November 26th, 1888 — Jamie's Shack, The Hebrides
James MacFusty

"No, I said three weeks," she said, for perhaps the fifteenth time just that week. It had been exactly two weeks since she'd found Jamie injured, drunk as a lord and bleeding from nearly every limb. Over the nearly four months they'd interacted on a regular basis, Bella had called him nearly every name in the book: stubborn, reckless, hard-headed, prideful, but not stupid - or, at least, she'd never truly meant it. Today, however, she meant it.

"You're stupid if you think you can wrangle a bunch of toddlings like - like this," she said incredulously, her hands motioning to the bandages she'd re-wrapped just that morning. "No. Absolutely not. I'm not letting you go. You'll get yourself killed - or worse, maimed." (Not that she'd rather see him killed than maimed, but she was fairly confident he'd rather be dead man than a cripple.)

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— MJ is MAGICAL —

Jamie couldn't help the growl that left his throat at Bella's words. He had been enjoying her almost constant presence since his accident but now it was just wearing on his nerves. He had to get back to work. There weren't enough of them that worked with the toddlings for him to take so much time away. All that mattered was that his wounds were mostly healed, definitely not a threat to be reopened, and he could move his arm and shoulder just fine. He was good to go but she was clearly blind.

"And what makes you think you can stop me from going?" he questioned back, his tone not loud but clearly not pleased. He shook his head as he pulled his linen shirt back on and began to work at doing the buttons up. "I've got to go back," he added simply, no longer looking at her, "I've been gone too long. Some of the guys have families and they need to get back to them." He didn't. Not in a sense that mattered at least.

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Yay Bree Set!

Scowling at his dismissal of her concerns, Bella immediately took to unbuttoning his shirt, effectively undoing his work. "I tended your wounds. I know how bad they were - how bad they are." she said with a huff. "I'm not listening to your nonsense. You're staying here, and that's final." Though she understood his concerns the other men, they'd never have him back if he got himself disfigured or killed.

"You may not respect my medical opinion, but I need you to respect your body. You can't tell me it's ready to get back on the field." The wounds were healing, yes, but they were still tender; one wrong movement could lead to a tear, which could lean to an infection...

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— MJ is MAGICAL —

Jamie growled again as she made quick work of undoing any progress he had made before batting her hands away and standing up from his chair. "You don't get to make this decision, Bella," he said bluntly, looking her right in the eye, "You're not my wife or mother." He was a grown man that lived on his own for Merlin's sake, he could do as he pleased.

He started to work on the buttons of his sir again, his gaze breaking from her then. "And I am respecting my body," he added gruffly, "It's telling me I can't lay about being a lazy arse any longer or I'll go insane." And that was perhaps putting it lightly. Even after just one week he'd started going stir crazy. He'd even started cleaning the shack.

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Yay Bree Set!

Deep breaths. Her face went red—whether from embarrassment or anger, she wasn't sure—but she didn't falter; she took a step closer to him, her chin nearly brushing against his wrists as he tried to re-button his shirt.

"I'm not your wife, but I am your nurse," she fired back, her thick brows knitted in frustration. "You ought to be glad I didn't ship you down to Hogsmeade Hospital myself. I'm sure you would have loved the arm restraints." Because he'd have needed them; the Jamie MacFusty she knew wouldn't survive three days in a real hospital without trying to escape.

"And besides," she said, lifting up his shirt to examine his bandages—a task easier said than done given his insistence on getting ready, "if you were to go now, you'd have no choice but to take me along. I know where you work," she said with a threatening glance up towards him.

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— MJ is MAGICAL —

Jamie's patience was being severely tested by Bella in that moment. Which, surprisingly enough, had last a lot longer than it normally would have. Had this happened months prior or with anyone else, he'd have simply disappeared by then. It was annoying though, especially when she made statements as to being his nurse. "I nev-," he started to say, about to tell her he hadn't asked for her to be his nurse. He'd simply allowed her to be. He wasn't about to admit out loud that he was grateful she had. If she hadn't, someone would have found out and he'd been stuck with one of the healers of the family and they weren't always all that fond of Jamie.

But, as it was, her final comment had him stopping dead in his tracks. After what had happened on the island, after he'd nearly died, the last thing he was going to allow was for her to accompany him again. There was no way about that. Bella would not be allowed out there with him again. "You'll not be allowed on that island ever again if I have anything to say about it," he said bluntly, his eyes burning into the top of her head as she tried to inspect the wounds by lifting up his shirt.

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Yay Bree Set!

He might have been a Taurus, but there was no way Jamie MacFusty could out-stubborn her on medical matters. There was no way he was oblivious to the dangers; he was merely restless, and furthermore, he wanted to prove his point (which, she thought, was one of the male sex’s greatest faults).

“There’s no way you can stop me apart from staying with me,” she said with a proud smirk. “Because the minute you go, I’ll be two steps behind you."

