Synopsis: Jack may have just met his match when an injured Cop comes through the ED doors. Reincarnation AU with a twist.
Warnings: No use of Y/N, no mention of age. Descriptions of blood and Injuries. If I have forgotten anything please do let me know.
[Part 6 of 7]
Read previous parts -> Series Masterlist
A/N: A huge thank you to @thatfanficstuff for beta reading.
I can’t believe so many people have liked my series! Thank you so much if you’ve reblogged, liked or commented, even requesting a tag. It means a lot!
Only one more part to go after this! Who’s excited?!
Chasing down a suspect in full uniform was just the normal for you at this point. The call came through early in the morning that someone had decided to rob a convenience store just a few blocks from where you were patrolling. You radioed that you were in pursuit, and needed backup to your location. Your partner had split down another alleyway to cut him off.
You were gaining on him, dodging people, cars and anything that he literally threw at you. Legs burning and chest tightening after the sudden chase. When you closed the distance you took one final step before leaping forward, knocking your suspect to the ground.
You both groaned in pain from the impact, shoulder hitting the concrete with gravel pinching at your skin. You took a moment to breathe before seeing movement in the corner of your eye. Before you knew it, arms had pinned you down and all you felt was pain to your jaw.
Instinct kicked in, you shifted your arm to block the incoming hit. Bending your leg, lifting your hip, you managed to get enough leverage to shift him off you. You didn’t even see it coming. The subtle glint in the suspect's hand as he launched forward, swiping at you. You held in a pained cry as the knife ripped through flesh. Filled with adrenaline and anger you got a couple of hits in, grabbing the hand wielding the knife and wrenching it behind his back until he let go. Kicking his legs from under him, you didn’t miss the harsh contact he made with the floor, acknowledging that he may look far worse than he should and without another thought you cuffed him.
Even while bleeding, you couldn’t ignore the thrill of capturing the perp.
You were good at your job, but you wanted to be better. It was in your blood after all with your grandfather being a well known detective and father a patrol officer, it was like you were destined to follow in their footsteps, even if your mother had heavily disagreed. After your father was killed in the line of duty, over something so small, your mother had wished that her only child wouldn’t go down the same path looking for danger that could potentially put them in the ground. But you’d known since a child, when you held your fathers badge in your hand that this is what you wanted. You wanted to grow up and be in the police force.
“What took you so long?” you teased as your partner Matthews came jogging towards you breathless.
“I knew you had it handled.” He put his hands on his knees as he bent to get his breath back. You had to give the suspect credit, he had stamina, but you always made it your business to be faster. Your partner updated dispatch and requested EMS. Ignoring the concerned look your partner gave you, he tried to lift a hand to you but you hit it away.
“You need to get that looked at.”
“I’m fine,” you said through gritted teeth.
“Yeah, well the pool of blood says otherwise. Plus this guy,” he said nodding to the suspect and raising an eyebrow at you, “needs stitches. Come on, he’s getting checked out anyway, you can catch a ride with him.”
You couldn’t ignore the pain now that the rush of pursuit was gone. The throbbing was making an appearance as you held pressure to the wound. It wasn’t the first time being injured in the line of duty and you were damn sure it wasn’t going to be the last. EMS was only a few minutes out, you could wait until then, but what you dreaded most was the paperwork.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
Sitting in the back of an ambulance was not how you liked ending a shift. It just created more paperwork, you were basically a babysitter to your suspect and especially now, it sucked because you were also a patient.
When the ambulance came to a halt and the doors opened, you shuffled out of the ambulance alongside the EMT and the other injured party, who had not stopped shouting since being arrested. At this point you were hoping to be doped up so you could get some peace. Somewhere in the distance your partner pulled up in the squad car and followed behind.
You were adamant not to be the one on the gurney. Your robber had no such option and when he was later transferred to a bed he would be handcuffed. The lights of the hospital made you flinch from the brightness and you were helped along by one of the paramedics, your focus had completely disappeared in your travels as he rattled off your vitals to the doctors and nurses waiting by the door.
Soon you were being ushered into a room. The nurse did a quick intake of your details, checked your wound and advised that a doctor would be with you soon.
Alone and lost with your thoughts you finally took a look at the laceration to your arm. It was quite deep according to the paramedic. Looking through the ripped sleeve you saw the dried blood, some had even seeped through the dressing. The dressing was covering a good portion of your upper arm and you were surprised that you hadn’t felt worse.
You wondered how long it would take to get it sorted. Would you need stitches? Would you be able to leave soon? Matthews still had to take the offender to the station. You were bogged down in your own thoughts when the door opened, gaze drifting to an unknown face.
“Hi, I’m Dr Abbot. How are you feeling?” You watched as he pulled on a pair of gloves while giving his name. His bare arms on display had you almost gawking at the man, but what really caught your attention was his voice.
That voice bathed you in calmness. It was so familiar, but you couldn’t put your finger on why. Suddenly your thoughts were pulled elsewhere with an eerily similar voice telling you that everything was going to be okay, that you were safe. Whispers meant for moments not for you and not while you were sitting in the hospital awaiting treatment. Letting the thoughts leave you, you slowly opened your eyes, meeting hazel ones staring back.
You cleared your throat before answering him. “Fine, considering. Doesn’t hurt much, just stings.” You watched as he nodded at your answer.
“Okay,” he pulled off the dressing with a steady gaze focused on your arm. “Looks like you're going to need stitches. It didn’t go to the bone and you have full range of motion. I’ll be back in a moment.”
You could listen to his voice all day, the grittiness of it standing out to you. All those previous thoughts before went out the window because all you wanted was to sit and listen to the subtle rasp in his voice while he fixed you up.
It didn’t take long for Dr Abbot to return with a tray full of supplies. You watched as he spoke to someone else and they walked off, not knowing that the conversation was about an attending doing stitches himself even if an intern had offered.
Everything about your doctor screamed gentle and caring, but doing the job you did and reading people, you saw the hidden pain behind his eyes, the tiredness and the fact that even if everything that he portrayed himself to be on the outside said fine, he wasn’t.
“What’s the outcome for my assailant?” you asked to fill the time but also get an opportunity to hear him speak once more.
“Mostly superficial, the forehead tends to bleed a lot more, making it look worse than it is. Probably a few stitches and then he’s all yours.”
You hummed in agreement. Trying to think of something else to say but you didn’t have to worry as he filled the void. Asking questions about why you chose this job.
“Bit deep for small talk, doc,” you said, teasing slightly as he continued to work on your arm.
“It’s not small talk, if I’m interested.” You didn’t miss the smirk even as his eyes were focused elsewhere.
You wondered if his voice had got him in trouble before, the smirk definitely had. You knew he was trouble but at this point you didn’t care. He was a very attractive, very handsome doctor. You were not looking forward to light duty after this, stuck behind a desk. But all those thoughts were lost when you stared at his graying curls.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
You didn’t know if it was divine intervention or just coincidence, but nearly every case since then has landed you at PTMC. Fortunately for you, it was either your partner or the suspect. Your arm healed fine, the touch of the doctor's healing hands working wonders.
Sometimes you spotted the hot doctor, he was still a flirt on those occasions, and you tried to hide how disappointed you were when he wasn’t there.
It was actually while dropping off a heavily drunk and disorderly man, that Jack asked you out. The plastered man hurled verbal abuse at staff while you and your partner helped to restrain him on the bed. Classic bar fight and he was currently losing a battle to the beer bottle thrown at his head.
Dr Abbot hadn’t even flinched at the belligerent man, only took control in a high pressure environment and made it look easy. It was while he was requesting some kind of drug that he glanced at you. “What time do you get off shift?”
You didn’t miss the looks from his colleagues, your partner Matthews gave you a side eye. But just like him, the situation didn’t put you off and you answered as if there wasn’t a screaming man between you.
Where others would find the timing awkward, you felt it was really fitting, it told you what kind of person he was and you didn’t shy away from it either.
One coffee at breakfast after shift was all it took to change the trajectory of your love life.
Soon days off for Jack were filled with meeting up with you. Spending the day with you. He worried for your safety, afraid that one day you’d be the body on the gurney. Sometimes he had nightmares about it. There were days when you’d call him after shift, voice raw with emotion because you’d had to witness the horrors of humanity and it just reiterated how life wasn’t fair.
Those were the days where Jack excelled. He’d already witnessed it through the army. He never compared, only sat and listened to you describe your feelings. Noticing how when he spoke quieter and slower your breathing slowed too. Making sure that you didn’t end up standing on some roof ledge one day because he didn’t notice the troubles you were facing.
After a while, his nightmares reduced and your emotional breakdowns stopped too, because just knowing that you had each other was enough to battle the fears that you each had.
Jack eventually pushed his so far that when speaking to his therapist, he took the advice given as mental health improvement, or so he thought.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
He claimed it was a hobby suggested by his therapist because he had no interest in golf. But you knew otherwise. He could spout that nonsense to whoever he wanted, but you knew the truth. He worried for you, especially after you got injured not even a year ago.
He joined SWAT as the team’s physician. It was his weird logical way of trying to keep you safe. Knowing that you had less chance of survival when you appeared in his ED than if he was right there with you where he could reach you faster.
No matter the reason for the decision, you were annoyed when you first heard. Just as he worried for you, you feared for him too. Before, you didn’t have to worry about his safety in front of bullets as he was the last in line. Safe within the walls of the hospital. Now though, he was in harm’s way with you and that scared you even more. The only solace was you were there when the bullets were flying. You would have each other’s backs when things got bad.
But boy did you wish he’d stop being so self sacrificing and just play doctor. Because sleep was a thing too, something you knew he was short on. But stopping him would mean being a hypocrite because if it wasn’t safe for Jack then it wasn’t safe for you and you didn’t want to think about that outcome. Being an officer and now being SWAT was all you knew, you didn’t know how to be any different. So even though you bit your tongue when it came to his SWAT gig, you made sure that you always had his back.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
The call came early, a warehouse robbery. With your team all geared up, you came upon one of the offenders still loading the van. But what started out as a simple takedown quickly turned much more dangerous.
When the call came through it was reported that 3 suspects were seen loading a van with stolen goods. Males in their late 20s-30s.
Although one male was already outside it didn’t help that at least 2 more were inside the warehouse. Making sure you were prepared in your SWAT gear, extra ammo and radios set to the correct frequency, you and your teammates headed in.
You split into two groups. You and Hiro took the right side while Hall and Peyton took the left.
At first there was no sign on the other two suspects, but you cleared each room anyway. Hiro on your six while you took a look around the corner that led to open space, shifting to a knee you took a glance. You signed to Hiro to push forward as you covered him.
Hiro approached slowly. When gunfire started he darted back to safety.
“Contact right side! Suppressing fire!”
You were pinned for a moment until they stopped to reload. You and Hiro made it through, ducked behind two parallel pillars. Hiding in the corner were the 2 men you were looking for, finding cover behind crates.
It happened so quickly, Hall and Peyton had reinforced your covering fire. Then Hiro was falling to the floor with blood beginning to pool. Eyeing your backup, they nodded with the understanding, we will cover fire. Get him back to safety.
You ran to the other pillar and grabbed hold of Hiro and pulled him back to safety. Seeing the wound you put the gun down and applied pressure to the neck to stop the bleeding. There was so much blood pumping out of him.
“MEDIC! Sierra-2 down. North East Corner, ” you called out into the radio.
“TEMS en route.” It shouldn’t have, but it did calm you to know that Jack was close. He was a damn good doctor and he’d been in a war zone, this was nothing new to him. Whether you wanted it or not, he was going to keep doing SWAT.
You heard footsteps come towards you and your eyes fell on your favourite man at that moment. Your saviour.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
Following Jack and the gurney you watched as they pushed Hiro to an open trauma room. It gave you a moment to really look at your hands, worried for your friend and the fact that his blood stained them. Looking up, Jack was still in there working on Hiro. It settled something in you knowing he has in the best hands.
You didn’t know how much time had passed, only that the blood didn’t fully wash off and you had managed not to pace around. More doctors and nurses had gone into the trauma room than had come out. You could only hope that meant that Hiro was getting more help and it wasn’t bad news.
When the trauma doors opened, out came Hiro along with his care team. Jack approached you. “He’s going to be fine.” Knowing your voice would break, you nodded in reply.
“He’s stable and they’re taking him up to surgery, they’ve got the best working on him.” His hand grazed yours as you listened to his voice, doing its usual job in reducing your fears.
You cleared your throat and stood up straighter. You pulled him towards you, his arms automatically wrapping around you. It lasted barely a minute, it wasn’t the time or place. As you pulled back you caught his eye and raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t think I missed that flinch earlier,” you said sternly. His response was exactly what you expected, indifference.
“It’s nothing, the vest did its job. Just a scratch.”
You watched as his lips slightly pouted while shrugging his shoulders. You shook your head, because at the end of the day you would have acted the same. It’s why the two of you worked so well. Running into buildings while the bullets were flying trying to reach that high that always came.
“Just get it checked out, please.” He knew you were serious. He knew it worried you. “Don’t make me get Dana,” you added in jest.
“Now you don't have to go that far! I can sort it myself. Just needs cleaning.” He squeezed your hand in reassurance.
“Okay, but I will be checking later. I’ve got to go back to HQ. Deal with all this paperwork, I’ll see you at home yeah?”
“Yeah, I’ll see you after shift.” He kissed your cheek as you started to head to the exit.
“Make sure you get some sleep, otherwise I’m coming back and taking your leg!” You called out.
“Elder abuse!”
Your cackle was all that could be heard as you left.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
Who knew running head first into danger would be where you would find the love of your life. Injured and under the bright hospital lights was where you had your first interaction with Jack. He was a flirt, handsome and a great doctor.
He’d lost in love before which was probably why he clung to you a bit more. Already battling so much in life, Jack held on to everything more tightly while fighting his own mental status.
With the risk of Robby crying out for help, you noticed that Jack's way of keeping everything together was having some form of control. So when the opportunity came he jumped at the chance to join SWAT. The medical side knew how to do its job but the husband/partner side of him just wanted to settle a fear that tortured him daily. The thought of losing you before he got a chance to say goodbye.
He was no stranger to loss, losing his leg, his first wife. It all culminated into a man that took the words of his therapist and proved he wasn't okay. He found comfort in the darkness only because if he really admitted it, he was scared. Scared of losing everything he cared about again, he’d already told you he wouldn’t be able to come back from that.
He would never ask you to leave your career, that wasn’t him. Which is why, when you're under the cover fire of your team, it’s his name you call for safety, for help.
He was your safe space and little by little you became his. Because although he needs you safe, he loves you more. His voice was calm during the most intense situations, but it was in those moments that you truly recognised what you had. A love that took the bad situations and made them safer. Not completely erasing the danger but padding the walls and providing a safe place to land. Because if Dr. Jack Abbot - SWAT Physician couldn’t keep you safe, then you were in trouble. As long as he was there and his voice filled the darkness, then you knew it would be okay.
Synopsis: Jack may have just met his match when an injured Cop comes through the ED doors. Reincarnation AU with a twist.
Warnings: No use of Y/N, no mention of age. Descriptions of blood and Injuries. If I have forgotten anything please do let me know.
[Part 6 of 7]
Read previous parts -> Series Masterlist
A/N: A huge thank you to @thatfanficstuff for beta reading.
I can’t believe so many people have liked my series! Thank you so much if you’ve reblogged, liked or commented, even requesting a tag. It means a lot!
Only one more part to go after this! Who’s excited?!
Chasing down a suspect in full uniform was just the normal for you at this point. The call came through early in the morning that someone had decided to rob a convenience store just a few blocks from where you were patrolling. You radioed that you were in pursuit, and needed backup to your location. Your partner had split down another alleyway to cut him off.
You were gaining on him, dodging people, cars and anything that he literally threw at you. Legs burning and chest tightening after the sudden chase. When you closed the distance you took one final step before leaping forward, knocking your suspect to the ground.
You both groaned in pain from the impact, shoulder hitting the concrete with gravel pinching at your skin. You took a moment to breathe before seeing movement in the corner of your eye. Before you knew it, arms had pinned you down and all you felt was pain to your jaw.
Instinct kicked in, you shifted your arm to block the incoming hit. Bending your leg, lifting your hip, you managed to get enough leverage to shift him off you. You didn’t even see it coming. The subtle glint in the suspect's hand as he launched forward, swiping at you. You held in a pained cry as the knife ripped through flesh. Filled with adrenaline and anger you got a couple of hits in, grabbing the hand wielding the knife and wrenching it behind his back until he let go. Kicking his legs from under him, you didn’t miss the harsh contact he made with the floor, acknowledging that he may look far worse than he should and without another thought you cuffed him.
Even while bleeding, you couldn’t ignore the thrill of capturing the perp.
You were good at your job, but you wanted to be better. It was in your blood after all with your grandfather being a well known detective and father a patrol officer, it was like you were destined to follow in their footsteps, even if your mother had heavily disagreed. After your father was killed in the line of duty, over something so small, your mother had wished that her only child wouldn’t go down the same path looking for danger that could potentially put them in the ground. But you’d known since a child, when you held your fathers badge in your hand that this is what you wanted. You wanted to grow up and be in the police force.
“What took you so long?” you teased as your partner Matthews came jogging towards you breathless.
“I knew you had it handled.” He put his hands on his knees as he bent to get his breath back. You had to give the suspect credit, he had stamina, but you always made it your business to be faster. Your partner updated dispatch and requested EMS. Ignoring the concerned look your partner gave you, he tried to lift a hand to you but you hit it away.
“You need to get that looked at.”
“I’m fine,” you said through gritted teeth.
“Yeah, well the pool of blood says otherwise. Plus this guy,” he said nodding to the suspect and raising an eyebrow at you, “needs stitches. Come on, he’s getting checked out anyway, you can catch a ride with him.”
You couldn’t ignore the pain now that the rush of pursuit was gone. The throbbing was making an appearance as you held pressure to the wound. It wasn’t the first time being injured in the line of duty and you were damn sure it wasn’t going to be the last. EMS was only a few minutes out, you could wait until then, but what you dreaded most was the paperwork.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
Sitting in the back of an ambulance was not how you liked ending a shift. It just created more paperwork, you were basically a babysitter to your suspect and especially now, it sucked because you were also a patient.
When the ambulance came to a halt and the doors opened, you shuffled out of the ambulance alongside the EMT and the other injured party, who had not stopped shouting since being arrested. At this point you were hoping to be doped up so you could get some peace. Somewhere in the distance your partner pulled up in the squad car and followed behind.
You were adamant not to be the one on the gurney. Your robber had no such option and when he was later transferred to a bed he would be handcuffed. The lights of the hospital made you flinch from the brightness and you were helped along by one of the paramedics, your focus had completely disappeared in your travels as he rattled off your vitals to the doctors and nurses waiting by the door.
Soon you were being ushered into a room. The nurse did a quick intake of your details, checked your wound and advised that a doctor would be with you soon.
Alone and lost with your thoughts you finally took a look at the laceration to your arm. It was quite deep according to the paramedic. Looking through the ripped sleeve you saw the dried blood, some had even seeped through the dressing. The dressing was covering a good portion of your upper arm and you were surprised that you hadn’t felt worse.
You wondered how long it would take to get it sorted. Would you need stitches? Would you be able to leave soon? Matthews still had to take the offender to the station. You were bogged down in your own thoughts when the door opened, gaze drifting to an unknown face.
“Hi, I’m Dr Abbot. How are you feeling?” You watched as he pulled on a pair of gloves while giving his name. His bare arms on display had you almost gawking at the man, but what really caught your attention was his voice.
That voice bathed you in calmness. It was so familiar, but you couldn’t put your finger on why. Suddenly your thoughts were pulled elsewhere with an eerily similar voice telling you that everything was going to be okay, that you were safe. Whispers meant for moments not for you and not while you were sitting in the hospital awaiting treatment. Letting the thoughts leave you, you slowly opened your eyes, meeting hazel ones staring back.
You cleared your throat before answering him. “Fine, considering. Doesn’t hurt much, just stings.” You watched as he nodded at your answer.
“Okay,” he pulled off the dressing with a steady gaze focused on your arm. “Looks like you're going to need stitches. It didn’t go to the bone and you have full range of motion. I’ll be back in a moment.”
You could listen to his voice all day, the grittiness of it standing out to you. All those previous thoughts before went out the window because all you wanted was to sit and listen to the subtle rasp in his voice while he fixed you up.
It didn’t take long for Dr Abbot to return with a tray full of supplies. You watched as he spoke to someone else and they walked off, not knowing that the conversation was about an attending doing stitches himself even if an intern had offered.
Everything about your doctor screamed gentle and caring, but doing the job you did and reading people, you saw the hidden pain behind his eyes, the tiredness and the fact that even if everything that he portrayed himself to be on the outside said fine, he wasn’t.
