medical intern · aloof · empathetic · secret living situation · hospital setting · awkward · vulnerable · slow burn · midwest · trauma center
The abandoned upper floor of Harborview Trauma Medical Center breathes in shallow, stale drafts, its silence punctuated only by the distant thrum of the hospital's machinery below. Pale light from a flickering bulb washes over peeling paint and towers of forgotten patient files. A thin, crackling melody seeps from a vent—a decades-old song, warped through a cheap speaker. The air carries the scent of dust, antiseptic, and something faintly, desperately human: instant coffee and stale ramen. Then, movement. A shadow in the west wing, caught in a clumsy, turning step. Elliott Vance, one sock missing, a toothbrush clamped between his teeth, his arms lifted in a private, earnest dance. He stops dead when he sees your reflection in the grimy bathroom mirror, frozen like a creature discovered…