The Long Day Is Over

Harper, back in San Francisco, was settled in for the night on the couch with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, remote in her hand, book in her lap and a bottle of wine on the coffee table in front of her when her cell phone started ringing. She picked it up to find a FaceTime call from Roman waiting, so she hit accept and smiled when she joked, "What, lost without me already?"

Roman chuckled and told her, "Absolutely."

"I knew it." Harper said with a grin.

"I was just checking to see if you got home okay." He told her honestly.

She nodded her head and assured him, "Home all safe and sound, doing some reading."

"Good, I'm glad." He told her softly. They had gotten back to Nashville Sunday morning, and though he and Harper had send quite a few messages back and forth Roman tried not to suck all of her time away from the last two days of her visit with John and Bristol. Which was why they were having their first video call today, hours after Harper had gotten home.

Roman's brow raised when he heard her TV, "Elle Woods, welcome to Harvard."

He asked her with a small smile, "Are you watching Legally Blonde?"

Harper grinned as she asked, "You know it's Legally Blonde based on that?"

He shrugged, "I've seen it a time or two."

"How adorable." Harper joked and Roman rolled his eyes but kept a smile on his face so that she knew that he was joking.

He flipped through a few channels of his own before he landed on Legally Blonde as well and he told her, "There, now we're watching the same thing."

"You're adorable." Harper told him, getting comfortable on her couch, propping her cell phone up above her text book, resting it against her knees as she flipped through a few pages.

Roman asked her, "What are you reading anyway?"

"A textbook that I have no interest in reading." Harper grumbled as she flipped another page.

Roman chuckled and said, "Well, you could answer a question for me instead."

"What's that?" She asked him as she kept her eyes on the paragraph she was skimming.

Her eyes snapped up to him on her phone screen when he asked her, "Did you want me to book you a room at our hotel in San Jose?"

"What?" She asked him, brow raised.

He shrugged his shoulders, "I was thinking and I know it's only an hour long drive but I was hoping that after the game we could get dinner or something and I don't want you driving back too late so I thought maybe getting you a room would be best but I figured I should probably ask first."

Harper let out a small giggle, mostly at his nervous rambling and Roman knew it, and she told him, "You don't have to do that."

"I know I don't have to, but I want to." Roman told her softly, and he smiled when he saw Harper smile. Her cheeks flushed and he asked her, "What are you being so weird about right now?"

"Nothing. It's just... you barely know me and you're offering to get me a hotel room for when I come to your game that's an hour away from me?" Harper explained with a small smile.

Roman chuckled and asked her, "Too much too soon?"

"No, not really. It's just kind of amusing." She told him honestly. That was when she asked him in curiosity, "Does James know I'm coming to that game?"

Roman shook his head, "No, I wasn't sure if you had said anything or if you were going to say anything so I thought I'd just keep my mouth shut."

"Thank you." Harper said, and when Roman smirked and raised his eyebrows her cheeks flushed scarlet and she was quick to go on a nervous rant, "Not that I'm like embarrassed of you or anything like that, it's just you know, he kind of likes to monopolize all my time and I just was kind of looking forward to being able to get to know you, you know?"

Roman let out a laugh and told her, ignoring her narrowed eyes, "You're cute when you're nervous."

"Shut up." Harper muttered, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I'm serious." He told her, grinning as she narrowed her eyes at him. He then told her, "Really, it's cute how you get all flustered and embarrassed around me."

"Yeah well, have you looked in a mirror lately?" Harper fired back with an eye roll as he laughed.

Part of her still didn't understand what the hell a guy like him wanted with a girl like her. Well, okay, not part of her, all of her.

Roman was noticing that while she was still sharp and witty around him when she was alone she seemed a lot more confident when there was a bigger group of people around them. He wondered why, but he didn't ask her.

Instead he told her, "So I'm gonna get you a room."

She laughed, "You're insane."

"Probably true but I'm booking one anyway." Roman told her with a laugh.

He heard a door on her end slam shut, and Harper turned her head to look over the back of the couch, and Roman's brow lifted when she asked whoever had walked in, "I thought you were staying at Allie's?"

"I was, now I'm not and no I don't want to fucking talk about it."

Harper made a face when a bedroom door slammed down the hall and she turned back to Roman with flushed cheeks and a small smile and said, "That would be my lovely younger brother."

He made an 'o' shape with his mouth and nodded his head slowly before he asked her with a smile, "You two always get along so well?"

