JAKE

THE WATER DROWNED JAKE’S HEAD AND rolled down his body, leaving him with a feeling of pure satisfaction. He smiled as the images of being inside Holly filled his mind and fulfilled his lustful hunger pangs and needs as nobody ever had or could.

His smile disappeared as his thoughts traveled back to five years ago. His satisfied high morphed into a deep disgust. Nausea and anger roiled deep inside him. How could he have done this? He’d reprimanded himself yesterday for having kissed Holly at the club, telling himself he was weak, reminding himself what a wretched person she truly was. How could anyone do what she’d done to him? Especially after telling him she loved him?

Turning the taps off, Jake reached for a towel, dried himself off and got dressed. His eyes traveled over Holly’s sleeping form as he stepped out of the bathroom.

The sheet partially covered her body, but he could see the swell of her breasts and her shapely leg tangled in the sheet. He closed his eyes before she sucked him in.

Never again. This has to stop. He loved both Kate and Michael. This creature on the bed? She didn’t deserve anything. He refused to let her be his kryptonite. Kate didn’t deserve to be cheated on; she was a brilliant woman and he should be giving her the world on a silver platter, because that’s what she deserved. Fuck! What had he done? He was disgusted with himself. He felt like a piece of shit. He should’ve left well enough alone. Should’ve walked away the minute Holly rejected him in the stockroom. But there was something about Holly that made him lose his mind, and he’d ached to have her again. He’d needed to have her again.

Well, he’d gotten her out of his system now, he was sure of it, because all he felt right then was disgust. Glancing at her sleeping form on the bed, her hair covering her face, he thought back to when he’d had her sitting high on a pedestal. He’d put her there again half an hour ago, but now… he looked away, shaking his head.

He would never give in to her like that ever again. Collecting his things, he shoved them into his bag, and without a backward glance, he ran down the stairs and out of the apartment. Never again.

HOLLY

By the time she woke, it had started to turn light outside. She still lay on the same spot she’d passed out in, and felt a bit of drool running down the side of her mouth and onto the sheets. The smell of hot sex lingered in the air. Turning, Holly looked to the side. Jake wasn’t in bed. Sitting up, she flung the sheets off and crawled out of bed. Her body ached in various spots.

She figured he had to be downstairs, catching up on some work or something, but when she reached the stairs and made her way down, she found the apartment completely deserted. Almost as if someone had gut-punched her, she now felt the opposite of what he’d made her feel last night. The only thing missing was a couple of hundred dollar bills on the counter.

Tears threatened to fall from her eyes when she noticed her bag on the kitchen counter. How could he have done this to her, leave without any explanation, or a goodbye? There wasn’t even a note. A tear rolled down her cheek. Never again. She couldn’t allow herself to give in to him again. She’d been stupid to think she could keep her feelings for him out of this, stupid to think that giving in to one night of glorious sex could get him out of her system. Her heart wasn’t built that way.

Once she’d cleaned the place up a bit, she got dressed, zipping her jacket up over her cami. Grabbing her bag, she headed for the door and exited, closing it behind her. On hearing it lock, Holly walked away.

Outside, she hailed a cab, feeling broken and used. Feeling used was an understatement. She felt like a cheap whore. When she reached home, she immediately climbed into a hot bath. She felt dirty and all she wanted to do was scrub the events of last night off her skin. She wanted to scrub Jake off her skin. Her moral standards had gone down the toilet—it wasn’t right what she was doing to Kate. And Michael.

Her ass seemed to hurt the most when she settled into the hot water, but then she’d seen his handprint across her butt cheeks when she’d looked in the huge mirror next to the bath. She’d also caught sight of the bruises that peppered her arms from where he’d grasped her. In the light of day, she found no pleasure from his roughness. He’d never hurt her like that before. This new Jake was not all there—more like a sadistic version of his former self. She felt broken, used, disgusted. Abused. 

After scrubbing her skin raw and allowing the tears to flow freely, Holly finally dragged herself out of the bath, and collapsed into her bed. She was glad she had the day off; she’d be completely useless at the hospital today. Her fatigue finally claimed her and she slept fitfully until late in the afternoon. She felt no better when she woke up, and decided to go for a run through the park to clear her head. When she came upon a couple of children playing, a horrible ache filled her gut—she missed her little girl.

