Work Text:
'We've just been informed that the nursing home Hughes and Montgomery responded to last week has had 8 residents test positive for covid 19, including Mr. Jenkins who was treated on the call." Sullivan explained to the team as they packed up to leave.
"We did everything we could according to the protocol with what we had." Travis tried to reassured the team.
"Even so, Chief Ripley has ordered you two to get tested immediately. And self quarantine until you get results, which should be in before your next shift.
"And what if they test positive? We are already short people in the department due to this mess? What about the rest of us. We've been walking around here for the last week." Emmett questioned.
"Lucas will have the station and the aide car deep cleaned and sterilized. Me and you are on lockdown for our results. Once we get those, it will be decided if the rest of the team needs to be tested too. Meanwhile the team should be extra careful and limit contact with others. I know Lucas has ordered more ppe for the calls and for the stations." Vic explained.
"Ok Mrs. Chief." Dean joked.
"What? This is all he talks about for the last few weeks. He had to shut all of 23 b shift down 3 weeks ago. The whole shift went into quarantine. Lucas is losing so much sleep trying to keep everything moving and making sure we are all protected. I'm definitely going to get an ear full when I get home." Vic moaned.
"Well let's get this over with. Go get these tests done quickly. The sooner we get tested the sooner we get results and the sooner we get back to work." Travis shook his keys signaling to go.
Vic and Travis took their tests and went home.
"Hi Hubby I'm home!" Vic announced walking in the front door.
"In here" Lucas yelled back from his office.
Vic walked into the office an exhausted Lucas surrounded by paperwork. "Morning Hubby." she walked around his desk to kiss him.
"Did you get your test done yet?" Lucas jerked back.
"Yes Chief."
"Good. I've already set you up in the bedroom for quarantine. You let me know if you need anything."
"Lucas! We followed protocol. The results will be negative and I will be back at work next shift. Plus it was a week ago. If I have it so do you. So no need to isolate away from you." She bent down running her hands down his chest and peppered kisses on his neck.
"I know but until we know now we need to be cautious. Remember a year ago I had my heart issue. We don't need to take any risks." Lucas held her hand and pulled them away.
Vic let out a deep sigh. "Fine! But do I need to stay in the room? I can keep my distance from you in the house."
"It's only 24 hours. Go on. Let me know if you need anything else." Lucas kissed her cheek and sent her own her way.
Vic walked out of the office flashing puppy dog eyes at Lucas in one last attempt.
She went to their bedroom to a pile of snacks, her tablet, games and flowers.
Vic took a shower and crawled into bed and called Travis. "So how did your hubby take the news? Travis answered "Hubby, already had the bedroom turned into prison when I got home. I'm bored." Vic moaned.
"Well at least you've got him to get you food. I got home and there was nothing. I've got to order groceries. How long do we have to be locked up? Can't your hubby get a rush on out tests?" Travis complained.
"I wish!" Vic sighed. "I got to go, I've got another call coming in." Check in with you later?" "Ok." Travis agreed.
Vic hung up and clicked over to the call. "Hello?"
"Hello is this Mrs Victoria Ripley?"
"Yes. Who is this?"
"This is Lacey at Around The World Travel Agency calling you back about your trip to Australia you wanted scheduled for May. Due to the current covid 19 pandemic all travel into Australia has been halted. We do not when the country will be open again to tourists."
"I understand. It's suppose to be a honeymoon slash first anniversary trip. Do you think all this will be cleared up by then? Shouldn't we go ahead and book everything? What's the cancellation policy?" Vic asked quietly so Lucas couldn't hear her.
"We can go ahead and book flights and hotels. If you cancel it's a $350 cancelation fee and if the airline or hotel cancel due to the pandemic we can reschedule for later dates." Lacey advised.
"Great. Well I'm optimistic about all this and I feel it will be back to normal by then. So go ahead and start booking." Vic said.
She finished lining up a few details for the trip and got off the phone. She decided to take a nap. When she woke up the house was silent. "Lucas?" She called out with no answer. She picked up her phone and saw a text from him.
