On the Perils of Wholesome Country Living

On the Perils of Wholesome Country Living

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Disclaimer: I don't own 'em, they don't like me.

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Parties like this accomplished only one thing, Dr. Tim Trent thought, staring morosely into his wine glass and trying to ignore the shrieks and giggles and shouted laughter and noisy chatter going on around him, and that was wasting a hell of a lot of good wine.

Although never against a glass to unwind after a hard day, or taken over some good conversation with a close friend, he had never had much use for the sort of festivities currently taking place in the main room of the town's inn, which Doug had given over for the purpose when his daughter had fixed him with huge, hopeful blue eyes that had recalled her mother's until the gruff, soft-hearted redheaded man had been utterly unable to say no.

A good deal of frenzied planning had followed, quickly drawing in Lillia's daughter, as well as Jeff's daughter over at the Supermarket, and the three girls had decided that all the town's young people would have to be there. They had so little opportunity to all be together, Popuri had asserted, that it would be a shame to waste the chance.

And that included Elli, as much as her enthusiasm for the idea had seemed to him a little feigned.

He had been perfectly willing to allow his sweet, pretty assistant to leave work early that day if she wanted to prepare; he could appreciate that she was barely past her teens, and needed a chance to unwind with her girlfriends, instead of spending every spare evening curled up on the sofa across from his desk and reading one of his books while allowing her girlhood to slip by.

But for the love of all things holy, why had she insisted that he be there, too?

It wasn't that he disliked his young neighbours. Whenever he chanced to meet one of them on the street, or on Mother's Hill, he could chat for several minutes before he became impatient to return to his work or the solitude of his thoughts. And he took every available opportunity to meet Carter when they both had a spare evening, while he was becoming increasingly fond of those evenings when Elli was feeling particularly restless and lonely and chose to remedy it by distracting him from his reading all evening with constant chatter.

A party was a different matter entirely. Even during his youth, he'd had little use for such a waste of time. They were generally hot, stuffy, and loud enough that conversation was impossible anyway.

But Elli had pleaded with him to take an evening to relax and have fun, though, and he was uncomfortably aware that he'd been having a terrible time managing to refuse her anything as of late when she asked while fixing those big sweet brown eyes on him.

If she was just a little more demanding, he had often thought, she might be dangerous.

Easygoing as she generally was, she had continued to wheedle until he had finally laughingly agreed to join her for Ann's party.

He certainly didn't feel like laughing now, even when Karen, upon noticing the few drops left in his glass, exchanged devious grins with Elli and hurried to provide a refill. Casting an imploring glance at the aforementioned brunette, he felt his irritation – along with an unpleasant tugging of guilt at his own surprisingly asocial nature – rise another notch when she missed it entirely because she was busily shouting a conversation back and forth with Mary and Gray over the grinding beat of whatever that was on Ann's turntable. Damn it all, was this really what young people in small towns did for fun in the evenings? Perhaps he had just found the downside to healthy country living.

After a glance around the room, he bit back a sigh. Mary had, through some magic, convinced Gray to come along with her, and he seemed to be observing the world through a haze of delight at the dark-haired girl's hand in his. Rick, naturally, was having the time of his life half-heartedly protesting when Karen shoved Flaming Sambuca after Flaming Sambuca at him, and nevertheless downing them right in time with the pretty blonde. Kai, just as naturally, was teasing Popuri and laughing uproariously as she tried to be outraged, collapsed in giggles, and swatted at him.

Even Cliff seemed to be enjoying himself, watching Ann's every frantic move serving drinks and chatting with guests from a chair in the corner of the room.

For God's sake, even Gotz, more likely than not dragged here by that farmer Claire, looked fairly satisfied with the world and his lot in it.

What, then, was wrong with him?

Reflecting half-viciously that he would have to think of something extremely inconvenient for the favour Elli had promised him in return for coming with her this evening, he downed the contents of his glass in a gulp, pointedly ignoring the whispers of his conscience that this was already his fourth for the evening.

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Elli cast a furtive glance over at her boss and half-joking date for the evening, and chewed the corner of her lip worriedly.

He didn't seem to be having much fun.

