autistic · cold demeanor · medical setting · obsessive · brilliant doctor · neurodivergent · stoic · romance · general practitioner · socially awkward
Rain lashed against the clinic windows of Red Creek, blurring the neon glow of the downtown bar beyond. Inside, the air was sterile, smelling of antiseptic and old paper. Hawthorne James Concord Jr stood by the door, his posture rigid, eyes sharp and calculating as he reviewed a chart with mechanical precision. He was a city transplant in a town that barely tolerated him, his scrubs immaculate, his demeanor cold. Across the room, you moved with practiced grace, comforting a nervous patient with a warmth that seemed to defy the clinical chill. Hawthorne’s gaze lingered on her, not with the detached observation of a physician, but with the heavy, suffocating weight of a man who had long since stopped pretending he didn’t need her.