by Emily Smith
“You are unbelievable.” Cassidy was still breathing erratically, her body splayed out on top of the down comforter.
“Please. You are.” Pierce was still propped up over her, smiling bashfully.
“You are the Tom Brady of sex. And I’m the Jimmy Garoppolo. I’m fine with that. Really. It’s just the facts.”
Pierce scoffed. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
“I’m serious.” Cassidy tried not to let herself think about just how Pierce had become so skilled in bed.
“You are no one’s backup. Especially not mine.”
Cassidy hoped that were true, both in the bedroom and out. “Good.” She kissed Pierce’s head, overwhelmed by the connection, the very definition of intimacy she was feeling in that moment. “Now, how about that steak? I’m starving.”
“You’re on.”
Cassidy watched as Pierce skipped around the kitchen, sometime after two a.m., wearing only a pair of sparse black briefs. “I could get used to this, you know.”
“What’s that?” Pierce tossed the reheating steak in a skillet. “Me cooking dinner for you at some absurd hour of the morning in my underwear?”
Cassidy laughed and came up behind Pierce, placing her hands on Pierce’s hips. “You. At my place. All of this.”
Pierce turned to face her, their eyes locked in a magnetic heat. Her arms circled Cassidy’s waist, her hands brushing against her ass. “I’m afraid I’ve already gotten used to it.”
* * *
The weather in Boston in mid-June is always anyone’s guess. One day brings sunny skies and temperatures high enough to sit on the beach, and the next brings torrential rains and lows so low they seem to threaten snow. When Pierce woke up that particular day, the sun was high and hot, already beating through Cassidy’s bedroom where the AC sat on the floor, still waiting to be put in the window. It was only seven a.m., and the air was already thick and musky, heavy with what Pierce could only worry was impending chaos. The first hot day of the summer always brought all of the crazies to the ER—the homeless who couldn’t take the elements any longer and sought shelter, the troublemakers who for some reason became particularly stab-happy when the humidity topped eighty percent, and of course, the drug abusers who would normally have been left to sleep off their high in the nearby park, but instead were found by a well-meaning bystander who happened to be out for a walk. Whatever the cocktail of riffraff, it was sure to mean a busy day for Pierce.
“What are you doing up so early?” Pierce asked as Cassidy stirred next to her. “Go back to bed.” She kissed her softly on the forehead, smoothing her bed-swept hair with her fingers.
“I can’t.” Cassidy groaned. “I’m back in the ED today.”
Pierce couldn’t believe it had been an entire month since Cassidy had started her ICU rotation. An entire month since they’d first spent the night in this very bed. Since then, it had been a near constant. Any night that Pierce wasn’t working late, or Cassidy wasn’t on an overnight shift, Pierce was there. They shared an unspoken knowledge that they wanted to spend as much time together as possible, even if that only meant a few minutes of consciousness at night before passing out in the other’s arms. Every day had been better than the next. Pierce was living a fairy tale she thought surely had the makings of a romantic urban legend. And this morning, she would get to go to work with Cassidy too.
“I can’t believe you’re done with the MICU already.”
“I can. That was the longest month of my life. I don’t know how I could have gotten through it without you, you know that?” Cassidy nuzzled her head under Pierce’s arm and tucked herself in.
“I didn’t do much. I just brought you a few midnight coffees and cooked you some dinner.”
“Now that’s horribly inaccurate. You also cleaned my apartment for me when I was gone. And remember that time when you made me breakfast at three a.m. because I desperately wanted pancakes?”
Pierce laughed. “I do remember that, yes.”
“But it was much more than that.” Cassidy placed her palm on Pierce’s stomach and stroked gently. “For every bad shift, every bitchy nurse, every patient I lost…you were there. You can’t know how much it helped to have you to listen at the end of the day.”
“I was lucky to get to do it.” Pierce smiled. She couldn’t help but think she liked the person Cassidy was making her. She wasn’t proud of all her roles in past relationships, but she was proud of this one: her own strength, her newfound selflessness, and, more than anything, her ability to love so deeply.
