulder.

"Hey," she smirked down at him, obviously feeling the alcohol. Jon pecked her a kiss, obviously tasting the alcohol.

"Hey," Jon replied putting his arm around her waist. He had seen her this way before, but it not for a long time.

"Can I be on your team?" she asked.

"Sure," he said "You having fun now?" he asked her.

She wiggled her butt into his thigh and pecked him another kiss in response.

He noticed Grace had snuck behind Jeff and was giving him a shoulder rub. They started yelling out guesses as someone gestured wildly in front of the group. The sun was starting to set and a light breeze finally taking the heat of the day away.

Once the title was finally guessed, Grace said she was going to join Carly in the frisbee game, and as she left she bent down and whispered, "You're welcome," in Jon's ear. John smiled back and looked up at Elaina who was already shouting out guesses to the next player, really getting into the game.