Only Us

Sarah Reese was struggling to find herself when she met Connor Rhodes, her patient, who happened to be as lost as she was. Rheese AU.

Chapter 1.

Sarah was late again, she couldn't believe this was happening, it would surely cost her, her job this time. No matter who her Uncle was.

She made it into the clinic just in time. She'd be seeing her first few patients of the day in 5 minutes.

"Who's in?" Her Uncle's voice carried down the corridor as his assistant trailed behind him.

"Sarah and April." She heard Maggie say. "Oh alright." Daniel smiled. "We'll do with what we have."

Sarah bit her lip. She was young but not naive. She'd wanted to be a doctor since forever, but it was proving to be extremely difficult.

She'd be out of a job if it wasn't for her Uncle. Who'd also happened to paid for her to attend medical school.

"Sarah, April…" Maggie called for them, April smiled at Sarah reassuringly.

"Yes Dr. Charles?"

"I have got quite an interesting case for you today."

Sarah fought the urge to roll her eyes, usually his teaching moments came with almost impossible tasks. "We've got a new patient coming in and I'd like you to take a look at him."

April nodded. "You're going to exam 4." Maggie added with a wink. Sarah and April walked over as they were handed his chart.

Connor Rhodes, 30. Cerebral Palsy.

"Hi, you must be April." A woman said as they came in, there was no sign of Connor. "I'm Claire Rhodes."

"Nice to meet you Miss Rhodes." April smiled. "This is Dr. Sarah Reese."

"Hi Sarah…I can call you Sarah, right?" Claire asked kindly, Sarah nodded. "Connor is… well, late I guess. I swear he always does this…"

"It's alright." Sarah said. "We can wait a little."

Claire smiled. "He's just, you know, going through some kind of phase? I don't even know what to call it..."

Sarah could relate. Her mother had thought her wanting to go into practice with Daniel was a phase.

She'd wanted her to be a psychologist.

"Are you talking about me again Claire?" A voice said behind them, Sarah turned around to meet Connor's blue eyes. He was tall, although the crutches he used made him curve a little bit down. He was wearing sweatpants and a black shirt. Another man followed him.

"I'm just preparing these poor girls." Claire smiled.

"Oh, don't worry, we've seen it all." April replied, eyeing Connor as he made his way over to the bed, the man behind him took a step forward.

"Jay Halstead, nice to meet you." Sarah and April introduced themselves, as Jay helped Connor up onto the bed. "I'm here to make sure he behaves himself."

Connor rolled his eyes at him. "Alright, I have to go, you've got this, right?" Jay nodded as Claire said her goodbyes. "Thank you again, I'm guessing we'll see each other around?"

"Let's get this over with." Connor said wearily, he then added. "Sorry, I didn't mean you, I'm sure you are very nice." Connor told the girls, April shot Sarah a look.

"Connor, come on, it's day one…"

"I've had a lot of those in my life." Connor said to Jay, looking up as April asked him a few questions and began to work on his legs, she was just testing how much movement he had. Sarah stood beside her. "So, Connor, you just tell us if it hurts, alright?"

Connor sighed. It was clear he'd done this many times before. "How are we doing here?" Daniel asked, peeking his head inside. "Jay, is so nice to see you again, how's Will?"

"Oh, he's good, he and Nat just had a new baby, though he's not sure how he's gonna manage diapers and school loans."

"I hear you." Daniel smiled. "Connor? I'm trusting April and Sarah here have been doing a good job."

Connor smiled. "For sure."

"Good, I'm gonna go, but you keep up the good work and we'll talk later?" Daniel shot Sarah a look and then left.

Time seemed to move pretty fast as Sarah focused back on her patient. She'd watch as he winced and bit his lip, he'd clearly was a bit tense, Jay had informed them he'd left PT for a while and his muscles were a bit stiff.

April then asked him what he did for a living and he'd admitted to be a writer, then Jay made some remark of his books and Sarah made a mental note to check them out. There was certainly something intriguing about Connor and not only about those deep blue eyes.

After her first evaluation, Sarah said they'd set up a schedule for him and work it out with Daniel.

"Thanks Dr. Reese, I'll make sure he's here Wednesday…" Jay said shaking Sarah's hand and handing Connor one of his crutches. "April, thanks again."

April smiled as both girls watched them walk away. "Don't tell Ethan I just swooned over one of my patients, he'd say that would be unprofessional." April joked to Sarah. "And if he saw him, he'd totally be jealous."

Sarah made it home early that day, she had to walk Bass or the dog would go nuts. She took her phone and walked down her street.

As she listened to music, she tried her best to shake Connor from her mind. She'd made her first assessment of his condition but April had noticed there were scars on his legs and they weren't surgical ones.

She wondered what had happened to him, Daniel hadn't gone into a lot of detail and Connor himself had seemed weary over having to tell a story he'd probably told many times, to every doctor he met.

"Ah, the prodigal Rhodes returns." Will opened the door for Connor and Jay. "How was PT?"

"You don't want to go there bro." Jay smiled wearily.

"Oh, I thought Dr. Charles would be a good option." Will said, eyeing Connor.

"He's great, we're just having a bit of a day." Jay replied.

"Would you please stop talking about me as if I wasn't here." Connor glared at them.

"Oh, hi guys, I didn't know you were back." Natalie said, getting a hold of Emma as she went. "How did it go?"

Connor rolled his eyes at her. "Oh, that bad huh?"

"I'm gonna go, before you all start…." Connor told them, Natalie gazed at Will. He then turned around towards his room.

He'd left PT for a reason and he didn't want his friends to treat him like a child. He'd agreed to meet Dr. Charles for Claire and Natalie's sake.

Even so Jay and Will would stop badgering him about it. "Connor?" It was Natalie. "Can we come in?" He'd tossed his crutches to the side of the bed and sat on it. "It's just me and Emma."

She opened the door when he didn't reply. "Hi."

"Hey." She put the baby down on the bed as Connor grabbed her little hand.

"So…It wasn't the worst, right?"

"No, but I wish everyone would get off my back about therapy." Connor retorted.

"It's important… you can't just stop Connor…"Natalie said with a small smile.

"I can stop if I want to." He shot back.

"Really? So, you can get depressed like last time? No, we love you too much to let you do that."

I'm getting myself into trouble again! Check this one out guys, it's a really close one to my heart as I take on from my personal experience dealing with CP. Let me know what you think! :)

Also, give a listen to the song the tittle is based on. "Only Us" From DEH. It's the perfect Rheese song!