Under the Influence

One

Once upon a time the planets and the fates
and all the stars aligned.
You and I ended up in the same room
at the same time.
—————
Erin

Three weeks later

"Thank you so much for your time today, Dr. Jackson. I look forward to speaking at the conference next month," I said brightly, my phone held to my ear as I exited my favorite local coffee shop. "I'll send you my slideshow when we get a bit closer."

I happily exhaled as I hit the red end button on my phone before tucking it into the front pocket of my bag and beginning my walk a few blocks away to work.

Another conference on my plate but this one I was always excited for. The year before, my sister and I were lucky enough to be able to go together, the only siblings at the entire conference.

Amber, my younger sister and pediatric surgeon, was the top of her class at Stanford before being working to earn her internship at the Navy Medical Center in San Diego, California. Luckily for her, I was two years older and well established at the hospital.

While only two years older than Amber, I was six years ahead in the medical world since I graduated high school at fourteen and completed my bachelor's degree by the time I was eighteen, which landed me as the youngest ever head of trauma surgery that the hospital had.

Now I had to see if Amber would be attending the conference with me or if I had to go solo. The year before when we had attended, Amber met her now husband and was beyond determined to find the same for me. Fortunately, she knew nothing about what had happened in Las Vegas with Bradley and I intended to keep it that way.

A block from the hospital, I took a sip from my iced coffee and as I was about to jaywalk, I spotted an oncoming car but the group of men across from me didn't and one stepped right in front of the car, sending his body flying down the road.

Without a second thought, I ran to where his now lifeless body lay on the road and knelt beside him.

"Somebody call 911," I screamed out before grabbing my stethoscope from my bag and heard no breathing sounds at all, though he was clearly trying.

"Please tell me one of you has a knife," I looked at his group of friends, fretful before two of them offered me a pocket knife.

I took the sharper of the two and poured hand sanitizer all over it before tossing the bottle away.

"Somebody get that straw clean for me," I quickly instructed as I held my breath and used the knife to cut a new airway for the man on the ground and inserted the newly sanitized straw to help him be able to breathe until I could get him into the operating room.

Quickly enough, the ambulance showed up and I hopped in once the man was placed inside on the gurney.

At the hospital, I ran in alongside the man being wheeled inside on the gurney.

"Have a man versus car. Had to trach him in the field! Get me in an OR NOW!"

The man, who I later learned was named Mickey Garcia, was taken into the operating room while I scrubbed and then began his surgery.

"Right place, right time, doc," my favorite scrub nurse Melanie called to me.

"Something like that," I replied softly as I concentrated. "This guy is a mess. Someone page Doctor Ricci and somebody get that portable CT machine in here while we wait on him."

Somehow, after eight hours of surgery, we were able to get Lieutenant Garcia all patched up and into recovery before I stepped into the waiting room to find his friends present. I spotted the men he was with and approached them but many more people stood up.

"Surgery went as planned. He had a laceration to his kidney, a collapsed lung, fluid in the other, and I had to stitch him up where I performed the tracheotomy while we waited for the ambulance," I said as the group stood around me in their flight suits, listening intently.

"But he'll be okay, right?" One of the two women in the room questioned.

Trace, I read on her name patch.

"He'll be just fine. We'll keep him here for a few days to monitor him but he should recover nicely."

"I'm sorry. Should we expect any complications, if any?" The other woman asked and I immediately recognized her.

Several months earlier, she had been the sister of a patient that I had lost due to throwing a clot after an otherwise successful surgery and she had watched him die. I quickly realized that she was the fiancé of the man from Las Vegas that Bradley had been celebrating.

"He's been given an anticoagulant shot and will be due for another one in about twelve hours," I replied, hoping to ease her fears. "His recovery should go very smoothly."

"Thank you," the oldest man said, offering his man to me and I shook it as I read the name tag on his flight suit.

Mitchell.

"It's really no problem," I replied as I held my hands together in front of me. "He's not awake yet but I can allow three of you at a time in his room while he's here. I'll send a nurse in to take you to him once he's in his room."

I turned to walk away but heard my name come from within the group once I had exited the room.

"Erin! Uh, Dr. Vargas?"

I turned on my heels and was face to face with Bradley, the first time seeing him since I abruptly left him in Las Vegas.

"Hello, Bradley," I said softly, a small smile on my lips.

"You didn't tell me you worked at the Navy Hospital. And you're a doctor?"

"You didn't ask," I replied in a hushed tone as I grabbed his arm, pulling him to the side. "Are you— you're stationed at North Island or do you just pretend to be a pilot?"

I looked at his flight suit and saw the blank spot where his squadrons patch would normally go before his eyes followed mine and he shook his head.

"Haven't had time to get the new one put on," he replied. "We've been here about ten months now."

I glanced from Bradley to the woman that I recognized and then back.

"Do you know her?" Bradley questioned.

"Her brother was a patient of mine," I admitted. "Sort of anyway. My colleague did the surgery but I was the attending on call when he crashed."

"I've known Odette and her family almost my entire life. That night changed her entire life."

"Changed mine too," I replied. "That case sent me on a spiral to try and keep the same thing from happening to others. I decided that night that I would never lose a patient the way I lost Owen Kazansky."

"You remember his name?"

"I remember the names of all of the patients I've ever lost," I replied. "I'm sorry but I should go check on my patients before I head home. It was nice to see you again, Bradley."

I turned on my heels, taking a deep breath as I began to walk away before I felt a hand grabbing mine.

"Can we talk?"

I turned to face Bradley, my brows pulling together.

"What's there to talk about?"

"You know what there is to talk about," Bradley called after me.

"Not here. Maybe another time."

Maybe it wasn't going to be as simple as I had thought when I left him in the penthouse suite at the Bellagio.