Coming Back to You ✔

32. June

Sophia had never really hated Mondays, because she was never guaranteed to start her work week on a Monday. Sometimes Monday was her Friday, other times she had it off completely. But after almost two months of working a nine-to-five, Monday through Friday job, she was really starting to understand the day's unpopularity.

Part of her had been hoping that a beneficial side effect to the car following her over the weekend would be that she would get to skip a few days of work, but Jamie had dropped by Sunday evening to put her mind at ease.

"It was an old man," Jamie had reported back. "Apparently, he thought you looked like his granddaughter and was following you to try and get his attention. It was only when you ran off in the opposite direction did he realize that it wasn't her and that he had been behaving like a total stalker."

Her words had brought relief that Graham wasn't in New York, but that also meant that Sophia had to go to work.

Something was off, though. Not Graham related, but as Sophia got off the subway, there was something in the air that made her certain that today wouldn't be a normal day. Sirens filled the air, growing louder and more urgent as Sophia approached the hospital.

She turned a corner, and her jaw dropped.

Emergency personnel had the entire block barricaded off. Ambulance and firefighter crews lined the streets, lights flashing, everyone looking stressed. But that wasn't what took Sophia's breath away.

Almost an entire building was gone. The apartments and convenience store that sat right across from the E.R. now lay in a crumbled heap. Sophia had been to that store many times since starting work at Mt. Sinai, and now, nothing.

"Holy shit," she breathed. There was a growing crowd around the police barriers, and Sophia fought her way to the front, hoping her hospital I.D. would be enough to allow her through.

"My daughter lives there, let me through!"

There were similar pleas all around her, but the woman shouting in the face of an FDNY member was nearly in full meltdown, looking like she was going to torpedo through the barriers at any moment.

"Ma'am, I can't let you pass," the firefighter said. "We can't let anyone pass."

"But if she's in the E.R., then she's alone!"

"Ma'am, ma'am," Sophia said, stepping in. She flashed her hospital badge to both the firefighter and the distressed woman. "I work there, I can help."

"I'm looking for Sylvia Diaz," the woman said, desperately. "I haven't been able to get a hold of her."

Sophia nodded. "Okay." She turned toward the firefighter. "Can I go in?"

She looked at Sophia's badge again and then nodded. "Straight to the hospital."

Sophia gave a short nod, then turned back to the woman. "I'll be back," she promised. "Wait here, and I'll see what I can find out."

With her words, the woman seemed to have calmed down, and Sophia slipped away into the chaos, making a beeline into the emergency room.

As predicted, the place was in chaos. Nurses could only keep so much order in an E.R. that was right across the street from a major disaster.

Sophia stood off to the side, scanning the room and taking in the situation. As far as she could tell, there wasn't an influx of major injuries, probably because everyone who was the most hurt was still buried under the building. It looked like a lot of the activity was from people injured by falling debris, and the rest of the staff preparing for a mass casualty situation.