What's so special about Adam Banks? That's what you wanna know. What's so special about this guy that surpasses earth, wind, fire and air? It's like in every love story ever written, there's always something about him.

I'm not sharing my story for riches or royalties, nor am I doing it because I want to be 'famous', I just want to share something that has touched my life so much with other people.

The fact that Adam is just so normal makes him even more special.

That's what I kept remembering as I got ready for my first shift at Minnesota General Hospital.

Until I walked through the doors of the ER, Adam was all I thought about. I thought about our encounter the night of Connie's party, with him crawling in my window, I thought about everything that centered on him.

"You Reed?"

I looked up, snapped out of my reverie as I walked into the ER.

"That's me," I answered, hiking my bag up.

The guy standing in front of me hauled a lab coat my way. "Welcome to the ER."

I stopped before telling the doctor that I'd already been in an ER before, that I knew how it worked.

"You can dump your belongings in the designated locker in here," he said, pushing open a swinging door to reveal a very dismal break room. "And you sign in over there, pick up your charts and all that. Any questions."

I came to a stop beside him in the nurse's station. "Yeah, your name?"

He regarded me with attitude. "I'm Dr. Hunter Marks, head of the ER."

I nodded and gave a curt smile. "Nice to meet you," I said. "I'm Dakota Reed."

Dr Marks barely acknowledged me, just grabbed a pile of charts and hurried off.

"He's always like that," A plump black woman told me from behind the counter. "Got a stick shoved up his ass."

I laughed. "I'm Dakota."

She put her hand out. "Naomi," she returned. "And this is Dr. Wheeler, Dr. Taylor and Dr. Grayson." She pointed to two women and a man in a lab coat.

"Nice to meet you," I said, slipping my arms into my lab coat, affixing the ID badge Naomi thrust at me on the lapel.

"A newbie, huh?"

I looked around at the familiar voice and grinned at Averman. "You didn't tell me you're an ER doctor!"

He snorted and emptied the cart full of charts onto the countertop. "Hardly. I'm an intern, taking those two years off between high school and college set me back, I'm afraid."

I smiled. Who woulda thought, Averman, practicing to become a doctor?

"Good luck," he called as he pushed his cart away.

I waved and turned back around and accepted four charts Dr. Wheeler pushed my way.

This was gonna be one long day.

"Evening, Dr Reed."

I flopped down on my bed and looked at Fulton, who stood at the bathroom door, watching me with amusement.

"What's the matter, playing doctors not what you thought?"

I gave him the finger and closed my eyes, which elicited a chuckle from Fulton, and he plopped down on my bed, easing my rubber-soled shoes off my feet.

"What do you want?" I murmured, opening one eye.

"What are you talking about?" Fulton demanded, peeling off my socks and throwing them in a corner.

"You're being...nice. Are you smoking crack?"

Fulton grinned. "Occasionally, but not at the moment," he joked. "You look like you had a hard day, that's all."

I sat up. "Thanks."

He shrugged. "No problem. Now tell me about it, any severed limbs? Eye balls hanging out, gangrene?"

I frowned. "You're gruesome."

He poked my side.

"Nothing extreme, Fulton. A few sutures, a couple of retrievals...nothing explosive."

"There's gotta be something!"

I rolled my eyes. "Ok. One guy got his hand chewed by his disposal unit, that was pretty nasty."

Fulton's eyes opened wide. "Cool..." he breathed.

I threw a pillow at him. "You're disgusting."

He got up and fetched the pillow, hoisting it back at me. "Yes I am."

He disappeared back into the bathroom and pulled the door closed softly.

I sighed and lay back on my bed, my eyes closing nearly instantly.

"Hey! Wait for me!"

I kept running, avoiding the voice. I didn't want to see the person who the voice belonged to. Not after pouring out my heart and soul.

"Dakota! Wait! Please!"

I could feel a stitch burning up my right side and I clutched it painfully, slowly coming to a stop and sinking to the grass outside Eden Hall.

"Damn!" Adam puffed and dropped beside me. "You put up one hell of a fight..."

I buried my face in my hands. "You hate me," I mumbled through them.

Adam laughed and took my arm. "Why would I hate you?"

I peeked at him between my fingers. "Because of what I said."

He laughed again and leant me into his arms, and he hugged me. "I could never hate you, Dee."

I let my hands fall from my face and I looked up at him shyly. "You couldn't?"

He shook his head. "It's categorically impossible."

I smiled and let him pull me in for another hug, and his lips grazed my forehead.

"And anyway, how do you hate someone after they tell you they're in love with you?"

I sat up and opened my eyes, squinting in the dark room. I took a deep breath and rubbed my eyes, and focused on my alarm clock. 8:00pm.

I yawned and pushed hair out of my face, and I got up and stretched.

I pulled off my crinkled black pants and my white blouse and stuff them in the hamper. I pulled on the nearest articles that didn't smell.

"Nice outfit."

I gave Fulton the finger as I stepped out into the brightly lit hall, rubbing my eyes.

"No, seriously," Fulton said. "New trend. I'd call it...The Reject."

I glared at him and padded down the stairs. The house was silent.

"Where are mom and dad?" I called up the stairs to Fulton.

"They went to see Casey."

I moved into the kitchen and flicked the light on.

"Crap!"

My eyes flew open and I was face to face with Adam. "What the hell are you doing?" I demanded.

He looked positively horrified. "Just getting a soda." He held up the can of Dr. Pepper.

"No, what are you doing in my house?"

"Hanging out with Fulton," Adam answered. I watched his eyes trail over my body.

