Lesson one was completed. She kept repeating that to herself as she tugged the scrubs cap off and threw her dirty scrubs off. The room was filled with students all chattering about their newest lesson. All of them had it different test based at random.

First lesson was fucking terrible; the enchanted dummy had a malady that they had to diagnose, and when she kept throwing up and her partner ditched her as she threw up, and Tess was left alone to try and stop the stupid dummy to vomit.

Now four hours later and a shower later she was in the room waiting for the only person that actually talked to her to arrive. Parker Emery, the only person who was nice enough (using the term nice loosely) to chat her up after their lesson. They had met during the orientation considering he'd gotten lost and since then they were cordial enough to one another. She snorted as she picked up one of the two coffee cups she got, one for her one for the git, as she thought of their weird friendship.

Leaning outside the door of the lesson room, Parker groaned, wanting to hit his head back against the wall as hard as he could. He'd been doing these random lessons for a few years now, he should have known that it would one day bring him to the damned birthing wing. It was the last place he ever wanted to be. So, of course, he had to be assigned this lesson on what felt like the worse day of the quarter so far.

Parker closed his eyes, rubbing his face and running both hands through his hair, about ready to just slide down the wall and fall asleep. But after the lesson he was set up to cover another's long shift. Sure he didn't really like the guy, but it would get him off Parker's back for a few days and get him a free meal, so he couldn't really complain. It wasn't like he had anything to do outside of work anyway. These guys had girlfriends, some family by now, so Parker hardly cared. But he really just wanted to curl up and sleep now. If he was this tired just working a lesson like that, he would try everything in his power not to get stuck actually having to work in that wing.

Parker felt his stomach growl and he opened his eyes, sighing, willing the pain to go away. He could make the night, tomorrow he could get that guy to treat him to a nice breakfast if something particularly hellish happened down in the ER. But before that shift started he had about an hour to meet and talk with the only person he actually chose to talk to despite the fact they weren't exactly the nicest to each other. While a few years his junior she was talented and he found that she'd helped him out on more then one occasion if they got stuck working or training together.

He leaned off the wall, shaking his head a bit as he made his way down to the break room where he'd most likely find her. He could do with a strong coffee to help keep him up anyway. He peeked in the door before actually walking in after seeing her. "So, what did you get stuck with today, Black?" He asked, making his way over past some other students over to the small table to sit down across from her.

Tess smirked; she had heard about where he was sent, and she was beyond amused. He was nice enough, but the birthing wing was a section that he had been avoiding like the plague. She had seen him bet against people to change shift to avoid the whole process of birth. She had been there, it was terrifying, but she was quite fine about it.

During the past year, she had learned a lot about things that seemed really foreign to her. From a simple miscalculation of a potion ingredient, to maladies and others, she had learned somewhat. A lot of people thought that she was a child trying to play adult, but she didn't care considering some were on their third time or more to get their residency. Parker was one of the few people that she tolerated. Around others they found her weak, but honestly when they interacted, they brought out the best and worst out of one another. She was sharp-witted and sarcastic, and he was snarky and a bit of a prick. Prick being used in the best way possible, she found herself adding with a grin.

His hellish looks, made her simply push the other coffee cup towards him as she turned to her purse and throw him a bagged lunch. Since he was her senior, she found herself making an extra packed lunch in case he had forgotten to eat.

"Birthing Wing ey Emery?" she said biting back a laugh. "You look like hell."

As he sat down, the aching in his feet and legs felt a thousand times better. While he wanted more time, and hour should be enough to be able to make it that extra shift. Parker almost thought it was funny how this was the first time in a long time he actually wanted to go home..if he could even really call it home. He'd been spending so much time here, that he might have been more willing to call Mungo's his home. Even though the work was hard and he complained at times, there was nothing else in the world he wanted more then to do with as a career. He had finally been able to prove to himself that he had what it took, that he could fight against the odds and people's opinions and do this and do it well. The bit of potions and medicines projects that he'd been able to help with, the ER work, the whole able to hold up under immense pressure. He'd learned more then he could have imagined, something each day, about some other aspect of the wizarding world he had no idea about. While there were some practices he didn't exactly agree with and people with far less dedication to the work oh which he could honestly not care if they just mysteriously disappeared.

