Stardust and Magic

San Diego

Last time I saw Amelia around she was dealing with a family issue: Betty running away and ending up with an overdose and baby Leo teething with the biological family ready to take him away.
It's been probably two months but I wanted to give her space.
Now I'm at a conference in San Diego where I have to give a speech about alternative care in people in need of opioids for chronic pain. I've always liked being at the center of the attention so this is definitely my element.
"Excuse me" a familiar voice catch my attention and turning around I see her: Amelia.
"Oh hi!" She smiles
"I didn't know you where into this stuff!" I say
"In fact I'm not but you know...alternative pain relief, I could use some of that these days" she says nervously
The first thing that crosses my mind is the thought of how beautiful she is. She cut her hair shorter and this gives her a much more lively expression.
"What is your next speech?" I ask
"New generation NSAID panels...yours?"
"Acupuncture"
"Oh...you know what? I'm coming too...I can't wait to get poked...with needles...multiple times...never mind, I'll keep avoiding you" she says walking away. It's me or she seems nervous? It might be me or I'm delusional?!.
Her attempt at avoiding me failed completely, since we found each other multiple times during the day. Now we are walking down the hotel's corridor to get to our rooms and she says "Link...can we sit down for a sec? I feel dizzy" and when I look at her I find her sitting on the floor,so I sit next to her.
I don't know how much time has passed but I really enjoy talking to her
"I took in this girl, Betty...15, drug addict, and I tried and tried and tried and tried some more but she run away from me again...she overdosed and now she is gone with her parents and I have this feeling like I wasn't done yet..."
"For what it's worth...when I left for college my mother cried for months and I wasn't a drug addict" I comment "you sound like a...."
"A mess?" She ends the sentence
"No...a parent" I say looking at her and seeing how my answer impacted her. She is coming closer to me again like if she wanted to lean for a kiss but then she pulls away "I should go to my room" she says
"And I should go to..."
"Your room" she says smirking
"Goodnight" I tell half smiling because yeah, she is falling for me
"Night!" She says nervously

I'm giving my speech and I'm very pleasantly surprised when I see her walking in. The story that I'm going to tell to the audience, it's a very important point of my career: my turning point. We always have, as Doctors, that patient that makes you change your mind...and this is the case. I'm now at the point where this kid I was taking care of became addicted to the opioids I prescribed him. I was his first dealer. He died into a car accident caused by him being to high to notice a red traffic light. The minute I finished the sentence and I turned around, I see Amelia walking away shaking her head. Is that something I said? Even if I would run to talk to her, I'm  obliged to stay here and finish what I've started since my audience seems so interested.

Knock.Knock.
I'm in front of her door hoping she would open it.
"WHAT?!" She shouts at me from the inside
"Can you open the door please?" I ask her
"What?" She says appearing from behind the door with a look of anger in her eyes.
"Can we talk?"
"About how you help a kid killing himself?" She says furiously
"You would have done the same thing" I say
"No...because I know how addiction works" she says "YOU FAILED HIM!" She screams
"Don't you think I think about it every single day?! When that happened I didn't trust myself as a doctor anymore! I thought I was just good at fixing bikes! Why can't we just fight this thing together like Batman....and Batman?" I say to her. Her features are relaxing now and she says with a half of a smile a shy "okay...sorry...I'm a little bit too aggressive these days. I've been in a weird place"
"I can roll with weird" I say simply "do you want to go to dinner?" I ask her
"Yeah..." she says coming closer "No" it's the only thing she whispers before kissing me with urgency "let me clarify this...this is not going anywhere right?it's just alternative pain relief" she says unbuttoning my shirt
"I could use some of that! But are you sure? I feel like I'm taking advantage"
"Why?" She says
"Because you are in a place and because I think you are insanely pretty" and this causes her to smile wider
"The feeling is mutual" she says kissing me again, letting me know exactly what she wants. I walk her to the bed continuing the slow unhurried kiss we started and then I lift her up to place her gently on the covers
"I don't have uhm..." I say
"Oh...but I'm on the pill" she says smiling mischievously.