Soundtrack for this chapter:
Sweet Creature—Harry Styles
Use Somebody—Kings of Leon
Who am I—Vance Joy

8

Theo

In the time after my debacle of a "set-up" with Marnie's friend, I found myself drifting over to our piano whenever I couldn't think straight. I was falling back into the habit of using it as an escape, and I didn't mind it at all.

Aiden, though, he minded a whole-fucking lot. One Saturday morning in particular, he came pounding down the steps, a scowl on his face and sleep in his eyes.

"Do you have to bang on that thing so early in the morning?"

I couldn't stop an eye roll, and my hands kept moving on the keys as I spoke to him. "One, it's after ten o'clock, which isn't early by anyone's definition. Two, I'd be happy to bring out my drums if you'd prefer to hear those."

He narrowed his eyes at me and dragged his feet into the kitchen. The sound of a nearly empty box of cereal met my ears as he shook it.

"Make sure you put cereal on the grocery list."

My hands lifted from the keys and balled in and out of fists. "Are your fingers broken?"

"What?"

Even though my back was to him, I could easily see the confusion on his face in my mind's eye.

"Put it on the list yourself."

A grunted urgh sounded from the kitchen. Rather than losing it on him, I extended my fingers, placed them back on the keys, and continued playing. That morning I'd chosen Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata; I only knew the first few minutes of it, but it worked for me. The dark, somber quality of the beginning of that composition helped me push the annoyance I was feeling towards Aiden and the remnants of Jules far from my mind.

As much as I would have liked to have said I'd completely forgotten her, she still had a way of working her way in every now and then. How can one girl, a girl I hardly knew, have made such a lasting impression? If I were being honest with myself, there was a tiny part of me that held onto the hope that the time I saw her in the park wouldn't be the last time I saw her, but with each passing day, that hope seemed to dwindle a little more. Sometimes that hope was replaced with anger or frustration, sometimes with thoughts of what if?.

After a few more grumblings from Aiden, he made his way back up into his room with a small bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice. Moments later, Danny came down the steps with Marnie trailing behind him. She put a hand on my shoulder as they walked past me into the kitchen.

"A beautiful wake-up like that deserves a good breakfast. Want an omelette?"

"Absolutely. I hear we're almost out of cereal."

Danny laughed, and I followed the two into the kitchen. While Marnie pulled eggs, milk, cheese, and a few add-ins from the fridge, Dan and I sat down at the table.

"Looks like your options include mushrooms, spinach, or some of this leftover ham from last night's dinner."

Dan and I exchanged identical looks before turning to her. "All three?" we asked in unison.

"Amazing."

"We've had almost thirty years of practice." He winked at her as she placed a pan on the stove.

As Marnie started on the eggs, Dan turned back to me with a furrow in his brow. "Dad mention anything about retiring the last time you saw him?"

"Nope. Why? Did he say something to you?"

"No, but I think he needs to start considering it. He's going to be sixty-five next year."

I shrugged my shoulders. "People work way past sixty-five these days. He could always take on less cases."

"I know he can, but I don't think he will. You know what he's like. We barely saw him on weeknights when we were kids. You know that's why mom started the Sunday brunch tradition."

"He's pulled back some, but he founded that firm. I can't imagine it'll be easy for him to just let it go, especially without someone in the family to take it over."

Dan learned in and lowered his voice. "We can still convince Aiden or Erin into law school."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Maybe Erin. But Aiden? Absolutely not. The only quality he has that could set him up in that world is his arrogance."

Danny's head jerked back in defense. "Dad's not arrogant. And concerning Aiden, what happened to 'he's just twenty-two, give him a break?'"

"He's been testing my patience lately. And I'm not saying Dad's arrogant, you shithead. But a lot of them are. Anyways, we're getting beyond the point."

Marnie slid two plates in front of us. "Stop your bickering and eat."

"Thanks, Marn." We were in unison once again.

She shook her head and returned to the stove to make something for herself.

Between mouthfuls, Danny and I continued.

"Even if Erin was able to take over, she wouldn't be able to do so for years. And he's not going to turn over the firm to someone under thirty, daughter or otherwise."

"I guess. Maybe he can keep it but just cut back even more."

"Maybe."

But I doubted it. Dad was great, even if he was a little absent from our childhoods, but he wanted to provide for us. He wanted to make sure we had everything he never had, and with five kids, that wasn't easy. He wanted to make sure mom could be home with us and didn't have to work. He was my hero, and I'd shout it from the fucking rooftops.

