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“When I finish patching you up, I swear to god, I’m gonna kick your ass for making me worry about you.”
Lois huffs out a pained laugh as Eve steers her towards the bathroom. She’s not exactly bearing Lois’ weight, especially on her stilettos, but she has an arm around her waist that’s providing emotional support, even as it presses against what Lois hopes is only a bruised rib.
After setting her down on the toilet, Eve pants for breath as if she had bodily carried her the whole way. She wrings her hands and Lois notices a bit of blood on her pastel pink manicure. Ah, the cut on her arm is still bleeding.
“God, you’re gonna have a black eye,” Eve laments, looking at her. “Ice pack!” She totters off to the kitchen.
“Eve,” Lois tries to call after her, but it’s too late. With a sigh that hurts her chest, she stands unsteadily from the toilet and moves to the sink so that she can turn on the hot tap and soak a cloth.
“Hey! You’re supposed to be sitting! I’ll do the nursing here, thank you.”
Eve’s hands on her shoulders steer her back to the toilet, then there’s a freezing ice pack against her face and Lois flinches away. “Towel! You can’t apply an icepack straight to the skin!”
“Oh?” Eve looks around and grabs a handtowel. She wraps up the icepack and presses it again to Lois’ face.
“I was kind of hoping we could clean the cut on my arm.”
“Sure, sure, hold this.”
It’s impossible to see past the towel-wrapped icepack, so it comes as a total surprise when something digs into the wound on her arm.
“Ow, shit!”
“Sorry! Sorry, I’m sorry, just, you said…”
“Yeah, it’s fine, just… startled me. It’s bound to hurt, so… just do it. It’s fine.”
The touch is a lot more tentative after that, but thorough. Eve spends a long time dabbing at the wound with the cloth. It stings, but Lois is a big girl and she knows if she makes anymore sounds of pain Eve might panic and stop cleaning the wound.
“I’m really glad you’re here,” Lois admits. Although Eve is round Lois’ place a lot, it’s not guaranteed.
“Oh, you know, when Jimmy said you…” A sniffle. “You got taken…”
Lois lowers the icepack to confirm her suspicion. Sure enough, there’s mascara and eyeliner running down Eve’s cheeks as she cries while carefully wiping the blood away from Lois’ arm.
“Eve…”
“Hey, you need to keep that on your eye!” Eve scolds her. “Trust me, you don’t want anyone blowing up their socials with pictures of Lois Lane with a black eye.” She sobs and wipes at her own eyes.
Lois sets the icepack aside and gingerly lowers herself from the toilet to kneel on the bathroom floor with her girlfriend. “I’m okay.”
“Right, sure, but you know there were two whole hours where you weren’t, where you were totally schrodinger on me and I didn’t know if—” She breaks into another sob and grabs some toilet paper to wipe at her eyes. The wet cloth splats on the floor, leaving a smudge of Lois’ blood on the tiles. “I mean, what would I do?”
“You wouldn’t go back to Jimmy, for starters,” Lois jokes. She wraps her arms around Eve and kisses her hair, though it puts pressure on her chest and hurts her rib.
“I don’t know what I’d do. I really don’t know what I’d—”
“Eve, look at me.”
She does, eyes still watery and lip quivering. She reaches out to brush fingers by Lois’ eye socket ever so gently. “It’s already bruising, Lo-lo…”
“Yeah, and I’ll manage. Just like you would. I’m really sorry I scared you.”
Eve’s pout is reassuring. “You ought to be.”
“You are brave, you are strong, and you would do whatever it takes. You always do. Superman told me how you yelled at the sky until he heard you and came to find out what was going on. You might not have superpowers, but you saved my ass.”
The kiss is sudden, but not unexpected. Eve’s an affectionate lady, which Lois didn’t plan on enjoying so much in the early days of their relationship, but it’s wormed its way under her skin, along with the pet names and the girlfriend selfies.
“I love you, Lo-lo. Don’t scare me again, or I will kick your ass.”
“I’ll try not to.” That’s the best Lois can offer. A sudden pain in her side makes Lois press a hand there, which only hurts more. It’s tender. “Now I need you to dry your eyes and grab the car keys, okay? Your bedside manner’s fantastic, but I think we need a little trip to the hospital.”
“Oh, oh god, okay, let me put you a bag together!” Eve scurries out and Lois hears her opening the wardrobe in the bedroom.
“Eve, Eve, honey, I don’t need a bag!”
“I won’t go overboard, just like, four outfits max. Moisturiser, of course, a small make-up kit…”
Her heart’s in the right place. Lois grabs her phone to call a cab instead.