She laughed and told him, "Usually we get along much better than this, but he's been moody lately because he's an idiot and his girlfriend is finally realizing it."

Roman nodded his head slowly and then he asked her, "What about your schedule on the thirty-first and the first?"

Harper smiled gently as she told him, "I work nights on the 2nd, but nothing before then."

"So... what you're saying is you could come to San Jose, and then to LA for a few days?" Roman asked her with a grin, and Harper let out a laugh.

"I mean... maybe." She stated.

He gave her a 'don't argue with me' look when he said, "I could fly you to LA, and then get you a room in the same hotel as us. We have a few days off in between the Sharks and the Kings so we could just hang out and stuff."

"You really are insane. You are not flying me to Los Angeles." Harper told him firmly and Roman's cheeks flushed. He was both surprised and relieved when she smiled and told him, "I can drive."

"So you'll come?" He asked her with a hopeful expression that made her smile.

She nodded her head and then said, "I guess I should probably let James know."

"I thought you didn't want to?" Roman was sure just twenty minutes previous she had said so.

"I did... but then I realized he'll probably see me anyway, if John hasn't opened his big mouth yet." Harper stated.

Roman's brow raised, "You think he did?"

She shrugged her shoulders and said, "I think it's possible. John probably mentioned it to Steven, who probably said something to James. You boys are worse for gossip then women."

Roman let out a chuckle, shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't blame them for wanting to know where you're going and who you're seeing."

Her brow raised this time, "Oh?"

His cheeks flushed but he recovered with ease and informed her, "If my best friend looked anything like you I would want to know all that. Especially if I knew that person she was going to see was a hockey player."

"What, not too fond of yourself?" Harper asked him with a small smile.

Roman shrugged his shoulders and stated, "I just know how a lot of guys are. I mean, I'm not like that, I swear, but I know some are so I can see them being concerned."

"Well it's okay, they're not close enough friends to get to make decisions for me. That's Bristol, and she already likes you so you're good." Harper assured him, and Roman smiled at her through the phone screens.

"I'm glad to hear that I've won at least one of your best friends over." Roman stated and Harper let out a laugh.

"One down, one more to go, plus two fake brothers and two real brothers." Harper told him with a grin, and Roman sighed dramatically.

He assured her, "It's okay, I'm very likeable. Best friends, fake brothers, real brothers, parents."

Harper paused when he said parents, she hadn't even thought of that. She hadn't even told her parents about him, then again why would she when they weren't even really anything. She had yet to mention Roman to either of her brothers, or anyone she associated with that wasn't Bristol, John or James. How did she explain this to anyone? This guy I literally just met who lives twenty three hundred miles away from me gives me crazy butterflies in a good way? Yeah, crazy.

"Well I mean, my dad will love you." Harper wasn't going to pretend they weren't talking about her family, and she wasn't going to just change the subject. He brought it up, and Harper didn't see the need to skirt around the subject if he didn't.

"Oh yeah? You think so?" Roman asked her with both curiosity and seriousness.

She nodded her head, "You play hockey, you're good."

"That's all it takes?" Roman asked her in amusement, living in Tennessee he didn't hear that one very often. Most parents were woefully concerned with his career rather than impressed by it.

"Oh yeah. Every time I see him he going on and on about 'why can't you date one of John's friends?', and by friends he means hockey playing friends. He was so disappointed when I made it very clear last year that nothing was ever going to happen between Steven and I." Harper told him honestly, and when Roman nodded slowly she let out a small giggle. His brow raised and she informed him, "It's just cute how you get whenever Steven or James get mentioned."

"And how do I get?" He asked her with a cocked eyebrow and amused smile.

She shrugged her shoulders, "You get all... I don't know if jealous is the right word."

"Well... you have known them both longer than you've known me." Roman reminded her softly, and Harper smiled gently at him.

"Maybe so, but I also spent a summer with James. We had to share a room for two weeks during our vacation. You have absolutely nothing to worry about." Harper assured him, and when his brow raised she went on to explain to him, "I mean, sure he's gorgeous but he snores, like a chainsaw. He's terrible for leaving towels on the floor. He never washes his hair. His feet smell. He's practically incapable of doing his own laundry, seriously he combined reds with his whites and then threw all of the newly pink shirts out. Did I mention he snores?"

Roman let out a loud laugh at that, and nodded his head. The guy did snore like a chainsaw. His curiosity got the better of him and he asked her quietly, "What about Steven?"

