by Aiden Bates
"I'll ask one of the girls to bring some by, sir." Marcia's concern broke through her voice. She could hear everything, of course. Tom hadn't closed the door behind him, because he was drunk and because tact was something that didn't exist in his world.
"I don't need coffee. I need my omega!" Tom snarled at Finn, lurching forward until he was halfway off the couch.
"Your omega is at home with your children, I'd expect." Finn drummed his fingers on the table. "Tom, you should maybe think about leaving Carter alone for a little while. I don't think he'd react well if he saw you like this."
"Oh he'll react just like I want him to once I remind him who he belongs to." Carter scowled. "I just need you to stop interfering. I offered him a spot that was better than any he's going to get anyplace else! Who does he really think he is, telling me no like that?"
Finn rolled his eyes. "Okay for crying out loud, Tom, you gave him an offer because you felt sorry for him. He'd have to be subordinate to the guy you dumped him for. Yeah, no, I don't think he'd be keen on that, just a thought. That's so unheard of I don't know if it's even something that the benefits handbooks account for."
"But it's not illegal." Tom stabbed a finger up into the air. "And come off it, Finn. At least he'd have a family. At least he'd actually belong to someone. It's not like anyone else is going to take him. Who else would do it—you? Give me a break." He smirked and leaned back on Finn's couch, legs spread wide. "Do you think I haven't smelled you on him? I know what the two of you've been up to. Christ, I think the whole county knows what the two of you have been up to. If you actually cared, you'd marry him yourself."
Finn swallowed. He'd broken out in a sweat underneath his suit, but he couldn't show it. "I think it's time for you to leave, Tom. I've had just about enough of your accusations. Don't come back to this hospital. I mean it. I don't care that you're drunk. I don't care that you're hurting. It's honestly a little absurd that you think you get to be hurt that Carter rejected your proposal when it was patently stupid anyway. Get out of my office and don't come back."
Tom staggered out of the office. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a flask on his way out, which was just perfect for Finn's needs. Finn waited for the elevator doors to close behind the drunkard before he grabbed his phone. Ignoring Marcia, who walked into his office with Tom's coffee, he dialed the police. "Hello, there's a drunk man about to get into a car leaving Silver Oak Medical Center most likely headed toward Lysander. I saw him drinking out of a metal flask on his way back toward his car. He drives a black Porsche SUV with New York plates." He rattled off Tom's plates, unsure of why he even remembered them, and thanked the officers for their time.
When he hung up, he saw Marcia giving him a knowing look. "Very civic minded of you, sir. He could kill someone, driving around like that."
"Of course." Finn kept a straight face. The cops would be on Geary right away. The resultant scandal would ensure that even if Tom talked, no one would ever believe him.
Marcia cleared her throat. "Of course, you've got an appointment with Dr. Yamashita, Chief of Obstetrics, in three minutes. Shall I save this for him?"
Finn blinked and looked down at his computer. "I do? Since when?"
"Since this morning, sir. He made the appointment this morning. He seemed upset, sir." She set the coffee down on a side table.
Finn bit down on the inside of his cheek. "If he's upset about something in Obstetrics, that can't be good." He sighed. "Okay. Well, if you don't want the coffee for yourself, definitely leave it there for him. I don't think I need more today."
Dr. Yamashita entered the office exactly four minutes later. Yamashita was an older man, although he wasn't anywhere near retirement yet, with white hair and a stethoscope that always hung around his neck. Today his face was drawn and pale, and his hand shook as he reached out to greet Finn. "It's good to see you, Mr. Riley, even under such conditions."
Finn offered a smile. “I don't know what those conditions are yet, Dr. Yamashita."
"Oh. Of course not." Yamashita stroked his chin for a long, silent moment. "Dr. Idoni has submitted notice of his resignation from Silver Oak Medical Center."
Finn heard his own voice as if it were coming from far away. "Has he? That's… surprising." He tried to swallow, but his mouth was too dry. "Did he say why?"
"He's gotten a job offer that truly is too amazing to pass up." Yamashita blinked repeatedly, and Finn realized that the older man was blinking back tears. "Lazarus Health in San Antonio has offered him a position as Chief of Obstetrics. He said he didn't go out there looking for an interview, but a former advisor introduced him to people while he was there and he thought it would be a good fit. The pay is better by several orders of magnitude—"
Finn scoffed. "He doesn't care about money."
Yamashita tilted his head and blinked. "He's not looking to be a millionaire, no, but he supports his parents as well as a few different charities. He's not going to object to getting more to help them with. And the job comes with a teaching position." He shook his head. "He'd be helping to teach whole classes of future doctors how to help omegas, not just one or two at a time."
"I had no idea he wanted that." Finn turned his head. "I should have known, but that's on me. Thanks for letting me know, Dr. Yamashita."
"I know that we're supposed to be on a hiring freeze right now, but we can't go without that position being filled. We're the busiest delivery room in the county. What are we going to do?"
Finn wanted to tear his hair out, to scream and yell. He couldn't do that. He was still the Iceman. "I'll come up with something. Just give me a few days, okay, Doctor?"
Chapter Nineteen
Carter started packing right away. He didn't need to. He could have waited to sell until he got to San Antonio. He had enough to buy a new place out there, or at least to put a down payment on someplace new while he waited. Packing just gave him something to do while he worked off the nervous energy after giving his notice.
