Invisible String

Chapter 8: Break Free

"What would you do if I break free and leave us in ruins?
took this dagger in me and removed it?"

🦷

Elizabeth was exhausted.

Not in a "I work too much and need a nap" way, but in a "I feel like I'm going insane and my bones might break at any time and then I will die" way. While finally accepting the help her brothers had offered had taken quite a weight off her shoulders, the confrontation with Robert had brought back feelings she had fought hard to keep in a hidden corner of her mind.

Still, she kept going. That was what her mother had taught her to do, after all. You take a bad thing, and you find a way to make it into a good thing. Lizzie had yet to find a way of making a somehow psychotic ex-boyfriend stalking her into a good thing, but she was trying to remain hopeful.

"So, how is Robin doing?" she asked, watching Connor reading some charts and test results. They were sitting at one of the tables in the outer playground the hospital had for the children while he ate a poor excuse of what was supposed to be a healthy sandwich that smelled terrible. Lizzie was reading an enormous book on minor oral surgery and trying to prepare her class for the Health Day the hospital was promoting in a few days.

"She's getting better. She's asking when she can go back to work already."

"It's like you both are meant to be." Lizzie joked as she turned the page on her book. Connor had clearly found a woman as workaholic and competitive as he was.

She couldn't remember a time when Rob and her seemed to be as at ease as Connor and Robin.

"It's a beautiful day today, isn't it?" like a figment of the dreams that plagued her for the last week, Robert appeared out of nowhere. It was like he was a sight conjured from her tired eyes, but Lizzie heard his voice, and it was real.

She had to resist the impulse of throwing her book at him. So much for remaining hopeful.

After that day when he showed up at her apartment, she didn't know what to do to make him leave her alone. Rob had made it very clear that he wasn't going to give up easily. Telling Jay and Erin everything she went through, or almost everything, was hard, but the timing of it couldn't be better. Lizzie had to admit she wouldn't be able to deal with him on her own anymore.

Will had come home after work the next morning only to find Jay sleeping on their couch and Lizzie knocked out on sleep-aid medication after crying a little on their shoulders. After some coffee the three of them sat together and Lizzie told Will everything she had told Jay and Erin. She didn't think it was possible, but Will got even angrier than Jay had gotten.

Then it was time to make a plan.

Will alerted the security at the hospital, but since he hasn't made any direct threat or harassed her there, there wasn't much they could do apart from escorting him out if she called them. And as much as she didn't want to, she had to admit that maybe it was time to take more extreme measures.

"Really, Rob?" she inquired tiredly, turning around in her seat to face him properly. "How do you even keep getting in?"

"You know me, sweetheart. I'm magnetic and persuasive."

"I think the words you're looking for are controlling and toxic." Lizzie snapped back.

"What? It's a public space, and I'm only enjoying the fresh air."

"This is hospital property, actually." Connor corrects him.

"Oh, I'm sorry. You're Doctor Rhodes, right? I'm Doctor Wright. I'm a huge fan of your work, Doc. I'm actually thinking about following cardiothoracic." Rob offered his hand to Connor, who just stared back at him with a raised eyebrow.