˖ ࣪ . ࿐💉୨ৎ THE CURE . . . 𝐌.𝐒 <𝟑 .ᐟ
𓂅 synopsis . . . years after meeting in medical school, falling in love, and building careers together as doctors, you and matt are forced to learn how to exist as nothing more than professional co-workers who are following a quiet, but also mutual breakup. however, when you get a new boyfriend a while later, matt tells himself he’s happy for you, while concealing his struggle to bury his memory of loving you.
𓂅 contains . . . unresolved angst, heavy grief over a past relationship, implied depression/loneliness, right person wrong time trope, co-workers to lovers trope, light arguing, crying, yearning, emotional burnout, a slight plot twist at the end? some flashbacks, pet name use, but literally no happy ending lol
𓂅 written by @delilahsturniolo. do not copy, steal, or modify my works. if you are taking any inspiration from this, please ask me first before posting and credit me in your description. happy reading! :)
this is sorta proofread but not really cause i got a bit lazy so im sorry if theres some spelling or grammar mistakes :<
❝WHY CAN’T YOU COME STITCH ME UP?❞ 🫀
the fluorescent lights in the emergency room never seemed to dim. even at 8:30 in the night, the hospital was still alive and buzzing as monitors beeped steadily behind closed curtains. stretchers rolled down the polished hallways, overhead announcements echoed through the speakers every few minutes, pulling doctors and nurses in every direction at once. it was chaos, but it was the kind both you and matt had grown used to years ago.
“get another x-ray in thirty,” you said, flipping through a patient’s chart before handing it back to a nurse with a grateful smile. “thank you.” she kindly answered.
you barely had time to take two steps before another staff member caught your attention. “excuse me, doctor?” you turned around at the voice.
“room eighteen’s ct came back.” they informed you.
“i’m on my way.” you replied kindly. the busy environment around youbwas complete havoc. but it was also normal, completely normal for a workplace like this.
you rounded the corner toward radiology when another familiar figure stepped out of a patient’s room, pulling a stethoscope from around his neck.
matt. a face you recognized all too well. he looked just as exhausted as you felt, his brunette hair was slightly disheveled, sleeves rolled to his forearms, hospital badge clipped very crookedly onto his scrub top.
he glanced up from the chart in his hands. “…hey.”
“hey.” the corner of your mouth turned up slightly at the sound of his voice. you still found it comforting, it brought you a sense of warmth and relief no one else could bring you.
the exchange was automatic, comfortable, and professional like it usually had been for a while now. “how’s room twelve?” you asked him casually.
he sighed. “better than they were three hours ago.”
“that’s something.” you replied.
“yeah.” he scratched the back of his head. the conversation could’ve ended there, like most of them did these days. but, you stopped yourself before fully walking away.
“actually…” you turned back around to face him again. “are you doing anything friday night?”
he looked back up, there was the smallest pause that followed. “well, that depends.”
you smiled. “it’s my birthday.”
his expression softened almost immediately. obviously, he knew that. he could never ever even imagine himself forgetting it. “happy early birthday.” matt spoke softly.
“thanks.” you shifted the charts against your hip. “a few people from the hospital are getting dinner after the evening shift, like a little celebration…you should come, it’ll be fun.”
for a second he simply just looked at you, not searching for hidden meaning, just…surprised you’d even asked him, or wanted him to be there. “yeah.” he nodded once. “i’d like that.”
“perfect, the reservation is at 7:30, don’t be late!” you chirped out.
one corner of his mouth lifted. “i’m never late.”
you gave him a look. “…you once showed up forty minutes late to class.”
“that was years ago, and only one time!” he laughed, it slipped out of his mouth so effortlessly, it felt like a breath of fresh air.
“you literally forgot we had an exam, matt.” you raised your eyebrows at him tauntingly.
matt began to speak, “in my defense—”
“don’t.” you laughed, the sound seemed to catch both of you off guard, because for the briefest moment…it felt familiar, natural.
then another overhead alert shattered the moment. “dr. sturniolo to icu.” matt glanced toward the elevators. “welp, that’s me.”
“see you friday.” you cleared your throat awkwardly, the tension was so thick you could slice it with a knife.
“see you.” matt took one last glance at you before walking off. you watched him disappear down the hallway before turning back toward your own patient. however, neither of you noticed the nurse at the station smiling to herself. she’d worked there long enough to remember when the two of you practically lived in these hallways together.
A FEW YEARS AGO . . .
the ER had looked exactly the same, except you were both younger, residents fresh out of med school, running almost entirely on caffeine.
“you absolutely did not, matt!” your voice beamed
“I DID!!” he laughed, nudging your shoulders.
you were laughing so hard you nearly dropped the stack of patient charts in your arms. matt was beside you, carrying two coffees. “the head doctor literally asked who forgot to order the chest x-ray.” he exclaimed, tone cheery.
“because it was you who forgot!” you laughed again as he dramatically pretended to look offended by what you said, the sound of your laughter mixing with his echoed through the hallway.
a nurse passing by smiled. “you two are entirely too cheerful for people who’ve been working for over twenty hours now.”
