Several days passed, Max was being even more cautious about his secret chemo sessions. He ignored Dr. Robbins wishes to stay in the cancer ward even though his appointments were before Dr. Sharpe arrived every morning. He did not want to take a chance. Max had Dr. Robbins set his chemo up on a mobile device which Max would roll to his office. He'd finish his chemo in his locked office where no one could bother him or walk in on him.
He was getting smarter. Dr. Bloom had pointed out how he looked pale the other day. So, now as part of his morning routine, he added a heated eye mask to his list. After his chemo and sometimes the bathroom, Max heated his eye mask and held it on his face for a few minutes to bring the color back in his face as best he could. It seemed to be helping with the bags under his eyes, too.
Dr. Sharpe had offered to take Luna for the night yesterday, but he turned her down citing exhaustion was not his problem and that he was just a little under the weather. He did not know if she bought his fake story, but he did not stay around to find out. He found disappearing from the situation was working well. No questions could be asked if he was not present for them.
Meanwhile, Dr. Sharpe was not buying his story. She sought out her boyfriend, Dr. Cassian Shin for advice on the matter.
"Hey Cass," she greeted him in the nurse's bay of the ER.
"Morning Helen." Not wanting to display any public affection, he resided to giving her a smile and a wink.
"Hey, can I ask you something?"
"Shoot."
"If you had a friend who seemed to be dodging you, what would you do?"
"When you say 'friend' are you meaning to say Max?" He knew her too well.
"Maybe. But let's say this friend was acting fishy but any time you tried to talk to them, they walked away from you. What would you do?"
"Well, in this case, Max is acting weird. I know because you keep talking about it. And if I were you, I would ask him straight up what is going on, and I would ask them in a place them can't walk away from you so easily in."
"So just ask him what is going on and why he is being so weird?"
"Yes. You and Max are friends. If he can't tell you what is wrong, then maybe you aren't really friends."
Helen did not like this answer as much. She could not imagine Max withholding something from her and scoffed at the notion that they were not close enough friends to burden each other with things. Shin put his hands up in defense. "Hey, I not the one keeping secrets. Just giving advice."
"I'm sorry. Thank you for the advice. I will try it."
Now, how was she going to corner Max? He seemed to be sneaking around this hospital for months now. She knew he was hiding something and acting weird trying to keep it from her. She would find out what it was because knowing Max, he needed help but was too proud or oblivious to ask for it. She knew being Max's friend, sometimes you needed to force help upon him. Like when he wasn't cleaning his apartment and she organized a cleaning party for him or when he was grieving Georgia's death and wouldn't talk to anybody about it. Max lived to help others while usually forgetting about himself. As he once said, he lived in the clouds, dreaming big and wishing the world but it was Sharpe that pulled me back down to Earth and kept him grounded in reality. Without her he'd be flying high with no tether like a fly away balloon. And without him, she would lose her optimistic perspective and inspiring motivation. Max was the one who made her fall back in love with medicine. He saved her and her career.
She pulled out her phone and texted Max:
We need to talk. Can you meet me in my office?
She hoped she would not have to hunt him down for the answers she needed. Max, on the other hand, read the text and didn't know how to answer. If he met with her, he knew she would have questions and he was not confident he'd be able to talk his way out of them. If he didn't meet with her, it would only spark her suspicions even more. He'd have to meet her and be able to think on his feet. Keep it short and get out of there as fast as possible. Maybe it was about business, steer it towards medicine. But not chemo.
Sure. See you in a few. He texted back.
She smiled at his answer. Well, this should be interesting. At least, she didn't have to send out a search for him. She could confront him face to face without him walking away.
Ten minutes later, Sharpe was pacing in her office when a knock came, and Max opened the door. Her nervous face disappeared, and she broke into a smile.
"Hey Max."
"You requested an appointment with yours truly," he hoped he could mask his pain with humor.
"Yes. I wanted to talk." She walked towards the door.
"That is what your text said." Sharpe closed the door and locked it behind him. "Are you okay?"
"Yes, I mean no. I, I just feel like every time I try to talk to you, you find some reason to leave."
"I am the Medical Director of one of the busiest—" he started.
"See, that's what I mean. You won't give me a straight answer. Max, I'm worried about you." She touched his arm to bring him out of his head. "I care about you, Max. You're my friend and as your friend you should be able to share with me. Anything. If there is something going on with you, we promised to burden each other. So, please burden me." She rubbed his arm before sitting on the arm of one of her chairs.
Max was trying to think quickly. He could not think of a good story, so he went with denial. "There's nothing going on. I don't know why you'd think that something was wrong."
"Are you sure? You can tell me. No judgement."
"Nothing going on with me. Just a normal guy juggling being a single dad and a doctor. It's exhausting, yes, but I wouldn't trade it for anything," he managed a smile, but she could see the hurt underneath it.
"But if there was something wrong, you'd tell me?" She looked up at him with big, concerned eyes.
"Of course," he lied. It was one thing to keep this from her, but now he was lying to her face. Lying brought a different sort of pain inside him. He hated to see her hurt, but he kept reminding himself that this was for her benefit as much as she didn't think it was. She'd let it go eventually and this would all be a thing of the past.
"Okay. Just know that I worry about you and I'm here for you. Even if you just need to talk. And my offer to babysit still stands, for whenever," they finally shared a smile.
"I'm might just take you up on that," he turned to leave knowing that was another lie and he wanted to kick himself.
"I'll see you later?"
"Yes, I'll be around." Max left a slightly more assured Dr. Sharpe sitting on the chair in her office, arms crossed. She wanted to believe him, still part of her didn't think she was getting the whole truth. She didn't know Max to lie unless it was very important and even then, it was a rare occasion.
Oh, Max. Could she trust him?
