Thanks for all your kind words! This is the second chapter! Hope you all like it!
Right after I decided to page Eliza, my pager went off and I was paged 911 to the ER. I quickly ran down from my office. There was an 8-month pregnant woman in a car accident. I had to get the baby delivered immediately and the mother had to have her own heart surgery afterwards. Everything was so sudden so I didn't have any spare time to think about my personal problems. It was urgent to perform the surgery and do a C-section to save both the big and tiny humans' lives. By the time I finished the surgery, it was already midnight. I was very exhausted. My shift went long because of this unexpected patient but I was happy that the little one could be born to have a mother. After the surgery, I got changed and was ready to go home. I checked my phone, hoping Eliza would leave me a text since we hadn't talked all day except the consult this morning. I had a missed call! I was expecting to see her name when I unlocked my phone…it was an unknown number. I walked to the car park, wanting to give Eliza a call but I guessed she had already gone to bed. I really needed to talk to her so I finally decided to send her a quick text before I drove home.
'Hey, how was your day? X' I tried to be cool and hoped everything between us was cool as well.
I put my phone onto the passenger seat and made my way home.
It was rainy this morning and I was still very sleepy after a late night. I didn't want to get up but I had to. Suddenly I heard a beep from my phone. It could be Eliza! I got up immediately and opened that text. It was from Bailey…she was reminding me of the board meeting today. Eliza hadn't replied me. I got that. I was sure she was still very mad at me. Of course she had every right to and I was just Dr Robbins to her now.
I made my way to the hospital. I was walking from my car to the main building and I heard that someone was walking up to me and I recognised that it was the sound of Eliza's heels. It was mixed with some giggles. I turned around. It really was Eliza! Wait, who was the brunette walking next to her? Was she a doctor in this hospital? I didn't think I had seen her before though. They obviously came in together. Did Eliza spend the night with her? No way this was happening!
'Morning! Dr Robbins!' Eliza smiled at me.
'Hey good morning!' Really? Dr Robbins again? I still pretended to be cool and smiled back to Eliza in front of whoever that was.
She didn't intend to stop and have a conversation with me. She just walked past me. They walked past me. Eliza was talking and grinning to that woman. No wonder she didn't reply me. I supposed she had been busy all night with that woman. There was no way that female stranger could steal Eliza from me! I couldn't stand this. Seeing her with another woman annoyed me but I could blame nobody but myself. I was the one who ruined our budding romance. I needed to do something! I couldn't just give Eliza away, could I? Wait, she looked happy though. The disappointing look she gave me the other night had disappeared. I loved seeing her smile and she was smiling delightfully now. I knew I couldn't promise her anything. Sigh. I didn't want to start a relationship with her when I was still so unsure. It wouldn't be fair to her. I didn't want her to be hurt. Perhaps she deserved someone else who could commit to her and make her happy although I wished I could be the one. Maybe that woman could give her what she needed. As long as she was happy, whether this person was me or not didn't matter anymore, did it?
I went to the board meeting after getting a coffee from the cafeteria. We needed to talk about the new residency programme today. Jackson Avery suggested board members interfere in it and fire Eliza Minnick. There was an intense discussion about her. Bailey and Avery almost had a fight. Every word I heard about how bad Eliza had been just annoyed me so much! I couldn't hear people complaining about her because I knew she was good for all of us. She wasn't our enemy, at least she didn't come here to fight with Webber as everybody thought she did. I was fed up with the meeting and I needed a bit of alone time to calm myself down. While I was walking along the hallways to my office, I saw Avery and Eliza arguing over whether the residents could perform one of the surgeries he was about to do.
'You are not welcomed on my case… and in this hospital. There's no way I'm letting you and the residents steal my surgery! Oh wait, you people like to steal right? Surgeries, jobs…' Avery pointed his finger to Eliza as he talked.