The run back was fast, and she felt somewhat better. Her disgust had morphed into anger at Jake. He’d made her feel cheap and worthless, and she promised herself that it would never happen ever again.

There wasn’t one message on her phone. Not one.

********

Try as she might, Holly couldn’t get the images of Jake out of her mind the following days to come. She could still feel his hands gripping her waist, his lips scorching her skin. Her stomach dipped in sheer lust as the scene of their night together played through her mind. But every time her thoughts played it out, the fury she felt at being used took hold. She couldn’t concentrate on her work, and she found no joy in doing what she loved. She was on autopilot, just doing what was expected. On her next night off, she conceded to Rod’s relentless badgering and joined him for a movie and dinner.

“Earth to Holly.” Rodney waved his hand in front of her face.

Holly snapped out of the reverie she had become accustomed to escaping into. “What? Sorry.” She smiled.

“What is up with you lately?”

“Nothing.” She twirled some fettuccini onto her fork.

Rodney pulled a face, clearly not believing her. “Holls, talk to me. I’m not stupid, you know. I can see something is bothering you.”

“I saw him again.”

“Steve?”

She nodded. “He’s married,” she lied.

“What?”

“And I still slept with him. I’m such a slut.”

Rodney closed his eyes, as she dropped her fork onto her plate of pasta. “I’m never going to get over him.” She buried her head in her hands.

Sighing, her friend pushed his chair back, got up, and kneeled next to her. She hated that he was being kind, stroking her back, trying to cheer her up. He would hate her when he found out that Jamie’s father—so-called Steve—was his mentor, the guy he idolized.

“You’re human, Holly. Hell, you’ve got a kid with this guy. You deserve to give yourself at least ten years to get over him.”

She sniffed and looked at him with tears in her eyes. Rodney handed her a napkin, which she used to dab at her eyes. “Jamie thinks her father lives in a rainbow. I could never tell her that he was going to come home.”

“Did you really think you would ever be able to tell her that?”

Nodding, she cried softly.

“Oh, Holly,” he whispered, wrapping his arms around her. He planted a kiss on her temple, leaving his lips there for a second too long. “This guy has no idea what he’s given up. You are the most wonderful person I’ve ever met. You love your daughter like there is no tomorrow, you forgive others even though they don’t deserve it, and you never give up. You are strong, kind, and beautiful, and he doesn’t deserve you.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t change the fact that I still want him.”

“Of course you do. It’s normal, sweetheart. But you have to let go sometime.”

“What if I can’t?”

“Holly, if anyone can let go of a piece of shit like that, it’s you.”

She smiled at him. Jake was everything except a piece of shit. Well, he was a piece of shit to her, but he was far from it otherwise.

“I’m going to order us each a huge serving of tiramisu with extra ice cream, and we can get Ben and Jerry’s on our way home, and we can pour our sorrows into the sugary sweetness. They say it helps.”

Holly laughed, wiping new tears away.

“Okay?” Rodney asked.

“Okay,” she agreed. Rod squeezed her hand and returned to his chair.

In the end, they chose to take the tiramisu to go. The walk home through the park was nice and relaxed, due mostly to Rod making lame jokes to cheer her up. That he didn’t mention his day with Jake was a bonus.

Once home, Holly’s phone buzzed in her pocket and she brightened when she saw her mother’s name on the screen. Talking to Jamie would ease some of her sorrow. Of course, Jamie wanted to speak to Rodney as well. Holly missed her little girl terribly, and whenever she felt down, Jamie was the best antidote. She filled the hole Jake had left in her heart. But because she wasn’t with Holly, it felt like she’d lost both her girls, not to mention their father. This wasn’t easy at all.

Rodney had been right, though, they’d drowned their sorrows in tiramisu and Ben and Jerry’s. I Love Lucy sponsored the laughter, and she felt a whole lot better when Rodney bid her goodnight and headed off to bed. 

Holly remained where she was, watching an old episode of Grey’s Anatomy, hating the fact that one of the characters, Meredith, had gotten her McDreamy while she didn’t get to have her Macaroon. Obviously, not everything on TV emulated real life.

