The Choices I've Made (By the Bay #1)

Chapter Three: Jake

I couldn't deny it; I was rattled.

I had known returning home would be difficult.

I'd walked away with little to no desire of ever returning. Severing those ties had made it easier. I'd convinced myself it was the right decision for everyone, and eventually, the guilt had become nothing more than a distant memory.

But running into Dean and the mess that followed had brought it all back.

It'd brought everything back.

My hands shook as I washed them in the doctors' lounge after finishing an impromptu lunch. Or dinner. I wasn't sure. Since arriving in Virginia Beach, I'd been doing everything I could to help with the victims and their families.

Having privileges in Illinois and North Carolina only, I'd been granted emergency privileges in the state of Virginia to help with the ferry boat victims. This hospital was used to taking the brunt of emergencies from up and down the coast, splitting them with Greenville, North Carolina, but tonight, they were far from sufficiently staffed.

I was more than glad to help and welcomed the short-term distraction wholeheartedly.

It had been a long night, and it wasn't over.

Finding Molly...it could have been avoided. I could have spent the entire night at the hospital without seeing her. But I'd promised Dean I'd take care of her, so I had done the only thing I could. I'd tried to calm her fears, but instead, I'd found myself as the fearful one.

"Jameson," Dr. Fisher called out as he breezed in and collapsed on one of the couches, "you did good tonight."

"Just trying to help," I said, grabbing a paper towel for my hands.

"Crazy night." His eyes were closed, but his hands continued to move in slow circles around his temples.

I recognized the posture.

Exhaustion.

After working my ass off through years of school and a never-ending residency, I knew the feeling. It seemed to be the only constant in my life.

"Chief said you know some of the patients who came in?"

"Yeah," I replied. "I was on the ferry, headed home for my father's funeral."

He immediately sat up. "No shit?"

I simply nodded.

"They're saying it's the first ferry accident around here in years."

"Decades, I'd wager," I answered.

Fisher returned to his horizontal position on the couch, and we continued to make small talk. He seemed unaffected by the events that had taken place tonight. Being a transplant from Ohio, he didn't have the deep connections like some of us.

To him, it was just another long night. I wish it were for me, too.

Leaving him to his sleep, I made my way out of the lounge to check on a few patients. Since arriving, I'd mostly been working in the ER. My own minor wounds had been tended to, and then I'd gone to work. Idly sitting around never suited me. I much preferred the chaos of the hospital to the silence of my apartment.

It was why I'd risen through the ranks at MacNeal. With the chief of surgery looking to retire soon, it would only be a matter of time before I was running the whole place. But, until then, I was here, fulfilling my father's last wish.

One I'd repeatedly told him I didn't want to be responsible for.

After checking up with the nursing staff and stopping by a few rooms, I knew there was still one thing left to do.