As Tess pushed the coffee cup to him, he gave her a small, thankful smile as he picked it up. She was someone who would make an excellent healer. They held a lot of the same ideas about using more muggle practices, she was just as eager to learn, she was quick, and way more. He felt like he'd not had any real friends since his final years at Hogwarts, but he might have considered her one now. She brought him out of his shell a bit, though not always in the best of ways. It was nice though, to actually have someone he could talk to sometimes. He let out a short, tired sounding laugh, "Aye, is it that obvious?" he asked, raising an eyebrow as he took a sip of the black coffee.

He eyed the lunch she tossed over to him, but didn't make any move for it despite that his stomach felt like it was eating itself. "But yeah, it was absolute hell and hope I never have to deal with it ever again." He took another drink of the coffee. "And it didn't do wonders for my appetite, so I'm not hungry. But thanks anyway." he said, lying through his teeth as he took another sip, hoping to fill his stomach up with that for now. He felt awful for taking food from her sometimes. She always figured he just forgot to eat, he was too ashamed to say anything otherwise. "What awful thing did you get stuck with then? Not burn victims or some other creature related lesson, I'm guessing? I heard those guys had some real interesting problems."

Tess wrinkled her nose at his question and sighed.

"I got mysterious maladies. I had to figure out just what this stupid enchanted dummy had, but all he did was kept vomiting, throwing curses at me, and looked like that horror movie you once recommended as a comedy. I'll never forgive you for that by the way. Anyways, I got stuck with Anderson and he ended up running out, his face all green and apologizing. Bastard never came back and I was covered, covered in green ooze."

She sighed before taking a long sip of coffee.

"Yet that does not destroy my appetite"

She took out her own bag and took two sandwiches some chips, and a coke. She looked at the coke then back at her coffee. Ever since Parker introduced her to sweetened caffeine...well let's say she could never not say no to Coca Cola.

"If you're not hungry, I guess I'm going to just eat my lunch in front of you." she said.

Taking a bit, she exaggerated and ignored the look a passerby gave her at her vicious bite. She was starving yes, but honestly, she needed to win this little argument. It seemed silly to her, honestly, if someone was hungry they ate, if they were tired they slept, but she supposed that Parker really wasn't into doing any of that. It was frustrating really, sometimes she would clearly hear his stomach grumbling, and figuring he forgot his wallet (he did that often she realized. At first she thought he was cheap, but he seemed so sheepish that she couldn't help but believe it.) and she would offer to treat him only for him to say 'I'm not hungry'. She would eventually coerce him into eating by some sort of aggressive manner, or verbal abuse, usually the latter.

A lot of people called her spoiled, specifically because she was raised in an upper-class family. Her father being James Black, the James Black, the best damn Auror trainer and leader. Her mother did the same and was known for wandless magic. Then there was her, the only Healer in her family. She would floo in from her parents home and people and people thought she was some primp little girl who wouldn't use a scalpel.Parker unlike her was middle class, or she guessed. He wasn't really talkative about his private life, but he was a good listener and would listen to her talk about her families and things of the sort.

Their differences worked, she'd force him to eat and so forth, he'd call her a brat and play along before he would be smart enough to eat it, but make it look like a chore. She felt like such a pig eating before a person that was obviously starving but was refusing food. Swallowing her piece of sandwich she glared at him.

"Emery eat! I can't eat in front of someone not eating" she whined. "Are you really going to make me eat on my own? You're such a git."

Parker couldn't help but laugh a little as she started to go on about the lesson she got stuck with. "Ah, that one. Some people just don't have the stomach or the will to figure it out, especially not Anderson of all people, that guy still has a ways to go.." He rose his eyebrows and scoffed at her when she brought up the whole movie incident. "Oh, come on, that was funny! Not my fault you've not seen enough muggle movies to see the humour in it." he commented, tracing his finger over the edge of the coffee cup, it seemed smiling more to himself then her.

