Chapter Text
The two men currently sitting across himself and Hank at the dining table were supposedly fresh into the business world, but Boris suspected they had more experience than they were letting on. No one with that little of influence should have been able to land as many deals with high-level companies as they did.
James Duchin, obviously the leader of the two, spent time in the army and came out with a pristine record and a set of medals to match. The other man, Karl Jump, the more business savvy out of the group, grew up in a small town in Kansas. Nothing out of the normal was listed in his history except that he had managed to get into MIT before the age of 17.
Mr. Duchin was a fairly common looking man of average height but with a muscled body, presumably left over from his time in the military, while Mr. Jump was taller and more lean with a pair of glasses to match. Regardless of their differences, Mr. Jump and former Lt. Duchin seemed to make an excellent team. Which is why they were here.
Boris had wanted to throw the two men off, to unsettle them. As far as they knew, they were planned to arrive this evening and go straight into a meeting with Boris and a few people from his board of directors. Instead, they were thrust into a dinner with himself and Hank. If he was going to give these people control of a portion of his assets, then they had to be able to think on their feet. Even after a six-hour flight.
Of course, Hank took it with stride. Within the first course of dinner, the doctor had managed to get promises from both Mr. Jump and Mr. Duchin that they would look into donating to a number of medical related charities including: Jill's free clinic, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, and Alex’s Lemonade Stand for Childhood Cancer. It was good to note that Hank was easily getting these two men to bend to his will. Not that Boris could blame them, Hank had that effect on people when he was talking about what he was passionate about.
By the time dinner was over, everyone was relaxed and Boris was confident in his vetting of James Duchin and Karl Jump. The two men were to stay in separate guest rooms in his house for the night and rest for a real meeting that was now scheduled for tomorrow evening.
----------
With the two men now sent up to their rooms, and both Boris and Hank relocated to a lounge, Boris turned to Hank, who yawned loudly. “You seem overtired, Hank. Perhaps I should have sent you up to a room as well?”
Hank made a dismissive motion before replying, “I had to stay up all night with a patient shortly after you left the guest house yesterday and we were all booked up with appointments today. I took a nap at lunch though, Boris. It’s fine, really.”
Boris gave Hank a small frown. He should know by now that Hank’s own health and comfort come second to his patients’. This would simply not do, he would have to make sure his doctor got enough rest. How he was still upright and maintaining conversation was a miracle unto itself. “Stay the night here, Hank.” Hank was about to protest, but Boris continued, “I insist, it is the least I could do after you made me dinner yesterday. It is nearly the middle of the night and the walk back to the guest house is long, especially considering the two glasses of wine you had.”
Hank hated it when Boris made sense. Instead of agreeing, he simply said, “That was a good Bordeaux.”
Boris nodded his head before standing, “Let me lead you to your room, Hank.”
----------
Hank guessed this definitely beats the last time he stayed the night in Boris’ main estate, the last time he had felt more like a popsicle than a person. And he had stayed in Boris’ room. Which at the time seemed fine, but later he felt guilty for basically kicking the man out of his own bed.
He’d just got done texting Evan that he wouldn’t be home tonight again, although he forgot to mention that it wasn’t for a patient this time. Evan tended to get over excited about things involving Boris. His brother had the world’s hugest man crush on Boris, mostly because of his money but probably also because of the whole shark-in-the-basement thing.
Hank had just gotten ready for bed and was about to settle down when he heard a loud thump and a shout that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Without even fully realizing he was doing it, he was out of bed and into the hallway outside of his room. The shout couldn’t have been very far away with how loud it was, so he was assuming it came from the guest room next to his that held either of the two men from dinner tonight.
He was about to call for one of Boris’ security when he heard another yell. Although this time it didn’t sound angry.. it sounded in pain. Letting his doctor instincts take over, he was opening the door he thought the shouts had come from.
The doctor wasn’t expecting to be confronted with a very haggard-looking James Duchin. The lamp was on in the far side of the room, but this still left long shadows all over the room, one of which Mr. Duchin was hiding in.
Trying not to startle the man, Hank calmly said with his palms raised, “James, I’m Hank Lawson. We met at dinner, do you know where you are?”
