"First day of work! Are you excited?" I asked, crawling behind Daniel on the bed and wrapping my arms around him. I kissed his cheek, happily. Daniel was sitting on the edge of the bed and leaving me lots of room. He tied his tie and then continued to button up his shirt.
"I guess so, yeah. It'll be weird to be back in a hospital and not-," he started.
"In the middle of the jungle? Yeah, I know but hey modern medicine has never killed anyone. Okay that's a lie but what I meant is, it'll be fun. I'm actually kind of excited to get back," I shrugged.
"Well good," he said, turning around and then kissing me. "As long as you're happy, I'm happy."
I smiled, "Well I want you to be happy too!"
"I am, trust me. I love being here with you, for starters," he said.
I giggled. "What?"
"Nothing, you're so cheesy sometimes. It's cute and really sweet but cheesy."
"Oh but you like it," he teased.
I giggled, "Maybe a little."
We made our way to the hospital and I was ecstatic. Daniel and I went our separate ways. He went to the attending lounge and then to the chief surgeon's office while I went to the resident lounge. The chief had to welcome him and show him around and I was to resume training interns and taking my own cases. I could hardly wait. And I was already really excited to get back to high-tech surgery. I wanted so badly for cardio!
"Welcome back, Montgomery," Dr. Stevens said.
"Hi, Dr. Stevens," I smiled.
"How was your trip?" he asked.
"Wonderful, actually. I'm glad that I went. I learned a lot," I replied.
"Good, Montgomery. I have a transplant today at two. Are you up to it or are you a little rusty?" Dr. Stevens asked.
"I'm definitely up to it, sir!" I answered almost too quickly.
He chuckled, "Same ol' Montgomery." Dr. Stevens then turned the other way and went to check on other patients. I was met by interns.
"Alright interns, let's make rounds. Looks like our first case is in… 203," I said, reading the chart that I had. That number… it was all too familiar. And then it felt as if there was a ghost hovering over my shoulder, reminding me that I was forgetting something. I led my interns to the room and sure enough, it was Dean's old hospital room.
"Harold!" I ordered. The girl began to recite the facts about this case and what we were doing to treat it.
"Good. Harold, you're on my service today with this case and George you'll be on Dr. Capshaw's case and Williams, you're with Dr. Moran," I delegated.
"Yes ma'am," they all said, before splitting off.
Cara Harold got to work on tending to the patient as I just stood there in the room, paralyzed. I got that déjà vu feeling all over again. I closed my eyes and half expected to see Dean lying there in that bed when I opened them. I almost wanted that. Katie and Bradley were right. Maybe I wasn't completely over Dean. I sighed. The best way for me to get over him was to see him. I needed to see him. I needed him to know that I had moved on so that I could truly move on and be with Daniel because that's what Daniel deserved. Daniel deserved all of me and as of now, part of me still belonged to Dean. I needed to take that part of me back.
Daniel was in bed and half asleep. I had been reading and realized he was asleep. Now was my chance. I grabbed my cell phone and quietly made my way to the bathroom. I closed the door behind me and sat on the toilet. I pulled out my cell phone and found Dean in my contacts. I took a deep breath before pressing the 'talk' button. My breathing became heavier as the phone kept ringing. Maybe he wasn't going to pick up. And just when I thought he wouldn't, he did.
"Hello?" he asked, almost surprised as I was that he picked up the phone.
"Hi," I said back.
"Jennie? Is that you?" he asked.
"Yeah," I replied.
"So, wow, I'm guessing you're home from Peru," he started.
"Yeah, I'm home," I said. I smiled at the sound of his voice that I hadn't heard for a long year. Both of us knew that this conversation was moving ever so slowly.
"Look, this isn't a great time. It's late and it's just… not a great time," he stammered nervously. I swallowed hard. He had moved on, didn't he? I mean, I knew it was terrible of me to feel bad because I was getting married but like I said before, part of me still belonged to Dean.
"Oh I'm sorry should I call back later?" I asked.
"I don't know, look, I'm… sort of seeing someone," he started. Just hearing those words hurt. I knew it would hurt if I saw him but I needed to take that part of me back.
"Oh wow congratulations um, I just, I think I need to see you," I said.
"Hey who's on the phone?" I heard a voice ask. It wasn't just a voice. It was a woman's voice. I needed to get over him.
"One second, I just uh, it's Sam. I need to talk to him alone," Dean lied. So now he was lying about me? Oh God, he had feelings for me too, didn't he? I heard a door close and then Dean resumed speaking. "Yeah, don't forget to clean out your gun, Sammy and uh, yeah, Bobby should have the book you're looking for."
It stung to know that he was hiding me. We had just made contact. Why did it feel so wrong? And the fact that he was pretending that I was Sam made it ten times worse.
"I don't know if that's a great idea, Jen," he said.
"I don't think it is either but look, I think we both need this," I said back.
There was a long silence. Wow, I didn't make any sense. By seeing him, it'd hurt me… but I wanted that?
"Yeah, alright fine. How's tomorrow?" he asked.
"Tomorrow sounds great. Can you be in Seattle by tomorrow?" I asked back.
"Yes," he replied.
"Alright," I said back. "I'll see you tomorrow then."
"Bye," Dean replied.
There was a long silence before either of us made a move to hang up the phone. I put the phone in my lap and just leaned my head back. I still had feelings for Dean and it was evident. I needed to get rid of them and that was also evident.
