Finding Sam (Featured)

Chapter 24 - Better Than Chocolate

It had been five years since Erik had been back to Rosemary Inn - six since he'd been up on this ridge with his parents, Seamus and Moira. He'd been on break from his residency at UNM then, and had flown to LA to be with them here as they renewed their vows. Olivia had been unable to come as she was in the middle of her surgical residency in New York and didn't want to lose her chance at being hired there.

Three days after Erik stood on that very ridge with his parents, the Morins and Serena, a drunk driver hit their car head-on as they were making their way back to the South Bay. Moira two days later, and Seamus followed eight days afterwards. The driver suffered only a broken foot.

Erik was back in New Mexico by then, and when he heard the news from Serena, he flew back immediately. Serena had known first only because her friends were completing their residency at the Ventura county hospital and recognized the Maystroms when they were brought into the emergency room.

It was what cemented their relationship the way Serena saw it now, Erik said - that bond people often share over a loss. He would always need her, she believed, whether he realized it or not.

Olivia arrived the following day, he said. "It was ironic. Both of us doctors, able to save lives, and yet when it mattered the most - we were helpless. All we could do was stand there and watch them fade away."

"I'm so sorry, Erik," I said, and I couldn't remember how many times I'd already said since we were up on the ridge. We were back at the inn now, sitting on one of the benches facing the main building. Erik was lying on the bench, his head cradled on my lap.

"Dad must have known that mom didn't make it," he said. "He never regained consciousness. He was in a coma till they turned off the respirator. We weren't even aware that they both had an advance directive - DNR. Do not resuscitate. But even if we did know, it wouldn't have mattered."

The driver was some rich Santa Barbara kid, he said, barely eighteen with a brand new car - a Mustang. There was a case, but Erik didn't want to talk about it. It didn't bring his parents back anyway so he didn't see the point. By then, his grandparents - his mother's parents - flew in from Killarney and stayed for a year, helping Erik cope with the sudden loss. Olivia returned to New York to finish her residency but the fire had gone out then. She met Sebastian at a party and found solace in his arms, marrying him less than three months later.

"They helped me settle my parents' estate - which ended up being quite big. We had no idea how big," Erik said. "They sold two apartment buildings and with that money, helped me buy the house on the Strand. Gran figured that after years in New Mexico, I'd appreciate seeing the ocean, but all I did was work anyway. That was how I got through the day or I'd have gone crazy. I thought I had learned how to deal with loss with Chelsea, holding her till she took her last breath. But nothing prepares you for the loss of a parent, Sam. Or in this case, both my parents. Nothing at all. Not even a house on the Strand." He sighed. "I wasn't exactly great company then.

"And Josh? Did he leave these flowers?"

He nodded. "He did. I remembering him saying he leaves flowers here once a month or so, but I never really believed him. He loved my parents like they were his aunt and uncle, just like Helen and Craig are both aunt and uncle to me," he said. A smile graced his lips then. "Josh helped me get past the tough times. At least he was local, which was good. He and I jogged. We went out and drank, that sort of thing. He'd take me along on those deep sea fishing trips off the coast of Mexico for sea bass and yellowtail just to get my mind off things, and to get me out of my grandparents' hair."

"My grandparents are sensible folk. Loving, but sensible. But when they came here to help me cope, they always treated like I was their baby, never grown up, and so unlike Olivia, whom they thought was more mature. They probably still do," he chuckled. "Serena actually stopped pestering me to join her in surgery because gran told her off. Told her to mind her own business and leave me alone."