May or may not be updating twice today since this chapter doesn't have any Tatum and Brady interactions and obviously those are my favorite parts, so keep an eye out for later!

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Tatum's eyes narrowed in thought as she flipped through the printed pages that Doctor Evans had laid out for her. It was some new thesis written by a cardiologist she knew. Doctor Evans was well aware of Tatum's career aspirations and continuously provided with any materials she thought Tatum might find helpful. She was a general surgeon for a number of years before working at the university. She said she loved it and thrived off helping people, but eventually the burn out became too much. Doctor Evans also seemed to genuinely enjoy teaching as well, so Tatum supposed it worked out.

It really worked out for Tatum, considering she now thought Doctor Evans something of a mentor to her. Tatum had been putting some extra hours in lately, hoping to impress Doctor Evans enough to give her a recommendation for Doctor Ashford. Honestly, she was a bit concerned with actually fixing Brady's knee. God, she was trying. But Brady was next to impossible. Every time she got close, he found some way out of it. She wasn't giving up— not by any means. However, she had to have some sort of contingency plan.

There was a knocking sound on the door to her room at the clinic, pulling her focus from the words in front of her. She glanced up curiously, seeing a certain hockey player standing there. A hockey player who she had a less than pleasant experience with last she saw him. Tatum didn't say anything, just raising her eyebrows expectantly.

When he didn't say anything either, Tatum realized she would have to be the one to start the conversation. She placed the paper down, sitting back in her chair. "Can I help you?"

"Well, I hope so. My shoulder's acting up," Theo commented, hand going to his shoulder with his other hand and rolling it dramatically.

She tilted her head, slowly saying, "I don't think I'm assigned to you."

"I requested you today," he told her.

Tatum gave him a questioning look. "Why would you do that?"

"Figured it would give us a chance to chat," he mused, waltzing into the room. He handed her a stack of papers which she took hesitantly, keeping her eyes on him as she did so.

"I'm flattered," she said stiffly. "But I wasn't even aware you came to PT. Not sure I'll be of much help."

"My plan is pretty straight forward. My shoulder just gets stiff sometimes," Theo told her with a shrug, nodding at the papers in her hand. "I'm sure you'll have no problem with it, especially after dealing with Parker."

"Is that what this is about? Brady?" she asked, unimpressed.

"Maybe," he said vaguely, but the look on his face confirmed it for her. "How about we start and we can get into it?"

"Intriguing," Tatum quipped in a sarcastic tone, flipping the papers back in his direction. "But I'm all set."

Theo gave her a challenging look. "Didn't realize you could just turn us away."

Doctor Evans chose that exact moment to sweep by the door, not even glancing into the room as she said, "She can't."

Tatum groaned, mentally cursing Doctor Evans. She sucked in a deep breath before plastering a smile on her face, nodding to the seat across from her. "Take a seat."

He smirked triumphantly, flopping down into the seat. Theo stared at her, leaning comfortably back into the chair. She flipped through the papers, finding herself a bit confused. The first thing she noticed was that this plan was from a couple of years ago. The date at the top was old. There was some scribbling below it in what she recognized to be Doctor Evans' handwriting. It noted the current date. She glanced up at him curiously, realizing that he just started his plan again today. According to the notes, he had some residual shoulder pain from being hit a few too many times during the games.

She placed the papers down and gave him a short look before rising to her feet. Tatum headed over to where the dumbbells were, grunting as she lifted two of the heavier weights. She lugged them back to her room, planting them on the ground in front of Theo. "Start with fifteen overhead presses on each arm. We'll do three reps and see how you're feeling."

"Got it," Theo agreed easily, picking up one of the weights. He immediately started the workout with little to no struggle, only proving Tatum's theory. But she didn't want to let him go this easily. Maybe she could use him for some information.

"So, what's your angle?" Tatum asked, watching his shoulder as he lifted the dumbbell above his head.

Theo grinned. "Why do you think I have an angle?"

"Everyone has an angle," she said simply with a shrug, picking up the papers once more and eyeing the old versus new notes on his plan. He hadn't come to PT in years. But he chose to come back. There had to be a reason. "Why did you want me to do your plan today?"

"Wanted to see how things were going with Brady," he informed her as if it were obvious. She let out a scoff, expecting him to say the real reason. When he didn't, Tatum shook her head.

"Did you?" she drawled idly, a smile quirking at her lips. "How sweet of you."

"Yeah, he's actually a good friend of mine," Theo insisted, continuing to pump the weight up with ease. She narrowed her eyes calculatingly.

"Yeah, that's the vibe I got the other night," Tatum said sarcastically, letting out a dry chuckle. She placed the papers down on her desk, leaning back comfortably in her seat.

But Theo wouldn't be deterred. "Sometimes we fight, we're like brothers."

