Okay, I know it's short and I apologize but I thought this was a good enough chapter in and of itself and didn't see the need to expand it.

Enjoy!

M

Hospital administrator Jill Casey glided through the halls of Hampton's Heritage with about as much grace as a hell demon. It was an apt comparison since she was about as mad as one and she was pretty sure there was fire being left in her wake. She had just finished arguing with Doctor McKinney, the chief of oncology, about his desire to prioritize his patients over hundreds of others and needless to say, things didn't go well.

After making a pit stop in the cafeteria for a relatively decent cup of coffee, Jill went into her small office and closed the door, locking it so she wouldn't be disturbed unless under her own terms. She all but collapsed in her chair, her energy and anger deflating with the lack of need for either, and blew out a sigh of frustration.

The problem with working in the medical field wasn't the patients, the lack of funding, or dealing with insurance companies - it was maneuvering through the veritable minefield of egos while making sure that you and your career come out on the other side in tact. In the past, Jill has had troubles with both but that didn't stop her from fighting for her patients or her hospital and she wasn't about to quit now. She would wait a few hours and then write a message to McKinney telling him that if he doesn't stop putting his cancer patients above everyone else, that she will begin looking for a new head of oncology.

With that resolution came a release of some stress and Jill felt some of her energy return. She'd skipped lunch on account of the drama and now she found that she was starving. Deciding that now was as good a time as any to go and grab a bite, she pulled her purse out of her bottom - locked - desk drawer and left.

Her phone rang just as she'd reached her car and she actually groaned at the sound. After checking the caller ID to make sure it wasn't the hospital, she answered.

"Hello?" she said, sounding confused because she didn't recognize the number.

"Ms. Casey, this is Divya Katdare, Hank's physician assistant," the professional English voice responded.

"Oh, yeah, Divya, what's up?"

Jill leaned in to turn her car on and let the air coming through the vents cool down while she took the call and now she leaned against the driver's side passenger door. Though she now knew who was calling her, she was still confused as to why she was calling. Usually Hank called, not Divya.

"Have you heard from Hank?"

She waved at one of the nurses as she left to go home and then answered, "Uh, no, why?"

"I had gotten the impression that he was going to call to talk about Doctor Montgomery."

"Oh, Aurora, yeah I knew that she took some time off from the hospital but she never said why."

The wind blew hard just then, gathering up random strands of her hair and blowing them in her face. She used her pinkie to tuck it back behind her ear. Somehow, autumn had crept up on her without her knowing it and it was just now that she got to spend more than a few seconds outside that she noticed that the days were getting colder. Absently, she reminded herself to change out her closet so that her clothing was a bit more appropriate for the changing weather. Her summer outfits wouldn't suffice for much longer.

"Apparently Evan has hired her to help out at HankMed while Hank is healing," the other woman answered, sounding almost unhappy about the change. Jill doubted that it was because Aurora was helping out and figured that it was more because she'd been hired without Divya's approval or opinion.

"Healing, healing from what?" Jill asked, her attention now solely focused on the phone call. Her brows furrowed and her heart raced with worry. Why hadn't she been told that Hank had been hurt? Surely she could have helped in some way or another. It stung a little that she hadn't been told but she wouldn't say anything to his physician assistant.

"There was an incident at Shadow Pond a few nights ago and he was injured," Divya answered with little to no emotion in her voice. "He'll be fine but unfortunately it'll take a few weeks for him to be fully mobile again and so Evan hired Doctor Montgomery until then."

"How badly is he hurt?"

Now Jill got into her car, with the intention of heading over to Shadow Pond, her lunchtime forgotten, to look in on him. What the PA said next stop her dead.

"I'm not sure that he wants me to tell you that."

Although Jill wanted to bluster at the statement and say that she was sure that Hank wouldn't mind, the truth of the matter was that she wasn't sure of that at all.

Things between Hank and her had been a bit awkward and stiff since the whole Charlie incident and then her rejecting him when he decided that he wanted to make things more permanent. There had been sparks, sure, but neither of them had really cleared the air and now it felt as though things would never be as the were once again. She didn't doubt that they could be friends but her heart wept as she realized that that was all they would ever be.

Given that realization, she wasn't one hundred percent positive that Hank would want her to know anything. If he had, wouldn't he have called her to tell her about it himself?

"Oh, okay," she dumbly replied, hoping that she kept her feelings out of her voice. Clearing her throat, she added, "Well, I'll keep a look out for his phone call. And, thanks, you know, for the warning."

