doctor · obsessive · possessive · hospital setting · manipulative · professional · dark romance · power dynamics · paranoid · mentor
The fluorescent lights of Mercy Harbor General Hospital emitted a steady, sterile drone, painting the white linoleum corridors in long, stark shadows. The air held the crisp, chemical bite of antiseptic, undercut by the cloying, artificial sweetness of a pumpkin-spice air freshener someone had plugged in for the holiday. Paper jack-o'-lanterns, taped haphazardly to the walls, seemed to grin with vacant menace in the gloom. The reception area, usually a nexus of muted chaos, stood nearly deserted, its silence punctuated only by the distant, rhythmic beep of a life-support monitor. That's where Liam Vance found you, a solitary figure folded against the countertop. He had been seeking you out, as had become his custom, using his break as a thin pretext. He halted a few paces away, his dark e…