Who? Nick Matheson and Jeff Hinton
What? That awkward moment when you slept with your best friend
When? The morning after
Where? Nick's place

The first thing Jeff was aware of when his eyes fluttered open to the buzzing sound of an alarm clock was that it wasn't his alarm clock, waking him up to loud music. And the second thing was that this most certainly wasn't his room or his bed. And as he gradually got his wits about him a little more, he realized that he had a warm body pressed close to him under the blankets, and his mind caught up, filling in all the blanks for him. He was with Nick. Nick, who was curled in against Jeff's side under the blankets with his arm around Jeff's middle. Swinging his arm... the one that wasn't wrapped around Nick's shoulders, over to the side, Jeff managed to make contact with the alarm clock's snooze button before the obnoxious buzzing woke Nick. It was surprising in and of itself that it hadn't woken him. Being a dad meant that Nick would be a light sleeper, but maybe last night's activities had made him more tired than usual. Either way, there was no sound from the baby monitor, which Jeff noted with relief before he moved his hand to gently stroke Nick's hair out of his eyes. The dark haired man next to him was beautiful lying there asleep, and Jeff hated to wake him, though he knew that Nick was on shift in a few hours, and he'd have to get up and get ready for work before long.

With a deep breath to steady his nerves, Jeff turned on his side to face Nick. God, he hoped that Nick didn't regret what had happened last night. That could be a giant awkward moment. But he'd very much seemed willing, and it wasn't as if either of them had been drinking or doing anything to lower their inhibitions. They'd thought it out, done it because they wanted to, and because they were both on the same page. But Jeff had to admit... he had no clue what was coming next. What did this mean? Neither of them wanted it to just be random casual sex. But what was the step they would take next? "Nicky?" he whispered, his hand gentle on Nick's side, right below his ribcage. "Nicky, babe, you have to get up for work soon."

Who? Nick Matheson and Jeff Hinton (with Rory Matheson)
What? "Oh, I wish you'd open up for me, cause I wanna know you..."
When? Late Sunday night
Where? Nick and Rory's apartment

It had been a hell of a long shift for Jeff. One of those stupid nights when everything that could go wrong did, short of, thank God, losing a patient. He'd been about to shower and change when his pager had buzzed. They were shorthanded in the OR on an emergency surgery, and they needed him to come help out. Jeff figured he had nothing better to do, other than go home and sleep, so he headed right back into surgery to lend a hand.

What he hadn't anticipated was the doctor running into complications, though he wasn't sure why. Surgeries always seemed to go off without a hitch in the middle of his shift, and then hit every complication in the book when it was time for him to leave. The patient had made it, though, and Jeff had quickly caught a shower and changed, fully intending to go home and sleep for a day and a half or something, since he was about to start his off days. But when he decided to check Facebook before walking out the door to his car, Jeff noticed the post from Nick, timestamped only a few minutes earlier. He wasn't sure why, but he'd somehow ended up planning to head over to Nick's, and it was probably for the best, given that Nick's place was closer to the hospital than his own, and he was fucking exhausted.

He followed his GPS's directions to the apartment complex where Nick lived, and parked his silver Civic, climbing out of the car and walking toward Nick's building. He couldn't deny that it was nice to have his former best friend so close again. He found himself really hoping that he and Nick would have a chance to rebuild what they'd lost over the years, and work things out again. No matter how good things were, Jeff couldn't deny that it had always felt like a piece of him was missing without Nick in his life for the past several years. Maybe this would finally be his chance to regain that.

When he got to Nick's door, he could hear his friend's son through the door, obviously feeling quite miserable. Jeff felt for the kid, and for his dad, and he hoped like hell it didn't make anything worse when he knocked gently. "Nicky, it's me," he called out through the door, hoping he wasn't being too loud.