“What’s the outcome for my assailant?” you asked to fill the time but also get an opportunity to hear him speak once more.
“Mostly superficial, the forehead tends to bleed a lot more, making it look worse than it is. Probably a few stitches and then he’s all yours.”
You hummed in agreement. Trying to think of something else to say but you didn’t have to worry as he filled the void. Asking questions about why you chose this job.
“Bit deep for small talk, doc,” you said, teasing slightly as he continued to work on your arm.
“It’s not small talk, if I’m interested.” You didn’t miss the smirk even as his eyes were focused elsewhere.
You wondered if his voice had got him in trouble before, the smirk definitely had. You knew he was trouble but at this point you didn’t care. He was a very attractive, very handsome doctor. You were not looking forward to light duty after this, stuck behind a desk. But all those thoughts were lost when you stared at his graying curls.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
You didn’t know if it was divine intervention or just coincidence, but nearly every case since then has landed you at PTMC. Fortunately for you, it was either your partner or the suspect. Your arm healed fine, the touch of the doctor's healing hands working wonders.
Sometimes you spotted the hot doctor, he was still a flirt on those occasions, and you tried to hide how disappointed you were when he wasn’t there.
It was actually while dropping off a heavily drunk and disorderly man, that Jack asked you out. The plastered man hurled verbal abuse at staff while you and your partner helped to restrain him on the bed. Classic bar fight and he was currently losing a battle to the beer bottle thrown at his head.
Dr Abbot hadn’t even flinched at the belligerent man, only took control in a high pressure environment and made it look easy. It was while he was requesting some kind of drug that he glanced at you. “What time do you get off shift?”
You didn’t miss the looks from his colleagues, your partner Matthews gave you a side eye. But just like him, the situation didn’t put you off and you answered as if there wasn’t a screaming man between you.
Where others would find the timing awkward, you felt it was really fitting, it told you what kind of person he was and you didn’t shy away from it either.
One coffee at breakfast after shift was all it took to change the trajectory of your love life.
Soon days off for Jack were filled with meeting up with you. Spending the day with you. He worried for your safety, afraid that one day you’d be the body on the gurney. Sometimes he had nightmares about it. There were days when you’d call him after shift, voice raw with emotion because you’d had to witness the horrors of humanity and it just reiterated how life wasn’t fair.
Those were the days where Jack excelled. He’d already witnessed it through the army. He never compared, only sat and listened to you describe your feelings. Noticing how when he spoke quieter and slower your breathing slowed too. Making sure that you didn’t end up standing on some roof ledge one day because he didn’t notice the troubles you were facing.
After a while, his nightmares reduced and your emotional breakdowns stopped too, because just knowing that you had each other was enough to battle the fears that you each had.
Jack eventually pushed his so far that when speaking to his therapist, he took the advice given as mental health improvement, or so he thought.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
He claimed it was a hobby suggested by his therapist because he had no interest in golf. But you knew otherwise. He could spout that nonsense to whoever he wanted, but you knew the truth. He worried for you, especially after you got injured not even a year ago.
He joined SWAT as the team’s physician. It was his weird logical way of trying to keep you safe. Knowing that you had less chance of survival when you appeared in his ED than if he was right there with you where he could reach you faster.
No matter the reason for the decision, you were annoyed when you first heard. Just as he worried for you, you feared for him too. Before, you didn’t have to worry about his safety in front of bullets as he was the last in line. Safe within the walls of the hospital. Now though, he was in harm’s way with you and that scared you even more. The only solace was you were there when the bullets were flying. You would have each other’s backs when things got bad.
But boy did you wish he’d stop being so self sacrificing and just play doctor. Because sleep was a thing too, something you knew he was short on. But stopping him would mean being a hypocrite because if it wasn’t safe for Jack then it wasn’t safe for you and you didn’t want to think about that outcome. Being an officer and now being SWAT was all you knew, you didn’t know how to be any different. So even though you bit your tongue when it came to his SWAT gig, you made sure that you always had his back.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
The call came early, a warehouse robbery. With your team all geared up, you came upon one of the offenders still loading the van. But what started out as a simple takedown quickly turned much more dangerous.
When the call came through it was reported that 3 suspects were seen loading a van with stolen goods. Males in their late 20s-30s.
Although one male was already outside it didn’t help that at least 2 more were inside the warehouse. Making sure you were prepared in your SWAT gear, extra ammo and radios set to the correct frequency, you and your teammates headed in.
You split into two groups. You and Hiro took the right side while Hall and Peyton took the left.
At first there was no sign on the other two suspects, but you cleared each room anyway. Hiro on your six while you took a look around the corner that led to open space, shifting to a knee you took a glance. You signed to Hiro to push forward as you covered him.
Hiro approached slowly. When gunfire started he darted back to safety.
“Contact right side! Suppressing fire!”
You were pinned for a moment until they stopped to reload. You and Hiro made it through, ducked behind two parallel pillars. Hiding in the corner were the 2 men you were looking for, finding cover behind crates.
It happened so quickly, Hall and Peyton had reinforced your covering fire. Then Hiro was falling to the floor with blood beginning to pool. Eyeing your backup, they nodded with the understanding, we will cover fire. Get him back to safety.
You ran to the other pillar and grabbed hold of Hiro and pulled him back to safety. Seeing the wound you put the gun down and applied pressure to the neck to stop the bleeding. There was so much blood pumping out of him.
“MEDIC! Sierra-2 down. North East Corner, ” you called out into the radio.
“TEMS en route.” It shouldn’t have, but it did calm you to know that Jack was close. He was a damn good doctor and he’d been in a war zone, this was nothing new to him. Whether you wanted it or not, he was going to keep doing SWAT.
You heard footsteps come towards you and your eyes fell on your favourite man at that moment. Your saviour.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
Following Jack and the gurney you watched as they pushed Hiro to an open trauma room. It gave you a moment to really look at your hands, worried for your friend and the fact that his blood stained them. Looking up, Jack was still in there working on Hiro. It settled something in you knowing he has in the best hands.
You didn’t know how much time had passed, only that the blood didn’t fully wash off and you had managed not to pace around. More doctors and nurses had gone into the trauma room than had come out. You could only hope that meant that Hiro was getting more help and it wasn’t bad news.
When the trauma doors opened, out came Hiro along with his care team. Jack approached you. “He’s going to be fine.” Knowing your voice would break, you nodded in reply.
“He’s stable and they’re taking him up to surgery, they’ve got the best working on him.” His hand grazed yours as you listened to his voice, doing its usual job in reducing your fears.
You cleared your throat and stood up straighter. You pulled him towards you, his arms automatically wrapping around you. It lasted barely a minute, it wasn’t the time or place. As you pulled back you caught his eye and raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t think I missed that flinch earlier,” you said sternly. His response was exactly what you expected, indifference.
“It’s nothing, the vest did its job. Just a scratch.”
You watched as his lips slightly pouted while shrugging his shoulders. You shook your head, because at the end of the day you would have acted the same. It’s why the two of you worked so well. Running into buildings while the bullets were flying trying to reach that high that always came.
“Just get it checked out, please.” He knew you were serious. He knew it worried you. “Don’t make me get Dana,” you added in jest.
“Now you don't have to go that far! I can sort it myself. Just needs cleaning.” He squeezed your hand in reassurance.
“Okay, but I will be checking later. I’ve got to go back to HQ. Deal with all this paperwork, I’ll see you at home yeah?”
“Yeah, I’ll see you after shift.” He kissed your cheek as you started to head to the exit.
“Make sure you get some sleep, otherwise I’m coming back and taking your leg!” You called out.
“Elder abuse!”
Your cackle was all that could be heard as you left.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
Who knew running head first into danger would be where you would find the love of your life. Injured and under the bright hospital lights was where you had your first interaction with Jack. He was a flirt, handsome and a great doctor.
He’d lost in love before which was probably why he clung to you a bit more. Already battling so much in life, Jack held on to everything more tightly while fighting his own mental status.
With the risk of Robby crying out for help, you noticed that Jack's way of keeping everything together was having some form of control. So when the opportunity came he jumped at the chance to join SWAT. The medical side knew how to do its job but the husband/partner side of him just wanted to settle a fear that tortured him daily. The thought of losing you before he got a chance to say goodbye.
He was no stranger to loss, losing his leg, his first wife. It all culminated into a man that took the words of his therapist and proved he wasn't okay. He found comfort in the darkness only because if he really admitted it, he was scared. Scared of losing everything he cared about again, he’d already told you he wouldn’t be able to come back from that.
He would never ask you to leave your career, that wasn’t him. Which is why, when you're under the cover fire of your team, it’s his name you call for safety, for help.
He was your safe space and little by little you became his. Because although he needs you safe, he loves you more. His voice was calm during the most intense situations, but it was in those moments that you truly recognised what you had. A love that took the bad situations and made them safer. Not completely erasing the danger but padding the walls and providing a safe place to land. Because if Dr. Jack Abbot - SWAT Physician couldn’t keep you safe, then you were in trouble. As long as he was there and his voice filled the darkness, then you knew it would be okay.
A/N: In this world Sara was not on the Gambit with Oliver. First time writing for Arrow or Oliver so let me know what you think. And as much as I love Olicity, him and the reader are so much better together.
Your phone rang. It was a number you didn’t recognize and you pushed the button to dismiss the call. A minute later it rang again. The same number. You dismissed it again with a frown. When they called for the third time in five minutes you gave into your curiosity and answered. “Hello?”
For a moment there was no response. Then a clearing of a throat followed by the soft call of your name.
“Yes?”
“It’s Oliver.”
You sucked in a breath and tears flooded your eyes instantly. “I don’t know who this is, but that isn’t funny.”
“I’m not joking. It’s me.”
“That’s not possible. Oliver’s dead.” Your thumb hovered over the button, ready to disconnect the call. But there was that little thread deep inside that wished it was true. That this voice on the other side of the phone could be your Oliver because god, you’d missed him. Every single day since that boat had gone down.
Synopsis: Reincarnation Series - Moving to Edgewater, Brett Richards finally meets someone who loves animals as much as he does.
Warnings: No use on Y/N, no mention of age. There are mentions of pregnancy and descriptions of animal birth during this part. If I have missed any warnings please let me know!
[Part 5 of 7]
Read previous parts -> Series Masterlist
A/N: A huge thank you to @thatfanficstuff beta reading and helping me figure out the plot.
Thank you so much for all the likes, comments and reblogs. I’m so happy people are enjoying this series!
Your first introduction to Brett Richards was while you were on shift at Edgewater Veterinary Hospital. It was impossible to ignore the man sitting in the waiting room with his greying hair and facial stubble. Everything about him caught your attention and how his main focus was on the precious cargo held in their crates. Unfortunately, you couldn’t stick around and stare at him all day due to having a full schedule.
You’d already spent the morning checking labs and carrying out an emergency surgery on a beautiful Labrador that decided the owner didn’t need a single pair of socks in the house and would rather use its stomach as a cleaning tool. Luckily the dog was brought in and would go home with a very tender stomach and the ‘cone of shame’.
You only had a few moments to yourself before you were pulled to another appointment and another furry patient. You must have lucked out because the silver fox stood up after you called out a trio of names. Trying to remain professional, you smiled at him before heading to the consultation room with him following behind.
Mr. No Name had a long appointment due to booking in all of his 3 cats. It wasn’t anything urgent. After moving to the area the timing fit perfectly for their annual check up. They were beautiful cats. After doing a nose-to-tail exam on all 3 cats, you could clearly see that they were well looked after, groomed and fed well judging by their weight. He was attentive even while getting them out of their crates, which showed you how much he cared for them.
“Well they look good, heart and lungs sound great. I’ve got no concerns, I will just take some blood to run the usual tests to check their kidney and thyroid seeing as you’ve relocated, that way we can have a baseline on them.”
“Sounds good.”
As you finished taking blood from the youngest, you handed the furball over to him. It was at that moment something caught your attention. You were close enough to him that you took notice of the smell radiating from him. He smelt like the woods, hints of ash but beneath that it was something completely different. Your mind got lost, images of a man laughing flashing before your eyes as he held you in his arms, face buried in the crook of his neck as his scent washed over you. No face, no description of any kind, just flashes of a personal moment.
After the appointment ended, you helped him with his cats and held the door open as he exited.
“Have a good day, Mr. Richards,” you said cheerily. He was definitely going to be the highlight of your day. It was a shame he wasn’t there for longer.
“It’s Brett actually. Brett Richards.” You felt he was going to say more but your receptionist called for you. He quickly nodded goodbye and you went to help your colleague with her current crisis.
His face stuck with you for days. You had no idea if you’d see him again. You worked all hours, even though Edgewater wasn’t huge you hadn’t seen him, but that may have to do with your unsociable work hours.
It was almost five days later when the silver fox Brett Richards walked back into your life. Thankfully not for his cats, but it wasn’t for a good reason, either.
You were with a patient, deep in conversation about treatment plans, when an urgent knock forced you to apologise to the humans in the room. Opening the door you were met by your nervous intern, hovering close by and her attention looking towards the front door before meeting your eyes again.
“Michelle?…What’s going on?” you asked gently, hiding the frustration at being interrupted for no reason.
“Er…there's ... .you should take a look outside.” She rushed out.
Finally taking notice of the flashing lights coming through the window, you are met with a fire truck taking space in your parking lot. Brett met you at the entrance.
“An alarm alert went off for this building. Have you begun evacuations yet? Is anyone hurt?” You were looking at the handsome man that was Brett Richards taking in his jacket and CAL Fire displayed clearly. The cat lover was a firefighter, who knew?
You blinked at him, unable to comprehend the words, but finally processing.
“I’m sorry?…what’s going on? There’s no fire.” You were nervous that someone had called 911 as a mistake. There was no smoke, no fire. It was a completely normal day until the fire department turned up on your doorstep.
“There’s no fire?…are you sure?” he asked carefully, almost half convinced that you could be lying.
“No, there’s no fire. It’s the first I’ve heard of anything.” He nodded at you and turned his head to his radio, telling them to stand down for now, but sending a pair to do a quick check of the grounds.
“Can you show me where your alarm system is?” he gently asked next. His eyes were focused on you, and you couldn’t help but go a little shy at the look. You walked through the hospital, ignoring prying eyes and showed him the requested alarm set up. It was blinking, which you hadn’t noticed earlier, but stepped away to let him look at it.
After a few minutes, the flashing light stopped. He turned back to you and smiled. “You’ll need to speak to the alarm company. I think there’s a fault, it’s sending a signal that there’s a fire. I’ve turned it off for now, but get them out to fix it soon.” His eyes were soft and he had this rugged look about him mixed with this lovely smell, you were captivated by it.
You apologised about them having to come out for no reason. Promising that you’d get the alarm sorted as soon as possible. After getting the all clear that there was no fire, you watched as the firefighters loaded up again. The parking lot emptied out with your last look toward a particular salt and peppered man before you returned back to your patients.
For a shift to turn so drastic, it would definitely stick out for the foreseeable future, you had to laugh at the silliness of the situation.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
It was late when the call came through. A ranch alight and a horse in distress. You didn’t hesitate to grab your gear and head out.
Arriving at the scene, you found it illuminated with flashing lights from the emergency services and the backdrop of a roaring fire doing its best to turn it to ash. Grabbing your bag from the car you headed to the nearest firefighters who directed you to the man in charge. To your surprise it was Brett.
You didn’t miss his surprised face when you approached stating that you were the Emergency Vet on call for this, asking what the situation was and what he wanted you to do. It seemed that the horse was scared, panicked due to the fire. It had backed up near the tree line and wouldn’t budge. With those details in mind, he caught someone’s attention, letting them know that they were in charge. He led you towards the horse but held back when you went to approach.
When you moved to Edgewater, you’d become acquainted with all the animals that were under your care, this mare was named Midnight. Which was a big problem because you knew the mare was heavily pregnant. Assessing the current situation you came to the conclusion that she was showing signs of labor. You were calm in your approach, letting her see your demeanor. With a soft voice and a hand held out in a surrendering motion, she let you get close. A couple more steps and you were able to rub her stomach for confirmation while coaxing her away from the tree line.
She was contracting, probably stressed due to the fire and exhausted. You couldn’t get her to move any further to safety. You dropped the bag off your shoulder and started to run through everything that you’d possibly need.
The crack of something broke through, a tree branch falling. Through the roar of the fire, you felt a body encasing yours. Covering your body from the impact. The crash was loud and devastating, it had landed closer than you’d like, but far enough away that you knew you had time.
Orange and yellow flames edged closer as Midnight shifted uncomfortably, urging you to move quickly.
A hand shot out as you moved, looking back at Brett, he was shouting out over the raging fire. His grip was firm but soft, pulling you towards safety.
“WE CAN'T STAY HERE!”
“I’M NOT LEAVING HER, IF I DO THEY BOTH DIE!” You shouted back, already turning back towards Midnight.
The hand grasped yours tighter, Brett’s fierce eyes piercing yours. You couldn’t help feel them start welling.
“I’m not leaving Midnight. Because just like the people at your station are friends, family or just colleagues. Animals are mine. I understand them when no one else does. She’s scared, exhausted and in the late stages of labor. I can help. I can get them both out.”
Something must have resonated because the next thing you know Brett had taken a slow long breath, the grip on your hand loosened.
“How can I help?” he asked as you turned to your bag.
“Grab some gloves. Move the rope and blanket to the top. Hopefully, we can help birth the foal quickly and get her moving.” He nodded with all the confidence of a firefighter thrown into the position of assistant vet medic.
First you kept talking to Midnight, letting nature take its course as she labored the foal, front feet making an entrance. You could feel the distress of the black horse, giving quiet encouragement to keep her calm. When it started to look like there was no movement, you made the decision to intervene.
Grabbing the rope and tying it around the foal's feet, you handed the end of it to Brett.
“I want you to pull this back and downwards when I tell you. Just like human births we will wait for the contractions.”
“You sure I should be doing this, what if I hurt them?” he replied, concern dripping from his gravelly voice.
“You’ll be fine. We are just giving a helping hand. The contractions will help with movement, you're simply giving a little pull to help it along. I’ll stop you if I think anything’s wrong okay.” Watching as he agreed, you started working in tandem.
You called out for Brett to pull on the rope, watching as the Foal moved out an inch further, then telling him to stop and wait a moment.
The cycle repeats, it feels like hours but in reality it’s only been minutes. You notice in the down time Brett is still analysing the scene. Still worried about the fire heading towards you. But your only focus is on the mare and her foal.
Brett wipes some sweat away from his face with his arms, the combination of wildfire and exertion the root cause, when your voice raised a little, telling him to pull again, more towards the floor.
A few seconds later there was a release. The foal was now unrestricted, landing on the grass. You headed over and checked the airway and its breathing, then with quick hands you sorted the umbilical cord. Taking the blanket, you rubbed the foal vigorously to help dry it off. Normally you’d wait and let these things happen naturally but with your surroundings burning, you're not in the ideal situation to take things slow.
Picking up the foal carefully, you called for Brett to grab the bag, you waited a second for Midnight to gaze upon you and her newborn, wanting to reassure the mother that her baby wasn’t going anywhere she couldn’t follow. With quick steps you headed to safety with mother and baby and a shocked Battalion Chief following closely.
A trailer had been prepared, and you loaded both up. You would take them to the Vet Hospital to be checked out and hopefully find a home afterwards.
You and Brett went your separate ways, both focused on your individual jobs. Brett still had a team to lead and you had patients to see. With a quick wave you headed off, hoping to catch another glimpse of him soon.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
The next time you saw him, he approached you. Even though it was just a shadow before you, you had a sixth sense that it was your favourite firefighter. Clad in civilian clothes, it was his cologne that got your attention. When you gave him a once over, you noticed how relaxed he was. Hands in his pockets, shoulders low and a warm smile on his face. It was definitely different from the high pressure Brett Richards that you’d seen before.
You nudged the chair out in front of you, he took the hint. Taking a seat opposite you as you nursed a drink. Smokey’s Tavern was the local hangout, you didn’t go often, you usually reserved it for the tough shifts when man’s best friend didn’t make it. Those cases were difficult, you weren’t so much for social interaction but you liked the noise. It kept you from sinking deeper into the ‘what ifs’.
“Want another?” He nodded to your nearly empty drink.
You debated for a moment, you couldn’t deny the attraction you had towards him. Spending more time with Brett excited you a little. So you agreed and told him your drink of choice.
He was only gone a few moments before he sat down again.
“I just have to say, the other night. It was amazing. Does it always feel like that?” The excitement in his voice had you smiling because you knew exactly what he was talking about.
The first time you’d helped a mare during labor, you had been a student. The feeling never went away. Obviously all births were not straight forward and some had turned into emergencies or in some cases their baby didn't make it. But the ones that did stayed with you. The feeling of helping bring something in the world, it was exhilarating.
