#reillyfiles

They really put Beth & Rip on the cover and expected me to stay calm?

“The Beth-Rip relationship, it’s so much different than any other relationship I’ve ever had on camera. It’s hot, it’s cold, it’s beautiful.” ~ Cole Hauser

Happy #TongueTuesday!!! 👅💋🔥

Kelly Reilly as Beth Dutton

Woman Crush Wednesday!!

What happens after the credits roll?

Conflicted is my continuation of Black Box — a story of love, loss, and second chances. Catherine Black’s journey doesn’t end where the show did. It’s messy, raw, and beautifully human.

Conflicted — Chapter 1: Return

Every story has a beginning… but not every beginning is peaceful. This chapter introduces the tangled web of love, trust, betrayal, and redemption that Catherine Black must navigate.

The hallways were quieter than Catherine remembered.

Returning to the hospital after her probationary period in Pennsylvania wasn’t just about resuming her job—it was a test. Of her strength. Her sobriety. Her sanity. And most of all… her heart.

Everyone had their eyes on her. Some watched with curiosity, others with silent judgment. But the one person she couldn’t find?

Bickman.

She had half-expected him to be there, waiting at the elevator with some sarcastic comment or his trademark intense stare that undressed her soul. Instead, silence. He wasn’t there. He hadn’t called. It was almost as if he’d written her off entirely.

What she didn’t know—what the hospital had kept hidden from him—was that she was returning under probation. Her reinstatement wasn’t full. Not yet. And when he’d found out she was sent away to Pennsylvania after everything he’d done to get her job back, it hit him like a gut punch.

He had fought for her. Gone to the board. Put his neck on the line. And they hadn’t told him the full truth.

It was the final straw after weeks of uncertainty. After Catherine left, he let himself fall into Colada’s orbit—a mistake he tried to excuse, justify, forget. But nothing dulled the memory of Catherine. Nothing erased the ache.

And then she came back.

He called the front desk a dozen times the moment he heard whispers she had returned.

“Has Dr. Black checked in yet?”

“Has she picked up her credentials?”

“Is she in the Cube?”

After the fifteenth call, someone snapped:

“Goddammit, stop calling! We’ll let you know if she walks in.”

But when Catherine finally appeared—standing at his office door—Colada was there too. Her presence was a slap, a cruel twist of timing. Catherine’s eyes went cold, her expression unreadable. He tried to explain. She wouldn’t hear it. She left him with the sting of seven words:

“It won’t happen again. Goodnight, Dr. Bickman.”

And just like that, the wall went up again.

But he wasn’t done. He couldn’t be.

This wasn’t over.

Not for him.

Not for her.

Not for them.

✨ Author’s Note

Catherine’s homecoming set the stage — messy, hesitant, and carrying the weight of everything she left behind. Stepping back into that world was never going to be easy, and you could feel the tension in every glance and every silence.

Chapter 2 takes us deeper into the fallout, where heartache becomes unavoidable.

🖋️ Written by: EdInChief_7

📓 The Editor-in-Chief

Photographer: Karen Robinson 📸

Magazine: The Observer