Rachel's POV"You're leaving now?"Ever since he arrived, his revelations had done a lousy job at clarifying my confusion. Right from the moment he declared to me that his sister was in a surgery as we spoke till now, everything he did was in a haste. He barely paused to spare me glance, let alone explain to me about everything in detail.When Alan returned home, although he tried his best to maintain his composure, I knew instantly that he was feeling off. After he had told us that Sasha met with an accident, I was glad that my friends volunteered to leave us alone.I was completely taken aback by the news. Although I didn't know his family that well, Sasha was the only person that genuinely tried and succeeding in making me feel comfortable and welcomed into the family. Knowing that she was hurt only reminded me how I actually liked her more than I had originally believed."Not right now." He said, shooting a sideways glance at my figure. He was packing his clothes as we spoke. "But
Alan's POVSasha was out of surgery by the time I reached the hospital."She's right now in a medically induced coma which is going to give her brain a little time to recover from the imbalance. But she should be awake in a day at the latest." Dr.Johnson, the neurosurgeon who had taken up my sister's case told us. He was also my mom's old friend from college.By the time I had reached the hospital, and as I had expected, my mother was found in a miserable state. Since my father was not around and we had still not been able to contact him, she was visibly terrified.Shortly after I had consoled her, the neurosurgeon walked out of the OR to update us on my sister's condition."Are you saying she survived? That she's going to be okay?" My mother asked in disbelief. Since it was a brain injury, I couldn't blame her for calculating the worst outcomes. I was well aware of the risks of brain surgery, although death is not always an outcome, there is a high risk of memory loss, loss of speech
Rachel's POV"You're late!" Henry fixed me with a glare as I hurried to him.Of course, I was.It was never my style to walk in late to any event or meeting, especially to work. I was always a morning person and generally had no trouble waking up early. In fact, I had trained my biological clock so well that I didn't even need an alarm anymore. Just a simple suggestion during the night was enough to awake me at the stipulated time.But all the mind games I played with myself in order to trick myself into being more productive had gone down the drain right at the instant where my schedule demanded it more.Since the boards were just a few days away, I, along with Emilia and Mark, had been spending most of my time staying up late by necking countless shots of coffee. It was proving to be resourceful only during the nights and the pain of waking up sleep deprived was undeniable.For the past two weeks, Emilia and Mark had been pushing each other, and to a certain point, even me, to work
Rachel's POV"Hey..." I said, and it almost sounded like a sigh. "How are you doing?""I am good." I could help but recognise the tiredness in his voice. He was exhausted. If only this had been a video call. My mistake, I should've thought of that sooner. I wanted to be able to see his face right now so I could try and read his face, and thereby, interpret his thoughts. "How're things up your front?""I'm doing fine. How's Sasha doing?""She had woken up an hour ago, she's doing good too." He said. "She didn't talk, and the doctor has advised us not to bother her too much. She was in a medically induced coma for a while and her surgery well went. No post-op complications that we should be worried of, so yeah, all good."I frowned at his tone. It wasn't very convincing, which piqued my interest further because I hardly ever heard him so low."Are you alright?""Yeah, why wouldn't I be?""Your tone isn't very convincing," I said with a strict tone."Yeah, I'm just exhausted.""I can cal
Alan's POVI could sense how tensed my mother was by stealing just a glance at her side. If her exterior was in such visible stress, I could only imagine what she was going through inside."She'll be fine, Mom," I tried to assure her, but I highly doubted if my tone did the job. When she failed to reply, I realised that it indeed did no good. Defeated, I followed her gaze toward the source of her worry, looking through the glass window instilled to provide privacy to the patient.Inside the room stood three men from the police department along with my sister, who had woken up just hours ago from a small nap. The first time she had woken up after surgery, she sent my mother into a deep pit of agony as she failed to produce any response when questioned about her state.Although the doctors had informed us that it was nothing out of the ordinary and that it generally takes patients who had just undergone brain surgery a lot of time to be able to express all their bodily functions, mainly
Alan's POVThere were so many things I absolutely adored about Rachel. More than anything, I respected her for the person that she was. Her drive, her compassion and her dedication to her job are the few things that have impressed me tremendously. If I were to say, I could go on and on about her for hours although I haven't even known her for very long.From what I could see, she was complete wife material. Meaning, in general terms, she checked all the boxes in my mother's notebook. She was domestic, driven and immensely caring. She knew exactly how to maintain her career and her personal life, when to prioritise the right thing and how to maintain a balance between all her relationships.She essentially creates harmony around her everywhere she goes. Despite coming from such a messed up family, she astounds me with being the person that she was. I strongly believed that my parents are to be credited for carving me into the person that I am today.I believe that parent's play a very
