My Own Way

Chapter 7

And I'll be awful sometimes

Weakened to my knees

I'll learn to get by

And I'll learn to get by

On the little victories

And if the world decides to catch up with me

It's a little victory.

Matt Nathanson, Little Victories

Disclaimer: I own nothing, not the characters nor the song.


I hadn't realized how different the hospital would be without my attending.

Doctor Nond had only been gone a day and I noticed almost immediately that people were treating me with a little less respect, especially those of the male gender. I had been called 'sweet cheeks', 'hot stuff', and 'sugar' by a bunch of leering older attendings, patients, and even the guy who rang up the food in the cafeteria. Plus, I now received slaps on my ass by surgeons and a few wolf whistles from the guys down at radiology. I'll admit that I was pretty creeped out from it all and it may have even caused a little bit of nausea. I hadn't realized that people at Mercy General were that disgusting.

Ian Stone had also been taking advantage of my attending's absence. Over the course of the first twelve hours without Doctor Nond, the surgeon had managed to lock me in the deserted morgue (I was forced to page Teddy to release me), knocked all my charts out of my hands, super glued my locker closed, and even tripped me in the hallway. All I know is that it had to be a slow day in surgery. There was no way he had that much free time on his hands to torture me like he did.

Don't get me wrong. Tailing Doctor Cooper was turning out to be a worthwhile experience. She showed me how a woman doctor handled the heavy workload of the hospital and even taught me how to deal with some of those leering patients and fellow co-workers (a simple threat involving the removal of their genitals always worked according to Doctor Cooper).

I guess I just was feeling a bit overwhelmed. I hadn't realized how much sexual harassment Doctor Nond had really been shielding me from and now I was being bombarded by it.

My mom, Aunt Kel, Emiko, and Alanna had warned me about it. They had told me how tough it would be to pursue a career that up until recently was entirely populated by men. I had listened to them, of course. But, when I got to Mercy General my only true problems were Hill and Stone and that's because they were the only two men in the entire hospital who had the balls or were stupid enough to defy Doctor Nond. I got comfortable with my mirage of what a perfect work environment for a woman like me should be. Unfortunately, this mirage was now slowly fading away and reality was setting in.

Reality sucks. I thought, as I slipped on my powder blue scrubs top in my empty apartment.

It was the night before Thanksgiving Day and I had volunteered to work a twenty four hour shift starting at eleven P.M. I was one of the few doctors who had no family to return home to for Thanksgiving celebrations, so I was the perfect candidate for what was going to be a hellish shift.

After getting fully dressed, I made my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth and do my hair. For once, all the tiled surfaces in there were crystal clean. I had scrubbed everything down yesterday after I came home from my twelve hour shift. Hill and Teddy had left directly from the hospital to return to their parent's homes for the holiday. So, I had decided to take advantage of their absence and tidy up the apartment for the first time in a while. I hoped that the cleanliness would last at least for a couple of days. I missed my old, spotless apartment that existed in the pre-roommate days.

After finishing up, I returned to the kitchen to pop in two pieces of bread into the toaster that I would be eating for my post dinner snack. While waiting for the white bread to turn golden brown, my eyes scanned my deserted apartment until they landed on my place's current blemish. I winced just thinking about how it got there.

Next to the door leading to Hill's room was a gaping hole in the wall. It was only two days old and it had occurred the night after our disastrous shifts.

Hill had arrived at the apartment forty five minutes later than Teddy and I. I had purposely left without him at the hospital without a ride back, so he had to walk all the way. Of course, the bastard had the audacity to be pissed off at me.

"You do realize that we live in L.A. and not some magical land where there are no murderers, rapist, and thieves, right?" Hill said angrily, as he burst into our apartment.

I met his gaze coldly from across the room.

"Really? I had no idea," I replied sarcastically, putting down my slice of cold pizza that had been leftover in the fridge. I needed my hands free to do battle with Hill. "Well, at least you still made it here safely, though the only person in the world who is happy about that is your mommy. Unfortunately, since she had the pleasure to pass you out of her uterus, she's forced to give a damn about you."

"Oh, that's ice cold," said Hill and faked a shiver. "What's up your ass Queenscove that you decided to give me your royal queen bitch treatment?"

I stared at him incredulously and then burst out in bitter laughter.

"You're kidding me, right?" I questioned him with my hands now on my hips and felt my own temper surge. "Or are you really that stupid?"

"Oh..." Aidan's voice trailed and recognition dawned on your face. "You're still angry about that?"

I was seeing red now.

"You got my attending suspended and you implied to a bunch of our co-workers that we sleep together!" I bellowed at the top of my lungs. "How would that not piss me off?"

Teddy chose that moment to exit the bathroom. A towel was covering the lower half of his body, exposing his string-bean-like upper body. Unfortunately for my fellow intern, he wasn't muscular whatsoever.

"You've been working out there, eh Jeslaw?" asked Hill tauntingly with a smirk in Teddy's direction. Teddy just stared at him blankly. "Because I can really see the tone and definition of your abs, it's like I'm looking at a body builders in those magazines for men who try to keep it all in the closet."

Teddy looked at him with wide eyes and then began to babble,

"Are you implying that I'm-"

"Yes, yes I am," Hill cut him off with a serious tone.

"You're avoiding the original subject Hill!" I growled at him. I had had enough of seeing Teddy getting tortured. The poor guy needed a break for once.

"Fine," Hill said with a sigh. He sounded like a kid who was just told he had to eat his vegetables or there would be no dessert later. "Run along back to your room now junior. Mommy and Daddy are in a little tiffy," Hill sneered at Teddy. "But don't you worry, we'll all still be a happy family in the morning."

Teddy remained rooted to the spot and I was wondering if he was trying to muster up the courage to fight back against Hill. I wished he would. It would be amazing to see that insufferable jackass getting put in his place by the meekest intern in the history of Mercy General.

Unfortunately, this didn't happen.

"Go! Go! Go!" Hill suddenly shouted, which made Teddy jump and then scamper away to his room. "Kids these days," Hill shook his head, before turning back to face me.

I wasted no time jumping back down his throat.

"You really have a lot of nerve. Who do you think you are for implying that we slept together?" I cried. "Do you know how embarrassing that was for me and how much people are going to talk about it now?"

"Implied? I wasn't implying anything," Hill said with an evil smirk. "Queenscove, I don't know if you are suffering from short term memory loss, but we did sleep together. Twice in fact."