The thanks was actually for much more than the warning and she was pretty sure that the PA knew it. But if she caught on, she didn't say or give anything away. She merely said, "No problem." There was silence and then, almost as an afterthought, Divya added, "Oh, and could you do me a favor?"

Well, that was unexpected.

"Sure, what's up?"

"Could you try and put Hank's mind at ease with regards to the new doctor? He's got so much that he's worrying about already, I don't want him to have to worry about his replacement or his job."

Huh, so she did care about Hank. Well, that wasn't really surprising, Jill supposed, as Hank tended to bring out the caring side in everyone. It was hard not to care about, and possibly like, him. Oh sure, Jill knew that there were some but that was only because he wasn't a pushover as others were and he wasn't bought like almost everyone else in the Hamptons was. He had standards and those that didn't fit into those standards could go to Hell as far as he was concerned.

"Of course," Jill easily granted. She was tempted to add that Divya needn't have asked, but she didn't see the point. Instead she said, "Well, I have to go. Thanks for calling."

"Bye," was all Divya said and then the line went dead.

Jill hung out in her car a moment longer, contemplating on where to go, before she finally pulled out of the hospital parking lot and headed for the beach. Today was a day for Chewie's.

oOo

Jill had waited all throughout her lunch for the infamous phone call from Hank, but none came. All during her meal she'd sat at one of the beach-side tables, remembering how she'd taken Hank there the second time that they'd met and how they'd stopped there in and out since then. She almost felt a bit lonely sitting there without him, so much so that she'd been tempted to call him but she couldn't think of a good reason for it and so she'd resisted. She'd been sorely tempted just to grab a couple specials to go and take some Chewie's to him but, again, she'd refrained.

It still bothered her that Hank hadn't called her to tell her that he'd been injured, but if what Divya said was true, there were other things going on in Hank's life that he was busy dealing with and so, perhaps he'd just been too distracted by all that to call? Then again, Hank was never really the kind of person to need a reason to call. Usually, he would have just picked up the phone just because he'd wanted to. The mere fact that he hadn't went to show her just how different he was trying to make things.

Discouraged and annoyed, Jill packed up whatever she hadn't been able to finish and headed back to the hospital. She made the usual niceties and answered whatever random questions she was bombarded with as she made her way back to her office and then she once again closed and locked the door. After locking her purse back up and placing her leftovers plus her diet coke on top of her desk, to the right of her computer, Jill began to write that letter to McKinney.

She was just about to his 'Print' when her phone rang. Immediately, her heart sped up and her finger froze on the mouse. It didn't matter that she hadn't checked the caller ID, somehow she knew it was Hank.

"Yeah," she answered, hoping that she sounded busy and distracted and not at all like she'd been waiting for his call.

"Hey, it's Hank," he identified, his voice sounding calm with just a hint of a smile.

"Hey, Hank, what's up?" she asked, once again hoping that she sounded normal and not as though she didn't already know.

"Divya called you, didn't she?" he asked, though whether or not he knew or was guessing, Jill couldn't tell.

Either way, Jill figured the figurative jig was up and so she caved and said, "Yeah, about three hours ago."

"Right," he said, sounding as though he were blowing out a bit of air near the end. "Well, anyways, I was wondering what you could tell me about a Doctor Aurora Montgomery."

"You mean the doctor that you stole from me?" she teased as she leaned back in her chair and got a bit more comfortable.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that," he apologized, sounding a bit nervous. "Evan hired her without my knowledge. Apparently, telling Evan to proceed with looking for an on-call doctor was actually telling Evan to hire a doctor and start them right away."

"Of course it did," Jill said. In her head she was thinking that that sounded precisely like something Evan would do and that somehow Hank should have known that that was what his little brother was going to do but she held her tongue. She may not have any siblings but she knew enough about them to know that they were a blind spot that no brother or sister could see around.

"Well, Aurora is a great doctor. She's kind, caring, and gentle. She has a great bedside manner. She's patient with the most trying patients." Jill paused in her description and thought for a minute - wondering how she never noticed this before - then added, "She actually reminds me a lot of you."

"Oh so she was fired from her last hospital for letting a rich patient die, moved out to the Hamptons, began again, and then kept screwing up her personal life too?"

The way he casually described how he viewed himself made her cringe. They were accurate descriptions, and, yes, what he'd said about his personal life had made her a wee bit giddy, but they didn't do him justice at all.