“Yeah…it does. It never really goes away either. Thank you though.” You noticed his raised eyebrow and continued on “I realise I put you in a bad position. You were watching out for the safety of your crew and then I came along going head first into danger and not budging.” He chuckled at your response. You were determined to help and without carrying you out, you were unlikely to leave.
“It’s fine, well it wasn’t but…I could see why you were so passionate. I take it…they're okay, right? No side effects? I didn’t mishandle the procedure or anything?.”
You laughed as he fumbled through his words. “No..no, you were fine. Perfect even. Midnight and Shadow are doing really well.”
What had started as a stressful night, eased the longer you sat with him, the heavy feeling in your chest lightening. It was easy. Your sides hurt from laughing at his blunt humor, his smile made you smile and soon it was late enough that you’d reluctantly had to go your separate ways.
What started as friendship soon blossomed into something else. Something steady. He was your rock through the hard days and you helped on his dark days. You may have come from different backgrounds but he was your whole world once he let you in. Even deciding to stay in Edgewater once the foundation of your relationship was settled and the distance with his daughter felt reversible. You made space for his past, wanting him to remember everything that brought him to you.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
Human beings were all different. Some went through life coasting, not knowing what they wanted to do, no dream job that they wanted to do, just simply surviving it. Life.
Others however, knew what they wanted from childhood. Maybe it was a role model that imprinted a moment of clarity, or just simply following in the footsteps of a loved one. Or an emotional reaction that spurred the choice.
Everyone has a choice, all your choices have led you here.
To this perfect moment.
Sitting on a porch swing overlooking a field. In company with the man that you’d found later in life. His life had thrown him curveballs, he’d landed in the world of firefighting where he met his late wife and had a child. She provided a whole other life for him and his daughter and then life took her away.
You’d met him when he was almost ready to move on. He’d tried before with Liz but grief doesn’t have a time limit and before he knew it he was pulling away again, knowing that something didn’t feel right. So when he met you, he was cautious. He didn’t want to commit if he was going to later take a step back. He was polite, friendly, everything he was supposed to be, but he couldn’t ignore how he felt when he was with you. Noticing that every free moment was a moment to think about you, what you were doing, how you were and soon enough, he decided to bite the bullet and ask you out.
The day he helped Shadow always brought a smile to him. Watching you coax Midnight and being the awesome doctor you were to a patient that couldn’t speak. He watched you respond without words, knowing what she needed and how to help. He admired your love for your career, always encouraging and offering to help if he could. The feeling was small at first but it soon grew to love and then it changed to now. Now, it was forever.
As he watched some horses graze the field, his eyes fell upon Shadow, grown now. Hand entwined with yours. Your head tucked into his neck as you watched ahead. Rings glistening in the sun and peace finally settling into your bones. This was where you wanted to be. A man to love, who loved you back. Vows made with love and honour and the prospect of forever. Because until death do us part was nonsense, you’d always love them even in death, Brett knew that more than most and so did you. He was your forever.
The one where Jack Abbot accidentally knocks up Robby's little (step)sister in his final year of college.
warnings: this blog is 18+, mdni! this fic deals with pregnancy, discussions of abortion and medical complications, explicit sexual content, slut-shaming (not by jack), reader is robby's step-sister, they are not related biologically, and reader's appearance is not described at all. in this chap - nothing really, just the obvious pregnancy
fic recap so that you don't have to re-read to catch up :)
main masterlist // supercut of us masterlist
You’ve barely stopped crying by the time Robby comes to visit. Mascara permanently clumped under your lashes, it’s potentially the worst possible time for your step-brother to plan an impromptu trip to Cornell’s main campus.
For whatever reason, the med students get to be in Manhattan, while every other degree stays in upstate New York. It’s a four-hour drive, give or take, meaning that Robby doesn’t do it very often.
He’s always called before coming up. When he’s crashing on the couch in yours apartment, he’s got to make sure that none of Jesse’s sisters are visiting for the weekend.
Of course he picks now to drop by unannounced. First a knock, and then his voice wafting through the door. Currently, you’re curled up watching Cheers re-runs, and trying not to think about what your body is currently doing. Creating.
You only just got over the trauma of telling Jesse. Nobody else knows yet - not even Jack. You can’t even consider telling anybody until he knows. Jesse Van Horn had been unavoidable, and entirely steadfast in his support since finding out.
Are you like… alive in there?”
You can barely quell the tears enough to hiccup a yes. Given your history and constant close proximity to Jesse, there’s no point in trying to hide it from him. He’s not an idiot. He knows what morning sickness looks like, even if he hasn’t quite put it together yet.
You’re not sure your lips are capable of forming the word ‘pregnant’ right at this very moment. Instead, you reach for the door handle, and let it creak open.
You’d hate to see yourself right now - shivering and sick and curled up on the bathroom floor.
“Shit,” He curses. “What the fuck happened? Do we need to go to the Emergency Room?”
You shake your head weakly, eyes flicking to the test on the counter.
If you were picking one word to describe your roommate, collected might be the one you’d go for. Currently, Jesse Van Horn looks anything but - a perfect reminder of just how big you’ve screwed up.
“Holy fucking shit.”
You practically whine a reply. “I’m so, so fucked.”
“Is it… is it Seth’s?”
Finally, something to snap you out of your stupor. You shoot Jesse with a glare, arms covering your torso protectively. “Of course not. Don’t be stupid.”
“You’ll excuse me if he’s the only guy I’ve known you’ve slept with this year.” Almost immediately, Jesse’s usual sass is back in his tone, and you want to cry tears of joy. Most things are going to change, but maybe not all. When you don’t reply, Jesse shoots you with his own look. “So? Whose is it? Or do you not know?”
You muster up a glare. “I do know. But you can’t laugh.”
“Oh god,” He groans. “Who the hell have you been sleeping with?”
You bite your lip, ready for the impact. “Jack Abbot.”
In all the reactions you’d envisioned from Jesse, laughter is not one of them. It bursts out of him, almost like a gasp of air. All you can do is look at him in surprise, and soon he’s hunched over beside you. “I cannot believe you fucked Jack Abbot. He’s so not your type.”
“That’s your takeaway from this?”
You wish you could be as single-minded as your roommate. Unfortunately, you’re pretty sure that your life is over.
“You like ‘em annoying and pretentious. Guys in bands who like pretentious New Wave French cinema and Yoko Ono’s solo career. Not jocks who think that EDM is like the pinnacle of music.”
You don’t know why an urge to defend Jack washes over you. “Jack likes Clapton.”
“Does he like Clapton, or did he tell you that he liked Clapton so that he could get into your pants?”
You think it over, as the tears dry on your cheeks. You like to think that you wouldn’t be so quick to fall for something like that, but you’re also not going to bullshit yourself about Jack’s past. He’s a self-proclaimed womaniser that’s rarely seen with the same girl more than once.
Lip between your teeth, you shake your head. “He wasn’t lying.”
Your first instinct is not to answer the knock.
Maybe if you stay perfectly still he’ll just give up-
Another knock. He calls your name. Then Jesse’s. Letting out a sigh, you scrub furiously at your face before catching your reflection in the microwave door.
Shit.
Your eyes are swollen. You look like you haven’t slept in days. You’re a mess. Splashing cold water over your face, you dab at the mascara smeared beneath your lashes with toilet paper, and try to make yourself look mildly presentable before you open the door.
Robby takes one look at you and immediately frowns. "...Jesus. You look rough."
Despite it all, a scoff falls from your lips. "Thanks."
"You sick?"
"No."
He steps inside without waiting to be invited, duffel bag slung over one shoulder like he owns the place, and presses the back of his hand to your forehead. “You’re a little hot, but not feverish. Nausea?”
All day, every day. “Not really.”
“Diarrhoea?”
You make a face. “Gross. But also no.”
“Huh. Must just be a bug, then. Jess around?"
"Class."
He drops the bag beside the couch before turning back to you, an unreadable expression on his face. You suddenly remember that he’s just finished up a psych rotation.
Shit.
He’s spent the last six weeks analysing expressions and emotions.
You’re screwed.
"You been crying?" His voice is careful and composed, and you’d put money on it being a tone he uses with patients.
Your stomach twists. "What? No."
"Kid."
"I'm tired,” You insist. “Took ages to get over the food poisoning.”
His face says he doesn't believe you for a second. "You sure?"
"Mikey."
"What?"
"You literally just got here."
"I know."
"So maybe don't interrogate me before you've even taken your shoes off. Enough with the shrink bullshit, ‘kay?"
He studies you for another beat before sighing. "Fine. But something's up."
You busy yourself taking his jacket before he can keep looking at you.
"I'm fine."
"Liar."
*****
The afternoon is spent trailing Robby around all his old haunts. His favourite record store, just to check and see if they got that Doors record in. They didn’t.
You both grab coffee from the campus coffee shop, and then you have to talk him out of dragging you to whatever hockey practice is going on.
You argue that he can track down the guys tomorrow when you’re in class, because you want to hang with your brother tonight.
Also, one of them is the father of your niece or nephew.
That part stays in your head.
You haven’t even decided if there’s going to be a niece or nephew yet. You’ve always assumed that abortion would be the easy answer if you ever got pregnant before you were ready.
Now, despite the catastrophic consequences it could have for your life and career, you’re not sure you have it in you to go through with it.
But you also know you can’t rely on Jack. From experience, you know that Robby has little-to-no free time - how could Jack possibly be a father to a baby while pulling twelve-hour shifts?
Does Jack even want a baby?
Would he want one with you?
The answer to both is most likely no.
Finally, Robby manages to drag both you and Jesse to a local bar. It isn’t until the bartender asks for your order, and he rattles off your usual, that you realise your mistake.
You can’t drink.
You always drink with Robby.
Jesse clocks your face as the cider is pushed across the table to you, an identical one pressed into his hand. He cocks his head.
You okay?
You give the smallest shake of your head.
Not now.
His expression smooths over so quickly Robby doesn't notice.
"Didn't know you were coming up," Jesse says, an expert at changing the subject.
"Didn’t know I’d have the time off until this morning. Thought I’d surprise her - see how Sophomore year was going. Cheers."
You wrap your fingers around the cold glass, and try not to cry as you clink the glass against Robby’s.
When your lips wrap around the neck, you don’t allow any of it into your mouth.
A temporary solution, until Robby realises that your bottle isn’t getting any emptier. Jesse sips from his own, a larger gulp than you’d expect from him. Normally, he likes to nurse a drink over hours. Your brow furrows, until Robby’s head turns towards the door, and he casually takes yours instead.
"So," Jesse says loudly, taking an exaggerated sip from what had been your glass, leaving you both with half-filled bottles, "how's med school?"
Robby launches straight into a rant about anatomy labs.
You stare at Jesse.
He gives the tiniest shrug.
I've got you.
Halfway through Robby's story, he drains half his/your pint. Jesse quietly swaps your glasses back while Robby's chatting to an old friend who stopped by the pavement. The movement is so smooth you almost miss it, and before you even realise, your untouched drink disappears.
A half-empty one appears in its place.
Robby finally looks back. "Normally you’d be on your third by now."
You lift the glass and take the smallest sip imaginable. It barely wets your lips. "Nursing it."
"Lightweight."
*****
Robby stays until Monday, and you manage to avoid most further confrontations. As far as you know, he saw Jack while you were at your Friday afternoon Property Law class, and that was that. He’s tossed you a few more concerned glances, and asked about your ex-boyfriend Seth more than once, but he’s unable to get to the bottom of your sour mood.
While you love Robby, you’re more than a little relieved to see him head back down to NYC.
His presence makes everything feel so real. The baby, the hockey player father, your dwindling future.
You’ll tell him eventually. But not today.
Not when you know that Big Red are practising today, and that Jack is guaranteed to be at the rink at five. You just need to get through this goodbye with Robby, and then fight all urges to throw yourself in front of a bus before telling your one night stand that he got you pregnant.
“M’sorry I’ve been no fun this weekend,” You mumble, face pressed into Robby’s shoulder. “Just stressed. Promise I’ll be better next time I visit.”
Above you, Robby lets out a breath. "If some idiot's giving you grief..."
You’re very glad that he can’t see the tears pricking at your eyes as your arms tighten around him. "...I'll handle it."
After bidding Robby goodbye, you manage to make the fifteen-minute walk to the rink take forty. Spectators aren’t officially allowed during practice, but it doesn’t stop a group of girls from hanging around the stands.
Mostly Puck Bunnies, you note, as you take a seat a few rows back.
The term leaves a funny taste in your mouth. You can’t help but see the misogyny behind it, and yet half of these girls wear it like a badge of honour.
These are the girls Jack normally goes for, a voice in your head interrupts. Not you.
You have no idea which number Jack is, leaving you in the dark for ten minutes before you manage to find it online.
#33.
Your eyes follow him across the rink.
From what you can tell, he plays excellently. Not that you’d know. You’ve always been more of a basketball gal, even with Robby’s infatuation with hockey.
A nausea you’re becoming incredibly familiar with settles low in your belly, and you can’t discern whether it’s the nerves or the Abbot baby. Maybe it senses it’s father is near, somehow.
Maybe you’re just going crazy.
After what seems like hours, the team skate off the ice and head for the locker room. You figure the group of girls are going to congregate right outside the lockers, and decide you’d rather not have an audience for this.
Your chosen spot is by the lobby door, and you suddenly hope that there isn’t a back entrance out of this place that he might take.
When Jack finally appears, your breath hitches a little. Sweat dripping along his hairline, and t-shirt straining tight against his biceps, you hate yourself for the thoughts that pop into your head.
The memories of six weeks ago.
You’re trying to formulate your opening line when his gaze lands on you, eyes widening. There’s a girl by his side - a pretty blonde - but he shrugs her off, something murmured in her direction before she frowns and turns her attention to one of the guys leaving after him.
“Star… hey,” the nickname catches you off-guard, and for a second you think he might have mistaken you for someone else.
Great.
That’s just what you need.
The father of your baby doesn’t even remember conceiving said child.
“Uh, no,” You frown. “I’m not Star.”
“No, right, yeah,” He replies, voice almost a stammer. If you weren’t a bundle of nerves yourself, you’d be able to give it more thought. At the idea that you might make Jack Abbot nervous. “I have a shit memory when I’m drunk - couldn’t remember your name-”
Boy, do you know how to pick them.
“-so Star was kind of like a place-holder. You said you liked music, and played in a band, so… rockstar…” He trails off, cheeks tinging pink. “Whatever, it’s stupid.”
Maybe if you weren't having the worst week of your life, you'd find it endearing.
Part of you doesn’t even want to remind him of your name. You’re not sure he deserves it. Even if he is even more attractive without the haze of the alcohol.
It takes gargantuan effort to remind yourself that you’re carrying his baby. Unfortunately, a name exchange is necessary, and grit it out.
Jack smiles, grin crooked as he takes you in. “Suits you. But I still think somethin’ about you screams Star.” Just like that, the jock persona is back, and he looks totally at ease. You wish you could say the same. “Was wondering if I was gonna hear from you. When you didn’t text me, figured you weren’t interested,” He shrugs, a level of candour you don’t expect from a hockey player.
“How the hell would I text you? I didn’t have your number. I didn’t even know your last name until-”
You cut off, suddenly unwilling to share your connection to Robby. This is already awkward enough as it is - letting Jack know that he knocked up one of his best friend’s sisters would complicate it far more than necessary.
You’re simply two strangers, who made a mistake, and need to fix it.
Nothing more.
Jack’s eyes narrow a little. “I left a note. Beside the bed. With my number.”
“What? No you didn’t.”
His arms are crossed as he leans against the doorway. “Cross my heart, honey. You were the one who left me hangin’. But it’s alright - I’m not a vindictive man. I’m happy to forgive and forget.”
The urge to roll your eyes overtakes you. You don’t have time for this. “I’m not here to fuck. I… god, I don’t even remember most of what we did.”
A complete lie. You’ve replayed it almost every night since it happened.
"You've really got a way of making a guy feel memorable, you know that?"
Again with the amused expression. Like he’s in on a joke that you didn’t even know existed.
"I wasn't trying to make you feel anything."
"No?"
"No."
His grin fades just enough for something more thoughtful to settle in its place. "I thought maybe I'd said something."
"You didn't."
"Or did something."
"You didn't."
“Well then, Star,” he replies, “to what do I owe the pleasure? If you aren’t here for round two?”
No time like the present.
Glancing around to make sure that nobody else is within earshot, you prepare to break it to him gently. Maybe give him a recap on exactly how babies are made, just so he can’t try and blame you entirely. Instead, all that comes out is, “I’m pregnant.”
All amusement vanishes from his face. His expression empties so completely that, for one awful heartbeat, you wonder if he’s having some kind of stroke.
He just stares.
At you.
Not your face, exactly - his gaze flicks downward for the briefest instant before snapping back, as though the words have suddenly given your body a shape he can't quite reconcile with the one standing in front of him.
His mouth opens.
Closes.
When he finally draws a breath, it's shallow. “Well - you’re obviously getting rid of it, right?”
While you hadn’t been expecting him to jump for joy, he still manages to disappoint. You know that the answer should be an easy yes. It is a yes. You’re planning on hitting up Planned Parenthood next week, even with your lingering doubts.
But there’s something about his tone that makes you bristle.
The most illogical part of your brain is annoyed. At Robby, for making this all so much more complicated than it needed to be. At yourself, for letting it happen in the first place. At Jack, for acting like this is just some minor inconvenience, when it’s your whole life at stake.
The last thing you want is to let him think he’s got one-up on you.
“I wanted to talk to you about it, first,” You grit out. “Didn’t feel right not telling you. It is half-you, after all.”
“Is it definitely mine?”
The question stops you in your tracks, and if looks could kill, Jack Abbot would be a dead man. “Of course it’s yours. Do you really think I would lie about something like that? You’re the only person I’ve slept with in the past six months, so if it isn’t yours then this is some kind of fucking Jesus situation, okay?”
"I didn't mean-"
"No?" You cut in, your laugh sharp. "Because it sounded an awful lot like you were asking if I'd been sleeping around. Like you’re some sort of fucking saint?"
"I wasn't saying that."
"You literally just asked if it was yours."
"I just-" He scrubs a hand over the back of his neck, frustrated. "People panic and they say stupid things."
"Clearly."
His jaw tightens. "I said I'm sorry."
"No," You reply evenly. "You said you didn't mean it. That's not the same thing."
“Well, I am sorry,” he concedes, gaze dropping to his shoes. “Fuck… you just - that’s not what I thought you were going to say.”
You give him a little bit of space to process, lip between your teeth while you wait for him to speak again. When he does, your mind is made up. Any sliver of you that had considered keeping the baby dies away, at the idea of having to co-parent with this man for the rest of your life.
“I can’t have a baby. We’re in the championships. I-I’m going to med school.”
“You think I don’t know that? It’s not like I don’t have plans too. Shit. I don't even know why I'm here. This was a fucking mistake."
"You’re here because you wanted me to know."
"Yeah." You nod once. "And now you do. Guess we’re done here.”
“Oh come on,” He sighs, reaching for your arm. You tug it out of reach just before he can make contact. “Don’t be like that. Do you want me to like… come, or anything? Or pay for… fuck, I don’t know.”
You snort humourlessly. “After today, I’m not sure I ever want to see you again.”
His expression morphs into one of incredulity, and you realise you’d really like to smack him right now. “You’re mad at me?”
Your jaw drops. “You just cited hockey as a reason you can’t have a baby.”
Jack lets out a sharp breath through his nose, scrubbing a hand over the back of his neck. "That's not what I-"
"No?" Your laugh is thin and brittle. "Because that's sure as hell what it sounded like."
"Will you stop trying to put words in my mouth? I fucked up. I’m sorry. Can you blame me for being shocked? I know it's inconvenient."
"For you."
"For both of us."
You think you might scream if you have to look at him any longer. “Whatever. I have to go. I have work.”
You turn on your heel, but Jack reaches for you, hand wrapping around your wrist. You can feel each callous on his fingers, the warmth radiating from him despite the chill of the rink. "Will you... let me know you're okay?"
You sling your backpack over your shoulders, and roll your eyes. "I'll be fine. You can pretend this never happened and go back to your picture-perfect life."
You don’t give him the satisfaction of glancing back as you storm off, and yet you get the impression that his eyes don’t leave you until you’re out of sight.
Synopsis: Reincarnation Series - Moving to Edgewater, Brett Richards finally meets someone who loves animals as much as he does.
Warnings: No use on Y/N, no mention of age. There are mentions of pregnancy and descriptions of animal birth during this part. If I have missed any warnings please let me know!
[Part 5 of 7]
Read previous parts -> Series Masterlist
A/N: A huge thank you to @thatfanficstuff beta reading and helping me figure out the plot.
