leatin x reader love triangle

before the island

'y/n, what's your excuse this time? You're 20 minutes late. You've almost missed my entire presentation about endotracheal intubation.' Doctor Reid sighed, staring at me across the wide lecture hall. I of course knew the protocol for endotracheal intubation already; I had already taken the first semester of med school- which I was accepted to a year early- but when my mom got sick in the second semester I had to leave to care for her. I came back to finish my studies, but was told I would have to retake the entire year, adding to the inevitable debt waiting for me on the other side.

It was getting towards the end of the semester, and I was burned out. My mother was thankfully getting better, but she was still burdened with medical bills and though both her and my stepdad were working 2 full time jobs, I still felt the pressure to help out as well. I was missing classes to work, and the school had began to notice my absence. That was when I met Gretchen.

Gretchen presented as a smart, confident business woman. Her striking blonde hair stood out against her navy blue suit, and I noticed she had matched her bag to her heels. This was the sort of woman you would see in line at starbucks and let her go in front of you out of fear but also respect. When I was called out of a lecture on brain anatomy and saw her standing in the hallway waiting for me, I was sure she was part of the university board coming to tell me that I was being kicked out for too many absences.

'Hello y/n. It's lovely to meet you. I wanted to speak to you about a scholarship opportunity. This summer I am hoping that you would come to assist on a research project, and in turn all of your medical school bills would be paid. If you would be interested I can tell you more about the project.' The way she said this so calmly, as if offering to pay off 5 years of university bills was no problem to her, astounded me. I stood there in shock, wondering what on earth kind of project this woman could be offering to pay that much money towards a strangers education.

'why me?' I asked, though I had a million other questions I would have preferred to ask.

'Well, y/n, I read your essay on differences in female and male behaviour when dealing with loss. I found it particularly interesting that you didn't just write about loss of a family member or friend as per your assignment, but about psychological losses. The loss of freedom, of control, or choice. Though your professor seems to disagree that these are comparable to loosing a loved one, I agreed with your ideas. I was particularly impressed that you did your own research on this subject; doing obedience and social influence studies while monitoring brain waves in participants and seeing that the brain waves after loosing control mimic those of loosing a loved one. That's similar to the research I am doing.'

I believed that, at the time. That this research would be some kind of obedience study. If I knew then that I would be a part of this torture experiment, I never would have agreed.