Hurts So Good (Neil Melendez (The Good Doctor) x OC)

Commotion

It's almost midday and I would have never thought I'd say this, but here we go. I'm bored.

Neil and Kelsey went out ring shopping like besties, while I stay here in the warmth of my apartment, with nothing to do left, because I've already done everything I could.
Swept the floor. Check.
Washed the floor. Check.
Washed the dishes. Check.
Made lunch. Check.
Checked out orders and accounting. Check.
I even cleaned some of the windows. In and out. Keeping them wide open with freezing temperatures.

So now here I am, laying on my couch, sipping on some apple juice while listening to music.

"Heeeey you! You should've known better, better to fuck with someone like me, heeeeeey you! Forever and ever you're gonna wish I was your wifey," daaarn I love this song. Although the wifey part makes it just a little bit cringy.

But then, all of the sudden the music gets eaten away by some noises coming from the outside. I get up from the couch, turn down the radio and listen.
All I hear is the screeching of shoes on the pavement and then a loud thud, then another and another.

I'm just a couple of meters away from the front door but those I hear now are definitely muffled pain sounds, at which I decide to open up the door to see what's happening outside.

"Neil?!" I kneel down on the floor, beside him, "what the hell happened here?!"

"Courtesy of your stalker, I guess," he says raising a hand to his right eye.

"Oh my goodness, are you feeling okay? Anything broken? Should I call an ambulance?"

"Call the police, no ambulance, I'm fine. Just a bruised ego."

"Oh shush. Come, let's go inside," I get up as fast as my belly allows me and then I try to help him up as well. We get inside and once in the kitchen, I make him sit on one of the stools.

"I'm gonna clean those cuts, wait a second."

"Do you have a bag of ice by any chance?"

"Yes, right. Ice. Here," I kneel down in front of the refrigerator and take out the white freezing bag. I wrap it with a towel and hand it to him.

"Thanks. I'm still gonna get a black eye, but at least this will help a bit."

I look at him with wide eyes and I have to move away or he'll see tears pricking them.
I'm sorry. This is all my fault.

So I walk over to the bathroom to get my first aid kit. My heart is pumping so fast I swear I can almost see it in the mirror as I look at myself before opening the medicine cabinet to retrieve the little box. I can't believe this has happened.

He's getting bolder.
That's not good.

Brennan must have literally waited for him outside my apartment all morning. Last time I opened the door, though, right as Neil was leaving earlier, he wasn't there, so that means he still must have had to be close enough to know Neil left. What's troubling me is that he deliberately chose to hurt him. Not me. This was a test. A test to know how far he could reach me. And in testing that, he also sent a big warning. A threat.

And in doing that, he touched another nerve.
The fact that because of me now, people I love could get hurt.

This is all I'm saying to the police officer that came in just as I was about done cleaning Neil's scratches. Everything I'm saying except for that last part.

"Isn't there a way to track him down and arrest him?" Neil asks the officer.

"We've been keeping an eye on him since your second call, but then we lost track of him a couple of days ago. No phone could be traced, we think he's using disposable phones, and no transactions were made either, so we had and currently have no way of knowing his steps."

"So we're just gonna live in fear of getting assaulted from now on?" I'm getting frustrated and angry. I know I shouldn't lash out on this guy, but I just can't keep my emotions tucked in anymore.

I'm scared.
I'm angry.
I want Brennan gone.
Gone from my life for eternity.

"We will check out the cameras inside and outside the building, to see whether they can point us in a good, useful direction, but it's probably gonna take a little bit of time. We're doing everything we can."

I nod my head but I can't bring myself to look the policeman in the eyes, Neil is still holding the bag of ice over his eye, but I can feel him staring at me with the other one.

I walk the officer to the door and tell him goodbye. I pause in front of the closed door, head still bent down towards the floor.

"Are you okay?" Neil asks, walking behind me, his arms slowly making their way around my shoulders.

"I should be the one asking you that."

"I'm fine, I told you already. I wanna know about you," he whispers in my ear. I put my hands on his.

"He's gonna hurt those around me as a way to get under my skin. He's showing his reach, that was a display of power. He perfectly knows where to strike. It's all my fault."

At that last sentence I feel Neil's body tensing up. He makes me turn around and now I'm facing him, his hand bringing my face to his level.

"Did you punch me?"

"No."

"Then it's not your fault. It's his fault. He's actively choosing to harm people, he hurt me and he's hurting you too. Just not physically. You mustn't listen to that voice inside your head, okay? It's no one's fault but Brennan's."

My eyes tear up again and Neil smashes me against his torso. I could stay like this forever and I'd be happy.

*

"You're still bleeding from this cut right here," I touch a spot above his right brow and Neil flinches away.

"That hurts."

"I know you're gonna say it's fine, but please, please Neil can we go to the hospital and have you checked out? It'd make me feel better, please."

"Alright, if that'll keep you stress free."

"Thank you, love."

That's when we both realize though that neither of us can drive to the hospital, so I do the only thing I didn't want to do now...

"Kelsey? Hey could you come over here and drive us to the hospital please?"

*

When I see Kelsey's text on my phone saying "here" we head down onto the street. We don't even have one foot out of the building that Kelsey is already running towards us.

"What the hell happened? Did your water break?!" she yells, her voice not very good at hiding a mixture of fear and excitement.

"No, everything is fine with me, it's Neil," I tell her while we walk toward the car, "Brennan made his first move."

"That son of a.."

"His mother was actually an amazing woman, so don't finish that sentence. I just want him to be checked by someone with a little more expertise then I have."

Kelsey stops right before opening the door on the driver's side, "you realize he is a doctor, right?"

"And it's well known around the world that doctors make the worst patients. So I want another doctor to look at him."

And with that being said, we head to the San José St. Bonaventure Hospital.