I knew Teddy was listening through the door.

"You heard nothing Teddy!" I shouted at him. "You got that? Because if I hear that you repeated this to anyone, your parents are going to have to come down to the morgue to identify your body after I ripped into a million little pieces."

Teddy gulped.

"Y-yes ma'm," he stuttered. "I heard nothing," he added.

"Good boy," I muttered under my breath and then suddenly it was back into the fighting arena. "You're a filthy bastard Hill," I shouted at the other man, "and if I didn't have to make rent next month, I would throw you out of my apartment on your ass right this second."

He scoffed.

"You would never do that," Hill challenged me. "You enjoy our sympathy sex as much as I do, even if you won't admit it."

My eyes narrowed.

"I enjoy nothing about you, Aidan Hill, especially not the sex," I informed him harshly. "Sleeping with me will never take away the fact that you're insensitive, cocky to the point that you're hazardous to yourself, and, without a doubt, you are the biggest ass I've ever had the misfortune of meeting in my entire life!"

"Ouch," Hill muttered, before staring me straight in the eye, "but that doesn't change the fact that you knew all of that about me and yet, you still slept with me," Then he added with a mischievous glint in his eyes, "Twice."

"I was drunk the first time, you ass!" I shouted at him. "And the second time you blackmailed me into it!"

"You could have said no the second time, but you were insistent about protecting your dirty little secret," My gaze snapped up. Was he really going to drag that into the argument? For his own sake, he better not. "Hit a nerve didn't I?" The nauseating smirk had returned again. I felt like ripping it off his face with my bare hands. "Yes, you had sex with me all because of him and how much did it really help you in the end? Maybe you should have just let me spill the beans. After all, you're no closer to having him now, than you were then." I glared at him with pure loathing. "Stings, doesn't it?' Hill added mockingly.

"Shut your mouth," I snapped.

"Someone sounds a little defensive," Hill said in a sing-song voice.

"Someone is about to have their face smashed in," I shot back darkly.

He laughed and I felt my insides turn cold. I might have said it before, but it was true. Hill really did have the worst laugh I've ever heard.

"I love it when you make threats," Hill told me with that damn smirk.

"What? You don't think I can carry them out?" I questioned him. "Because if I ever did then that smirk would be wiped right off your face, permanently."

"Try me," Hill challenged me and looked clearly amused. "Or are you going to call up Doctor Nond to punch me again?" I snarled, which only seemed to make Hill want to egg me on even more. "Little Emma Queenscove, who can never fight her own battles, has to have the big, bad attending finish me off for her like always."

That did it for me. A rush of fury overtook me. Not only because he implied I was weak, I came from a family of strong women and that was one of the biggest insults anyone could dish out to me, but what really made my blood pressure rise was that Hill's words had reminded me what he had taken away from me today. He took away my teacher, my life line at the hospital, and Doctor's Nond most recent unofficial title, the man I wanted to have more than a student-teacher relationship with. My attending was suspended and his career was jeopardized on account of this pathetic excuse for a human. I had to get payback for both of us.

It took me only a few seconds to decide how I was going to get this 'payback' from Hill. I made quick notes on my surroundings as my Aunt Kel had taught me to do in every fight. I was standing in my kitchen and there were a few dirty glasses and plates on the counter, left there by my piggish roommates, who expected, since I was the woman , to do all the cleaning.

I was going to use my surroundings to my advantage.

Before Hill could even blink, my hands grasped wildly for a plate and I then chucked it at my insufferably roommate. He yelped, before jumping backwards. Unfortunately, the dish landed a foot short, but not before shattering all over the floor.

"Have you gone insane?" Hill hollered at me.

I ignored him and picked up another dish. With all the strength I could muster, I hurled it at him.

This time, Hill stumbled in his backwards retreat. It did not stop the coffee mug from catching my fellow intern in the stomach, knocking the air out of his lungs in the process, before shattering on the floor. I watched as his momentum took him backwards until he hit the wall. A loud bang resounded before all that I saw was Hill's legs sticking out of a gaping hole in the wall.

There was silence in the apartment for a moment. Hill just laid there, probably in pure mortification, or maybe he was unconscious. Who knew? And most importantly, who cared?

Finally, Teddy stuck his head tentatively out of his bedroom door to check if the coast was clear, before emerging all the way. It took him a second to spot Hill.

"Is he okay?" he asked me, his eyes wide in fear.

"Who cares?" I shot back coldly. Hill had really pissed me off this time. I could still hear the words he had said, implying that I was weak, echoing in my head and I didn't like it. "If he's unconscious don't even dare to ask me to drive him to the hospital. I won't do it."

"But-"

I was already walking to my bedroom.

"Goodnight Teddy," I said, before slamming my own door behind me.

The popping sound coming from my toaster interrupted my train of thoughts and brought me back to reality. It took me a second to realize that blood was pounding in my skull and my hands were gripping the kitchen counter so tightly that my knuckles were turning a pasty white color.

I took a deep breath to get my emotions in check.

I can't believe Hill has managed to piss me off even when he's not here. Damn him. I thought with a scowl.

After buttering my toast so harshly that I left a mess of crumbs on the counter, I was ready to go to work.

The drive to the hospital was short and uneventful, though I did nearly choke to death on the piece of toast I was eating while I was making a sharp left hand turn. Luckily for me, there were hardly any cars on the road at such a late hour, so I didn't have to worry about swerving a little as I hacked up my food.

In my first weeks of being on an intern, I quickly realized this little tidbit about Mercy General. It might be a little creepy looking during the day with its old fashioned fifties architecture, but that didn't compare about how spooky it looked at night. This same tidbit still applied, as I entered the woman's dark and deserted locker room to store my knapsack into my own personal locker.

Maybe it was my overactive imagination, but I swore it was like a scene out of a horror movie. I was the innocent little girl, who was strolling casually into the same room that the murdering psychopath had slipped into moments before. However, this wasn't a movie. There could possibly be a psychopath lurking around the woman's locker room.

You are acting like a lunatic, I thought disdainfully towards myself, but I quickly shook that insult off.

It was just like Hill had said two nights before. We were in L.A., not some magical land free of murderers, rapists, and thieves. You could never be too careful.

My racing thoughts made me so paranoid that, before even turning my back to open my locker door, I actually checked each and every one of the shower stalls to make sure there was no knife wielding killers waiting to strike. For the record, there weren't and yeah, I know I was acting a little off my rocker, but better to be insane than dead, right?

