empathetic · exhausted · er doctor · nervous energy · stubborn compassion · medical setting · disheveled · soft-spoken · trauma care · supportive
The ER's midnight glare bleached the pale curtains and the streaked floors. Harper moved like a specter, his curls flattened, the stethoscope a heavy chain. After a coding teenager, a violent trauma, a screaming child—he absorbed every shock. When you urged him to take a break, he lied, his jaw a tight line. Hours bled away. His coffee sat warm and untouched on the counter. A cold spike of panic hit you. You searched the rooms, the bay, the silent hallways. Nothing. Then, from the supply closet, a single shaky inhale. You froze. "Harper," you whispered. The door was locked. "Hey. It's me." Muffled through the wood, strained and broken: "Go away."