TW: This chapter talks about domestic violence and PTSD.

Also, I acknowledge the seriousness and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic right now. Before Melendez's death on The Good Doctor, I was initially going to put this story on hold for that reason because of Audrey essentially contracting coronavirus. For those of you who have read Feelings or Comfort, you know I've built a foundation based on Audrey's experience with surviving this life-threatening illness. As such, this experience still affects her in this story, even though we are nearly thirty years into the future. Note that I will try to be as sensitive as I can be to our very new reality, as the situation is very different in every city, state/province, and every country even. That being said, I still felt the need to write Limlendez's future, the future we will never see thanks to the unnecessary, for shock value destruction of our ship.

Mei-Li's first month of residency was extremely hectic, but she had learned a lot in those first four weeks. She learned to have a new found respect for her parents given the fact that she was barely functioning in life as only a resident; she had no idea how her mother and father handled being in the top two positions at St. Bonaventure, plus manage to raise a family and keep a nearly thirty year marriage together. She had learned that Megan Augustine had absolutely no intention of being friendly with her or Eric. And lastly, she had learned how much she was meant for this job.

It was her very first overnight shift along with Megan and Eric, and as of right now, there weren't many patients other than one man under observation for pneumonia. Mei-Li went over towards Eric who was standing by the coffee maker, "Can you pour me a cup? I haven't stayed up this late since I was in med school."

Eric smiled and handed Mei-Li a steaming mug. Mei-Li hadn't even gotten the chance to put cream and sugar in her coffee before Park announced, "Listen up everybody! We have two patients coming in: a mother and a child. Evidently, both took a tumble down the stairs. Eric, you'll work on the mother with me! Mei-Li, Megan, you'll work on the child!"

"Surprised she isn't with you because you've know Mei-Li since she was in diapers," Megan uttered under her breath. Mei-Li chose to ignore her snippy comment.

When the patient arrived, a young girl named Melanie, Mei-Li and Megan went straight to work examining her, "Hi Melanie, I'm Dr. Lim-Melendez and this is Dr. Augustine. We're going to take care of you while Dr. Park and Dr. Harrison take care of your mommy. Where does it hurt?" asked Mei-Li.

"My arm hurts," Melanie hiccupped, clearly scared of everything.

"She landed on her arm when my wife fell down the stairs," said a fairly young gentleman. He appeared to be in his mid-thirties.

"Well, we should get an x-ray to make sure nothing is broken," said Megan.

They both received permission from her father, Daniel, before rolling Melanie to radiology for an x-ray and her arm seemed to be fine, but she was complaining about hurting all over her body, so they sent her to the ICU for monitoring just in case any other complications arose. Melanie's mother, Suzanne, on the other hand, had sustained a head injury, so she was also sent to the ICU to be monitored for any potential further head trauma.

It was about halfway through their shifts and all of the residents had stopped to take a break when it was announced that Suzanne was having a seizure; everyone went straight to work to try to stop it. All four of the physicians managed to stabilize Suzanne, but there was obviously something more causing her symptoms, "It could be a brain tumor that caused her to black out and that's why she fell down the stairs," said Eric.

"It could be from falling down the stairs that caused more brain damage than we realize," said Megan.

"Any ideas, Dr. Lim-Melendez?" asked Park to Mei-Li.

Three sets of eyes landed on Mei-Li; Park's and Eric's looks were genuine, Megan's had a hint of jealousy and iciness in hers, "Well, I agree that it could be a tumor. We should get an MRI to check for any abnormalities."

Park nodded and said, "Get Suzanne to radiology stat. Dr. Harrison, Dr. Lim-Melendez, follow me. Dr. Augustine, continue to monitor Melanie."

They conducted the MRI on Suzanne and the results were astounding. She had no tumors at all, but instead, the scans showed a traumatic brain injury. Once they wheeled Suzanne back to her room in the ICU, Daniel approached the three of them and asked, "How is she?"

Park sighed and said, "Follow me, sir," Daniel followed them into Suzanne's hospital room and Park said, "The results show a traumatic brain injury. It is what could have caused your seizure and your tumble down the stairs. How far up were you when you fell down the stairs?" asked Park.

Suzanne and Daniel looked at each other, like they were trying to formulate an answer, "I was only a few steps from the bottom," admitted Suzanne, though she didn't sound very sincere in her response. Park, with his natural suspicion as a result of being an ex-cop, didn't fail to notice.

"Well, we're going to keep you here overnight at least and monitor you to make sure you don't have any more seizures; if you're seizure free for twenty-four hours, you'll be sent home with recovery and rehab instructions," informed Mei-Li.

"Dr. Lim-Melendez, if you could conduct another neurological exam on Suzanne while Dr. Harrison and I go check on Melanie. You can come see her too, Daniel," said Park.

Park, Eric, and Daniel left the room while Mei-Li began the exam, "I feel so stupid. I was only two steps from the bottom."

"Sadly, accidents happen," said Mei-Li.

"I don't know what happened," admitted Suzanne, "Sometimes I get dizzy spells, and they've been happening for a while now, but I never thought this would happen."

"You said you get dizzy spells?" asked Mei-Li for confirmation.

"Sometimes," said Suzanne, "I've also been having trouble remembering things."

"How long has this been going on?" asked Mei-Li. There were no tumors, so it couldn't be that.

Suzanne sighed, "About three months to be honest. I just thought it was because our family has been adjusting to our post-deployment routine. Daniel's in the military, and he just got home a few months ago. He was diagnosed with PTSD recently and things have been rough. I mean, he's been going through treatment, but it hasn't been easy. He takes one step forward only to take two steps back."

The words hit Mei-Li hard. She could only imagine what Suzanne was going through right now, "Well, I hope your husband feels better soon."