Thank you so much for all the likes, comments and reblogs. I’m so happy people are enjoying this series!
Your first introduction to Brett Richards was while you were on shift at Edgewater Veterinary Hospital. It was impossible to ignore the man sitting in the waiting room with his greying hair and facial stubble. Everything about him caught your attention and how his main focus was on the precious cargo held in their crates. Unfortunately, you couldn’t stick around and stare at him all day due to having a full schedule.
You’d already spent the morning checking labs and carrying out an emergency surgery on a beautiful Labrador that decided the owner didn’t need a single pair of socks in the house and would rather use its stomach as a cleaning tool. Luckily the dog was brought in and would go home with a very tender stomach and the ‘cone of shame’.
You only had a few moments to yourself before you were pulled to another appointment and another furry patient. You must have lucked out because the silver fox stood up after you called out a trio of names. Trying to remain professional, you smiled at him before heading to the consultation room with him following behind.
Mr. No Name had a long appointment due to booking in all of his 3 cats. It wasn’t anything urgent. After moving to the area the timing fit perfectly for their annual check up. They were beautiful cats. After doing a nose-to-tail exam on all 3 cats, you could clearly see that they were well looked after, groomed and fed well judging by their weight. He was attentive even while getting them out of their crates, which showed you how much he cared for them.
“Well they look good, heart and lungs sound great. I’ve got no concerns, I will just take some blood to run the usual tests to check their kidney and thyroid seeing as you’ve relocated, that way we can have a baseline on them.”
“Sounds good.”
As you finished taking blood from the youngest, you handed the furball over to him. It was at that moment something caught your attention. You were close enough to him that you took notice of the smell radiating from him. He smelt like the woods, hints of ash but beneath that it was something completely different. Your mind got lost, images of a man laughing flashing before your eyes as he held you in his arms, face buried in the crook of his neck as his scent washed over you. No face, no description of any kind, just flashes of a personal moment.
After the appointment ended, you helped him with his cats and held the door open as he exited.
“Have a good day, Mr. Richards,” you said cheerily. He was definitely going to be the highlight of your day. It was a shame he wasn’t there for longer.
“It’s Brett actually. Brett Richards.” You felt he was going to say more but your receptionist called for you. He quickly nodded goodbye and you went to help your colleague with her current crisis.
His face stuck with you for days. You had no idea if you’d see him again. You worked all hours, even though Edgewater wasn’t huge you hadn’t seen him, but that may have to do with your unsociable work hours.
It was almost five days later when the silver fox Brett Richards walked back into your life. Thankfully not for his cats, but it wasn’t for a good reason, either.
You were with a patient, deep in conversation about treatment plans, when an urgent knock forced you to apologise to the humans in the room. Opening the door you were met by your nervous intern, hovering close by and her attention looking towards the front door before meeting your eyes again.
“Michelle?…What’s going on?” you asked gently, hiding the frustration at being interrupted for no reason.
“Er…there's ... .you should take a look outside.” She rushed out.
Finally taking notice of the flashing lights coming through the window, you are met with a fire truck taking space in your parking lot. Brett met you at the entrance.
“An alarm alert went off for this building. Have you begun evacuations yet? Is anyone hurt?” You were looking at the handsome man that was Brett Richards taking in his jacket and CAL Fire displayed clearly. The cat lover was a firefighter, who knew?
You blinked at him, unable to comprehend the words, but finally processing.
“I’m sorry?…what’s going on? There’s no fire.” You were nervous that someone had called 911 as a mistake. There was no smoke, no fire. It was a completely normal day until the fire department turned up on your doorstep.
“There’s no fire?…are you sure?” he asked carefully, almost half convinced that you could be lying.
“No, there’s no fire. It’s the first I’ve heard of anything.” He nodded at you and turned his head to his radio, telling them to stand down for now, but sending a pair to do a quick check of the grounds.
“Can you show me where your alarm system is?” he gently asked next. His eyes were focused on you, and you couldn’t help but go a little shy at the look. You walked through the hospital, ignoring prying eyes and showed him the requested alarm set up. It was blinking, which you hadn’t noticed earlier, but stepped away to let him look at it.
After a few minutes, the flashing light stopped. He turned back to you and smiled. “You’ll need to speak to the alarm company. I think there’s a fault, it’s sending a signal that there’s a fire. I’ve turned it off for now, but get them out to fix it soon.” His eyes were soft and he had this rugged look about him mixed with this lovely smell, you were captivated by it.
You apologised about them having to come out for no reason. Promising that you’d get the alarm sorted as soon as possible. After getting the all clear that there was no fire, you watched as the firefighters loaded up again. The parking lot emptied out with your last look toward a particular salt and peppered man before you returned back to your patients.
For a shift to turn so drastic, it would definitely stick out for the foreseeable future, you had to laugh at the silliness of the situation.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
It was late when the call came through. A ranch alight and a horse in distress. You didn’t hesitate to grab your gear and head out.
Arriving at the scene, you found it illuminated with flashing lights from the emergency services and the backdrop of a roaring fire doing its best to turn it to ash. Grabbing your bag from the car you headed to the nearest firefighters who directed you to the man in charge. To your surprise it was Brett.
You didn’t miss his surprised face when you approached stating that you were the Emergency Vet on call for this, asking what the situation was and what he wanted you to do. It seemed that the horse was scared, panicked due to the fire. It had backed up near the tree line and wouldn’t budge. With those details in mind, he caught someone’s attention, letting them know that they were in charge. He led you towards the horse but held back when you went to approach.
When you moved to Edgewater, you’d become acquainted with all the animals that were under your care, this mare was named Midnight. Which was a big problem because you knew the mare was heavily pregnant. Assessing the current situation you came to the conclusion that she was showing signs of labor. You were calm in your approach, letting her see your demeanor. With a soft voice and a hand held out in a surrendering motion, she let you get close. A couple more steps and you were able to rub her stomach for confirmation while coaxing her away from the tree line.
She was contracting, probably stressed due to the fire and exhausted. You couldn’t get her to move any further to safety. You dropped the bag off your shoulder and started to run through everything that you’d possibly need.
The crack of something broke through, a tree branch falling. Through the roar of the fire, you felt a body encasing yours. Covering your body from the impact. The crash was loud and devastating, it had landed closer than you’d like, but far enough away that you knew you had time.
Orange and yellow flames edged closer as Midnight shifted uncomfortably, urging you to move quickly.
A hand shot out as you moved, looking back at Brett, he was shouting out over the raging fire. His grip was firm but soft, pulling you towards safety.
“WE CAN'T STAY HERE!”
“I’M NOT LEAVING HER, IF I DO THEY BOTH DIE!” You shouted back, already turning back towards Midnight.
The hand grasped yours tighter, Brett’s fierce eyes piercing yours. You couldn’t help feel them start welling.
“I’m not leaving Midnight. Because just like the people at your station are friends, family or just colleagues. Animals are mine. I understand them when no one else does. She’s scared, exhausted and in the late stages of labor. I can help. I can get them both out.”
Something must have resonated because the next thing you know Brett had taken a slow long breath, the grip on your hand loosened.
“How can I help?” he asked as you turned to your bag.
“Grab some gloves. Move the rope and blanket to the top. Hopefully, we can help birth the foal quickly and get her moving.” He nodded with all the confidence of a firefighter thrown into the position of assistant vet medic.
First you kept talking to Midnight, letting nature take its course as she labored the foal, front feet making an entrance. You could feel the distress of the black horse, giving quiet encouragement to keep her calm. When it started to look like there was no movement, you made the decision to intervene.
Grabbing the rope and tying it around the foal's feet, you handed the end of it to Brett.
“I want you to pull this back and downwards when I tell you. Just like human births we will wait for the contractions.”
“You sure I should be doing this, what if I hurt them?” he replied, concern dripping from his gravelly voice.
“You’ll be fine. We are just giving a helping hand. The contractions will help with movement, you're simply giving a little pull to help it along. I’ll stop you if I think anything’s wrong okay.” Watching as he agreed, you started working in tandem.
You called out for Brett to pull on the rope, watching as the Foal moved out an inch further, then telling him to stop and wait a moment.
The cycle repeats, it feels like hours but in reality it’s only been minutes. You notice in the down time Brett is still analysing the scene. Still worried about the fire heading towards you. But your only focus is on the mare and her foal.
Brett wipes some sweat away from his face with his arms, the combination of wildfire and exertion the root cause, when your voice raised a little, telling him to pull again, more towards the floor.
A few seconds later there was a release. The foal was now unrestricted, landing on the grass. You headed over and checked the airway and its breathing, then with quick hands you sorted the umbilical cord. Taking the blanket, you rubbed the foal vigorously to help dry it off. Normally you’d wait and let these things happen naturally but with your surroundings burning, you're not in the ideal situation to take things slow.
Picking up the foal carefully, you called for Brett to grab the bag, you waited a second for Midnight to gaze upon you and her newborn, wanting to reassure the mother that her baby wasn’t going anywhere she couldn’t follow. With quick steps you headed to safety with mother and baby and a shocked Battalion Chief following closely.
A trailer had been prepared, and you loaded both up. You would take them to the Vet Hospital to be checked out and hopefully find a home afterwards.
You and Brett went your separate ways, both focused on your individual jobs. Brett still had a team to lead and you had patients to see. With a quick wave you headed off, hoping to catch another glimpse of him soon.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
The next time you saw him, he approached you. Even though it was just a shadow before you, you had a sixth sense that it was your favourite firefighter. Clad in civilian clothes, it was his cologne that got your attention. When you gave him a once over, you noticed how relaxed he was. Hands in his pockets, shoulders low and a warm smile on his face. It was definitely different from the high pressure Brett Richards that you’d seen before.
You nudged the chair out in front of you, he took the hint. Taking a seat opposite you as you nursed a drink. Smokey’s Tavern was the local hangout, you didn’t go often, you usually reserved it for the tough shifts when man’s best friend didn’t make it. Those cases were difficult, you weren’t so much for social interaction but you liked the noise. It kept you from sinking deeper into the ‘what ifs’.
“Want another?” He nodded to your nearly empty drink.
You debated for a moment, you couldn’t deny the attraction you had towards him. Spending more time with Brett excited you a little. So you agreed and told him your drink of choice.
He was only gone a few moments before he sat down again.
“I just have to say, the other night. It was amazing. Does it always feel like that?” The excitement in his voice had you smiling because you knew exactly what he was talking about.
The first time you’d helped a mare during labor, you had been a student. The feeling never went away. Obviously all births were not straight forward and some had turned into emergencies or in some cases their baby didn't make it. But the ones that did stayed with you. The feeling of helping bring something in the world, it was exhilarating.
“Yeah…it does. It never really goes away either. Thank you though.” You noticed his raised eyebrow and continued on “I realise I put you in a bad position. You were watching out for the safety of your crew and then I came along going head first into danger and not budging.” He chuckled at your response. You were determined to help and without carrying you out, you were unlikely to leave.
“It’s fine, well it wasn’t but…I could see why you were so passionate. I take it…they're okay, right? No side effects? I didn’t mishandle the procedure or anything?.”
You laughed as he fumbled through his words. “No..no, you were fine. Perfect even. Midnight and Shadow are doing really well.”
What had started as a stressful night, eased the longer you sat with him, the heavy feeling in your chest lightening. It was easy. Your sides hurt from laughing at his blunt humor, his smile made you smile and soon it was late enough that you’d reluctantly had to go your separate ways.
What started as friendship soon blossomed into something else. Something steady. He was your rock through the hard days and you helped on his dark days. You may have come from different backgrounds but he was your whole world once he let you in. Even deciding to stay in Edgewater once the foundation of your relationship was settled and the distance with his daughter felt reversible. You made space for his past, wanting him to remember everything that brought him to you.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
Human beings were all different. Some went through life coasting, not knowing what they wanted to do, no dream job that they wanted to do, just simply surviving it. Life.
Others however, knew what they wanted from childhood. Maybe it was a role model that imprinted a moment of clarity, or just simply following in the footsteps of a loved one. Or an emotional reaction that spurred the choice.
Everyone has a choice, all your choices have led you here.
To this perfect moment.
Sitting on a porch swing overlooking a field. In company with the man that you’d found later in life. His life had thrown him curveballs, he’d landed in the world of firefighting where he met his late wife and had a child. She provided a whole other life for him and his daughter and then life took her away.
You’d met him when he was almost ready to move on. He’d tried before with Liz but grief doesn’t have a time limit and before he knew it he was pulling away again, knowing that something didn’t feel right. So when he met you, he was cautious. He didn’t want to commit if he was going to later take a step back. He was polite, friendly, everything he was supposed to be, but he couldn’t ignore how he felt when he was with you. Noticing that every free moment was a moment to think about you, what you were doing, how you were and soon enough, he decided to bite the bullet and ask you out.
The day he helped Shadow always brought a smile to him. Watching you coax Midnight and being the awesome doctor you were to a patient that couldn’t speak. He watched you respond without words, knowing what she needed and how to help. He admired your love for your career, always encouraging and offering to help if he could. The feeling was small at first but it soon grew to love and then it changed to now. Now, it was forever.
As he watched some horses graze the field, his eyes fell upon Shadow, grown now. Hand entwined with yours. Your head tucked into his neck as you watched ahead. Rings glistening in the sun and peace finally settling into your bones. This was where you wanted to be. A man to love, who loved you back. Vows made with love and honour and the prospect of forever. Because until death do us part was nonsense, you’d always love them even in death, Brett knew that more than most and so did you. He was your forever.
synopsis: Sometimes Brendon Park is a very stupid man.
warnings/notes: Omegaverse dynamics. Reader is an ortho surgery fellow. Another attending is a dick to reader. Flangst, my beloved. let me know if i missed something. First time writing Park. @thedamnqueenofhell requested this one for my One Big Bash.
wc: 3.3k
Eight weeks.
That’s how long you had been putting up with one Dr. Keith Jacobs.
You were no stranger to the prejudice and assumptions that came with you being an Omega studying to become a surgeon. You’d dealt with them in undergrad, in med school, and throughout your residency. Now you were a surgical fellow six weeks out from that attending position. Already offered and accepted here at PTMC.
Jacobs was an alphahole of the first order. Not a day went by without him taking the opportunity to make a snide comment, to attempt to tear you down. You ignored him as you had everyone who came before him and as you would everyone who came after him.
But the longer he went without getting the response he clearly wanted, the sharper and more hateful his comments became. You knew it wasn’t entirely due to your designation. No, Jacobs was here as temporary coverage, to fill the spot Dr. Simmons left with her retirement. The spot you’d been hired to fill. He undoubtedly thought if he chased you off, he could keep the job. Asshole.
Unfortunately for him, today you were tired. Exhausted really, functioning only off spite and copious amounts of caffeine. You’d been on call the last three nights. And while you’d only had to come in for one surgery, you never slept well when you knew you could be summoned at any moment. So today, you weren’t putting up with his shit.
You sat at one of the computers finishing up your notes for the surgery you’d finished fifteen minutes ago. Jacobs stood nearby chatting with one of the trauma surgeons, though his voice was pitched to carry straight to you.
“I just don’t understand why they would even give her a fellowship. Omegas are naturally better at following than leading. The designation is wired for support roles. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just interesting that PTMC is encouraging it.” He dropped his voice just a fraction but still loud enough to be heard by you and anyone else that happened to be around. “They can’t possibly think that she’ll be a successful attending.”
You stood, hands braced on the desk and stared him down. “Just because I am an Omega, doesn’t mean you get to be an asshole to me and I just take it.” You leaned closer to him and his eyes widened slightly. “Shove your designation up your ass.”
The department was silent as the few witnesses took in the both of you. Even those who hadn’t heard the entirety of what had been said, knew that it had to have been too far, too much. You were level-headed and calm in even the worst situations. It came from a lifetime of biting your tongue. Well, you were done.
Jacobs’ face turned a brilliant shade of red as he opened his mouth to respond. It snapped shut as someone said your name.
Just your name, but it was enough when it was Brendon Park saying it. It wasn’t loud, wasn’t sharp. Just that calm, even tone he used when he wasn’t busy reprimanding the med students and residents.
Your face flooded with heat. A combination of embarrassment and anger, you supposed. You turned and found him standing a short distance away. His scrubs were impeccable even though it was nearing the end of the shift. Of course, they were. Just like his hair was still gelled back with nary a strand out of place. His jaw was sharp enough to cut. His blue eyes gave nothing away as they assessed the situation.Head of the department. Alpha. And all together perfect for you, even if he’d never be yours.
He didn’t say anything else, simply tilting his head toward the hallway that led to his office and waited. Once you moved to follow, he led the way. The corridor felt longer than it had any right to be. You kept your chin up even if your hands were shaking. Jacobs might be an alpha asshole but he was still your superior. Technically. Telling him to shove anything up his ass probably wasn’t the most intelligent thing you’d ever done.
Park didn’t say a word nor did he look back to make sure you were following. His office door was open and he gestured for you to enter first. He followed and closed the door behind you. You glanced around the office, finding no changes from the last time you were here. The office was sparse but it was all him.
And here, you could detect the slightest hint of warm cedar. His scent was dampened but stronger here than anywhere else and you knew he probably changed his scent patches here when needed. You attempted to breathe shallowly, not wanting this man to get any further under your skin than he already was.
He didn’t sit behind the desk. He leaned against the front of it, arms crossed, posture casual. You realized he was trying to keep this from feeling like a disciplinary meeting and you appreciated it. Some of the tension bled from your shoulders.
“What was that about?” he asked.
You told him all of it. From the first comment about how omegas have no place in the OR to the one he’d made last week to a nurse about your scent being distracting and maybe you should consider a stronger scent patch. Then the suggestion, made twice in the last month, that you’d gotten your fellowship placement because some alpha had put in a good word to get into your nest.
As you spoke, your voice regained its steadiness and the shaking in your hands ceased. You watched his face as you spoke. His expression didn’t change but his jaw tightened, a muscle twitching under the skin. His eyes remained on yours, not looking away even once. He listened without interrupting. When you finished, you felt lighter than you had in weeks.
Park studied you for a moment. “When did this start?”
“His second day.”
His gaze narrowed slightly at that before returning to normal. “Why didn’t you report it?”
You sighed. “I didn’t want to be that omega. The one that couldn’t take a few comments from an alpha. I only have six more weeks before he’ll be gone. I thought I could ignore it.”
“You could have said something to me if you didn’t want to involve HR.” His voice had softened.
“I could have, yes.”
The silence stretched for a beat. “But you didn’t.”
“No, sir.”
He nodded just once, a short downward movement of his chin. An acknowledgement of what you’d told him.
“Finish your rounds and go home,” he said.
That was it. No platitudes. No promises. Just a dismissal.
So, you left.
When you returned for your next shift two days later, you found Jacobs’ name gone from the department board. You glanced at the wall lined with the photos of the surgical attendings. There was no longer a picture of Jacobs smirking from the end of the row. It was if he’d never been there at all. The corners of your lips curled up into a smile.
Park was already at the nurses’ station when you arrived, reviewing his charts for that day’s surgeries. He didn’t look up when you approached. When you said good morning, he responded with nothing more than a short nod, his eyes meeting yours for half a second before returning to the chart.
Gratitude washed through you. Park had handled it. He hadn’t questioned your sincerity, hadn’t taken an alpha’s word over yours. He’d simply assessed the problem and took care of it. And that feeling you’d been shoving down for months welled up. The feeling you got whenever you watched him operate, when you took in the set of his broad shoulders, when he approved of your work with a simple ‘good.’
You were six weeks from being his colleague instead of his fellow. Six weeks from the hierarchy between you becoming something simpler. You had promised yourself you would wait.
That evening you broke that promise.
You decided on brownies. Something that would keep for a couple of days without refrigeration. That he could take a bite of when he had a moment. But you didn’t make the quick ones you could throw together without a second thought. No, these were a layered concoction that were rich without being too sweet. Dark chocolate and raspberry and cream cheese.
The apartment filled with the rich aroma. Once they’d cooled you packaged them carefully in a glass container. You stuck a note to the lid. A simple Thank you for believing me followed by your name. You resisted the urge to add a little heart after it.
You rested your palm against the lid and took a deep breath. An omega bringing food to an alpha was not a casual act of gratitude. It carried weight. It was a courting gesture. It was the kind of thing that said, I value you, I appreciate you, you’re worth me spending my time on. You knew what you were doing. Had known as soon as he asked for no accolades for his actions that were going to do it.
The next morning you arrived an hour early for your shift. Even Park didn’t arrive that early. You set the container on his desk, carefully in the center where he would see it first thing. Then you left, your heart in your throat, and went to prepare for your day.