"Had to go out on a call. Be back later tonight. Try to stay in the room as much as possible. Love you."
"Great! He gets to go about his day and I'm locked in here. I don't even have it. " she mumbled.
Vic decided to binge watch the new netflix series Tiger King to help pass the time. She texted Travis to watch along with her. When Lucas returned home, Vic was sitting on the floor in front of the tv in the bedroom facetimeing Travis analyzing the episode.
"I think she did it. Where did her husband go?" Travis argued. "The man is hiding in the Cuba or somewhere. He probably owes money." Vic countered.
"Am I interrupting something?" Lucas knocked on the entrance way to the bedroom.
Vic looked up, smiled and jumped up to hug him. Lucas held out his arm to stop her, "Quarantine, Eggy."
"But Hubby…" she held her head down.
"You get test results tomorrow. Until then, quarantine." He smiled. "You hungry? What do you want for dinner?"
"You." She mumbled under her breath.
Lucas blushed.
"Anything. I don't care." She walked away and sat back down in front of the screen.
Lucas watched as she sat down and he was just as hurt. He wanted nothing more than to hold and kiss his wife. With all the craziness of the pandemic he always had her to bring a light to it. He wanted to be her light right now but they had to keep distance.
But that didn't mean he couldn't at least try. He went to the kitchen and started making dinner. He sent a text to Vic "Quarantine date night in 20 minutes."
Vic dressed up in a sexy negligee, light makeup and let her hair loose. "I'll show him a quarantine date. He can't resist this." She said to herself.
"I'm coming in. Back away from the door." Vic stood on the other side of the room watched as Lucas came in with mask, face shield and gloves as he placed a try of food and a flower on the floor and walked out without looking at her once. He was quiet for a second then he called "ok. Let's eat."
Vic walked over to her food and turned to sit towards the door and there was Lucas; on the floor, shirtless and with his tray of food.
"That's cruel Hubby." Vic said as she sat down. "No more cruel than what you are doing to me." Looking her up and down.
"Oh I'm just staying comfortable in quarantine." She pumped out her chest a little more. "So what's for dinner?" She took the cover off her plate. "Chicken Alfedo! You know what happens to me when you cook this."
Lucas winked at her.
"This sucks. I'm sure it's all clear. We all followed procedures. I'll be back at work the day after tomorrow." Vic said as she stuffed her face with alfredo.
"I hope so. I don't think I can do much more of this. Work is crazy enough, I don't need it at home." He sighed and ran his hands through his hair.
Vic scooted closer to the door. "How was the call today?"
"Warehouse. 42, 23 and 84 on the scene. Had to get my hands a little dirty and all the teams are short people."
"Lucas Ripley you did not go in that warehouse did you?" Vic tensed up.
"No Vic. I swung an axe and held a line. Don't worry. I didn't go in."
"Good."
"You know I've been doing this for over 15 years. I can go inside. I've been cleared by all doctors. My heart and lungs are fine."
"I know. I know. But I still worry. It hasn't even been a whole year. And now this virus in the air. You are at "high risk". Vic scooted closer to the door again.
"All the more reason we need to keep distance until your results come in." He waved his hand singling her to move back.
Vic scooted back and finished eating her dinner in silence. When she was done she let out a big yawn "I'm stuffed."
"Looks like dinner did its job." Lucas teased as he got up and put his clothes and protective gear back on.
"I hate you." Vic rolled her eyes, got up and walked to the other side of the room. Lucas came in gathered her tray. "I'm going to go clean the dishes and we can play a game to help pass the time.
While Lucas was I. yhe kitchen Vic changed clothes again. This time into one of Lucas's t-shirt. She sat down on the bed waiting for him and slowly drifted to sleep.
When Lucas finally made it back to the doorway, Vic was sound asleep. "Guess I made it too good this time." He smiled.
He went down to his office and grabbed his laptop and papers and a pillow and a blanket and set up outside the bedroom door where he could watch her sleep.
