Chapter 75

Aria’s POV

Rushing down to emergency, I joined the team who was working on Lucian’s father, Harold. I was surprised when I came through the door to hear him yelling.

“I told all of you, I’m fine! I don’t need this special treatment! Find someone who is actually sick and help them!”

“Sir, we need you to calm down,” said one of the Healers. “Your heartrate is far too high. If you don’t relax, you could trigger an episode.”

“He’s already in an episode,” snapped another Healer.

“I’m telling you that I’m fine!” Harold demanded.

I pushed my way through the Healers toward the front. Healer must have recognized me from television. I didn’t recall ever meeting him before while wearing my Dr. A disguise.

“Finally, a Healer who can tell all of the rest of you that I’m fine. Tell them, Dr. A.”

With one look at his chart, I knew he was here to stay for the near future.

“We need to run some tests on your heart, Sir.”

“Not you, too,” Harold grumbled. “Tell them I’m fine.”

“You aren’t fine. Your heartrate is off the charts and your symptoms correlate with failure.”

“You are overreacting.”

I looked at him firmly, doctor to patient. My familial love had no place here. “Sir. If you are not treated for this immediately, you will die. I’m not sure you want to leave this world strictly because you are stubborn, do you?”

With that, he wilted slightly. “No.”

“Then let us do the tests we need.”

“Fine.” Properly cowed, he lowered himself onto the gurney and let himself be wheeled away.

Twenty minutes later, we’d saved his life – at least for the moment. It’d taken some fast nurses performing the tests and a few of us Healers quickly debating the results and the methods needed to save him.

In the end, I’d managed to convince the others what we needed to do, and thanks to the fast work of everyone involved, Harold now laid in a hospital bed in his own personal room, dressed in a hospital gown, eating yogurt, and listening to me lecture him.

“Do you have excessive stress in your life?” I asked him, already knowing the answer.

His face tightened. “I won’t bother you with those dire details, Dr. A.”

“As your healer, Harold, it’s my duty to know.”

He shrugged, not seeing it that way.

“Fine. You don’t have to tell me. But what I need you to do is to limit that stress. We’ve patched a few holes here today, but we cannot guarantee more will not appear while you continue to test your heart.”

“I wouldn’t do it on purpose, Doc. I can tell you that.”

We both looked over to the door as Lucian appeared, out of breath, his face creased with worry. “Dad…”

“Come here, son. I’m fine.”

I quickly excused myself and moved out into the hall. There, I stood just outside the door, completing Harold’s chart. After only a handful of minutes, Lucian ducked back into the hallway.

“Oh good, you are still here.”

“You should be in there with your father,” I told him. “We nearly lost him today.”

“I will,” Lucian said, “But not before I thank you for saving his life.”

“It wasn’t just me.”

“But you were part of it. A big part. They told me in reception that they called you and you rushed down here, and that you were the only one who could get him to calm down. Not an easy feat, with my father.”

“He just needed to be made aware of how serious the situation was.”

“And you stayed with him. Anyone else would have left.”

I’d been avoiding looking at Lucian, but I glance up at him now. “Until I finally move on, I will always be here for my patients.”

Seeing Lucian now, I could see the heavy bags hanging under his eyes and the heavy slant of his shoulders. He looked like hell. Was he not getting enough sleep?

I wanted to move on and not burden myself with anything Lucian anymore. Yet… the doctor in me reared its head, unwilling to let me just turn away from someone who was suffering.

That this someone was Lucian.

Well. Maybe I wasn’t as strong as I wanted to be yet.

“Are you okay?” I asked him. I couldn’t stop myself. The words just came slipping out.

Lucian looked at me with some surprise. It didn’t take long for him to recover though. “Don’t worry about me, Dr. A. I’ll find a way forward. I always do.”

That was no answer. But I couldn’t ask for more without seeming like I was prying. If he wanted to share, he would.

As a doctor, I’d done my duty. I needed to remain detached.

“If you insist,” I said and signed my alias to the bottom of Harold’s chart.

Lucian’s POV

Lucian looked at Dr. A for several long moments. I couldn’t explain why, maybe because of Dr. A’s similarities to Aria, but when she’d asked about me, her concern gave me a small measure of comfort.

It was refreshing, being asked how I was rather than constantly having to tend to Sheila and the many dramas she’d caused.

If Aria had been around, she would have asked a hundred times.

With a sigh, I knew I needed to stop comparing my life now to how it was when Aria had still been with me. Before it had been a wonder, but Aria was gone. It was no use dwelling on the moments of the past. I needed to focus on the now. Even if it wasn’t as good – could never be – it was all I had anymore.

Dr. A lifted Dad’s chart and placed it into the plastic holder on the outside of his door. Then she looked at me.

“Are you staying with your father for a while?” she asked.

“Yes.” I planned on sitting with him for a while.

She nodded. “I’ll check on you both later.”

With that she walked away, but it was the best reassurance I’d had in a long time.

When I returned to Dad’s room, Dad was already mostly asleep. I removed his yogurt cup from his hands.

“That you, Lucian?” he asked, his eyes closed.

“Yeah?”

“You staying here for a while?”

“If you want.”

Dad was quiet so long, I thought maybe he’d fallen asleep. But then, after a while, he said, “Please.”

Then he started to snore.

Grabbing a nearby chair, I dragged it over to Dad’s bedside. Sitting there, I watched him sleep for a while, worry running through me. The doctors had helped him now, but I could so easily have lost my dad today. He could be right back here so easily too.

After a few hours, Dr. A returned. She stood near the door for a while, wordlessly watching Dad, and me too.

Looking at her, her stature was so similar to Aria’s that I could almost convince myself Aria was standing there.

I knew she wasn’t. They weren’t the same person, I’d already proven that to myself.

But those similarities…

At least I could fool my silly heart for a while.

“Dr. A,” I asked, heart aching with thoughts of Aria. “Have you ever been in love with anyone?”