Vice -- an immoral habit or practice
Summary: Sometimes, it just feels better to give in. Series of one-shots, with a kinda "Seven Deadly Sins" theme.
Quote is from 5.15 (Unfaithful)
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"Everything could be good. Very little ever is."
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avarice
He'd like to think that he's a changed man.
It'd be nice if he could reassure his wife that things from this point on will be different, without having to carefully construct a web of lies. But truthfully, honestly, he misses his old life.
Chris Taub is a man who lived the philosophy of "having your cake and eating it too" at every available opportunity.
He loves his wife, can't imagine what his life would be like without her, but a few years ago, he could have said the same thing about his career as a plastic surgeon. It isn't fair, he thinks, it isn't fair that he should be forced to give that up. It isn't right.
He doubts that he would ever be able to admit it, but he knows that deep down a small part of him insists that if he ever had the chance to do it all again...he'd just try harder the next time not to get caught.
"Have a good day," Rachel wishes him sleepily. It's what she usually does each morning, before he heads out off to another day of unpredictability-- yet another piece of his old life he tries hard not to miss. Knowing how the day will go, what the end results will be, that at the end of the day, he would be the hero will have changed someone's life.
The patients he has now, more often than not, don't want change; they don't want total reconstruction in a single moment. More often than not, they do all that they can to avoid it. And, frankly, it baffles him.
Rachel kisses him sweetly, lovingly. It reminds him of why he still loves her: her unfailing faith. It's the same quality that makes him feel nearly sick from being such a hypocrite.
Taub wishes he could staunch the craving that still hangs over his head, that won't stop rearing its ugly head whenever he's drinking crappy hospital cafeteria coffee or his life is threatened by an insane, unruly patient.
He presses a small kiss to her forehead, then grabs his jacket. His hand on the doorknob, he sighs, takes a moment for himself. In his mind he relives the mistake he made that ruined everything, his times spent with the woman that brought him here; nothing about her was small or sweet and he couldn't resist wanting more of every moment he spent with her. She was nothing like Rachel and he just…couldn't help himself.
He's always been terrible at resisting temptation.
Taub exhales the breath he'd been holding and closes the door softly behind him. He will always, always, want more.
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