After slamming my locker door shut and high tailing it out of there, I made my way towards the nurse's station at the ICU. My patient's charts, along with Doctor Cooper's and Doctor Nond's, were there waiting for me. I had more than a customary full patient load tonight and it was going to be terrible. Plus, I could literally hear Doctor Nond and Doctor Cooper screaming bloody murder at me if I let one of their patients die. I had to be at the top of my game.

Unfortunately, I was not expecting for my current nuisance to be waiting for me at the nurse's station.

Doctor Ibn Alhaz was one of those people at the hospital who decided to reveal their true colors to me in Doctor Nond's absence. He was a fourth year resident, who was born and raised in some foreign country that thought women were second class.

Doctor Ibn Alhaz believed that since I was a woman and a doctor, I was the dirt beneath his feet. He would purposely ridicule me, call me by demeaning names like 'woman', and what was most annoying, he unloaded his patients on me.

What surprised me was that he didn't mind the nursing staff so much. His opinion of them according to Salma was that the nurses were doing trivial work compared to doctors like himself, so they were automatically in a lower class where they belonged.

"Guess who is practically running this place tonight?" Doctor Ibn Alhaz grinned at me tauntingly.

I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"Hopefully not you,"

The resident scowled, but it was soon replaced by that same infuriating grin.

"Sorry woman, it's me," he announced proudly. "There are no attendings here tonight and since I am a fourth year, I get the honorary title."

"Congrats, do you want me to throw you a celebration?" I shot back sarcastically and tried my best to ignore him calling me 'woman'. The bastard refused to call me by my name and it pissed me off to no end.

The resident glared at me.

"I need you to cover some of my patients," Doctor Ibn Alhaz said, cutting to the chase.

"I already have more than a full patient load," I argued fiercely. "There is no way that I can take on all of your patients on top of Doctor Nond's and Cooper's. Please, for your own patient's sakes, just chose another day with more doctors at the hospital to be a lazy jackass. Could you do that?"

The resident rubbed his chin thoughtfully, as if he was truly considering my words.

"I don't want to," he said, before taking a stack of charts off the counter of the nurse's station and dumping them into my hands. I staggered a little under the weight, before managing to stand upright. "Have fun woman,"

"My name isn't woman! It's Doctor Queenscove, damnit!" I yelled at his retreating form.

However, Doctor Ibn Alhaz didn't even bother to turn around to acknowledge me. He continued walking straight out of the ICU.

Bastard.

"I can't believe this," I muttered to myself, as I placed the pile of charts unceremoniously on the countertop of the nurse's station.

I began leafing through them all to see what was wrong with my newest batch of patients, but before I could get too far, I was interrupted.

"That guy is such a jerk."

A voice made my head snap up. A nurse stood behind the counter and was throwing me a sympathetic smile. I noticed right away that she was very pretty. The nurse had wavy, black hair, and long bangs that went straight across her forehead. Her eyes were a green-hazel color and were framed by long eyelashes that must make a lot of the nursing staff envious. All in all, this nurse looked like she should be a model or at least a trophy wife for a rich business man.

"Yeah, he is," I agreed. "He would never pull that stunt if there was an attending here tonight."

"You're Emma Queenscove, right?" the nurse asked me.

"Yep, that's me," I nodded. She must be up on her hospital gossip. It seemed like everyone here knew my name or who my father was. "What's your name?"

"Karoline Conte, but you can just call me KC," the nurse replied.

"Conte?" I repeated, completely flabbergasted.

Roald Conte was the current mayor of L.A. He came from a long line of Conte's who have served as our city's mayor over the last hundred and fifty years. The Conte family had an elite status in this town and according to the gossip magazines, they were rolling in money.

"You thought you were the only celebrity here, didn't you?" KC laughed, when I nodded numbly. "I do have to thank you, though. The limelight and hospital gossip about me has greatly diminished since your arrival."

"No problem... I guess," I muttered. "So, are you the mayor's daughter?"

What I really wanted to ask was why, if she had so much family money, was she here instead of lounging by a pool with a margarita. It didn't make any sense why she would chose a nurse's life over a life of pure comfort and stability.

"Nope, I'm his niece," KC told me and before I could ask another question, she rambled on. "You probably are still curious on why I'm working at Mercy General, instead of taking weekends on my family's yacht, right?"" It was like she had read my mind and all I could do was nod. "Don't worry, it's not rude. Everyone always asks.

"Well, I guess it all came down to me being slightly insane," She grinned, as if to show she was a maniac, "plus that cliché everyone in the medical business falls back on. You know that whole 'desire to help people thing'."

I smiled and before I could a get a word in, she was talking again.

"I'll tell you one thing that I don't tell many people," KC lowered her voice and became more serious. "My family hated the idea of me working here." I felt my eyes widen. That's exactly what I was going through right at this moment! "But, I convinced them eventually how much I love it here and how rewarding this job truly was. They accepted me in the end. Thank God. I don't know what I would do without my crazy family, you know?"

I nodded. I knew too well. I felt the familiar feeling of gloom and a little envy towards KC creep up on me suddenly, but I quickly shook it off. I couldn't let my emotions get the best of me this early in my shift.

"How'd you get stuck on such a crappy shift?" I asked in an attempt to change the subject and get myself in check.

"Oh, I'm not working a twenty four. Thank goodness," the nurse informed me. "I'm out of here at eight in the morning." KC sighed wistfully. "I couldn't imagine missing Thanksgiving with my family. I don't get too many chances during the week to see my nieces and nephews, so tomorrow will be a perfect, stress free day."

"Lucky," I muttered and despite my best efforts, the gloom and envy were back again.

"You're working a twenty four?" she questioned me.

"Yes, unfortunately," I left out the part where I had volunteered to work this shift, since I had no family to eat holiday dinner with.

"Bummer," KC said sympathetically. "Do you want me to help you out with those patients?" She asked brightly. "That sure is a whole lot for one intern. Not that I don't think you couldn't handle it, of course, KC added quickly.

I laughed softly, not offended at all.

"Thanks, that would be really great," I told her.

The night ended up going smoothly. KC was by my side the entire time, helping me with my patients, making jokes about the jerk doctors and surgeons, and we even had coffee together in the cafeteria at 3 A.M.

