----------------------------------------------------

You're Somebody Else by flora cash

------------------------------------------------------

"Tell me, Atlas. What is heavier: the world or its people's hearts?" 

- Darshana Suresh

Present day

Boston, Massachusetts

Asher

Out of all the shit-shows Leo has managed to drag me into, this had to be the worst fucking one.

Mason's little sister stood before me, an annoyingly friendly smile plastered on her face. After our last encounter – which hadn't been very pleasant, to say the least, I was hoping I wouldn't have to run into her again. The scene she caused a couple of weeks ago gave me hours of paperwork and a handful of tantrums from Dr. Anderson. Needless to say, I didn't end up going home early that night.

After a few more minutes of silence, she's the one to speak up first.

"So, how's your morning been?"

I didn't have time for this. Instead of answering her, I move down the stairs to exit the room. "What's your office number?"

"I – I, wait!" She rushes to pick up her purse from behind the podium, practically tripping over her feet in an attempt to catch up with me. "I can find my own way." 

"Office number." I don't spare her a glance as she walks beside me to the elevator. The sooner I drop her off at her office, the sooner I can get back to work, but she protests again.

"I insist. I can take care of myself."

Fed up, I turn, causing her to almost run into me. I glare down at the woman who insists on making my morning much more difficult than it needs to be. "Room. Number."

Realizing she won't win this argument, she finally relents. "Section three. Room eight hundred twenty-one."

I start towards the elevator again. If she's smart enough, she'll take my help and make this exchange easier for both of us. Apparently, she is because she follows me inside. We both take opposite corners of the box and neither of us bothers to spark up a conversation on the ride up. Not that I was complaining.

I lean back against the wall, feeling the start of a raging headache coming on. I knew I shouldn't have chased Leo down here. But if I was being honest, a part of me did want to see Aedrienn's presentation. Maybe it was curiosity, but I wanted to know more about her. How her life turned out after Mason's death. If she was anything like him. But other than answering that one doctor's question of whether she was related to him or not, she gave away nothing. Just the obvious, formal facts of where she studied and a few photos of her, Dr. Nova Perez, and a dog named Ace.

Those few minutes of knowledge hadn't been worth it. And here I was, playing fucking tour guide to someone who's already caused me more trouble than I'd bargained for.

Not soon enough, the doors open, and I walk up and down the hallway, checking each plaque for her room number.

"Can you slow down?" Aedrienn limps behind me, bending down to rub her ankle. "I know I make it look easy, but these heels aren't made for running."

I ignore her comment, checking the plaques again. "Something's not right. Are you sure your office is on this floor?"

"Positive." She hands me a paper, pointing at it. "See here. That's the room number Leo gave me."

I read it. "Dr. Renna, this says section two. Not three."

She blinks. "Your point?"

"Section two is on the other side of the building."

"You mean I have to walk all that again?" she exclaims.

I let out a shaky breath. Patience, Asher. Patience. "Just...follow me."

By the time we reach the correct floor, I've just about had enough. This is what I get for trying to do a good thing.

Finally, we stand outside the correct room.

"We're here," I say to her.

"Oh, thank God," she groans. "Any more and I think my foot would've gone numb. You walk fast by the way."

I step around her, meaning to walk away, but then she speaks up.

"That's it?"

I look back at her, eyebrows raised.

She motions at the door. "What? No special tour from my new boss? It only seems fitting, don't you think?"

You're fucking with me, right? By the awaiting look she gives me, it appears she isn't.

Tours are for people who can read. The comment threatens to spill out, but then Leo's earlier statement about me making friends rings in my mind, and I hold it in.

Gritting my teeth, I scan my badge on the card reader and open the door to let her in. "After you."

"Thank you." She steps inside, and I hear her gasp. Aedrienn looks around the room, eyes wide.

"Wow."

I smirk at her reaction. Despite the annoyance I still felt, I admired her ability to recognize style when she saw it.

She takes her time scanning every inch of her new office. "It's so...so..."

I adjust the cuffs of my suit, waiting for her to say amazing or impressive.

"Sad."

My arms fall, gaze snapping to her. "What?"

"Look at this place! Grey walls. Grey decorations. No personality whatsoever."

"I recruited the best architects and interior designers in all of Boston when we renovated the hospital last year. A lot of time – and money – went into building this office."

"Well can you get your money back?"

My mouth falls open.

"Kidding, kidding." She holds up a hand. "I love the modern, classic eight to five office look. So...chic. I'll just need to make a few changes."

"Excuse me?"

She walks around the room, heels clicking with each step. "I'll have to change the color palette first. Something subtle but nice. Oh! Some neutral tones with a couple of browns would be perfect!"

"You can't do that - "

"I'll also need some throw pillows to offset the bleakness of that couch. Honestly, what were your interior designers thinking?"

