Chapter Text
The sudden sound of an ambulance siren snapped you back to reality, finally peeling your eyes away from the pile of research papers in front of you. You look behind you towards the window; the sky is already dark, you check the watch on your wrist to reveal it is exactly 11PM. You take your glasses off and rub your eyes, feeling fatigue.
Your phone buzzed, a text from your step-daughter.
Ellie is the loveliest child you’ve ever met—down to earth, smart, compassionate, and very emotionally intelligent. She has all the best qualities from your ex-husband. You open the text to see a selfie of her sitting on the sofa, take out bag sprawled beside her. ‘Staying at yours tonight, forgot to bring my keys and dad already at work, can’t get a hold of him. I have burgers, hurry back!’.
A smile forms on your lips, you’re glad that the step-daughter you raised for 10 years have already grown. The first time you met her she was just a small child, just around 7 years old. You’ve just started to date your ex for a few months, and you fell in love with Ellie. She finds a mother figure in you, something she hasn’t had in a long time since her mother died when she was a toddler. And when your ex proposed, Ellie is the happiest, and you’re happy to be her mom. You never thought that you could produce a child with your work—a career as a Neurosurgeon, always on your feet to do operations, and late nights in the OR sometimes taking 6 to 10 hours. But ever since Ellie and your ex, you managed to spare loads of family time together, fulfilling your dream of having a family.
But your ex has issues, and you accepted them, until you can’t tolerate it anymore. He was a war vet, fresh out of medical school. During his tours in Afghanistan as a soldier and a medic, he’d lost his bottom half of his leg. He met his late wife, worked as a physician, got married, had Ellie, and she passed away from an accident. You were just an intern when you met him, doing your rounds at the Emergency Department at the PTMC, and he’s the attending physician. The moment you decided to go to Neuro, he took his chance to ask you out on a date, and ever since then you were inseparable.
Of course life doesn’t always give a happily ever after that easily—a husband, a step-child, a big house, an amazing career—you decided to divorce him.
He’s troubled, PTSD from the war, and even if he goes to therapy, his hobby is to be a SWAT medic because he said “I am bad at golf.”
You took that to heart. It’s not healthy for Ellie, and for you. When you divorced, Ellie had just started high school. You were worried it would affect her freshman year, but she handled it quite well, understanding where you’re coming from. And although your ex has full custody, Ellie is her father’s daughter; she never listens tu rules, she always stays over at your place whenever she wants, and your ex doesn’t really say no to that, you are the only mother she knows, after all.
You pack up your stuffs into your bag, shutting off the computer, bringing some of the research papers with you. You shut the lights off in your office and walks out, not to the usual elevator, you walk further towards the in-patient wing, greeting nurses and some night shift doctors passing by. You press the elevator button down to the ground floor, stepping inside. The elevator dings, opening the doors and revealing the ER, nurses and doctors constantly running around, with beeps from the vital monitors echoing through the walls.
Lena—the night shift charge nurse—saw you step out of the elevator. She smiles at you, approaching at a slower pace “Looking for him? What did he do this time?”
You smile at Lena, reaching your arm out to hug her. “The usual, Ellie stuff. You know I wouldn’t talk to him otherwise.” Lena holds your shoulder, watching your face “You look really tired, you should stop pulling an all nighter. I saw you get in at 6AM this morning,” you huff, can’t exactly defend yourself “he’s at the south nurse station.” you smile at Lena, mouthing a thank you to her. You walk towards the direction Lena gave to you, seeing your ex-husband standing in front of the counter, his back to you.
Stopping your tracks, you cough your throat, getting his attention. He whips his head to you, his eyes wide. He straightens his posture. “I didn’t ask for a Neuro consult.”
“Ellie forgot her keys and got locked out, you didn’t reply to her texts. She’s sleeping at my place tonight.” you might seem stern to him, perhaps a bit harsh, but you have to. Your ex is charming; mouth oozing honey through his words, and you do not want to fall for it again—at least until he gets his shit together.
Before he could say anything, one of the night shift ER doctors—Shen, approaches the both of you “Hey Abbot, we’ve got a TA coming in and–oh, girl Abbot, hi.” you roll your eyes, you hate that nickname, though it’s true you still use his last name, both legally and professionally. “Hi, Shen.” you greet him weakly. Shen stands in front of the two of you, awkward. “Sooo… How’s uh… brains?” you ignore Shen, obviously trying to diffuse the tension between you and your ex. Though it is quite obvious to some people that the two of you have some chemistry, mixed between hate and heavy sexual tension—some times when you’re in a pinch, you can’t help to sleep with him again, and again, and again, making sure to only do it at your place, so Ellie wouldn’t find out. Some things cannot be denied, and the mutual sexual attraction between the two of you is proof of it.
“Alright then, I’m going home, Ellie is waiting for me. Also, please for the love of god, stop giving her bacon every morning. She’s gonna have high cholesterol by the age of 19.” as you walk away from him and Shen, a hand grabs you and halts your steps. “I forgot to tell you this, but Ellie applied for college and she’s currently in the interview phase.”
Your face beams from excitement, happiness flowing through you “What? Jack, why the fuck didn’t you tell me sooner? Holy shit, that’s amazing!” he smiles, gazing at you softly—perhaps lovingly, but you try not to care about it. “I know, she’s all grown up, our smart little girl is going to ivy league.” your smile widens, Jack’s too—eyes showing his wrinkles and his lips widely smiling, the both of you elated from the news. You hadn’t realised Jack’s hand is still holding yours, and you’re gripping it too. You cough, awkwardly pulling your hand away from his. “I’ll talk about it with Ellie later. Night, Jack.” you walk towards the doors of the ER, walking away to your car.
Jack lingers, standing still with his arms crossed, watching you walk away. He can’t help but smile at you, how you’re still a present parent even if you’re just a step-mom, even if you have divorced him, but he knows you have loads of love to share with Ellie.
A nudge felt on Jack’s arm, the night intern Joy Kwon approaches him, a smirk plastered on her face. “So the woman who’s co-parenting your daughter—who isn’t her biological child—a smart, sexy Neurosurgeon, works in the same hospital as you, is your ex-wife? I know she didn’t do anything wrong, so what stupid shit did you do?” Jack turns his head to Joy, glancing down, as she is way shorter than he is. “I’m giving you the worst cases, how about that? Get back to work Dr. Kwon, you kids don’t know anything about divorce.” Joy huffs at him, she walks away gripping the stethoscope on her shoulders “Whatever man, I say you gotta get her back before someone swoops in!”
Jack shakes his head, knowing that she’s not the type to take offense at any of his words, but rather their exchange is humorous in nature. Jack’s mind starts to wander around, thinking of the days where the three of you are still living together, both of you still married, still a happy family, and perhaps he would love to try for it again.