I knew I was making a new friend. It was hard not to like her. Even though KC was a little chatty, she was really witty and clever, plus we had so much in common with the whole celebrity-like status. It was a good change to talk to someone that could relate to me.

Unfortunately, at 4 A.M. I got a harsh slap in the face.

My pager went off after I checked the vitals on my sleeping patient Mrs. Craig, who had a heart arrhythmia.

The message was short and simple: MVA. Three teenagers. ICU. Need to be stabilized.

I dashed out of Mrs. Craig's room and back to the ICU, where there was a flurry of commotion. Three bloody bodies were being rolled in by EMTs and the few night nurses that were on staff. There was only one other resident in sight.

Crap.

One nurse shouted at me over all the noise,

"We have one in v-tach. The paddles are already charged doctor."

Someone thrust the paddles into my now sweaty hands as I stood over the bruised and battered form of a teenage girl. She couldn't be any older than sixteen and she was dying before my eyes.

Get a grip on yourself. My brain screamed at me.

"Charging at two hundred fifty watts," I announced and swallowed my fear. "Clear!" I shouted over the whine of the heart monitor.

The body thumped up on the bed, but there was no change in the unnaturally fast heart rhythm.

"Raise it to three hundred," I barked at a nurse, who obliged immediately. "Charging at three hundred! Clear!" I shouted again.

No change.

"Come on, come on," I growled. "Give me three hundred and fifty," I demanded. The paddles charged and once more I pressed them to the girls chest. "Clear!" I yelled.

The whining of the heart monitor stopped. The girl's heart had returned to normal rhythm. Relief hit me at once, but it didn't last too long. I had more work to do.

"Okay," I snapped at the two nurses standing next to me, "I want that head wound stitched up, push 100mgs of morphine, and then get her down for a full body CT scan. Check for a head injury, possible concussion. I want the results within the hour."

I moved onto the next bed, where they seemed to be having a little more trouble. This patient was a male, who looked a little older than the first girl. A jagged piece of glass stuck out of his left arm, while his right leg looked like a bomb had ripped through it. I could see it was an open compound fracture from a shard of the femur puncturing his skin.

"The airway is blocked, doctor," a nurse informed me hastily. "We need you to intubate him."

I grabbed a laryngoscope and got to work clearing the airway. A few moments later we had the kid hooked up to a plastic bag, where a nurse was squeezing the air he needed to survive into his lungs.

"He needs a CT scan to look for internal bleeding. He probably broke a few ribs and there is the possibility of a ruptured spleen. Also call an orthopedic consult for that mangled right leg of his, and stitch up that laceration on his arm," I ordered to the nearest nurse, who nodded.

Two and oh, I thought and felt my confidence peak slightly at my little victories, not bad.

"Doctor Queenscove, I need your assistance over here!" the resident shouted.

Immediately, I realized I had gotten the luck of the draw, patient wise. The resident had gotten the worst of the three car crash victims. The last patient was another girl and she looked horrible.

Unlike the other two patients, this girl wasn't unconscious. She was screaming in agony, but the sound was muffled by the oxygen mask across her face, plus the blood that was frothing in her mouth. She had to be choking on it.

The worst of it all, the part that made me want to vomit right there in the middle of the ICU, was that her legs were only bloody stumps from the knee down. I had never seen anything like it.

"Ejected from the car, no seatbelt," a nurse explained to me quickly with a tone of sadness and pity.

"She's losing too much blood!" the resident shouted at me, but before I could move forward to attempt to stitch her up, the girl's eyes rolled to the back of her head and the heart monitor began to whine.

Her heart had given out.

"She's crashing!" I bellowed and the crash cart was quickly wheeled over to the resident. He placed the pads down on the girl's bloody chest, making me take notice for the first time of the several large pieces of glass that were protruding from her stomach.

I knew right then that there was no way in hell that she was going to live. Her body couldn't take all of this anymore.

"Heather! Heather! Oh my baby!"

Shit, who let her mother in here?

A woman, who was dressed only in her night clothes burst into the ICU. She ran for her daughter's bedside, sobbing, but two nurses blocked her way.

"Ma'm, you can't get any closer," one nurse begged, but the mother knocked her out of the way.

"That's my daughter damnit!" she screamed, before two EMTs grabbed her roughly by the arms and dragged her backwards.

"Charging three hundred and fifty," I heard the resident shout over the chaos. "Clear!"

The whining continued and we all knew then that the girl was truly gone.

The resident sighed wearily, flipped off the heart monitor, and put the paddles down in defeat.

"Call it," a nurse said softly while staring at the body. She looked as shocked as I was.

"Time of death, four fifteen," he announced dejectedly, before snapping off his latex gloves and walking away. I quickly realized that he was leaving me with the body and the mother. Damn him.

"Where the hell are you going?" I growled at the resident, but he didn't turn around. He kept on walking.

The EMTs had let the mother go and now she was clinging onto the broken and dead body of her daughter. She was sobbing uncontrollably and didn't even care that she was getting her daughter's blood all over her clothes.

I was the only doctor in the room and I knew I had to do something.

Damn, I wish Doctor Nond was here right now. He would tell me how to handle something like this. I thought miserably.

"Ma'm?" I said softly, after approaching her from behind and putting my hand on her shoulder.

"Get off of me!" the mother screeched and knocked my hand away.

"You need to let go now," I told her gently. "Let me take you to a private room."

I knew I was sounding insensitive, but I needed to do something. This had all caused way too much of a scene.

The woman was still sobbing hysterically, as I guided her by the hand away from her daughter's body, which was now being wheeled to the morgue. We rounded a corner until I reached an empty room. I let the girl's mother take a seat. She let out a moan filled with pain, before bursting out into tears again.

"Heather, Heather, Heather," the woman mumbled repeatedly.

"I am so sorry," I began awkwardly. "I can't imagine how you must be feeling right now-"

"No, you don't." Heather's mother snapped. "You don't know anything you stupid bitch!" She howled at me. "Stop harassing me with your fake pity! I don't want it!"

"I'm just trying to make you feel better." I pleaded.

"How can anything or anyone make me feel better at this moment?" the woman snarled. "I just watched my daughter- my own fucking daughter- die before my eyes. How would that make you feel, if you saw the person you love the most die right in front of you?" I stood there, frozen. I had no clue how to respond to that. "Answer me!" She demanded.

"I... I... I honestly don't know."

Heather's mother laughed bitterly.

"Of course you don't," she told me. "So don't you dare try to sympathize with me! Just get out of here! Leave me the hell alone!"