***

After a particularly taxing week at the station, I was actually looking forward to my Friday shift. I had the weekend off, my first full weekend in a while, and I was going to take full advantage of it; whether that meant getting a few good nights of sleep consecutively or having a good time with Dan and our friends, I wasn't sure, but I couldn't wait to get through the day.

Mike was on duty with me, and except for a call to take care of a kid who'd had an allergic reaction to peanuts and an elderly man who'd fallen down his steps, we had a pretty slow shift. At the end of it, I was sitting in the kitchen, waiting out my last fifteen minutes. Nikki and Dave had even already shown up to relieve us. I was about to unhook my radio when the alarms went off.

Nikki turned to me and Mike the moment she got off the dispatch call. "You boys game for staying a little later? Sounds like there are multiple injuries. They already put a call into the surrounding stations if we need back up."

"No problem." As much as I'd been looking forward to my release, I had to admit I'd been lacking that rush of adrenaline all day. This could be the call to get me through my weekend.

Mike nodded to me and we followed Nikki and Dave down to the ambulances. Once we checked that everything was good to go, our driver sped us out of the station.

In the rig, Mike radioed dispatch for more information, and I listened in on the call. "Hit and run on State Street, Downtown. 911 caller identified two victims. One is unconscious, presumed to have been riding a motorcycle when hit."

When the call ended, the number of "fucks" that came out of Mike's mouth seemed more than appropriate.

"What a fucking bastard. Who the fuck drives off when they've hit a person? I can understand, maybe, a fucking fender bender, but a person? A person?"

While he continued on, I said a prayer. I felt his rage too, and I completely understood it, but that fear of knowing one of our patients leaped into my throat. But none of my family should have been in that area; none of them live that close to the water. I tried to think of any of my friends who ride motorcycles but came up with nothing, and that fear dissipated enough to be replaced with the same anger Mike was feeling.

Ours was the first ambulance to arrive on the scene. Our red and white lights added to the red and blue ones from police cars illuminating the street. The officers were working on setting up a perimeter around the scene as a small crowd had gathered. I caught a glimpse of the presumed motorist on the ground and a bent up motorcycle a few feet from him. Further away still, the second victim, a woman, was sitting down, back against the pole of a street lamp, her head hung low; someone was sitting next to her, a consoling hand rubbing up and down her back.

In seconds, the other ambulance arrived. Dave and Nikki hopped out, and Mike turned to me.

"Go check on that woman. The motorist is clearly worse, so I'll go with Nikki and Dave to him. Radio me if you need backup."

I nodded to him as I pulled on gloves and grabbed my kit before turning back to go to the woman. As I approached, my eyes caught sight of a guitar, strings all snapped, on the sidewalk, and with my next step closer, I realized it was her.

My heart beat hard with adrenaline, and I found myself kneeling in front of her in an instant. Any feelings of frustration and anger I'd felt towards her over the previous few weeks floated away.

"Jules?"

She picked her head up, but kept her hands firmly clasped together in her lap. One of my worst fears was playing out before me. Rather than tear laced eyes, hers were dry and wide in shock. Her pupils were dilated so big that little of the light brown color normally surrounding them could be seen. She didn't say anything, and I turned to the older woman who had been sitting next to her.

"Are you injured?"

"No, saw the accident as I was taking a walk with my husband. He's over there talking to an officer. She said she hit her head when she fell."

"Thank you, ma'am. Would you mind just hanging out a little farther away so I can take a look at her? The police will probably ask you for a statement."

"Of course." She stood up and walked away, meeting her husband somewhere between us and the other victim.

I turned back to the girl in front of me. "Jules, talk to me. Tell me what happened."

"Is he dead?" It was a whisper, almost lost in the night air.

"I, I don't know." I struggled for just a moment to keep my emotions in check. "My concern is you right now. How did you fall?"

She shivered with a chill before speaking, and I fought the urge to scoop her up into my arms. "That man, he pulled out from the side street on his bike, and the car hit him. It all happened so fast. He rolled up onto the hood, then back down. Glass and parts from his bike went flying towards me so I, I tried to back up and I tripped on something and fell. I heard the car drive off. And then..."

She pulled her two hands apart to reach around to the back of her head; that was when I saw the blood.

"Fuck." One of my gloved hands went to the back of her head, but when I pulled it away it was clean. She winced under my touch. "Sorry, sorry, Jules. I thought that blood was from your head. Let me see your hand."