Now that made Tatum laugh. He stared at her incredulously as she chuckled, shaking her head and wiping her eyes. "God, you know, I barely know Brady and even I know that's not true. He really doesn't like you."

"Like I said, brothers fight," he said and Tatum let out one more laugh, trying to smother it with a cough. "I just wanna make sure he's healing, you know? Taking care of himself."

She considered him for a moment. Something was going on. She just couldn't figure out what. Theo clearly wanted something from her. He was waiting for it almost. But this could be Tatum's chance to see how he played into all of this. After all of his comments at the bar, Tatum wanted to know what made him so comfortable talking about someone getting attacked to their face. She couldn't help but think that he played some part in all of it. It was a bold accusation that she couldn't just throw around. Nonetheless, she could easily turn this conversation around on him.

Tatum let out an exasperated sigh, trying her best to seem hesitant. "I shouldn't be talking to you about someone else. Especially a patient."

"He's hardly a patient though, right? He won't even do your plan," Theo pushed, a gleam in his eyes.

She should consider going into acting, honestly. Biting the inside of her lip, Tatum shrugged as she said, "It's just that no matter what I do... I just don't know if he'll get better. I wanna help but I mean... the damage was bad. Really bad. Whoever went after him, they wanted to make sure he never played hockey again."

Sneaking a glance at Theo, she was taken aback when she saw his expression. He looked... distant. Like he was seeing something in his head. The best word she could use to describe it was haunted, almost. It wasn't what she expected in the slightest. Tatum noticed that Theo froze, holding the weight up at an awkward angle— an angle that would be too painful if he was actually having shoulder pain. She cleared her throat, pulling his attention from what he was thinking about.

"There's nothing wrong with your shoulder," Tatum stated challengingly, not a hint of a question in her voice.

That snapped Theo out of whatever was going on in his head. He just grinned at her, placing the weight down beside him. Theo leaned forward in the seat, resting his arms on his knees. "You caught me."

"What's going on?" she pressed seriously, copying his movements and leaning towards him. "What do you know?"

Theo lifted his head slowly, eyeing her carefully. His words were slow and deliberate as he told her, "Don't go looking. Whatever you're thinking, you don't want to know."

His words struck something in her chest. She felt her heart beat a bit faster at the sudden drop of temperature in the room. The tension was suffocating. This wasn't a game anymore. They weren't trying to make the other show their cards and reveal their hand. This was a plain and simple warning. Her brain felt like it was melting out of her ears. Her mouth was dry and she could only hope it wasn't excruciatingly obvious that she felt incredibly unnerved by this conversation.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Tatum let out, trying to keep her voice level despite the hammering of her heart. Theo tilted his head.

"No you don't," he agreed. "But you want to."

Her breath hitched, lifting her head up. She refused to be scared off by Theo or fall victim to whatever intimidation method this was. Shouldn't he know that whenever someone told her not to do something, it only made her want to do it more? Well, Tatum supposed he wouldn't know that considering she could count on one hand how many times they ha actually spoken to each other. Either way, this was not having the effect on her that he desired. But that wasn't to say Tatum wasn't a bit sick of this not-so-subtle interrogation.

"Sessions up," she said in a low voice, not moving her gaze. That wasn't even close to true, considering he had only been in her room for maybe ten minutes.

Theo shot her one last smug look before standing up. "I can see why Parker likes you."

She scoffed, giving him a quizzical look. "Brady can't stand me."

"Right," he said in a tone that had just a smidge of sarcasm. Tatum felt a rush of confusion hit her, a feeling she had grown accustomed by now with this entire interaction. Before he could head out, he paused at the door. She stayed silent, curious as to what his next move would be. Turning to face her, the smugness that seemed was permanently etched onto his face was nowhere to be found.

"Just... be careful where you go looking, Hartley," Theo advised at the doorway. Tatum wanted to comment that he was being annoyingly cryptic and vague, but he was gone before she cold say anything.

That was... strange, to say the least. She couldn't figure out what Theo wanted from her. It almost felt like one second, he wanted her to know whatever he knew. The next second, it felt like his world would crumble if she did know. Her head was spinning as the tension slowly leaked from the room, following Theo out. She glanced out the window, doing a double-take when she saw the very hockey player who was just in her room essentially running.

Her gaze narrowed as she watched Theo head outside. She lifted her head curiously as he glanced around, checking for something... or someone. Theo was heading towards a familiar looking car parked outside. Tilting her head, she tried to see who was in it. Theo threw the door open and shut it just as quickly, but not before Tatum could see who else was there.

Her eyes widened when she saw who was in the driver's seat.

It was Kinsley.

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Totally pictured "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac playing as Theo walked out to Kinsley's car like that one scene in Glee where Rachel and Finn spy on Quinn hanging out with Sam.