The following evening, Holly did rounds with Teresse until the doctor left. She also got to scrub in on one minor operation. She was familiar with the procedure from her time in Dr. Somers’ free clinic. All throughout her shift, she had to stop herself from checking her phone for any messages from Jake. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t give in to him again, so it was a good thing that he wasn’t texting her, right?

She helped out in the ER and hung around the reception desk when things calmed down until, finally, her shift ended. She flopped down on her bed the minute she got home. The blare of her alarm woke her up to get ready for her next evening shift. Her shift passed in much the same way as her previous shift, and the rest of the week followed suit. 

Holly quickly settled in the mundane routine that was now her life: work, try not to think about Jake at work, home, cy over the fucking bastard, sleep—and then it all started over again. She tried to forget about him, told herself she’d been the one to make the decision, that she’d told herself it was only one night to get him out of her system, but she knew she was fooling herself. It had never been just one night with Jake. He was lodged in her heart, and she’d never be able to get him out. 

The emergencies helped as she was kept busy, but when there weren’t any, she’d sit in the gallery and watch heart surgeries being performed. Which only had her missing the feeling of a heart in her hand. The first time she’d assisted Dr. Somers with open heart surgery, she’d known it was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

*******

On Monday morning, Holly froze when she saw Jake walk into the cafeteria talking to another woman. Her heart lifted when she realized it wasn’t Kate. 

Holly stood and snuck out before he could realize she was there. A staff meeting was called at midmorning, and the lecture hall filled up for a recap of the previous week, which gave Jake’s presence at Downsend some purpose.

Holly collapsed into the chair right next to Rev, and tried hard not to look in Jake’s direction. He was sitting in the first row, right next to a brown-haired woman, who was laughing and slapping Jake playfully as Dr. Downsend started with the morning announcements.

“I would like to welcome a new staff member, Dr. Moira Peters.” The brown-haired woman got up. Another Peters? Jake didn’t have any cousins; both his parents were only children, and Holly had never met a Moira, so whoever this woman was, she had no clue. She was about to find out, though.

“Another one?” a third year yelled, sending the entire room into laughter.

“Dr. Peters hails from San Diego, and we are happy to announce that we are extremely honored to have her as one of our doctors. For those of you who don’t know, Dr. Peters is a cardiovascular surgeon.”

Hope washed over Holly again. Did he say cardio? Anyone besides Embers could help her get back into cardiology. But what Embers had done to Dr. Jacobs, removing her from a surgery because Holly had scrubbed in, flashed through her mind.

It wouldn’t work.

Holly was so wrapped up in her own thoughts, she missed the rest of the announcements. The lights dimmed and the big screen in the front lit up. Dr. Watkins, one of the gynecologists, was the first to speak about her case; a twenty-three-year-old woman who’d lost her life giving birth. How that was still possible, Holly didn’t know.

Dr. Watkins asked questions, to which Holly knew most of the answers. She’d been patient 25470 exactly five years ago. Many answers were given, and when Dr. Watkins finally asked what could have been done differently to prevent this patient’s death, Holly knew exactly how to answer, but she kept quiet. 

Dr. Jacobs was next to present a case. Tanya jumped all over that one, giving her best scenarios of how she could have saved the patient’s life, continually glancing at Moira, who seemed impressed by Tanya’s knowledge.

Holly’s hand shot up.

“Yes, Dr. Scallanger.”

Clearing her throat, Holly proposed a completely different scenario, one she’d witnessed with her own eyes as Dr. Somers had performed it when she was present. Chuckles were heard throughout the hall, as if she’d told a funny story but, it was one hell of an amazing procedure to have witnessed.

“To be honest, we were quite surprised that the patient opened his eyes after that, but it’s something I will never forget.”

Dr. Jacobs was smiling. “This patient lived?”

“He did. He later died due another complication, but it wasn’t because his heart gave out.”

“Impressive, Dr. Scallanger. This free clinic… does it have a name?” She sounded skeptical, as if Holly was making it up.

“Yes, it is run by Dr. Somers.” Everyone gasped, including the new heart surgeon.

“He’s running a free clinic?” Dr. Jacobs asked.

“Yes, and he’s one of the best doctors I’ve worked for,” Holly returned, smiling.

“You are indeed privileged to have worked with him.” Giving Holly another smile, Dr. Jacobs addressed the staff. “Only Dr. Somers could have pulled something like that off.”