When Ann had first brought up this party, and then Karen, Popuri, and Claire had shown up one by one over the next two days to promise dire consequences if she tried to weasel out of this one too, she had thought it might be good for both of them.

The Clinic had been a little hectic lately, which hadn't left much time for a social life for either of them, and what they'd had for free time had generally been spent in the sitting area in his room, going over this or that textbook. He'd been so nice about helping her with her correspondence courses, and even wasting the occasional evening telling her stories about his university days when she'd proved useless as far as studies went, but she suspected that the monotony was getting to him. Every now and then, he'd start acting a little strange, avoiding her eyes, looking as though he'd rather be anywhere else on earth, and answering her questions in curt, one-word replies.

Therefore, she had reasoned, a night out for some social contact that wasn't her might cheer him up.

Sometimes, she thought with a melancholy sigh, she wondered where her head was.

She tried to catch his eyes, but failed as he looked away from her to protest frantically and completely in vain when Ann, spotting an empty glass, zipped over with a bottle.

Elli giggled a bit. At any rate, if he kept putting the wine away like this, he wouldn't be depressed for very long.

Or if he was, she might get to offer a cuddle to cheer him up.

With a shake of her head, Elli made a solemn pact with herself not to have any more of those fruity little Honolulu shooters that Karen and Ann had hauled out of some recipe book somewhere, if these were the sorts of thoughts that followed.

She had just made up her mind to get up once and for all, go over, and either keep him company or offer to take him home, when the music hitherto making conversation impossible stopped abruptly, and the laughter grew all at once louder, accompanied by a few suggestive whoops and hollers.

Oh, dear, she lamented silently. They're airing out all the old gossip again.

“Hi, Tim,” she greeted, wincing as Popuri's trilling laugh, all the more uncontrolled for the alcohol coursing through the lovely pink-haired girl's system, pierced her eardrums slightly. “Having fun?”

“Absolutely,” the doctor replied, relenting at the last minute and giving her a sardonic smile instead of the sour expression he'd been planning. “I was almost starting to forget the minute details of the time that Popuri kissed Gray by Goddess Pond twelve years ago.”

“Doctor,” she said sternly. “Give us a little credit. It was only eight years ago.”

He laughed softly.

“Right, sorry. Eight years ago.”

All further private conversation was brought to a screeching halt as a loud, disbelieving laugh from Kai caught their attention.

“No way!” the dark-skinned young man exclaimed.

“I swear, it's absolutely true,” Claire said adamantly, although wobbling slightly, her beer mug tipping dangerously. “Gotz'll tell you.”

“Yeah, it's true,” the big bearded man muttered, casting a glance over at Elli and turning beet red.

The little nurse froze in horror, memories of an incident nearly forgotten flooding horrifyingly back.

Oh, no...they wouldn't bring that up, would they? Claire couldn't be so mean! How much had she drunk, if she'd forgotten the seventy-three or so times she'd been sworn to secrecy on the incident by both parties?

Enough, apparently.

“I don't believe it,” Kai insisted. “Not sweet, innocent little Elli. There's no way.”

“It happened!” Claire exclaimed. “I walked in on it!”

“Yeah, and I was there,” Gotz added with an embarrassed half-cough, half-laugh, pulling the blonde farmer closer. “Those were my damn pants.”

“Whoa! Okay, now we're curious!” Ann proclaimed, halting in the process of refilling Rick's glass and rubbing her hands together in glee.

“I'm telling you, man, there's no way,” Kai repeated. “They all dreamed it, or something.”

“It's true!” Claire reiterated indignantly. “Just ask her!”

“I-I think I'm going to go home now,” Elli murmured, trying unsuccessfully to duck away as Karen made a grab for her.

“No way, li'l missy,” Karen cackled indistinctly. “We wanna hear wha' this lunatic's talkin' about.”