I finally looked down at my hastily thrown together masterpiece and was horrified to see my red sweater, what I thought was just a tight skirt, adorning my thighs. And as if my luck couldn't get any worse, I was wearing my very old, very worn, practically see-through Hanson t-shirt from 7 years ago.

"I just woke up," I explained lamely and tried to tuck the long red sleeve of my sweater into the top of my "skirt."

"I like it," Adam said softly, not meeting my eyes.

"Liar," I accused, smiling at him. "Get out of here."

He moved past me. "I guess Hanson aren't so bad after all..."

I blushed and crossed my arms and he moved back upstairs.

I lay my head down on the counter, resisting the urge to bash it against the Formica.

"I hear you're giving my friends a peep show."

I glared at Fulton. "How could you let me come down here looking like a Britney Spears video hopeful!" I hissed accusingly.

He grinned and took a swig of apple juice from the carton. "Too priceless."

I punched him square on the arm. "You're an ass."

I turned from the room and climbed the stairs, locking myself in my room.

"Can you see a suture in curtain three?"

I accepted the chart Dr. Taylor gave me and made my way across the seemingly quiet ER and pushed back the curtain.

"Let me guess, you lit a cherry bomb and forgot to throw it?" I demanded of Goldberg, who sat on the bed, accompanied by his sister Vanessa.

"Ha ha," he said sarcastically. "Any way, I wouldn't be making jokes, Dee. I got plenty on you."

I sat down on my stool and cleaned the long cut on the inside of Goldberg's right palm.

"Oh is that right?" I asked, laying a plastic sheet across his arm before grabbing a suture kit. I desensitized the area with a local.

To my horror, Goldberg began humming 'MMMBop'. I poked his wound gently with a pair of tweezers.

"Ouch! That hurt!"

I smiled sweetly. "Oh, sorry honey. Better keep your mouth shut then."

Goldberg rolled his eyes. "Everyone knows."

I set down my tweezers. "How can everyone know?" I demanded. "It only happened last night!"

"What happened?" Vanessa demanded.

"Nothing," I said, giving Goldberg a look as I began my work on his cut.

"Reed, you got a call," Joy, a nurse said, popping her head behind the curtain.

"Thanks, can you take this?" I asked her, setting the needle down and peeled off my gloves.

She nodded and I left, giving Goldberg a smile as I marched over to the phone.

"Dr. Reed speaking," I said into the receiver, pushing stray strands of hair out of my face.

"Hello Dr. Reed speaking."

"Fulton, what are you doing calling me here?" I demanded.

"I wanted to let you know that Adam, Charlie and Portman are spending the night at our house tonight. So you can get your outfit ready."

"Pig," I hissed into the phone and slammed it down so hard Naomi looked up.

"Boyfriend troubles?" she asked, peering at me over her half-glasses.

"Worse," I told her. "Twin brother troubles."

She laughed and I walked away, snatching up a chart.

Fulton was gonna get it.

"What, no sleep inspired outfit?" Charlie teased as he, Portman and Adam came through the front door.

I flipped Charlie off (I seemed to do that a lot) and continued on to the kitchen, my face flaming as I passed Adam.

After a horribly long day at the hospital, and after a particularly gruesome burn victim, I wanted to get into the tub and soak a few hours away.

I pulled open the fridge and pulled out cucumber and cut myself some slices. I grabbed a bottle of water and weaved my way back into the living room and up the stairs.

"I'll be in the tub," I called, not waiting for an answer as I locked myself in Fulton's and my adjoining bathroom and turned on the faucet, letting the tub fill up.

I lowered myself into the hot water slowly, finding a comfortable position before lying back and putting the cucumber slices over my eyelids.

I got out of the elevator in Langley Hall, Adam's dorm at Eden Hall and moved through the hallway, my eyes on the red carpet.

I took a deep breath and forged on, making sure I didn't run into anything.

I stopped outside of his dorm room he shared with Charlie and raised my hand to knock. I swallowed and exhaled.

"Hello?" I called softly, knocking on the door.

"Come in," Adam called from the other side of the door.

It took all my courage, acquired over the eighteen years I'd been alive, to open the door and enter the room.

I pushed the door open and inhaled deeply as the scent of roses filled my nostrils.

My eyes opened wider as the room was exposed to me, bathed in candlelight, and vases full of roses.

"One hundred red roses," Adam said softly.

I looked over to wear he stood by the closed bathroom door. "Why a hundred?" I asked, burying my nose in a bunch by the door.

"I wanted you to see that I love you more than a hundre red roses. I didn't want to just tell you."

I smiled. This was how perfection was described in every romance novel. It was candles and roses, and a man who was the most exquisite creature on Earth. It was about love and desire, and happiness and longing. My life was reading like a romance novel.

"You did all this for me?" I asked Adam softly, my eyes drinking in the room. The beds had been pushed against the walls which left a substantial space in the middle of the room, which was scattered with rose petals.

"You're worth this and more," Adam said softly, moving towards me hesitantly. He took me in his arms and leant his forehead against mine. "I love you."

I breathed a sigh and smiled. "I love you too..."

He let me go momentarily to turn on his CD player, and soft, classical music filled the air.

"Dance with me," he said softly, holding his hand out.

I took it.

My eyes fluttered open and I shivered.

My bath water was long cold, but my face was flushed with heat.

My dream was more than a dream, it was a segment of my life. It was the night Adam and I first made love.

I sat up and let the water out and stepped out of the tub, wrapping a fluffy yellow towel around my body.

I knocked warily on the door to Fulton's room and opened it a crack. "Can you keep it down in there please, I'm going to bed."

"Sure," Fulton said and I closed the door, moving through to my room where I dressed in my pyjama shorts and a t-shirt.

I slid between my cool cotton sheets and settled in, my mind and body exhausted.