Just a few hours before Carly had called Lee to pass on what Phil had told her, Doctor Dawson was sitting across from Doctor Hunter, being stared at like he'd just committed a crime.

"What are you doing here Doctor Dawson?" Jack asked, not even making eye contact with the drink that Lee had bought for him.

"It's a public . . . pub" Lee joked, although Jack's complete non-reaction made it look like anything but.

"You could sit anywhere else. I wouldn't mind"

"Look Jack, I'm not going anywhere. You're just going to have to get used to my company" Lee tried his best to recreate something that Carly would have said to him years ago.

"I hope you like silence then" Jack shrugged, finally grabbing a hold of his new drink and taking a giant swig out of the bottle.

"I love silence" Lee laughed to himself, since Jack wasn't going to.

And in silence they did sit, for almost half an hour before Jack finally got up and left, only to return moments later with two more drinks.

"This doesn't mean anything" He said curtly to Lee as he slid the bottle over to him.

"Thanks" Lee said anyway. "Is your hotel close by?" He asked.

"Not really. I just wanted to get a little further afield today. It was starting to feel like a prison. Not to mention the extortionate prices in the hotel bar" Jack answered, keeping his dull tone as if trying to exaggerate how uninterested he was in conversing with anyone. But Lee guessed that he was secretly happy to finally have a conversation about something other than work. Or how much of a dick he was being.

"I thought that money wouldn't matter to someone as flush as you?"

"I'm rich Lee, not stupid" Jack joked, but only laughed after he saw Lee laughing. "So what are you doing here? I thought you had friends?"

Lee didn't want to tell Jack that he'd been out with every single one of his male colleagues except for him so he went for a different, and probably more productive, answer.

"I needed some space too. I like the idea of being home alone but the reality is a little . . ."

"Shit?" Suggested Jack.

"Yeah. Shit" Lee laughed in agreement. "How long have you been here? I didn't see you for a start?"

"I'm pretty good at keeping out of sight"

"But why?"

"Why do you think? I'm not exactly a social guy am I?" Jack snorted.

"Neither am I. So here we are" Lee stated.

"What are you getting at Doctor Dawson?" Jack asked, seeing straight through Lee's attempts at small talk.

"What happened to you?" Lee cried, more than happy to get straight to the point.

"Nothing happened to me. What are you talking about?" Jack turned away as he snapped back.

"I know it did. Because you're just like me. The way I used to be" Lee told him sympathetically. "I didn't want to talk to anybody or tell anyone anything about my life but all that did was make me even more depressed. All I really needed was for someone to give me a chance. Just let me in. Even the slightest friend can help"

"I'm beyond help"

"That's what I said too. But then Carly did for me exactly what I'm about to do for you"

"Piss me off?"

"That" Lee confirmed before adding "And listen"

"Do you really want to know, Doctor Dawson, why I've given up on "letting people in"?" Jack growled.

Lee would not be deterred. "Yes".

"Because people let you down. The world let's you down"

"You're going to have to be more specific than that"

"You're not going to like my story" Jack warned.

"Try me" Lee replied defiantly.

Jack stared at him once more, waiting for his resolve to waiver but the moment never came.

"Fine. But I need another drink first" Jack sighed.

*

After Lee returned with another round, Jack began his story.

Or at least he tried to.

Just as he was about to commence, two young women, probably twenty-five at the oldest, appeared at their table, looking as if they'd been standing there the whole time. Lee didn't know where they'd come from, and judging by his glare, Jack didn't either.

"Hey guys!" One of the girls said in a flirtatious voice. "How are you two doing?"

It had been a while since a woman had hit on Lee. Most of the time, he was out with Carly so women didn't tend to approach him. But he knew in his heart that he was still sexy. Some things never faded away. However, he couldn't work out why one of the girls was staring at Jack like a dog stares at a bone. Pure lust.

He'd heard of girls liking older men but this was a bit extreme. He looked every bit of his however many years (Lee didn't actually know how old he was). His hair was receding for god's sake! Or maybe she'd just heard him saying that he was rich. As much as Lee disliked Hunter, he did dress like a man who could afford everything.

Regardless of the reasons, the girls' sultry smiles were slowly turning into frowns as they tried to decode the piercing stare that Jack was handing them. He hadn't even breathed, never mind answered them. Finally Lee answered for them, being unable to take the awkward silence any longer.

"We're good, ladies. How about yourselves?"

Lee's response was clearly the wrong one, as the girls pouted and stormed off as if they were the ones that had been harassed.

"Anyway" Jack said, relaxing his face a little before looking up at Lee pleadingly. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"Positive"

Jack sighed but finally started.

"It all started some years ago, ten or twelve, when I was a young doctor. Not long out of medical school. I met this girl, Natalie" Jack smiled at the mention of her name. "She was an incredible woman. She was beautiful, smart, funny and always so passionate, about everything. Every activity or every conversation was always amazing, even if you weren't interested in what was going on . . . she made you interested. She had one of those smiles and one of those voices that whenever you saw or heard it you were instantly drawn to her. I don't know if you realised this, but I do love to brag" Jack laughed.

