That night, Trent had his usual nightmare. He dreamt that he was alone, as a child, in his old room in the late afternoon. Trent read a lot as a child, so as usual, he was reading on his bed. His dream-self looked at the clock and noticed that it was late evening. His parents weren't back from work yet. Young Trent crawled out of his bed and headed downstairs. The house was quiet, which wasn't unusual. And just like always in this repeating dream, there was a knock at the door as he was halfway down the stairs. Trent rushed to the door, and flung it open. There stood two sinister looking figures. 'Your parents are dead. You're coming with us, little boy. We'll take care of you.' The two men laughed, and laughed loud and crackling.

Trent awoke in a sweat, heart pounding. He hated these nights, when his past haunted him like this. Trent got out of bed and wandered his dismantled bedroom. Kicking an already broken picture frame into the wall, he knew he wasn't going to get anymore sleep that night.

"Good morning, Trent!" Elli chirped in a sing-song voice as she came through the door.

"Morning, Elli," Trent replied from his desk in a less than cheerful tone.

"Are you alright?" Elli asked, sounding concerned.

"I'm fine. Trouble sleeping 's all."

Oh. Alright. Well, I hope we don't have a very busy day then. You take it easy."

"I'll try," Trent smiled. He thought to himself, '…someone cares about me, at least…'

The day went on without many patients. Claire came in again, this time with a headache. To Elli, this sounded like a poor reason to come the clinic. 'She probably just wants to see Trent,' she thought to herself with a pang of jealousy. Elli sat very quietly at her desk while Trent was examining her, trying to overhear any conversation. Claire mumbled something that Elli couldn't catch but then she heard Trent say, "Oh, er, no thanks, Claire. I've been terribly busy lately. Maybe some other time." After a few minutes, Claire emerged looking disappointed and flustered. She mumbled a goodbye to Elli and hurried out without another word.

Trent came out a minute or so later. "Is she gone?" he asked glancing around, looking worried like Claire might tackle him or something.

"Yes," Elli giggled, "she's gone. Why?"

Trent turned a little red, which made Elli giggle again.

"-er. She asked me… if I wanted to go to the fireworks with her tomorrow night. I kind of figured she had an ulterior motive. A headache is not important enough to come and see me for."

"…Well… what did you say?" Elli asked cautiously.

"I told her no, of course." Trent replied, matter-of-factly.

"…O-of course?"

Trent looked down to his feet and brought a hand up and ran it through his hair nervously. "Well, yes 'of course' because… I wanted… to ask you to go with me," he said without looking up.

Elli gasped, shocked at what she heard. Many thoughts ran through her mind at that moment… 'wait, he likes ME. There is no way… am I dreaming…. I MUST be.'

"Uhh- uhh," was all Elli managed to stammer.

"Y-You don't have to go with me if you don't want to…" Trent said, sounding disappointed.

"No! I'd love to go with you!" Elli replied, after gathering her raging thoughts.

Trent looked up and met her gaze, looking relieved.

"Great, then it's a date. After work tomorrow, we'll head over to the docks."

"I can't wait!" Elli tried not to squeal.

"Nor can I," Trent responded, trying not to look too excited.

That night, the butterflies in Elli's stomach kept her from sleep as she anticipated the next day. She finally fell asleep after a long while. She woke up, dressed and headed to work. The day crawled by. They only had one patient in the morning. Elli tried to keep herself busy by filling bottles and cleaning up around the clinic. Trent also seemed to keep himself occupied. He sat at his desk trying, and failing, to fill out some paperwork about a new medicine he wanted to keep in stock. Finally getting tired of the silence, Trent spoke.

"Elli, umm, could you look on the bookshelf behind your desk? I need the latest medical journal please."

"Sure, just a second!" Elli hopped up, grateful to have something to do, especially something that required talking with Trent. Elli stooped and grabbed the large book from the shelf and lugged it to Trent's desk.

"Thank you, Elli."

Elli glanced at the forms that Trent was hunched over. She couldn't help but notice the tone of his arms, and how the muscles in his hands moved as he wrote. Her gaze followed his skin up to the hems of his lab coat sleeves, up his arm and up to his face; she noticed his brow furrow as he flipped through the pages of the book, and his messy hair that stuck out over his forehead, and his eyes that were a hard, dark brown looked up and met hers.

Elli blushed and looked away quickly, hoping that he didn't catch her staring. Hoping to lighten the situation, Elli said, "Er, so. What are you doing exactly?"

"I'm trying to decide if this new medicine is worthwhile to stock here. It seems pretty solid to me so far, but I'm just double checking everything."

"Okay. Is there anything else that you need done before we close?" Elli asked turning to glance at the clock, which read 3:30.

"I don't think so, Elli, I think we're ready for tomorrow." Trent replied, smiling at her. Elli's stomach did a flip when his eyes met hers again.

