Chapter Text
March 2017
The night was dark and rainy, the visibility low as Raelle drove down the winding country road in her new vehicle, singing along to the radio with her mother in the passenger seat. The red Chevy Camaro had been her parents’ gift for her 27th birthday just a few weeks prior and earlier that day after visiting, her mom had insisted on being taken for a ‘joy ride.’ The last thought she had before the car skidded on the road was that she’d never felt closer to her.
There was a sickening crash as the car went over the side of the mountain, slamming into the rocks below. When Raelle opened her eyes, her head was aching and when she reached up to touch it, her fingers were covered in blood. As a medical resident, she was no stranger to blood or even to auto accidents, but it was different when she was the one hurt. She groaned, ignoring the shooting pain in her left hand and turning to look at her mother.
It didn’t look good. Her non-dominant hand throbbed as she unfastened her seatbelt, attempting to climb over the console so that she could get a better look.
“Oh, FUCK!” Raelle glanced down at her left arm and immediately vomited. There was no hand there anymore. She knew she needed to stop the bleeding, but she also had to help her mother. She could feel herself beginning to panic because if she bled out, she would be of no help to anyone. Quickly she checked her mother’s pulse with her right hand.
There was no pulse.
She didn’t have time to mourn as she climbed halfway into the back seat, grunting as she pulled her first aid kit from underneath. It was no easy feat and she was having trouble breathing as she fumbled with the container, trying to open it with her remaining hand. Shakily Raelle grabbed a tourniquet, taking one end in her mouth and the other into her hand. As she tightened it over her arm, she screamed, nearly passing out.
“Siri, call 911…”
April 2020
It had been far too long since the three of them had gotten together again. Between work and Raelle’s residency, they were always spread a little thin. The childhood friends had remained close over the years and Raelle would never forget how they’d been there for her after the accident. The loss of her hand had been traumatic, the loss of her mother even more so. It was nearly three years to the day that Tally had given Raelle the prosthetic she had designed for her. She had known that her friend was talented, but it wasn’t until that day that she realized just how much.
Since then, Tally had launched her own wildly successful medical device company, a company that directly rivaled Abigail’s family business, Bellweather Corp, the number one medical device company in the country. Now that they were both CEOs of these competing companies, they had become frenemies and argued constantly. Half of the time, Raelle had trouble following their discussions. Today was no different and frankly, she was tired of it.
“For the last time, Abigail, we agreed not to talk about work at these lunches,” Raelle warned her closest friend with a sharp glare, taking a drink from her glass of wine before her gaze fell onto Tally. “The two of you need to work this out. For real.”
“I just think it’s funny how—”
“I’m just trying to explain to her that—”
Raelle held up her prosthetic hand, as a reminder but also as a peace offering to her childhood friends. “Enough. I am not going to sit through thirty minutes of your bickering. This is supposed to be fun. You do remember fun, right? I’ll take my damn food to go if I have to, because I am not listening to another second of this shit.”
“Sorry, Rae,” Tally apologized sheepishly, turning toward Abigail. “To be continued?”
Abigail rolled her eyes. “Looking forward to it,” she muttered sarcastically. She didn’t appreciate that Tally kept bringing up Bellweather Corp in such a negative light. She knew that her parents’ handling of the company wasn’t without its faults, but she had just become CEO and she hadn’t been able to make any changes yet.
Tally swiftly changed the subject as they waited for the lunch they’d already ordered. “How is your residency going, by the way?”
“Grueling. I am so tired all of the time. Pulling doubles on top of doubles. Sometimes I’m like, Raelle, are you sure you wanna be a doctor? But I’m already in so much debt, what the hell else am I gonna do? Oh, plus, you know, helping people is pretty cool.”
At the mention of Raelle’s student loan debt, Abigail helpfully suggested, “You know that we could help you with that debt, Rae…”
“No fuckin’ way, Abigail,” she practically snarled. “Not gonna happen. You already covered all my medical bills after the accident. I’m not taking another penny from you. And Tally, don’t you give me that look, your money's no good to me either. I swear to god, the two of you are relentless. Just let me pay off my own student loans like a normal person.”
Tally couldn’t help but laugh. After knowing Raelle for practically her entire life, she didn’t scare her anymore. She was all bark and no bite, even when she was frustrated. She was seriously considering secretly paying off Raelle’s loans, as it would be more than feasible now that her company had taken off. Never did she imagine her own medical device company would end up rivaling her friend’s, nor could she have ever expected to be rich.
