Highest Rank: #3 in Fanfiction! :D
Ellie is a bright and bubbly, yet dedicated new nurse in the Emergency Department at Chicago Medical Institute. Dr. Harry Styles, meticulous, hardworking, and driven, is the head of the department. Ellie's little q...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
My last day off before another work "week," and I was beyond frustrated with the whole Harry situation. A growing angst inside of me pushed me to head to the gym. The weather was getting cool, so I put on my peach-colored hoodie and zipped it on the way out. I was eager to get back to that punching bag.
I envisioned Harry's face and started pounding away on the leather. I suppose it was therapeutic at first, but an unanticipated tenderness for Harry moved in to my heart. Regardless of all the crappy things he had said and done, he had seemed so lost last night. And then I love you, Ellie? I was tempted to believe that he felt it somewhere inside of him because drunk confessions were often true. But his understanding of love and mine must be very different.
My arms were burning when I finally decided to stop. I was jolted out of my innermost thoughts when I heard my name.
"Hey, Ellie!" Thank god it was Bridget. I needed her!
"Hey girl," I said in between breaths. I grabbed my water bottle and took a gulp. "What are you doing here? Didn't you just get off shift?"
"Yeah," she laughed. "Sometimes I get so worked up and have to let off some steam before I can sleep. Had a patient last night who was a terrible, terrible actor, pretending to have severe stomach pain. He kept insisting that it must be his appendix or gall bladder or something must have gotten infected and burst because he was in, quote, unquote, the worst pain he'd ever had in his life. Basically, there was nothing wrong with him and he was just trying to score some narcotics." She shook her head in frustration. "I had to call security because he started threatening me. And Dr. Bellini was so busy that he and all of his interns were hours behind on seeing patients."
"That sucks," I agreed. "I get so frustrated with people who bring this crap upon themselves. It's not our fault that they chose to take those stupid pills for fun!" When those words left my mouth, a sick feeling sank into my gut. Harry was doing the same thing with alcohol and it was getting out of control. I pushed the uneasy feeling away, telling Bridget about Harry's visit the night before.
"Holy shit," she said with a look of shock on her face. "He's got it bad."
"Got what bad?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Womanizing? Lying? What?"
"I'm not defending his actions, Ellie, but if you drop the anger for a moment, you might notice that he has some seriously strong feelings for you. It was obvious because you two were so tight before his ex came along. Now it sounds like he's confused as hell, and I know you don't want to be his second choice, but at least you deserve an explanation. You'll hear it better if you let your guard down and just listen."
"He left me a note before he went back to his apartment," I told her. "It said, Sorry I was such a mess. I still want us to talk."
"I don't blame you if you don't want to see him," Bridget said. "But at some point, you have to hear him out, either so you can move on, or so you can forgive him." I shot her angry look at the the mention of forgiveness. But she insisted, "This can eat away at you unless you find some peace. Whether you take him back or not, it has to be your choice, not his."
