After seeing the pilot reaired on Lifetime tonight, I just had to get this out of my head. Thanks for reading.
Salvation
It may have been her first day as an intern, but it was also the day he'd fallen in love with her.
When he'd come out of Katie Bryce's surgery and spotted her sitting in a chair outside the operating room, exuding glorious exhilaration, he'd known. He'd known then, at that moment, by simply staring at the rapt amazement on her face, that she was going to be something special to him. Sure at the time he hadn't been the reason for the wonder in her expression, but he'd found that just observing her experience it had filled him too with a sense of awe. His eyes had softened, crinkling at the edges, and he'd given her a soft smile. He had been trying to look casually supportive, as if to hide the truth; the truth that he had instantaneously become deeply committed to putting that expression on her face time and time again in the future.
She'd said that the surgery was a high, and he had to admit that every surgeon probably felt that way. He certainly had felt it was on his first days. But what he hadn't realized until that moment was that somewhere along his journey, it'd lost its magic. He'd done his job and done it well, had never complained and had remained positive and energetic, but he'd forgotten the spark, the passion and exuberance from within. Had it been a sign from above that the day he'd noticed her in his hospital, looking innocent and befuddled, was the day he'd gotten it back? The wild beating of his heart told him it was.
He'd told her the night before that momentous day that he was just a guy in a bar. What he'd neglected to mention was that he was a broken man, a desolate one, a man on the brink of inner despair. He was a victim of infidelity and broken trust, guilty himself of negligence and insensitivity. He was a cad and a fatality, housing a myriad of complicated emotions that could not be described in such simple terms.
But the simple truth was, when he'd looked at her, when he looked at her still, nothing else mattered. Maybe he'd subconsciously known then, on that fateful night, that he need not tell her anything more about himself because she would be the one to heal him. She'd be his salvation. It must've been the case, because that next day upon seeing her pure elation, he'd made a promise to himself that he'd be hers.