I nodded numbly, before stumbling out of the room. The nausea from earlier was back once again and it took me thirty seconds to find the nearest women's bathroom. I somehow managed to get to the first stall and then unloaded my stomach's contents into the toilet.

I heaved until there was nothing left to come out and, then I just collapsed against the stall's wall and cried. I had never seen so much pain in my entire life. It was too much, almost unbearable.

I must have cried for five minutes straight, before I heard the bathroom's door open.

"Emma?" A hesitant voice called out my name. I recognized that voice at once. It was KC.

"Yeah?" I responded miserably. I wiped under my eyes with the back of my scrubs sleeve before getting up off the floor and exiting the stall.

I immediately spotted KC standing in the doorway. She looked tired and disheveled. Her beautiful black hair was all out of place and her purple scrubs had stains of crimson blood on them. So much had changed since I had met her five hours ago.

"Are you alright?" She asked me. Her bright and bubbly personality was overshadowed by her concern for me and sadness. I had spotted KC there amongst the commotion. She had seen Heather die also.

"No," I admitted. There was silence in the bathroom and then I let out a moan, "She was so young." I gripped a sink for support, as images of a legless Heather and her sobbing mother filled my head. "It wasn't fair!" I suddenly cried out angrily and my right hand slapped the tiled wall twice. "God, it just wasn't fair."

I felt KC grip my shoulder, as I rested my head in a defeated manner against the cool wall.

"This is the worst part of working in this business Emma," she told me solemnly. "Death is always there, lurking, waiting, and it will take anyone, even a girl as young as Heather. You've got to be prepared for that, always vigilant, or it will knock you on your ass every time, just like it's doing to you right now."

I knew KC was right and I was glad for the first time that it was her who was consoling me tonight and not Doctor Nond. As good as it would be to have my attending tell me what to do when all those patients were crashing at once and what to say to Heather's mother, I didn't want to look vulnerable and weak in his eyes. I liked keeping up my strong woman image.

I turned around and without warning, I hugged her. I know I just met her a few hours ago and I usually don't rush these kinds of thing, but we really had connected. We were friends.

"Thank you," I whispered in her ear and then pulled away.

"That's what friends are for," KC said with a small smile that I couldn't help, but to return. Even the nurse knew we were becoming friends. "Now, get yourself straightened up a little, you have patients who need you doctor."

I looked at KC incredulously. A doctor? Me? Was she kidding, because last time I checked I was a measly intern, not even worthy of such a title.

"It is flattering KC, but I'm not really a doctor, yet. Just a lowly intern," I reminded the nurse, as I splashed water all over my face in an attempt to get rid of the tear tracks.

I thought of all these residents who were dumping their work on me. First, Doctor Ibn Alhaz giving me his full patient load and now that resident, who couldn't even bare to talk to Heather's mother and left me to do it. I was a speck of dirt in their eyes and certainly not a doctor.

"Did you not see how you handled those first two car crash patients without any hesitation? Or how you took on all those others doctors patients with relative ease?" KC questioned me. "Emma, you might consider yourself to be an intern, but you've done real doctors work tonight and you're doing it a lot better than most interns I've seen pass through here. You should be very proud of yourself right now. Most interns would have cracked under the pressure the moment they found out they were being saddled with all those extra patients, but you didn't. You're still standing. Barely, I might add," She grinned crookedly at me, "but standing nonetheless."

"Thank god I met you tonight," I said with a small chuckle and felt my confidence return. "You really are the perfect pep talker. Did you know that? I feel like a million bucks now."

KC shrugged.

"I'm well aware," she grinned again and joked, "It's a rumor that I might have given the L.A. Dodger's one of my world famous pep talks last season and that's why they won the World Series. Did you hear about that?"

I laughed.

"Nope, but thanks for giving away their secret weapon," I told her with a mischievous glint in my eyes.

"Wait? Are you an Angels fan?" KC demanded.

"Maybe..." I answered furtively.

"Damn, you angels are sneaky," the nurse said and shook her head in disapproval.

"Kind of like the devil,"

We both laughed.

"We should get back out there." KC told me, once we stopped.

I nodded.

"You're right. Let's get going."

The rest of the night was spent keeping those two teenagers alive. The CT scan showed that the boy's spleen had ruptured just like I guessed, so we had to turf the boy down to surgery to repair it. Unfortunately, his mangled leg would have to wait to be fixed. The surgeons wanted to wait until his body was able to handle the pressure of a second surgery. The first girl on the other hand was still unconscious and I feared that the head injury she had received was more serious than I had originally thought.

Unfortunately, KC left at eight, leaving me alone in the hospital. A short while after that I went to take a quick nap in the on-call room. I needed sleep if I was going to function for the next thirteen hours.

What I didn't expect was to see Doctor Ibn Alhaz resting comfortably on the top bunk. I couldn't believe it. I thought he was probably taking care of paperwork or working on a case-study this entire time, but not sleeping!

I flicked on the lights of the on-call room and slammed the door loudly behind me. I watched the resident jolt upwards and then look around the room in confusion.

"You are absolutely unbelievable!" I growled at him. "Have you really been sleeping here for the last nine hours?"

"Yes," Doctor Ibn Alhaz rubbed his eyes groggily. "Why are you bothering me woman? Don't you have work to do?"

I felt my fists clenched. That was it. I had enough.

"No, you have work to do!" I shouted at him. "You are going to take back your patients and treat them like you are supposed to! I am tired of getting all these extra patients dumped on me just because you are a lazy bastard! So, you either do your job or I'll issue a complaint to Doctor Naxen. You got that, man?"

The resident glared at me, but for once I knew he had nothing to say. I had won this round.

"Just enjoy your little victory while you still can," he snarled at me, before storming from the on-call room.

I smiled to myself, before turning off the lights and crawling under the covers of one of the beds.

That felt good.

Unfortunately, the good feeling only lasted a little while. After sleeping for forty minutes, my pager woke me up. The hematologist had left me a message informing me that Mr. Perel's lab test results were in. Mr. Perel was Doctor Cooper's patient and she suspected that Mr. Perel had leukemia. I just hoped she was wrong.

She wasn't, of course, and now I was stuck telling a patient that he had cancer.

Freakin fantastic.

"Mr. Perel?" I stood hesitantly in the doorway of his room.

"Hi Doctor Queenscove," Mr. Perel greeted me with a small smile. "Are those my test results?"