At any rate, she laughed it all off and said, "Well, maybe not exactly like you, but in the way you treat your patients, yes."

"So what you're telling me is that I could end up being replaced by her," he joked.

Or at least she hoped he was joking. Surely he knew that no one could replace him. Didn't he?

Before she could tell her mouth to stop, Jill heard herself say, "Believe me when I say that no one could replace you."

Yeah, as if that wasn't a good way to bring a relatively normal conversation to an uncomfortable and abrupt halt. The other side of the line went dead and Jill found herself wincing at the lack of sound. She hadn't meant for that sentence to come out sounding so sincere and making her sound as though she were still in love with him, but she was fairly certain that that was precisely what it had sounded like. Damn.

"Uh, so Divya said that you were injured," she said, if for no other reason than to move passed the awkwardness and find out some information. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, that," he said, sounding as though he were waving off his injuries. "Yeah, I'm fine. There was a mishap with one of my previous patients at Shadow Pond, but I'm fine. A bit bruised, but I'll live."

"Then why do you guys need Aurora?" she persisted, getting tired of all the generalities she was getting about the subject.

"At some point I managed to fracture my patella," Jill physically winced at that. Ouch! "It's not too bad, but I will be on crutches for a couple weeks and since most of my job is physical-"

"-you need Aurora to help out while you get better," Jill finished for him. "I get it." She waited a moment and then said, "You know, you could have called me and asked me to fill in. I would have gladly helped out."

"Yeah, you know, I don't know why Evan didn't call you, honestly," he answered, sounding a bit like the thought hadn't even occurred to him or Evan. "Sorry, about that."

"No, I'm not mad," Jill assured, not wanting him to think that she was. Okay, she may be a little annoyed, but she wasn't mad.. Per se. "I was just curious."

"I guess Evan wanted someone that he thought could be a bit more permanent. I mean, we all know that you're kept busy with the hospital so he probably thought that you weren't an option."

Or maybe I wasn't an option because he thought it would be weird with what's happened between us in the past, Jill privately thought. It was more likely than the bull that Hank was offering up, but she wasn't about to say it out loud.

"Hmm," was all she said in response. She was unable to think of anything else to say, honestly. "Well, you know, I was thinking of coming to visit later on, if that's okay. I could even bring dinner."

His lack of immediate acquiescence bothered her and almost made her retract her offer. Almost. but Jill wasn't the kind of girl to get nervous just because a guy she liked didn't automatically take her up on her invitations and she refused to do so now. So she waited - if somewhat impatiently - for him to speak first.

Just when she was about to make sure that he was still on the phone - and hadn't fallen asleep or been cut off - he answered, "Would you mind waiting a couple of days? I'm currently not in the guesthouse but I should be back by then."

"If you're not in the guesthouse then where are you staying?" she asked, confused.

"Boris offered me a room at Shadow Pond until I could get back to the guesthouse."

Oh, was all Jill could think. She had to admit she was a bit jealous that Hank was being given the privilege of not just wandering through one of the many seemingly random halls but that he was actually staying in one of the rooms. But that was quickly wiped away by concern.

"If you weren't able to go back to the guesthouse on your own, then that would mean that you were hurt worse than you're letting on," she summarized, choosing to voice this deduction rather than keep it to herself.

"Yes it would," he admitted but didn't elaborate. "But it's nothing to worry about," he added, perhaps thinking that his previous sentence alone was too cold. There was a bit of scratching and then what sounded to be a muffled, "come in!" and then he was back. "Hey, sorry but I have to go. I'll let you know when it's safe to come and visit."

He didn't even give her a chance to respond. He just hung up.

Jill let out a scoff and then put her phone down. Had Hank really just brushed her off? Or did he actually have someone coming into his room whom he thought he should pay attention to? Given where he was staying, Jill was sure that the only person that could apply to was Boris, so if someone had come, it would have been him. Jealousy came back but this time it wasn't because Hank was seeing things she wasn't, it was because he had chosen to pay Boris more attention than her.

Well of course he would! Boris is his landlord. Plus, he's Boris, her rational mind intoned. But still. There was a bit of something else, just out of reach of her mind that told her there was more to it than that.

It wasn't like she wanted to be the center of Hank's world, but she wasn't sure how she felt about not even being in the same galaxy.

With a huff, Jill resigned not to let it bother her. She printed out the letter, proof-read it and then left to deliver it. McKinney better watch out if he thought she was just going to roll over and let him walk all over her.

TBC