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: When Ethan agrees to help Cassie study for her boards, their competitive nature comes out and the session soon takes an interesting turn.
Rating: Mature/NSFW
If there was one thing Cassie Valentine hated more than anything, it was quitting. But her brain refused to even consider an alternative and that was stressing her out more than the practice test she was trying to complete.
In her infinite wisdom, she had told the one person who could have helped that she was fine on her own. No, not fine, she thought. She'd said she was golden. The person she had been three hours ago was an idiot.
Even the thought of Sienna's delicious cookies — coming soon from an oven near her — wasn't enough to prop her flagging energy. Desperate times called for desperate measures.
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An hour later, Cassie was lying back on Ethan's couch waiting for him to finish making their coffees. Eyes closed, she massaged her temples to get rid of the tension headache that had been parked there all evening.
"Here."
She opened her eyes at the sound of his voice, sitting up as he handed her one of the coffee mugs. She smiled when she saw it was a Vienna. While she appreciated the Romano, this would always be her favorite coffee drink.
"I love you," she said with gusto, holding the bright blue mug between both hands.
"I'd like to believe you're speaking to me," he chuckled as he sat down beside her with his own. "But after all this time, we both know coffee comes first in your affections."
She winked at him over the rim of her mug before savoring the creamy espresso.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked a few minutes later when her left hand once again pressed against the side of her forehead.
The apprehension he'd seen on her face lately seemed to have increased as the date for the board examinations approached. It was at such odds with the brilliant physician he knew her to be — one that had solved the unsolvable in her intern year, one that refused to quit even when her entire career was on the line or when she could have died from a fast-acting lethal toxin — that he wondered if something else was at play.
"What if I fail?" she said, her voice whisper soft as she looked away.
"The pass rate for first-time exam takers is 93%," he told her gently, reaching for the mug in her right hand to set it down on the coffee table next to his. "If for some inexplicable reason, you're in the 7% that fail, you can retake it in the fall."
"Just like that?" she said, watching him sceptically.
"Of course," he said with certainty, lacing his fingers through hers to comfort and reassure. "But Cassie, the chances of you failing are next to impossible. All of the different types of cases that you've worked on, from Naveen's and Teresa's in your intern year to the extraordinary medical situations we tackle on the Diagnostics Team, have prepared you more than your fellow residents."
