Title: Highway of Heroes – Part 1

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Code Black, this is for entertainment only.

Pairing: Ethan/Rox

Summary: This is a short fluff story I started to write after Hell's Heart, I wasn't going to finish it until I watched the last two episodes. I love this show and really did enjoy finial however the timeline was all a little off for me, overall, I am so happy that Ethan and Rox got a happy ending.

X~X~X~X~X

I served with distinction

No visions of glory

I served without question

Or personal gain

Seek no justification

It's not part of my story

And it offers

No comfort to the ones who remain...

X~X~X~X~X~X

11:21 pm

Leanne watched as the tall paramedic seem to drug herself toward the bay doors, the day hadn't gone to plan, and it was late even for them. "Hey," Leanne said.

"Hey," Rox stopped, standing next to the bench that Leanne rested on. "He didn't get back to the house." Rox held up Ethan's bag.

"It's been a long day." Leanne emptied the last of her coffee pushing herself to her feet as she did. "He's in the lounge."

"Thanks," Rox swung his bag over her shoulder.

"It didn't end well," Leanne called after her.

X~X~X~X~X~X

He heard the door push open and hoped that it would be one of the residents coming for coffee and like the others would take the hint and leave. It was the bang of something hitting the floor that caused him to lift the arm covering his eyes just enough to see who it was. "Rox?" Ethan's voice questioning as he let his eyes adjust to the light.

"You didn't come back to the house."

Taking her in for a moment, her hair out, dark, almost black jeans and a knitted pullover. Her face expressionless as she stood next to his bag that held his change of clothes, as if a new set of clothes could change what happened today. Somehow make it better, like it never happened. "Sorry," It didn't seem like the right thing to say, but he wasn't sure what was. He guessed that Rox knew the two kids didn't make it and that's why she'd come.

"There wasn't anything we could do."

"What are you doing now?" Ethan suddenly sat up

"I was going home."

He'd stayed at the hospital because he didn't want to go home, he didn't want to be alone with his thoughts right now. "Come for a ride with me?"

"What?" Rox's tone was laced with confusion.

"Let me take you somewhere."

X~X~X~X~X~X

"You right?"

Rox nodded and wrapped her arms around his waist waiting for Ethan to pull the bike away from the curve, she couldn't remember the last time she was this nervous. Nor was she sure what to do, he'd barely spoken since they'd left the Angels, while she had never heard him discuss anything personal with anyone it wasn't a problem they had. He'd talk to her about everything.

Now she found herself with her arms wrapped around him and her helmet resting on his back as she watched the lights flick by with no idea where he was taking her. The lack of control relaxed her, she let go of her thoughts and enjoyed the wind rushing by, the warmth and closeness of Ethan. She could feel him relaxing more the longer they rode, the further they got from the city.

Rox felt the bike slow as Ethan took the exit and almost immediately slowed further as they started up a back road, his left hand leaving the handlebars for a moment, Ethan's arm resting over hers and his covering both her hands, squeezing them and pulling her slighting tighter into him.

"Here," was all Ethan said as he pulled the bike to a stop in a makeshift carpark at the top of a leveled off mountain, he waited for her to get off the bike before he held out his hand to take her helmet, placing it next to his on their seats.

"My god, it's beautiful," Rox said standing at the edge of the cliff looking out at the city lights below.

"I remember the first time Robert told me about this place; he sounded so happy ... He called it his road to nowhere."

"I can see why," She felt him come up behind her, close enough that she could feel the warmth coming off him, but not quite touching.

"He would sit up here for hours writing in his journal; he said he felt like he didn't have to worry about the world, didn't have to be a part of it."

"How long did you live in LA?" Rox turned her head back slightly to look at him, see the sadness in his eyes.

"Never, I only got transferred out here two years ago, Robert had been here a few years before ..." Ethan stopped talking as his voice ever so slightly started to crack. Rox felt him swallow hard before he continued. "My Dad wanted the best for us, that meant moving up the ranks, and that meant moving house ..." He paused and smiled almost to himself, "a lot."

"That must have been hard?'

"You get used to it, and, we always had each other." Ethan looked at Rox and really smiled, she wasn't sure the last time she'd seen him actually look happy. She watched as the light returned to his eyes as he continued. "It was like an adventure, new places new friends. We were in Fort Drum in Jefferson, Fort Knox Louisville ..."

Rox raised her eyebrows at him questioningly?

He smiled and just kept talking. "In Kentucky and Fort Riley and Leavenworth in Kansas."

"Leavenworth?" Rox laughed, "where was your favorite?"

"Puerto Rico, we were only there for a few months ... it was like a long holiday, a fantasy almost." Ethan turned back to look at the city lights below, "Mom would take us to the beach, or we'd go walking in the forest and the houses, I remember the houses. They were all bright colors, every one of them painted differently, like nothing you see here."

"It sounds amazing ... how old were you?"

"Seven and nine, Robert loved it." It was at that point that Ethan tried to turn his face away from her, hiding she guessed as the sad vale and some unseen weight returned to his face. "It all changed after that."

"Changed?"

"Mom got sick, at first it didn't seem real. Like it wasn't happening, but we were kids, and it was just another move, everything was normal; until it wasn't anymore."

"And suddenly you had to grow up fast?" Rox had known that for herself, knew what that does to your childhood and just how much it follows you.

"We moved to Fort Bragg; it had the Womack Medical Center. I didn't know that at the time or didn't understand ... it was the longest we ever stayed in one place ... Six years." Ethan stopped and focused back on the city lights. "Dad changed, he became what he was at work at home. He had expectations, and for me that was okay ... I could handle it ... but Robert ... Robert was different." It was then that his voice finally cracked and he stopped long enough to swallow the lump in his throat.

She just wanted to wrap herself around him, wanted to make it all okay, to fix this unknown problem. Take the pain away. "Ethan ... it's okay we don't have to- -".

"He'd always find somewhere like this in every place we ever lived," Ethan cut her off. "Somewhere he could go and write in his journal, somewhere no one knew about." Ethan swallowed hard again. "His safe place."

"When you told me about Robert, you said he was having a good day." Roxanne paused, "Robert wasn't killed in the war, was he?"

Ethan simply shook his head in response "I wasn't there, I wasn't here for him ... I wasn't even being a doctor, not a proper one anyway ... I was off at Colonel school." Ethan dropped his head, focused on his hands, "when he needed me Rox I wasn't here."

"Robert ... the suicide today? ... Did they find him here?"

This time Ethan just nodded. "He wasn't a soldier. He was a poet, and he should never have been anywhere near a war, only we didn't give him an option ... it's the family business."

"You didn't do this Ethan. You didn't make him do anything."

"I did ... he followed me, he always followed me," Ethan turned back to her. "I could have gone to medical school anywhere; I didn't need to enlist to do that. If I'd gotten out, taken a different path ... Robert could have too."

"Ethan." Rox lent over and pulled him into a hug. "This wasn't your fault."

"I should have been in LA, I knew about the PTSD ... I thought he was doing better ... I didn't protect him."

Rox wasn't sure if she should let go of Ethan, she knew something was wrong as soon as they were called to the kid in the car, only to discover it was two and already too late for one of them. He shifted and withdrew into himself; he wouldn't leave the hospital, when she returned on her next run, he was sitting next to the bed of the younger of the two teenagers.

"Show me his house," Rox knew it was important to him, and now she knew why he couldn't change it.

"You've seen the house."

"No, I mean really show me the house, what did he want to do to it?" Rox pulled herself back from him "what you're doing for him?"

"Here." Was his only reply as he handed her back her helmet.

~X~X~X~X~X

Thank you, looking to have the next part up this week.