Who did he think he was? How could he speak to Eliza like that? He was totally out of line. I so wanted to go out there to have her back and punch Avery in the face. I almost did but I hesitated…again. Instead I hid myself at the corner. I shouldn't give her a hope.
'I'm not asking for your permission. I'm here to inform you, Dr Avery. I suggest that you talk to the chief if you are not satisfied with anything I am doing right now. Our residents need to learn by performing real surgeries and I'm only doing my job.' Eliza stated.
'I'm a board member. I own this hospital and you could be fired anytime.'
'Go ahead then! What are you waiting for?' Well said Eliza! Avery was shocked. 'I'll see you in the OR.' Eliza walked away after making a victorious scene.
After finishing my surgery, I was ready to head to the attendings' lounge. I opened the door and Eliza was right in front of me. I could see the anxiety and frustration in her eyes.
'Hey Eliza, you okay?' I asked.
'I'm fine, Dr Robbins. I have a surgery now. See you!' She walked out of the room.
Her beautiful green eyes were teary. She wasn't fine for sure. All I wanted to do was pull her into my arms and give her a tight hug. Did it have anything to do with what happened between Eliza and Avery earlier? But she won that battle and she was so confident in front of him. Would it be something else that made her sad? I wanted to know why she was upset because I was worried but who was I to care about her? I wasn't in the place to. Besides, she probably had someone else to share her problems with anyway. I didn't want to think about Eliza and tried to clear my mind but it seemed impossible. I couldn't concentrate on my work for the rest of the day and I just wished my shift could end sooner.
I had been doing paper work in my office for hours. It was 6pm now and I could get out of here at 8pm. I decided to go to an on call room to rest for a bit. I went to my favourite on call room at the far end of one of the hallways on the third floor. It was always quiet in there and no one could disturb me. I opened the door and I saw Eliza sitting on the bedside and sobbing.
'Hey what happened? I knew you weren't okay. Please talk to me.' I said as I locked the door.
'Nothing. I'm fine.' Eliza wiped her tears from her cheeks and stood up.
'No, you aren't. Why can't you just tell me and let me help you?' I said as Eliza wanted to leave and I immediately gripped her wrist. 'Please!'
'Get off me!' Eliza tried to have me loosen my grip on her but I refused to. 'Let me go!' She yelled at me and started to lose control and bursted into tears again.
Seeing her like this just broke my heart into pieces. I quickly pulled her into my arms without a second thought regardless of how she was struggling to leave. I held her and tried to calm her down. 'Let me go!' She yelled again and tried so hard to push me away but I wouldn't let her and held her even more tightly.
'No, I am not letting you go. I am here. For you.' I put my hand on her hair and left no space between us and she was finally falling into my arms and putting her head onto my shoulder.
'You aren't. You don't even want me! ' She was still crying. Her voice was trembling and her words literally stabbed me in the heart. 'I was like invisible to you. You hid yourself! I know you don't want me!'
'I do. I do. I just…I'm sorry…I'm so so sorry. I am not going anywhere. I promise.'
Promise? It came out of nowhere but I meant it. I just wanted to give her reassurance at this moment. It was easier to be said than I had thought it would be. I could feel that she started to melt into my embrace and put her arms around my waist. She wouldn't stop crying. The pain I'd caused her wouldn't stop either. Words couldn't express how sorry I was. I wouldn't care anymore about whoever she was with earlier and all my crappy thoughts about my past. I never truly considered her feelings and what she really needed until this moment. All I had been thinking about was myself, my fear and my old wounds. I had been finding excuses to hide myself and avoid her. What a coward I was! I'd thought that deciding not to take our relationship further would be best for us but obviously I had made her sad, very sad. I shouldn't even have thought about that. I didn't know what would happen to us in the future but right now I was sure that we wouldn't be happy if I gave up on us. She clung herself to me and buried her head into my neck. She needed me. I would hold her for ages if this was what she needed. All I wanted her to feel now was my presence, my support to her and how much I cared about her. I wanted her to feel loved.
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