As Gray Maxwell pulled into her driveway and turned off her car, she looked at her beautiful cottage-style house to the ocean beyond. She picked up her purse from the passenger side seat, and closed the car door behind her. She stood still for a minute, just listening to the morning sounds echoing all around, almost, but not quite, drowning out the soft swish of the trees rustling in the wind. The sky above her was a vivid blue and she could just make out a small sliver of glistening  of water from the water pound through the cottage in front of her .

After unlocking the door, she opened it slowly and entered her home. She paused when she heard footsteps running over the thick carpet and braced herself. She could also smell something delicious. Does a thief cook when they plan to rob someone? Is that a new trend?

She was slammed into from behind, a pair of strong arms wrapping around her. Gray let out a huff of laughter and held those arms to her chest while she regained her equilibrium, both mentally and physically. "You keep doing this, Xavier. And every time you're damn lucky I don't punch you in the face before I realize it's you," Gray said, turning to see the thief—her brother.

Xavier Maxwell grinned. "You always say that, but you haven't done it yet."

She rolled her eyes. "Because I knew it was you. It's almost twenty-five years since you started trying to scare me by coming from behind."

She collapsed in the corner of the sofa, sinking into the cushions as Xavier moved towards the kitchen. "How did you get inside? It's been just a week since I moved back and you're already here, getting inside my home like a thief."

He shrugged while pouring two cup of coffee. "I wanted to see how you were doing. It's almost a year since I last saw you. You weren't there so I hacked the security."

Gray blew out a breathe. "You're saying that as if it's normal. Trespassing is a crime, Xavier."

"You can forgive me since I'm cooking for you," he replied as he gave her the glass of wine. "Your home is all white and blue, very feminine considering how much you dislike blue."

"It's not about feminine feeling or blue. I just liked the color in here, felt peaceful."

He chuckled. "Cost you a fortune for this?"

"I have tons of money so a little expensive home is not a waste. A good home is always a good investment," she said, pulling her hair into a high bun. "Did you tell anyone?" Gray asked taking a sip from her strong wine.

"Tell what?"

"Me moving back here."

Xavier shook his head as he wrapped the green apron around him. "Just you, Dad, our two uncles and me. Dad gave strict instructions about not telling anyone including mom."

Gray have a huge family. A blessing she couldn't thank enough. Her father and  two uncles lived in Maxwell Mansion along with their wives. Back when she was growing up, all the children lived there in that huge mansion but in the last few years, the youngsters moved out giving more privacy to their parents. Living with five brothers and seven cousins wasn't easy but she loved it. Loved that part of her life. Her family.

"Where is Dad, Uncle Mark and Uncle Ben? I expected a visit from them."

"Busy with the hospital. Something wrong with the investment and stuff. On top of that, the chief of surgery met with an accident and there is some in there too. We are short on staff. Inter department cooperation is apparently a huge thing," Ben explained while stirring the batter.

Gray arched her brows. "That bad?"

Maxwell Hospital was built long before her birth and it's still going well under the care of her father and two uncles. 

"Everything is a mess. Doctors are struggling with the tight schedule and not having a chief of surgery is not helping either." 

Gray frowned at Xavier. "They haven't appointed another one?"

Xavier nodded as he grabbed the bread from the oven. "You have to see the center. It's a chaos with all the patients. The emergency cases have spiked up a lot in the past two months. More than half of the patients require surgery and there's very few attending physicians available at all the time. Zach and Alex have barely gone home since two months." Gray remained silent as he opened the refrigerator. Zach and Alex are her cousins who are elder than her by two and three years respectively, first one is a cardiovascular surgeon while the other is a neurosurgeon. Zach is Uncle Ben's and Aunt Flora's eldest son while Alex is Uncle Mark's and Aunt Lily's eldest son.

"Where was I?"

"Helping out."

"Yeah! Yesterday, there were around twelve emergency surgeries. They were advised to transfer the patients to another hospital but the bystanders weren't ready to go which led to a huge fight and Wes, the head of security had to practically peel people of each other. We have more law suits this week than we had in the past six months." After placing something else in the oven, Xavier settled beside her. "The general surgeon hardly gets any sleep since he's the one who manages the whole ER. You might know him—Margaret's son."

Dr. Margaret Evans is one of her family friend and she is also the head of gynecology. Gray has met her a few times but knew nothing about her family other than the fact that her husband died before twenty-two years and never married again.

