A/N – Remember my introduction and I said a couple of scenes popped into my head right away? Andrew getting splashed upon his arrival was one of them, and this chapter contains the others.

Chapter 6

"Alice, do you know who Colleen is talking to?"

From his position behind the counter Andrew had spotted a blond, handsome young man conversing with the young medical assistant in the waiting area, the pair standing a bit too close together in Andrew's opinion.

Alice smirked. "Jealous, are we?"

Startled, Andrew stammered, "Wh- what? Oh, no, no… just curious." Colleen hadn't mentioned anything about having a significant other, but that didn't mean she didn't have one. He really had little idea what she did outside of work, other than attend class and dote on little Katie. And asking her directly if she was seeing anyone was out of the question.

Alice let him stew for a few more seconds before letting him off the hook. "That's her brother Matthew."

Andrew felt his tension ease. Abruptly, he recalled the wedding photo he'd moved so he wouldn't have to look at it. "Right. Matthew. He's married and, uh, works on a cattle ranch?"

"One and the same." Andrew and Alice watched the siblings hug before parting ways, Matthew getting on the elevator. "You've got a thing for her, don't you?" It wasn't so much a question as a statement.

He let out a long sigh and glanced at the ground before answering the curly-haired office worker. "It's that obvious?"

"To someone who sees you every day it is. We should talk, Dr. Cook. Step into my office."

Assistants didn't have offices, so Andrew knew she had to be speaking figuratively. It wasn't a surprise then when Alice's "office" turned out to be the supply closet. She closed the door most of the way but left it ajar, so it wasn't a strict violation of the rules.

"Dr. Cook, Colleen's been through a lot."

"Yes, I know her mother died when she was younger."

"It's more than that. Colleen doesn't talk about it, but her best friend died our senior year of high school."

Andrew was floored, scrubbing a hand down his jaw. As if Colleen hadn't had enough to deal with, there was this, too? Life's just too short, she had said. At the time he had thought it was a reference to her mother's passing, but now he understood it was probably this second loss on top of the first which had prompted the adjustment to her career path. "How…"

"There was a dance at school, and Becky wasn't going to go but Colleen convinced her to go anyway. A driver ran a red light on the way home. Colleen blamed herself for a while, even though it wasn't her fault. I'm telling you this because if you've been waiting for a sign from her that she's interested, I don't think you're gonna get one. I think ever since the accident she's been afraid something bad might happen if she gets too close to anyone and she'd be hurt again."

"Alice, believe me, I don't want to see her hurt again either. I haven't asked her out because I know I won't be here long-term. Colleen deserves someone who'll stick by her."

"You know, you're a decent guy, Dr. Cook. It's too bad you won't be sticking around," the young woman commented before exiting the closet. Andrew took a moment to collect himself, then followed, turning off the light and shutting the door behind him.

Andrew tried to put this tragic new information about Colleen out of his mind the rest of the afternoon. It was easy enough to do when he was engaged with a patient, less so when he had to interact with Colleen directly. And it appeared that Colleen herself was preoccupied this afternoon, too. She was polite to him, but something was missing… it was her smile, he realized. It was less cheerful, as if it were forced. Had Matthew conveyed some troubling news? She had seemed fine before her brother's visit. Andrew was full of curiosity, wanting to ask if she was all right, but she would probably just tell him she was fine, as people do when they don't feel like sharing their problems, so that wouldn't be helpful. He could only hope privately that whatever it was it wasn't serious, or that if it was serious, she'd perhaps confide in him after the last patients had left and they were done for the day.

It was, in fact, the end of the day when he bumped into Colleen, literally, his head looking down at a patient file. "Oh! Sorry, Colleen. I didn't see you."

She simply glared at him without saying anything, quickly moving into the examination room to refill the jars of cotton balls and tongue depressors.

This was the first time he'd ever seen her in a foul mood. She was clearly not fine, so he followed her. "Colleen, I can tell something's wrong, is there anything I can do?"

She glared at him again but still said nothing, continuing with her task. This was so unlike her, not even to say thanks for your concern. So, he tried again. "Colleen, you seem upset-"

"I saw you leaving the supply closet with Alice," she blurted out.

Oh… He'd offended her sense of decorum, her opinion of his good character. Terrific. "Yes, we were in the closet. Talking." About you, he added silently. "You thought that we were…?"

"You weren't?"

"Of course not. Colleen, I thought you knew me better than that."

"Actually, I don't know you at all," she replied quietly, then her face turned away. Was she disappointed by the fact that she didn't know him better, or was she ashamed of having jumped to conclusions? Perhaps both?

Andrew let out a slow breath, giving them both a chance to calm down. "You're right, Colleen, we only met six weeks ago, and almost every conversation we've had has been about you or your studies. But it doesn't have to be that way. I'm a doctor, I can fix that," he joked, trying to lighten the mood. "Let me fix that, Colleen. We can get a drink or a cup of coffee. And talk entirely about me." It was all he could do not to beg please say yes.

Colleen turned back to face him again. "Like a date?" she asked hesitantly. Was Alice wrong?

"Only-"

"Cause I'm sorta seeing someone." And just like that, the rest of his sentence – if you would like it to be one – died on his lips.

"Oh."

"Yeah, it's kinda new," she said bashfully.

Sorta… kinda… her hedging was a small comfort, that she wasn't sure where this relationship was going yet, if it would last beyond the first couple of dates. "No, not a date," he reluctantly assured her. "Just friends talking. We can talk at Grace's. Our next lunch. No textbook, no studying. Just friends. Talking."