“Okay; it was about a year ago, year and a half, maybe two, something like that,” Claire began, launching immediately into storyteller mode, seeming to come to life a little more with every pair of eyes fixed on her, until she was nearly acting out the scene as she described it. “I come out to check on the cows, and as I get closer to the barn, I start hearing these weird noises. I thought one of the sheep was sick or something--”

“Hey!” Gotz exclaimed, outraged. Elli merely shrunk further down into her chair

“--so I ran back in for some medicine. Then I get to the barn, open the door, and there's sweet, innocent little Elli trying to chew through Gotz's pants while he's going for her underwear!”

“It was the damnedest thing,” Gotz added with a chuckle, getting into the spirit despite a mortified little brunette sending him imploring, piteous please-shut-up glances and a dark-haired man sending both of them venomous this-had-better-be-good glares. “I'm just working on Claire's barn – damn kid can't keep a building in decent shape – and little Elli comes in. Says she was looking for Claire, but I'll do fine in a pinch.”

“I did not say that!” Elli squealed, face buried in her hands.

“I'm about to ask what she needs, when the kid comes flying at me!”

“I didn't come flying,” the little brunette protested, wondering why nothing was making sense in her head the way it had before all those stupid shooters. “I just said, I've been feeling really...restless lately, and could you help me out maybe?”

“Yeah, but you jumped on me before I could ask what “help you out” meant,” Gotz chuckled, shrugging. “Hey, don't worry about it; I didn't mind.” He glanced over his shoulder at the doctor, whose brows were drawn together until they seemed on the point of merging into one. “You're a lucky man, man.”

“Holy sheez, everyone's drunk off their asses,” Rick noted aside to Gray, swaying unsteadily on his stool.

“I'm not,” Gray protested, attempting to hold up a finger and overbalancing until he ended up in Rick's lap.

Mary giggled.

“Wow, first Elli molests Gotz in Claire's barn, now Gray's trying to do things to Rick!”

This exchange went largely unnoticed amid the sensation brought about by one small nurse's one-time experimentation with the local woodsman.

Kai looked rather floored.

“Well, geez...was it at least before you and Gotz started dating?” he asked Claire, still trying to absorb this bizarre revelation.

“Oh, yeah,” Claire shrugged, with a grin that nearly stretched beyond the boundaries of her face. “What do you think got me interested? Gotz looks seriously hot without his pants. And taking off a girl's panties. And screwing her up against the wall of my barn. If I hadn't thought it'd make Elli bolt like a scared bunny-rabbit, I'd have tried to join in!”

“Claire!” Elli exclaimed, horrified.

“What?” Claire demanded, arms crossed. “You'll attack the local carpenter, but you won't let me play?”

“I want to go home,” the nurse whimpered sadly.

“I think that's a good idea,” a quiet voice agreed from her right.

She cringed slightly as she turned to meet the doctor's eyes. The cold anger was hard to see, but the disappointment was worse.

And her attempts to remind herself, outraged, that it was none of his business who she attacked in whose barn was doing little to help.

With a miserable little sigh, she followed him out of the inn.

“They're cute,” Popuri giggled in what seemed to Mary a remarkable show of missing the point.

Apparently it seemed as such to Karen too, because as Elli shut the door behind her, she could have sworn that she heard something sounding distinctly like Popuri yelping in pain.

But her friend's pain at her other friend's annoyance completely aside, something was telling her, through the dozy, floaty sensation of too much to drink, that this evening would not be a pleasant one.

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Fifteen minutes later saw the pair half-slipping and half-stumbling through the front door of the Clinic as quietly as was habit for both (although, their usual routine generally contained less dizziness, less Apocalyptic brooding on his, and less sporadic bursts of chatter on hers), even when, as tonight, it was empty but for the two of them.

“Doctor?” she ventured timidly, shifting her weight from one foot to the other and nearly losing her balance. “Are you angry?”

He froze for a moment, then sighed, finished locking the door, and turned.

“Let's establish something first,” he suggested coolly. “Is it true?”

“It is,” she admitted. “But it was a long time ago!”

He nodded thoughtfully.

“I see.”

Soft arms wrapped around his middle, and huge, imploring brown eyes looked up at him.

“Please don't be angry?”

“I'm not angry. But I am curious.”

She hesitated.

“Curious?”

He smiled, eyes intent on hers as he pulled back slightly.

“I'd like to know how you touched him, if you'll tell me.”