"I have no idea," Gray said. "What are they planning?"

"That's what I'm getting to," Xavier said as he placed his arm around the back of the couch. "They need a chief of surgery soon and last I heard they're bringing in someone new. That was the whole topic of yesterday's meeting."

"Someone new for chief of surgery. That is going burn," she responded, leaning against the hand of the couch and placing her legs on her brother's lap.

Xavier smiled. "We don't know about the surgeon. We'll meet her tomorrow and everyone are opposed of the idea except Dr. King, Dr. Margaret, Dr. Carter and our uncles."

Gray frowned when everything fell in the right place. "I was asked to meet Uncle Mark tomorrow at the hospital's conference room and last time I checked I was a surgeon."

Xavier chuckled and winked at Gray. "I had my doubt. I guess Dr. Margaret, Dr. Carter and Dr. King are aware that you're the one who's being appointed."

Her father and uncle never stopped surprising her with their decisions but they're not getting away with this easily.

"I'm not agreeing for this. I was planning to join to train the residents after a month," she asserted, glaring at her brother.

Xavier nodded. "I know but I think you're the best option. You have tons of experience and nothing in here can be scarier than what you already experienced."

A small smile touched her lips. He was right. She did have a wonderful experience in the medical field. Gray was flexible with her lifestyle. After her residency in California, she moved to Chicago where she stayed five months before moving to Vermont for ten months. Gray worked in Vermont at a small town hospital and that was one of the greatest experience of her life. She went there to visit Dr. Brown, her professor who was settled in Vermont. He was working in the town hospital where you don't see many departments like here—just an ER and OT. She liked the place and decided to stay for few weeks but she ended up working there for a year before she moved to New York. During those ten months, she get to experience things that she never thought even existed. It was a town with barely some cell connection, no Starbucks and no hotels but the hospital was the highlight. You get around two hundred cases a week—most of them accidents—and everyone were quick. Damn quick. After ten months she decided to come back when few new doctors were appointed there because she missed home and she knew her life was here in the city. After that she spent some time with her family in California before moving to New York for eight months. Those eight months where the shining period of Gray's professional life. The skills she learnt from Dr. Brown in Vermont  helped her much more than she'd imagined, she got the knack to many things. She earned a sense of respect in her career and she would have stayed there longer if she didn't have to move to Texas. She never denied her services when asked for help. When Dr. Edisto, another of her professors asked her if she could perform a surgery on him, she didn't hesitate. He believed in her which was the reason he hunted her down and asked for help so she would never turn a blind to such trust. That is how Gray ended up working in Texas for six months before moving to Washington for another seven months and then to New York again because she missed the city. She stayed in New York for almost two years during which she worked as the head of her department. She loved the city but not enough to stop her moving back to her home. She would have moved back to California before eight months but the vacancy wasn't available in Maxwell Hospital and she didn't want her Dad to make an exception because she was the Chairman's daughter. This made her way to Arizona where she stayed for eight months which was hell of a busy time.

"I don't know, Xavier. You said everyone are opposed with the idea of me working there," she muttered thinking about the job.

Xavier shook his head as he drew circles on her feet. "They're opposed to the idea of a new surgeon as the chief of surgery. They don't see the need of another surgeon when they already have surgeons and moreover, they don't know it's you who is being appointed."

"I need to think."

"That's fine. You have this whole day to think. Everyone is going to support because they know how good you're at what you do. Uh.. Matt might not agree," he mumbled the last statement.

Gray scrunched her face in confusion. "Matt?"

"The general surgeon.. Margaret's son, Dr. Matthew Evans."

"Asshole?"

Xavier laughed while sitting up straight. "He's smart, efficient and kind. Everyone likes Matt. This is actually my personal opinion," he paused, arched his brows as if thinking something hard. "he's having some personal trouble."

"So does everyone."

Xavier shook his head as if Gray didn't understand what he meant. "He was the face of hospital marketing because he's a great oncologist but he had a clash with one of the investors and that didn't go well. Dr. Evans has been pushed down since then and he's was shot down for the position of head of general surgery. He also faced lot of lawsuits last month and was once referred to the disciplinary committee. His reputation before eight months was damn impressive but right now, he's just another doctor who doesn't care for anything."

"Not even the patients?"