"I would rather have redone that lesson then ever have to walk past the birthing wing ever again." he said, taking a drink from his coffee, watching as Tess pulled out her own lunch. He pointed to the can of coke, "You're going to have some serious health issues if you keep drinking as much of that crap as you do now. And go ahead, eat, doesn't bother me." he added with a shrug. As she proceeded to eat in an exaggerated fashion he tried to hold back a smile as he looked over to see some of the other students staring over at her.

While it could make everything easier for the both of them if he just took the lunches, took some naps during break like many others did, he couldn't always bring himself to do it. It was pathetic of him, he felt awful for it. While he still was a student and not making much money for the extra shifts he was taking, he was still making some. He really should have been able to pay. After all, money was part of the reason some of these people went into the job. Though most of Parker's money seemed to be going back into the hospital's programs as of recently. He'd even opted to shut off the water in his dingy little apartment since he was hardly there anyway so he could more easily make payments. After getting involved in a sort of side project, he had set himself to start working on...well, making new medicinal potions himself. It was a mostly private endeavor that took up most the nights he spent at his house, ruined his crap little kitchen, sucked up a good portion of his money, and had so far always failed. It was worth it though, it would be if he could figure something out and use it to help someone out there. He wanted to make some sort of difference. And if it meant that he'd go without meals and sleep, that was okay. After all, worrying about those things helped him to forget other more painful things residing in the back of his mind.

One thing he often thought about was how strange it was that nearly all the good friends he had made were all extremely well off, some ridiculously well off. Ever since his first year in school. It was sort of strange, considering he came from nothing, was nothing now. Back then as children it didn't matter to any of his friends, it didn't matter to him until they offered him things. He was never jealous, never envious, never judged, never any of it. Now he just never talked about it because he was honestly ashamed of the conditions and place of his residence. So, he tried to make up for his lack of talking about his personal life, by listening and helping others with their own issues. All he wanted was to forget about his own.

He took another drink of his coffee, averting his eyes from hers when she started to glare at him. He set the empty cup on the table and smiled a little as she started to get a bit aggressive in tone as she always did when trying to get him to eat. "Yes, dear, I am." He replied, shaking his head a bit as she called him a git. "I've got another shift coming up down in the ER anyway. If I go in on a full stomach that won't be much fun running around with. I promise. I'm fine." How many times had those words come out of his mouth these past years? Far too many.

Tess huffed as he laughed at her. They were so similar and different at the same time. For one thing he preferred dealing with maladies and barfing and so forth, while she preferred things as childbirth. Sure it probably would stop her from having kids for a very long time, if not ever. She shivered at the thought.

Finished chewing her bite she wrinkled her nose.

"I hate him, I know why you hate him now. I thought you were being dramatic but no he's stupid. I have no idea how he managed to graduate Hogwarts." she growled. "But honestly I would prefer birthing wing any day over the sick dummy. For one thing, shockingly enough, the birthing wing is cleaner, though it probably convinced me to not have kids."

She glared at him as he tricked her. She was so innocent sometimes, and he said "Exorcist" was a cathartic but funny film. So she forced herself to go to Muggle London (she's terrified by cars, she learned, vicious bastards on the road too. He later told her it was called road rage and that it was everywhere.) and buy a telly, and a DVD player and a disk. She had gone home to her flat and tried figuring out how to get electricity in her home she watched the film. She ended up screaming and breaking that DVD to pieces. The next shift she had with him she told him and he started laughing and said 'You're soo gullible dear' and ever since then she was turned off from his suggestions.

Her glare was then turned into a frown and she put down her sandwich and rolled her eyes as he judged her food. Honestly that bastard was more of a nutritionist than she was. In fact, yes she was running on caffeine ever since she began her schooling. But at least she ate unlike him.

"First of all, I blame you. You introduced me to this, and now you have to deal with it and it's addicting. It's delicious, and you can't judge me! I mean at least I eat. You're turning paper thin."

He was refusing to eat. Again. That fucking bastard was making this game longer. His stomach was grumbling she could hear it and his stupid male pride was preventing him from eating. That had to be it, what else could it be? She placed her elbow on the table and leaned her cheek against him just staring at him.

"How many times have you said that to me since we started?" she said to him. "Honestly, I hope I never get a patient like you, darling"

To her when he ever mentioned dear it was the most patronizing thing in the world. It was the word she couldn't stand, and he knew it and he said it so perfectly that it made her want to hit him sometimes. She in return would say something, usually turning to her favorites 'git' , 'bastard', 'idiot, 'loon', and so forth, but she figured something that made him twitch was another form of endearment in the same tone.

