After the Dawson's finished their discussion about Jack, Carly agreed to fly home as soon as possible. She knew all too well how packed airports were around Christmas time, and how the weather can create chaos for potential travellers. Both Lee and Carly now felt somewhat bad about digging and prying into Jack's personal life because although they had the answers they were looking for, they still didn't have anything to do about it. And if Jack's past record was anything to go by, this latest intrusion may just send him out on an absolute warpath. Regardless, they both agreed that they had to help Hunter before Doctor Kent returned to resume charge of the hospital.

The next morning, Lee woke up with thankfully only the mildest of hangovers so he knew he wouldn't have any challenges at work, except for Jack of course. He completed his morning routine and arrived earlier than usual, hoping that Doctor Hunter would have the same idea.

He quickly reached the front reception and glanced around. He saw many tired looking nurses and disgruntled patients waiting to be seen. Jack wasn't there though. He proceeded to head towards his boss' office, thinking that was a wise place to start looking but accidentally bumped into an approaching Japanese doctor on his way.

"Sorry" Lee mumbled before noticing who it was that he'd almost tackled to the ground.

"In a rush, Doctor Dawson?" Doctor Nagatomo asked, not sounding bothered at all by the collision.

"Hey Shinsuke. Have you seen Doctor Hunter around? I need to speak with him" Lee hoped that would be a sufficient answer to the question he'd been asked. He didn't have time to explain everything.

"No, sorry. If I had seen him I'd be moving as fast as you are. Why are you looking for him?"

"It doesn't matter; just tell him if you see him that I am looking for him, ok?" Lee requested before realising that Shinsuke was once again working the nightshift and so the only place he was likely to see Doctor Hunter was in some twisted nightmare.

"I will, but first I have a question for you" Shinsuke smiled. Lee knew this couldn't be good.

"Make it quick, I'm in a hurry" He sighed.

"Why is it that when we lose a patient, people always assume that we did something wrong?"

"Because people can't accept –"

"I am not finished!" Shinsuke's broken English cut Doctor Dawson off, sounding much harsher than he'd probably indented to. Lee rolled his eyes but motioned for the doctor to continue with whatever his point was. "When an animal doctor . . . how do you say animal doctor?"

"A vet" Lee groaned.

"Yes! When a vet can't save the animal, it is never their fault? Now I am finished and you answer" Nagatomo ordered.

Lee sighed once more. He'd never thought about this in his life before because it had never concerned him. And he'd never really owned a pet. He was about to start ranting at Shinsuke for wasting his time but his cooler head prevailed. He guessed that perhaps Doctor Nagatomo had indeed lost a patient through the night and was once again dealing with a family that couldn't accept that this was the hand that fate had dealt them. Now he sympathised with his fellow doctor.

"I think" He began, "Animals never look as sick as people. A dog won't know it has cancer so it's not going to protest" Lee didn't know if he was making any sense but really he didn't know what to say.

Shinsuke simply nodded thoughtfully before thanking Doctor Dawson and heading home.

With that strange meeting out of the way, Lee reached the office that he hoped would be housing his boss at this current moment. He knocked on the door with three solid strikes but only heard the buzzing of the chatter in reception from down the hall, still audible at this early hour.

"Doctor Hunter? It's Doctor Dawson. Open up" Lee said in a clear but friendly tone. Again there was nothing.

"Is he in?" Asked Summer Harington, who seemed to have snuck up on Lee from the other direction. She also looked tired and Lee summarised that Shinsuke had given her a shot at a nightshift role, much like he'd done with Charlie earlier.

"If he is, he's not taking visitors" Lee said as he tried to turn the door handle, but the lock held it off like it was a dam holding in the stormy waters behind it. "Are you looking for him too?" He asked, noticing that Summer was carrying a large stack of papers. Had Shinsuke turned the young brunette doctor into a receptionist overnight?

"Yeah I just need to show him this" She said, holding out her pile a little further so that Lee could take it off her hands and inspect it himself.

"Anything I can help with?" He asked before even reading it.

"It's all done thanks. It's just that Doctor Hunter told me to bring it all straight to him. I thought he was coming in this morning so I was hoping to catch him before I went home" She explained her disappointment.

"These are release papers" Lee observed. "Chris got out?"

"Yeah, last night" Summer smiled so widely that her tired features disappeared instantly. Lee knew that her and Chris had become close over the past few weeks, it was obvious for everyone to see so that explained why she was so happy.

"You must be relieved?" He asked, still reading as he spoke. He saw that Chris was still to take some medication and come in for regular checkups but he would most likely be fine and able to return to his normal routine. Based on the reports, Lee agreed with this diagnosis.

"I'm happy for him. He's a good guy. He didn't deserve what happened to him"

"They never do" Lee mused before turning back into business mode. "Well it looks like he isn't here so if you want I can hold onto these and get them to him when I see him? You should go get some sleep". He also thought that this now gave him a good excuse to approach Jack.

"Thanks, Doctor Dawson. I'm meeting Chris for dinner tonight so I hope I don't sleep in" She laughed but then shut right up afterwards, nervous as to whether or not she should have mentioned that.

