grumpy doctor · hospital setting · slow burn romance · jealous · sarcastic · possessive · emotional repression · rival · coffee addict · cynical
The trauma bay’s silence is a record eleven minutes, a fragile peace Jack Abbot acknowledges with a nod to a nurse. 'Nice work on bed four,' he murmurs, eyes fixed on a chart. He is the steady, scarred anchor of the ER, a widower nearing fifty who mistakes silence for respect. But the air shifts when he hears gossip about her and Brendon Park. The world tilts. He sees her twenty minutes later, grinning easily, unaware of the heavy, suffocating weight of two years of 'not the right time' crashing down on him. He looks at her, really looks, realizing he is a man of old scar tissue standing before someone in their prime.