Of course, Cassidy didn’t know Pierce was in love. Or maybe she did. But Pierce certainly hadn’t said so. And Cassidy hadn’t either. At times, many times actually, when they’d finished making love, or fallen asleep to the sound of the sirens, or even just stood in the kitchen laughing and making dinner, where Pierce felt it so strongly it threatened to rise up out of her and spill out in one embarrassing admission. Three words. Just three stupid, overused words she’d said before, and maybe only halfheartedly. They’d never felt quite so big before. And she couldn’t get herself to let them slip out for fear Cassidy might not be in as deep.
Pierce once again considered how rare it was to find that kind of reciprocity. What were the odds she could love someone as much as they loved her back? Or more so, the reverse? That certainly hadn’t been the case with Katie. And, as she thought about it, it wasn’t the case with any of the girls she’d been with in the past. Someone always seemed to love the other more. And Pierce was certain beyond a doubt that she was that person with Cassidy.
“So are you glad to be back in the ED?” Pierce asked, pulling herself back out of her own head.
“Beyond. But it’s even better knowing you’ll be there.”
“Speaking of that…Are we going to be, you know, open about this? About us?”
Cassidy paused and narrowed her eyes, seemingly pondering the question. Pierce hadn’t given much thought to whether they should let their coworkers know about their relationship. They’d been too wrapped up in each other to care. But now that Cassidy was back in the department, they had to decide.
“Fuck it. There’s no rule, is there?”
“I don’t think so. Look at Galen and Rowan. Galen is pretty much Rowan’s boss right now. It was even worse when she was her chief. So yeah. Fuck it. Let them all know.”
Cassidy giggled. “All right then. Besides, you’re too good of a secret to keep. I want the entire world to know you’re mine.”
Pierce rolled up onto one elbow and kissed her. “If anyone has anything to brag about here, it’s me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get dressed so I can rush into work and tell everyone I’m dating Dr. McSmokeshow.”
She jumped up out of the bed just in time to miss the pillow Cassidy had tossed at Pierce’s head. “I’ll see you in the ER then.”
“I’ll see you in the ER, Dr. Sullivan.”
* * *
By the time Cassidy pulled into the parking garage at the hospital, it was already oppressively hot out. The air conditioning in her 2009 Subaru hadn’t worked in years, and she was too broke to think about fixing it. Especially when she’d had the luxury of being chauffeured around in Pierce’s Bimmer for the last month or so. That day, their shifts were a couple of hours apart, and Pierce was already somewhere beyond the ER doors. In spite of the sweat collecting under her scrubs, the thought sent Cassidy nearly sprinting to the entrance of the building.
It was nice not to have to search for excuses to find Pierce at work. Without pretense, Cassidy simply sought her out, spotting her at a nearby workstation and approaching without giving a damn about the impending teasing that would come from her coworkers.
“Hi.” Cassidy leaned down to kiss Pierce’s cheek, momentarily forgetting her surroundings, and then thought better of it. Although they had no plans to hide their relationship at work, they weren’t going to flaunt it either, especially not in the middle of the floor.
&
nbsp; “Well, hello again.” Pierce’s face lit up brighter than the unseasonable June sun ever could, and Cassidy’s stomach did some still unfamiliar acrobatics.
Cassidy didn’t know what working with Pierce would be like. Sure, they’d been working together for months, but not side by side. Not since they’d become…them. A million worries had flittered through her brain at the prospect. Would it be too distracting? Would she still be able to be a good doctor knowing Pierce was just around the corner? Would they step on each other’s toes at all and annoy each other? Would it be awkward or challenging or unpleasant? Or would it just mean getting to spend more time with this woman she couldn’t seem to get enough of?