"Well good luck" Lee's smile put her at ease. Doctors and patients were forbidden from being in relationships (unless they were already in one beforehand) but no one had ever said anything about former patients.

Lee once again set off on his search for Jack but moved only a few feet before a thought struck him.

"Wait a minute, Summer" He called back to the student. She turned to face him again and looked at him curiously.

"Yes?"

"Doctor Hunter wanted to see these?"

"That's right" Nodded Doctor Harrington.

"Why?"

"I don't know. He just told me that he wanted to make sure Chris was ok before he went out. Doctor Nagatomo signed off on them so I just wanted to explain to Doctor Hunter that everything was ok. I think he felt bad for how he treated Chris before"

Lee nodded before setting off again, feigning his understanding. Doctor Hunter had already specifically said that to him, a patient was a patient and nothing more. So why was he taking such an invested interest in Chris' progress? Maybe Summer was right and he was just feeling guilty about prematurely discharging him.

Maybe Doctor Jack Hunter was human after all?

*

Lee searched far and wide over the hospital grounds but Doctor Hunter was hidden better than a free parking space in Pittsburgh's city centre. He decided that Jack had taken the day off with the explicit plan to avoid Doctor Dawson completely.

On this day, Lee would have loved nothing more than to continue his quest to find the elusive Doctor Hunter but unfortunately his patients needed him.

So Doctor Lee Dawson spent the morning taking blood samples and prescribing various antibiotics and other medicines. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary which meant that although he was giving the patients his best diagnosis and attention, he still kept thinking about what he could do about Jack, if anything.

On his lunch break, an idea came to him, as did Charlie Dolan, who rather merrily dropped into the chair across the table from him in the staff cafeteria.

"Hey D!" Charlie grinned.

"D?"

"Doc D" Charlie shrugged as if he'd referred to Lee as this before.

"What do you want?"

"Honestly, I need someone to vent to" Charlie sighed.

"Fine" Lee sighed louder than Charlie had done, knowing what the young doctor was getting at.

"You're a good one Doctor D. Ok so every patient I've had today has come in with one problem, just one! Yet when I get them into the consulting room, they've been throwing all this other shit at me! Like, suddenly they have a list as long my dick of things that they want me to check out. So as a result, I'm late at getting to my next patient, and the whole process starts again! And naturally, everybody is mad as hell at me for being late but it isn't my fault! It's so god damn frustrating!" Charlie almost didn't breathe as he bared his soul to a rather amused looking Doctor Dawson. "Why are you smiling?" Charlie asked, spotting Lee's wry grin.

"You're finally a real doctor, Charlie" Lee told him. "You better get used to it; cause this your life for the next fifty years"

"Well that's depressing" Charlie groaned. "I might just go take a bath with the defibrillator"

"You chose this" Lee reminded him.

"Yeah . . . I know" Charlie bowed his head in defeat before rising up again almost instantly. "Anyway, how has your day been?"

"It's been ok" Lee shrugged. "You haven't seen Doctor Hunter have you? I've been looking for him everywhere" He knew it was unlikely that Charlie had seen the doctor that Lee was still convinced was avoiding him, but just like with his patients, he wasn't taking any chances.

"No I haven't. Why are you looking for him? Are you looking for a death sentence too?"

"It doesn't matter" Lee waved off Charlie's jokes. "I'll just have to look up his personal file and find his cell number". This was the idea that Lee had birthed when Charlie had made his appearance.

"Didn't you hear?" Charlie asked, sounding surprised at Lee's lack of knowledge.

"Hear what?"

"Doctor Hunter took all the staff records and left them in his office". The office that was now locked.

"What?"

"Yeah. He said it was so that he could get to know all the staff better but I personally think it's just so he could be an even bigger Kim Jack Un"

"Enough, Charlie" Lee warned.

"What?" A flabbergasted Charlie cried.

"You might not like him personally but he's still your boss. Show some respect. You don't really know him"

"Does anybody?" Doctor Dolan argued.

"It doesn't matter" Lee snapped back.

His newfound knowledge about his boss gave him a more sympathetic feeling towards Doctor Hunter, but he was also snapping at Charlie because he was annoyed that he definitely wouldn't be able to find Jack today. His phone number was obviously a bust and he had no idea where his hotel was. Jack had only ever referred to it as "The hotel"; and Lee wasn't about to go and scope out every hotel in the city. It would take days, possibly weeks. Instead, he would just have to wait until tomorrow. If Jack even showed up, that is.

Lee wasn't used to not getting what he wanted, but it seemed as though right now he didn't have a choice.

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So after the deep, emotional and draining last chapter, I decided to go for a somewhat lighter chapter this time around, and to give the spotlight to some of the characters who haven't been in the story lately. So did we enjoy it?

Also this chapter has one of my personal favourite one liners in it. Any guesses as to which one? ;)

As always I take every read as a huge compliment and I thank you all deeply for it. So if you enjoyed it, don't forget to vote and let me know what you liked about it!