Brendon found the container just before 6:30. He always arrived a half an hour early for his shift, wanting a chance to review the day’s OR schedule. He paused, setting down his bag, eyes on the container and your familiar scrawl. His brow furrowed as he read the note. Of course he believed you. Why would he do otherwise?
He’d worked with you for years. Watched you grow from a shy resident into a competent, confident surgeon. Jacobs was just some asshole filling a spot that was rightfully yours.
He lifted the lid. The deep, rich aroma of good chocolate flooded his senses, his mouth instantly watering. A pulse of possessive warmth started low in his belly and spread outward, making the hair on his arms stand up. His scent changed before he could stop it, the cedar deepening mixing with the underlying spicy smell of a pleased alpha.
He stood very still for a moment and let himself feel it.
Then he shut it down. Hard.
The last thing you needed was an alpha reading too much into a thank you. You had just spent weeks being insulted and humiliated on a daily basis by another alpha. You didn’t deserve the unwanted attentions of another.
If he ate this food, if he accepted this gesture, he would not be able to maintain the distance he’d built between you shift by shift. He closed the container, carried it to the breakroom and left it on the table. Then he went back to his office, closed the door and did not come out for twenty minutes.
You found it when you stopped by to get a cup of coffee between procedures. Your glass container, still half full of brownies sitting on the table. Crumbs littered the area around it.
You stood just inside the doorway of the empty breakroom and took a deep breath. Then another. Then you picked up the container and carried it to your locker. That night when you got home, you threw the whole thing in the garbage. Then you walked away.
As the days passed, you changed. You knew it but didn’t care enough to correct it. You spoke less in rounds. You kept your eyes anywhere but on Park when he was speaking. You stopped lingering at the nurses’ station to talk to him after your work was finished or between procedures. It was the only thing you knew to do. He had made his position clear and you weren’t going to push when you weren’t wanted.
Park changed too. His interactions with you became shorter, the tone more formal. Not cold, never that, but careful in a way he hadn’t been before. He stopped standing quite as close to you in the OR. Quit making small talk.
The distance between you grew enough that it was noted by others in the department. It was brought up to you exactly once and your cold dismissal was enough to keep them from asking again. No one was brave enough to broach the topic with Park.
It was fine, you told yourself, meaning it less with each passing day.
The shift was a brutal one.
You’d nearly lost a patient on the table. A tib-fib fracture that shifted, nicking the artery. For the longest ninety seconds of your life, the blood had come faster than you could clamp it. Your hands remained steady through all of it. As you found the bleed, as you repaired it, finished the surgery and closed. The patient was stable and in recovery now.
Your hands waited until after to shake. You stood at the sink, too hot water running over your trembling fingers. You pressed your forehead against the cool tile and breathed. Once you were more certain of yourself, sure the anxiety had ebbed enough to not be read on your face, you headed back to work.
At the end of the day, you were still carrying it there in the middle of your chest. As you passed the nurses’ station on your way out you heard the distinct sound of Park’s laugh.
Not the short exhale he gave when he found something mildly amusing. No, this was a real laugh. Low and easy, the way you’d only heard a handful of times. You stopped walking without meaning to, eyes searching him out.
He stood nearby with one of the floor nurses. Cindy, a pretty unmated omega that made residents trip over their own feet when she graced them with a smile. She had her hand on Park’s arm as she smiled up at him. And he let her. He stood there in his stupid purple scrubs with his stupid perfect hair while his eyes crinkled at the corners as he laughed at something another omega had said.
He didn’t move her hand.
You kept walking and didn’t look back again. You swiped your badge to clock out then got on the elevator to head to the parking garage. You pushed through the doors to your level. You did not let yourself think about it until you were sitting in the driver’s seat of your car, engine off. The world mostly quiet around you.
And oh gods that hurt. It was one thing to know he didn’t want you. Another entirely to discover he wanted someone else. You sucked in a shaky breath as your fingers scrabbled to get a purchase on the scent patch on your wrist. First your left, then the right, ignoring the sharp pull of the adhesive against your skin.
You tossed them into the trash you kept on the passenger side of your car. Then you removed the larger one on your neck, at the junction of your throat and shoulder. The one that did the most work. Your omega scent began to bleed back into the air around you. The feeling of relief was immediate as your muscles loosened.
You braced your hands on the steering wheel and dropped your forehead to rest against them. You closed your eyes. And you cried.
Quiet sobs filled your car as your shoulders shook with the action. You were exhausted. You’d been holding onto everything so tightly. Pretending the rejection of the only alpha you’d ever really wanted hadn’t affected you in the least. Pretending you could keep things professional. That you could work with him every day without it tearing you up inside.
Your body had finally reached its limit and broke. Tears warmed your cheeks and dripped onto the wheel. You didn’t try to stop them. You could fall apart here in the quiet of the parking garage. Gods knew you wouldn’t be the first person to break in employee parking. You just needed to let it out, then you could pull yourself together and drive home. No one would ever know.
You barely registered the yank of your car door opening. Then hands were on your shoulders, turning you and pulling you out of the seat before you could even fully process what was happening. And then you were against his chest.
For a moment you panicked until that warm cedar scent flooded your nose. Brendon. His arms went around you, one hand resting on your back, the other cradling your head. His touch was gentle, grounding and…not meant for you.
You pushed against him, putting distance between you, minimal as it may be. His hands shifted to hold onto your upper arms.
His gaze raked over you, looking for injury maybe. “Who made you cry?” His voice was rough, urgent. “Tell me and I’ll take care of it.”
You shook your head and huffed in disbelief. You had cried so many times over this man. This alpha that wasn’t yours. “It was you, Brendon. It’s always been you.”
His hands stayed on you but he went still. For a long moment, he didn’t speak. Then, quietly, “Me? What did I do? Please tell me so I can fix it.”
“You can’t fix it. Sometimes things just hurt and you can’t fix them,” you insisted then sucked in a bracing breath. “You’re allowed to not want me, Brendon, but it will take me a while to get over your rejection. It’s just how it is. I’m sorry if that makes you uncomfortable.”
His brow furrowed. “Rejection?”
Maybe he wasn’t as smart as you thought he was. “You left my gift on the breakroom table for everyone to eat. That usually counts as a rejection, yes.”
He stared at you, eyes wide with something that looked like panic. “The brownies. You were courting me?”
You blinked. “What did you think I was doing?”
“Saying thank you.” His voice was so quiet you barely heard him.
“Brendon Park.” His name dripped with disbelief as it rolled off your tongue. This stupid, idiot alpha. But just because he didn’t understand, didn’t mean he suddenly wanted you. You opened your mouth to say something else but he interrupted by cradling your face in both of his hands.
His thumbs brushed across your cheekbones. His eyes were dark, blue almost swallowed by his pupils. His scent grew warmer, headier with contentment and something that felt like want.
“I’m sorry, Omega.” His voice was low and rough. “We can discuss what an idiot I am later, but right now I need to kiss you. You smell divine and it’s making my head swim.”
And then he did.
His mouth was warm and softer than you’d imagined. And you had imagined it. So many times. His hands slid from your face to the back of your neck and he kissed you like he’d been thinking about it for as long as you had. Perhaps that careful distance he’d maintained between you had cost him something too.
You kissed him back. Your hands found his chest, clutching onto his scrubs to pull him closer. He chuckled against your lips. The world around you disappeared until all that was left was his mouth on yours and his scent in your lungs.
When he pulled back, his breathing was uneven. His forehead rested against yours, his thumbs still tracing your skin. “Five weeks until you’re an attending. I can wait five weeks.”
You laughed, the sound bright and relieved. “I couldn’t.” You closed your eyes and just enjoyed the moment before you pulled back to look at him. “I don’t want to wait, Brendon. I’ve been waiting. I already have the position. We can be discrete but don’t make me wait.” When he didn’t immediately respond, you added, “Please, alpha.”
Synopsis: Reincarnation Series - Moving to Edgewater, Brett Richards finally meets someone who loves animals as much as he does.
Warnings: No use on Y/N, no mention of age. There are mentions of pregnancy and descriptions of animal birth during this part. If I have missed any warnings please let me know!
[Part 5 of 7]
Read previous parts -> Series Masterlist
A/N: A huge thank you to @thatfanficstuff beta reading and helping me figure out the plot.
Thank you so much for all the likes, comments and reblogs. I’m so happy people are enjoying this series!
Your first introduction to Brett Richards was while you were on shift at Edgewater Veterinary Hospital. It was impossible to ignore the man sitting in the waiting room with his greying hair and facial stubble. Everything about him caught your attention and how his main focus was on the precious cargo held in their crates. Unfortunately, you couldn’t stick around and stare at him all day due to having a full schedule.
You’d already spent the morning checking labs and carrying out an emergency surgery on a beautiful Labrador that decided the owner didn’t need a single pair of socks in the house and would rather use its stomach as a cleaning tool. Luckily the dog was brought in and would go home with a very tender stomach and the ‘cone of shame’.
You only had a few moments to yourself before you were pulled to another appointment and another furry patient. You must have lucked out because the silver fox stood up after you called out a trio of names. Trying to remain professional, you smiled at him before heading to the consultation room with him following behind.
Mr. No Name had a long appointment due to booking in all of his 3 cats. It wasn’t anything urgent. After moving to the area the timing fit perfectly for their annual check up. They were beautiful cats. After doing a nose-to-tail exam on all 3 cats, you could clearly see that they were well looked after, groomed and fed well judging by their weight. He was attentive even while getting them out of their crates, which showed you how much he cared for them.
“Well they look good, heart and lungs sound great. I’ve got no concerns, I will just take some blood to run the usual tests to check their kidney and thyroid seeing as you’ve relocated, that way we can have a baseline on them.”
“Sounds good.”
As you finished taking blood from the youngest, you handed the furball over to him. It was at that moment something caught your attention. You were close enough to him that you took notice of the smell radiating from him. He smelt like the woods, hints of ash but beneath that it was something completely different. Your mind got lost, images of a man laughing flashing before your eyes as he held you in his arms, face buried in the crook of his neck as his scent washed over you. No face, no description of any kind, just flashes of a personal moment.
After the appointment ended, you helped him with his cats and held the door open as he exited.
“Have a good day, Mr. Richards,” you said cheerily. He was definitely going to be the highlight of your day. It was a shame he wasn’t there for longer.
“It’s Brett actually. Brett Richards.” You felt he was going to say more but your receptionist called for you. He quickly nodded goodbye and you went to help your colleague with her current crisis.
His face stuck with you for days. You had no idea if you’d see him again. You worked all hours, even though Edgewater wasn’t huge you hadn’t seen him, but that may have to do with your unsociable work hours.
It was almost five days later when the silver fox Brett Richards walked back into your life. Thankfully not for his cats, but it wasn’t for a good reason, either.
You were with a patient, deep in conversation about treatment plans, when an urgent knock forced you to apologise to the humans in the room. Opening the door you were met by your nervous intern, hovering close by and her attention looking towards the front door before meeting your eyes again.
“Michelle?…What’s going on?” you asked gently, hiding the frustration at being interrupted for no reason.
“Er…there's ... .you should take a look outside.” She rushed out.
Finally taking notice of the flashing lights coming through the window, you are met with a fire truck taking space in your parking lot. Brett met you at the entrance.
“An alarm alert went off for this building. Have you begun evacuations yet? Is anyone hurt?” You were looking at the handsome man that was Brett Richards taking in his jacket and CAL Fire displayed clearly. The cat lover was a firefighter, who knew?
You blinked at him, unable to comprehend the words, but finally processing.
“I’m sorry?…what’s going on? There’s no fire.” You were nervous that someone had called 911 as a mistake. There was no smoke, no fire. It was a completely normal day until the fire department turned up on your doorstep.
“There’s no fire?…are you sure?” he asked carefully, almost half convinced that you could be lying.
“No, there’s no fire. It’s the first I’ve heard of anything.” He nodded at you and turned his head to his radio, telling them to stand down for now, but sending a pair to do a quick check of the grounds.
“Can you show me where your alarm system is?” he gently asked next. His eyes were focused on you, and you couldn’t help but go a little shy at the look. You walked through the hospital, ignoring prying eyes and showed him the requested alarm set up. It was blinking, which you hadn’t noticed earlier, but stepped away to let him look at it.
After a few minutes, the flashing light stopped. He turned back to you and smiled. “You’ll need to speak to the alarm company. I think there’s a fault, it’s sending a signal that there’s a fire. I’ve turned it off for now, but get them out to fix it soon.” His eyes were soft and he had this rugged look about him mixed with this lovely smell, you were captivated by it.
You apologised about them having to come out for no reason. Promising that you’d get the alarm sorted as soon as possible. After getting the all clear that there was no fire, you watched as the firefighters loaded up again. The parking lot emptied out with your last look toward a particular salt and peppered man before you returned back to your patients.
For a shift to turn so drastic, it would definitely stick out for the foreseeable future, you had to laugh at the silliness of the situation.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
It was late when the call came through. A ranch alight and a horse in distress. You didn’t hesitate to grab your gear and head out.
Arriving at the scene, you found it illuminated with flashing lights from the emergency services and the backdrop of a roaring fire doing its best to turn it to ash. Grabbing your bag from the car you headed to the nearest firefighters who directed you to the man in charge. To your surprise it was Brett.
You didn’t miss his surprised face when you approached stating that you were the Emergency Vet on call for this, asking what the situation was and what he wanted you to do. It seemed that the horse was scared, panicked due to the fire. It had backed up near the tree line and wouldn’t budge. With those details in mind, he caught someone’s attention, letting them know that they were in charge. He led you towards the horse but held back when you went to approach.
When you moved to Edgewater, you’d become acquainted with all the animals that were under your care, this mare was named Midnight. Which was a big problem because you knew the mare was heavily pregnant. Assessing the current situation you came to the conclusion that she was showing signs of labor. You were calm in your approach, letting her see your demeanor. With a soft voice and a hand held out in a surrendering motion, she let you get close. A couple more steps and you were able to rub her stomach for confirmation while coaxing her away from the tree line.
She was contracting, probably stressed due to the fire and exhausted. You couldn’t get her to move any further to safety. You dropped the bag off your shoulder and started to run through everything that you’d possibly need.
The crack of something broke through, a tree branch falling. Through the roar of the fire, you felt a body encasing yours. Covering your body from the impact. The crash was loud and devastating, it had landed closer than you’d like, but far enough away that you knew you had time.
Orange and yellow flames edged closer as Midnight shifted uncomfortably, urging you to move quickly.
A hand shot out as you moved, looking back at Brett, he was shouting out over the raging fire. His grip was firm but soft, pulling you towards safety.
“WE CAN'T STAY HERE!”
“I’M NOT LEAVING HER, IF I DO THEY BOTH DIE!” You shouted back, already turning back towards Midnight.
The hand grasped yours tighter, Brett’s fierce eyes piercing yours. You couldn’t help feel them start welling.
“I’m not leaving Midnight. Because just like the people at your station are friends, family or just colleagues. Animals are mine. I understand them when no one else does. She’s scared, exhausted and in the late stages of labor. I can help. I can get them both out.”
Something must have resonated because the next thing you know Brett had taken a slow long breath, the grip on your hand loosened.
“How can I help?” he asked as you turned to your bag.
“Grab some gloves. Move the rope and blanket to the top. Hopefully, we can help birth the foal quickly and get her moving.” He nodded with all the confidence of a firefighter thrown into the position of assistant vet medic.
First you kept talking to Midnight, letting nature take its course as she labored the foal, front feet making an entrance. You could feel the distress of the black horse, giving quiet encouragement to keep her calm. When it started to look like there was no movement, you made the decision to intervene.
Grabbing the rope and tying it around the foal's feet, you handed the end of it to Brett.
“I want you to pull this back and downwards when I tell you. Just like human births we will wait for the contractions.”
“You sure I should be doing this, what if I hurt them?” he replied, concern dripping from his gravelly voice.
“You’ll be fine. We are just giving a helping hand. The contractions will help with movement, you're simply giving a little pull to help it along. I’ll stop you if I think anything’s wrong okay.” Watching as he agreed, you started working in tandem.
You called out for Brett to pull on the rope, watching as the Foal moved out an inch further, then telling him to stop and wait a moment.
The cycle repeats, it feels like hours but in reality it’s only been minutes. You notice in the down time Brett is still analysing the scene. Still worried about the fire heading towards you. But your only focus is on the mare and her foal.
Brett wipes some sweat away from his face with his arms, the combination of wildfire and exertion the root cause, when your voice raised a little, telling him to pull again, more towards the floor.
A few seconds later there was a release. The foal was now unrestricted, landing on the grass. You headed over and checked the airway and its breathing, then with quick hands you sorted the umbilical cord. Taking the blanket, you rubbed the foal vigorously to help dry it off. Normally you’d wait and let these things happen naturally but with your surroundings burning, you're not in the ideal situation to take things slow.
Picking up the foal carefully, you called for Brett to grab the bag, you waited a second for Midnight to gaze upon you and her newborn, wanting to reassure the mother that her baby wasn’t going anywhere she couldn’t follow. With quick steps you headed to safety with mother and baby and a shocked Battalion Chief following closely.
A trailer had been prepared, and you loaded both up. You would take them to the Vet Hospital to be checked out and hopefully find a home afterwards.
You and Brett went your separate ways, both focused on your individual jobs. Brett still had a team to lead and you had patients to see. With a quick wave you headed off, hoping to catch another glimpse of him soon.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
The next time you saw him, he approached you. Even though it was just a shadow before you, you had a sixth sense that it was your favourite firefighter. Clad in civilian clothes, it was his cologne that got your attention. When you gave him a once over, you noticed how relaxed he was. Hands in his pockets, shoulders low and a warm smile on his face. It was definitely different from the high pressure Brett Richards that you’d seen before.
You nudged the chair out in front of you, he took the hint. Taking a seat opposite you as you nursed a drink. Smokey’s Tavern was the local hangout, you didn’t go often, you usually reserved it for the tough shifts when man’s best friend didn’t make it. Those cases were difficult, you weren’t so much for social interaction but you liked the noise. It kept you from sinking deeper into the ‘what ifs’.
“Want another?” He nodded to your nearly empty drink.
You debated for a moment, you couldn’t deny the attraction you had towards him. Spending more time with Brett excited you a little. So you agreed and told him your drink of choice.
He was only gone a few moments before he sat down again.
“I just have to say, the other night. It was amazing. Does it always feel like that?” The excitement in his voice had you smiling because you knew exactly what he was talking about.
The first time you’d helped a mare during labor, you had been a student. The feeling never went away. Obviously all births were not straight forward and some had turned into emergencies or in some cases their baby didn't make it. But the ones that did stayed with you. The feeling of helping bring something in the world, it was exhilarating.
“Yeah…it does. It never really goes away either. Thank you though.” You noticed his raised eyebrow and continued on “I realise I put you in a bad position. You were watching out for the safety of your crew and then I came along going head first into danger and not budging.” He chuckled at your response. You were determined to help and without carrying you out, you were unlikely to leave.
“It’s fine, well it wasn’t but…I could see why you were so passionate. I take it…they're okay, right? No side effects? I didn’t mishandle the procedure or anything?.”
You laughed as he fumbled through his words. “No..no, you were fine. Perfect even. Midnight and Shadow are doing really well.”
What had started as a stressful night, eased the longer you sat with him, the heavy feeling in your chest lightening. It was easy. Your sides hurt from laughing at his blunt humor, his smile made you smile and soon it was late enough that you’d reluctantly had to go your separate ways.
What started as friendship soon blossomed into something else. Something steady. He was your rock through the hard days and you helped on his dark days. You may have come from different backgrounds but he was your whole world once he let you in. Even deciding to stay in Edgewater once the foundation of your relationship was settled and the distance with his daughter felt reversible. You made space for his past, wanting him to remember everything that brought him to you.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
Human beings were all different. Some went through life coasting, not knowing what they wanted to do, no dream job that they wanted to do, just simply surviving it. Life.
Others however, knew what they wanted from childhood. Maybe it was a role model that imprinted a moment of clarity, or just simply following in the footsteps of a loved one. Or an emotional reaction that spurred the choice.
Everyone has a choice, all your choices have led you here.
To this perfect moment.
Sitting on a porch swing overlooking a field. In company with the man that you’d found later in life. His life had thrown him curveballs, he’d landed in the world of firefighting where he met his late wife and had a child. She provided a whole other life for him and his daughter and then life took her away.
You’d met him when he was almost ready to move on. He’d tried before with Liz but grief doesn’t have a time limit and before he knew it he was pulling away again, knowing that something didn’t feel right. So when he met you, he was cautious. He didn’t want to commit if he was going to later take a step back. He was polite, friendly, everything he was supposed to be, but he couldn’t ignore how he felt when he was with you. Noticing that every free moment was a moment to think about you, what you were doing, how you were and soon enough, he decided to bite the bullet and ask you out.