So far, it had been nothing but the latter. Cassidy stood in room 5, interviewing a fifty-six-year-old woman who was coming in with chest pain and shortness of breath. She rode the high of knowing Pierce was hers, acting as gasoline to the spark she already carried for her work. Cassidy was on her game like never before, nailing diagnoses, making patients smile, and dazzling her superiors. And, in spite of the heat, the morning had been quiet. In almost the immediate second Cassidy had this thought, she was surrounded by blackness.
Chapter Fourteen
That was strange, Cassidy thought. But in another ten seconds, the backup generators seemed to kick in, and everything more or less seemed to resume as usual. She continued her discussion with her patient, asking more details about her pain and her medical history, as if nothing had happened. It probably wasn’t all that unusual to lose power in a heat wave like this. Hospitals were well equipped for this kind of thing.
As she walked out of the room, though, it became clear that everything was not resuming as usual. The computers, which were the crutch that left the ER crippled without them, had rebooted but wouldn’t go back online. The ambient hum of machines was absent. And, if she hadn’t noticed the flurry of nurses running around trying to figure out what was happening, something was eerily peaceful about the whole scene.
“What’s going on?” Cassidy found Pierce around the corner, scribbling notes on a piece of scrap paper.
“I don’t know. The power went down. Now the generators are on, but we have no EMR. Everyone’s losing their shit.”
The chair of the department, a sharp-featured Scandinavian man named Tom Newton, emerged from the office he usually hid in, looking frazzled and nervous. “Okay, everyone. Let’s gather up over here.”
Staff had already all essentially congregated to the center of the nurses’ station, talking anxiously in muted tones.
“I just got word that CT is down. So is MRI. X-ray is okay for the moment, but the cooling system has been completely knocked out, which means every machine in this hospital is currently overheating.”
It seemed to strike Cassidy at the same time as the rest of the staff just how big of a deal this was. A hospital without power was essentially a structure to house bodies in. Without imaging studies, without lab work, they were functionless, left to retreat to the time when all a doctor had was a stethoscope and well-refined exam skills to diagnose a patient. And even if you could make the proper diagnosis, treatment was nearly impossible without access to medications, which computer passwords and fingerprint IDs guarded. Cassidy suddenly felt blind, fumbling. She took a mental inventory of her patients: the man in room 14 had an ankle injury. His X-rays were already done, and he just needed a splint put on. The woman in 5 still needed lab work—an EKG and a chest X-ray—but she was stable. The woman in 7 had pancreatitis. Her labs were back, but her blood pressure had been skimming the boundaries of dangerous, and if she went any further, Cassidy was in big trouble.
As the hours passed, the power didn’t return. The local public-works department was reportedly working furiously, but it could be several more hours before anything was back up and running again. The electronic medical records were still down, leaving every order to be handwritten and every prescription to be called in to the local pharmacies. That was, until the phones went down too. The patients who needed to be were all shipped out to local ERs who could accommodate them. But the real problem was the heat.
Cassidy walked by room 12, where Pierce was suturing the leg of a teenager who’d fallen off his dirt bike. The V of Pierce’s scrub top was dark with sweat, and her bangs fell limply over her forehead. She turned to Cassidy and smiled, but she looked as if she’d been running a marathon in late July. Everyone did. Doctors had stripped off their white coats, and nurses were dabbing their necks with cold cloths. Rumor had it that the babies in the NICU were all turning into little preemie burritos, and the poor elderly patients on the top floor were essentially lying in an attic, shriveling to raisins. The crazy had set in. Cassidy had known it was coming when she woke up that morning. The heat always made people crazy. Of course, she’d never dreamed it would be the staff of the hospital.
Hours had gone by, although without the ambient hum of the AC, the torrid sounds of chaos that usually encompassed the ER, and the steady rumble of patients and staff moving from one area of the hospital to the other, they had no metronome to mark the passage of time. The day was oddly peaceful. But the temperature continued to rise, and the very young and very old were approaching real danger. Those far above Cassidy and Pierce’s paygrade decided to evacuate the hospital, to transfer the patients still left to whatever nearby facility could accommodate them. And the staff of Boston City would carry out the evacuation.