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— MJ is MAGICAL —

Jamie returned her little smirk with a seething glare. She'd won this one, there was no way about it. No matter how much he wanted to get back to work, he wasn't about to let her step foot on that damned island again even if it was with him. Simply put, he'd haul her ass back any time she might think to show up there.

"I'll give you one more week," he ground out, his glare quite serious, "But you'll promise me that if I do, you won't step foot on the island again." He was deadly serious and he'd not balk on that. The new batch of toddlings were clearly not to be messed with and he'd be damned if she was anywhere near them.

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Yay Bree Set!

She knew it. She knew she could make him stay, albeit with stipulations.

"Never again? Ever?" she asked, brows quirked. That didn't seem like a fair trade—one week in exchange for eternity? While she'd never deny that the islands were dangerous, she didn't consider herself so reckless to put herself in the line of fire of three or four toddling dragons! Surely Jamie didn't think she was. "But what about Dagda? I'd very much like to see him again," she complained, jutting her bottom lip into a puppy-dog pout.

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— MJ is MAGICAL —

Jamie crossed his arms over his chest and continued to give her a rather pointed look as he nodded when she echoed his words of never. He wasn't going to budge on this even if she did look a bit adorable with her pout.

"Never," he repeated, "Dagda won't be there much longer anyways." He had a few more months at most before he was being put to a vacant area to claim as his own territory. Maybe at that point he'd think of taking her to see him but he wouldn't be taking her to the toddling island to see him again no matter how much pouting she tried to do.

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Yay Bree Set!

Bella harrumphed. It still wasn't fair, but she supposed she ought to compromise if she had any chance of getting Jamie to stay put. "Fine," she said, her pout deepening, "but you must promise not to overexert yourself when you do return to work. If there's any immediate danger, let the others manage it. I don't want anything happening to you—and I mean that as Bella, not your nurse."

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— MJ is MAGICAL —

Jamie's features softened just slightly as she agreed with a pout to his conditions. They'd both won a little bit this time which was strange on itself. He wasn't really the type to concede to anything really. Changes were happened thanks to her presence and he really wasn't sure how to take it.

But when she said what she did about it coming from her and not a nurse, he couldn't help the small smirk to grace his features our the way he slid his hands around her waist to pull her up against him. There was a twinge of pain in his chest as a result but he ignored it. "Is that so?" he said with a teasing tone, "And why would that be?"

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Yay Bree Set!

Though her feelings for Jamie—whatever they may be: attraction, protectiveness, infatuation—had existed for many months, it had been a mere month or so since she'd begun expressing them. Bella had shared affection with a select few men before, and though she'd experienced kisses and tender touches before, she wasn't used to a man's suggestiveness. (And Jamie, she thought, was the most shameless flirt she'd ever met!)

She flushed pink in response to his touches, momentarily unable to move a muscle before angling her upper body away from his. "Well, someone has to find meat for the pups," she said—no, squeaked. The pups were the easiest scapegoat she had; they were something both she and Jamie cared about, and something she and Jamie shared responsibilities with. Unfortunately, it was a scapegoat she'd overused in recent months.

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— MJ is MAGICAL —

Jamie chuckled at her initial reaction, the way her cheeks flushed pink and how she tried to angle away from him as best she could without actually pulling away entirely. It spoke plenty to him and in ways she likely didn't realize. He wasn't holding her overly tight, after all, and he'd made it clear to her that he'd never actually force her to do anything she didn't want. Pulling her against him the way he had was no different. If she'd wanted to truly get away, she could have. He'd have let her. But she hadn't and that had him grinning in a way he didn't often do.

"Sure, Bella," he said, that grin slipping into something of a smirk. Her angling may have prevented her body from being pressed against hers but it also opened up her neck to him and he soon ducked his own head to place a few quick kisses and maybe even nibbles against the tender skin at the base of her throat. "Are you sure it doesn't have something to do with this," he whispered in a more than suggestive tone as his lips trailed up to her ear before pulling back just enough so that he could look her in the eye again.

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Yay Bree Set!

She struggled to hide her emotions, but Bella was nothing if not expressive. The corners of her lips were forced downwards as she tried to suppress a smile, making her pink cheeks go round. His grin was stupidly charming, and she—an unmarried woman—was stupid to fall for it.

“A-Absolutely no-not,” she faltered as his lips went to her neck. Stupid, stupid Bella, was all she could think, her body unconsciously leaning into his touch. “What kind of woman would I was motivated only by...” Pleasure, attention, a man’s touch. (A happy woman, she was sure, but she wasn’t shameless enough to admit it.)

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— MJ is MAGICAL —

Jamie's grinned widened as she stuttered her response, her cheeks brightening that much more as a result. She still hadn't pulled all the way from him and instead seemed to be leaning back into him. It brought a chuckle from his lips as he dipped his head to kiss along her throat again.

"I think you're lying to me," he said as his kisses trailed down to her collar bone, his hands tightening slightly at her waist and pulling her closer against him all over again. If she were going to entertain him in such ways again, he might even be convinced to still around more than just the one extra week.

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Yay Bree Set!