“Indeed,” Holly agreed.

JAKE

“This is boring,” Moira said under her breath. Jake suppressed his smile as they listened to Dr. Watkins speaking about a delivery that had gone wrong. His father could have saved her life, but his thoughts turned to his dad running into Holly. It gave him the chills. He would’ve grown dead silent and given Jake the silent treatment. His father would see right through Jake and know his feelings for Holly were still as strong as ever. It was the one side of his father Jake hated—the silence before the storm.

As soon as the applause for Dr. Watkins died down, Dr. Jacobs took over to present her case. It didn’t surprise Jake in the least that Tanya offered scenarios on how she would’ve done it. The girl irritated the living crap out of him. It was no surprise, either, why she now sported a slightly pink shade in hair color.

“Hmph,” Moira sniggered.

Jake had to give Tanya props, though, because despite everything else about her, she was clever when it came to cardio.

“Dr. Scallanger.” He heard Dr. Jacobs say, but didn’t turn to look at Holly. Her voice alone made his body tingle all over. He was so pathetic; deep down he knew what he was planning to do with her later tonight, something he didn’t think would be possible after their night together. Yet, there he was, wanting her again. He’d even begged Moira to take the position at Downsend just so he could find out why the hell Holly had switched from cardio to pediatrics.

Laughter filled the room when Holly finished recounting her story. Even Moira laughed, and half turned in her seat to look at Holly.

Dr. Jacobs showed her surprise when Holly confirmed that the patient had survived the procedure, sounding skeptical. But Jake wasn’t. He’d read Holly’s file, and he’d read the letter his mother’s mentor had written on her behalf.

“Run by Dr. Somers.” Holly stated.

Moira gasped. “You think he trained her well?”

Jake shrugged and smiled.

“I’ve just found my resident.”

“She’s still an intern,” Jake pointed out, watching as Moira raised her eyebrows. “And she currently works in pediatrics.”

“Pediatrics?”

“Yeah, she was in the cardio program, but for some reason switched. I want you to find out why.”

“I knew you wanted me for something in particular.”

Further cases were presented. Cindy, another intern who was interested in becoming a neurologist, presented her case. Hers was regarding Mr. Stanley, the one he’d saved from his tumor, who’d ended up dying of a heart attack. Where had Somers been on that one?

When the meeting ended, both Jake and Moira stood to leave. He caught a glimpse of Holly walking out with a tall intern, the geeky-looking one. He didn’t like how close together they were. It sure as heck didn’t seem like she was as messed up over him as he was over her. He still believed she was a fucking bitch, but she was his fucking bitch. He needed to find a way to deal with her, and the sooner the better.

HOLLY

Directly after the presentations were concluded and the meeting came to an end, Holly took the side staircase, the one they used for emergencies, up to pediatrics. Pediatrics wasn’t all bad. The only thing she couldn’t stand about pediatrics was whenever a patient died. Seeing children die was too hard on her. 

She was a mother, a bereaved mom at that, and each of the cases pulled at her heartstrings. Every time she lost a patient, her grief for Romalia resurfaced. Every time a patient survived and was discharged, her grief tripled. She saw Jamie in every case, and her heart clenched whenever a child couldn’t be saved, because she’d never be able to accept it if Jamie couldn’t be saved.

She kept herself busy the entire morning, helping with two newborns and making sure that all the infants in the nursery were doing well. She stayed there for a spell, since being around newborns calmed the swirling thoughts in her head. It was the effect the nursery had on a person who was open and connected to little ones.

However calming the nursery was, it also filled her heart with a pang of despair. Being in the nursery caused her to relive her pregnancy and Romalia’s death and the days filled with doubt before Jamie—the little fighter that she was—pulled through and survived. 

Holly missed Jamie fiercely. She missed the days when Jamie had been a baby, holding her in her arms, her tiny hand stretching out to grab her hair. She missed the way Jamie’s little hand gripped Holly’s finger as she drifted off to sleep in Holly’s arms, as if to make sure her mommy was still there. 

Holly regretted that she’d never entered Jamie into baby competitions, that she’d never shown the world how gorgeous her little baby girl was. But she’d been terrified of Jake finding out. She still was. Especially now, after that stupid mistake of a night. He’d fall in love with Jamie and take her away, of that much she was sure. And then Holly would have nothing. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She should have never decided to become a doctor. She should have listened to her father and gone to work for him. She’d put everything in jeopardy the minute she came to Boston.