"Oh I've noticed" Lee chuckled.

"Well it felt great having men staring at me with jealousy in their eyes because they knew . . . that I was with her"

"So what happened?" Lee asked, assuming the story would take a sinister turn now.

"We went out for a few years and were soon married, like you and the nurse" Jack surprised him with his quick response. "With my work obviously, and hers we had plenty of money. She was an analyst for a software company. We had a beautiful house in the country and were planning for the future. We figured that we had all the time in the world so we decided to live in the moment. To do the things that we wouldn't be able to do when we were older or we had kids. So we were always busy at work but constantly found time for fancy restaurants and nice sunny holidays in the most exotic locations on earth. The world is an incredible place, Doctor Dawson".

Lee was feeling surprisingly guilty. The only time he'd ever left the United States was for his Honeymoon with Carly.

"I imagine it is" He nodded, trying not to let it get to him.

"Anyway," Jack continued, "Things were good. Everything was going great . . . until she got sick. Really sick"

"What was wrong with her?"

"Breast cancer" Jack told him. Lee winced. He knew how bad the disease could be. "You know, for a start I thought it was some sick joke from God. The oncologist's wife gets cancer. How ironic. I couldn't accept it was real"

Lee shifted in his seat as he saw Doctor Hunter's face crumbling before his very eyes.

"But once I grasped how serious this was, I started trying to help her and together we beat it"

"What?" Lee asked, not expecting such a positive outcome.

"She beat the cancer" Jack confirmed. "But then it came back again . . . this time in her brain. A secondary tumour" His voice cracked as he spoke.

Doctor Dawson even had to swallow hard to quell the lump that was forming in his own throat. Surviving one dose of cancer was no mean feat but surviving two was even rarer. He knew now without being told how Jack's story, and Natalie's life ended.

"So we had all the chemo to go through again, all the meetings, all the treatments and all I could do was sit and watch her get worse instead of better. I've never felt so helpless in all my life"

"You can't blame yourself"

"How can I not, Lee? Do you know what it's like to be the expert yet still useless at the same time? All of her family kept asking me questions about her disease that I couldn't answer. I specialise in treating cancer. . . And yet cancer took my wife from me. How can I look her parents in the eye and tell them I did everything I could when I didn't do anything at all?" Sobbed Jack.

"You know better than anyone that treating cancer isn't an exact science. Remember what you told Doctor Dolan? We all lose patients" Lee tried comforting his distraught boss.

"She was my wife!" Jack barked, pounding the table as he wailed. "And I let her die" He stared at Lee as if he was looking at the ghost of his wife, trying to convince her of how sorry he was. His words hung in the stale air like a body on a noose.

Lee knew more than most how past traumas could affect people in later life. He became a social recluse after breaking up with his girlfriend. And he knew all about grief too. He was a doctor after all and a lot of his job was unfortunately delivering bad news. Whether it be telling someone that they only had weeks to live, or telling a child that his parents hadn't survived the car accident they'd been in, or even telling parents that their newborn baby would die within days. No one truly appreciated this side of a doctor's job.

But the man sat before him now was a different beast entirely. He didn't look like Doctor Jack Hunter anymore. Here was a man who'd suffered such a terrible loss that he'd collapsed in on himself like a human black hole. Suddenly, every encounter and conversation that he'd ever had with his new boss made much more sense. Jack didn't have a problem with Lee, or even with Carly. As far as he was concerned, seeing them together as a happy couple were a reminder of what he'd thought he'd have for the rest of his life. Of what was taken from him.

"No wonder you're so focused on work" Lee thought aloud.

"One day we're going to beat cancer. Forever" Jack nodded in defiance. "It's the only way that I can make it up to her and her family. If I don't fix this then Natalie's death will be in vain"

"Jack, you can't think like that. Do you think she'd want you to be living like this? Wouldn't she rather you got on with your life and were happy? I'm not asking you to forget her but trust me; living like you're already dead isn't good for you"

"You don't know me, Doctor Dawson, or my dead wife. So save it" Jack snapped before standing up and announcing that he was going home.

Lee wanted to go after him, knowing that being alone wouldn't solve anything. But he knew that Jack would just get even angrier if he was followed home. He just had to hope that he'd see him at work the next day and that they could either continue the conversation or at least reach a suitable conclusion, although Lee didn't know what that could be.

Usually after delivering bad news to people, the doctor only needed to see them grieve for a little bit before they either went home or died. He had no idea how to deal with prolonged grieving like Jack was suffering from. All he did know was that he wanted to find out, and fast.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Well! What a chapter! So now that we know all about Doctor Hunter do you guys understand him a bit more?

And where does everyone go from here?

Oh! And the video/song playing at the end of the chapter is Thief by Our Lady Peace. They are one of my all time favourite bands and this song always gets me right in the feels. I thought that the subject of the song really did the scene justice and I hope you did too.

This was a really important chapter for me so I'd love to hear what you guys thought through your votes and comments!