The hallway was quiet now. No screaming. No crash carts. Just the distant echo of a code brown cleanup and the hollow hush of adrenaline tapering off, drip by invisible drip, as the ER finally started to exhale.

Jack’s hands were still bloody. Not enough to be dangerous—he’d scrubbed three times—but enough that the sting lingered beneath his nails. Enough that he could still feel the cracked sternum under his palms, the memory of ribs giving way like paper. He moved through the resting room door like it might shatter at the hinges.

And then he saw you.

Curled awkwardly on the cot, half sitting, half collapsed. Your scrub top was streaked with someone else’s blood, dried to rust along the collar. You weren’t crying, but your breathing wasn’t right—shallow, clipped. Like your body hadn’t figured out yet that the worst was over.

Jack closed the door behind him with a soft click. Let the noise of the hospital vanish behind him like a curtain falling shut. He didn’t speak at first. Just watched. Just breathed.

Then—softly, carefully, like he was approaching a wild animal—he crossed the room.

He crouched in front of you, not touching yet. Just close enough to hear the shake in your exhale. Just close enough to see that your eyes weren’t really tracking anymore. Too far gone in the aftermath.

His fingers moved without permission. A brush at your temple, gentle as breath, sweeping damp strands of hair from your face. “You did good tonight,” he murmured. “More than good. You held that entire trauma bay together.”

He didn’t expect a response. Didn’t need one. His hand dropped to your wrist, checking your pulse with practiced ease. Elevated. Thready. No surprise there.

“You need to lie down,” he said, voice firmer now. Still quiet, but threaded with something unyielding. “That’s not a suggestion. You’re no good to anyone if you fall over during rounds.”

You didn’t move.

So Jack did it for you—easing you down against the pillow like he’d handled dozens of patients before. But this was different. There was no IV pole. No vitals monitor. Just the heat of your skin and the slow, invisible damage of the night echoing through your bones.

He draped a blanket over you, tugged it into place with fingers that lingered too long. “You scared me." The words slipped out before he could stop them. Not angry. Not accusing. Just… true.

He stood there a second longer than necessary. Looking down at you. Letting himself feel the weight of it—how close he’d come to losing something he hadn’t even let himself want.