Rachel's POV“You did what?” His all too familiar voice greeted my ears.I grimaced upon detecting the tone of his voice. This was precisely what I was worried about.“I’ve actually had lunch with her.” I winced further while uttering the words for I knew all too well how they were going to mess with his head.“Are you kidding me?” His voice was borderline angry. Hearing him, I slowly began to grow worried for myself. Shit, what have I done?I lauded my decision to have walked away from Emilia’s hearing range before I called him from the balcony in her flat because I didn’t know what I’d do if they had heard his shriek from the phone. It would have been very awkward and difficult to maintain my composure in our course of conversation.“Alan, please don’t be angry with me,” I muttered, feebly. “I didn’t have a choice.”I heard him sigh from the other end, and after a few seconds pause, he replied, “I’m sorry. It wasn’t my intention to use that tone. And I’m not angry with you.” After a
Rachel's POVAfter much contemplation, I decided that it was better if I waited until he restored his senses before I talked to him. Both of us were definitely incapable of handling the situation in an amicable manner so that seemed like the most logical step. Shaking my head off the thoughts, both figuratively and literally, I walked back inside to join Emilia and Mark.“What’s for Dinner?” I announced my presence as I walked into the room, where Emilia and Mark were preoccupied with something on Mark’s phone.“That’s what we’re trying to decide for the past twenty minutes,” Mark mumbled and frowned at the screen of his phone.Rolling my eyes, I said, “That is so typical of you both. What can you not decide on now? Whether to try Indian or Mexican?”“Or Chinese,” Emilia added. So I was right. “What would you pick?”“I think it’s expected of me to say Indian, since, you know, I am almost Indian in blood.” I uttered and reclined backwards on the sofa beside Emilia and grabbed hold of a
RachelMy eyes widened in disbelief when I looked at the screen. Three brand new emails had made their way into my mailbox last week and I had finally kept some time aside this weekend to respond to them. All of them had the same message - that they would be pleased to have me as their Cardio Fellow.To be honest, I wasn’t counting on Ingard and Boston Medical to even consider me for the job, let alone offer me one. Hence, I assumed that the only option available for me was to continue my service at Weston Hale Memorial hospital here in New York. I wasn’t sure what I was feeling about this.“What’s wrong?” Alan asked as he walked toward me with two cups of coffee in his hands. After placing them by my side, he hovered over me to peek a glance at the screen.It had become his routine to make me breakfast and coffee every morning. Ever since I was discharged from the hospital two months ago, Alan had made sure he was doing everything he could to give me a smooth recovery period.Knowing
Alan's POV“Oh, my God,” Rachel’s mother froze in her step at the sight of her daughter. Beside her, her husband mirrored her expression of absolute astonishment.“Rachel...” She frantically cried and rushed to her side, “Oh, my God, look at you.”Seeing as her father wanted to have a closer look at his daughter for himself, I quietly stepped back to stand by my mother, "Rachel, are you alright? How are you feeling?”The new found love and affection in her parents caught her completely off guard. Looking quizzically at me, her eyes sought answers regarding how to proceed with her situation at hand. It was perhaps the first time she was watching her mother cry for her and that essentially caused a wave of panic to rush through her.“Mom,” She hurried to say, “Mom, I’m okay. I’m completely fine, please don’t panic.”“Oh, my God, am I scaring you? I’m sorry, Rachel, I just-”“Mrs Windsor, it’s alright.” Emilia spoke, “Rachel is fine. She’ll get better in the next few days. I assure you s
Alan's POV While I waited for the news of Rachel’s surgery, Emilia, Henry and Mark decided to accompany me. The four of us were in a similar mental state dominated by angst and fear, and the only person keeping us from sinking into waters of lost faith was Dylan. Though I hadn’t acknowledged his involvement then, I have grown to appreciate his support more than anything. From a distance, I could recognise Emilia and Dylan approaching me. Their faces showed evident exhaustion after a tiring day, supplemented by sleep deprivation. Soon enough, they reached me and propelled down beside me. Emilia took the spot beside my seat and Dylan, the one beside her’s. “Is she asleep yet?” I asked as I peeked at the view of her tired face. “Finally,” She nodded, “She was exhausted. She’s not showing it but I could sense that she was in a lot of pain. Pain meds don’t ease everything.” Dylan wrapped an arm around her and drew her closer to himself, “Good thing she’s asleep then, yeah? She won’t fe
