Belong

~Nine~

   "I'm always sorry in the morning. But tomorrow I start my first day at work, so keep them coming." I grinned wolfishly, not knowing someone is watching me.  I didn't know that I'd like alcohol.

  I heard someone said, I quickly glanced at him and it was Derek, "How you doing? Double scotch, single malt please." He sat down next to me at the bar, he looked at me, "so is this a good place to hang out?" He tilted his head at me.

  I just shrugged, "I wouldn't know, I've never been here before."  I looked at my glass that holds tequila. 

  He heaved a sigh, "Oh well you know what, I haven't either. First time in town. I'm new in town. First time in Seattle. I got a job so..."

  I just stared ahead, "Ah you're ignoring me." He muttered, I looked at him, "I'm trying to," I grimaced.

  "You shouldn't ignore me," he chuckled a little, "why not?" I asked bluntly. 

  He looked at his Double Scotch, "because I'm someone you need to get to know to love." He looked at me, and I had to stifled a laugh.

  "Really?"

  "Oh yes," he grinned. His teeth showing.

  "So if I know you, then I'll love you?" I looked at him amused, he repeated "oh yes."

  "You really like yourself, huh?" I smirked.

  He smiled, his eyes flickered when he said, "just hiding my pain." Addison.

  I laughed slightly, and he joined me.

  "So what's your story," he asked, I raised my eyebrows, "what story? I'm just a girl in a bar," I shrugged.

  He praised me, "I'm just a guy in a bar."

  I snapped my eyes open to my darkened bedroom, what was that?

  I moved my head to see what time is it, and I groaned.

  2:34 am

  I huffed and rolled over, then I saw Scott.

  If I'm up, then he needs to be up.

  I decided to hit his arm, then again, and he muttered, "I'm up, I'm up." He peeked one eye open, through the slit.  "I got the...um memory?" I trailed off.

  "Of what?"

  "When I first 'met' Derek," I sighed, his eyes snapped open wide.  I nodded, "I don't know what it means, cause I had one from one night stand, but the weird thing is that he was possessive when we had sex." I sighed, he muttered, "lots of mysteries to solve."

  "Okay, you can go to sleep," I smiled, and he huffed, rolling over aggressively, and took half of my blanket with him.

  I closed my eyes once again.

~-B-~

   "Can you tell me what you had for breakfast on Monday?" Derek asked Jorge, Sona looked around, "Cheese omelet. And on Sunday. And on Saturday. And on Friday. Sona gets up every morning and makes me a cheese omelet." I saw Sona grabbing Jorge's hand.

  "It's the only thing he likes." She smiled wistfully, she's really in love with him.

  "It's the only thing you know how to cook." Jorge laughed, and I saw Derek glancing at me from my peripheral vision.

  Derek got up from his chair, "Okay, well, things look good. But I need Jorge to get an MRI this morning to check for residual bleeding. Okay?" They both nodded, and I walked behind him once he left the room.

~-B-~

  "There. That's a tumor. It's midline near the hypothalamus." Derek pointed at the screen of MRI.

  "Damn," I breathed.

  He nodded absently, I sighed. I walked out of the MRI scanner room, and went to Jorge's room along with Derek following behind me.

  Derek started to explain, "best practice, probably to remove the tumor. "Probably" because I can't get it all. 99%, but not all of it. Radiation and chemo, you're looking at maybe five to ten good years."

  Jorge, and Sona looked at each other, "let's do it."  Derek shook his head, "You haven't heard the downside. See, the tumor is located in a part of your brain where your memory and your personality resides. And because of the fuzzy edges of this type of tumor, I have to cut out a lot. Jorge, you stand a good chance of losing your memories. Of losing who you are." He explained once more.

  Sona looked like she might cry, "is there any other way?" She choked. I felt a pang of sympathy.

  "The alternative is gamma or cyberknife treatment with focus radiation. It's less evasive. There's little chance of memory loss or him losing himself but it would only give Jorge maybe three to five years."

  "Three to five years?" She mumbled, "This is an incredibly difficult decision. If you have any more questions or you need to talk to me, I'm here, okay?" Derek grabbed his chart, and I nodded my head toward them.

~-B-~

    I stood outside of Jorge's room after I was done with my lunch break, Derek came out of his room.

  "Jorge and Sona want the surgery." He said once he said me, I stood there gaped, "they want you to cut it out?" I asked, I didn't know how I feel about it. It shouldn't impact me, but it did.

  "Mm-hmm. It's their decision." He muttered while looking at Jorge's chart.

  I sighed, I need to talk to Scott about this.

~-B-~

  After I tried to convince Sona not to do surgery, it went unsuccessfully.

  I went to my locker room as soon I was done with my shift and I put in my combination, and it snapped open. I hastily grabbed the phone, and sent a text to Scott to meet me at Elm Coffee Roasters down the street from our house after I deal with Ellis.

~-B-~

  "I did something stupid," I said as soon I saw him sitting at a table after I arrived at the coffee shop. "What did you do?" He questioned while pushing my coffee towards me.

  I sighed, "I tried to convince Sona...Jorge's wife," I said quickly after I saw his confusion. He nodded his head understanding who I was talking about, I continued, "to not let three to five years go, instead of surgery."

  "Yeah that's...stupid, but not. If you know what I mean?" He hesitantly said, I nodded in an agreement.  He relaxed after he realized I wasn't going off on him.

  "But here's the thing, when they decided to have the surgery, I felt empty, and scared." I muttered, my eyes flickered slightly.

  He looked at me with wide eyes, "yeah, more mysteries to solve." I nodded agreeing with him.

  I took a sip of my coffee.

  More mysteries to solve, indeed.