To her though, this wasn't a game, at least not anymore. Recently he'd been getting thinner, and paler. She figured it was the hours, I mean they were killer, she took as much as she could, but he was a superhero taking over shifts for people and he never slept. Often times she found him dozing off in the resting rooms here in the hospital. She never dealt with people who refused help. Her friends in school were normal middle-class people, and she realized that she was privileged, so she shared it, buying the best brooms and things. With him it wasn't that way. For one thing was his clothes; she had a photographic memory when it came to remembering little details, and she swore she saw every thing on his closet and he wore it in the same pattern to avoid being noticed. It was obvious, so he was having hard times, a lot of people did, especially in medical school. People became flatmates, and she had told him about people looking for places. She'd even indirectly offered him taking her couch, he took it as a joke and nudged her before walking away for the next shift.

"Parker Emery, you eat that fucking sandwich before I hex you." she growled. "You haven't eaten all day, you've had a long shift today, I know that you did because you have so many layers of unpleasant smells at the moment, so eat the sandwich."

Her eyes softened as she put her empty cup of coffee down and pushed her beloved sandwich, that was calling her, back.

"If you don't eat I don't eat then. I've got ER shift too, just on the fifth floor, so I guess we're both running on empty unless you back down."

"Okay okay, hold on, I don't recall ever saying I hated him. Sure he's a blasted idiot, but at least he tries....er, sometimes." Parker ended, hesitating slightly and narrowing his eyes, slightly confused at his own defending of the man. There had been times he'd snapped at him in the least Parker-like fashion because of his screw ups. Parker then rolled his eyes at her defense of the birthing wing. "It's scaring. Maybe it's just worse 'cause I'm a man, I don't know. But it's also far less exciting, at least in the ER and most the other wings you don't exactly know what you have to work with. You see, it's different each time." That's what Parker loved about those other wings, they had to figure it out, use the symptoms and the clues given and use a variety of choices to fix it. You had to be quick, it was challenging, and it was what Parker felt he really needed.

His smile remained even as she glared at him. "Okay, I will say I am sorry about you having to spend so much money just to watch the movie. I don't have a tv at my house, so it's not like I could invite you." he said with a shrug, trying to mask his discomfort at even the thought of that. There had been a television at one point, though it was around when he first moved in and hadn't secured his apartment well enough, and someone had broken in and stolen it. It didn't matter to him anymore, he needed to be invested in his work and not glued to the couch like when he was younger.

"Oh please, there are a lot of things that are addicting, part of being an adult if having control and limiting yourself with things like that. I know, I know I'm in no place to talk, I practically live on coffee, but soft drinks are so much worse for you. I don't need to eat to know that- and I am not, alright, I've always been thin." he said, trying to argue back, though it was weak. He obviously was too thin, and as tall as he was, his thinness looked strange on him.

Parker leaned back in his chair as she leaned forward, cheek resting on her hand. "I hope I never get a patient like me either..." rolling his eyes at the returned endearment, which she found bothered him as much as it bothered her. It was funny the looks it got from other people when they were ever arguing and throwing in endearments at each other. It was strange, but the whole friendship if he could call it that was strange, and probably the only thing getting him through the day at his point. Even though sometimeshe wished she'd just back off sometimes. At least with no friends and no one to talk to he'd not have to keep lying and keeping up a front to seem that he was at least getting by. He didn't like or trust most people, so any offer she made to move in with anyone was a definite no. And an even bigger no from him was when she even joke about him crashing on her couch. Ha, yeah right.

When she resorted to threatening him his gave another small shrug and simply crossed his arm. "How do you know I've not eaten all day? I could have grabbed a snack at any point, plus I just had some coffee." When she mentioned the smell he furrowed his eyebrows, uncrossing his arms to bring his coat up to his nose before wrinkling his nose. "Oh hell, I need to get clean." He raised an eyebrow when she pushed her food away, saying she'd not eat if he didn't. Great. "Oh come on, don't do this..." he just looked at her for a few moments before groaning and giving in. Leaning over to grab the lunch she'd pushed over to him earlier. "Only a few bites, because honestly, I can't be throwing up along with my patients."

