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A/N This one's long overdue. All I can say is Sorry. Had to battle some personal issues and that kinda got in the way of writing for a little bit.
Thanks for the encouraging comments thus far and staying with me.
So to sum it all up, thanks.. And sorry.
Anyhow, finally found the time, energy and zest to write so, enjoy..
Collide
Damn did Bradin wish New York was nearer to sea. He could really use some good surfing right about now. Jenny was right about one thing, he'd been so happy before, when life was just about surfing, the drama then didn't even come close to his life right now, sure there was the partying and the alcohol and the drugs, but now, these were big things, holding a life in your hands, getting married, having maybe fathered an illegitimate child a decade ago, talk about drama.
He turned the knob of his apartment door and seated in front of the dinning table with a bottle of wine opened and two glasses sitting affront of it was Jenny, blonde hair blue eyed and all. He had to smile. She had a way of making everything better. Less complicated. He ran and she came after him, because she didn't want to lose him, simple as that. That, he can live with. With Allie on the other hand, everything was confusing, obscure, difficult, no matter how in love they were or still are, the option he didn't want to consider anymore. She said Cassidy wasn't his, and just for the sake of it, and how angry she was, he'd believe her. 'At least some things were simple enough' he thought as he shut the door behind him, intending to enjoy his night with his fiancé, pushing all other thoughts from his mind.
It was 5 a.m. in the morning and Aaliyah crept into the patient's room, opening the door as small as possible to ensure there was minimal lighting entering the room and shut the door silently behind her. She walked on the tip of her toes to make sure the soles wouldn't collide with the floor too loudly and reached for something at the end of the bed.
"So tell me.." the soft velvety voice called out at the other end of the bed, as alluring as ever, as he turned on the lights from the side of the hospital bed.
"Do we have to do this every time I do my rounds?" Allie asked, frustrated and stumped at what to do with this persistent patient who wheedled her cross that doctor patient line at every opportunity he got which was, unfortunately, every time she had to check in on him which amounted to like 3 times a day, minimum.
"Yeah," he answered curtly as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
"You get some sort of a.. medieval thrill in torturing me don't you?" she asked instead of picking up the chart as she planned to earlier.
"Just the excitement of watching you squirm in your scrubs, you look awfully cute,"
"You're flirting, again, stop,"
"Why?" he whined.
"Cause I'm your doctor!" Allie insisted.
"What's the point in having this totally hot doctor when I can't flirt with her?"
"Carter!" she snapped, scolding.
"Liyah!" he mimicked her tone playfully.
"Stop!"
"Liyah!" he repeated, more urgently this time, no longer playful.
"What?"
"I can't see!" he stated as Allie saw that his eyes became unfocused.
"So, what does this recent discovery tell us?" Dr. Barrish asked, flipping through the file in her hands, all the relevant medical information of Carter O'Connell some time later out in the hall after being paged by Allie.
"Well, cardiac tumors can often mess with the brain," Ned offered nonchalantly.
"We removed it, all of it. And the tumor was benign, it didn't cause this," Allie argued, concerned that she was the only one who seemed concerned of the sudden blindness in a patient, though her concern would be as nonchalant as well if the patient was any other patient and not this particular patient.
"A tumor could create pressure behind the optic nerve, causing the blindness," Ned said instead.
"That could explain the blindness but it doesn't fit. Three unrelated tumors?" Allie asked the jerk of their interning batch.
"Coincidence?" he shrugged back.
"So what, your theory is the guy's body's a lemon? Everything's just falling apart? Yeah that's brilliant Doctor!" she snapped.
"Two of you, shut up! Cooper?" Barrish announced asking Cooper to speak up as he'd been wanting to say something in the beginning but like Paige and the resident doctor herself, got stuck to watching a tennis match of an argument between Allie and Ned.
"The tumor could have thrown a clot before we removed it, it's small so it might have been stuck somewhere harmless before dislodging itself and making it's way to the brain,"
"You heard Montgomery, the tumor was benign," Barrish stated and his brow furrowed.
"It was the tumor," Paige spoke up, "And it was a clot, just not the cardiac tumor, the brain tumor, the one we removed 6 months ago, the clot like Cooper said could have been stuck somewhere harmless for months, and then it moved, change in blood pressure, the slightest thing and it traveled to the brain,"
"That's great, clots are great, clots we can fix, so we do an Angiogram?" Allie asked her resident eagerly nodding.
"No, I will do an Angiogram and Dr. Sawyer will assist, for bickering like an 8 year old you get to do what 8 year olds do, you watch," Barrish replied before walking away from her 4 interns.
Somehow, Allie could not bring herself to even sit in the observation room to watch the simple operation. It really was easy, literally, but she couldn't sit in the observation deck even to give comfort to the dark haired male because she was afraid, What if they found nothing? What if it wasn't a clot? What if there was nothing there? What if they wouldn't be able to find out what was wrong? What if…? She couldn't bring herself to face the prospect of sitting up there, with the nerves and the fear playing the what if game, so instead she sat alone in the unused wing of the hospital on the operating floor at the far other end on an unused gurney in the dark unused corridor. She didn't know how long she was there but it wasn't till hours later when Bradin came along that she was snapped back to reality.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, leaning on the wall opposing the gurney she was sitting on crossed legged.
Aaliyah chuckled slightly, realizing how stupid it must have looked before replying, "Hiding,"
"You?" she asked.
"The same, though I think for absolutely different reasons," he replied.
And then there was a short silence, not exactly awkward, but not all that comfortable either.
"It's kinda tricky predicament," he offered out of the blue, "It's imminent but you know, I figure I can hide it out,"
"Imminent?"
"Imminent,"
"Yeah, so's death, you might wanna be a little more specific,"
"Well, you know.. Jenny," he explained and she raised an eyebrow.
"Her parents are in town, and.. They wanna talk wedding plans," he groaned closing his eyes. Allie chuckled. It was easier once you get the ball going, she realized, the whole friend thing.
"Well, it's quiet a pickle you have there if they're anything like the other rich parents in the world," she commented, knowing from the rumor till that Jennipher lived on hefty trust fund which basically meant her parents were loaded.
"Oh, and they are, hence the hiding," he offered, "What about you?"
"Uhm.. An angiogram," she stated.
"O'Connell? Wasn't that hours ago?"
"Yeah, I'm trying to avoid finding out what happened till I'm paged, but my shift ended a while ago, so I'm guessing I won't be paged and I'm to much of a coward to go find out myself hence creepy intern in dark corridor alone," she explained and Bradin chuckled instead.
"Gosh, we're such freaks," he commented.
"Well, it comes with the territory,"
"What territory?"
"The screwed up people territory, you know, me with the screwed up childhood, you with the screwed up adolescence, me with the raising the sister, you with the anal rich in laws to deal with," she summed up and it couldn't be helped, they both laughed. It wasn't anything inanely funny or untrue for that matter, but that's actually what happens when you're a grown up who slave off hundred hour weeks professionally cutting and hacking away into people's bodies.
And for that moment, they were not Drs. Westerly and Montgomery, attending and intern, or ex boy/girlfriend, just Allie and Bradin, not like before, not like what could have been. It was nothing short of easy being in each others company without the drama, without the past, without the maybe upcoming prospects of a reconciliation or fireworks and romance, just in the present, just as friends, no more no less.
Maybe they already had let go, they both thought.
I know the story ain't going at a great direction but don't worry, more drama to come and the next one shouldn't be far along, promise! It's already half written so it'll definitely come.! Hang in there tight.. Again, sorry this one took so long.