#rileycross

It was a beautiful day, Josephine thought the moment she left Ben’s home that morning; the sun shone over the usually cold city, warming up the weather and making everyone starting to feel like winter was finally over as spring season began, a cloudless sky with birds singing as they walked to the car and drove off to the hospital, they both work at. Looking at Rosewood General Hospital standing tall and proud with the windows reflecting back to the trees and beautiful decorations that surrounded the buildings, Jo couldn’t help but smile a little bit as she thought that her life was complete and perfect as she had everything she could possibly want.

That morning the woman had received the acceptance to the sub specialty program to become a Maternal and Fetal Specialist, since the beginning of her career as an OBGYN Josephine knew that she wanted to be more, she wanted to learn as much as she could so she could save and help as many women as possible and after some thinking the woman finally decided on maternal and fetal medicine a subspecialty so difficult there were only about a thousand doctors all over that country certified in such field.

The day went on as usual, Josephine attended some consultations before jumping to a couple of natural births and then was needed to get into an operating room as one of her patient’s needed an emergency C section. The OBGYN walked into the O.R. only to find her best friend working on giving her patient an epidural so she wouldn’t feel any pain during the procedure. “Is it going to hurt?” She asked looking at Riley with slight fear in her eyes.

“With Doctor Cross?” Josephine asked as she walked into the operating room wearing her scrubs and surgical gown, letting the scrub nurse work around her to tie the straps of her gown. “Dr. Cross has magical hands; you won’t feel a thing.” She said smiling softly behind that mask that covered half her face. The procedure was quick and easy, the new born came out perfectly healthy and the mother of the child was kept safe at all times; the moment the OBGYN watched her patient’s face change from fear to complete happiness as she got to see her child for the first time was another shot of gratification and solidification that she had taken the right choice in her professional career only to see and help moments like the one she was seeing come true.

After Josephine closed up the woman’s incision and sent her patient to the recovery room, she walked to the scrub room and started to remove her gloves, mask and surgical gown throwing them into the trash before she started washing her hands and glanced back at Riley as she entered the room, “Guess what?” She asked and grinned widely. “I was accepted into the MFM specialty program here. I start next month.” She said unable to remove the wide smile that took over her face as her friend reacted to the news.

“Do you want to get lunch? I think Thomas and Ben are supposed to be there already.” She said with a smile as she dried off her hands before she took her white coat putting it back on, just as the duo was walking out of the scrub room and into the hall; she heard her pager going off at the same time as Riley’s. “Code black?” She read out loud furrowing her eyebrows a little bit as she tried to remember what the code was, “Wait…” She said softly as she stopped walking and then looked at Riley just as a loud sound took over the usual noise of Rosewood’s busy daily dynamics. “W-what was that?” She asked, her voice trembling as she looked at her best friend standing there completely frozen.

“EVERYONE RUN! THEY HAVE GUNS!” Someone yelled as she looked at the end of the hallway, she noticed people running away in the opposite direction of the entrance of the area, Josephine stood there feeling unsure of what to do for a second as her legs didn’t seem to respond to what her brain was dictating; but then she heard a blast of gunshots going off and people started to fall on the ground.

Making the woman jump back and tremble at what she was seeing, “Shit, come on, come on. We’ve got to hide.” She said trying to keep her voice down as she grabbed Riley’s arm and ran off towards the first room they found as they were unable to go towards the entrance and exit of the area they were.

Josephine’s patient was still there in the recovery room with a confused look in her face, “What was that noise?” The woman asked laying there and unable to move as the anesthesia still had an effect over her body.

“Shit… okay, okay. Gwen, I- I need you to lay there and be as quiet as possible, if anyone comes in close your eyes and act dead.” The brunette said rushing towards her as she started to turn off the machines that showed the woman’s vitals before she covered her with a few blankets. “Do not move, Okay?” She asked softly but her voice kept trembling. Josephine then turned to Riley and looked at her for a second, “Hey, hey. We’re going to be fine. Okay? We need to hide, we need to be quiet, Riley. Come on.” She said softly taking her friend’s arm before the two rushed into a storage closet and covered their mouths as they tried to stabilize their breathing to make as little noise as possible as they heard the door of the room open abruptly.