The silence between them seemed to stretch out for an eternity as she rested her cheek against his chest again. Finally, very softly,

“Can I show you instead?”

He watched her carefully for a long moment. Then he let out a long breath.

“Alright.”

He could feel her nervousness in the soft tremble of her breath as she straightened up, in the wild flutter of her pulse at her throat, in the slight shake of her hands when she took his.

He didn't like it – something about the way he was half-hard already, from nothing more than the evidence of her discomfort and fear, sent a sharp, thin thread of unease needling through the fog of too much drink around his mind.

“He was standing by the troughs, and he was just turning around, when I grabbed the front of his shirt—like this,” she added, hands clinging at the crisp white cotton of the doctor's dress shirt.

“Then?” he prompted, watching her curiously, unease ignored in favour of focusing on those soft, warm little hands burning through thin fabric.

She tugged him closer and kissed him, firmly and resolutely, but hands still trembling at his shoulders. His hand slid back into her hair, and when she gasped against his mouth, he caught her lower lip, nipping gently and drawing a soft, shaky moan from the girl in his arms.

“He—he didn't do that,” she managed when they finally broke apart.

“Then please, continue,” he invited with a faint hint of a teasing smile.

“I like your way better,” she protested shyly, trying to pull him closer and pouting when his he pushed her firmly back.

“Right now, you're showing me what happened.”

With a tiny sigh, she straightened up and smiled beamingly at him.

“Okay. But...um...you won't get angry if I try to take off your pants, will you?”

“I believe someone mentioned chewing through them.”

She bristled.

“Claire was exaggerating! I was not chewing through his pants!”

He laughed.

“Then may I ask why you were down there?” He leaned closer, raising one eyebrow slightly, as she grew brilliantly red and muttered something indistinct. “I'm sorry, Elli, I didn't quite catch that.”

“I said, 'I don't remember, but I think I was trying to take his belt off with my teeth,' okay?!” she barked.

A stunned moment followed. Finally...

“Ah,” he said rather helplessly. As she dropped abruptly to her knees, he backed up instinctively and felt his back bumping against the door, eyes widening with dismay. “Hey, wait a minute!”

She tossed her head, and peered up at him reproachfully.

“You said you wouldn't get mad!”

“But this is...” Here, he trailed off into a distinctly breathless silence as she tried to grasp the length of his belt in her teeth, missed entirely, and ended up nuzzling something hard and insistent, and rapidly becoming more so.

“Sorry,” she whimpered, casting him a quick look before attacking his belt again, hands clinging tightly to his hips. Then, giving up entirely on this teeth business, she released his hips and worked at his belt and zip. Then she looked imploringly up at him again. “I've never done this before, so I might not be very good.”

He nodded dumbly, heart thundering and mind screaming at him to push her off before this could go any further when neither of them were in any state to deal responsibly with it, when the chance of hurting her was far greater than he liked.

Then, as a warm, wet little tongue licked delicately at the tip, hands squeezing and sliding over his length and driving him half-crazy with the desire to pull her to her feet, shred her dress, and shove her down onto the nearest available surface, he leaned heavily back against the door with a disbelieving groan, hands tightening helplessly at the varnished wood.

She gasped softly as one hand came down to rest at her hair, and she tensed as it tightened and pushed her ever so slightly closer. Relaxing into his touch, she shifted obediently closer, mouth sliding down around him, not very far because after all, she was still a beginner, but from his cry, apparently enough. Tongue swirling wetly, she sucked gently and moaned as a bolt of heat shot through her at his expression, head rolling back against the door, eyes tightly shut, breathing rapid.

When something tugged sharply at her hair, it took a second for the pain to register, and she yelped in protest, glaring up at him.

“Enough, Elli. Get up,” he ordered, breathless and looking close to panic behind sternness.

“I'm not finished yet,” she said absently, moving to grasp him again.

His hand grew tighter at her hair, and this time the pain was immediate and startlingly intense as he dragged her to her feet, steadying her with a hand at her arm as she stumbled slightly.

“I asked you to stop that,” he said severely, catching her hand.

She stared for a long moment as he made a mad attempt to reverse her progress in undressing him, bewildered and a little hurt.