The day he helped Shadow always brought a smile to him. Watching you coax Midnight and being the awesome doctor you were to a patient that couldn’t speak. He watched you respond without words, knowing what she needed and how to help. He admired your love for your career, always encouraging and offering to help if he could. The feeling was small at first but it soon grew to love and then it changed to now. Now, it was forever.
As he watched some horses graze the field, his eyes fell upon Shadow, grown now. Hand entwined with yours. Your head tucked into his neck as you watched ahead. Rings glistening in the sun and peace finally settling into your bones. This was where you wanted to be. A man to love, who loved you back. Vows made with love and honour and the prospect of forever. Because until death do us part was nonsense, you’d always love them even in death, Brett knew that more than most and so did you. He was your forever.
Synopsis: Reincarnation Series - Moving to Edgewater, Brett Richards finally meets someone who loves animals as much as he does.
Warnings: No use on Y/N, no mention of age. There are mentions of pregnancy and descriptions of animal birth during this part. If I have missed any warnings please let me know!
[Part 5 of 7]
Read previous parts -> Series Masterlist
A/N: A huge thank you to @thatfanficstuff beta reading and helping me figure out the plot.
Thank you so much for all the likes, comments and reblogs. I’m so happy people are enjoying this series!
Your first introduction to Brett Richards was while you were on shift at Edgewater Veterinary Hospital. It was impossible to ignore the man sitting in the waiting room with his greying hair and facial stubble. Everything about him caught your attention and how his main focus was on the precious cargo held in their crates. Unfortunately, you couldn’t stick around and stare at him all day due to having a full schedule.
You’d already spent the morning checking labs and carrying out an emergency surgery on a beautiful Labrador that decided the owner didn’t need a single pair of socks in the house and would rather use its stomach as a cleaning tool. Luckily the dog was brought in and would go home with a very tender stomach and the ‘cone of shame’.
You only had a few moments to yourself before you were pulled to another appointment and another furry patient. You must have lucked out because the silver fox stood up after you called out a trio of names. Trying to remain professional, you smiled at him before heading to the consultation room with him following behind.
Mr. No Name had a long appointment due to booking in all of his 3 cats. It wasn’t anything urgent. After moving to the area the timing fit perfectly for their annual check up. They were beautiful cats. After doing a nose-to-tail exam on all 3 cats, you could clearly see that they were well looked after, groomed and fed well judging by their weight. He was attentive even while getting them out of their crates, which showed you how much he cared for them.
“Well they look good, heart and lungs sound great. I’ve got no concerns, I will just take some blood to run the usual tests to check their kidney and thyroid seeing as you’ve relocated, that way we can have a baseline on them.”
“Sounds good.”
As you finished taking blood from the youngest, you handed the furball over to him. It was at that moment something caught your attention. You were close enough to him that you took notice of the smell radiating from him. He smelt like the woods, hints of ash but beneath that it was something completely different. Your mind got lost, images of a man laughing flashing before your eyes as he held you in his arms, face buried in the crook of his neck as his scent washed over you. No face, no description of any kind, just flashes of a personal moment.
After the appointment ended, you helped him with his cats and held the door open as he exited.
“Have a good day, Mr. Richards,” you said cheerily. He was definitely going to be the highlight of your day. It was a shame he wasn’t there for longer.
“It’s Brett actually. Brett Richards.” You felt he was going to say more but your receptionist called for you. He quickly nodded goodbye and you went to help your colleague with her current crisis.
His face stuck with you for days. You had no idea if you’d see him again. You worked all hours, even though Edgewater wasn’t huge you hadn’t seen him, but that may have to do with your unsociable work hours.
It was almost five days later when the silver fox Brett Richards walked back into your life. Thankfully not for his cats, but it wasn’t for a good reason, either.
You were with a patient, deep in conversation about treatment plans, when an urgent knock forced you to apologise to the humans in the room. Opening the door you were met by your nervous intern, hovering close by and her attention looking towards the front door before meeting your eyes again.
“Michelle?…What’s going on?” you asked gently, hiding the frustration at being interrupted for no reason.
“Er…there's ... .you should take a look outside.” She rushed out.
Finally taking notice of the flashing lights coming through the window, you are met with a fire truck taking space in your parking lot. Brett met you at the entrance.
“An alarm alert went off for this building. Have you begun evacuations yet? Is anyone hurt?” You were looking at the handsome man that was Brett Richards taking in his jacket and CAL Fire displayed clearly. The cat lover was a firefighter, who knew?
You blinked at him, unable to comprehend the words, but finally processing.
“I’m sorry?…what’s going on? There’s no fire.” You were nervous that someone had called 911 as a mistake. There was no smoke, no fire. It was a completely normal day until the fire department turned up on your doorstep.
“There’s no fire?…are you sure?” he asked carefully, almost half convinced that you could be lying.
“No, there’s no fire. It’s the first I’ve heard of anything.” He nodded at you and turned his head to his radio, telling them to stand down for now, but sending a pair to do a quick check of the grounds.
“Can you show me where your alarm system is?” he gently asked next. His eyes were focused on you, and you couldn’t help but go a little shy at the look. You walked through the hospital, ignoring prying eyes and showed him the requested alarm set up. It was blinking, which you hadn’t noticed earlier, but stepped away to let him look at it.
After a few minutes, the flashing light stopped. He turned back to you and smiled. “You’ll need to speak to the alarm company. I think there’s a fault, it’s sending a signal that there’s a fire. I’ve turned it off for now, but get them out to fix it soon.” His eyes were soft and he had this rugged look about him mixed with this lovely smell, you were captivated by it.
You apologised about them having to come out for no reason. Promising that you’d get the alarm sorted as soon as possible. After getting the all clear that there was no fire, you watched as the firefighters loaded up again. The parking lot emptied out with your last look toward a particular salt and peppered man before you returned back to your patients.
For a shift to turn so drastic, it would definitely stick out for the foreseeable future, you had to laugh at the silliness of the situation.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
It was late when the call came through. A ranch alight and a horse in distress. You didn’t hesitate to grab your gear and head out.
Arriving at the scene, you found it illuminated with flashing lights from the emergency services and the backdrop of a roaring fire doing its best to turn it to ash. Grabbing your bag from the car you headed to the nearest firefighters who directed you to the man in charge. To your surprise it was Brett.
You didn’t miss his surprised face when you approached stating that you were the Emergency Vet on call for this, asking what the situation was and what he wanted you to do. It seemed that the horse was scared, panicked due to the fire. It had backed up near the tree line and wouldn’t budge. With those details in mind, he caught someone’s attention, letting them know that they were in charge. He led you towards the horse but held back when you went to approach.
When you moved to Edgewater, you’d become acquainted with all the animals that were under your care, this mare was named Midnight. Which was a big problem because you knew the mare was heavily pregnant. Assessing the current situation you came to the conclusion that she was showing signs of labor. You were calm in your approach, letting her see your demeanor. With a soft voice and a hand held out in a surrendering motion, she let you get close. A couple more steps and you were able to rub her stomach for confirmation while coaxing her away from the tree line.
She was contracting, probably stressed due to the fire and exhausted. You couldn’t get her to move any further to safety. You dropped the bag off your shoulder and started to run through everything that you’d possibly need.
The crack of something broke through, a tree branch falling. Through the roar of the fire, you felt a body encasing yours. Covering your body from the impact. The crash was loud and devastating, it had landed closer than you’d like, but far enough away that you knew you had time.
Orange and yellow flames edged closer as Midnight shifted uncomfortably, urging you to move quickly.
A hand shot out as you moved, looking back at Brett, he was shouting out over the raging fire. His grip was firm but soft, pulling you towards safety.
“WE CAN'T STAY HERE!”
“I’M NOT LEAVING HER, IF I DO THEY BOTH DIE!” You shouted back, already turning back towards Midnight.
The hand grasped yours tighter, Brett’s fierce eyes piercing yours. You couldn’t help feel them start welling.
“I’m not leaving Midnight. Because just like the people at your station are friends, family or just colleagues. Animals are mine. I understand them when no one else does. She’s scared, exhausted and in the late stages of labor. I can help. I can get them both out.”
Something must have resonated because the next thing you know Brett had taken a slow long breath, the grip on your hand loosened.
“How can I help?” he asked as you turned to your bag.
“Grab some gloves. Move the rope and blanket to the top. Hopefully, we can help birth the foal quickly and get her moving.” He nodded with all the confidence of a firefighter thrown into the position of assistant vet medic.
First you kept talking to Midnight, letting nature take its course as she labored the foal, front feet making an entrance. You could feel the distress of the black horse, giving quiet encouragement to keep her calm. When it started to look like there was no movement, you made the decision to intervene.
Grabbing the rope and tying it around the foal's feet, you handed the end of it to Brett.
“I want you to pull this back and downwards when I tell you. Just like human births we will wait for the contractions.”
“You sure I should be doing this, what if I hurt them?” he replied, concern dripping from his gravelly voice.
“You’ll be fine. We are just giving a helping hand. The contractions will help with movement, you're simply giving a little pull to help it along. I’ll stop you if I think anything’s wrong okay.” Watching as he agreed, you started working in tandem.
You called out for Brett to pull on the rope, watching as the Foal moved out an inch further, then telling him to stop and wait a moment.
The cycle repeats, it feels like hours but in reality it’s only been minutes. You notice in the down time Brett is still analysing the scene. Still worried about the fire heading towards you. But your only focus is on the mare and her foal.
Brett wipes some sweat away from his face with his arms, the combination of wildfire and exertion the root cause, when your voice raised a little, telling him to pull again, more towards the floor.
A few seconds later there was a release. The foal was now unrestricted, landing on the grass. You headed over and checked the airway and its breathing, then with quick hands you sorted the umbilical cord. Taking the blanket, you rubbed the foal vigorously to help dry it off. Normally you’d wait and let these things happen naturally but with your surroundings burning, you're not in the ideal situation to take things slow.
Picking up the foal carefully, you called for Brett to grab the bag, you waited a second for Midnight to gaze upon you and her newborn, wanting to reassure the mother that her baby wasn’t going anywhere she couldn’t follow. With quick steps you headed to safety with mother and baby and a shocked Battalion Chief following closely.
A trailer had been prepared, and you loaded both up. You would take them to the Vet Hospital to be checked out and hopefully find a home afterwards.
You and Brett went your separate ways, both focused on your individual jobs. Brett still had a team to lead and you had patients to see. With a quick wave you headed off, hoping to catch another glimpse of him soon.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
The next time you saw him, he approached you. Even though it was just a shadow before you, you had a sixth sense that it was your favourite firefighter. Clad in civilian clothes, it was his cologne that got your attention. When you gave him a once over, you noticed how relaxed he was. Hands in his pockets, shoulders low and a warm smile on his face. It was definitely different from the high pressure Brett Richards that you’d seen before.
You nudged the chair out in front of you, he took the hint. Taking a seat opposite you as you nursed a drink. Smokey’s Tavern was the local hangout, you didn’t go often, you usually reserved it for the tough shifts when man’s best friend didn’t make it. Those cases were difficult, you weren’t so much for social interaction but you liked the noise. It kept you from sinking deeper into the ‘what ifs’.
“Want another?” He nodded to your nearly empty drink.
You debated for a moment, you couldn’t deny the attraction you had towards him. Spending more time with Brett excited you a little. So you agreed and told him your drink of choice.
He was only gone a few moments before he sat down again.
“I just have to say, the other night. It was amazing. Does it always feel like that?” The excitement in his voice had you smiling because you knew exactly what he was talking about.
The first time you’d helped a mare during labor, you had been a student. The feeling never went away. Obviously all births were not straight forward and some had turned into emergencies or in some cases their baby didn't make it. But the ones that did stayed with you. The feeling of helping bring something in the world, it was exhilarating.
“Yeah…it does. It never really goes away either. Thank you though.” You noticed his raised eyebrow and continued on “I realise I put you in a bad position. You were watching out for the safety of your crew and then I came along going head first into danger and not budging.” He chuckled at your response. You were determined to help and without carrying you out, you were unlikely to leave.
“It’s fine, well it wasn’t but…I could see why you were so passionate. I take it…they're okay, right? No side effects? I didn’t mishandle the procedure or anything?.”
You laughed as he fumbled through his words. “No..no, you were fine. Perfect even. Midnight and Shadow are doing really well.”
What had started as a stressful night, eased the longer you sat with him, the heavy feeling in your chest lightening. It was easy. Your sides hurt from laughing at his blunt humor, his smile made you smile and soon it was late enough that you’d reluctantly had to go your separate ways.
What started as friendship soon blossomed into something else. Something steady. He was your rock through the hard days and you helped on his dark days. You may have come from different backgrounds but he was your whole world once he let you in. Even deciding to stay in Edgewater once the foundation of your relationship was settled and the distance with his daughter felt reversible. You made space for his past, wanting him to remember everything that brought him to you.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
Human beings were all different. Some went through life coasting, not knowing what they wanted to do, no dream job that they wanted to do, just simply surviving it. Life.
Others however, knew what they wanted from childhood. Maybe it was a role model that imprinted a moment of clarity, or just simply following in the footsteps of a loved one. Or an emotional reaction that spurred the choice.
Everyone has a choice, all your choices have led you here.
To this perfect moment.
Sitting on a porch swing overlooking a field. In company with the man that you’d found later in life. His life had thrown him curveballs, he’d landed in the world of firefighting where he met his late wife and had a child. She provided a whole other life for him and his daughter and then life took her away.
You’d met him when he was almost ready to move on. He’d tried before with Liz but grief doesn’t have a time limit and before he knew it he was pulling away again, knowing that something didn’t feel right. So when he met you, he was cautious. He didn’t want to commit if he was going to later take a step back. He was polite, friendly, everything he was supposed to be, but he couldn’t ignore how he felt when he was with you. Noticing that every free moment was a moment to think about you, what you were doing, how you were and soon enough, he decided to bite the bullet and ask you out.
The day he helped Shadow always brought a smile to him. Watching you coax Midnight and being the awesome doctor you were to a patient that couldn’t speak. He watched you respond without words, knowing what she needed and how to help. He admired your love for your career, always encouraging and offering to help if he could. The feeling was small at first but it soon grew to love and then it changed to now. Now, it was forever.
As he watched some horses graze the field, his eyes fell upon Shadow, grown now. Hand entwined with yours. Your head tucked into his neck as you watched ahead. Rings glistening in the sun and peace finally settling into your bones. This was where you wanted to be. A man to love, who loved you back. Vows made with love and honour and the prospect of forever. Because until death do us part was nonsense, you’d always love them even in death, Brett knew that more than most and so did you. He was your forever.
this is just my kind words going out to those writers and artists who haven't been around in a while. I know you guys get down on yourselves pretty badly but your worth is not determined by your productivity. Your worth is not determined by your likes or follows.
You deserve to rest, to be silent or loud or anywhere in between. You deserve to be loved for who and how you are, no matter where you are in your life's adventure.
synopsis: Robby needs comfort. Jack provides it. Or something.
warnings/notes: The 13th installment of Widow!Jack. As always @tanely aka @immortalserpent helped brainstorm. They are never beating the throuple allegations. This is chaos. As it should be.
wc: just short of 1.1k
Previous Series Masterlist
On what was supposed to be a relaxing day off, Robby called and begged for you to come into work around 2:00pm. It had been a shitshow of a day and they were short staffed. Jack was off playing cops and robbers so you dressed and headed in.
When you arrived, you could immediately see the fatigue weighing on your friend. “Michael?” you said softly as you came up beside him.
He turned to you with those sad eyes and immediately pulled you into his arms. “Thank you for coming in. It’s been…a day.”
“I gathered.” You wrapped your arms around him to return the hug. “You okay?”
“Better now.”
The two of you parted and he gave you a quick rundown of the patients and the situation in chairs. While you worked you made a habit of finding Robby whenever you could. Your fingers would find the hair at the nape of his neck and rub gently. It was a self soothing gesture he’d done since he was a kid. One you’d picked up on to help him when he was really stressed. You calming him better than he could ever do by himself.
Every time he closed his eyes and just let himself sink into the sensation for a moment. Neither of you thought much of it, having done the routine for years at this point.
Jack returned from his SWAT run expecting to find you still in bed or maybe curled up on the couch. Instead, he found a note stating you’d headed into work. He frowned then got ready to follow you. He wasn’t sitting around the house by himself.
His eyes scanned the ED taking in the chaos before falling on you standing behind Robby while he sat at one of the computers. Jack’s gaze narrowed at the sight of your fingers playing with the fringe of hair on Robby’s neck.
He walked over to the hub. “What are you two doing?” he asked, not sounding at all accusatory. (This is a lie. Though the tone didn’t affect you and Robby in the least.)
Instead of answering, you gave Jack a small, sad smile and looked pointedly at the man in front of you. Jack studied him for a moment then he realized what this was. You were comforting Robby.
“Oh no.” Jack’s voice was little more than a whisper. “Carry on,” he stated louder before heading to the locker room.
“Did I call him in? I don’t remember calling him.” Robby asked as his friend walked away.
No one answered him.
A couple of hours passed, the end of shift growing ever closer. Night shift started to trickle in. Jack was moving past the hub when his gaze fell on Robby sitting at the desk, palms pressed against his eyes.
Jack’s gaze frantically moved around the department searching for you.
“She’s in a trauma,” Dana’s voice cut in.
He glanced over to find her gesturing toward Robby. ‘Do something,’ she mouthed.
Jack sucked in a breath, nodded once and moved up behind his best friend. His fingers attempted to replicate the comforting pattern that you’d long memorized.
Robby froze.
His hands dropped as he blinked. Once. Twice.
“Jack?” Robby drew out the word. “What are you doing?”
“She’s busy. I’m all you have. Deal with it.”
Robby huffed a laugh and tried to duck away, but Jack’s hand merely followed. “Believe it or not, it’s not near as comforting when you do it. In fact, it’s fucking strange. Knock it off.”
“No. Let me comfort you.” Jack was nothing if not stubborn.
Robby started to protest before just deflating. “Fine.” A pause. “Go a little higher.”
Melissa King walked past the hub, tablet in hand, nodding to the attendings as she passed. Then she stopped, processed and turned to face them. “I…um…I’m not certain that’s entirely appropriate.”
Her words caught Crus Henderson’s attention and he turned to see what had caught her attention. He grinned and stepped up beside her. “Oh, you don’t want to get in the middle of that. Trust me. Just keep moving.”
Jack narrowed his gaze. “I’m soothing him. Do you have a problem with that? I didn’t realize you were so closed minded, Dr King. What if he’s my husband? Have you considered that?”
Crus snorted and patted Mel’s shoulder. “Good luck.” Then he walked off and left her to the wolves—or rather the Abbot.
Mel stuttered, her brow furrowing. “No. I mean…” She huffed in annoyance. “Aren’t you already married to Dr. Abbot?”
“I am Dr. Abbot,” Jack answered, lips twitching as he fought his amusement.
You’d stepped out of the trauma room during the initial conversation and made your way over with a shake of your head.
Robby looked from Mel to you and glanced over his shoulder at Jack. “I’m keeping my last name. Three Abbots is too many.”
You shrugged. “I could always switch to Robinavitch.”
A resounding “No!” came from both men and you smiled.
You turned to Mel. “Ignore them. They’re just like this. It’s a problem really. Hand off your patients to Dr. Henderson, please.”
She nodded slowly, clutching the tablet to her chest as she walked away. She looked back once with a heavily furrowed brow as she tried to process what had just happened.
“You two are menaces,” you said to the men once she’d left.
“I’m soothing,” Jack insisted and Robby chuckled. A real smile was on his face for the first time all day.
You smirked and huffed a laugh. “You just going to keep letting him play with your hair all night or do want to do handoff?”
Robby straightened and brushed Jack’s hand away. “Stop it.”
“I mean, it’s fine. I don’t want to interrupt your bonding moment or anything,” you continued.
“Oh, shut up,” Robby said as he stood, cheeks flaming red.
Bonus:
As Mel gave Crus a rundown on her patients, she kept glancing back to the hub where the attendings were in conversation.
“Hey, you with me?” he asked drawing her attention back to him.
She startled and cleared her throat. “Yes, sorry. Yes.”
Crus chuckled as he flashed her a smile. “I take it you haven’t seen the three of them interact much.”
“Not really. No.”
“You’ll get used to it. They’re a little chaotic, but there is no one better to learn from.”
