The sky is dark and foreboding. Leaves skitter restlessly across the parking deck as Dr. Dana Stowe steps out of her car. It is a cold morning, the air hinting at snow to come. And sure enough, as Dana walks to the doors of the Rittenhouse Women's Health Center, the sky lets loose the first few perfect snowflakes. All of Philadelphia will be a winter wonderland by the end of the day.
Nick Biancavilla paces the lobby of RWHC nervously, alternately putting his hands in his pockets and crossing his arms. He is waiting for Dana to arrive so that he could ask for a consultation on one of his patients in the ER. Or rather, he had been waiting for an excuse to see her, and has finally found it. But now he isn't so sure it was a good idea. After all, it has been only a few days since he and Dana broke up. She had wanted to settle down, have children. Nick had thought that she was being rather selfish. Now he realized that he had been the selfish one, and regretted it with all his heart. He had given up the best thing he'd ever had.
Dana enters the clinic. "Morning, Lana. Any messages for me?"
Nick looks up, flustered. There she is. And to think she had been his not a week before. How could he have said no to her? What had he been thinking?
"Nope, but you've got Mrs. Henderson for 9:30, so you'd better hurry!" Lana answers.
"Thanks, Lana!" Dana grabbed Mrs. Henderson's chart, and starts walking towards Nick. She nods as she passes him, but keeps walking. Nick, shaken out of his reverie, holds up his chart, but it is too late. Her office door closes in his face. He turns around to find Lana looking curiously at him.
"Lookin' for somethin'?" Lana asks, a smirk on her face.
"Uh, no, just..." Nick trails off.
"Mm hmm?" Lana asks, adopting an innocent look.
"Well actually, I uh, wanted to consult Dana- er Dr. Stowe, but uh, you said she has a 9:30, so um...yeah. I'll get it later." Nick clears is throat, avoiding Lana's eyes. "Can you, um, have her give me a call...?
"Sure thing," Lana smirks again and turns back to her computer.
Dana sits down at her desk with a sigh. It is too early in the day to feel the way she's feeling. WHY did she and Nick have to work at the same hospital? It's so difficult. She knows that he had wanted to ask her something, but she had ignored him anyway. She wanted him to think that she didn't care, that she could live without him. That he was just another man to her.
'But maybe he wanted to talk...maybe apologize. Maybe he changed his mind!' A small voice in her head said. But no, Nick had said that he wasn't ready for a family. She couldn't expect him to change his mind just like that. But she missed him. Missed him so much that it hurt. She closed her eyes, took some deep breaths, and prepared herself for another day without him.