"Enough. You're not moving anything." First, she takes over the OR like she owned the place, and now she wants to remodel it?

"Okay..." Aedrienn trails off. "Well, who should I talk to about it?"

"No one. You're not allowed to change anything."

"Really?" Up until now, Aedrienn has kept a friendly stance, but I notice the bite in her tone now. The defiance in the way she stands. "I'm not allowed to remodel anything in my office? In the office I was given? In the office I'm going to spend almost all my time me in?"

"That's right."

"And who came up with this absurd rule?"

I feel my smirk return, the first glimmer of amusement I've had this whole entire morning. "I did."

Like that she remembers who I am, and I see her shoulders sag the slightest fraction. Defeated.

She looks at me for the longest moment, then sighs. "Dr. Gabriel, I'm starting to think this is more about me than the office itself."

I let out a hoarse laugh. "I hate to break it to you Dr. Renna, but not everything's about you."

Her cheeks flush red. "That's not what I meant. I just...here. I have something for you." She rummages through her purse, handing me two magazines, and I nearly drop them when I see the covers on them. "I hadn't realized you and my brother were so close."

I gently turn them over, the faces of my deceased parents and friend staring back at me. "Where did you get these?"

"I found them in my home and thought you might like to have them."

She thought of me? Something warm pools in my stomach at the idea, but I choose to ignore it. "Why?"

"Because I didn't realize how hard his death must have been on you. And I think I understand now why you may not be very fond of me." Her expression turns somber. Sad. "For the longest time, I couldn't look myself in the mirror for how much I saw Mason there. And I'm sure me being here, sharing his position, his title, hasn't been very pleasant on you or anyone else who knew him."

She shifts on her feet. "I'm not my brother, but I don't need to be. I know what I can bring to this hospital and this program. That's why Leo hired me. And if it's alright with you, I'd like for us to start over."

It was overbearing. Everything. These images. Her sudden kindness.

Her.

I try to return the magazines. "Just do your job, Dr. Renna and we won't have any more problems." I needed to get out of here.

My words do the job. Hurt flashes in her stare, but she doesn't accept the contents in my hand. "I told you – these are for you."

I take them back because it's easier than fighting with her about it. "Have a nice day."

The door clicks shut behind me.

------------------------

Aedrienn

"My morning was fantastic, Dr. Gabriel. Thank you for asking." I mutter, staring at the door my new boss practically sprinted out of. "No, Dr. Gabriel. You're not being a complete and total ass. Who told you that?"

I throw myself onto the rolling chair, huffing out a breath towards the ceiling. Leo's small pep talk gave me enough courage to go onto the stage and give my presentation, but that confidence was immediately stripped away the second Dr. Gabriel stepped into the auditorium.

It was interesting how I felt him before I saw him. And it hadn't just been his physical appearance that made both men and women turn towards him as he had walked to the stage. Not his Italian, onyx black suit nor six-foot-five frame. It was how he drained the light from the room. The way he commanded the crowd because he knew he could do it. His stare burned the side of my skull the whole entire time I was talking. Scrutinizing me as if he was waiting for me to screw something up or set the building on fire.

It annoyed the absolute hell out of me.

Dr. Gabriel hadn't flat out rejected my gesture, but the message was clear: he didn't trust me. Didn't want anything I had to offer him or his hospital. I wanted to be angry at him for it, but what I said was true - I did understand. Or at least I tried to.

From my time in med school and my psych rotation, I learned that the process of grief was different for each person. For me, it had shaped and warped me into someone I didn't recognize. I was always so sad and afraid. Some days I still felt like this. But I wasn't that person anymore.

Maybe Dr. Gabriel was in the same state I used to be in. Maybe he wasn't. But that wouldn't stop me from making the best of this situation. Whether he liked it or not, I was here to stay, but I would rather work alongside him than against him.

"Knock, knock."

I lift my head as Nova comes strutting in, curly hair pulled up in a long ponytail and her favorite scrubs on. She takes a seat on the couch and rests her feet up on the coffee table that was in the middle of the room.

"Before you ask me how I got in, I had Thomas from security make me a key card to your office. He's been obsessed with me for months. Didn't take long before he caved."

I arch my eyebrow. "And he just gave you one? Just like that? That's very concerning." 

Nova grins, her red-painted lips an invite for trouble. "Men in love will do anything. All it takes is one pretty smile and they're all yours."

"So, you used this man's feelings to your advantage?"

"Hey," she points a finger at me, "a girl's got to use every weapon in her arsenal."

I laugh as the image of a flirting Nova and a poor security guard with a hazy look on his face comes to mind. "True that." I start messing with the very bland office supplies on my desk, adjusting them. "How was your consult?"