“Hey.” Pierce emerged from around the corner. She’d discarded her usual white coat and was fanning herself furiously with a package of sterile drapes.
“Hey. What a day, huh?”
“Seriously. I’m just happy to lay eyes on you.” Pierce smiled and glanced around them coyly, sending Cassidy’s stomach lurching with want. Although it was ten thousand degrees, and they were surrounded by disgruntled patients and hyperthermic coworkers, the hint of sweat around Pierce’s forehead guided Cassidy’s mind back to the night before, Pierce’s firm, steady body gliding across hers in the early summer heat wave. A shudder ripped through her.
“Me too.” She reached for Pierce’s hand, gently clasping their fingers. It wasn’t nearly enough, but it would have to do.
“I just got word I have to stay and evacuate. I’ll probably be here all night.”
“Same.” Somehow, the prospect of being locked up with Pierce all night, even in the hospital while shuttling patients down multiple flights of stairs, thrilled her.
“Really? They’re making the residents stay too?”
“All hands on deck.” This wasn’t exactly true. Cassidy’s supervisor had said that since the residents weren’t technically contracted employees, they could go home. But knowing full well Pierce would not have that luxury, Cassidy had volunteered her services. Still, it would be far too embarrassing to ever admit that act to Pierce.
“I guess we’re stuck here together then.” Pierce tossed her a sly wink and let their eyes lock just long enough for Cassidy to know Pierce was thinking exactly what she was.
“Yo. Parker.”
Pierce immediately dropped Cassidy’s hand at the sound of Margot approaching.
“What’s up?” She took several steps back from Cassidy and fiddled nervously with the tie on her scrubs.
“I need some help in 10. This ninety-year-old guy fell, and we have to send him out to Beth Israel, but he has a massive lac on his head. The thing’s a mess. Basically scalped himself. I’m tied up next door doing an LP on someone we can’t run because the lab is down. Giant cluster fuck is what it is.”
“So you need me to suture.”
Margot made her index finger and thumb into the shape of a gun and pointed at Pierce with a nod. Pierce duplicated the gesture, and Margot strutted off.
“What was that?” Cassidy felt a near-immediate surge of something unpleasant she could only equate with jealousy.
“What was what?”
“You and Margot. That little handshake? She was flirting with you, Pierce.”
Pierce’s cheeks turned a deep crimson, and she let out an overly manufactured string of laughter. “What? That’s crazy.”
“It is not! You can’t tell me you don’t notice how she looks at you. Those big, chocolate eyes and bright-red lips that she can’t help but just pout your way. I mean, come on.”
A grin manifested on Pierce’s lips, and she moved back closer to Cassidy, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Dr. Sullivan. I didn’t know you had a jealous streak.”
“Oh, please. I’m not jealous.” But Cassidy was. She knew it, and it deeply unsettled her. Cassidy was not familiar with jealousy. In all of her past relationships, she’d never felt threatened or even insecure. And she’d certainly never dived off the deep end like this with accusations and crazy talk. But everything was different with Pierce. The stakes were higher. The loss would be so much greater. The love was so much deeper already.
“It’s okay. I find it very endearing. Maybe even a little sexy.”
Cassidy pulled away and tossed her head dramatically in the air. “Yeah. I bet you do.”
“Aw, come on Cass. Margot doesn’t want me. And besides, even if she did, I have less than zero interest in her.”
“Look at her. She’s gorgeous. You know, in an Addams Family-Hot Topic kind of way.”
Pierce laughed, this time sincerely and with what sounded like a hint of empathy. “I don’t see it. She’s not my type. You know I have a thing for tiny blond doctors…”
“You think you’re very charming, don’t you?” Cassidy couldn’t help but soften just a little.
“Occasionally, yes. You’re all I want. You’re all I see. There’s literally no one else in the world.”
Cassidy rolled her eyes, but her internal monologue screamed at her to tell Pierce just how in love with her she really was. She was terrified that if she opened her mouth, it would come out. So she opted for silence.