Chapter Text
Connor Rhodes was tired.
At work, he was Dr. Rhodes: the successful surgeon who was confident in his abilities and cared for his patients. He didn’t have any worries at work and he had no time to pay attention to the rumors circulating the hospital about him.
At home, he was Connor. The mask would fall and you could see the worry and fear appear. He was confident, but he was also human and he feared that his confidence would one day get him in trouble. Was he crossing the line between confidence and arrogance? Would today be the day that he lost a patient doing a challenging surgery that he probably shouldn’t have pushed for? Would David be proud if he were still here? These questions would plague him as soon as he was in the comfort of his home. Sleeping was hard. His insomnia led to some very late nights just staring out the window at the city, hoping tomorrow would be better.
His father’s near death experience was the final nail in the coffin. He could no longer deal with the pressure of keeping up his persona at work; he couldn’t deal with the pity in his colleagues eyes; and he couldn’t deal with seeing Ava walking around as if nothing had happened. Maybe she didn’t have anything to do with his father’s cardiac arrest. Maybe he had become paranoid and she wasn’t actually obsessed with him. He couldn’t prove anything but he also couldn’t disprove anything and it was driving him insane.
So, he quit. He called his contact at Mayo Clinic and took their offer.
He had gone to see Her in the days before he made the decision and she was supportive. She understood him. She wanted him to be happy and if leaving Chicago would make him happy then she would just have to be okay with that. Truthfully, he didn’t want to leave the one person he confided in and felt safe with. She was the one he would call after a particularly hard day at work when he needed to vent. She was the first person he called after his father was admitted to the hospital the first time and then again when he was admitted the second time. They both knew long-distance would be hard but they loved each other and were determined to make it work.
He was in Chicago for six months before he finally left. He wanted to make sure Claire was going to be okay and that his dad had fully recovered. He promised it would be different this time, that he would keep in contact with them. He helped Her move into his condo in the city and after kissing Her goodbye, he jumped on a plane and headed to Minnesota.