milliways_bar | (no subject)

Dorian Gray is not sitting anywhere around the bar today, actually. He's in shirtsleeves and socks, and climbing around the rafters for a lark.

"Ooooh, pretty!" he says, from above, when Nancy comes in. "Nice uniform!"

She pauses, momentarily confused, then peers up at him.

"...what are you doing up there?"

"Trying a new point of view," Dorian says, climbing closer.

"Well, get down before you break your neck."

She can't help mothering, it's in her nature.

"But I like it here!" Dorian protests.

"How did you even get up there in the first place?"

"I made like an angel, flapped my arms, and flew up?" Dorian says, giggling.

Beat.

"Nah, I climbed up a pillar."

She shakes her head, trying not to laugh.

"I can't talk to you while you're up there, I'll put my neck out."

"What kind of nurse are you that you can't even look up?" Dorian giggles.

"It's not looking up", she protests, amused. "It's keeping looking up. Which pillar?"

"That one there," Dorian says. "Should I throw you a line so you can shimmy up, or would that cause conflict with your newly found nursely dignity?"

"...where would you get a line from?" she asks dubiously. "No, don't answer that. I'll get a stepladder."

"Come and sit on this bough with me, my lady," Dorian says, "like birds! Even though it's a bit of an ex-bough, and oddly rectangular."

Nancy laughs and heads for the Bar to borrow a stepladder, as promised.

It's not long before she's stepping lightly along the rafter to join him.

"Here you are," Dorian says, holding out his hand to her. "I take it the rats deliver up here, too. Would you like some tea?"

"I've never tried, but I can't see why they wouldn't." She takes his hand demurely and sits down. "Love some/"

"Tea, please, if you would?" Dorian calls out to the rats.

Then, he turns to Nancy.

"So, what put you into that lovely uniform?" he asks, conversationally, as if they were sitting around a posh tea table.

"I'd been thinking about it for a while now", she tells him. "And a doctor I know, Dr Constantine, he helped me get into the college."

"And how are your waifs and orphans doing while you're being a nurse in training?" Dorian asks.

"I still check on them every night. Some of them found their way home... and I went to your house."

"Oh?" Dorian says. "Was I still there?"

"You were", Nancy says with a nod. "Or a version of you was, don't know if he was exactly the same. But I gave him your card, and he helped."

"Did he look at all like me?" Dorian asks.

She glances at him sideways.

"Exactly like you, actually."

She chose not to ask at the time.

"Excellent," Dorian says. "I'm very glad to hear it. So, he helped you -- in what way?"