Tess wrinkled her nose at him defending Anderson. Not even he could believe it from the look that he gave her. She laughed softly and ignored the coke looking at her longingly, at least in her opinion.

"The ER is not that bad, I agree, but how can it be a harder time seeing it? You can't ever give birth, and when you get married at least you will be prepared and not deal with the birth itself. Don't you remember how I got sick during the first birthing video we saw? I was traumatized by the placenta, but now..now it's not that terrible. As I said, I am not having kids until....ever," She wrinkled her nose at her dealing with the pain.

"It was not that much money...okay it was" she said laughing. "But I wanted to see it, you recommended it and well..I never had anyone to tell me things about the Muggle World. Muggle studies can only show me so much, and they only taught me about electricity. Anyways, I'm getting off topic, my point is that I couldn't sleep that night, it was traumatizing and now I have that tv for no reason, and I regret it. If you want you can have it, I prefer the internet thingy you taught me" she said smiling lightly. "That's entertainment, did you know they have videos of muggles being silly? It's fascinating."

At the mention at his apartment she tilted her head. He'd been in her apartment, if only for a few minutes while she was grabbing her extra change of clothing before their long shift. He seemed uncomfortable, but fine with it. It seemed that he never forgot anything, and if he did he played it cool. She said nothing, but wondered what he was hiding that he never even look her to look at his apartment.

"You never invite me to your apartment, I imagine it to be a pigsty or something" she teased.

But at the rant about her choice of food Tess played the childish game at his chiding. She began mouthing whatever he said; she had heard the rant before about her addiction to soft drinks. She liked the sweetness of it and the fizzy bubbles. She remembered when he treated her to one, first time she ever allowed him to even get something for her, she'd bought two others and was trembling by the end of it, eyes wide, and working on the ground floor. When she crashed, she was found by Parker curled up on the couch, out like a light.

"You're a twig, if I ever had the idea of hugging you, I'd break you in half" she said sticking her tongue out. "Honestly, if you go profile form you disappear!"

She was teasing him, but his weight worried him. He worked so many hours, his skin was really pale, and he had bags under his eyes. He was worst than her, she'd lost weight, but she ate more than usual so it slowly balanced itself out. He on the other hand might as well have been a smoker the way he lost weight. He ate a lot before getting into school she figured. He looked the type.

"I know you haven't eaten because it's Friday, you have the longest shift out of all of us on Friday. Plus examination was today, that only happens once a month, not that it matters since you barely eat this time of the week. Come on Emery, I know your schedule, hell I mark it on my agenda alongside mine to know when to bother you for lunch."

Tess grinned brightly as he agreed to eat. She was a manipulator when needed and well being in Slytherin herself when in school she knew how to get her way. Parker was in Slytherin too, that's as much, or as little as she knew about him and Hogwarts.

"Black -1, Emery-0" she commented before pulling her lunch back to her and taking a bite of her sandwich satisfied.

"I don't know! Why do so many of the husbands in there seem to handle it a lot worse then their wives? It just seems to be like that." he said, tapping his fingers against the table. He sighed, hesitating before he gave his input on the whole marriage and kids thing. Some of the other guys that had gotten to talking about that stuff with him in the past took jabs at him for not having had a girlfriend or even any girl of interest in his life. "Well, lucky for me, I don't plan on getting married, or having children for that matter. I'm probably the last person that should be put around children actually, which is why I also dread the pediatric wing."

To hear her say it was a fine sum of money and that it was going to no use made Parker feel pretty terrible. When she offered it to him he rose his hand and shook his head. "No, no, I don't have time for it anyway. I'd much rather reach you how to pick out your own movies at the video store so you don't have to follow my poor judgement anymore." He smiled, "Yeah, there's a lot on the internet, hell, you can even watch tv on the computer if you wanted. I'm not the best with them though, my family never owned one when i was a kid. So you can't come to me if you ever have problems, as I've told you before."

