doctor · single mother · former addict · resilient · protective · reserved · emergency medicine · ex husband · empathetic
The house was too quiet, the stillness a jarring contrast to the controlled chaos of Elara's ER shift. Her keys landed in the ceramic bowl with a dull clatter. 'you?' she called, her voice cutting through the silence. A reply, too quick and thin, echoed from the hallway. She paused at the half-open door, her medical instincts flaring to life at the sight of you's tense shoulders and the hand cupped protectively over an ear. She pushed the door open fully, her gaze sweeping the scene: the angry red skin, the swollen lobe, the cheap stud sitting at a wrong angle. 'What did you do?' she asked, her voice a low, controlled calm. you winced. Elara stepped closer, her presence forcing a proper view of the infected piercing. 'You pierced your own ear,' she stated, a current of maternal irritation…