Open Heart One Shots (Choices)

Epilogue

Summary: Three months after decidingto lead the Diagnostics Team at Edenbrook, Cassie Valentine comes into her own.This is my version of how book 3, chapter 16 should have ended.

"Team dismissed."

Two words. That's all it took to remind Cassie Valentine that she belonged at the head of the table; the spot that a year ago her mentor and teacher ─ and the best doctor that she had ever known ─ had occupied.

She waited for Tobias and Harper to leave before walking back to her desk, smiling at the memory of just how much time she had spent on the desk when the previous occupant of this office had been around.

Reviewing the email that she had drafted before the meeting, she nodded in satisfaction and hit send. She leaned back in her chair, glancing at the hallway clock outside the glass walls, and waited for the fireworks to begin.

Cassie still remembered the first time she had walked through the doors of Edenbrook a little over three years ago and the arrogant but good-looking doctor that had forced her to perform a thoracotomy in the middle of a waiting room. The way her hand had shook and how he'd laid his gently over hers. How kind he had been in that moment despite all evidence to the contrary.

"Hey...you can do this," he'd told her, his calm voice quelling her nerves as she blocked out everything but the scalpel in her hand and made the incision.

A year later, she had walked through the glass doors of the Diagnostics Team office and taken her seat at the rectangle table, across from the same doctor. Except by then, she had fallen into his thrall and no longer saw him as Dr. Ramsey, but as Ethan. A man with flaws and vulnerabilities, one who put his patients first and who could teach her how to be the kind of doctor she wanted to be, needed to be.

After all, she'd come to Edenbrook to learn from the Ethan Ramsey. And she had. Little did she know that first day that she had met the love of her love, and he had met his.

These past three years, they had been through trials (hers for an ethics violation and his for a malpractice suit), tribulations (her almost dying, his addict mother resurfacing) and obstacles (the hospital closing, Bloom's vendetta). But through it all their bond had grown deeper, and they had become each other's rock, salvation and, as of 90 days and 18 hours ago, bonded in love.

"The truth is...when I wasn't paying attention somehow...I fell in love with you." He'd been hesitant and unsure as he gave her words she'd longed to hear since the first time they'd slept together in her intern year. "I think I've been in love with you a while...it just took a lot for me to finally admit it to myself."

And then the surprise on his face, that handsome face with the piercing blue eyes that could and did peer into her soul, as she said the words back to him. "Oh, Ethan, of course I love you. I love everything about you, good, bad and otherwise. I love you."

She felt butterflies in her stomach when a few days later he told her she was ready to take over as head of the Diagnostics Team as he stepped into the role of Chief of Medicine. As a doctor whose board certification was so new that the ink hadn't dried, how could she possibly take over from the Ethan Ramsey?

When she accepted the offer, he had looked at her with so much pride and affection and love in his eyes that she knew she had made the right decision.

That woman on the moonlit balcony in Miami who had told him she could see herself leading the Diagnostics Team in ten years could never have imagined that it would happen in just three short but eventful years.

That the asshole who had criticized her technique as slow and amateur on her first day would have faith and trust in her as the right person to carry on not only his legacy but that of his mentor Naveen's.

"Have you lost your mind, Rookie?" his voice thundered across the room, shaking the glass walls and causing two nurses in the hallway to pause and watch as the couple faced off like two gunslingers at high noon.

"Hmm, it's only been ten minutes." Cassie looked down at the clock on her laptop. "You must have broken a record getting here so fast, Dr. Ramsey. As Chief of Medicine, don't you have more important things to do?"

"What's more important than dealing with my Head of Diagnostics sending a ridiculous request like this on her first day?"

"It's not ridiculous at all," Cassie assured him, her tone confident and firm as she stood behind her desk. "In fact, I believe I made my business case very clear. This team has the potential to do a lot of good, but we need to expand its size in order to achieve that. It's basic economics, Ethan, supply and demand, and you know this is the right direction for the team."

He huffed in annoyance, pinching the bridge of his nose as he was wont to do. "You think you're so clever, don't you?"

"Not think, know," she said smugly, recognizing the shift in his tone that signalled he was coming around to her way of thinking. Three years of working together and almost a year of being in a relationship with him had made her savvy to his ways.

"Fine, but," he held up his palm when she started to speak, "when the Board asks why we're investing more in a team that doesn't drive revenue for the hospital, you will be the one that has to make the case to them. Directly. And it had better be a good one, Dr. Valentine."

"You know I'm the best when it comes to changing hearts and minds," she responded with a grin. "Something you have direct experience with, if I recall."

"You had better hold on that confidence, Rookie," he retorted, but his eyes were full of pride as he watched her sit behind a desk that had been his until a few days ago. There was no one more worthy of it than her.

"I will, Dr. Ramsey," she said, blushing when she saw him look down at the desk and then at her.

He looked away, the flush high on his cheekbones as he straightened his white coat. He turned around to leave when she cleared her throat loudly.

"Aren't you forgetting something, Dr. Ramsey?" she challenged, walking out from behind the desk until she stood next to him.

"And what is that, Dr. Valentine?"

"This." Grabbing his tie, Cassie yanked him forward and into her lips, her tongue tangling with his, unhesitant and sure of her effect on him, and his on her. Then he was kissing her back with a fierce, all-consuming passion, his arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer.

All too soon, they broke apart, his forehead resting on hers as they both panted for breath. With a last soft kiss on her temple, he stepped back and turned to leave again.

Standing in the open doorway, he glanced at her over his shoulder. "Want to grab a coffee later, catch up on our first day?"

"Derry's, 2 o'clock?"

"Why don't we meet up in the atrium? Walk over together," he countered, fidling with his tie as he did when he was nervous.

"It's a date!"

"Have a great morning, Cassie." He smiled sweetly as she reached for his hand, squeezing it briefly before letting go.

"You too, Ethan."

As Cassie watched Ethan walk down the hallway and out of sight, she couldn't help but reflect on how far they'd come. A few months ago, he had told her that he didn't think he'd ever felt this happy before. Ever since they had declared their love for each other, she could confidently say that neither had she.

Shoving her hands into her coat pocket, Cassie Valentine looked around the office that was now hers, remembering how intimidated she'd felt on her first day here. Sitting quietly at the table as June, Baz and Ethan rapidly brainstormed possible diagnoses, she had never felt more clueless or out of place.

Well, she'd found her footing now and she was exactly where she belonged. With the love of her life beside her, she couldn't wait to see where they would go next, together.