Chapter 24

Elsa is walking to her chief's office and she has to admit to herself that she is a bit worried about the reason he wants to see her, she has this feeling that it won't be a nice meeting with him. She stands in front of the door and knocks a few times waiting nervously to hear the man's voice.

"Come in." she hears from the inside and after she takes a deep breath she enters in the room closing the door behind her.

"Dr. Summers, did you want to see me?" she asks trying to sound as calm as possible. 'It's not like he knows about Anna and I… is it? Oh damn...'

"Good morning and yes, pleas sit down." And so she does. "I asked you to come here because I have to talk with you about a certain topic."

'Here we go.. I'll be fired because I kissed his daughter, oh man.. now that things were getting better!' Elsa can't help but panic inside and just nods at him not trusting her voice.

"I need you to explain this to me." And he tosses her a folder which she takes right away and opens it.

"What the.." she looks at the papers regarding her past with the Hans Southerisland. A part of her is glad that it's nothing about Anna and her but the other one is pretty concerned about this file. It's all the documentation about the trial that involved her in the past months and she doesn't even need to take her glasses and read because she recognises them, Marshall has the same copy in his study. She swallows hard and lifts her eyes to meet her chief's.

"Look, I'll be honest with you, I didn't ask for this." He points to the folder in the woman's hands. "but I found it on my desk his morning when I arrived. I called my secretary and she said the prison sent it to me, because this morning Mr. Southerisland came in the E.R. escorted by some officers with a heart condition. I haven't seen him yet but as soon as I read your name on this file I had to call you here. I didn't read the entire document and I won't." he assures her sending a comforting look. He stands up and walks slowly to her and taking the folder from her and places it on the desk.

"If you want and need, you can talk about that, if not, there's no problem."

"I.. prefer not to, sir." She admits with a shaking voice and he nods.

"That's okay. I can only imagine how much it could be difficult for you. You won't treat him, I don't want him near to you." He declares and Elsa is more than moved from his decision but she has a question that is torturing her and Kai precedes her.

"Bijorman will take the case, being under you wing is making him one of the best and the lawyer wants his client to be treat by the best. You are, but I as I told you, I don't want him near to you."

Elsa is really speechless and she doesn't even know what to think, she thought she would have been free from that man but she was deceiving herself. She's trying to deal with the new information when Kai lets Kristoff come in, he looks at her with worried eyes because he doesn't know why he's here and why the woman is there looking like a broken glass, could it be that Kai knows about Anna and her?

"Kristoff, I called you because you'll have to work on a case."

"Okay, what have we got?" he asks sitting on the chair next to Elsa.

"Male, 28 years old, cardiology's matter, he's in a private room of the E.R. and you need to check him."

"All right, let's go then, Dr. Winters." But she stays still.

"No, this is your case, only you. She can't and won't treat him." Kai doesn't know if it's wise to tell the intern how the situation is delicate, but he trust Elsa talks with him if she thinks it's needed.

"Oh.. okay then, see you later." And the young surgeon goes away leaving the other two alon in the office.

"Dr. Winters, if you need to go home-"

"No. I need to distract myself. I still have my old cases, right?"

"Yeah.."

"Good, then I'll go and make my rounds." She stands up and before leaving she speaks again. "This is all confidential, I'm confident you won't say a word to others."

"Of course." He says almost like offended but he knows that it's a sensitive topic for the woman. After she exits he looks at the folder on his desk and sighs loudly.

"Life is a bitch, isn't it?" he murmurs to himself and takes the document away. When he opened it before calling Elsa, he read only the first sentences of the file saying that Hans was a prisoner guilty for indecent assault on several women and the one who pressed charges against him was his blonde cardiac surgeon, Dr. Winters. then he stopped reading and talked with his secretary on the phone for some explanations and asked for Elsa.

Kristoff arrives to his new patient and he keeps thinking that he's happy to finally have a case only by himself but something tells him that he shouldn't feeling like that and it's not because it's about a person who's suffering but it's about someone who can't be treated by his boss. As soon as he enters the private room he notices the officers and sees the man handcuffed. 'He's a criminal.'

"Good morning Mr. Southerisland, I'm your doctor, Dr. Bijorman." The man looks at him with a disappointed look.

"Where's that bitch?" Kristoff is taken by surprise and he thinks that maybe he doesn't need a cardiac surgeon but a psychiatrist.

"Excuse me?"

"Elsa, where's she?" he barks and now the blonde understands why the woman couldn't work on this patient, they know each other and apparently they have history and not a nice one. Then the officers come closer to Hans and show him their gun and send a glare that says to stay quiet and let the doctor do his job.

"I need to check your heart. What happened?" Kristoff chooses to avoid answering at the question. 'I'll talk with Elsa later, I think she'll need a friend now..'

The blonde young woman has finished her rounds and now she's walking to the Relax room in a huge need of a hot tea. She hopes this day will end soon and without further surprises. Once she arrives she's happy to see that there's nobody in there, so she can have some time for herself.

'Everything was doing fine..' she thinks looking at the hot mug on the table, she watches how the vapour comes from the hot liquid. She doesn't know what to do, should she call Marshall and tell him what's happening? She knows she's at work right now but she doesn't want to bother him so she takes out her phone and is about to start writing a message when she hears something. She freezes and her mind goes straight to Hans but her brain tries to tell her that he can't hurt her anymore and he's not here but in an hospital bed. She slowly turns and takes a sigh of relief.

"Ehy, I didn't know you would have been here today." She says gently.

"Yeah, well.. I forgot to tell you that my physiotherapist misses me, good morning." The familiar redhead smiles at her and walks closer to her.

"How is that you know about this place?"

"Easy, my cousin." Elsa stands up and gives the younger woman a soft smile.