James still didn’t seem to notice Hank and he still had a gleam in his eyes that Hank guessed was terror. James must be suffering from sort of PTSD and woken up from a nightmare.
Just as Hank was going to try a different approach in reaching the man, one of the security Hank was going to call earlier kicked the door the rest of the way open from where Hank had left it partially open.
This seemed to make things worse for the former Lt. Duchin, who was now moving to the very corner of the room and sinking to the floor.
James seemed to now know that they were in the room, but was quickly determining them as threats. The security member who was trying to put himself in front of the doctor had his gun out and aimed at the man still secluded in the shadows of the room.
Just as Boris and more security show up, Hank was quickly trying to defuse the situation. “James, these men aren’t here to hurt you. They heard you shout in your sleep and that’s why they came in running.”
Boris watched in both horror and confusion as his doctor tried to talk to who seemed to be Mr. Duchin. He had awoken when he heard the yelling and promptly searched Hank’s room, only to find it empty. Which was when both he and his security moved to looking in Mr. Duchin’s room.
Hank obviously knew something about the situation that everyone else was missing as he continued to talk to Mr. Duchin. There was obviously no one else in the room to be the cause of the yelling. Soon enough, all the commotion also woke Mr. Jump who was currently trying to get between Boris and Uriah. Mr. Jump stated with urgency, “He’s not going to hurt anyone, he’s just scared. His wife told me that he gets like this when he forgets his medicine.”
Understanding drew over Boris and he quickly motioned for his security to lower their weapons, but none of them put their guns fully away. Hank tried to quickly reason with James again before anything else happened. “Karl is here, James. He wants to see if you’re okay.”
The doctor was now moving from behind the large security guard in front of him and slowly making his way towards James in a harmless posture. Boris had tried to stop him by grabbing onto his shoulder, but received a heated glare in return. Boris knew that some people like Mr. Duchin were likely to get dangerous in these types of situations, but Hank was a doctor and seemed to know what he was doing. Letting Hank go to the man in the corner went against every instinct inside of Boris, but he had to force himself to accept that Hank was needed by James Duchin at the moment.
Hank slowly made his way to James, who Hank noted was in a very defensive position in the room where he could see everyone. This must be very overwhelming for him. Not only had he woken up seemingly without knowing where he was, he was surrounded by men with guns.
When Hank reached the man in the corner, he crouched down and talked lowly with him. No one in the room could hear what he was being said besides James, but soon enough Mr. Duchin was rising with Hank and being lead to the bed.
As soon as his head hit the pillow, James was out like a light. Boris was quickly trying to move Hank away from the room and Hank let himself be lead away, but only after saying, “Your men can put their guns away now.” Of course, no one listened. So, he continued, “Not that I think he’s going to be waking up or even that he was dangerous in the first place, but I could give him a sedative if I can get to my bag.”
Boris hesitantly agreed.
As soon as they were out of the room, with Boris’ security and Mr. Jump still watching over James, Hank said, “You should still do business with them.” Boris lifted his eyebrow in response, but Hank continued, “I know that’s what dinner was about.”
Boris nodded, “I have met men before who suffer.. from their past. It does not make them bad people. This event was not going to change my mind about doing business with Mr. Duchin. He and Mr. Jump seem to be excellent at what they do.”
Hank gave a small smile, “Good.”
Dieter, who was somehow still in a suit at this hour, took that moment to show up with Dr. Lawson’s medical bag. Hank promptly took it and went back into Mr. Duchin’s guest room. When he came back out, everyone else followed to let Mr. Duchin get his rest.
Mr. Jump gave his goodnight again and Boris was leading Hank back to his room when the doctor started laughing. Boris gave a surprised face, but Hank explained before he had the chance to ask, “Sorry, Boris. It’s not that I haven’t seen you out of a suit before, but I’ve never seen you with bedhead.”
Boris merely raised his eyebrow and refrained from laughing along, his reply was a small smile and a, “Goodnight, Hank,” before turning away.
He had never seen Hank in such a state either. Low hanging sleep pants and bare feet suited his doctor well.
Although, Boris had to wonder how Hank was able to so easily get Mr. Duchin settled. It seemed that his doctor had practice dealing with soldiers, it seems that every day Hank likes to further complicate Boris’ puzzle.