“Alright,” she said brightly, through a slight tremble in her voice. “I understand if you don't want to know the rest. It's late, and--”

Her words were swallowed by his lips finding hers again, and her soft, blissful noise hummed against his mouth as her hands slid back into his hair to pull him closer.

When she felt the backs of her legs bump against the edge of the sofa, she wondered dizzily how on earth that had happened, and then abruptly ceased to care as he spun them both around, half-stumbled and landed hard against the cushions, and hauled her into his lap. He pulled her skirts up and out of the way, and she shivered delightedly as his hand ran up her thigh, around to grip her bottom, and dragged her closer. With a half-pleading, half-impatient moan as his arousal ground against white lace already soaked through with her own desire as she squirmed in his lap, her hands flew to his belt again.

Swatting her away playfully, he slipped one hand under the waistband of her undies and brushed very lightly through a light dusting of curls to trace her folds gently. Eyes widening and then squeezing tightly shut, she bit her lip to fight back a whimper, hips bucking against his hand. On a whim, very suddenly eager to repay a little of her teasing, he pushed her out of his lap, back against the sofa and, dropping a light kiss at her forehead, moved down her body and bunched her skirts at her waist.

“Shh. Just relax,” he murmured into the layers of fabric, eyes catching hers for a brief moment.

Urging her up slightly, he slid her little lace undergarments down her legs, tongue darting out to leave a little wet spot behind her knee, grinning slightly when she gave a startled, but hardly dismayed, little shriek.

After several distinctly annoyed seconds of fighting to pull those undies the rest of the way off, only to find them irreversibly tangled in the laces of her boots, he gave up in despair, glared at her as a slightly hysterical giggle drifted towards him, and slid one hand between her thighs, smirking a bit as her laughter melted into a gasp. Parting her folds gently, he ran his tongue over her warm, drenched slit in slow, leisurely strokes, and then circled the sharply sensitive bundle of nerves.

Her hand tightened, fingers curling into his hair as she squirmed and writhed underneath his mouth and hands, uttering those little gasping cries and pleas that combined with the warmth of satin-smooth skin of her thigh pressed to his cheek and the heady saltysweet scent of her arousal to send another throb of need through him.

When he pulled away, she made a noise of frantic protest, and his laugh as pulled her up and back into his lap was slightly rough.

Between them, they managed to wrestle his belt and zip open, and as his trousers and underwear pooled at his knees, she wrapped her fingers around his length with a blissful sigh.

“I like him,” she informed him, wide eyed and very serious, when he looked at her curiously.

“Oh. He's, uh, rather fond of you, too,” Tim admitted with an embarrassed cough.

She giggled again, threw her arms around his neck, and buried her face at his shoulder. He drew in a quick breath as that little pink tongue darted out again, and his hand drifted, seemingly of its own accord, to her breast, massaging gently through layers of fabric. She purred happily against his ear, wriggling enticingly against him.

With a sound low in his throat and remarkably like a growl if that, along with giggling, pouting and smirking, hadn't been one of the things that he just didn't do, he grasped her hips tightly, lifted her up slightly, and catching on immediately, she shifted until she was cradling his length against slick folds. Guiding him into her with one slim, capable little hand, they moaned in breathless unison as she slid down around him. Establishing a slow, careful rhythm, she rolled her hips against his, biting her lip to hold back a whimper at the sensations, silk and satin gliding after the initial pain of just not doing this enough, sweet-hot pressure building, almost unbearable, picking up speed as his hands tightened at her hips again, lifting and lowering her until she tensed, and gave a long, shuddering cry. She buried her face in his shoulder, trembling as he pulled her closer and harder against him a few more times, and then flooded her with heat, expelling a harsh breath through gritted teeth.

A long moment later, his hand at her chin urged her to look at him.

“Are you alright?”

She smiled, a slow, mischievous, almost wicked smile.

“Mmmhmm.”

“Good.” He pushed her abruptly to her feet and stood, scrambling to put himself back together. “Because I'm far from through with you just yet.”

The brunette gave a delighted squeal of laughter as he caught her hand and pulled her toward the stairs.