"Thank you," said Suzanne.

"I'll check on you later," said Mei-Li. Mei-Li left the room, only to have Park motioning her into a conference room, "What's going on?" asked Mei-Li.

"We need to call law enforcement," Megan said bluntly.

"What? Why?" asked Mei-Li.

"Because Dr. Park could feel that something was off with Daniel and Suzanne. I was questioning Melanie about her mother's accident, and Melanie admitted to me that Suzanne didn't fall down the stairs; she was pushed down them by Daddy. She's also admitted that she's seen Daddy hit Mommy and that Daddy has hit her too," said Megan.

Mei-Li shook her head vigorously, "What? No!"

"Dr. Lim-Melendez, it could be a case of domestic violence…" Park tried to explain to her.

"Why? Because Suzanne admitted that her husband is going through PTSD treatment?" Mei-Li asked.

"No, it's not that at all," Park assured Mei-Li, especially after he heard her say PTSD.

"It's all the more reason to believe it could be domestic violence," said Megan.

"Do you seriously hear yourself?" asked Mei-Li, angrily stepping towards Megan.

"Mei-Li," Park tried to diffuse the situation.

"So you're just going to assume that every person who happens to have PTSD is automatically abusive towards their spouse and children?! They can't possibly be loving husbands and fathers/wives and mothers?"

"Mei-Li, Megan does have a point…" interrupted Eric.

"No, she doesn't!" Mei-Li snapped at him, "You could very well know someone who has PTSD, but you would never know it. There are plenty of reasons people develop PTSD, not just war. Someone could very easily develop PTSD in our own ER."

Park knew why Mei-Li was reacting the way she was, but there was no way Mei-Li would be able to think rationally, "Okay, I think it would be best to cool down and sleep on this case until we get more time to act."

"So we get more time to make judgments," shouted Mei-Li.

"No, Mei-Li, so we have time to absorb everything and not jump to conclusions," explained Park.

"Hey!" someone shouted over all four of them. The four doctors turned to face the source of the noise and found their Chief of Surgery standing right in front of them, "I don't know what you four are arguing about, but I need you all to report to my office now."

Everyone reported to Melendez's office and Melendez shut the door behind them before sitting behind his desk. He folded his hands and asked, "Dr. Park, what seems to be the issue?"

"Well, sir, we have a patient who fell down the stairs. She has a traumatic brain injury," Park began.

"Her daughter is here as well for monitoring and she admitted to me that Daddy has hit both of them," said Megan.

"But Dr. Park and Dr. Augustine are jumping to conclusions about it being a case of domestic violence just because our patient's husband has PTSD," Mei-Li quipped bitterly.

"Dr. Lim-Melendez," Melendez scolded lightly, indicating for Mei-Li to be quiet, "Is this true, Dr. Park?"

"Dr. Augustine and I suspected DV before Dr. Lim-Melendez even mentioned about the husband having PTSD, sir," said Park.

Melendez took a deep breath and said, "Well, we certainly don't want to jump to any hasty conclusions or assumptions. We should do everything we can to make sure it is indeed domestic violence before we report anything to the police. In the meantime, we should review the patients' medical histories to see if there are any patterns of injuries or ER visits or see if the patients mention anything more. Also, Dr. Lim-Melendez, I am taking you off of this case."

"What why?" asked Mei-Li, angrily crossing her arms over her chest.

"Because I am your boss, and because we do not need three residents assigned to one case," Melendez clarified, "Everyone except Dr. Lim-Melendez is dismissed."

Eric, Megan, and Park left the office and Park shut the door behind him. Mei-Li faced her father and asked, "Dr. Melendez, is there a reason why I'm still here?"

Melendez motioned towards the couch in his office and Mei-Li sat down next to him, "Mija," he softened his voice, "As surgeons, we can't let our personal feelings affect our work or our attitudes towards our patients. This case would be too personal for you."

"No, it wouldn't," argued Mei-Li.

"Yes, it would," said Melendez firmly, "You might think it wouldn't, but it could. My decision stands."

Mei-Li shook her head a little before she said, "I've seen Mom have flashbacks right in front of me and have heard her wake up screaming because she's dealing with nightmares. I know the anniversary of the quarantine makes her feel on edge, that she can't work on December 3rd, and that she needs to take Xanax whenever we fly because she's afraid she'll get sick at the airport. But no matter how bad it got, not once did I ever think Mom would hurt you, me, or Carlos."

"I know mija," said Melendez, "But the sad reality is every trauma and every case of PTSD is different. We can't make assumptions either way. Which is why I'm not going to report anything right away until we have more reason to believe it's domestic violence."

Mei-Li resisted the urge to reach out and hug her father, if only to avoid rumors from Megan about her receiving favoritism, "Okay," Mei-Li stood to leave, "I'll see you later tonight."

Melendez arrived home later that night. Mei-Li had decided to go out with some of the other residents at the last minute, so it was just him and Lim. After he hung up his coat and set his briefcase down, he found Lim eating some carry out Chinese food and watching The Avengers on TV. She turned to face him when she heard noise and smiled at him, "Hi."

"Hi," he answered and kissed her.

"I bought you shrimp fried rice," she said, holding up the other container.

"Thanks," he said and sat down next to her on the couch.

"Where's Mei-Li?" Lim asked.

"She went out with Augustine and Harrison," said Melendez. Lim nodded and went back to the movie. Melendez grabbed her hand and said, "I love you so much."

Lim chuckled and said, "I love you too, but why the mushiness?"

"No reason," said Melendez, letting go of Lim's hand to take a bite of shrimp fried rice.

Lim smiled softly before turning to face the TV to continue watching her movie. Soon, Melendez grabbed her hand again and rubbed soothing circles on top of it.