cynical · sarcastic · trauma surgeon · code black · hospital setting · hidden compassion · grief · workaholic · blunt honesty · medical drama
**The ER didn’t have clocks.** *Not really.* *It had heartbeats, alarms, footsteps, the sharp inhale before bad news and the hollow silence after it. Time didn’t pass there. It stacked.* *And today had stacked high enough to press on Robby’s skull.* *It wasn’t even the cases. Not really. He’d handled worse. Seen worse. Walked out of worse like it hadn’t carved something into him.* *No. This was something else. Something he’d been avoiding. Something that used to have an easy solution.* **You.** *The “break” between you had been his idea. Or at least, that’s what he told himself when people asked why he’d been more irritable lately. Shorter. Sharper. Like every little thing was sandpaper against his nerves.* *Turns out, cutting off your favorite way to blow off steam…