Reluctantly, she gave me her right hand. A gash had found a home in her palm. I held it up with my left hand while the right rummaged in my kit for something to wrap it with. I pulled out a piece of gauze and some wrapping, placed the gauze on her hand, and applied pressure to it. Once it was preliminarily wrapped, I pulled out an ophthalmoscope. "Did you lose consciousness at all?"

"I...I don't know. Everything went black, but I could still hear things. Then this woman was next to me and I was sitting against this pole."

So that was a yes. "Jules, look at me." I shined the light before her eyes and confirmed the dilation of her pupils just before she snapped them shut from the brightness.

As I was putting the flashlight back into my kit, the radio on my shoulder sounded with Mike's voice.

"Theo, Theo. This is Mike. Patient One is in critical condition. They're about to load him into the ambulance and take him to the hospital. Police want to know if Patient Two can give a statement. How is she?"

I gripped the radio and made sure to speak softly. "Patient Two has a concussion and lateral wound to her palm. Holding pressure on it now, but it may need stitches. Lost consciousness momentarily when she hit her head. She can talk to the police tomorrow. I'll get her into the second ambulance."

When I turned back to meet Jules' eyes, they were suddenly brimming with tears.

"I, I'm fine. I can talk to the police now. I don't need to go to the hospital."

I sighed, knowing she was going to be difficult. "Jules, you have a concussion, and I think you're going to need stitches on that hand if the bleeding doesn't stop. You'll want them to clean it out, too. I know you don't like it, but..."

Her head was slightly shaking back and forth. "I really don't want to go, Theo. I—" she tried to push herself up to standing and fell forward into me. I guided her back into a seated position.

"You're hurt. Technically, I can't force you to go to the hospital, but in my professional opinion you really need to get checked out. What if you've got glass in your hand? It'll get infected, and then you'd have to go anyways." I ran my hands up and down her arms, trying to send her any note of comfort. "Listen, Jules, I need you to get in the ambulance with me. If you want, I can call someone, have someone meet you at the hospital so you're not alone."

She closed her eyes, and her head dropped just an inch. "I don't have anyone."

Fuck. "Jules?"

I noticed that she'd opened her eyes, but she kept her gaze on the pavement.

"I'll stay with you. Okay? I wasn't even supposed to be here. I was at the end of my shift when the call came in so I don't need to go back to the station. I'll stay with you if you go, okay? You really need to go." I knew it wasn't a coincidence that we had met again, though I'd have preferred it to be under different circumstances. I wasn't going to let her go through this alone.

Her chest rose and fell with a shudder, but she nodded. I stood up and bent down to help her get on her feet.

"Do you feel okay enough to walk?"

She nodded again, and I wrapped an arm around her waist to stabilize her as she walked with me towards the remaining ambulance. Mike was waiting just outside of it. When he climbed in and started to unbuckle the straps of the stretcher, Jules pulled back on my arm.

"I don't want to be strapped to that."

Mike must've heard her because he turned to me with a weird look, but I just shook my head at him and helped Jules up into the back of the rig, then sat her down in what would have been my seat and buckled her in.

"Okay?"

She went to nod her head again, but screwed her eyes shut.

"Just sit back and keep your eyes closed. It's the lights in the cabin. I'll shut them off."

She did as instructed, and I flipped the switch for the lights. Then I remembered her guitar and looked at Mike. "Hang on a second." I hopped out of the back and grabbed her guitar. I was sure dad would be able to fix it with some new strings; he was a man of many talents.

When I sat back down next to Jules, I propped it up against the doors, and Mike raised his eyebrows at me.

"Not now, Mike." He put his hands out in front of him in a gesture of surrender.

At the hospital, I helped Jules out of the ambulance and walked with her into the emergency room. When the nurses saw me, they tried to shoo me off; I could count on one hand the number of times I'd made it past the parking lot.

"Thanks, Theo. We'll take her from here."

Jules turned to me with panic in her eyes.

"Off the clock. I'm staying with her." It came out a little harsher than intended, but I wasn't in the mood for any bullshit, and they could be pushy at times. Jules was one off comment away from a fucking breakdown, and she'd been through enough. "Is Marnie on tonight?"

"Nope. She's on day shift tomorrow. Hang tight in here. Doctor will be in shortly."

The nurse pulled back a curtain to a reveal a bed, chair, and medical station. Without another word, she drew the curtain back around.

I grabbed Jules by the elbow and helped her up onto the edge of the bed. She shivered with a chill.

"Alright?"

She shook her head, a new wave of tears threatening to break through.

"Did that man die?"

"He was in critical condition when they took him in the ambulance. I haven't heard anything since. What were you doing walking by yourself?"