Harper smiled gently, "Steven is... Steven. He's like another brother. I've known him for five years, if anything was going to happen it would have by now. Neither of us are interested in that, no matter how much our parents hate it."

Roman smiled gently, and he told Harper confidently, "When you told me it wasn't like that with him the first night we met... I wanted to tell you that he wasn't good enough for you."

"He's not?" Harper asked him curiously, brow raised, amused smile playing at her lips. As he shook his head she asked him, "What kind of guy is good enough for me then, in your opinion?"

"In my opinion?" He asked her and she nodded so he informed her, "You know, a European guy because they're always chivalrous and kind so you'll always be treated well. Maybe a guy that plays for the Preds, because Nashville's the most welcoming city in the world. Maybe he has brown hair, and green eyes, a lot taller than you but not so much so that it's weird, just enough so that you fit right into his side."

"Hmm... sounds like someone I might know." Harper mused out loud.

Roman smiled as he told her, "I happen to have it on pretty good authority that he thinks you're pretty great by the way."

- - -

Harper was sitting on the metal bench in the ambulance bay of the hospital, head in her hands, with her eyes closed. She had just come off of what she had deemed to be the worlds worst night shift ever, she had spent most of the twelve plus hours running, literally, back and forth between the ER and the lab. She, personally, couldn't wait until she got to have an intern of her own, she was torn between wanting to be nice to them and making their lives as awful as hers was currently.

Someone sat in the spot next to her, and she glanced over to find Joe, one year ahead of her, already having started his residency, clasping his hands together in his lap. He asked her, "Rough day?"

She shook her head, "Just long."

Nodding his head he assured her, "They get better. Or we get more used to them. I don't know, but what I do know is that you'll be fine."

"Yeah, yeah." Harper joked, getting up and gathering her bag, hiking it up over her shoulder before she told him, "Thanks. See you Friday."

She headed out to the bus stop around the corner, and she waited patiently until it came to a screeching halt before her, climbing on and showing her pass before she took a seat in the back of the bus. She should have walked, that would have been the healthy slash exercise conscious choice but after being on her feet all night that was the last thing that Harper wanted to do.

She pulled her phone from her bag and turned it on, and after a moment or two she found a few text messages waiting for her. One from Bristol, three from John and four from Roman. She opened Bristol's first.

So what are you wearing to the game this week?

Harper rolled her eyes but responded anyway. Jeans and a t-shirt you crazy person.

She moved on to John's messages, letting out a small laugh.

Haven't heard from you in a while. Are you alive?

Do you think Bristol would like jewellery for her birthday?

A bracelet or a necklace?

She typed out a quick response. to him. Alive, just got off a night shift. Yes to jewellery, get her a bracelet, one of those thicker bangles. She'll love it.

Finally she moved on to Roman's text, having saved the one she was most looking forward to for last, she was sure nothing could wipe away the smile on her face as she read his literal word vomit through text message.

Hotel room is booked, I can meet you in the lobby when you get there. You're on the floor underneath us, and also, since you insist on driving to LA I booked you a room in the same hotel as us as well. I thought we could go for dinner.

Like on a date.

Or not. Totally up to you.

Just delete the last two messages without reading them please. Hope your shift was good, talk to you tonight.

As the bus came to a stop in front of her apartment complex Harper stuffed her phone back into her bag and got off, practically skipping into the building, bouncing in the elevator and prancing down the hall to her apartment. She closed the door behind her, humming along to a song in her head, smile on her face as she hung her bag and light sweater up on the hook by the door and Brad, her youngest brother, looked over at her in confusion from his spot on the recliner as she dropped onto the couch with a content sigh.

"What's with you?" Brad asked her, eyebrow cocked in questioning.

"Nothing." Harper stated.

"You're humming and giggling and smiling... it's very unusual." Brad pointed out. When she shrugged her shoulders he asked her, "Did you meet a guy?"

"No." She lied.

Brad grinned as he asked, "A girl? I always wondered if you-"

"No. I didn't meet anyone, I'm just in a good mood is there something wrong with that?" Harper asked him.

"For someone who just finished 6 days of 12 plus hour night shifts? Yes." Brad stated and Harper rolled her eyes in annoyance.

Her phone beeped from where it was laying on her stomach and she grabbed it quickly, part of her thought it might be Roman again, or maybe John or Bristol but when she saw it was Steven she let out a small sigh.

It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to Steven, she did, just not right then.

She felt a little bit of panic rise up inside here when she read his message though.

What's this I hear about you and Roman Josi?