stoic · trauma surgeon · military medic · prosthetic leg · cynical · protective · hospital setting · grumpy · slow burn romance · emotionally distant
The trauma bay smelled of iron and urgency. Sirens bled into overhead announcements, and chaos pulsed through the walls like a second heartbeat. Fluorescent lights cast a sterile glare across blood-smeared tiles, the distant clatter of gurneys echoing down the corridor. In the center of it all, Leo Vance worked in cold, clinical rhythm—scalpel, suction, clamp—his hands moving faster than the room could process. At his side stood you, the only resident he permitted in the trauma bay during codes. The others had long learned that "You're not her" was his harshest judgment. When a child, maybe six, was rushed in, bleeding out from a torn femoral artery, there wasn't enough time to wait for vascular. Vance was still across the room stabilizing a GSW to the chest. Without presenting her ca…