"I was playing an open mic night at—" suddenly, her head whipped around, "where's my—" her eyes screwed shut again and her uninjured hand moved to the back of her head. "Damn it. Why does that hurt so much?"

"You have a concussion, Jules. Any quick movements are going to agitate it further, so try to keep still. As for your guitar, I saw it on the sidewalk and put it in the truck. The strings are all busted, but my dad used to build guitars. I think he'll be able to fix it." I got up from the chair and stood in front of her. "We can get it after they release you, okay? Let me see your hand." She held out her uninjured hand to me.

"I see someone is getting her sense of humor back. Other hand."

She lifted it and rested the back of her hand in my palm. No blood had seeped through the bandages, which hopefully meant that the bleeding stopped. I gingerly unwrapped the layers of gauze, and when I got to her skin, I held her palm up to the light.

"I really don't want stitches. I've never had them."

I turned my eyes back to her. "They're not so bad. But I don't think you'll need any. The bleeding seems to have stopped."

When the doctor came in, I moved back into a corner of the makeshift room and allowed her to complete her examination of Jules. When she was done, I regained my position next to Jules' side.

"You've got a grade two concussion, which means for the next few days you need to take it easy. Lots of rest, no reading. You may get a little dizzy or experience nausea; those things are normal, but if you can't stand up because you're so dizzy, or you throw up more than once and can't stop, you need to come back to the hospital. As for your hand, I'm going to have a nurse come in to clean it up and wrap it for you. Do you live by yourself?"

"Yes."

"I'd see about finding a friend you can stay with, at least for the next twenty-four hours. Okay?"

She gave just a slight nod. "Thank you."

The doctor smiled at her and then turned out of the room.

"See, not so bad being in a hospital."

She shrugged her shoulders and held out her hand to me. "Can you do this?"

"I don't work for the hospital. They won't let me. I promise it'll be quick and painless." She sent me an untrusting look, and she was right to. It wasn't going to be anything she couldn't handle, but when I had held her hand up to the light, I noticed some gravel and a few pieces of glass in her palm.

As we waited, I brought my right hand to her back and gently rubbed up and down, mimicking what I'd seen the woman at the scene do and hoping it would help Jules relax, but she remained incredibly tense under my touch.

A few minutes later, a nurse came in to clean out her hand. She winced a few times, sending hot flashes of agitation over me. I wished I could have done it for her, but it would've been a liability for the hospital. When the nurse was done, he wrapped her hand up and gave her care instructions for it, along with his number so she could "call if she had any questions." If I wasn't a professional I would've knocked his fucking lights out. Then I remembered that Jules wasn't mine to be jealous over.

When it was just us left in the room, I stood in front of her before helping her down from the bed. I wanted so badly to caress her face, to hold her, to give her some sense of comfort. But I kept my hands at my sides.

"If you want, I can call my brother, and he can take us to the station to pick up your guitar, and then drive you back to Parnassus."

"Nora's away this weekend."

"Who?"

"Nora. My colleague who also lives on campus. She's gone this weekend. I don't have..." her voice trailed off.

Fuck it. She was thrown in front of me again for a reason, right? "You can stay at my house if you'd like. You can stay in my room. I'll take the couch."

Her eyes closed, and her head drooped. "I...I can't let you do that. I've walked out on you twice. I don't deserve your kindness."

Did I tell her I was being selfish? Did I tell her I haven't wanted a woman like I wanted her? "You need someone right now. If you were me, I imagine you'd do the same. I'm just trying to help."

Her eyes met mine. "I'm sorry I walked away from you without an explanation. I...I was..."

"You don't have to explain. It's been a long night. Let's just get you into a bed, okay?"

Without another word, she took my arm as I helped her down from the table. Again, selfishly, I started thinking that maybe if she just spent some time with me, she could see what we could be. I started wondering if I was any better than that fucking nurse who gave her his number.

When we got to the nurse's station to check her out, Jules dug around in her purse for her insurance card. As I sent Danny a text asking him to come get us, one of the nurses behind the desk called my name and held up Jules' guitar.

"Mike left this. Said it belonged to your patient."

I grabbed it from her as Jules signed some paperwork. She was given a packet of aftercare instructions and tried to read over them as we walked out of the hospital. I grabbed it from her.

"You're terrible at following directions."

She turned to me with confusion etched across her features.

"The doctor just told you no reading, remember?"

She screwed her eyes shut. "Not really. I, I have to read over those. I don't know what to do with my hand, or my head."