She wasn’t comfortable with the money, because that just wasn’t what she was in it for, and she frequently gave to various charities, rather than hoard the money or spend it on herself. To pay off Raelle’s loans would be the perfect next project, and she would have to swear Abigail to secrecy. When it happened there would be no denying one of them had done it. She just had to make sure that Abigail didn’t spill the beans. If she couldn’t figure out which one, she either had to be mad at both or neither of them.
“Well, you didn’t have to curse at me about it, geez,” Abigail rolled her eyes, looking up as the waiter started toward their table. It had taken long enough. The restaurant was understandably busy, but she wasn’t exactly known for being patient. “Finally. I have a one o’clock meeting and you know how hangry I get.”
“Finally...something we have in common,” Tally chuckled, not wasting any time as she dug into her sandwich immediately, only stopping to wipe the mayonnaise dribbling from the corner of her mouth.
Raelle caught her in that moment and let out a snort, putting down her fork. “God, Tally. I thought when you left elementary school, you’d stop being such a messy eater, but it looks like you still haven’t grown out of it.”
“We should get her a bib for Christmas!” Abigail laughed, joining in with the light ribbing.
Tally huffed as she sat her half eaten sandwich back down on the platter. “You know I hate it when you guys gang up on me!”
“Anyway,” Abigail placed her soup spoon against the side of the bowl. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you eat a salad before, Rae. What’s up with that?”
Loudly Raelle crunched her lettuce, chewing it up and swallowing before she responded. “Well sue me for trying to be healthy, damn!”
“You met someone, didn’t you?” Tally had always been extremely intuitive, to the point that she often knew what her friends were feeling before they did.
Sometimes it felt a bit intrusive, because she guessed secrets that Raelle hadn’t even told yet. It was true that she’d met someone, a girl she had a very big crush on, but admitting it out loud would make it real. It meant she’d have to actually DO something about it. Rae had always been useless in the love department.
Her silence said it all as Raelle carefully avoided her friends’ gaze, dousing her salad in the remainder of dressing left in the silver boat. “I might have met somebody,” she finally admitted, because she knew Abigail & Tally wouldn’t stop staring at her until she confessed. They were so goddamn predictable.
“Well? Who is she?” Abigail questioned impatiently, crossing her arms against her chest, expectant for Raelle to give her more information.
“Just another resident at the hospital,” she said as casually as she could manage, as if she wasn’t crushing on her as wildly as she was. She was thirty years old but this girl made her feel like a fuckin’ teenager again. “Her name is Scylla and I keep making a fool of myself in front of her because she’s so pretty and I am so, so gay.”
Tally laughed, having just polished off her sandwich and stopping to wipe her face with her napkin. “Do you know if she’s gay?”
To be honest, Raelle didn’t know Scylla that well and she’d never had the most well developed ‘gaydar,’ as evidenced by her all too many crushes on straight girls. She groaned, her forehead wrinkling. “I have no idea.”
“What’s her last name?” Abigail already had her phone out and the Facebook application open and ready to search her name. “Come on, Rae. You can tell a lot about a girl by her Facebook page. Last name, please.”
She gave in, murmuring, “It’s Ramshorn.”
Abigail glanced up at her quizzically. “Ramshorn? What kind of name is that? How do you even spell that?”
“Like rams’ horn. It’s not that weird.” Raelle felt weirdly defensive, her face reddening as she watched Abigail pull up Scylla’s profile. She saw her smile, then chuckle as she scrolled down. It was driving her crazy that she couldn’t see the screen.
After a few torturous minutes, Abigail put her phone down. “She has her Facebook page locked down good. A few of the TV show pages she’s liked are kinda gay, though. Looks like she has an Instagram. Should we check it out?”
“Yes!” Tally chimed in, grabbing the phone once Abigail had navigated to the Instagram app and brought up her profile. “Oh, wow, she’s really pretty. I think your eyes are the same color.” She scrolled down, nodding her head and making a comment every now and then. Seemingly out of nowhere, she suddenly cursed, “Oh, shit!”
“What did you do?!” Raelle practically screamed, rising up from her chair.
Tally frowned, her gaze wide and apologetic. “I might have accidentally liked her photo…”
“TALLY!”
