𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒, bill denbrough

sixteen.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

16. fortune vs fate.

A few more rounds later and the laughter started to finally die down into quieter chuckles and giggles whilst more serious conversations, mainly from anyone other than Richie, were used at the table. Richie continued to refer to Ben's weight loss in a joking manner, calling him hot and comparing him to a Brazilian soccer player.

"Is Stanley coming or what?" Ben tried to move the conversation away from him, gesturing to the empty chair that had been placed there by the employee when they said they were expecting someone else to arrive.

Stanley, Adriana repeated in her head, picturing his light curls and goofy grin. How he always managed to be serious and still have fun, practically being the dad of the group at times. He would always comfort the other members of the group when they needed it, by showing up to their homes with food or buying cinema tickets for a trip out. She missed him a lot.

"Stan Uris- Stan Urine!" Richie made the connection, "No, no, he's a fucking pussy he's not gonna come."

"Just wait," Andy took a long sip of her drink before looking up, "Stan the man will save the day, just you wait."

Bill just weakly smiled and continued to drink his beer.

"Why would Stanley save you, anyway? Was I not the one who practically performed surgery on you after Bowers cut you up? Holy shit, thats right!" Eddie hit Ben's arm repeatedly in a joking manner as they talked.

Beverly leaned her head on her hand that was propped up on her bottle, "Please tell me you became a doctor, Ed."

"No, I ended up becoming a risk analysis," he replied.

"Oh, that actually sounds really interesting. What does that entail?" Richie asked innocently, though most of their friends had caught onto what was about to happen. Just as Eddie started to talk, Richie snored loudly and faked being asleep. They all laughed, apart from Eddie. "Was this job invented before fun?"

"Oh, that's real funny," Eddie forcefully laughed though he looked slightly annoyed, "Sure, that may not be as exciting as being a doctor. But we all know that if anyone became a doctor it was Adriana. You went to med school, right?"

She nodded, "I graduated medical school, worked my way up at the biggest hospital in the area and soon became head paediatrician. I quit about 10 years ago and now I work for Quality magazine in New York editing all the articles and covers before the magazine is published each week."

"Why'd ya quit?"

Andy turned to Bill to answer his question, her eyes never once leaving his as they spoke, "After years of watching kids come in with broken bones, fevers or in need of stitches, the job starts to weigh down. It's all good sending them home back in one piece, but then you start to wonder how they became that way in the first place. I've seen children coming in with bruises and wounds and flinching away from their parents. It just became a bit too much for me to handle." 

Adriana was partly telling the truth. In fact, before she had her own daughter she loved being able to take children out of their abusive homes and away from their abusive parents, giving them a better life. But after giving birth, she couldn't stomach being able to sit in front of a mother or a father knowing what they did to their children. How could someone hurt their own child? 

Another reason she changed her career path was to spend more time with Georgina. She especially hated working the night shifts, knowing that she was alone with Frank. Even if she was just a few months old and the first few months of her life, Frank was the ideal father. She couldn't spend more than a few hours away from her baby.