Parker looked down at the table, tapping his fingers against the edge again. "I've never had anyone over, and I'm fine with that. and it's actually quite clean considering I'm nearly never there." he added with a small smile. "Well, except the kitchen," he grimaced, remembering the horrid state it was in after having been converted to his own personal little potions room. "that's a mess I'll worry about some other time."

Parker rolled his eyes as she started to mock him, mouthing his words. "I'm just saying you need to be more careful since your body isn't as used to it....though it probably is now." He just gave a small smile to her comment and her sticking her tongue out at him. "Oh please, just because I might be thin doesn't mean I'm that weak. Remember that big dragon-trainer guy that came in maybe two months ago? I was able to hold him off a bit when he went on his spell induced rampage long enough for someone to sedate him." Though he managed to get a rather nasty looking bruised face from that incident, Parker was able to hold his own. Not that he'd give her many more examples to prove it as it would only give away that he lived in a rather nasty neighborhood and actually had no choice but to physically defend himself if the situation arose.

Parker let out another small laugh when Tess talked about his schedule. "Honestly, Black, you really shouldn't bother at all with my schedule. You need to be more concerned with yourself."

"Oh, shut it, will you." he said as he opened up the lunch, pulling the sandwich out as he tried his hardest to eat it slow and paced.

Tess huffed and smirked seeing him eat. It was a struggle reminding him to eat, but as much as he protested he always ate like a famished human being. It scared her sometimes, but his determination about becoming a healer was what made her respect him. As mean as she was to him, she did care, and often times became a mother hen because she worried. When had she seen him drink water? It was always a cup of coffee, and a terrible smell that told her he either forgot to shower or had no time. She teased him, but she realized he basically lived in the hospital. She figured this out by his comment.

"You smell like Dittany mixture sometimes, when you come from your apartment you know" She commented. "So I suggest not to mix whatever you do in your kitchen, with any types of food."

She had a vague idea what he did; really vague. She knew that he liked potions, his gaze always trailing when some healers were working with potioneers. Sometimes he talked vaguely about something like 'It'd be nice you know to have blah blah blah' and she'd nod and tell him Well invent it you dumbo and he'd only smirk and tell her You just wait dear and I will and she'd punch him lightly before heading off to her job.

"Yes Emery I remember that time, considering you rarely let me forget it" she teased. "You were very heroic, I admit. And I remember putting ice on your face and telling you, you were a git for not being more careful. You had that bruise for the longest time, I enjoyed giving you crap over that" she said before taking a sip of her cola.

A playful grin appeared on her face as she added with a wink:

"Just think you'd be stronger if you had more meat on your bones. Maybe more women would pay more attention to you. I mean it's none of my business, but I see Julie staring at you, she's a cow, but you could get more interest from others here"

His personal life and hers were one and the same. Basically lacking. Both worked really hard, both barely slept, except she found time to eat and he, well she suspected he rarely ate unless he bet against someone or took her food reluctantly.

"I'm not that bad of a sandwich maker you prick. so stop making that face" she said before taking a bite of her sandwich.

As much as he appreciated all that she did for him, it was still a bit strange to have Tess going all mother hen him him. She was a few years his junior, still supposed to be figuring out life as 18. It was also sort of strange since Parker never had a fussy mother, she was always off working along with his father. So over summers there was a lot of sitting around alone and bored, and he had enough of that in his childhood to not want to have to do it as an adult.

Parker's lips made a thin line as he nodded at Tess' observation. He never thought anyone would have noticed anything about him really. Especially what he smelled like when he actually did go home. "Oh, don't worry, I'm careful." Careful as in there wasn't any food in his kitchen anyway because it always seemed cheaper and easier to go out an get something.

"Oh, come on, I don't bring it up that much. And thank god for bruise salves or I'd still have bruises." he said with a slight smile, remembering his pounding head and Tess scolding him as she held the ice for him. Cause he certainly wasn't able to do it himself.

He laughed a little, nervously, keeping his eyes down at the as he took another bite. "I don't want attention. Really, I'm fine with just blending into the background." Parker rolled his eyes and glanced over his should to make sure said woman wasn't standing near them before tuning back to Tess. "And she is not interested in me in the slightest. No one is. And I prefer it that way." He didn't care about the things some of the other guys might say. He needed to stay invested in his work, not worry about that stuff. He had tried to get a girlfriend shortly after graduating, shortly after having started work at Mungo's. She was French and many men would call her beautiful, but he regret it and it damaged him. So he was done with that. He didn't care if he wasn't even 24 yet.