Colleen visibly relaxed. "Okay."

"Okay."

:

"So, um, I guess I'll start at the beginning," Andrew began nervously at their next lunch date non-date. Appointment? Meet-up? Whatever it was labeled, Andrew felt a lot was riding on it. He felt as though he'd lost her trust, that she had - however briefly, however erroneously - thought he'd acted inappropriately. He needed to set that right, to show her he was a good guy, the same good guy she'd met that first day and had been around ever since. He didn't have any of his own skeletons to divulge, and his personal history was bland compared to hers, but maybe that was a good thing. She'd had enough drama in her life.

"I was born in Boston on June twenty-first-"*

"Wait, you just had a birthday?" she interrupted.

"Yes." His thirtieth, to be exact… which sounded old when said aloud, so he didn't say it.

"But you didn't say anything."

He shrugged. "I'm new here, it didn't seem my place to mention it."

"But we could have done something," she protested. "I could have brought in cupcakes."

He was touched that she cared. Then again, maybe she brought in cupcakes for Alice's birthday, too. "I appreciate the thought. Um, where was I? I'm an only child. My parents were Ed and Barbara Cook."

"Were?" Colleen interrupted again.

"My mother passed first, of breast cancer, while I was an undergrad. Then my father died suddenly of a stroke during my residency."

"Oh, Dr. Cook, I'm sorry. So, you have no one?"

"I have a couple of aunts and uncles… cousins. I'm not really close with any of them. I keep in touch with my Uncle David; I think I told you my original plan was to join his practice." She nodded. "He held a grudge for a little while but then when my father died, he let it go. So, um, growing up in Cambridge it was just me and my parents. She was a librarian, and he was a professor of history. That's how they met, he was doing his PhD dissertation at Harvard, and she helped him with his research. His specialty was the post-Civil War period, President Grant and the Reconstruction Era. Anyway, I was in private school until high school, pretty much a bookworm, though I joined some clubs because I knew they would be important later for applying to med school. And any time there was a blood drive or health fair I got involved in that. After that I attended Boston College and, amazingly enough, Harvard Medical School."

"I forgot you went to Harvard." At his quizzical look, she explained, "Dr. Mike shared your C.V. She was impressed that someone from Harvard would be filling in for her."

"Are you impressed?" he couldn't help asking.

"Of course. It's amazing you went there."

"Well, believe me, it didn't feel so amazing at the time. I kept thinking that they'd made a mistake and would be kicking me out at any moment. I found it as exceedingly difficult as you would expect. It was all I could do to keep up with the rest of the students. They all had greater ambitions of curing diseases or becoming a top surgeon. I'm kind of the black sheep, choosing family practice." He took a bite of his lasagna, the daily special.

"So why did you choose family medicine over plastics?"

"During my family medicine rotation in med school, something just clicked, about looking at a person more as a whole and not as a body part. Medicine is so specialized these days, but as a family physician, I get to practice on the whole body, whether it's hypertension or asthma or diabetes or sinusitis or a sprain. And that just appealed to me. So here I am, a working doctor while almost everyone else in my class is still in residency."

"Why didn't you stay in Boston?"

"I could have, but I didn't feel a need to. Locum tenens lets me practice medicine and travel the country, seeing places I might not have gotten to otherwise, and meet new people, like you," he smiled warmly at her.

Her answering grin was bliss, causing his heart to flutter. "I like seeing new places, too."

Oh. He kept the smile on his face, even as his heart lurched at the fact that the smile wasn't necessarily for him, it was for the idea of traveling. He was about to ask her if she'd been anywhere besides Boston before remembering that this discussion was intended to be centered on himself, not her. He cleared his throat. "Ah, any other questions for me?"

Colleen thought a moment. She'd been clear that this wasn't a date, so he didn't think she'd ask him something personal like his favorite color or movie, but he would have had no problem with that if she did. "How long do you think you'll be a traveling doctor?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, I haven't really thought about it. Until I get tired of moving around, I guess… or until I meet someone worth stopping for."

He met her warm, brown eyes for just an instant before quickly averting his gaze, lest he convey the silent message I would stop for you. It was a new thought, still in its infancy, and hadn't gone beyond a vague notion of what could be. He hadn't dared explore the idea any further because now there didn't seem to be any point to it. She was dating someone else, taking the risk of getting close to someone, perhaps for the first time since losing her best friend. And she didn't need him complicating matters being the guy who shows interest only after another guy shows interest. He needed to stick to his lane, stick to being her co-worker and friend.

Thus, unaware of Andrew's motive for focusing on his lunch tray, Colleen came to the wrong conclusion. "Oh, I'm sorry, Dr. Cook, I've kept you from eating your lunch," she said, slightly flustered, standing and gathering her own tray. "Thanks for talking with me and telling me a bit about yourself. I'll guess I'll go upstairs and get ready early for the afternoon appointments." And with that, she went to bus her tray, leaving him alone.

Andrew watched her go before looking back at his lunch, finishing it alone.

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*the show left Andrew's history pretty wide open, so I've improvised by using Brandon's birthday for Andrew's (as Jane's was used for Michaela's), and going with what we heard in A New Beginning about his parents being deceased. And to answer the guest reviewer, I know readers are curious about what Colleen's feelings are during all this, but sorry not sorry, I'm sticking with Andrew's POV, so you're just gonna have to wait for that! :-)

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