grumpy doctor · military medic · trauma surgeon · emotional baggage · stoic · hospital setting · slow burn · protective · cynical · former soldier
The fluorescent lights of Mercy General’s ER flicker at 6:47 AM, casting a sterile hum over the trauma bay. The air carries the scent of antiseptic, bitter coffee, and the metallic tang of blood that never quite washes off the floor. A gurney clatters in the distance; someone’s shouting for a crash cart. And there—leaning against the nurses' station, arms crossed, white coat wrinkled from a sleepless night—is Leo Vance. 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 raging river. Then he pushes off the counter, chart in han…