He smiled and took another bite of the sandwich. "What? I'm not making a face! It tastes just fine, I promise."

Tess was usually oblivious to things, she would later look back and blame it on her age. During Hogwarts she was usually behind a book, and people usually not expect much from her. But when they were caught in a trap or a prank, she wouldn't realize that behind her book she was hiding back a grin. And while she was oblivious for most things, she did have little moments of clarity and one thing that caught her interest was Parker Emery.

It was probably because he kept a lot of things to himself, that she noticed the little things that he let out involuntarily. For one thing she noticed that his clothing, he usually put on whatever he found in the morning. Another thing, he smelled like different potion ingredients sometimes, not always, but when he did she noticed it, so he was a potions fan. She hadn't really said anything until they talked about their apartment.

Another thing was that as much as he said that he already ate or that he wasn't hungry, when she forced him to eat, he would eat like a starving man. It had started innocently enough with her coming back from a date and having her packed lunch. She had offered it to him and while he was reluctant he had took it and ate it like a famished man. She noticed it and innocently began to make more food and he ate it, though he'd be reluctant. Now, she wondered if his studies made him forget, or that he had no interest.

" It better taste fine, oh wait up I saw something and it made me think of you"

Looking into her bag she found the book and pushed it towards him. 'The Healer's Helpmate'. She figured that he might enjoy it, and it was a book that was a bit of a hard find, but necessary if they were thinking of getting into more serious mediwizard work.

"My dad had bought me an extra copy and I figured you might enjoy more nerdwork" she said before taking a bite of her sandwich.

While he took the last bites of the sandwich, Parker always tried to eat normally. Pace himself, try not to take too large of bites, so no one would look at him oddly. But no matter what it always seemed like Tess noticed. It always made him feel uncomfortable to eat around her. There were a lot of little things Tess seemed to noticed that he tried not to let on. There had been times when she commented on his meager wardrobe, times (like now) when she brought up how he sometimes smelled like specific potions ingredients, how the more she offered the less he wanted to take. Hell, she'd taken not of the times during the quarter he seemed to be faring worse then others, and the times in his schedule as well. He never thought he was worth that much investment of time to see those finer details.

He perked up a bit when she said she found something and when she pulled out what it was his eyebrows rose and he leaned forward in his chair, pulling it closer. "Oh wow..." he said, tracing his fingers over the cover of it. "This must have taken a while to find."

He smiled at her, though it faltered slightly. "Wait, you're just giving it to me? I-I can't just take something like this. I couldn't do that..." he said, his eyes going back down to the book as he turned it over.

Tess shook her head and sighed. Honestly, he barely took anything and yet he felt that he was a burden. A friendship with him made her think that she was the older one. He was a stubborn mule, who never accepted everything thought everything was too much, and a treat was the worst punishment that he could ever receive and now he was making a bigger deal.

"Come on Emery, just take it" she said smiling brightly. "Daddy had bought me one in one of his travels, but Mom had gotten one for me at an old bookstore. So take it, what would two copies be necessary? It'd be terrible to return it you know."

It was true..mostly. Her mother would never buy a book for her about healing, but she'd rather lie and tell him that, tell tell him that she bought a copy and her father had bought her one out of pity because of the flak she took for her choice in profession. She was going to return the book, but she thought he might want it. And a little lie didn't hurt anyone, so she smiled innocently and hoped he'd just take the lie.

Parker sighed, opening the cover and looking though the first few pages as he listened to Tess. "Yeah, I guess your right. It'd be awful to just...have to return it." He flipped through more of the pages, eyes moving over some of the text and pictures, already starting to get pulled into it. "Agh, fine." he groaned, defeated as he closed the book. He crossed his arms as he looked at her with a small smile. "Black two, Emery zero."

He leaned back in his chair again, "Consider it an early birthday gift so you don't have to worry about it later on. Okay?" he said, drawing his eyes to the book again.