Holly sighed as she slipped out of the nursery. Her stomach was grumbling from hunger, which was no surprise since her appetite had been off ever since she’d slept with Jake. She headed to the cafeteria for lunch. Spotting Rev and Cindy seated at a table, Holly decided to join them. Holly didn’t follow their conversation, but she heard the sporadic bouts of laughter coming from Cindy whenever Rev said something. Holly delved into her club sandwich, her hunger desperate to be sated, but when she looked up after taking a mere two bites, she saw Jake entering with Moira. Her appetite dissipated at the sight of him.

“You’re leaving already?” Rev looked at her barely-eaten sandwich.

“I guess I’m not all that hungry. Besides, I still have to check up on something.” She scurried away.

“Holly, you hardly touched your food!” Cindy yelled, which only made Holly walk a faster while cursing Cindy in her head for making a scene. She sank down on the stairs, the one place in the hospital that was her safe haven, and waited for her beeper to go off, announcing that Teresse needed her for something. When no call came, she returned to pediatrics and hung around there for a while until Aggie handed her a discharge form and asked that she drop it off at reception. 

When the elevator opened and she stepped out on the ground floor, she saw Jake talking with Dr. Embers a few feet from his office. The discussion seemed to be a serious one. Jake seemed pissed off at something, and his voice traveled.

“I don’t care. Make it happen,” Jake said through clenched teeth.

Holly’s eyes grew big. His parents were silent partners, which probably gave him rank over someone like Embers. Hurriedly, she handed Pam the form and walked back toward the elevator that would take her to the fourth floor, needing to get away from Embers in case he decided to blame her for whatever it was Jake wanted him to do. Frustratingly, two nurses as well as both Embers and Jake joined her, preventing escape. She really didn’t want to be in the same space, never mind in an elevator, with either of them, but she had no choice but to listen to their deep discussion. It turned out Jake wanted Embers to share his responsibilities with Moira. Embers was clearly not happy.

Holly could feel Embers’ eyes boring into her. Thankfully, he got off on the third floor, but Jake remained, joking with the nurses about his conversation with Embers.

On the fourth floor, Jake walked out, turned, and looked back at the elevator until it closed again. Holly remained in her corner, riding the elevator up to the sixth floor. Immediately, she took the stairs back down, only to walk into Jake who was standing directly in front of the stairwell door.

“Something tells me you are trying really hard to avoid me. Or is that just my imagination?”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about. Excuse me, I have work to see to,” she said, pushing past him.

Jake grabbed her by the arm, gently, and pulled her back. “Holly, please don’t do this,” he begged in the sweetest voice.

“Don’t do what? What do you want from me?” she asked, in an I-don’t-believe-this type of tone.

She rewound that part in her mind, since she knew that posing that kind of question would only lead to one thing: her giving in to him again. And she couldn’t.

Jake’s hand slid to Holly’s waist and she tensed. He leaned his head down, and Holly moved her head to the side before his lips could make contact. Big mistake, as the movement merely caused his lips to brush against her ear. The contact sent a zing of electricity down her spine.

“Jake… We can’t… We can’t do this,” Holly stuttered. That part of her brain that desperately wanted Jake threatened to take over.

“You know, I nearly killed a patient a couple of days ago,” Jake whispered, his breath hot against her ear. “I couldn’t get you off my mind. You’ve consumed my brain, Holly.”

Holly forced herself to step away from Jake. If he hadn’t been able to get her off his mind, if she was consuming his brain as he said, then why hadn’t she heard from him?

Jake straightened. He looked at Holly with an expression she couldn’t quite place.

“I’ll be in my office till about seven,” he said, and ran down the stairs.

Knowing that Jake wanted a replay of the other night set her body aflame. She struggled to concentrate on the charts she had to fill out. Why did he have such an effect on her?

Her phone beeped a couple of times: all dirty messages from Jake. He mentioned something called Ben Wa balls and cock rings. Sex toys! She never should have mentioned sex toys in the car that night. He was messing with her, with her feelings, with her heart. He was playing on the rush of hormones that surged through her whenever she thought of the way he made her feel.

