Everyone had a damn opinion on things at the hospital.

Ross stayed in the ER as much as he could, because it was the only place where people didn’t try to gossip about it. They were a little busy saving the lives of the people who came in from the ambulances.

Everywhere else, though, fair game.

He was definitely going up before the board. The official statement was that they appreciated his exemplary work for them over the years, but they had to pursue an investigation just to ensure that everything was on the up and up.

Ross could understand their position, he really could. There were plenty of people who were molesters, or murders, or serial cheaters, who had gotten away with it for years. Just because there hadn’t been a whiff of anything until now didn’t mean that it hadn’t been happening. It just meant that nobody had noticed or discovered it until now.

There were definitely a lot of people who were supporting him, and that was nice. But there were also coworkers who were annoyingly ready to believe that he’d been up to something.

Ross knew that his profession, like any, could get competitive. And when lives were on the line, tempers could run hot, and people could have huge differences of opinion on what was best to be done. And when you lost a patient … well, there was no feeling as bad as that.

But he hadn’t expected there to be people who might hold onto a grudge or be so opposed to him that they were eager to exaggerate or spread word of the investigation and review.

It wasn’t that he had enemies, or people who went out of their way to make his day miserable. But now that the opportunity had arisen, people were happy to gossip and speculate and just plain old make shit up. Or it could be that they didn’t even hold a grudge, and just didn’t care who they were talking about, so long as they had something to gossip over—and that was almost more depressing than if they had personally disliked him. It meant they’d tear down anyone for the chance to get in some good entertainment.

By the time the week was up, Ross wanted to never go to work again.

He wanted to throttle Jeremy for that. He’d always loved his work, and his work environment. And now Jeremy had spoiled that for him. If he ever saw him again, he was going to punch that smug, manipulative little bastard right in the face.

Ross knew that he should probably go home and try to get some sleep or something, but he couldn’t bear to be alone with his thoughts. He was miserable—and the worst of it was, the one person he desperately wanted to see, he couldn’t.

He missed Tom like a limb. He hadn’t realized how much he’d gotten used to constantly texting Tom until he couldn’t. He hadn’t realized how even just seeing Tom once every few days was enough to sustain him the rest of the time.

He wanted to talk to Tom about what was happening. He wanted to get rid of the woes and issues of the day by complaining about them, and then forget about them by cuddling on the couch and watching a movie together or hearing about Tom’s day at work—which was always amusing, given that he worked with Adam, the king of sarcasm, and Enid, the queen of sass.

But he couldn’t; of course he couldn’t. He had no idea what was going on with Tom’s end of things. He could only hope that it was doing better because they’d broken up, and he’d told the board immediately that they were no longer together.

Not knowing what was happening with Tom, sick of dealing with his coworkers, dreading this hearing, he couldn’t go home and be alone.

So he drove to Joe’s.

Everyone was glad to see him. He could see that Adam wasn’t there yet, thank God. He must be staying late at the firm doing work on a case.

“You look down in the mouth,” Paul noted.

“I think it’s best not to ask,” Luke said firmly.

Something about his tone was enough to make everyone back off, but it was also enough to make Ross look up. “You know?”

Luke nodded. “Adam called me. They found out at the firm; um, the board wants a statement from Tom, apparently.”

“Shit.” Ross rested his forehead on the bar top. “Luke, I think I need to get good and drunk.”

“Not if you’re driving home, you don’t,” Luke replied.

“You still have that couch in the back office, right? I can sleep there.”

Luke sighed, shooting a look at the others, who all—literally—scattered. Davis and Paul went to the far end of the bar by Bill and Nancy. Matthew and Travis went to go fool around with the jukebox. Davis, Lance, and Eric all went upstairs to the pool room, and Preston was having an argument—as usual—with someone in one of the booths.

“Looks like breaking up with him didn’t help the way that you thought,” Luke said conversationally, pouring Ross a glass of water.

Ross glared at him, both for not giving over any alcohol and for the comment. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means Tom’s been sulking around the office for a week, and Adam was pretty quick to guess why, and Adam tells me everything,” Luke replied, like he was reminding Ross that the sun rose in the east.

“And you’re not giving me any alcohol because?”

“Because I want you to not try and drown your sorrows away,” Luke replied. “I’ve tried that. It doesn’t work. So, you want to tell me why you broke up with Tom?”

Ross swallowed. “I thought that it would—the members who donate to the hospital and all, a lot of them are the sort of high-end clients that Adam and Enid have at their firm, to keep it going while they take on their more charitable cases.

“If they found out—when they found out, Jeremy tends to follow through on his threats—they’d probably put two and two together about who Tom was. I thought that if we weren’t together anymore it might … I don’t know. Protect him.”

Luke looked at him for a moment, then said, deadpan, “And breaking up with him was supposed to help convince everyone that this was a serious relationship instead of a torrid affair?”

Ross’s head shot up. “What—no, it was supposed—it was supposed to prove that we weren’t together. That’s what the problem is, everyone’s going to say I was his doctor and we were having a relationship when I operated on him, but—”

Luke rolled his eyes towards the ceiling, like he was asking God to give him patience. “Look. You guys weren’t in a relationship when you operated on him, you had a one night stand and you didn’t recognize him. It’s a coincidence.

“And then you started to date afterwards, which if you ask me is pretty damn cute, but that’s kind of irrelevant. But which looks worse, you in a committed relationship with the guy and standing by each other, or you dumping him at the first sign of trouble?”

Ross growled low in the back of his throat without even meaning to. “I didn’t dump him.”

“That’s how it looks to everyone else, most likely,” Luke replied.

“I didn’t want to put him through any of this,” Ross protested.

“Well, you have, whether you wanted to or not. Wouldn’t it be easier on both of you if you got to face this together?”

Ross buried his face in his hands. He was going to have to tell Luke the full truth. “Okay. I’m going to start talking. And I’m going to need you to just be quiet and listen.”

Luke rested his forearms on the bar top. “Go for it.”

Ross told him everything. Luke was a good listener, and always had been, and didn’t interrupt or say anything during all of that time. He nodded along occasionally to show that he was still paying attention. Paul took care of most of the customers, but even when Luke had to provide a refill he had one eye on Ross, and Ross knew that Luke was listening.

When he wrapped it all up, Luke was silent for a moment.

“I’ve never been in any kind of situation like you were,” he said at last. “And I’m sorry that you had to go through that, and you didn’t know how to talk about it or how to reach out. And that we didn’t know to reach out to you.

“There was a lot going on with us, yeah. I proposed to Adam, and found Paul, and there was that whole mess, and then Hank and Eric happened … but we still should have—one of us, anyway, should have—reached out to make sure that you were really okay when none of us ever heard from you.

“You were always good about keeping in touch and seeing us. When you stopped making an effort, we should have made an effort too. I’m sorry that we didn’t.

“And I know they don’t know yet, but I do know them well, so I think I’m speaking for the others when I say you can tell them in your own time what the details are.

“The only other thing to say, I think, is that … didn’t you play right into Jeremy’s hands? By breaking up with Tom? It made you both miserable, and if you ask me, it makes you both look bad, that you’ve split once the going got tough.

“I know that you were just trying to protect him. I get that, I really do. Adam and I, we both did stupid things when we were first getting to know each other, because we were trying to help each other out, and it ended up in a big mess that took us way too long to sort out.

“I don’t want that for you and Tom. I want you two to be together and not waste time, if being together is what you want. He seems to make you happy, and you definitely made him happy.”

Ross shook his head. “He wasn’t sure about this. He was worried about work and his job and having time for both. I was the one who pushed for this.”

“I think he wanted it more than he realized, and he definitely needed it. You should’ve heard Adam; he was ecstatic, said Tom was ten times happier at work now, worked harder, had a better attitude.” Luke handed a customer another beer. “You need both in your life. Family, friends, work, and leisure time. Have too little of one and too much of the other, and you’re just not going to feel fulfilled inside.”

“I can’t possibly get him back now,” Ross said. “If I hurt him the way that you say I did—and with the review, and the investigation…”

“Of course you’re going to get him back,” Luke said, as if the idea of anything else was ludicrous. “Ross, if you two stay apart, then you’re alone and miserable, and more than that, you’ve just let that asshole ex of yours show that he still has power over you. And that’s the last thing you want.

“If you get back together—and he’ll want you, whether he pretends he does or not—then you won’t have to deal with this alone. You’re happy. And it’s a huge middle finger to Jeremy, which is nothing less than he deserves.

“This whole investigation thing, it’ll blow over. And there might be some leftover bad opinions about you, but you can’t control that. What you can control is who you’re with, and your own personal happiness. At the end of the day, no matter what people say about you, they’re not with you when you walk through your front door. Who do you want to be there when you do? Tom? Or silence?”

Ross felt like he was in freefall. “What do I do, then? If I want to win him back?”

“Tell him how you feel,” Luke replied. “It worked pretty damn well for me.”