Nova immediately brightens when I mention this. "Amazing. After eight long months of inpatient therapy, I was finally able to release eighteen-year-old-Lauren. She's now back home with her family. Happy and healthy; ready to start college."

"It's the whole reason why we do it," I say. "I'm proud of her and you." And I really was. Originally, Nova had also wanted to specialize in surgery, but along the way, she steered towards young adult psychiatry. There were some students – and doctors - in med school who belittled her for it. Told her she was throwing away her gift of surgery for a much lesser career. But Nova being who she is didn't care. She understood there were people out there who hurt from a deeper wound rather than one that was physical. I think that's also why Nova joked around a lot. Why she didn't take things too seriously. Every day, Nova had a new case. A new teenager who struggled with an eating disorder, anxiety, PTSD, depression, and every other mental illness out there. Every day she went in and spoke to each one of them, listened to each heartbreaking story – and every day she came home, praying and begging that she made the right decision. Or wrote the right prescription or decided on the right type of treatment.

She needed those sunny days, those light-hearted moments when life didn't seem so scary. Nova was tough; such resilience in that woman. But she hurt more than she let on.

"I'm proud of her too. She wants to major in interior design. Maybe she'll give you a few tips on how to decorate this place. Because really, Aedrienn," she gets up, takes the bleak curtains between her thumb and forefinger as if it was covered in filth, "this is just awful."

I smack her hand away. "You can thank Dr. Gabriel. I swear I think he gave me this room out of spite."

"It surely can't be that bad."

I give her a deadpan look. "He looks at me like I'm the dirt on the bottom of his designer shoes."

"At least he looks at you. Some of us aren't even worthy of a glare."

Normally I would've laughed at Nova's joke, instead, my mind was reeling with possible explanations.

"How do you work with him? How does the staff even approach Dr. Gabriel if he acts like this all the time?"

"I told you," Nova says, "we don't interact with him. Everything goes through Leo. That's how it's been since he took over."

"I just find it hard to believe that he's a stranger to those who work for him. Santiago adored Mason and took care of his hospitals. Why would he entrust his son with his company if he knew he wasn't going to do the same?"

Nova contemplates this for a long second. Suddenly, she seems uncomfortable, as if there was something she didn't want to tell me.

"Nova? What happened?"

Nova turns back to the curtains, giving her hands something to play with as she speaks. "There were just so rumors. I don't know how true they are, but the hospital is under serious scrutiny right now."

"For what?"

"A couple of months before he died, Dr. Gabriel's father was under speculation for foul play for some kind of kidney research treatment he was funding."

"How could there have been foul play when he was the one donating all the money?" This was one of the reasons why Eliseo Enterprise hospitals were always at the top. The research projects our doctors did were ground-breaking.

"That's the thing. Someone found out the money wasn't going to the program and reported it to the police. The program didn't even exist. The authorities had him under investigation for weeks. Apparently, they found some suspicious messages that showed he was partaking in the illegal distribution of opioids to underground groups."

I stilled. "What?"

Nova mirrored my stricken expression. "I couldn't believe it either. While you were in Texas, everyone here was worried they were going to lose their jobs because the national board of physicians threatened to shut down the hospital."

So that's why my interview process also took so long. Leo wasn't even sure he was going to have a job to give me. But it still didn't make sense. From what I've seen, the hospital looked like it was thriving, and I haven't heard anything about this in the news or media.

"What stopped them from shutting it down then? Why is no one talking about this?"

"Oh, they were. But Dr. Gabriel did a good job of calming down the press and the medical board once he was instated as CEO. The image and integrity of the hospital took a hard hit, though. Much of our sponsors stopped working with us – some doctors even left. Not just in here in Boston, but all over the country. He's been working like hell to fix our reputation ever since."

It takes me a second to soak everything in, then just like that, I have my answer: not only was Dr. Gabriel dealing with the death of his father, but he was also dealing with these accusations and the loss of his staff. No wonder he'd looked so exhausted.

"Is there anything I can do?"

Nova lets the curtain fall and presses her lips into a grim line. "The only advice I can offer you is to stay out of his way, Aedrienn. Besides Leo, he doesn't trust anyone else.

I look out the window as Nova says this, and I catch sight of a man playing with a little boy – most likely his son. They laugh together until the boy trips, but before he can let out a cry, the man is already there. Holding and cradling him to his chest. The sight sends a burst of warmth through me.

"Maybe he just needs a little bit of help," I respond. "My brother loved this hospital for a reason. I want to offer my assistance wherever and however I can."

But Nova's gaze remains wary. "If you say so. I still don't think it's a good idea."

"You're overreacting," I say, sitting down at my brand-new desk. "I mean, what's the worst that can happen? We become friends?"