Mel nodded absently. “So, the Doctors Abbot are married and Dr. Robby is…”
synopsis: Five times you and Pope were kind of stupid and the one time you figured out. Or Craig Cody goes slowly insane watching two idiots in love.
warnings/notes: Pretty fluffy. @in-ky requested Pope with Secret Admirer for the One Big Bash. I threw in a hefty dose of idiots in love for the hell of it. POV shifts frequently between the Reader and Pope. Story takes place before canon. Pope is about 29. Reader is 3-4 years younger. Hope you like it!
wc: 4.9k
You grew up on the periphery of the Cody family. Your father was an accountant with only a handful of clients. He didn’t need more than that when they paid so handsomely for his services. And he earned every penny shuffling money around, hiding ill-gotten gains without leaving a trace for law enforcement to follow. Whenever he had to meet with Smurf, he took you with him. You fell almost in the middle of Pope and Craig age wise so you didn’t really fit with either of them. Julia though was thrilled to have another girl around and pulled you into her orbit. Then you all got older and the age difference didn’t matter much anymore.
Your father sent you to college for your accounting degree while he taught you every dirty trick he knew. He even footed the bill for you to head to grad school as well. You’d been living in Berkeley for years, only coming home on the rare occasion. You’d been back less than a week when you ran into Craig at the beach.
“Holy shit!” he exclaimed, running over and picking you up in a bear hug to spin you around. “I didn’t know you were home.”
“Just barely,” you said as you pushed at his shoulders. “Let me go, you oaf.”
“Nope. I’m taking you back to ours. We’re having a party tonight and you’re coming.”
Before you could respond another voice interrupted.
“Put her down.”
Craig immediately complied and stepped back putting his hands up. He gave a crooked grin that said he knew something everyone else didn’t. “No problem. Make sure she comes to the party though.”
You watched him run off then turned to greet your favorite Cody. You used a hand to shelter your eyes from the sun. “Hello, Andrew.”
He nodded once in response. “You’re back.” His fingers twitched at his sides.
“Yeah. A few days ago.” You bit the inside of your lip to keep from saying something stupid. You’d had a crush on Andrew Cody since you were sixteen years old. And, while he tolerated you better than most, you were under no delusions that he felt the same.
“How long?”
“I’m back for good. School’s done.”
The corner of his mouth curled up slightly. “Good. See you later.”
Your gaze trailed him as he passed you to rejoin his brothers and sighed. You’d hoped that distance would have tamped your attraction for the man.
It had not.
The Cody house was loud and messy and exactly what you’d been expecting. Bottles and empty cups littered every surface. Music flooded the air from the speakers causing all the conversation around you to be louder to compensate. You wrinkled your nose as a tendril of smoke from a joint drifted your direction.
You leaned against the house, beer sweating in your hand as you watched Pope. He wasn’t talking to anyone. He never did at these things. He stood with his back to the fence at the far side of the yard, beer hanging from two fingers as his eyes took in everything around him in slow methodical sweeps. You’d seen him do this a hundred times. Always the still point in the Cody chaos.
You didn’t realize you’d been staring until Craig materialized at your side. “What are you doing?”
You didn’t bother glancing at him. “People watching.”
“Uh huh.” Craig leaned in, shoulder bumping yours. “You’re Pope watching. There’s a difference.”
“Fuck off.”
“He likes you.” He said it like he was handing you a winning lottery ticket and you should be eternally grateful. It was how he said most things to be honest. Always thinking he knew something the rest of the world was too stupid to see. He didn’t.
“Don’t be stupid, Craig. He does not. Why would he?”
“Just trust me.”
You turned then to blink at him in disbelief. “Why would I do that? You told Deran I had a dolphin tattoo on my ass and he spent a week trying to get a glimpse of it.”
He snorted. “That was funny.”
“Not for me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have people to watch. Not Pope. People.”
Craig threw his hands up in mock surrender. “Fine. Don’t listen to me. See if I care.” He hooked his arm around the shoulders of a passing brunette and led her into the crowd.
You made an effort to look anywhere but Pope after that.
Pope hated parties. Hated that Smurf let his brothers do whatever they wanted. He should have moved out when Baz did. A least then he’d have somewhere to escape to when they were doing this shit. He kept his eyes moving over the crowd, making sure no one fucked up his shit or overdosed in the pool. Fucking hell.
His eyes snagged on you every time they passed over you. You were wearing a tank top and shorts and looked like you belonged here. And you did, more that most of these people anyway. He should talk to you. He wanted to but you didn’t need him bugging you. You’d just gotten home, back in Oceanside where he could keep tabs on you. He didn’t want to scare you off.
Craig sidled up to him and nudged him with his elbow.
“Don’t,” Pope said, not looking at him.
“She likes you, too, you know.”
Pope’s gaze shot over to his brother before finding you in the crowd again. For a brief moment, hope swelled, then he remembered who he was talking to. “Leave it.”
Craig huffed out a breath. “Look, I’m not giving you shit. I’m being serious right now. You should ask her out. Right now. Get the both of you out of here.”
The image of the two of you sitting side by side at the beach flashed through his mind. He blinked it away. “She doesn’t like me, okay. Not like that. She couldn’t.”
Craig tilted his head back with a groan. “Can you just trust me for once? Please?”
Pope stared at him for a beat. “Why would I do that?”
His brother stared back then looked to you and back to Pope. “I hate you both.” Then he was gone, moving toward the cooler to get another beer.
The party kept moving. Music thumping, people shouting. Pope shifted his weight as his eyes drifted across the patio and found you already looking at him. He went utterly still as you held his gaze. Then, you looked away and it was as if it had never happened at all.
Pope drove past your apartment building twice before he pulled over. His hands gripped the wheel as he watched your door on the second floor. Your curtains were closed but that didn’t mean anything. Sometimes you did that to keep the heat out. He glanced at the flowers on the floorboard beside him. They were nothing fancy, but they were your favorite colors.
He’d noticed when you were at the house the day before that you were more quiet than usual. Contemplative. He missed your smile and wanted to bring it back. So flowers. You loved flowers. But would you want them from him?He swallowed, gaze moving back to your door. He’d just leave them on your doorstep. The whole point was to not make a thing of it.
Back in the truck, he drove the ten minutes to the Cody house, his brain stuck on you. Maybe he should have knocked, handed them to you directly. As he walked past the living room, he stopped cold.
You were on the couch.
Not in his head, but actually there, legs tucked under you with a glass of what looked like lemonade in your hand. You glanced up and your eyes widened a fraction when you spotted him.
He crossed the room and dropped onto the couch beside you. He sat close enough to smell the clean scent that clung to your skin. You never doused yourself in perfumes or heavily scented lotions. It was another thing he loved about you.
“What are you doing here?” he said, voice rough as always.
Your fingers tapped against the side of the glass. “Smurf wanted me to come for dinner. Is that okay?”
He studied you. Your face was doing that thing it did when you were trying to read him, the furrow between your brows, mouth turned down slightly at the corners. He’d forgotten that about you. How you watched.
“Yeah, it’s fine,” he finally said. “You can be here whenever you want.”
You gave him a small smile and a nod and something in him loosened, just a little.
At dinner, you sat across from Pope and watched the chaos around you.
Craig was talking about a wave he’d caught that morning, hands moving through the air. His voice buried Pope’s attempt to say something and the latter’s mouth snapped shut. He cut into his steak and said nothing.
Deran cut in to say something about a fight at the pier and a kid who had gotten his board stolen. “He just fucking took off like—”
Smurf turned to Craig. “Did you get the papers I asked you to pick up?”
Craig frowned. “Yeah, they’re in the other room. I told you that al—”
“Good. Deran, eat your vegetables before they get cold.”
The conversation moved around Pope, never including him. He ate methodically. Every few bites he’d look up, eyes scanning the table, taking inventory. Once, his gaze landed on you and held for a beat too long before dropping back to his plate.
You kept your face still even as you cataloged every slight.
You saw the way his jaw tightened when Craig talked over him. The way his fingers gripped the fork a little too hard when Smurf redirected the conversation for the third time. The way he chewed each bite thoroughly before swallowing. As if he was counting seconds in his head.
You saw all of it and said nothing. Because saying something would mean admitting you were paying attention and paying attention to Andrew Cody was a habit you’d promised yourself you’d break.
But you couldn’t just leave it. Couldn’t let him believe he was the least important person in the room.
The next day, you left an envelope on the windshield of Pope’s truck where it sat in the Cody driveway. Inside was a DVD of a National Geographic special about deep-sea predators and a note.
I see you. I always see you.
Deran found the envelope, bringing it in the house with him and tossing it at Pope where he sat on the couch. “Someone left that on your truck.” Just as quick as he’d appeared the boy was gone.
Pope’s brow furrowed as he opened the envelope and dumped the contents into his lap. The DVD case was warm in his hands as he turned it over to read the back. Then he saw the note.
His thumb traced the edge of the paper. He read it once. Then again. The corner of his mouth pulled up. Just barely. He folded the note and slipped it into his wallet.
Pope hadn’t seen you in three days, which was more than a little unusual. Since you’d returned to Oceanside, you’d been spending a lot of time with the Codys.
He found Craig in the kitchen, shirtless, eating cereal straight from the box, chasing it with a drink of the milk sitting on the counter beside him.
Pope’s lip curled. His brothers were disgusting. “Where is she?” he asked.
Craig looked up. “Who?”
Pope stared at him.
“Oh. Car trouble. Took it to that place on Brighton with the sign that looks like it’s falling over.”
Pope braced his hands on the counter and leaned forward. “And?”
Craig shrugged. “And they quoted her some bullshit number. Like, way high. She thinks they’re trying to scam her because she’s a girl and doesn’t know cars. So, she’s going to have it towed to get a second opinion. She’s waiting for her dad to pay her. Stingy bastard.”
“Which shop on Brighton?”
“You know, uh, Vic’s? Vinnies? Something with a V.”
Pope nodded once and poured himself a cup of coffee. He had a job for Smurf he needed to take care of. Some asshole that owed her money and took off to Ventura. The kind of thing that would take a couple of days if everything went right, longer if it didn’t. Regardless, he’d be taking a vehicle that couldn’t be traced to him.
“I’m leaving tomorrow,” he said. “My truck will be here if you want to use it.”
Craig’s brows went up. “For real?” Craig had been driving an old beater for the last couple of months after he dumped his bike drinking and driving.
“If she needs a ride anywhere, to get groceries, to go to work, fucking anywhere, you take her. That’s the deal. Promise me or I keep the keys.”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Promise me, Craig.”
“I promise, Jesus, I’ll drive her wherever she needs.”
Pope placed the keys in his hand but held onto them. “Do not wreck my truck.”
After another round of assurances from Craig, Pope finally relinquished the keys. He only hoped his brother didn’t give him a reason to regret it.
Two days later, you got a call.
“Ma’am, this is Vic’s Auto Repair. Your vehicle is ready for pickup.”
You frowned. “I didn’t authorize any work.”
“We understand that, but the repairs have been completed and the bill has been taken care of. If you could pick it up as soon as possible, we’d appreciate it.”
“Who paid for it?”
“I’m afraid I don’t have that information. Vic did request you take your vehicle elsewhere from now on. Sorry.”
You hung up and stared at the wall for a full minute, running through the short list of people in your life who both knew about the car and had the money to spare. You sent off a message.
Twenty minutes later, Craig pulled up in Pope’s truck.
You opened the door and took in the sight before you. The floor mats were covered in fast food wrappers. There was mud smeared across the dashboard. The cab smelled like cheap perfume and cheaper weed.
“What did you do, Craig?”
He leaned across the passenger seat, one arm draped over the wheel. “What? Pope said I could use it while he’s out of town.”
“You know how he is about his stuff. This is disgusting.”
He shrugged. “It’s a truck. It’s meant to get dirty.”
“This isn’t dirt. This is you being a slob. Bring it back to my apartment after we get the car. I’ll clean it.” You shook your head as you used the hand hold to haul yourself into the passenger seat, curling your lip at the filth.
“What am I supposed to drive then?”
“Oh, you’re helping. This is a two person job and you’re person number two.”
He groaned but didn’t argue, which told you he felt at least a little guilty.
“So, what happened with the second opinion? I thought you were holding off,” he asked as he drove to the shop.
“I got a call this morning that the car was fixed and the bill had been paid.”
The silence stretched. Then Craig said, “Gee. I wonder who that could have possibly taken care of that for you.”
You huffed in annoyance. “Shut up.”
“I told Pope about your car. And then he left town and gave me his truck with the specific instruction that I drive you anywhere you need.” He glanced at you. The corner of his mouth doing that thing it did when he felt particularly proud of himself. “I told you he likes you.”
“Stop. It was probably my dad or something.”
“So ask him.”
“What?” you asked.
“Ask your dad if he fixed your car,” Craig prompted.
You shook your head but didn’t say anything else. The truth was, a very large part of you wanted it to be Pope that took car of your car. A part that held out hope that one day he’d see you the way you saw him. If it wasn’t him, you really didn’t want to know. Not yet anyway. Let you enjoy your delusions for a while.
After you picked up your car, Craig followed you to your apartment. You spent two hours cleaning Pope’s truck, taking care of what you could at your place before driving to a nearby carwash. Craig complained the entire time, but did the work. By the time you were done, the truck looked better than it had before Pope left it.
“Don’t tell him we cleaned it,” Craig said as he dropped you back at your apartment.
“Why not?”
“Because then he’ll know I trashed it and I’ll have to listen to him be weird about it for a week.”
You rolled your eyes but agreed before climbing out of the truck.
Pope got back the next afternoon. The guy had paid after Pope thoroughly explained the situation by sharing his knowledge of just how many bones were in the human hand. He took the car to the junkyard and got a ride back to the house. His truck was in almost the same spot he’d left it. When he got closer and saw it was clean.
Not just clean. Spotless. The windows gleamed. The tires had been scrubbed. There wasn’t a single wrapper or smudge in sight. He walked around it once, eyes narrowed then opened the door. The inside smelt like lemon. He stood there for a minute then shrugged. Craig must have finally grown a brain. Or felt guilty. Either way, it was a miracle Pope wasn’t going to question.
Inside, he showered and changed before checking his phone. There was a text from Craig about a bonfire at the beach that night. He had no interest in going unless you were going to be there. He started to text Craig to ask about you before deleting and switching to your contact instead.
You coming to the bonfire?
You responded almost immediately. No. Sick.
He stared at the screen, a million worst case scenarios running through his head. What’s wrong?
Just a cold. Stuffy. Miserable.
He exhaled in relief, thumb hesitating for a beat before he put his phone away.
Thirty minutes later he pulled up to your apartment with two bags. One held hot chicken soup. The other held orange juice, Kleenex and cold medicine. He climbed the stairs to your apartment and prepared to knock on the door when a yell from the apartment next door caught his attention.
He turned his head listening to the man shout, mean and ugly followed by a loud thud like something hitting a hard surface. Craig had mentioned that your neighbor was an asshole but Pope hadn’t imagined anything like this. Did you have to listen to this shit all the time? You were sick. You needed your rest.
Pope set the bags on your doormat and knocked quickly on the door before walking next door. The yelling got louder. He knocked hard, three times.
The door opened a crack. A man’s face appeared, eyes red and narrowed. “Who the fuck are—”
Pope put one hand on the man’s chest and walked him backward into the apartment. The door swung shut behind them.
You answered your door a couple of minutes later, wrapped in a blanket, nose red. You found two bags on your mat and looked both directions, finding no one. You bent down and picked them up, taking them into the kitchen and placing them on the counter.
You unloaded the bags and stared at everything for a moment, debating the safety of eating soup someone left on your doorstep. But it looked good and it was hot. And there were easier ways to kill you if someone wished, rather than death by cold remedy.
You could also count on one hand the number of people who knew you were sick and you trusted all of them. You tore open the cold medicine and swallowed two capsules with a glass of water. You refilled the glass with some of the juice and took it and the soup over to the table.
Three days later, your sinuses had cleared and your energy returned. You were itching to get out of the house and headed to a small bookstore you frequented. The place smelled the way all good bookstores do, fresh paper mixed with the slight must of old books. Sunlight poured through the windows and angled across the floor.
You roamed the shelves for awhile before finding yourself in the nature section. A dark blue book with gold lettering caught your eye and you pulled it from the shelf. A hardcover book on aquatic animals, filled with vivid photographs. The text was full of facts and anecdotes from the photographers. The kind of thing that would keep someone’s attention for hours.
You bought it without hesitating.
Pope walked out of his house that afternoon, keys in hand and stopped when he saw a book sitting on the hood of his truck. The embossed title shone gold in the sunlight.
He picked up the book and flipped through the pages. It was full of sharks, jellyfish and things that lived so deep they made their own light. And then he found the note.
On the front page in the same handwriting as the first note that came with the DVD.
For Andrew followed by a heart.
He closed the book and ran his hand over the cover before climbing in the truck and setting the book on the passenger seat. He drove to an isolated section of the beach and backed into a space. He sat on the tailgate of his truck with the book open in his lap and read until the sun went down and the words faded into the dark.
Another Saturday, another Cody party. You were graced with Baz’s presence this time but your favorite Cody was nowhere to be seen. Baz’s lips twitched as you looked around the party for the third time since he’d started talking to you. “He’s not here,” he said, leaning closer so you could hear him.
Your eyes widened in surprise. “Who?”
He laughed outright at that. “Pope. He’s doing a job for Smurf. Won’t be back until tomorrow.”
You didn’t say anything for a moment. “Am I that obvious?”
Baz’s hand found your shoulder. “You never had eyes for anyone else when he was around. Been that way since we were kids.” With that, he walked off leaving you to wallow in your embarrassment.
Eventually, Craig found you. “You good?”
You nodded and sipped at your beer. “Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you. The asshole next door broke his lease and moved out in the middle of the night.”
He smiled slow and wide. “I wonder why. Who could have possibly scared him off?”
You sighed. “Stop. How would your brother even know that guy existed?”
He held up his hands. “I’m just saying. It’s a mystery. A real whodunit. Maybe the guy won the lottery. Maybe—”
“I said stop.”
He stopped but the smile stayed. Asshole.
You started cleaning as the party wound down. No one helped but you didn’t expect them too. You didn’t want Pope coming home to this mess. Baz had left hours ago. Craig had crashed on the couch, Deran laying nearby. You shook your head as you moved around them, Deran gave you a sleepy smile and then he was out as well.
You collected every bottle, every empty cup. You wiped down every surface with cleaner and a rag and swept the floors. Then you loaded the dishwasher and started it. Trash was tied up and sat beside the can in the garage. By the time you finished, the house looked like no one had ever been there at all.
Pope drove home early the following morning. The job had been simple. Pick up a package, deliver it, come home. He spent the last hour of the drive running through the cleanup in his head. The party would have been a disaster without him there to temper it. Trash would be everywhere. Filth tracked through the house. He’d clean up the trash first, then surfaces, then floors.
He pulled into the driveway and killed the engine. The house was dark and quiet when he let himself in. He braced himself for the worst and stopped.
The house was clean.
Not tidy. Clean. He walked through the rooms trying to make sense of it. He found his brothers on the couch sound asleep. Pope smacked Craig’s shoe to wake him up.
He grunted in surprise, eyes flying open, groaning when he found Pope standing above him. “What the fuck?”
“Did you clean up?”
Craig frowned and ran a hand down his face. “What?”
“The house. Did you clean it?”
“Why the fuck would I do that?”
Deran’s eyes were still closed when he said your name.
“What?” Pope asked.
“She cleaned all of it,” Deran added.
Pope focused on Craig again. “Why would she do that?”
Craig groaned again. “I don’t fucking know, Pope. Maybe she hates you and wanted to deny you the pleasure.” He paused then added, “It certainly wouldn’t be because she likes you because what the fuck do I know?”
Pope drove to your apartment without calling first. He didn’t text. Didn’t take the time to weigh the pros and cons. He’d spent too much time hesitating, second guessing.
He knocked on your door, shifting his weight as he waited for you to answer.
When you opened the door, his gaze raked over you, taking in the shorts and t-shirt you had on. He stepped forward, crossing the threshold before you could invite him in.
Your lips quirked. “Sure. Come on in.”
He stood in the middle of your living room, watching as you closed the door and turned to face him. His fingers twitched as his sides. “You cleaned up the party.”
“Yes,” you said with a tilt of your head.
“Why?”
“So you wouldn’t have to.” You crossed your arms over your chest and looked down as you shuffled your feet.
He went quiet, eyes moving around the room. Searching for something, anything to tell him what to say next. He wanted to ask you why you cared so much, why you bothered, but he was afraid you’d take it wrong. That he’d say the wrong thing and push you away. His gaze snagged on the TV. The sound was low, but the images were unmistakable. Dark water. The slow, ghostly movement of something with too many teeth.
The National Geographic special. The one from the DVD.
“I know this,” he said, before he could think about it.
You smiled, your face lighting with the action. “You watched it? I knew you’d like it.”
He looked at you then, really looked, the way he’d been avoiding for weeks. “That was you?”
You looked surprised as if you hadn’t realized what you’d said. What you’d admitted to. “Yeah.”