Elli nodded, turned, and went back to her desk. A round of butterflies hit her stomach again, and for a moment, she thought she was going to be sick.

After the two closed the clinic, they started off towards the beach. Elli had changed from her usual dress and apron into a loose fitting blouse, shorts and flip flops. The doctor also changed from his lab coat into similar attire, except he wore a polo shirt. It was a hot, humid evening, perfect for a trip to the beach. On the way, the two chatted casually about the goings-on of the town. Trent filled Elli in on the small town gossip that she missed while she was at school.

"How was school, by the way?" Trent asked inquisitively.

"It went really well," Elli replied proudly.

"It seems like you learned a lot, you've really done well at the clinic."

"Thank you."

"Have you ever thought of becoming a doctor?"

"I have, I'd really like to someday. But…"

"What's stopping you?"

"Well, I would have gone straight into medical school after nursing school was finished, but I had to come back here. It's Ellen… I just can't stand for her to be alone. I mean, Stu is there, but he can't do anything if something happens. He's still too young… I have the motivation to be a doctor, that's for sure…"

Trent looked solemn. "What' that?" he asked curiously.

"I want Ellen to be better. I want to cure her," she said quietly, "it isn't fair. She has been robbed. And I want justice for her sake."

By this time, they had arrived at the beach. Trent and Elli searched for a place to spread their blanket. Trent whispered to Elli, "Let's find a place a little farther away from the crowd, okay?" They headed down the beach, away from the docks and found a nice spot, without any people. They spread out their blanket and sat down. Trent sat with his legs stretched out, leaning back onto his palms while Elli sat cross legged.

"Did you always want to be a doctor?" Elli asked.

Trent's face hardened again and he turned away looking down the beach. He sat up, drawing his legs up and wrapped his arms around his legs. After taking a breath, he cautiously replied. "Yes. I've always 'wanted' to be a doctor. Both of my parents were doctors, so I guess you could say I'm genetically dispositioned to be one." Trent gave half a chuckle before continuing. "I didn't know any other life. As a child, my parents were always busy with work since we lived in the city; they were a little too busy, perhaps. They didn't make much time for me when I was young. But I didn't know any better." Trent paused, took another breath and went on with his story. "Anyway, one day when I was 13, I got home from school and went up to my room, like I always did. The house was empty, as always. It got later and later and they weren't home yet. I was just really starting to get worried when there was a knock on the door. Two people were there. They took me away and told me that my parents had died in an accident. They took me to live in a boarding school for boys and I stayed there until I started college. And at that point, I was determined to become a doctor, to carry on their unfinished service."

After he finished, Elli just sat quietly. Trent remained tense until Elli finally spoke.

"I'm really sorry to hear about your parents."

"It's okay."

"Did their death not affect you personally?" Elli quietly pried.

"It did. I was devastated for the longest time. I just couldn't understand why they had to die. They weren't doing anything wrong."

"…but you're better now… right?"

Trent didn't respond.

"…I…umm. Well, your room…" Elli spoke cautiously, not wanting to upset Trent like she had on the day she met him.

"It haunts me, Elli. You don't understand. It won't leave me."

"What does, Trent?" Elli moved closer, putting her arm around him. Surprisingly, he didn't shake it off.

Trent sighed, "I just… I just don't feel like I'm doing enough for them. I mean, I know we didn't have much of a relationship, but I can't help but feel like I owe them something."

"Oh, Trent, you do so much! I mean this may not be the city, but you are such a help to these people! I know they are grateful for what you do here. And it's alright to feel a little guilty, but it shouldn't control your life. You are doing more than enough for them. And wherever they are, I'm sure they are proud of you."

Trent looked up, and met her loving gaze. Elli could see that he had tears in his eyes. "You really think so?"

"I know so. Who wouldn't be proud of their son who became a doctor and helped so many people?" Elli smiled.

"I guess you're right. Thank you, Elli. You're the first person I've ever been able to tell my story to. Thank you for helping."

"No problem, Trent. I'm glad I could help," Elli smiled and felt her heart swell. It felt good to help the man she cared about more than any other. Elli squeezed him and sat back up. Trent leaned back to how he was sitting before.

"I think the fireworks are about to start," said Trent.

"Oh, good!" Elli leaned back to sit like Trent. She gasped when she felt Trent's hand move over hers. She blushed and looked up to catch the first firework exploding into a burst of blue and green. Another one followed immediately, this one purple and yellow.

"They're beautiful!" Elli exclaimed, turning to look at Trent. Trent returned her gaze. "They are, Elli, but no more beautiful than you." And with that, Trent leaned towards Elli and gently kissed her. Elli returned his kiss passionately. When they parted, Trent gently pulled Elli towards him, and they watched the rest of the fireworks together with her in his arms.