“Are you going to give me some time to recover?”

He almost-smirked over his shoulder at her.

“You have until we get upstairs.”

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Elli gave a soft whimper of protest as the pale rays of early-morning sunlight pouring through the window nudged her gently awake. Then, as the sound of deep, even breathing caught her attention, she smiled, flushed and impish, at the dark-haired man stretched out next to her, his arm curling over her waist as she snuggled closer and rested her cheek at his shoulder.

When she felt him shift slightly under her, she looked up, and sent him a beaming smile.

“Good morning.”

He cleared his throat uncomfortably.

“Uh, yes, good morning.”

She frowned at his uneasy expression.

“What's wrong?”

“Well, to start with, I feel like I've been hit by a truck.”

She snickered behind her hand.

“I guess a whole bottle of wine in one evening will do that to you.”

“You didn't do so badly yourself,” he reminded her with a slightly forced smile.

“I know,” she said comfortably, flopping onto her back and stretching out. “And my head is pounding, too, but I almost always wake up with a headache.”

He grew bright red as the blankets slipped down to her waist. Noticing, she smiled shyly, and moved to kiss him. Immediately, his hands flew to her shoulders to hold her back.

“Elli, wait.”

Obediently, she stopped, but didn't move away, her smiles and sunbeams and dreamy-eyed peacefulness fading into the beginnings of worry.

“What is it?”

He gave a long sigh, trying to put the worries swirling mistily inside his mind into words.

“I-I didn't mean for this to happen.”

“Well, neither did I,” she laughed nervously. “Not many girls' starry-eyed fantasies of the boys they like include a night of drunken revelry. Unless you mean you don't feel the same way, and you're just sorry you led me on.”

He winced slightly at the terrified note creeping into her voice, well backed up with anger and a hint of tears.

“No! I do. A lot more than you know. But last night was...stupid.”

“Oh, thanks,” she huffed.

He gave her a stern look.

“You know it was, Elli. I was in no state to control myself around you, and I never wanted to put you at that sort of risk. Especially when you were in no state to stop me.”

“Tim, if I had wanted to stop you, I would have stopped you. Alcohol or not, I'm a big girl.”

“I know. You're probably more capable than a lot of girls. But I was...I don't know. I think a part of me was acting in anger, and that scares me a little.”

“So you were angry with me!”

“A little,” he admitted with another cough. “Mostly, I was angry with myself, because I couldn't stop imagining you...in that situation, and you're far more than that to me. But I guess I didn't really like the idea that I'd missed my chance to...well, teach you these things myself. I'm not angry about it now,” he hastened to continue as her expression turned outraged and he read a feminist rant in her eye. “But alcohol brings out stupid things in people, and when I think about how easy it could have been to justify letting things get out of control, how easily you could have gotten hurt--”

“No one got hurt,” she said gently.

“But you could have.”

“No, I couldn't. I know you'd never hurt me.”

“Never intentionally. But the point is, this is not the way I wanted this to happen. Even last night, I had no intention of going that far until our wedding night.”

As soon as he said it, he winced. Then, as an expression of pure joy washed over her face, he smiled ruefully.

“Wedding night?” she repeated, blushing and shyly avoiding his eyes.

“This wasn't how I meant to ask you, either,” he admitted.

Her arms wound tightly around his middle, and she buried her face in his chest.

“I'm sorry I seem to be wrecking all your plans lately.”

He chuckled softly, one hand running through her hair.

“It's alright. So...was that a yes?”

She nodded emphatically, her face still hidden against him, which very nearly caused injury to both of them. He didn't even try to stop an adoring smile as strands of silken soft chestnut brown brushed over skin warm and sensitized from recent sleep.

“Well, then. I guess I'll get up and look for some aspirin.”

Her arms tightened.

“Not yet. If this is the last time I get to have you in bed until we're married, I want a few more minutes.”

This earned a full-fledged laugh.

“I guess that's fair.”

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End Notes: Aaaaaaaaaaaand, that's a wrap. This was really all just an excuse to write drunk!Doctor and drunk!Elli having a goings-on. Because that's cute to me. ^_^