“it’s sleep deprivation,” matt answered immediately.
“we’ve lost all sense of reality.” your response immediately followed after his. “he tried prescribing tylenol to himself before he’d even had coffee this morning,” you added.
matt gasped dramatically. “that information was confidential!”
you bumped your shoulder into his. “confidentiality doesn’t apply to your embarrassing moments.”
“i’m reporting you for bullying.” he joked, you rolled your eyes.
he handed you one of the coffees. as you took it, your fingers brushed his. it was warm, familiar. without thinking, you smiled, and he smiled right back, effortless, like it was the easiest thing in the world. because during that time, it was.
PRESENT TIME.
your pager buzzed sharply against your hip, the memory disappeared as quickly as it had come. you blinked, and just like that you were back in the hallway, back to years later, where the only thing you and matt shared anymore were patient updates, consults, and polite conversations between shifts.
A FEW DAYS LATER . . .
friday, or—your birthday, came faster than either of you expected. the restaurant is loud in the comfortable kind of way, silverware clinks against plates. someone at another table laughs too hard at a joke. candles flicker inside little glass holders, reflecting against the windows that overlook the city. it’s one of the few nights most of your friends from work have somehow managed to get the same evening off after a shift, and gather together.
you smooth down your sparkly, and elgegant dress as you stand near the front with your boyfriend, waiting for everyone else to arrive. “you nervous?” he asks, lacing his fingers through yours.
“a little.” you smile awkwardly.
“what? because i’m meeting everyone?”
“yep.”
he laughs. “i’ll survive.” before you can answer, the restaurant door opens.
matt walks in, he still carries himself exactly the same. his hands are tucked into the pockets of his coat. his eyes slightly tired from another twelve-hour shift, and his hair a little messy from the wind. he spots the group first, and then he spots you. he smiles politely, “happy birthday.”
“thanks for coming.” your eyes lock with him. he steps closer, except his eyes drift naturally to your hand that’s intertwined with someone else’s. just for a second, it’s almost impossible to notice, but his smile never drops.
you suddenly realize. “right—” your stomach twists. “um, matt…this is ethan, my boyfriend.”
your boyfriend smiles immediately. “i’ve heard a lot about you.”
matt looks at him, then back at you, and then offers his hand.“nice to meet you.”
ethan shakes it. “same here.”
if anyone were watching from another table, they’d never guess you and matt had once shared a tiny apartment during med school, or survived thirty-hour rotations together, or fallen asleep over textbooks on the same couch, or how many times he’s carried you from your desk to your bed when you fell asleep studying, cuddling you shortly after, or how you planned a future together. they would never know the history between you two that was now tucked away completely, as if there had never been anything there in the first place.
“come on,” someone calls from the table.
“birthday girl’s here!”
everyone starts stitting down, you end up across from matt with ethan right beside you. someone orders appetizers, someone starts telling an embarrassing story, everyone laughs, and matt laughs too.
matt asks ethan questions, like where he works, and how long you two have been together. he’s polite, he nods at every answer, he even smiles at ethan before speaking again, “take care of her.” it’s said lightly, almost jokingly.
ethan just grins. “that’s the plan.”
matt nods once. “good.” you catch his eyes for just a second. there’s warmth inside of it, laced with kindness, nothing bitter, not at all, because that’s not the kind of person matt is.
the cake arrives eventually, its your favorite kind. everyone sings, of course, you’re embarrassed and shy, blushing the entire time as ethan kisses your temple while everyone cheers dramatically.
someone whistles, someone pretends to gag, you laugh so hard you nearly knock over your water. across the table—matt smiles, a real one. you’re happy, you’re laughing, and despite everything…he still likes seeing that, it means everything to him even all these years later.
later, everyone starts splitting the bill, and hugging goodbye, and also making plans that everyone knows will probably get canceled because hospital schedules are impossible.
you go up and hug matt, it’s brief and friendly. “thanks again for coming.”
“wouldn’t ever miss your birthday.” he replies politely.
the conversation ends just as quickly as it had started with a simple, “drive safe,” and “you too,” in response. you smile, ethan wraps an arm around your shoulders as the two of you walk toward his car, you don’t look back.
matt watches you leave, and for a second, he remembers another night. with a different parking lot, a different version of you, when you two were dating.
FLASHBACK . . .
you were both so exhausted, still wearing your scrubs after a sixteen-hour day. you had been complaining about how your feet hurt while he carried your coffee for you, insisting that you were incapable of walking and drinking at the same time.
“you’re so dramatic,” he teased.
you rolled your eyes. “i just spent twelve hours saving lives, matt.”
“you also almost walked into a door because you were staring at your notes.” matt tilted his head at you playfully.
“that is unrelated!” he laughed at your response, and you smiled despite yourself, he gently leaned in to kiss you, you both closed your eyes, feeling the tension of your work day release as you just melted into each other. after matt pulled away, you both stood there under the parking lot lights, too happy to care about anything else but the two of you.
back then, the future felt so easy to tthink about, you talked about residency programs, apartments, maybe getting a dog someday. maybe a house. maybe even a family. everything was a “when,” and never an “if,” scenario.
matt remembers looking at you that night and thinking that somehow, after everything you had survived together, the hardest part was over. he didn’t know then that the hardest part would be learning how to live without you by his side.
