The next day, William wasn’t at all surprised when his secretary told him that Nathan wanted to meet with him the moment that he arrived at the hospital. He knew his friend and there was little doubt in his mind that this was going to be an uncomfortable conversation. The tension between them had been building since Elizabeth’s return and it was clearly about to escalate.

“You requested my presence,” William said as he walked through the door, refusing to give Nathan the first or last word.

“We need to talk,” Nathan snapped, looking up from the file he was brooding over.

“Is this a conversation as friends or as coworkers?”

“Don’t ever discharge one of my patients again without consulting me.”

“That’s what you have your boxers in a twist about,” William mocked, knowing just how to push Nathan’s buttons. He respected his friend, but he refused to be scolded like a child for doing what he deemed best.

“Don’t talk to me like that,” Nathan growled, slamming the file down on his desk.

“This isn’t about me discharging your patient.” William stormed across the room, his own temper boiling.

“Then what is it about?”

“It’s about Elizabeth.”

“Elizabeth’s got nothing to do with this. She’s not my patient.”

“No, but you wanted her to see you discharging her mom. What did you think? Did you think she would fall back in love with you because you sprung her mom from the hospital?”

“You sound ridiculous.” Nathan jumped up from his seat and rounded the desk so that he stood eye to eye with William.

“You are the one being ridiculous. You know Diane is miles away from being cured. What happens if you can’t do it?”

“Don’t talk about my patient.”

“She’s rallying now but she has a lot of very aggressive treatment to go through. We could lose her and you know it.” They both knew that Diane’s prognosis was not good, but they had never openly discussed any outcome but a positive one. The thought of her passing away was too painful for them both.

“Of course I know it,” Nathan admitted, his face a study in frustration.

“And where does that leave Liz and Kate?”

“What do you mean?” Nathan frowned.

“I mean that you want me to stay away from them, right?”

“Yes.”

“But you aren’t exactly stepping up for them, are you?”

“I’m doing everything I can for their mother,” Nathan cried, unwilling to accept that he could fail in curing the woman who had done so much for him. He also hated to admit that he might not be able to spare Elizabeth from the pain of losing her mother.

“I know you are. But if they lose her, they’ll need emotional support. You are not exactly someone they would turn to for that, are you?”

“I was once,” Nathan said, his voice full of sadness as the realization washed over him.

“But you aren’t now.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Nathan held tightly to his anger to keep the pain at bay.

“I do. I’ve tried to get you to talk about Liz and I’ve tried to get her to talk about you. You’re both too stubborn to face what you feel for each other.”

The thought that William had tried to discuss their relationship with Elizabeth had Nathan seeing red. It was none of William’s business. It was nobody’s business but his and hers.

“There’s no reason for me to talk about that with you,” Nathan snapped, wishing he had never called William to his office in the first place.

“What I’m saying is that she’s too stubborn to turn to you if she has to grieve and you’re too proud to just go to her even if you think she might need you.”

“I would never put my pride before her.” Nathan couldn’t fathom that his friend really thought so poorly of him as to imagine that he would stay away from Elizabeth when she needed him, just to keep his own feelings from being wounded.

“You already have.” William looked as though he would very much like to shake some sense into his friend.

“Tread very carefully,” Nathan warned.

“You were too proud to take time away from your shining future to join Doctors Without Borders with her. You were afraid of going to some third world country and being just another doctor. You needed the glory of being the best. You thought you needed that more than you needed her.”

William’s expression said it all. He couldn’t believe his friend had been so reckless with something so precious as Elizabeth’s heart.

Both men stood in silence for a moment, Nathan literally trembling with rage. He never lost control of his temper, but being accused of abandoning Elizabeth was too much to bear. The worst part was that he knew William spoke the truth. He had been too afraid to take the leap with her. Nathan might have told himself it was because he wanted to best serve his patients, but a part of it had to do with his career and the recognition. It was how a doctor of his caliber got ahead and he knew it.

Part of him had been sure that she would wait for him. He thought she would tell him that she understood and that they would get married years down the line, when he had achieved all that he had planned. When she turned her back on him and walked away, it shook him to his core.

“It was complicated,” Nathan finally said, not ready to speak the truth aloud.

“No, it really wasn’t.” William crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes locked with his friend’s.

“You know nothing about relationships,” Nathan countered, hinting at the fact that William had never been one to take matters of the heart seriously.

“Maybe not, but I do know Elizabeth. That woman is one in a million. She was your bright future. You threw it away. You can become the youngest chief of staff this hospital has ever seen, and you probably will, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’ll always be a failure.”

“Failure?” Nathan fumed, unable to believe William would dare call him that.

“You did it to yourself the second you walked away from her. She was the best part of you.”

“I thought you were my friend.”

“I am. You need to hear this, even if you don’t want to.”

“I am the best oncologist in this state, maybe the country,” Nathan crowed, his pride rearing back up as a defense mechanism.

“Good for you,” William sneered sarcastically.

“I’m not a failure,” Nathan said, practically yelling.

“Who do you go home to? Who will you grow old with?” William demanded, determined not to let Nathan hide from the truth any longer.

“There’s still time for all that,” Nathan answered, though the look in his eyes told William that he had struck a nerve.

“Maybe you really didn’t deserve her.” William shook his head.

“Do you love Elizabeth? Have you always loved her?” Nathan asked, the sudden realization catching him off guard.

“What man wouldn’t?” William replied, making no attempt to hide it.

“You traitor!”

“I never once made a move on her, then or now. What she needs is a friend.”

“I can’t believe you have been in love with my fiancé all these years!”

“That’s the thing, though, isn’t it? She hasn’t been your fiancé for a long time.”

With that, William turned and stormed out of the office, leaving Nathan to face the fact that he had no claim on Elizabeth, no matter how much his heart told him that she was his to love and cherish.