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It’s been a full twenty-four hours since the earthquake hit, and I’ve been running the halls of the hospital all night. It’s been a while since I did my trauma rotation during my residency, and I remember now why I didn’t choose to make a career out of it.
It’s stressful and fast-paced and rarely ends in a cheery fondle of a simple ball sac. But for now, I’ll take the discomfort and the long hours, and I’ll be thankful for them until the end of time.
Because I survived this thing without a scratch, as did everyone I love and care about, and so many of the people I’ve been working on for the last day did not.
I’ll work myself until I can’t work anymore to make sure these people get back to their families.
I check my phone for pages, and while I’m in it, I see there’s a new message from Holley and a new message from my dad. Both are checking, which I appreciate greatly, but I don’t have time to answer them now, especially since one of my dad’s reads We need to talk.
I have to be back down on the first floor to suture a laceration, and then there’s a little boy complaining of stomach pain that they desperately need someone to check out.
I’m dying to hear from Garrett, but I know better than to let myself want it. I know he’s busy, just like I am, helping as many people as he can, and that’s what I want him to focus on.
Because when the dust settles, I know he’ll be waiting for me.
And I know this because I’ll be waiting for him, too.
February 19th
Garrett
“Alexander!”
I turn back from my locker, droplets of water from my shower still dripping onto my neck sporadically. The Cap is staring me down, and I know it’s not because he wants to tell me what a good job I’ve done over the last forty-eight hours.
I know, for the Cap, we’re still back in the engine right after the quake, when he heard me call his daughter—tell his daughter I love her—before he could call her himself and make sure she was okay.
He’s running on fumes of betrayal, and he’s about to light them up all over me.
I slam my locker closed and raise my chin, prepared to face the music.
For Lauren, for the relationship we’ve built, for the respect the Cap has always shown me—I’m more than ready to hear everything he has to say and then some.
He deserves that much. For the daughter he raised, he deserves everything.
“Yes, sir?”
“Get your ass in my office. Now!”
I nod, moving swiftly and without delay. He slams the door behind me and rounds his desk to lean into it. I’m not sure if he’s put it between us as a power move or as a tool to prevent his own urge to commit murder from taking over.
I move to stand behind the chairs across from him and wait.
“Sit down,” he orders, but I shake my head.
“Respectfully, sir, I’d rather stand.”
“Respectfully, huh?” he asks, cynicism ripe in his voice. “I might understand if you knew what the real goddamn definition of that word was, but you’ve made it very fucking clear you don’t.”
I nod. Not because I agree with him, but because he deserves to say his piece without me making any excuses.
He stares at me for a long moment, and then finally, asks the question I know has been rolling around in his mind on a constant loop since the earthquake hit.
“How fucking long have you been dating my daughter behind my back?”
I tell him the truth. “Just over a month, sir.”
“A goddamn month.”
“Yes, sir,” I assert again.
He shakes his head, his cheeks turning a ruddy red as he gets more and more worked up. I stay silent, hoping he’ll give me the opportunity for a rebuttal when he’s ready, but apparently, he’s well past that stage of anger.
“You’re done.”
“Sir?”
“You’re fired, Alexander!”
I take a deep, gasping breath in through my nose and slowly, ever so slowly, let it out. I can tell by the wild look in his eyes that no matter what I say, no matter what I do, it’s not going to be enough.
So, instead, I nod.
When he speaks again, his voice is soft and raw, the battered hurt of a man betrayed by both his daughter and a friend.
“We have to trust one another out there, and I can’t trust you.”
“I understand, sir.”
His eyes widen slightly, like maybe he didn’t expect me to take it this way, but I’m already on my way out of his office when he calls my name again.
“Alexander.”
“Yes, sir?” I ask, looking back over my shoulder.
“Let her go. Let her find someone who deserves her.”
I shake my head and set my jaw.
“I’m sorry, sir. But, that, I can’t do.”