PRESENT TIME . . .
matt snapped back into reality immediately as he waits, he always waits until everyone else leaves, it’s just a habit of his. he unlocks his car and slides into the driver’s seat before shutting the car door, the silence of the night suddenly feeling louder than ever.
for a while, he just sits there. the dashboard glows softly, the light reflecting on his face, extenuating his features. his phone buzzes suddenly, interrupting the silence, its just another one of his co-workers in the emergency department asking about tomorrow’s rounds. he ignores it.
instead…his eyes drift toward the empty passenger seat that you used to sit in, he remembers your birthday years ago, in med school, when you two were inseparable.
you’d insisted instant ramen counted as a birthday dinner because neither of you could afford anything else, you wore one of his hoodies because your apartment’s heating system was broken. he’d stolen a cupcake from the student lounge, you’d jokingly called him a criminal. he’d told you, “for you? absolutely.” you’d laughed so hard that day you’d cried.
he remembers thinking—one day, i’m going to marry her.
his chest tightens at the memory. slowly…he reaches toward the center console and opens the small compartment, inside there’s an old velvet box. he already knows it’s there, because it’s always been there. his fingers hesitate before picking it up, the box is worn now, the corners softened with time and heartbreak.
he flips it open, and a beautiful diamond ring catches the dim light from the parking lot, it was simple yet so elegant. it was exactly what you’d once pointed out in a jewelry store window years ago. ethan would never know that, he wouldn’t know as much about you as matt does.
“ehhhh….nothing huge,” you’d said that day. “i’d rather it looked like something i’d actually wear every day, simple but still pretty, y’know?”
he’d remembered, every single detail. he’d bought it three months before everything fell apart, three months before the conversations became shorter, before work consumed both of you, before exhaustion took over, before neither of you knew how to ask for what you needed anymore, before the breakup that hadn’t involved screaming, or cheating, or any sort of betrayal.
just two people who loved each other, and somehow still couldn’t make it work no matter how much you wanted it to. matt suddenly remembers the night it all ended between you guys, the worst part of it wasn’t even the words said itself, it was that it didn’t even involve screaming or yelling…it was just so full of bottled up hurt that had erupted that very night.
matt remembers that you were sitting on the kitchen floor of your guys’s apartment, still wearing your hospital badge because neither of you had even bothered changing after your shifts, there were two untouched cups of coffee on the counter, you had been waiting for him to come home.
“i don’t know how to keep doing this,” you had whispered.
matt just looked at you, exhausted. it was all he had the energy to do at that point. “doing what?”
“feeling like i’m alone while i’m with you.” the words had left your mouth before you could even think about them.
but he knew you meant them, and you knew he didn’t mean to make you feel that way. “baby, i’m trying,” he’d said quietly.
“i know you are, and i appreciate that more than ever.” you’d looked down. “but that’s the problem. i know you’re trying. i’m trying too. and somehow we’re still managing to hurt each other. i barely even see you anymore, matt. and when i do…we just argue.”
he sat beside you, but neither of you reached for the other, and for the first time in years, being close didn’t feel like enough. “do you still love me?” he asked, his voice shaking.
you’d cried before you answered, because the answer was obvious. “yes, i never stopped. i couldn’t ever stop loving you.”
his eyes closed. “i love you too, so damn much it hurts.” his voice wavered as he spoke. that specifically was what made things so difficult, the fact that neither of you stopped loving each other, you just stopped knowing how to be happy together.
you never even knew he was going to propose, that there had been a reservation at your favorite restaurant, that he’d even asked your parents for permission, that he’d spent weeks carrying this ring around because he couldn’t wait for the right moment. but there just…hadn’t been one. before he could even get on one knee, and devote his life long love to you, everything just fell apart. it never happened, the future you had planned out. he bought the ring when an anticipated forever with the woman he loved most still felt like something you both had time to reach. what he hadn’t expected, was that time would run out before he even knew it.
matt’s thumb brushes over the diamond. outside, he sees you through the windshield, ethan opens the passenger door for you, and you smile at him, you laugh about something, and then the car pulls away, its taillights disappear into traffic. matt watches until he can’t anymore. only then does the first tear fall from his eyes. he laughs once, quietly, not filled with any sort of amusement, however.
“good,” he whispers imperceptibly. “i’m glad you’re happy.” his voice breaks on the last word, he closes the ring box carefully and places it back into the compartment. not completely because he’s waiting, or that he thinks someday you’ll come back to him like he wishes you would, but because after all these years he still hasn’t figured out how to let go of the future he’d once carried in a little box. maybe he won’t ever be the cure to making you happy. and if he can’t be, at least someone else can be that person for you.
that alone, is more than enough for him.
©𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐋𝐀𝐇𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐎𝐋𝐎