"Yes, and I'm afraid you have leukemia Mr. Perel," I told him and watched painfully as the smile evaporated from his face. He looked crushed, defeated. "There are treatment options and if we start you on chemotherapy right away, I really think we can beat this thing."

Mr. Perel pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Can I talk to my wife first?" He asked me.

"Of course," I replied, "I'll check in on you in a little while Mr. Perel."

"Thanks," He mumbled.

I left the room feeling a little pressure slip off my shoulders. The time leading up to telling a patient such horrible news was always the worst part and now that it was over I felt slightly better.

I did my rounds, dropping in on Doctor Nond's and Cooper's patients. I thanked the gods that they were all in stable condition. Unfortunately, the only girl who survived the car accident, Molly Jacobs, was still unconscious and I feared for the worst.

This lead me to page the neurologist on-call, Doctor Lee. He didn't even acknowledge me when he walked into Molly's room. Instead, he checked her vitals and shined a small flash light into her eyes.

"Let me see her chart," the neurologist said brusquely and held out his hand.

Trying not to scowl, I handed it to him and watched him flip through the pages.

"I suspect that she's in a coma," Doctor Lee announced, which confirmed my suspicions. "I would like to check in on her later today to see how she responds to vocal and painful stimuli. If there is no response, I am correct."

"Fine by me," I said.

Without even saying goodbye, the neurologist swept from Molly's private room.

"Jerk," I muttered under my breath.

From there my Thanksgiving Day didn't get much better. Doctor Nond's patient, Mrs. Luke, who had been waiting the last two weeks for a new liver, coded and died. Then, a little boy was brought in with a broken arm and multiple bruises, so I was forced to ask the parents if they had been abusing their child. The father became so irate that I was accusing them of such a thing that he threw the hospital's television remote control at me. I ducked and the remote missed me narrowly, but I was still forced to page security and then child protective services.

Doctor Naxen's secretary didn't help my day much either. She handed me a notice about intern evaluations that would be taking place at the end of this week. The Chief of Medicine wrote a private note on mine informing me that Doctor Cooper would be doing mine in the light of my own attendings suspension. I was disappointed about this, not that I didn't value Doctor Cooper's opinion, but I wanted to really know what Doctor Nond thought of me as a doctor. Now, I would never know.

Doctor Ibn Alhaz was my next problem. I was in the cafeteria and carrying my tray of food back to my table, when the bastard stuck out his leg and tripped me. My dinner and I went flying and I ended up face planting into my spaghetti with red sauce. I was furious and embarrassed, of course. Doctors and nurses alike began laughing and pointed blatantly at the 'clumsy intern'. I ended up running straight out of the cafeteria to seek shelter in the nearest women's bathroom and didn't return to finish my dinner.

The night brought in a drug dealer, who had been shot during a transaction, two people involved in a MVA caused by a drunk driver, an elderly woman with a myocardial infarction, and a little girl who got food poisoning from her Thanksgiving dinner. However, the worst part of my night was news from Doctor Lee that Molly Jacobs was indeed in a coma. She had not responded at all to any of the stimuli.

When eleven o'clock rolled around, I was dead on my feet. I wanted nothing but to go back to my apartment, take a warm bath, eat some leftover pizza, maybe knock back a drink to help me forget my horrible shift, roll into bed, and call it a night.

However, life is always unpredictable and something I didn't see coming at all was waiting for me in the hospital's parking lot.

"How's it goin' Greeny?" Doctor Nond leant casually against the brick exterior wall of Mercy General. He was dressed in his street clothes, a pair of baggy jeans and a long sleeved L.A. Dodgers t-shirt.

I stared at him in complete shock. He was the last person in the entire world I expected to see after my grueling shift.

"Doctor Nond? Why are you here?" I questioned him, pushing aside all pleasantries. "I thought your suspension forbade you from entering the hospital's premises?"

He shrugged like it was no big deal.

"I was just in the neighborhood," Doctor Nond told me. "I decided to check up on things."

I scoffed in disbelief.

"You do realize you could be fired if Doctor Naxen caught you here, right?" I informed him and pushed down my fear at the thought of my attending being fired. It was bad enough surviving the last few days without him, but for the rest of my internship? It was unimaginable.

"Well, well, well, someone's a little pretentious today," Doctor Nond remarked with a scowl. "When did you decide that the carriage wasn't cutting it and you needed to get up on a higher horse princess?"

I rubbed my face wearily with my hands. I really didn't have the time or energy for this.

"Look, Doctor Nond, I just had a pretty hellish shift," I began bluntly, "and all I really want to do right now is go back to my apartment, relax, sleep-"

My attending interrupted me,

"Come have Thanksgiving dinner with me."

I felt my eyes grow wide and I resisted the urge to slap myself in the face to see if I had really fallen asleep in the on-call room. This just seemed like it was one crazy dream. There was no way that Doctor Nond said what I think he said. It seemed impossible.

"Are you dying?" I asked him seriously.

My attending looked at me like I was insane.

"No, you moron," Doctor Nond said with a scowl. "Why would you think that I was dying just because I asked a fellow employee out to dinner?"

"Well, I just assumed since you show a natural disdain for everyone at your job that something had to be horribly wrong with you if you were seriously considering socializing with a co-worker outside of the hospital." I explained.

I was shocked when my attending actually laughed.

"Wow, who knew after seven years of working at this hospital the only person who gets me is an intern I met three months ago?" Doctor Nond said and added in a mutter, "Amazing..."

I felt my face turn red and I was happy that the parking lot was so dimly lighted that my attending couldn't see I was blushing like a school girl.

"Anyway, the reason why I really wanted to take you out to dinner was to reward you, kind of like giving a puppy a bone after they figure out that they shouldn't be peeing in the house." I sighed, of course he would throw in an insult. "Getting away from the puppy metaphor though... I'm betting that you've been having a couple of rough days without me Greeny. It's tough not having someone who has your back in this place, especially as an intern."

"Rough?" I waved him off dismissively. My stubborn side was covering up. I always had a fear of looking vulnerable and weak in front of others and with Doctor Nond it applied doubly. "Nah, everything has been just peachy at Mercy General."

My attending rolled his eyes.

"Oh really? Was it peachy when Doctor Stone locked you in the morgue?"

"How did you-" I began with blood rushing to my face, but I got cut off again.

"Cooper has eyes and ears everywhere," he enlightened me. "So, are you coming or not Queenscove?"