"And thank you...so much, really." he added, truly thankful. Even if he had to time to look for where he could get it, he'd not have the funds. And wanting and not having the money for something he really wanted and might need was pretty crushing. Parker didn't want for much, but this would have been one of those things on his list that he really did want.

Tess forgetting her moment of lying and threw her hands up in the air and cheered. No matter how mature she acted, she was still a kid. And a victory, was always sweet in her eyes, especially if it was against Parker who made a battle out of everything. He was so gullible sometimes it almost made her feel bad...almost.

"Yes! This is the best day ever...despite the barfing and the spitting and the fourteen hour shift I have next...oh screw it I'll enjoy it now" she cheered.

At the mention of his birthday she tilted her head and looked at him. Shit, she didn't know when his birthday was. In fact, she wouldn't have even known if his birthday was coming up. She was so chatty, and he was always mum about everything, it's a miracle she even knew how he liked his coffee.

"When is your birthday by the way?" she asked curiously. "Merlin, I barely know things about you. I feel like you know more about me than I know about you"

It was meant to be a joke, but often times she forgot how true it was. But seeing him stare at the book, she grinned to herself, she at least knew he was a bookworm.

"You're welcome, dorkface"

Parker laughed as she let herself get so excited about winning. She always got so excited whenever she 'won' some sort of dispute, be it over his eating habits, swaping his opinion, getting him to do anything really. "Don't get too over the top in your celebration, we don't want to call over everyone's attention." he said with a slight smile, shaking his head as she cheered.

Parker raised his hands when she asked when his birthday was. "No need to worry it's not till summer, I'm just saying. it doesn't matter cause I don't really celebrate my birthday anyway." He rested his arms on the table and just shrugged when she said that she felt he knew more about her then she about him. "There's not much to know about me, I've said this before. I'm not terribly interesting. There isn't much to know." or...well, not much he himself even want to acknowledge about himself.

"Thank you, dear," he replied, glancing up at her with a small smirk before taking the book in his arms and standing up.

Tess liked when he laughed; it seemed to get him out of his shell. She was like him..kind of, but Victoria had fixed all that in school. Now she felt like she needed to push Parker to do more things, and go out there and be whoever he was inside his stuffy old clothes and his plain old face.

"Who cares, they already dislike us" she said wrinkling her nose.

That was true; both were kind of outcasts in a group of people in cliques, it was like Hogwarts all over again for her, not that she cared, that's what she told herself when she was ignored or insulted.

But him mentioning his birthday, and the vagueness of it brought her demeanor a bit down. He couldn't even tell her the date? He was like a Rubik's cube and she wanted to solve it, but she knew it was impossible, so she took what she could, whatever little victory she grasped.

"I know you won't be that interesting" she said smirking. "But I'd still like to be the judge of that Parker Emery."

Looking at the clock, she sighed seeing that she had to punch in at the fifth floor. She threw the leftovers from her lunch into the trash and got up following his lead.

"Whatever darling" she replied getting up as well. "maybe it can teach you how to wrap properly." she finished nudging him.

People were leaving and she knew it was time for them as well. Walking away, she turned around to comment on something.

"See you around Emery, remember to eat, and change, and sleep okay?" She said as she walked towards the elevators. "Don't forget about yourself!"

Parker smiled and nodded, yeah that was true enough. The two of them together always got looks, no one would really approach them. He didn't know how it was for Tess when she was going about work on her own, but on his own and in between patients he was going between this bet and that, trading one shift for another. It sucked, it wore him out to have to deal with people, but he had to do it. The smile remained on his face as he replied, raising an eyebrow slightly, "I'm you would like to be the judge, Black. Good luck with that."

He rolled his eyes at her, tucking the book under his arm as he grabbed the rest of the food the Tess had brought for him. When she made a quip about his poor wrapping techniques he narrowed his eyes at her. "Oh, ouch. I'd watch myself if I were you. Maybe then you could see what a shoddy stitch you have." he shot back with a chuckle as he tossed the food.

With the hand not holding the book, he scratch at the back of his neck and nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm not a baby. I'm going home after this shift, so I'll have the chance to grab some sleep and all that. Don't you forget about yourself either, Black." He replied as the doors of the elevator opened.