“But that means this is from you, too.” He pulled out his wallet and removed the note, unfolding it to show you the words within.
“You kept that?” Your voice was quiet.
He swallowed hard and nodded in answer. “Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Come on, Andy. I’ve been gone for years. You probably have a bunch of girls that want you. What do you need me for?”
His answer was immediate, tone firm and certain. “I don’t want them. I want you. Why else would I do all that stuff for you?”
Your brow furrowed. “What stuff?”
“The flowers. The car. The soup…the neighbor.” He hesitated before admitting to the last.
Your eyes widened and your mouth gaped just a little. “That was you? Why didn’t you say anything?”
He lifted one shoulder. “I thought it was obvious.”
You stepped forward. One step, then another, closing the distance between you until you were close enough for him to smell the faint trace of your detergent. You laid your hand against his face, palm cradling his cheek. Your thumb traced across his skin.
He went very still, afraid if he moved the wrong way he’d chase you off. His breathing was shallow and his eyes didn’t leave you.
You leaned in, forehead almost touching his and asked, “Is this okay?”
It was everything.
He answered by kissing you. Your mouth was warm and careful, his hand came up to curl around the back of your neck. You kissed him back and tension flowed from him as he sunk into you. For a long moment there was nothing but the two of you and the anglerfish glowing on the screen behind you.
You pulled back with a groan and Pope’s gaze flicked over your face. His hand was still on your neck. “What? What’s wrong?”
“This means I’m going to have to admit Craig was right. He’s going to be insufferable.”
Pope smiled. A rare, unguarded full smile that showed a hint of the man he might have been if the world had been gentler. And then he kissed you again.
Synopsis: Reincarnation Series - What happens when Charlie Reid meets his match, a nurse at Chicago Med.
Warnings: No use of Y/N, no mentions of age. Nothing beyond canon, but if I have missed anything please let me know!
[Part 4 of 7]
Read previous parts -> Series Masterlist
A/N: A huge thank you to @thatfanficstuff for encouraging me to write this fic and beta reading.
Thank you all so much for reading the nonsense that comes out of my brain. I appreciate every like, reblog and comment.
After the shootout from an op gone wrong Charlie found himself at Gaffney Medical Center, checking up on a wounded suspect. He had officers stationed outside the door just in case. It was when he was speaking to an officer that he looked around the department and something, or rather someone, caught his attention.
Even though the department was busy, you seemed to be in your element. Holding a radio to your ear and then shouting out demands to those that needed to hear it.
Charlie was mesmerised.
As he looked at you his thoughts turned darker, he didn’t know anything about you, only that he had to know you. Wanted you, needed you and there was no reason for this instant need but something about you called out to him.
He watched you from the corner of the room. Taking you in, demanding attention while briefly listening to his officer. It shouldn’t have affected him, but it made him smile when he saw you look over toward him. You stood your ground and held eye contact and that only made him smirk in return. Something about that moment made you still for a minute and a look of confusion covered your face.
You didn’t know what it was, but noticing the dark gleam in his eyes, you felt something shift. It wasn’t until the corner of his mouth curved upwards that you felt something familiar. Hints of the devil hidden behind a handsome face. Everything about him felt like coming home, only there was something that you couldn’t quite touch. Something just out of reach.
It was brief but something was different and all Charlie knew was that he needed to know more.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
Charlie started making it a habit of walking past a particular coffee shop before going to the station. He learned about the grocery store that you usually went to on your days off and the call you made to your best friend weekly.
Eventually he learned most of your routines and decided that at some point he could bump into you accidentally.
The day finally came when Charlie first met you officially. You’d been busy catching up on housework after so many gruelling shifts at the hospital. The laundry had piled up, the refrigerator at this point was cooling nothing but empty space and you were yet to buy your best friend’s birthday present. After sorting out the mess that was your dirty clothes, you headed out to the grocery store.
You didn’t notice him at first, too engrossed in deciding whether to buy the fancy labelled wine or the cheaper version. With a cart full of foods that weren’t too perishable and some greenery, you were now standing in the aisle that held most people’s interests. Shrugging your shoulders you picked both.
Quickly turning to the cashier, you missed the solid form of a man standing behind you. You couldn’t hold in the gasp that came out as you took notice of how close he was. For a moment you weren’t sure you were breathing. You’d seen him before but not getting a name as you only saw each other across a busy Emergency Department.
You watched as a slow sly grin crept onto his face. Keeping eye contact, the crinkle at his eyes told you he found this amusing but you couldn't deny that you were completely enraptured by him.
“Hi, Beautiful, I’m Deputy Chief Charlie Reid.” The rasp in his voice sent shivers down your spine.
“Hi,” you managed to say breathily. He was handsome and his eyes had a hunger in them. But what really had your attention was his mouth. The slight uptick on one side and then came the biting of his bottom lip, you hadn’t seen anything so captivating.
“Maybe this is forward but have dinner with me.”
That was all it took. You could have said no, but you would have suffered worse walking away from a man like that. A man who had said a handful of words to you before asking you out to dinner and all you could think was yes.
Arriving home to address your chores, you put away the groceries and tried to find an outfit that would suit the occasion. With numbers already exchanged, you were excited and a little nervous. Of course the doubts started as he could be a serial killer or something nefarious, but then the fact that he was wearing a police vest when you first saw him you doubted as much. But you couldn’t ignore the fact that you wanted this just as much as him.
You made one concession when agreeing to the date and that was to meet at the restaurant. You had some self preservation to meet somewhere other than your apartment. Out in the open.
You were dubious with the arrangements as it looked to be a fancy place to eat, but Charlie met you outside and instantly had his arm around your waist as he led you inside. A table set for two in the corner of the room. It was private, romantic and basically every cheesy rom-com movie you could think of. But he didn’t disappoint.
The food was delicious. The atmosphere was perfect and the company was even better. You kept watching Charlie talk and your eyes never left his lips. He could be talking about a dull case but all you cared about was the moisture on his lips, the way his smile reached his eyes. He was confident, charismatic and, if you really paid attention, you could see something dark hiding behind his eyes.
What really solidified the beginning of something was when the date ended. Standing outside your apartment door hand in hand with a man you’d met hours before you found yourself gazing into his eyes. Charlie made the move first, just like he had earlier. His mouth was on yours, gentle at first but then it got deeper as you groaned against his mouth.
You were so lost to the moment. The taste of him, taste of a memory that was just out of reach, taste of a man you once belonged to, a man that showered you in kisses, that knew every inch of your body. It may not be the same person but everything about him called to you and as you melted into his embrace you let the feeling consume you.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
After you met Charlie things around you started to change. Colleagues and friends weren’t so open to the relationship, warning you of the kind of man that he was. When it was rumoured that he was working alongside those that he should be policing, people made their views known.
But you didn’t care.
You loved him, he was yours and every breath you took was for him. You would bleed for him, had bled for him. He was like a devil in disguise, but when he was with you, he was perfect.
You ignored the looks that you garnered when he stopped by the hospital. Because in their eyes even a good deed had to have an ulterior motive. Nothing Charlie did would be good enough, especially when it came to you. You don’t know how you received a reputation for being this innocent person, but it blinded people into thinking you were naïve and being manipulated.
You were far from the good girl that they had labelled you as.
They didn’t know that you were the one that had held a gun to a gang-banger’s head while you demanded the love of your life be freed.
They didn’t know that the burnt remains of an unidentified male were by the very hands that helped a young girl hours earlier.
They also didn’t know that the blood on his hands was on yours too, because as much as you wanted people to believe you were innocent, you were just as complicit with what he had done. He had no secrets, not from you.
He was hesitant at first to let the mask fall, to let you see the darkness that sat within him. Maybe it was fate that let him know that he could trust you, but he soon saw that behind your angelic demeanour that just maybe a ruthless demoness was hiding underneath,, ready to be set free.
But life with Charlie wasn’t easy, so there came a time when you decided it was best to leave it all behind, start fresh where no one knew you or Charlie, didn’t know the history.
Not wanting danger to follow, you planned meticulously. Money wasn’t something that worried you, because you could be a nurse anywhere. As long as Charlie was with you, you didn’t care where that ended up being.
There was one last thing to do and that was Rennie Otero. With the death of his father the kid was unstable and unreliable. Charlie didn’t want Voight’s team getting any closer than they were, having already cornered you, begging you to help them but you played the big watery eyes stating that you didn’t know anything.
It all came to a head when a preliminary meeting was called, which had Charlie in attendance. It was when he was outside the building that Rennie Otero pulled out a gun and fired two shots.
A body hit the floor and Charlie did his best to stop the bleeding, putting pressure on the wound while meeting Voight’s eyes, while the Otero boy was apprehended in the distance.
A cough reached his ears and Charlie held back a grin as he watched the light in Voight’s eyes dim. Shouts could be heard from the arrest.
“He killed my dad! The dirty piece of shit did it!” Charlie wanted to laugh, because he knew.
You’d done it.
With Intelligence already at risk of being disbanded, the final straw broke. You managed to get to Rennie Otero and wove seeds of doubt into his head. Making him believe that it was Voight’s call to have his father tortured and killed and anything that the team had on Charlie would look like they were trying to cover for Sgt. Voight.
That night when Charlie got back from the aftermath, he couldn’t hold in his glee when he strode through the house looking for you.
The house was immaculate and the only light that filled the room was a candle on the dining room table with dinner sitting ready to be eaten. As soon as you met his eyes you jumped into his arms and on instinct wrapped your legs and arms around him. The kiss was needy and messy but everything he wanted in that moment was being said. You did it. I love you. Thank you. Is this what forever looks like?
By your next shift, colleagues were looking at you with guilt. Guilt that they had believed a man that worked on the wrong side of the law and in doing so had scrutinised a man who was just trying to fix things. Well that’s what you wanted them to believe anyways.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
Now that Intelligence was out of the way, everything eased slightly. Things at the hospital changed and Charlie was granted to work anywhere, especially after finding the corrupt officers working within the Chicago PD.
It was a normal day when you broached the topic to Charlie.
“We should move,” you said gently, your hands on his chest as you looked up into his beautiful hazel eyes.
“Where should we go?”
There was no question of why. He trusted you implicitly. He didn’t know why you wanted to move just that you should and that was enough for him. You were enough for him.
“Anywhere…I don’t care. Just away from here. Away from anyone who knows us.” You just wanted to be free. Free to love the man you did without history marring the relationship. Without pressure from others believing that Charlie had been a mistake, even if they thought otherwise now. It didn’t lessen how you felt for him, it just made you more tense, aware. That at any point people could turn on you.
You wanted a life with Charlie. You wanted to live without the reminders of what it took you both to get here.
“Okay beautiful, pick a place and I’ll ask around.” His use of beautiful made your face light up and he kissed your forehead before walking away.
Charlie was a cunning and manipulative man, but you saw through all of it. You were a perfect match for him. Never leaving his side. Not when you relocated to another city across the country and not even when Charlie decided to retire and live in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees and foliage. Even then you stayed by his side, because he was everything you wanted and you were all he desired.
His kisses still tasted the same, still brought that overwhelming feeling of a life once lived. Maybe one day you would tell him of it. But for now you breathed in the fresh air and got drunk on the man who said ‘I do’ before the question left the officiant's mouth.
Synopsis: Reincarnation Series - What happens when Charlie Reid meets his match, a nurse at Chicago Med.
Warnings: No use of Y/N, no mentions of age. Nothing beyond canon, but if I have missed anything please let me know!
[Part 4 of 7]
Read previous parts -> Series Masterlist
A/N: A huge thank you to @thatfanficstuff for encouraging me to write this fic and beta reading.
Thank you all so much for reading the nonsense that comes out of my brain. I appreciate every like, reblog and comment.
After the shootout from an op gone wrong Charlie found himself at Gaffney Medical Center, checking up on a wounded suspect. He had officers stationed outside the door just in case. It was when he was speaking to an officer that he looked around the department and something, or rather someone, caught his attention.
Even though the department was busy, you seemed to be in your element. Holding a radio to your ear and then shouting out demands to those that needed to hear it.
Charlie was mesmerised.
As he looked at you his thoughts turned darker, he didn’t know anything about you, only that he had to know you. Wanted you, needed you and there was no reason for this instant need but something about you called out to him.
He watched you from the corner of the room. Taking you in, demanding attention while briefly listening to his officer. It shouldn’t have affected him, but it made him smile when he saw you look over toward him. You stood your ground and held eye contact and that only made him smirk in return. Something about that moment made you still for a minute and a look of confusion covered your face.
You didn’t know what it was, but noticing the dark gleam in his eyes, you felt something shift. It wasn’t until the corner of his mouth curved upwards that you felt something familiar. Hints of the devil hidden behind a handsome face. Everything about him felt like coming home, only there was something that you couldn’t quite touch. Something just out of reach.
It was brief but something was different and all Charlie knew was that he needed to know more.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
Charlie started making it a habit of walking past a particular coffee shop before going to the station. He learned about the grocery store that you usually went to on your days off and the call you made to your best friend weekly.
Eventually he learned most of your routines and decided that at some point he could bump into you accidentally.
The day finally came when Charlie first met you officially. You’d been busy catching up on housework after so many gruelling shifts at the hospital. The laundry had piled up, the refrigerator at this point was cooling nothing but empty space and you were yet to buy your best friend’s birthday present. After sorting out the mess that was your dirty clothes, you headed out to the grocery store.
You didn’t notice him at first, too engrossed in deciding whether to buy the fancy labelled wine or the cheaper version. With a cart full of foods that weren’t too perishable and some greenery, you were now standing in the aisle that held most people’s interests. Shrugging your shoulders you picked both.
Quickly turning to the cashier, you missed the solid form of a man standing behind you. You couldn’t hold in the gasp that came out as you took notice of how close he was. For a moment you weren’t sure you were breathing. You’d seen him before but not getting a name as you only saw each other across a busy Emergency Department.
You watched as a slow sly grin crept onto his face. Keeping eye contact, the crinkle at his eyes told you he found this amusing but you couldn't deny that you were completely enraptured by him.
“Hi, Beautiful, I’m Deputy Chief Charlie Reid.” The rasp in his voice sent shivers down your spine.
“Hi,” you managed to say breathily. He was handsome and his eyes had a hunger in them. But what really had your attention was his mouth. The slight uptick on one side and then came the biting of his bottom lip, you hadn’t seen anything so captivating.
“Maybe this is forward but have dinner with me.”
That was all it took. You could have said no, but you would have suffered worse walking away from a man like that. A man who had said a handful of words to you before asking you out to dinner and all you could think was yes.
Arriving home to address your chores, you put away the groceries and tried to find an outfit that would suit the occasion. With numbers already exchanged, you were excited and a little nervous. Of course the doubts started as he could be a serial killer or something nefarious, but then the fact that he was wearing a police vest when you first saw him you doubted as much. But you couldn’t ignore the fact that you wanted this just as much as him.
You made one concession when agreeing to the date and that was to meet at the restaurant. You had some self preservation to meet somewhere other than your apartment. Out in the open.
You were dubious with the arrangements as it looked to be a fancy place to eat, but Charlie met you outside and instantly had his arm around your waist as he led you inside. A table set for two in the corner of the room. It was private, romantic and basically every cheesy rom-com movie you could think of. But he didn’t disappoint.
The food was delicious. The atmosphere was perfect and the company was even better. You kept watching Charlie talk and your eyes never left his lips. He could be talking about a dull case but all you cared about was the moisture on his lips, the way his smile reached his eyes. He was confident, charismatic and, if you really paid attention, you could see something dark hiding behind his eyes.
What really solidified the beginning of something was when the date ended. Standing outside your apartment door hand in hand with a man you’d met hours before you found yourself gazing into his eyes. Charlie made the move first, just like he had earlier. His mouth was on yours, gentle at first but then it got deeper as you groaned against his mouth.
You were so lost to the moment. The taste of him, taste of a memory that was just out of reach, taste of a man you once belonged to, a man that showered you in kisses, that knew every inch of your body. It may not be the same person but everything about him called to you and as you melted into his embrace you let the feeling consume you.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
After you met Charlie things around you started to change. Colleagues and friends weren’t so open to the relationship, warning you of the kind of man that he was. When it was rumoured that he was working alongside those that he should be policing, people made their views known.
But you didn’t care.
You loved him, he was yours and every breath you took was for him. You would bleed for him, had bled for him. He was like a devil in disguise, but when he was with you, he was perfect.
You ignored the looks that you garnered when he stopped by the hospital. Because in their eyes even a good deed had to have an ulterior motive. Nothing Charlie did would be good enough, especially when it came to you. You don’t know how you received a reputation for being this innocent person, but it blinded people into thinking you were naïve and being manipulated.
You were far from the good girl that they had labelled you as.
They didn’t know that you were the one that had held a gun to a gang-banger’s head while you demanded the love of your life be freed.
They didn’t know that the burnt remains of an unidentified male were by the very hands that helped a young girl hours earlier.
They also didn’t know that the blood on his hands was on yours too, because as much as you wanted people to believe you were innocent, you were just as complicit with what he had done. He had no secrets, not from you.
He was hesitant at first to let the mask fall, to let you see the darkness that sat within him. Maybe it was fate that let him know that he could trust you, but he soon saw that behind your angelic demeanour that just maybe a ruthless demoness was hiding underneath,, ready to be set free.
But life with Charlie wasn’t easy, so there came a time when you decided it was best to leave it all behind, start fresh where no one knew you or Charlie, didn’t know the history.
Not wanting danger to follow, you planned meticulously. Money wasn’t something that worried you, because you could be a nurse anywhere. As long as Charlie was with you, you didn’t care where that ended up being.
There was one last thing to do and that was Rennie Otero. With the death of his father the kid was unstable and unreliable. Charlie didn’t want Voight’s team getting any closer than they were, having already cornered you, begging you to help them but you played the big watery eyes stating that you didn’t know anything.
It all came to a head when a preliminary meeting was called, which had Charlie in attendance. It was when he was outside the building that Rennie Otero pulled out a gun and fired two shots.
A body hit the floor and Charlie did his best to stop the bleeding, putting pressure on the wound while meeting Voight’s eyes, while the Otero boy was apprehended in the distance.
A cough reached his ears and Charlie held back a grin as he watched the light in Voight’s eyes dim. Shouts could be heard from the arrest.
“He killed my dad! The dirty piece of shit did it!” Charlie wanted to laugh, because he knew.
You’d done it.
With Intelligence already at risk of being disbanded, the final straw broke. You managed to get to Rennie Otero and wove seeds of doubt into his head. Making him believe that it was Voight’s call to have his father tortured and killed and anything that the team had on Charlie would look like they were trying to cover for Sgt. Voight.
That night when Charlie got back from the aftermath, he couldn’t hold in his glee when he strode through the house looking for you.
The house was immaculate and the only light that filled the room was a candle on the dining room table with dinner sitting ready to be eaten. As soon as you met his eyes you jumped into his arms and on instinct wrapped your legs and arms around him. The kiss was needy and messy but everything he wanted in that moment was being said. You did it. I love you. Thank you. Is this what forever looks like?
By your next shift, colleagues were looking at you with guilt. Guilt that they had believed a man that worked on the wrong side of the law and in doing so had scrutinised a man who was just trying to fix things. Well that’s what you wanted them to believe anyways.
| In Every Lifetime We Find Each Other |
Now that Intelligence was out of the way, everything eased slightly. Things at the hospital changed and Charlie was granted to work anywhere, especially after finding the corrupt officers working within the Chicago PD.
It was a normal day when you broached the topic to Charlie.
“We should move,” you said gently, your hands on his chest as you looked up into his beautiful hazel eyes.
“Where should we go?”
There was no question of why. He trusted you implicitly. He didn’t know why you wanted to move just that you should and that was enough for him. You were enough for him.
“Anywhere…I don’t care. Just away from here. Away from anyone who knows us.” You just wanted to be free. Free to love the man you did without history marring the relationship. Without pressure from others believing that Charlie had been a mistake, even if they thought otherwise now. It didn’t lessen how you felt for him, it just made you more tense, aware. That at any point people could turn on you.
You wanted a life with Charlie. You wanted to live without the reminders of what it took you both to get here.
“Okay beautiful, pick a place and I’ll ask around.” His use of beautiful made your face light up and he kissed your forehead before walking away.
Charlie was a cunning and manipulative man, but you saw through all of it. You were a perfect match for him. Never leaving his side. Not when you relocated to another city across the country and not even when Charlie decided to retire and live in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees and foliage. Even then you stayed by his side, because he was everything you wanted and you were all he desired.
His kisses still tasted the same, still brought that overwhelming feeling of a life once lived. Maybe one day you would tell him of it. But for now you breathed in the fresh air and got drunk on the man who said ‘I do’ before the question left the officiant's mouth.
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