Disclaimer: I do not own The Night Shift, nor any of its characters or plots. I just own my storyline and my OC Erin.

Surprisingly enough, she did not react when he broke the news, and that was nothing like her at all. At first he thought she had not heard him properly. As a matter of fact, she did look pretty tired and he could tell that something was off with her. The last days had been hard, with a lot of incoming injured soldiers and civilians, lots of overtime and also bad news from home. He was fully aware of the first part, but he did not know about the latter. Just the day before Owen had called her to let her know that Connor was in hospital after a car accident. He did his best to calm her, he explained that a friend from college was giving him a ride when they were suddenly hit by a small van that had run a red light. Thankfully neither of them was driving too fast and Connor had a concussion and a broken wrist. He had a cast on and he was admitted overnight as a precaution, doctors said he should be fine in a few days. Patrick was by his bedside from the beginning (he was the one that got the call from the police), Owen was flying to Boston that evening and he would keep her in the loop with developments. When she hung up the phone, she could not believe that one of his sons was in hospital and there was no way on earth that she could be with him. And then it hit her: she had been so selfish trying to build a new life for her that she had lost sight of the most important thing: the people she loved. Her sons might be at college in the other side of the country, but they still needed her. And she might not have been in love with her husband, but he would always be the father of her now grown-up children and he should not be flying to Boston on his own. She realized that she was being extremely disloyal to her family by starting fresh at that stage of her life. That night she could not sleep at all, and she was crying and checking her phone every five minutes until the following morning.

Her eyes were puffy red and obviously she had not slept well. "What´s wrong? Are you ok?", a very concerned Drew asked. She looked up at him trying to fight back tears and he knew something serious must had happened. "C´mon, come with me", he said, and he dragged her out of the small office adjacent to the ER to his own office down the hall. As soon as he closed the door she started crying and he stepped forward to hug her. She held him tight, putting her arms around his waist, placed her head on his shoulder, and let her emotions out. For the first time in twenty-four hours, she was not feeling lonely. They were like that for ten minutes, until Erin ran out of tears and stepped out of his hold. She was feeling she was blushing, she was so embarrassed. "I am so sorry, I didn´t mean to…", she whispered. "Don´t worry, any time. Will you please tell me what´s going on, Erin?" They both leant on the desk and she started talking. She told him everything: what had happened to Connor, how Owen had called her and she was now eagerly waiting for an update on Connor´s condition, that she thought that she had been very selfish and disloyal trying to pursue her dreams when she had a family that needed her… He understood exactly how conflicted she felt. There were times in life when it was very difficult to meet everybody´s expectations, even more if you were an overly responsible person, like Erin was. Like he himself was, too. Definitely, they had that in common. He had been down that road many times, trying to deal with his relationship with Rick and not upsetting his parents at the same time, striving to build a married life in between deployments and assignments, wishing to have the best training but being reluctant to spend time away from his husband… Yes, he knew that feeling very well, and the guilt and pain that usually came with it as decisions had to be made over the years. But he was a seasoned army doctor and she seemed to be experiencing all that for the first time.

So he told her that this was the way life goes on. That an accident should not make her regret her prior decisions. That nobody was going to love her less for staring a new life, and, if they did, then they did not really care about her. And that she should trust herself first and foremost. He took his time and said it the way he would talk to her younger sister, and she listened like she used to listen to her father, which was interesting to say the least as he was younger than her. She had forgotten how protective and caring he could be, and instantly regretted that lately she had drawn away from him due to gossip. "Don´t worry Erin, everything is goin' to be fine", he assured her. "Don´t mean to be rude, but how do you know for sure?" "Because it will be, trust me".

Drew was just out of his night shift and kept her company while she was waiting for an update on Connor. He had his own news that he had not been able to share with Erin during the days they had grown apart. Things seemed to be going much better between Rick and him, he had realized he was truly in love with him, as he had always been, and he did his best to rekindle their relationship from the distance. As a result of that now they spoke on the phone as much as they could and they even had plans for some renovations in their San Antonio home. And the word "adoption" had come up a couple of times. Drew was happy for the first time since he had been deployed and he was really glad to share it with Erin. "Had it not been for your advice this would have never happened. I was too hurt to see things clearly. I guess we would be speaking about divorce right now", he said. "So, thank you, I owe you one".

And at that point her phone rang. She quickly picked it up and heard on the other side of the line: "Hey Mom, it´s me, Connor…". Silent tears of relief started to fall from her eyes and she grabbed Drew´s hand for support while she listened to Connor. They held each other hand during the entire conversation, until he was paged from the ER for an urgent procedure.