My stomach growled before I could stop it. I cursed Doctor Ibn Alhaz mentally. He had caused me to miss dinner with his childish prank.

"I guess that's your answer." Doctor Nond said with a small smile and before I could protest, he grabbed me by my arm. "Let's get going then,"

My attending owned a black 2005 Jeep Cherokee that looked freshly waxed. Unlike most men I knew (like my cousin and my twin brother), Doctor Nond kept his interior as clean as the outside of his car. There were no fast food bags rolling around on the floor, cds loose on the dashboard, or two week old smelly gym clothes in the backseat. It was spotless.

"So, where are going?" I asked my attending as we pulled out of Mercy General's parking lot. "It's almost eleven thirty. Not that many restaurants are open at this time at night."

"Don't you worry Greeny. I know just the place." Doctor Nond said, while taking a sharp left turn that nearly threw me into his lap. I blushed just thinking about it.

A silence filled the car and I forced myself to ask,

"What have you been to the last three days?"

"Drinking," he replied flatly and then made another sharp turn.

I knew I shouldn't even consider questioning him further, so I just muttered sarcastically,

"Sounds like loads of fun,"

All my attending did was grunt in response.

Finally, we slowed down and pulled into a Boston Market parking lot.

Classy, I thought with a small smirk.

Doctor Nond cut the ignition.

"Is this place up to your high princess standards?" He asked me, before opening the driver side door.

"Of course," I told him, completely ignoring the princess jab.

We both got out of the Jeep and then made our way into the Boston Market. The place was deserted except for the two unlucky employees behind the counter and a bum sitting in a secluded corner booth.

"Why don't you find us a seat and I'll order?" Doctor Nond offered.

"Oh yes, because all the seats are filling up sooo fast," I shot back sarcastically.

"Greeny," he growled as a warning, "stop being a wise ass. I'm actually trying to be nice for once. You've probably been on your feet for at least the last twenty two hours and I bet you really want to sit. Am I right?"

When are you ever wrong? I thought and nodded resignedly before slipping into a booth on the opposite side of the restaurant that the bum was sitting at.

As I wait patiently for my attending at the table, my mind began to drift elsewhere. I wondered what my family was doing at this exact moment.

I could picture all of them- my dad, mom, Emiko, Emmet, Grandpa Baird, Grandma Francesca, Bryon, Kel and Dom- sitting in my family's living room. They were drinking coffee and all of them were laughing merrily. They didn't seem to notice or care that a member of their family was missing. In fact, they were happy that she wasn't there. Things were far less complicated with her gone. Life was bette-

"Greeny?"

Doctor Nond had returned to the table with a large tray of food in his arms. He was struggling slightly with it all.

"Oh geez," I knew I looked flustered, as I leapt out of the booth. "I am so sorry Doctor Nond," I babbled. "Let me help you with that."

My attending waved me off and put the food down on the table top. His dark brown eyes were scrutinizing me as he slipped into the booth. I hoped I hadn't done anything wrong. I hated when he turned on his x-ray vision.

"Don't worry about me. I'm fine, but what about you?" he asked me. "You look like your puppy just got run over by an eighteen wheeler."

I faked laughter.

"Everything is great," I lied and continued when his face still showed suspicion. "Really, it is," Before he could question me further or accuse me of lying, I switched topics. "How much do I owe you by the way?"

"This one's on me Greeny," he told me, though that x-ray look didn't go away.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "Because I'm perfectly capable-"

"Stop arguing for once and feel grateful that you're getting a free meal," my attending said with a tone of finality that made me shut my mouth.

I dug into my Boston Market style Thanksgiving dinner: dry turkey, lumpy mashed potatoes, and a side of assorted vegetables. It wasn't that bad, though nothing like what my Grandma would make.

"So, how was the twenty four?" Doctor Nond asked me, while stabbing at his turkey.

"Horrible," I told him and then went on a long spiel about the hellish shift I just had. I left out a few details, though. I didn't mention crying in the bathroom and KC reassuring me that I everything was going to be okay or how much of a jerk Doctor Ibn Alhaz was to me today. It was best if my attending was left in the dark about that. I didn't want him thinking that I couldn't handle myself.

"Sounds like a tough one," Doctor Nond said. "That's too bad about those teenagers, though. How'd they get in an accident in the first place?"

"The guy was driving and he tried to make a hard left hand turn in front of this semi. They got smashed." I explained. "They had to use the jaws of life on the driver and the girl in a coma. The one who died got ejected from the car and lost both her legs in the process."

My attending shook his head.

"Teen drivers are the worst," he muttered.

I nodded in agreement.

"Was your roommate there today?" My attending asked me and then added with a smirk. "You know, the one I decked."

I smiled and pictured Hill getting his nose broken by Doctor Nond. It was almost as awesome as the first time around.

"Nope, Doctor Jeslaw and he are visiting their families. I was the only intern there tonight." I said, before taking a sip of my soda.

"Did you ever end up punching him off of the hospital premises?" Doctor Nond grinned, referring to the discussion we had right after my attending was suspended.

"Even better," I told him all about our argument that left the hole in my wall. Of course, I didn't include that Hill and I really did sleep together. That would definitely put a damper on our Thanksgiving dinner.

My attending laughed when I was done with my story.

"I don't think I've ever been prouder of you Greeny."

"Thanks, it was probably one of the best moments in my entire life," I admitted.

"Right up there with graduating med-school, right?" Doctor Nond asked with a small smile.

"Yep," I replied brightly and then suddenly a light bulb went off in my head. I had just remembered Doctor Naxen's note from earlier in the day, the one about the intern evaluations. This lead me to ask, "Do you know anything about intern evaluations? Because I got a note today from Doctor Naxen that Doctor Cooper would be doing mine in the light of your suspension,"

"Cooper's stuck evaluating you?" Doctor Nond smirked. "Tough luck for her,"

I scowled, but ignored him.

"Doctor Cooper is great, don't get me wrong, but I really wanted my evaluation from you," I told him frankly. "After all, I tagged around you for the last three months, not her."

Doctor Nond poked at his food.

"Well, I guess I could give you your evaluation right here, but it might ruin your Thanksgiving dinner for you," my attending said.

I stared at him incredulously.

"Am I really that bad?" I demanded to know.

"Greeny get your panties out of a bunch and relax. I was just kidding," he told me. "Sure, you aren't the best intern on the entire planet, but as much as I hate to say it, I can really see the Queenscove genes in you." I grinned widely, which made him grimace. It was fun to annoy him sometimes. "There are things that you can work on though. You are ridiculously book smart, but sometimes you have horrible patient interaction skills."

"Kind of like you," I reminded him.

"Yes, true, but you're a woman. This whole comforting thing should come easier to you," my attending argued.

"Doctor Cooper sucks at it too," I pointed out. "Yesterday a wife of a patient who had just died during surgery reached out to hug her and she faked a page just to get away from her."

"Typical Grace," Doctor Nond muttered. "But, that's not my point, you need to improve. Medicine isn't just about what drugs to give or what procedures to perform, it's about being there for your patient also. I want you to work on your bedside manner. Can you promise me that you will?"

Of course, I nodded and said 'yes'. I would do anything Doctor Nond told me to do. He didn't need to make me promise anything.

"Continuing on the subject of improvement," My attending said after swallowing a forkful of mashed potatoes. "I'll admit that you've really come a long way in stressful medical situations."

"Really? Because today-"

I began to babble excitedly, but Doctor Nond cut me off.

"No talking when I'm about to explain myself princess," he told me sternly, but luckily for me, he didn't go off on one of his usual long winded rants. "As I was saying... when you first started here you were as useful in a code as a chimpanzee with an organ grinder." I grimaced. "You're a lot better now, passable at least."

"Thanks, that really means a lot to me," I said with a small smile.

"Get a grip Greeny," my attending told me while rolling his eyes. "I said you were passable, not that you were the best intern in the entire state with coding patients. There is still room for improvement."

"It still means a lot to me," I muttered under my breath.

Doctor Nond pretended not to hear it.

"All in all you are a passable intern," he continued on. "I would say above average and that's only because you were lucky enough to be partnered with me."

"Of course," I said sarcastically and resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"Hey, don't be like that. In all honesty, if I had a gun to my head, I would admit that you were the best intern at Mercy General," my attending told me and my eyes began to widen. "That's not saying much though. The others are all horribly incompetent, especially Mister Cocky McCock." He added, referring to Hill, which made me smile.

"Fine, I accept that from you," I said, barely containing myself. I felt giddy from his carefully masked praise.

"Remember this though," Doctor Nond began in a serious voice that made me look him straight in the eye, "genes can only get you so far in this business. The rest is going to have to come from you. You are going to have to show to me and everyone else how willing you really are to improve. I swear to you Greeny, if you are indeed satisfied with where you are now, you will never be a good doctor. I'd bet my own life on that."

The giddiness disappeared immediately. He was right. He was always right. All of this praise was amazing, but I couldn't let it get to my head. I still had loads to learn.

"So, are you ready to get out of here?" my attending asked me after checking his watch. "It's pretty late and I am sure you have a shift tomorrow."

"Yeah, unfortunately," I yawned, "I was lucky enough to get the graveyard shift. Maybe I should consider getting suspended too." I added teasingly. "I'd be a lot better rested like you are."

"Don't even think about it Greeny," Doctor Nond warned me.

"Geez, you don't even know how to take a joke." I said, as I slid out of the booth.

"Trust me, no pay and being cooped up in your apartment for a week is not fun," he informed me, as we exited the Boston Market.

"Cooped up in your apartment?" I repeated and then yawned again. "What happened to your riveting social life?"

Doctor Nond snorted and started the Jeep's ignition.

"I didn't realize it existed in the first place," my attending muttered.

I laughed.

"If it makes you feel any better, I haven't had one ever since I started working at Mercy General," I admitted.

"Hmm... that's funny," Doctor Nond made a sharp right turn, sending me crashing into his window, "That was right around the same time my social life disappeared also or maybe it was when I married Mimi."

It was the first time Doctor Nond had mentioned his ex-wife willingly and without anyone else bringing up the topic before he did. I couldn't help, but be surprised. Luckily for me, my attending couldn't see my facial expression in the dark.

I yawned again.

"Tired Greeny?"

"Yeah," I muttered sleepily. "I was only able to get forty minutes of sleep in the on-call room this morning. I've basically been up twenty seven straight hours."

"I won't bother you anymore," my attending offered. "Just close your eyes and I'll wake you up when we get there."

I was more than happy to oblige and I snuggled against the car's window.

I was asleep, but I knew from looking at the Jeep's clock that we arrived at Mercy General's parking lot ten minutes later.

"Do you want me to drive you back to your apartment?" Doctor Nond asked me.

I shook my head in an attempt to get rid of some of my sleepiness.

"Nope, I'm good," my attending gave me one of those x-ray looks again. "Honestly!"

"If you get into a car accident Greeny-" he began angrily, but I cut him off for once.

"Doctor Nond, I'll be fine," I said seriously and got out of his car. "Thanks for dinner. It was great."

My attending still looked a little cross about me blowing off his offer to drive me home, but he still said,

"No problem, I actually didn't mind socializing with a co-worker for once. Even though it was an intern."

I rolled my eyes.

"I'll see you in four days Doctor Nond," I told him and waved farewell, before turning to walk towards my Toyota Camry.

"Are you sure you're not too tired?" my attending called after me.

"I'm fine." I repeated, not even bothering to look back at him.

"Bye," I heard him grunt, before the sounds of his Jeep tearing through Mercy General's parking lot echoed through the night.

Maybe today wasn't so bad after all.


My longest chapter to date! I hope all of you are happy!

Medical terminology (I hope this helps any confused readers):

MVA- Motor Vehicle Accident

Myocardial Infarction- Heart attack

V-tach- Ventricular tachycardia

A/N I know I apologized in the last chapter, but I'll do it again. I am sorry that it took a month and a half to update this. I know I am making excuses, but my computer died and then we got a new computer and it died. So all in all, I've had three computers in the last month and a half. I've also lost all my material for this chapter three times. Am I a happy camper? I think not.

A/N2: Thank you once again to all my wonderful reviewers. I got six for chapter six! You guys are amazing. Thanks to: SabbyRinaBanina, studentofwords, horsecrazed, LadyReaderofBooks, KrisElven, and swimchick17. Oh and to KrisElven... I hope my grammar has improved this chapter. I tried really hard to make the changes you suggested. Thanks for the constructive criticism. I appreciate it.

Once again thank you to everyone who took time to read this chapter! All reviews are deeply appreciated! Thank you for reading!