When most of the staff headed off to dinner at six, Holly decided to pay a visit to his office. Hesitantly, she knocked twice. She couldn’t believe she was doing this to herself again. What was wrong with her? Why couldn’t she stay away from him? She was a junkie, and Jake was her only fix.

The door opened. Jake stepped aside to let her in, then flicked the lock behind her. The air around them was tense for a few seconds, before Jake grabbed her and pushed her back into the wall. His body caged her in, his chest crushed against hers. He ground his hardness into her, each small movement rocking against her felt heavenly. He let out a low growl in her ear before nipping at the skin just underneath with his teeth. His mouth came down on hers, gently at first, before turning into an all-out attack of lips and tongue. Just as Holly wanted to suck his lip into her mouth, he wrenched away, moving his mouth to feast on her neck instead.

Holly’s hands twined in his hair, pressing his head closer to her neck. She panted against him as he rocked into her harder. As the heat between them intensified, her hands made their way down to his trousers, where her fingers fiddled with the button. Jake, not far behind, reached for her scrub pants, pulling them down, and Holly slipped one foot out. 

Jake moved to lift her shirt, but Holly shook her head desperately. “No, leave that. I might get paged,” she whispered, fast and out of breath. Thankfully, he did as asked. Not wanting to waste any time, he lifted her leg to wrap around his waist, and was inside her in less than five minutes, slamming her back into the wall. Holly bit down on her lower lip, trying hard not to make a sound, but when that became too difficult, she clamped her teeth on his shoulder, forcing another groan from him.

Bending, he lifted her up by her buttocks, and lowered her to the floor, putting her down gently on the carpet. He fucked her like a beast, his thrusts unrelenting and savage. Orgasm after orgasm pulsed through her, and he clamped his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams of pleasure

An incessant beeping sounded in the room, and for a moment Holly was certain her mind was beeping from the pleasure. He laughed.

“Is it urgent?” she asked.

“We have five minutes… tops,” he replied.

Holly rolled him onto his back and positioned herself on top of him. “Five minutes is all I need.”

Four and a half minutes of hard pounding and riding Jake’s cock, Holly felt him jerk as he reached an orgasm. He moved to pull out, but she stopped him, not wanting his cum to cover her body. Jake pushed her off and scrambled to his feet, grabbing her pants off the floor and throwing them at her.

“Relax, I can’t get pregnant, okay? I have a NuvaRing.”

He frowned and shook his head. The disgust radiated off him in waves. Holly sighed. He was the last person on earth she would choose to get pregnant by again. She pulled her scrub pants back on, then walked out of his office while he was still trying to get his pants on. Though Holly was loath to admit, but that was a record. For a moment, she’d felt proud and victorious, but now all she felt revulsion. It burned through her stomach and her chest, before finally settling in her heart. She was a fucking loser when it came to Jake Peters. The guy didn’t want her, for crying out loud, and the fact that he’d hardly kissed her tonight just proved that he wanted only one thing, a good fuck. 

She felt cheap and worthless. Her mind kept yelling, Slut! Slut! Slut!

How could she have done that to herself. Was it because of their history? It was precisely because of their history that she should doing the exact opposite. She should have told him to go fuck himself.

Her mind kept playing her thoughts over for her. She’d probably give in to him again. She could see clearly how it would play out from now on. He would follow the same pattern; ignore her for two weeks, then touch her or whisper something in her ear to get back into her pants. And, sadly, she would probably give it to him. She hated what she was doing to herself, but she knew why: she was fucking addicted to Jake Peters. 

The next morning, Holly was working in the ER when a fifty-year-old man was rushed in. A cardio case. Holly was readying herself to lose the patient to Tanya and Embers, when Moira rushed up to her. Holly gave her a breakdown of the man’s vitals, what medication she’d administered, and what steps she had gone through, while simultaneously doing CPR on him.

“We need to get him to the OR, now!” Moira yelled, grabbing the end of the bed. A few nurses pushed, while Holly continued with her efforts to resuscitate the patient. 

“It’s Scallanger, right?” 

Holly nodded.

“You’re scrubbing in.”

Holly smiled as a warm feeling washed over her. She was finally getting the opportunity to assist with a cardiac surgery again.

