The following morning, Shaun sat on Lea's sofa reading a medical journal and ignoring the several new messages from Dr. Glassman, as well as one from Dr. Melendez, that had appeared on his phone over the previous twenty-four hours. Lea, on the other hand, was running frantically around the apartment. "I'm so going to be late if I can't find my other shoe," she shouted, racing from one side of the apartment to the other to check another spot where the lost shoe could be.

Then the bell rang and someone knocked on the door. "Can you get that?" Lea called to Shaun as she dug through a pile of clothes next to her bed in hopes that the shoe was underneath. "It might be the landlord. No one else would knock and ring the bell this early in the morning…" she grumbled faintly as she stuck her head under the bed.

Shaun quietly mumbled something that was inaudible to Lea and continued reading.

Sighing, Lea got up from the floor and went to open the door herself. On the way, she found her missing shoe tucked in the corner next to the door. Tugging it on her foot, she mumbled, "I haven't got time for this… Yes, what do you want?" Opening the door, Lea came eye to eye with a young woman who was decidedly not the cranky, bearded landlord.

"Hi, sorry," Claire said hesitantly but with a small smile as she crumpled the slip of paper in her hand with Shaun's address written on it. "Are you Lea?"

"Yeah. And you are?" Lea replied, somewhat annoyed.

"I'm looking for Shaun Murphy. He's your neighbor. Do you know where he might be?" Claire asked, temporarily ignoring Lea's question to get to the reason for her visit as quickly as possible.

Raising an eyebrow, Lea said, "You're not like an ex or something, are you?"

Claire's eyes widened and she said quickly, "Oh no, I'm definitely not. I'm Claire Brown." She held out a hand to Lea. In one breath, she continued, "Shaun and I work together. He left rather abruptly a couple days ago and didn't show up yesterday, and no one can get ahold of him, so I'm just wondering if you know where he might be?"

Lea shook Claire's outstretched hand and then let her eyes stray slightly, back over her shoulder towards the part of the apartment where Shaun was sitting. The movement was just enough to raise Claire's suspicions, and her eyebrows went up, changing her expression. The realization in Claire's face was quickly read by Lea, who finally said as she let out a sigh, "Yeah, he's here. I think you better come in."

Standing aside and opening the door wider, Lea allowed Claire to enter. Lea added, "But if I don't leave now, I'm going to be late for work. You two do whatever you need to, and if you both leave, just lock the door behind you." And, grabbing her purse, Lea disappeared out the door.

Shaun hadn't looked up from the article he was reading. Claire stood awkwardly for a moment before she walked around the coffee table and took a seat next to Shaun. She knew that she was going to have to be the one to start the conversation. "Hey Shaun," she began. "You know, everyone at the hospital has been worried about you, especially Dr. Glassman."

"Good," Shaun replied, closing the journal, staring at the cover.

Claire's eyebrows went up. "Really? I never took you for the spiteful or revengeful type."

"Dr. Glassman was being a jerk, and he wanted me to do something I didn't want to do. He was trying to control me and I showed him that he can't do that."

"Yeah, I guess so, but just disappearing wasn't really the best way to do that, don't you think? I mean, that's how misunderstandings and fights continue. People refuse to talk to each other and get passive-aggressive instead."

"I tried to talk to him and he didn't want to listen."

Claire shrugged. "Some people are just stubborn. I guess Dr. Glassman might be one of them. Also, I think it means he cares about you. A lot. He wouldn't be so persistent if he didn't have a good reason for it. He thinks he knows best, but there's more to it than that."

Even though Claire paused, Shaun didn't say anything. He just continued looking at the medical journal on his lap.

So, Claire continued. "Both of you are acting childish. You pretended to run away and now you're refusing to talk to Dr. Glassman. He's avoiding talking to you man-to-man because he sent me here look for you instead of coming himself. Now, what do you say we go do the hospital and the two of you can try to talk maturely through whatever it is you're fighting about?"

After not moving for a few moments, Shaun closed the medical journal and nodded slowly.

"Good. Get your things. My car's outside."

It didn't take long for Shawn to grab his things. He used the extra apartment key that Lea had hanging next to her door to lock it after they'd left, and then he slid the key under the door back into the apartment. He thought about putting his duffle bag back in his apartment, but decided he wasn't entirely sure that things would get resolved and wanted a backup plan.

On the car ride, Claire chatted about the patients she had to see that day. None of them were particularly interesting - the most interesting was an appendectomy - but luckily it wasn't a long drive. Soon enough, they arrived at the hospital. Shawn followed Claire inside, backpack on his back and duffle bag in his hand.

The first person they encountered was Dr. Melendez, who seemed utterly shocked to see Claire arrive with Shaun, but nevertheless pointed them where they needed to go. "I think Dr. Glassman is in Allegra Aoki's office. Murphy, you're going to have some explaining to do. It better be convincing if you want to keep your job."

Shaun nodded sharply and continued to follow Claire through the hospital hallways to the wing with the administrative offices and conference rooms. They stopped outside the chairwoman's office. Claire gave Shaun an encouraging smile, and he knocked on the door before he entered the room.

Dr. Glassman and Ms. Aoki had been talking, but they stopped suddenly and looked up when they heard the knock and the door open. Allegra's face clearly portrayed her disapproval of Shaun's actions, and she silently looked at him, every muscle in her face tense in anger. Looking quickly from Shaun to Dr. Glassman, she shot the latter an I-told-you-so look. Dr. Glassman simply said, "Shaun." Otherwise, neither of them moved, and neither did Shaun, except to release the bag from his grasp. It fell to the floor with a dull thrwp.

"I think you two have something to discuss," Allegra said curtly. "Since you're both here and I have things to do elsewhere, I'll leave you my office." Without another word, Allegra left the room. Dr. Glassman and Shaun were left standing in silence, Dr. Glassman staring at Shaun and Shaun staring at the window.

Finally, Dr. Glassman said, "It's good to see you, Shaun."


AN: Final chapter coming in the next week or two!