Rachel’s POVThere was an unknown hesitation in me that didn’t allow me to acknowledge him. Why I felt the fear was beyond my understanding. Perhaps it was my subconscious preventing me from looking at him, although my racing heart was looking for him to sate its pace. Deeply buried, a memory from when I last saw him. It was then that I had slipped into the darkness. The vacuum of nothingness.Long after Henry and Emilia exited the room, I refused to turn my head toward the door. Waiting for his touch, I stared blankly at the wall clock. But it never came.Giving up, at last, I desperately let my eyes search for him. Looming over my figure by my side, he stared at me. There was a look of restored hope in his face, as though he was watching a miracle unfold before his eyes. Utterly heartbroken, his face spoke to me of his exhaustion and grief and that seemed to paralyze him momentarily.After his initial shock seemed to subside, he took a seat beside my bed. Carefully then, he reached
Rachel's POVWith heavy eyelids, I attempted to catch a whim of the world outside my brain. The white light that had previously blinded me, dispiriting me from trying again, had managed to dim in its intensity.I heard noises around me again, but their coherence remained a mystery. Blinking my eyes, I tried to focus on the clock on the wall opposite of me but it was a futile attempt. All that seemed to matter to me right then was to be able to comprehend the words.In desperation, I felt moisture pool in my eyes. Defeated, I closed my eyes. My persistent effort to keep myself conscious was deemed counterproductive as that very attempt was wearing me out. I was afraid of reliving the dream should I fall asleep again and I couldn’t afford it. But there was little in my body that was still in my control, and my mind sadly wasn’t one of them.‘Keep your distance for the next ten seconds’ I typed.Immediately, I shut down the phone and ran my eyes over our surroundings for another quick in
Alan's POV“Emilia?” I shrieked out, “Who are you talking about?”“Douglas,” A chill went down my spine, “Rachel told me that he was responsible for the attack last night and that I should tell you-”“Did he say where he’s taking her?”“He just said his wife needed a doctor and asked if Rachel could come and see her.”“Fucking hell,” I groaned, “Did you give Rachel the phone I gave you?”“Yes, she has it with her.” She said, “Alan, is she going to be okay?”“Yes, she will.” I said, “I’ll call you back.”“What the fuck?” Bruce asked once I cut the call.“Page Cameron to send in more people,” I said, “I know where Douglas is.”“Is it that black car?” Bruce asked me.My eyes that were previously fixed on the GPS on the screen flew up to see what he was talking about. Answering his question, I nodded, “Yes, that is it.”“Has Rachel texted back?”In dismay, I shook my head, “No. But it does say that she’s seen the message.”“What did you tell her?”“That we’re following closely behind, an
Rachel’s POVFreezing in my step, I looked at him with a frown. Noticing me, a hesitant smile latched onto his face, “Hey.”“You’re here early.”Shrugging, he clumsily scratched his neck, “Well, yeah...”“You didn’t give him a choice...” Emilia muttered from behind him as she stirred some vegetables on the pan.Instant guilt cruised through me. He was there because he was worried about me. He was worried that I was upset with him.“Alan, I didn’t-” I stopped myself and looked hesitantly at Emilia, silently gesturing her to leave us alone for a while.My dear best friend caught onto the message and decided to oblige. “I’ll be in my room.”After I heard the room door close after her, I approached him with a guilty pout. Understanding my intention of straddling him, he welcomed me with open arms. Position my legs on each side of his, I felt his hands travel up waist to hold onto me.“I’m sorry about earlier,” I mumbled. “I didn’t mean to upset you or get you worried. I should have been m
Rachel’s POVWhen I had woken up the next morning, my mind had paused in perplexity. Everlasting pain remained within my chest, making even the most fundamental movements difficult to perform. Enervated by the events of last night, my body yearned for some more rest. But the questions in my mind needed answers.Groaning, I peeled the warm duvet away from my body. It was only after I had stepped onto a familiar carpet along the bedside did I realise my current location. What was I doing in Emilia’s Bedroom? More importantly, how did I get there?Ignoring the pain in my ribs, I rushed out of the bedroom. The hallway was calm except for the noise coming from the living room. When I’d entered into it, the news was running on the Television. In front of it sat my dear best friend with a bowl of cereal in her hand.“What are you doing?”“Having breakfast.” She said and mouthed a spoonful of it. “Want some?”Clutching my head, I walked to the couch and took a seat beside her. With my head in
Alan’s POV"Of course, we did." I smiled back and looked out the window. A feeling of overwhelming triumph took over me. Douglas was the first big project that I was assigned to. When I started working, like any agent, I was mostly assisting in cases of theft, murder, harassment and domestic violence.I had always craved for more, as any officer would, and having my dad as an idol didn't help at all. All through college, I had been in the loop with him as to what he was up to, the kind of work he was doing, the risks that he took and the saves that he made. I always wanted that. I wanted to be like him, if not better. But I wasn't sure if I would be trusted like his superiors trusted him.Not that I questioned my ability, but just that he was better than me in a lot of things that I could only dream of. Perhaps he had his experience to steal some credit in that regard.When I was assigned Douglas' project, I had very little knowledge about those kind of cases. But since I had already