Open Heart AU 1 (Ethan Ramsey x Valerie Valentine)

Tipping Point: AU1 Chapter 22

Definition of Tipping point : the point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change.

Valentine.

I sat on the curb, hugging my knees to my chest and looking at the ground. Although, I've lost all focus and now what should be grey concrete is slowly turning black, my thoughts becoming all consuming....

"You look like a child that lost their mother in crowd so sits on the sidewalk until someone approaches them to help." I heard a voice say with a sigh.

I sniffled and looked up to see Ethan approaching.

"Hm. Thanks." I scoffed pushed my hair back and placed my chin on my knees.

He stood tall over me and asked "You've heard about Stephanie Hill, haven't you?"

I nodded slowly. "Yeah...about 10 minutes ago..." I sighed.

When I heard no reply but his shadow still appeared over me, I looked up to him, where he was holding his hand.

I took it and he assisted me to my feet and said "Let's talk.", my hand lingered in his before we separated and started to walk into the hospital.

I looked to him, seeing his strangely calm demeanor....

Not just considering the situation, but generally strange for a man like Ethan/

"Your pissed off." I said after analyzing his face.

"Of course. Tobias took our patient. More importantly, he took your patient." He glanced down to me.

"Yeah...I know..." I looked to the floor as we headed to the elevator.

"But, I can't let that affect the other patients in our care. Neither can you." He raised a brow as he pressed the button.

"I know. It's just...well... I don't know. This is a completely different feeling...Like I didn't just let down Stephanie and her family, I let down Edenbrook." I stated as we walked inside.

"Neither of which were your fault, Valentine. You didn't let anyone down. Tobias was willing to go as low as he could to take the grant, even if that meant bribing the patient, but giving her the same treatment so she couldn't resist. That's nothing to do with you, but just how the world works." He said as we stood at the back, his expression unreadable.

"Money?" I looked up to him.

"Exactly. If you've learnt anything over these past weeks, isn't it that money highly influences the world we live in? To a severity that sometimes we don't even acknowledge in day to day life because it's normalized?" He asked.

I thought back over the past few weeks, from the news that Edenbrook was heading into a financial crisis, to Gwyneth who struggled to have her health taken seriously because of her high social status, Leland Bloom who literally bought a few extra years of life... to Stephanie, who needed money to help her parents with her medical bills.

"Yeah...I suppose your right..." I pursed my lips.

"Of course I am." He said nonchalantly as the doors opened.

I smiled and shook my head as we walked out and down the hall to the diagnostics office.

"There will be other opportunists, V. And we'll seize them. They may have won this time, but we'll get there, okay?"

I smiled and said "Can we see competitive Ethan a bit more?"

He rolled his eyes, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips.