The silence in my cabin was a balm.  Three whole hours. An unimaginable luxury in my life as a doctor.  Usually, I’m running from patient to patient, snatching hurried meals, and collapsing into bed only to wake up and do it all again. Today, however, the universe had granted me a sliver of peace. But even in the quiet, a subtle restlessness simmered beneath the surface.

It wasn't exactly unpleasant, more like a low hum of unease. A cold war waged within my mind, a strange mix of tranquility and something else… something that felt distinctly like him.
No. I pushed the thought away. It shouldn't be.

My mind drifted back to the first time I saw Adrien. He was curled into himself on the hospital bed, trembling like a leaf. His knees were drawn up to his chest, clutched so tightly it seemed he was trying to hold himself together.  They called him dangerous.  But all I saw was a scared young man, a boy lost in a world that felt too big, too harsh.

His eyes, a pale, almost watery blue, were rimmed with red from crying. When I tried to examine him, he flinched away, terrified of my touch. It took six months of painstaking patience, gentle words, and consistent care before he finally started to trust me.  Even then, his tentative friendliness felt… obsessive. Unhealthy.

I’ve drilled it into my head every day since he left: I was his doctor. He was my patient. He’s gone home now, back to where he belongs.  He’d confided in me about everything: his mother’s abandonment, his father’s brutal beatings, the arrival of a stepmother who only worsened his suffering.  I knew his current state wasn’t just about grief for his mother; it was the cumulative weight of years of abuse.

I worried about him.  The way he’d left, the look in his eyes… it told me he wouldn’t tolerate it anymore.  I just hoped, for his sake, that he wouldn’t stay silent this time.

My reverie was shattered by the shrill ring of my phone.  I blinked, disoriented, and glanced at the screen.

“Hazel…” I rubbed my eyes, double-checking to make sure I wasn’t imagining things.

“Hazel… yeah… alright… the same Hazel Brown, right?… Wait! FUCK!” I snatched the phone and bellowed into it.

“FUCKING BITCH! YOU REMEMBER ME NOW?! AFTER TWO MONTHS?!”

“Hey! Calm down, dude! Let me explain!” Her voice crackled through the line, accompanied by the thumping bass of loud music. She was definitely at a club.

“Well, don’t think I was trying to ditch you or anything,” she said, a wide grin practically audible in her voice.

“I was swamped with this one case, and thankfully, it’s finally over!”

“Is that so? Congratulations, Haze,” I chuckled softly. “I was seriously worried when you didn’t answer my calls.  Not gonna lie, I thought you were dead.”

“Anyway, fuck it!” she exclaimed. “How about we hit a club tonight? I’m dying to hang out after these crazy two months.”

“A club?” I recoiled instinctively. “No way! You know I hate those loud places. Uh… should we go somewhere like a library or… eh… a shopping mall?” I blurted out, a hint of panic in my voice.

“A library? Seriously, dummy!” she groaned. “Alright, a shopping mall it is then! I’ll pick you up tomorrow around 11 a.m.”  Her tone was laced with playful exasperation.

I sighed as I hung up, pinching the bridge of my nose.  A hangout tomorrow, then?  A strange flutter of excitement stirred within me.  It had been ages since I’d actually gone out.  I think the last time was… a year ago?

The thought hung in the air, a stark reminder of how much of my life was consumed by work.  A shopping trip with Hazel was exactly what I needed.  A chance to reconnect, to laugh, to forget about the weight of the hospital, the worries about patients, the unsettling thoughts of Adrien.

Maybe, just maybe, this little bit of normalcy would help quiet the cold war raging inside me.  Maybe it would finally bring me some real peace.  Or maybe, it would just be a temporary distraction, a brief respite before the storm of reality crashed back down.  Only time would tell.