A Kiss on the Hand (Part 1️⃣)
Book: Open Heart Pairing: Dr. Ethan Ramsey x F!MC (Dr. Sawyer Brooks) Rating: General Warning: None Category: Hurt/Comfort; Angsty Fluff Word count: 1.2K Series Summary: After realizing just how much they mean to each other, Ethan and Sawyer express their love through a sweet hand gesture. A/N: Artwork by the incredible @/artbyainna on Instagram. This is a three-part series. Part one is a rewrite of Book 2 Chapter 11 and was inspired by In Case You Didn't Know by Brett Young.
Part One: Soulmates
With his arms encircled around her, Ethan held Sawyer as close as the plastic between them would allow. He felt the pressure of her fingers gripping his, and the press of her lips as she placed a prolonged kiss on the top of his gloved hand. The simple gesture conveying so many words still left unsaid.
With their eyes locked, he wondered if Sawyer noticed what must surely be red, watery eyes staring back at her from inside the plastic helmet. If she had, she didn’t say anything before her eyelids grew heavy and she fell asleep.
He knew she needed the rest, but as Sawyer slept like the dead, Ethan worried she was halfway there. The wavy lines and flashing numbers on the patient monitor foretold a grim story.
Updates from the lab had been few and far between, and Ethan knew the saying “no news is good news” did not apply in this situation. Instead, every hour that went by without an update felt like another nail in the coffin.
Carefully disentangling himself from her limbs, he eased off the bed and tucked the blankets around Sawyer’s feverish body. He placed an oxygen mask over her face, then sat in the chair next to her bed. His thoughts drifted all over the place as he watched the mask fog and defog with each labored breath.
At one point, he wondered whether he was being selfish by choosing to spend these precious and possibly final moments with her. Moments that should be spent with her family, her closest friends. As he sat there pondering his place in her life and how she would introduce him to a stranger, he came to a realization. None of that mattered because Sawyer was his best friend.
She was someone he trusted with his secrets, someone who was always honest with him, someone he could be himself around. Not since Tobias had he been comfortable to laugh and joke and tease. Sawyer had a way of making his burdens feel lighter. Even if he could ignore the romantic feelings, she would always be more than just a mentee, colleague, or teammate.
They had an undeniable connection to one another. Being in the same room as Sawyer felt like home. She was the sweet to his salty. She challenged him, not just in medicine, but in life. In love. Against all odds, she continued to fight for him. For them.
He hadn't believed in soulmates before, but then again he'd never felt like this before. Maybe she was his soulmate, he thought. Because if he knew anything to be true at that moment, it’s that if Sawyer lost this battle, a part of him would die too. And if there was a chance that it would give her the motivation to keep fighting, he was willing to overcome his fear and admit everything.
Resolved to do just that, Ethan stood and took a seat on the edge of the bed. Taking her limp hand into his, he swallowed his nerves and began to speak.
“Sawyer, I … I told you earlier that I regret keeping us apart … but there’s more.”
He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “There’s more that I’ve been keeping under lock and key.”
“I … I have wanted to say what was on my mind so many times … but I’ve been too scared. Scared that you don’t feel the same. Scared that you do. And I fear if I say it now that it will sound like goodbye … and I …”
Mouthing the words “I can’t,” Ethan hung his head and choked back a sob.
Steeling himself, he began again. “Rookie, I need for you to know … just in case you don’t … I'm … I’m crazy about you. You. Drive. Me. Crazy,” he punctuated every word.
“It’s true, you are a colossal pain in the ass … but I confess … I secretly enjoy it,” he tittered, recalling some of his favorite memories. “Very few people challenge me the way you do.”
Ethan noticed how her eyes moved slowly behind her closed eyelids. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing right now. I can see those wheels turning in that head of yours. You’re already plotting ways to get under my skin,” he squeezed her hand with a smile.
After watching her chest rise and fall for a couple minutes, Ethan inched up the bed and placed her hand over his heart, holding it there with both of his.
Clearing his throat, “You … you’ve had my heart for quite some time now. I’ve tried to pinpoint when exactly you captured it, and I’m not sure. I knew you were someone special after that night in the NICU … and then something changed in Miami,” Ethan dragged his fingers up and down her arm.
With an amused chuckle, he continued. “I have to confess. My first response to the hotel's mistake with the room reservation was not anger or frustration. Believe it or not, I actually thought to myself, 'That was lucky.'”
“Then when I saw you in that dress-,” he tucked a stray hair behind her ear, “I didn’t think it was possible for you to be any more beautiful. You literally took my breath away and rendered me speechless.” Ethan briefly closed his eyes, recalling the memory.
Shaking his head in disbelief, “God, I was a fool that night. A fool for pushing you away, and an even bigger fool for thinking I could ever resist you. I don’t think you’ll ever understand how that first kiss did me in, Sawyer.”
Ethan delicately lowered her hand and checked the flashing monitor. Her blood pressure and heart rate had dropped to dangerously low levels.
His plastic suit crackled as he leaned over her body. Hovering over her face, he whispered a final plea.
“I need you to fight, baby,” he uncharacteristically begged. Sniffing back tears, “I need you. I won’t be able to handle it if you leave me.”
“I’m sorry I wasted so much time,” he apologized again. “If you come back to me, Sawyer, I belong to you. You’ll have all of me.”
Ethan gently lifted the oxygen mask from her face and touched two fingers against her lips. A loving “kiss” right before he whispered, “I love you, Rookie.”
<><><><><><><><><><>
Twenty-four hours after the antidote had been administered, Ethan rushed to Sawyer’s room with the good news. He was almost knocked off his feet, though he was unsure if it was from Sawyer crashing into him, or from the immense wave of relief that washed over him.
Ethan held her close, running his hand up and down her back. With the need to feel her skin under his fingertips, his hand slipped between the ties of her hospital gown. His warm palm melted against her bare back.
Sawyer wrapped her arms around Ethan’s neck, and standing on her tiptoes, she pulled him down just enough to rest her cheek against his. Her body shook with a quiet sob.
With his lips at her ear, his heart raced, those three little words teetering on the tip of his tongue.
Losing his nerve, he choked them back along with his tears, only letting a single teardrop escape.
As they slowly pulled apart, he took her hand in his and brought it to his mouth. Just as she had the day before, he kissed the top of it. Slowly, three times. One kiss for each word trapped behind his lips.
A/N2: Parts two and three get a little bumpy.
Part Two: Always Three Times
Part Three: I Know What You Mean
Tag List: @choicesficwriterscreations @openheartfanfics @potionsprefect @jamespotterthefirst @annfg8 @peonierose @socalwriterbee @tessa-liam @jerzwriter @quixoticdreamer16 @mysticalgalaxysstuff @inlocusmads @txemrn @trappedinfanfiction @mvalentine @takemyopenheart @openheartforeverinmyheart @doriopenheart @coffeeheartaddict2 @genevievemd @starrystarrytrouble @hopelessromantic1352 @kyra75 @lsvdw-blog @rookiemartin @headoverheelsforramsey
