Open Heart One Shots (Choices)

Can't Help Falling (AU)

Summary: When Ethan Ramsey attends a night at the opera, little does he know that his life will never be the same. Once again.

The foyer of the Boston Opera House was teeming with glitterati, opera and ballet enthusiasts, members of the press, and one Dr. Ethan Ramsey, newly minted Head of Edenbrook's famed Diagnostics Team after his mentor, Dr. Naveen Banerji chose retirement.

It was a hard-earned position, he thought, ignoring the cacophony of voices around him. One he had pursued doggedly upon first completing his residency in internal medicine, then spending three years as a Diagnostics fellow before becoming an attending.

He sipped champagne, his lips turning in distaste and, when no one was looking, poured the offending liquid in a nearby planter. As he waited, he mentally reviewed notes on the patient he'd left sleeping at the hospital and wondered if he would have time to drop by the hospital after the performance.

The lights flickered and the buzz around the room changed as guests made their way inside the theater. Ethan displayed a VIP pass to the attendant and proceeded to his seat near the front, just across from center stage. The perks of knowing the marquee performer.

Tonight's premiere of Tchaikovsky's Iolanta and The Nutcracker opera-ballet harkened back to olden days when double billing was quite common. As an opera aficionado, Ethan couldn't understand why anyone would want to ruin a good aria with dancers prancing about on the stage. Still, he was here to show his support for a friend.

He had met tonight's soprano, Teresa Gardener, at college. They had dated for a year and a half before realizing they were better off as friends. She had introduced him to the world of opera, something a young man from a distinctly blue-collar neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island, had never known existed.

He had escaped that life, reinventing himself from Troublemaker Ethan whose mother had abandoned her family to a world-renowned physician that had graduated top of his class at Johns Hopkins and already published a book. All by the time he was 30.

When the theater lights dimmed and the curtain slid open, he found himself getting lost in the sheer artistry of opera, the drama, the music. When Teresa glided on to the stage, he felt pride at seeing his friend at the top of her profession, her siren-like voice captivating as she sang of pain, loss, heartbreak and fragility of life. As the first act gave way to the second, he wished once again that the performance had maintained the purity of opera.

The second act opened on a birthday party. He inwardly sighed as the chorus of ballet dancers frolicked on to the stage, their lithe bodies waltzing to the romantic melody. He was about to run through a series of diagnostic prompts until intermission when his eyes fell on the principal ballerina who floated onto the center of the stage.

Stage lights sparkled off the tiara anchoring her blonde hair tied back into a bun. Like a fairy covered with dust, she seemed to shine; her body flowing into complicated steps, portraying the excitement and nervousness of a first love and then loss of innocence as love was torn from her.

Mesmerized, his eyes followed her as she drifted across the stage, taking in everything from the delicate beauty on her expressive face to the evocative music that appeared to have been written with her in mind. When the theater lights came on for intermission, he silently cursed, wishing he was back in the dark with her.

Not caring for company, he stayed in his seat, reaching inside the seat pocket for the program guide he'd been handed earlier. He flipped through the pages filled with useless fluff until he found the list of performers. He devoured her brief profile, reading and re-reading the details, looking for any clues to who she was. The accompanying professional headshot highlighted green eyes that seemed to stare through him.