The case turned out to be a difficult one, but Dr. Peters needed her help. Holly wasn’t merely an observer. Moira Peters imparted information much like Dr. Somers had done, guiding Holly on how to do a certain stitch, showing her a different way to cut, and so on. Holly was in seventh heaven—so much so, thoughts of Jake never once entered her mind. She was handling a heart again.

The times Moira did take over were when Holly didn’t have enough hands and fingers to do everything that needed to be done. Five hours of fighting later and working as fast as they could on a heart that should not have been beating anymore, they saved the man’s life. 

Holly felt on top of the world.

She accompanied Moira to update the man’s wife and family. That was the part Holly loved most about her job, when she was part of giving families hope and more time with their loved ones.

Excusing themselves, Moira asked one of the nurses nearby to show the patient’s family to his room. Then turning to Holly, she asked, “You’re an intern?”

“I am,” Holly replied, trying to ignore the skeptical look on Moira’s face.

“You have amazing skills, Holly. And some that most interns don’t even know about yet.”

“Dr. Somers taught me a lot. He was old, he had Parkinson’s, and his eyesight isn’t always as good as it should be, so I ended up doing a lot of things for him.”

Moira smiled. “You have no idea how lucky you are. I’m sure he showed you the long-lost technique of massaging a heart by hand.”

Holly knew what she was talking about. She nodded. 

“Not many doctors know that technique anymore. I myself struggle with that technique instead of using the technology we now have for that.”

“Provide me with more chances to scrub in, and I’ll show you why it’s better than the technological approach.”

“Aren’t you in pediatrics?”

“I had no choice but to switch over. It’s a long story.” Holly was smiling like an idiot.

“Okay. Once, maybe twice a week, I’ll let you scrub in with me. I can’t show favoritism now.”

Holly laughed. She couldn’t help but like Moira, who reminded her so much of Amelia.

“See you soon, Scallanger. I’m off to hunt for an apartment.”

“See ya!” Holly yelled back, running to the stairs so she could phone Rod with her amazing news.

“I knew it! I knew if she worked with you once, she would use you,” Rod told her.

“How did you know she’d be working here?”

“Holly, I’m with Jake twenty-four-seven when he isn’t at Downsend. He’s been begging her for a while now to take the job.”

“Take the job?”

“Oops.”

“Spill.” She was curious.

“Don’t tell a soul I said anything, but he owns like seventy percent of Downsend.”

“Wait, what? It isn’t his parents?”

“Nope, they wanted to make sure that the deal was final, and confirm with the hospital board that they were prepared to accept Jake’s help, that’s all. Jake didn’t want anyone to know about it, so his parents let it be known that they were the silent partners when it’s actually him.”

“Seventy percent? How much money do you think that cost him?”

“Holly, that family is rolling in it, that I can promise you.”

Even though she knew that, she didn’t like hearing it, because not all their family rolled in it. He had a little girl who was constantly denied the little things she wanted because there wasn’t enough money to go around. She listened halfheartedly as Rod kept going on about what a good investment the hospital was for Jake and Kate. She hated Kate, and she hated Jake even more.

Holly sighed.

“Well, I can say with certainty that I’m going to have a cardiac case at least twice a week, so I have to give Teresse the news. She is so not going to be happy about this. But it’s so freakin’ amazing.”

Rod laughed. “I’m glad you found your surgeon, Holls. She’s really good.”

“I know, her last name is Peters.”

Rod laughed.

“I’ve got to go. See you.”

“Good luck with Teresse! Bye.” 

Holly remained on the stairs, staring at her phone. A part of her wanted to give Jake a call, or send him a message telling him in detail what an asshole he was. He had enough fucking money to buy a hospital, but his daughter had nothing. Holly didn’t want his money, but she wanted to give Jamie everything her heart desired.

Of course, she couldn’t do that; she knew how it would end. Finding out that they had more than she’d originally thought made her worry more about what she was up against if Jake eventually found out about Jamie. Holly hated the situation she was in, hated the worry, the insecurities, hated everything about it.

She looked at her phone one more time. It was open to one of the sexual messages had sent before their encounter in his office. Exiting her inbox, she shoved the phone back into her pocket, and pushed herself up off the stairs. 

Charles would fight on her behalf if she asked him, but he didn’t have that kind of money, and she knew in the end she would lose.