Vic woke up in the middle of the night to Lucas asleep on the floor outside the door. He looked peaceful yet uncomfortable. "Poor Hubby." She smiled. She grabbed a pillow and a blanket and laid down on the floor in the room where she was parallel to Lucas. She reached her hand out wishing to hold his. "I really hope this thing comes back negative. I don't like this being distant from Hubby.
The next morning they both woke up complaining of neck and back pain. "This is all your fault Hubby. If you had gone to the guest room we both would have slept in beds." Vic complained.
"Let's hope this is the only night of this." Lucas stretched. "You want breakfast?"
"Yes! Can you go get maple bacon donuts from the donut shop?"
"As you wish. Let me go take a quick shower and I'll go get em."
Vic crawled back into bed and checked her phone and started watching the news on tv. All of it was about how the numbers were going up at extreme rates. She started wondering about her results.
She knew it was another hour or 2 before the "24 hours" was up for her results but she decided to check it early.
She check and the results were in. She read over it a few times and grabbed her phone to text Travis. "You get your results yet?" He texted back "Yep, all clear. I'm busting out of this joint right now."
She sent a gif saying congrats.
"What about you?" Travis texted back.
She didn't respond back. Instead she texted Lucas to find out where he was. He responded back that he was right around the corner from the house.
He walked into the kitchen to get Vics tray and put on his protective gear. While plating the food he felt a warm embrace.
"Vic what are you doing out of the bedroom?" He asked as he fell into the embrace.
"I just wanted to hug you." She tightened her grip around him and peppered kiss down his back.
"We talked about this. You've got another 2 hour before your results are in."
"What if I told you the results came in early?" She moved her hands under his shirt.
"Oh, really?"
"Mmhmm."
"Must be good then?"
"Test is negative!"
Lucas turned around to face her. "Are you sure?"
"Totally! All clear. I told you there was nothing to worry about. You've set good procedures to keep us safe, Chief Ripley"
Lucas dipped his head down to kiss Vic. "Thank god. I didn't know how much more of the distance I could take." He picked her up and spun her around to sit on the counter. Vic wrapping her legs around his waist.
"We've got some distance and time to make up and not a lot of time to do it. I've got shift in 22 hours." Vic unbuckled his pants.
They made love on the kitchen counter and again on the kitchen floor. Taking a break to eat their donuts and recharge. They made their way to the bedroom and got only one more round in when Lucas's phone rang
He rolled out of bed and walked down the hall. Vic waited 20 minutes for him to return but he never did. She slipped on her robe and went to find him.
He was in his office still on the phone shifting through papers and looking very tense.
"Ye sir…..I understand sir. We've put as much safety procedures we can into this. We need more masks and gloves and gowns and face shields. Do you know how many people we come in contact with on a daily basis. And if this is going to get worse before it gets bette, we are going to see a lot more people. I've already got 15 fighters that are being treated for the virus. 20 that are on quarantine that are waiting on results hoping they can get back to work. I cant keep sending them out there uncovered. We need more equipment. We need extra machines in the aid cars."
Vic watched as he pushed and begged for more for his team.
"Yes sir. Let me know. Thank you." Lucas hung up his phone and let out a deep sigh.
Vic walked over behind him at his desk and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his temple.
"I love this part of Chief Lucas Ripley. Always looking out for us." She spun his chair around and sat in his lap. "We will get through this."
"They are calling Seattle at hotspot ground zero. They say this is just the beginning. Some say a few weeks, some say a few months. I spoke with the hospital yesterday. They are starting to run low on beds and they were on the call too begging for more supplies and help. There is talk of a 2 week statewide lockdown next week. Everything shutdown and try to reduced the spread." Lucas rested his head on her shoulder.
"Lockdown sounds like a good idea." Vic agreed.
"I'm glad you're ok. I don't think I could handle all this and worry about you being sick. So do me a favor. Be extra careful out there. I need you. Ok." He picked up her hand and kissed it.
"Same goes for you." She kissed his hand back.
"Deal."
"Deal."