“Don’t get your panties in a twist, Collar,” Abigail muttered, wrenching her phone from Tally’s grasp and clicking the heart button to unlike the photo. “There. Unliked. No harm, no foul. Besides, even if she saw the notification, she doesn’t even know who I am.”
Raelle was beginning to panic, worried that Scylla would make the connection. “Unless she goes to your page and sees the picture you posted of us at lunch,” she pointed out, already feeling sick to her stomach. She grabbed a piece of bread and stuffed it into her mouth, drowning her sorrows in carbs as she so often did.
“Oh. Fuck. You’re right…” Abigail admitted, looking to Tally for assistance, but her friend just shrugged her shoulders. What a great help she was. “I’m sure she’s probably busy and she might not even have push notifications turned on. Right?”
She kicked Tally underneath the table. “Ow!” Tally rubbed her shin and shot Abigail a glare, receiving a scowl in return. “Right. She’s right,” she grumbled.
Abigail glanced down at her iPhone and her eyes immediately widened.
“What?” Raelle asked as she tore apart another piece of bread and buttered it. It was clear from Abigail’s expression that something had happened.
She quietly confessed, showing Raelle the notification that had just popped up on her phone. “...Scylla just liked that picture of us.”
“NO.”
“Yes!” Abigail laughed, covering her mouth when Raelle glowered at her. “Sorry, it’s just so f—oh, she just left a comment…”
Before she could read it, Raelle was seizing the phone from Abigail’s fingers. It slipped and fell into her friend’s bowl of soup. The look Abigail gave her could’ve turned her to stone. Cursing under her breath, Abi retrieved her phone from the broth and wiped it off as best as she could with her napkin. The device was supposed to be waterproof, or so she hoped. Abigail was able to unlock it with ease and she let out a breath of relief.
“Nothing’s broken. Just a little sticky.” Wearing a menacing expression, she opened the app again to read Scylla’s comment aloud. Her intimidating expression immediately faded because she couldn’t help but smirk in response to Scylla’s words. “Looks like the three of you are having fun, exclamation mark, wink emoji. Tell Dr. C I said hello. Pink hearts. Oh! Rae, she likes you!”
Raelle held out her right hand, knowing better than to try to grab the phone and risk dunking it in Abigail’s soup for a second time. “Let me see that!” Her friend handed the iPhone over and she took it before making a grossed out face. “Oh, it is sticky. You can probably wash this in the bathroom before we leave…” She trailed off as she read over the comment a couple times, then clicked back on Scylla’s profile to scroll through her photos, being careful so as not to accidentally like another one of them. “Motherfucking…” Raelle dropped the phone suddenly on the table. “She just sent you a DM. I can’t even read it. I’m going to climb under this table, I swear to God.”
After taking her iPhone back, Abigail opened her DMs to read the message. She chewed on her bottom lip, trying to hold back a grin. She couldn’t help but snicker. Tally leaned over her shoulder to read what Scylla had written and immediately clapped her hand over her mouth. Raelle balled up her napkin and threw it at her friend, annoyed by their over the top reactions and their hesitance to say anything.
“Well, what does it say?!”
“Uh, she gave me her number. She said she hoped it wasn’t weird, but she’d love for you to text her sometime. And she said to apologize if she was reading things wrong. Ha!” Abigail slapped her knee with her hand as if it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard. “Bitch, she liiiikes you. Get your phone out. I’ll give you her number.”
Raelle quickly slid her phone from her pocket and pulled up the new contact screen. She typed in Scylla’s name, then said she was ready. Once she’d typed the number in and saved it, she lifted her head to look sheepishly at her friends. “Should I text her now, or should I wait? I don’t want her to think I’m desperate…”
“Now—”
“Wait—”
That wasn’t helpful. Tally’s vote was to text her now, because she didn’t believe in playing games and thought Scylla would love to hear from her. Abigail argued that she should wait an hour at least, just to seem ‘cooler’ about the situation. Ultimately, Raelle went with her gut and listened to Tally. She shot Scylla off a quick “hey this is Raelle Collar” text and returned her attention to her friends. They had each finished their meals and their time together as drawing to a close. There was no denying they’d had a great time, even with the infighting between Tally and Abigail. Raelle was hoping that they’d soon find common ground, because it was exhausting trying to be the peacekeeper. She couldn’t help but remember better days, when things had been easier…