This is a series of one shots based on Pixelberry's Open Heart, featuring Dr. Ethan Ramsey and Dr. Cassie Valentine. The stories follow canon to a certain extent but diverge after book 1. In this AU, there is no trip to the Amazon and no need for a...
Summary: Between Ethan leaving and a friend's betrayal, Cassie Valentine is moments away from giving up. Rewrite of Book 1, chapter 13 and 14 focusing on Cassie's emotional state.
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Cassie Valentine had never felt this many emotions in such a short period of time. The week from hell had started out well enough but quickly turned sour. First with the news that her patient Teresa Martinez had died in Buenos Aires and then a summons to Harper Emery's office where the hospital administrator had made it clear there would be an investigation into Teresa's death and Cassie's possible involvement in the same. The investigation, if successful, would mean she'd never get to practice medicine again.
On instinct, she'd run to find Ethan Ramsey for assurance, comfort...she wasn't sure what. In that blind moment of panic, she had needed him in a way that she had never needed anyone else in her life before. After their explosive kiss at the opera the night before, all she wanted was to find solace in his embrace and know that the troubles that had followed her the last few weeks would disappear.
Instead of comfort, he'd slammed the door in her face, lost in his own grief of not being able to save his mentor, Naveen Banerji. She'd stood outside his office door, feeling alone and afraid of the defeat she'd seen on his face. Her own problems forgotten, all she wanted was to soothe his worries, but he had his walls up and she was learning that they were harder to scale than Fort Knox.
The next morning, things had gone from bad to worse. She held Ethan's hand as he said goodbye to his friend. She hadn't met Ethan's family yet, or even knew anything about them, but she knew that Naveen was his true family.
His vulnerability broke her heart and she kissed him, letting her lips show him what words couldn't, that she would always be there for him. He leaned into her, letting her support some of his weight as he held her tight around the waist, clinging to her as if she were his lifeline in a world that was bleak and uncertain.
Harper had confronted them upon entering the atrium and Cassie still couldn't understand what happened after. In a single moment, Ethan Ramsey, her mentor, her rock, her everything, handed in his badge and walked away from Edenbrook, from her.
"I'm not the doctor you thought I was. It's time we both accepted that," he told her, eyes desolate, body slumped with despair.
She'd tried to stop him, but it hadn't been enough. She hadn't been enough.
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