Healing Over Time

Chapter Two

One week after Lee's death

Alex tied off her long braid over one of her shoulders while she looked in the bathroom mirror. Her dark navy scrubs loosely hung off her form as she brushed her long bangs from her eyes and took a deep breath.

Her team told her to take as much time as she needed, but that's not what Alex needed. She needed to work, needed to get her hands moving. She needed something to keep her mind off what was around her.

It was early as she made her way down to the kitchen, hoping to beat everyone else in the house to the coffee pot. As she busied herself on brewing the strong liquid, Alex grabbed a banana from the counter and peeled back the pieces.

"Should eat more than that," John's voice made Alex jump and look over her shoulder.

"Can't really keep much down," Alex shrugged. "Coffee?"

John nodded, walking inside the kitchen and sitting at the island. Alex poured him a cup and passed it along to him before pouring herself one.

"Going back to work already?" John asked.

"Need to do something," Alex muttered, taking a sip of the hot liquid. "You're up early."

"Can't seem to sleep much lately," John nodded.

"Me either," Alex leaned back against the counter, her banana with one bite left forgotten next to her. "So I thought that maybe I can tire myself out with work so I can sleep some."

"Do you have a vehicle?" John asked.

"I'll just take Lee's," Alex stopped and looked over at John. "If that's okay?"

"Of course," John nodded. "Who else would drive it?"

"I don't know..." Alex trailed off.

"Alex?" John looked over at her. "What's his was yours, doesn't mean that's changed now that he's no longer here."

Alex stared back at John, her emotions flipped over inside her stomach.

"You don't find this weird?" Alex asked softly.

"Weird?" John kicked one of his legs out to prop him up on the stool.

"I'm not...your family," Alex said. "I'm not..."

"You were supposed to be," John sighed. "All of us already accepted it, so while you might feel weird now, your presence is not."

"I don't feel like I belong anymore," Alex admitted, feeling like she was ripping off a band-aid. "I feel like the one thing connecting me to this place is now gone."

"Lee was not the only thing connecting you to this place," John said.

"He was the last thing here still," Alex tried to push down the lump in her throat. "Everything else left a long time ago."

"Maybe so, Alex," John stood up and stretched. "One thing though that I've found in my lifetime is things that leave this place, forced or not, tend to always find a way back around."

Alex watched him make his way out of the room. She finished her coffee and threw her banana away before she made her way outside of the house and over to Lee's truck parked outside by the trees.

The drive to the Ruby Valley Medical Hosital was about a forty-minute drive from the Dutton Ranch. Alex listened to silence as she pulled into the parking lot, seeing it was still quiet in the morning hours. She got inside and put her things away in her locker before walking up to the second floor, and over to the ICU wing.