It had only been a couple of weeks since the gala happened, a few weeks since Thomas Wolf was convinced by Riley’s persuasion skill and he decided to take her onto the dancefloor and talked honestly, despite the voices screaming on the back of his head telling him that he was saying too much. Thomas and Riley ended up leaving the Gala together, more food and drinks along with her presence along made the plastic surgeon even forget about his own fear of opening up to someone. It was a casual conversation; they didn’t really touch of deep dark subjects but still; it had been a huge step for the man who had convinced himself that he would never trust anyone again with his heart after his failed divorce.

The following days, Thomas and Riley texted and called each other more and more, casual lunches and coffee breaks happened and even they had a couple of surgeries together as Riley had been assigned as an anesthesiologist for a couple of his procedures. And finally, after gathering the courage, Thomas asked the woman out on a proper date. Saturday came around and it was time to take the chance, the tall man got out of the shower and ran a comb through his dark hair before putting on deodorant and walking over to his closet to pick an outfit; black pants, a dark blue long-sleeved shirt and black shoes, Thomas walked around his bedroom and opened a drawer to pull out one of his watches before putting it on and then looked at himself in the mirror for a second before taking a small breath.

“Don’t screw this one up, will you?” He mumbled to himself before grabbing his wallet, phone and coat to finally exit his bedroom and walk to the elevator to leave his large penthouse.

“I’m just leaving my place; I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Thomas texted Riley, feeling his heart accelerate at the thought of seeing her out of work once more. The man finally reached the parking lot of his building and got into his Jaguar F-Type and drove to the address Riley had sent him, and soon enough he found himself pulling up his car in front of a cozy white home with a yellow door and blue accents to brighten up the surroundings. He couldn’t help but grin a little bit as he realized the home fitted perfectly Riley’s personality.

She was like the sun bringing light everywhere she went.

After getting out of the car, Thomas walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell, tugging on the sleeves of his shirt to fix himself as he grew, both, nervous and excited while waiting for the woman to open the door.

“Hey,” He said a smile instantly flashing across his face at the sigh of her, “Ready?” He asked with a small grin curling up his lips.

Riley Cross

Flowers and candles, elegant decorations and loud laughs could be hear over the music full filling every corner of the room. Thomas wasn’t a stranger to events like this where he had to wear a tux and a bow tie and smile at strangers, shake their hands and act friendly and charm his way to get people to sign a check or support something; he had done it before when his parents were alive, he did it as he grew older and his family’s actions were left to him and his baby sister.

It was all fake and he was well aware of it but at least this was for a good cause.

Rosewood General Hospital was hosting a Gala for Seattle’s wealthiest people to help raise money for them to continue with their free week program which consisted in giving free treatment and surgery to people who didn’t have the means to get the medical help they so desperately needing; while most doctors and surgeons didn’t have a problem donating their skills and time, they still needed funds for all the resources and equipment but even when Thomas gladly signed a check for it, the chief of the hospital insisted that he still needed to show up to the Gala; tell stories, talk about some of the cases, convince their guest that giving their money away for this particular cause was something good.

Thomas Wolf let his lips curl up on a soft small smile as he nodded listening to a man and his wife talk about a their own experiences with surgery, the wife was not afraid to mention the plastic surgery procedures she had done in an attempt to preserve her youth; she didn’t have to say anything, the surgeon had notice at least five procedures she had gotten done, he could also see details that gave them away along with what he considered errors but he wasn’t about to mention them unless she did, hurting the woman’s ego wasn’t going to help them decide to donate money to Rosewood.

“Perhaps next time I can make an appointment with you instead.” She finally mentioned and Thomas nodded.

“Of course, I’ll be happy to give you my opinion on whatever ideas you have.” He said throwing out a charming smile. “You can call in and make an appointment easily, I think... unless my secretary says other wise, I should have something available on Monday evening. I have a busy morning that day; I’m helping with the facial reconstruction of a ten year old who suffered an accident. I believe he entered this free program last year.” He said softly before he grew quiet as the couple started talking about the importance of their donation before asking where they could leave a check. After the man gave them a direction, he finally took a break and walked towards the bar area, taking a small breath as he asked for a glass of champagne.

“This is going to be a long night” He mumbled to himself as he sighed softly.

Happiness, damn near destroys you Breaks your faith, to pieces on the floor So you tell yourself, that's enough for now Happiness has a violent roar

Happiness, is like the old man told me Look for it, but you'll never find it all Let it go, live your life and leave it Then one day, you’ll wake up and she'll be home...