X - Y - Z

SEVEN - GRAHAM

I'm walking out of the hospital doors with Sean when my phone buzzes in my pocket with a test. "It's seriously cool that you stuck a round until Mrs. Mills woke up. You know there are people on staff specifically to wait with kids if their parents are in surgery," Sean comments. 

"Yeah I know, but they were going to have to call someone in who knows ASL, and I was already here.  Plus, Ava is kinda shy, and she'd already warmed up to me. Besides...you're one to talk. You got back into town today and are still technically on vacation yet here you are..." I tell him while opening the message.

"Hanging at Hazel's. Come if you're up."

"The Hazel that Luke and Gabe keep talking about?" Sean asks.

"What? Oh. Did I say that outloud?"

"Ha! Yeah you did," Sean says with a grin.

I smile a little sheepishly before I realize what he said. "Wait, why are Luke and Gabe talking about Hazel?"

"Oh they love her! Can't wait to see her again! I'm curious to meet her myself." Sean tells me.

"What about Sang?" I ask. These guys love Sand like the most precious thing the world, so what does he mean?

"Oh, yeah! Sang's actually excited to meet her too. She's a little hesitant since she doesn't always get on great with women, but she trusts Luke and Gabe so..." he trails off with a shrug.

"So...."

"So, they think the girls will be great friends!"

"Oh...oh! Oh, that's great!" Sheesh. I don't know what I felt so anxious during that short conversation, but my heart is beating a mile a minute. I know the Blackbourne team would never be unfaithful, but shit was I was confused for a second.

"It is, isn't it?!" Sean continues. "So have you met her yet?"

"Not yet," I tell him. "I guess I'm about to, though." With that, Sean and I part ways. I head to my car while letting Foster know I'd be there shortly. I'd really like to head home and shower first, but it's already newarly 9. I don't want to show up when everyone's ready to leave. I plug in the address Foster sends over and head straight there. It only takes me about 30 minutes with traffic.  I'm nervous. The guys and I have watched the Blackbourne and Toma teams with envy for years, not to mention the Andersons. They started socializing a lot more once their situation became more common. It'd be perfect for us. We all know that. At the same time, though, I worry about someone being able to love all of us.  We're quite different, and our bond is unbreakable. She'd have to be able to love us equally for it to work.

We've never found someone we were all equally interested in either.  There have been a few girls considered in the past. Foster met Allison and thought it could work. She wasn't Harvey's type at all really though, and Harvey wasn't hers. I met Samantha at a community outreach, and she seemed really nice.She was so rude to Leo about his tats though, which was uncalled for and frankly ridiculous. His work is brilliant. Plus who judges someone about something that doesn't affect them at all?

I had invited her to the lake with us. As soon as she made her snide remarks, we all pulled our shirts off revealing varying amounts of body art and piercings. Needless to say, it was awkward, and she left after only an hour. She tried apologizing a week later, which I appreciated. It didn't really matter, though. She was clearly only in to me and the guys were not in to her.

So far Hazel has met everyone but me, and they're all still on board. That makes me so nervous. What if I don't like her? What if she doesn't like me? I'll ruin it for everyone then. Girls don't always like me. My personality is what someone might describe as serious, but a lot of time women think I'm just in a bad mood or upset about something. Just because a person isn't constantly smiling doesn't mean something is wrong with them. I'm not shy or rude, I'm just introverted I guess. I have to fake it a lot in my line of work to make others comfortable. That's not something I want to have to do in my personal relationships. A person I'm romantic with needs to like the real me. God, I hope I don't ruin it.