"That's the rumor going on. Not sure if it's true. It's not just him, his sister Melinda has a similar reputation. Young Evans are trouble apparently. I don't have much details on that. I don't deal with surgery but Alex and Zach could help you with that." He leaned back and set a foot on the coffee table. "Now that I think about, nowadays he does look a lot older than his age and from as a psychiatrist, I would say it's probably a sign of depression or burn out. I don't know him personally but he looked a lot better before."

"Hmm. Interesting," she muttered, wondering about Matthew Evans.

His lips twitched at the emphasis she gave to the words. "Interested, as in hospital or Matthew Evans."

"Hospital." She stretched when she felt as if her limbs were sinking into the furniture. "Actually, I'm not particularly interested in anything these days."

"Are you missing Arizona?"

Arizona was where she worked for the past eight months. "Not really."

"You never did tell me what happened." Damn psychiatrist waited silently. Xavier is her second brother along while Dylan is the first who is his twin. They're non-identical with different faces, attitudes and jobs. Xavier is a psychiatrist while Dylan is a SEAL.

His tricks didn't work on her. "No, I didn't, did I?"

He huffed an easy laugh. "Gray, all I heard from Dad is that you broke up with John." His lean face showed mild concern. "You were dating him for four months which is a record."

"You know about my dating life more than me," she said sarcastically.

"What has changed?"

Her eyes closed again. "He believes I'm into drugs."

Silence!

"Can you repeat that again?"

Gray opened her eyes to look at her brother who didn't mask his shock as he always did. "He has an delusion that I'm an addict and believed that is a reason for him to cheat on me."

Xavier glowered. "He broke up with you because he thought you were an addict and he cheated on you."

Gray blew out a loud breathe. "He was nice and a good boyfriend until I met his friend. Apparently his friend and I went to the same college and he remembers about me skipping classes for a whole semester. Back then the rumors were that I had some drug problem and he passed this information to John and he started to believe I did use drug and I might start again. You know... being in a attempting environment. And that led to some arguments and he cheated on me. He was sorry about it but you know me, I'm not the type to forget something like that.

"Are you serious?"

"Dead serious. He called me a junkie and I don't know where he got that."

Silence!

Gray looked at his brother who stared at her in shock. "Did you use drugs?"

She blinked at him. "What the hell, Xavier? Is that what you think? You need to learn to be a concerned brother."

He shook his head. "I'm not telling that you did wrong, honey. I know you're not an addict but you never really told us why you skipped your semester. You were fifteen, you were so smart that you went to college much earlier than others. Alex and you, both of you went together and one day suddenly everything changed. I remember mom telling me that you got sick and we can't see you. I knew you were in your room but you didn't come out for weeks. Nobody asked you about it because we didn't care about why, we were just happy to see you again. I still remember the bandages, you were badly hurt."

"Something happened," Gray replied, not explaining further. "But it's not drugs."

"I won't ask more," Xavier said. "I'm a psychiatrist and I do know the signs of trauma and I know you will tell me if there's a need for it."

Gray smiled. "I will," she promised.

"Did you love John?" 

Gray blinked again. "I didn't. I liked him and was willing to stay there for few more months if I had to but no, I didn't love him. And I don't think I ever would have. Growing up with a family of three wonderful couples makes your expectations high."

"You knew this wouldn't have worked out from the beginning," Xavier stated, pulling her into his arms.

She sighed, taking another sip from her wine. "Yeah but a relationship doesn't always work on instincts, it's more about trying. You can't just give up and I liked him enough to try."

"But it was not worth it."

She nodded her head with a tiny smile playing on her lips. "Yeah. I'm not sad about the breakup. It's just.. I don't think I would ever get into a.. you know, the loving relationship that our parents have. I don't think I can ."

"Gray..."

"It's not a big deal, Xavier. I just don't want to crush mom's hopes. I..I just...I'm just glad that I'm back home."

"Take the job, Gray. It might be the best way for you to announce your arrival and moreover your family needs you."

She chuckled. "Let's see what deal our old men are going to offer me."

He rolled his eyes while rubbing my arms. "You're the same, always the tough one. Never backs off from anything."

"You know me so well, baby brother."

He scowled at her. "Do not call me baby. I'm thirty years old and only two years younger than you."

Gray laughed out loud.

"You're always my baby brother."

"Gray!"

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Hey everyone!

How's the first chapter? I hope you enjoyed it. If you're waiting for Gray and Matt to meet, then don't worry it's happening in the next chapter.

Please comment, vote and share my story.

Allison