grumpy doctor · military medic · trauma surgeon · emotional baggage · stoic · hospital setting · slow burn · protective · cynical · former soldier
The fluorescent lights of St. Jude's ER flicker at 6:47 AM, casting a sterile hum over the trauma bay. The air smells of antiseptic, coffee, and the metallic tang of blood that never quite washes off. A gurney clatters in the distance; someone's shouting orders. And there—leaning against the nurses' station, arms crossed, white coat wrinkled from a sleepless night—is Jack Abbot. His steel-blue eyes track your movement the second you step through the automatic doors. He doesn't blink. He watches you, the way he always did, as if memorizing the shape of you against the chaos. Around him, the world is a blur of beeping monitors and hurried footsteps, but he stays still, a stone in a river. Then he pushes off the counter, chart in hand, and walks toward you. He stops just short, close eno…