"I'll go over everything with you in the morning, okay? Don't worry about anything else right now other than getting some rest."

She gripped onto my arm a little tighter as we descended the steps outside the hospital.

"Alright?"

"Just...just a little dizzy. She said that was normal. I remember that. We don't need to go back."

I couldn't help but laugh a little. "Of course you remember anything that'll keep you out of the hospital. Here, this is our ride."

Danny pulled up to the curb in his silver sedan. I opened the back door for Jules and helped her climb into the car. Once she was settled, I put her guitar up front and then hopped in right next to her. When she was buckled, she rested her head against my shoulder.

Dan raised his eyebrows at me in the mirror, but I shook my head at him. I'd worry about explaining everything to him in the morning.

When we got to our house, Danny opened Jules' door and helped her get out.

"Thank y—" I saw her look at Dan and then open and close her eyes a few times. Somehow I couldn't remember ever having told her I was a twin.

Jules turned towards me as I climbed out of the car.

"Theo, something's not right. He has your face."

Dan's soft laughter met my own. "Nice to formally meet you, Jules. I'm Theo's twin brother, Dan, or, as Theo likes to call me, Danny."

"I'll take her. Thanks for coming to pick us up." I swapped places with Danny and put my arm around Jules' waist.

"Why didn't you tell me you had a twin?"

"Guess it never came up. It's not nearly as cool to us as it is to everyone else, so I don't talk about it all the time."

She leaned into me a little more heavily as we trudged up the stairs. I kept a strong hold on her. The last thing either of us needed was to fall down the steps.

In my room, she sat on the edge of my bed as I pulled out a t-shirt from my drawer and a pair of boxers. "I'm sorry I don't have anything else to offer you in terms of clothing, but I imagine you don't want to wear what you've got on."

She lightly shook her head and held out her hand.

"I'm going to go change in the bathroom down the hall. Just don't stand too quickly or flop down on the bed."

"Okay. Thanks."

I left her alone and slipped into the bathroom to change. My manhood seemed to think we had other plans in store for the night as it strained against the pants of my uniform. Not this time, bud.

That was the thing; there was no denying how attracted I was to Jules, both physically and emotionally. I'd never held the level of attraction I felt towards her towards any other woman I'd seen, dated, or gone home with. And yet I still wasn't able to pinpoint what it was about her that drove me crazy, both the good and bad. There was no doubt she had built a strong wall around herself; maybe it was the divorce, maybe it was her parents. She mentioned the night we met that they'd threatened to disown her before. I couldn't imagine mom or dad even thinking such a thing, let alone saying it to my face.

Once I was in a t-shirt and gym shorts, I went back to my room to find Jules looking at a picture of me with a few members of my company back in Afghanistan. I sent up a silent prayer knowing that I was meant to be the one who responded to her accident.

"Ready for bed?"

She set the picture down and moved towards my bed. I pulled back the covers, and she slid into them. Once she was settled, I clicked off the lamp on the bedside table.

"Goodnight, Jules." Just as I was about to turn towards the door, I felt a familiar warmth wrap around my wrist.

"Will you stay?"

I didn't respond immediately. I wanted to stay; I wanted to hold her and comfort her and show her that we could work, regardless of what she thought. But I also didn't want her to feel like I was taking advantage of her moment of weakness. Still another part of me was angry at her for ghosting on me twice, at her assuming because I had tattoos and was in a band that I was some sort of womanizer, at her for refusing to even consider us trying to get to know each other.

"Please?" It was a whisper I almost didn't hear.

She didn't have to ask again; I knew she wouldn't. I walked around to the other side of the bed and nestled in. Before I could move closer to her, she rolled in the bed to face me.

"You lied to me about that nurse cleaning out my hand."

"I know. I didn't want you to stress about it."

She moved closer to me and placed her head on my chest. "Thank you." Her right arm came over my chest and her hand set to rest along my rib cage, right on top of my scars. For the first time, my skin didn't crawl under someone else's touch.

I landed a soft kiss on the top of her head. "Anytime."

A/N: Hi!

I hope you're ~swooning~ over these two like I am. 💕

Guess where I was this past weekend? (Answer will be below)

Also, SOMEONE ELSE JUST HIT TWO MILLION READS. I love you all beyond words 💜

Please vote and comment and chat with me! You know how much I love talking to you. Have a great week!

-L

Ps. Boston. I was in Boston when I uploaded the last chapter and it was amazing (and informative in regards to writing a story that takes place in Boston lol). It's been my favorite city for years now, and I already can't wait to go back.