"It's nice to see you, have you slept well?" Anna nods and hugs her gently.

"Can I tell you something?" she asks while she keeps her in her arms.

"Sure, what's up?"

"I missed you and that smile." Anna doesn't know if she can kiss her lips right now but decides to not to, instead she gives her a peck on the cheek and sits next the chair where previously was occupied by Elsa.

"How is your day going on?" the redhead asks casually looking at the mug then she notices something odd in her doctor's face.

"Good, I've just finished to check on some patients and now I'm taking a break, what about you?" 'There's no need to tell her about that..'

But Anna realises that she isn't entirely telling her the truth, even if she has the feeling to not press on the matter for now.

"Oh you know, a bit tired because of some exercises. Listen, I was thinking this morning that maybe if Rapunzel and Flynn stays here until the weekend we could do something, for example go to the lake or if the weather is ugly we could do that Masterchef challenge, there will be more judges and as I always says: more people mean more fun! Of course Marshall too." Elsa thinks about that for a moment and then replies.

"Well, they leave Saturday.. I think Kristoff and I have Friday free so maybe we could spend the day all together, but I have to ask them. I'll let you know, okay?" and at that on the redhead's face a big wonderful smile shows up and the blonde can't help but chuckle at it. They talk about everything and nothing for a while and after a while Anna watches the other woman in silence thinking about the last evening and what everyone kept saying.

"Elsa.. may I ask you something?"

"Go ahead." The blonde keeps tapping the mug in front of her.

"You see, yesterday everyone kept telling you changed a lot and that you weren't 'alive', why? I mean, to me it doesn't seem so, you seem a lot 'alive', what happened to make them say that..?" the doctor stops her hands and changes her facial expression, she knew that sooner or later the redhead would have asked something like that, she's surprised Kristoff didn't tell her anything but at the same time she's glad.

"You don't have to answer.. if I made you-" she starts.

"No, it's okay. It's just.." she takes a deep breath before saying something more. "As you now know, I was a little brat when my parents weren't around, that's because they were strict, mostly my father, they wanted the best for me and I can't stop thanking them for how they raised me. I was born in a family of surgeons and they expected me to become one too, so since I was little they brought me in the world of medicine, I went with them to conventions, museums, everything related to this job." She smiles a little remembering when they went for the first time to the scientific museum and she found out how to extract DNA. "People use to think that it's not a nice way to raise a child, but that's not entirely truth. I mean, I hadn't such a great social life like everyone else of my age, but I was okay with it, because my parents loved me and they tried to give me everything I needed. My mother taught me a lot, she wasn't like my father, focused only on medicine, but she wanted me to learn how to play piano, for example, or cook or simple things like kindness, love." She tries to fight back some tears, she doesn't want to cry in front of Anna. "Despite my 'intellectual childhood' I was happy, but then.. I was 15 years old, there was an accident, my parents were flying to a meeting and I couldn't go with them. The plane crashed and they died and with them my life too. Since then I closed myself, I became this.. Ice Queen. Marshall became my legal tutor and my best friend."

Anna can see the hurt in those icy blue eyes and the tears that are trying to make their way, she extends her hand and places it gently on the blonde's forearm. She doesn't know what it's like losing someone you love, but now she thinks she understand the woman a little more.

"I'm sorry.." she mumbles, what could she say? It's not like there's a protocol for this kind of things. "I didn't-"

"It's okay, Anna. Don't worry, you asked and I answered and it's not like I wouldn't have told you all of that sooner or later, it's just.. hard to talk about that, but I'm fine." The blonde looks into turquoise eyes and her hand cover the redhead's, then she gives her a smile trying to reassure her.

'She's the one who should be comforted yet she tries to not let me feel like this, she's really one of her kind.' Anna looks at Elsa as she comes a little closer to her while squeezing her hand.

'It's okay if I want to kiss those lips again..?' the younger woman thinks to herself and starts blushing when she notices the smirk on the blonde's face.

"I spoke aloud.."

"Yep and it's okay, I was thinking the same thing when I saw you earlier." And then they share a gentle kiss, for a few seconds they brush their lips and when they move apart there's a shy smile on both of them.

"I'm starting to like this.." Anna starts and Elsa agrees with her nodding.

"Me too, but I think we should talk about this."

"Yeah, you're right.." they smile at each other and stay like this looking at their eyes and with their finger intertwined. They think they could stay like this forever and enjoy this moment, then they're interrupted by someone who enters the room.

'At least this time we managed to kiss.' Elsa thinks and turns to see who is here now.

"Elsa! I need to talk with you!" Kristoff says before realising the presence of her cousin. "Oh, hey Anna."

"Hi, so.. I think I leave you two with your work! I should change anyway." She smiles at the two blondes and exits the room after waving at both.

Elsa looks a bit embarrassed at seeing the look her intern is giving her.

"So, Anna and you, uh?"

"Oh shut up!" she exclaims and her cheeks are burning.

"You have to tell me everything, you know? That's what friends are supposed to do." He smirks. They could talk about love life, the crazy criminal can wait for now, he thinks.

Author's Note: Hi everyone! So, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Kai will find out about Anna and Elsa, but not right now. Hans is back but not for long. Thanks a lot for your continue support, it's nice to see that this story is welcome. I hope you are comfortable about how it's going, maybe it's a bit 'slow' but I prefer not to rush on anything.

I was told that some fics are taken down and I was asked if I posted the story somewhere else, some of you already know this but it's right to let you know too: I decided to post the story on Archive of Our Own too (same title of the story and same name of the account), so if you want you can check it in there too. (I started posting there only in these days and I'm taking this chance to check the chapters and find out some mistakes xD)

So, feel free to tell me your opinion about this chapter and have a nice day everyone!