Dr. Yamashita had been understanding. He'd been kind. He said he was sorry to see Carter go, but he couldn't very well compete with an offer like Lazarus was giving him. And that was it. All these years, down to a handshake and a "thank you for everything." Maybe it was for the best that Carter was leaving.
So Carter added packing to his daily routine. He packed up his summer wardrobe, although he had to leave his winter wardrobe out. He packed up his pots and his pans, since he didn't use them very often. He started to pack up his books.
Two days after he gave his notice, he contacted a realtor. The one he'd worked with to buy his house had retired, but he found one through the same office. The new realtor congratulated him on his foresight in "staging" the upstairs bedrooms. She had said, “Making it look more like a young family lives here is smart. People will like to see that when they come through. Even buyers who don't have children, and who won't have children, like to think of themselves as buying into a family neighborhood."
Carter just nodded and smiled. He didn't have the heart to explain anything to her, and he didn't owe her any explanations anyway. After she took her pictures and left, though, he broke down and sobbed in the baby's room for a while. He knew that when he sold the house he'd be giving up on pretty much all of his youthful hopes and dreams.
He might find love out in San Antonio. He wasn't going to shut himself off to the idea. He wasn't an unattractive man, and he thought he had a lot to offer a man. He knew that he wasn't going to meet someone, fall in love with him, and have him fall in love with Carter while he was still young enough to have children. And out in San Antonio, the only person who would care enough to help him during an emergency would be Dr. Sibley.
No, the closest he would ever come to making this false appearance a reality would be to meet a widowed alpha with children. Carter wouldn't ever have a family of his own. He should have left Syracuse a long time ago. Nothing would have been any different, but at least he wouldn't have gotten so attached to Adam, Larissa, a
nd Madison.
He would love life in San Antonio. He knew he would. He didn't need to have kids to be happy. He didn't need to have a husband to be happy, either. All that he needed was a fulfilling career and enough friendly faces around him to keep him smiling. He needed work for his hands, whether on a voluntary or paid basis, and work for his brain. Not having to deal with snow would be a huge advantage.
He would do fine, once he was taken away from all of these reminders. Once he'd separated himself from the could have, the would have, and the worst of all, the should have. For now, though, he could mourn what he'd lost. Maybe he could finally put the ghost of the child that never was to rest and move forward.
He'd never thought of himself as having a lot of stuff. He didn't do a lot of entertaining, he didn't collect much. As he saw his things collected into boxes, though, he couldn't help but wonder how one guy managed to accumulate enough things to warrant so many crates. A lot of those things were books, of course, and he had to pack them up at the office too. He would miss his office. He would even miss some of his patients.
He would get new patients in San Antonio. They would be Texan patients. They would speak differently, and they would have concerns that were both the same and different from his. He couldn't sit around and get weepy about missing the patients or about seeing his office slowly being stripped bare, because he was on his way to a brand new adventure.
And no one here in Syracuse was going to miss him.
Well, his friends would, but they were also happy for him and this great new opportunity. They were a lot more ambitious for his career than Carter was. No one else, though, seemed to care. People were polite about it, but he guessed that these were the same people who had witnessed his miscarriage and his blowout with Tom.
Carter didn't hear from Finn at all. Carter hadn't heard from Finn since Finn fell asleep in his arms, after they'd gotten Gerig arrested. Carter knew that he shouldn't feel bad about that. They'd agreed to a purely physical relationship, and obviously Finn didn't need what Carter had to offer right now.
At the same time, if things were the other way around, if it were Finn leaving and Carter staying, Carter would have at least called to say goodbye.
He forced his mind away from the evil thoughts. They were more "should have been" thoughts, not right thoughts or good thoughts. He shouldn't be having them at all. Carter had known what he was getting into with Finn. He'd been stupid to get attached. He might be a kick-ass surgeon, and he might kick ass as a general rule, but he wasn't the kind of man that men got attached to and that was all there was to it.
He called Sibley and accepted the offer. His mentor hesitated when he spoke to Carter, and double-checked that he was truly ready to commit. "Are you sure, Carter? I want you here, and the whole team wants you here, but if you're not ready maybe you should stay. You sound a little… well, you don't sound happy about it, Carter."
Carter sniffed and tried not to sound like his heart was breaking. "It's a hard thing to do, to get up and move across the country, you know? I've been here for a long time and it's hard to say goodbye." He took a deep breath. "Still, it's time. It's past time, I think. I love everything about the job from the way you make it sound, and I can't wait to get started."
"If you're sure, then we can't wait to have you start. How do you want to handle housing?"
Carter looked around his half-empty house. "I'll head out at the beginning of November to look at some places out there and hopefully put in a down payment. If I can start the ball rolling, I should be able to settle in and won't need to be living in hotels for too long."
"Good luck with that!" Sibley chuckled. "Can't wait to see you in November."
They hung up, and Carter was left alone in his silent and empty house again.
He thought about calling Finn. He wanted to call him and scream and yell and let out everything that he was feeling. He didn't. He couldn't help but think it was funny that Finn complained about Carter's outspokenness, when Finn was always the one to make the first move. Carter half felt like a ghost in their relationship. They were purely physical because that was what Finn wanted. They kept their relationship secret because Finn couldn't get caught. They met up at one or the other's house based on Finn's suggestions.
Carter went where he was told, because he wanted to make Finn happy.
"Ugh," he said and avoided the mirror for a few hours. He didn't like the implications of that thought.
News of Tom's DUI arrest hit the local paper a few days after Carter gave his notice. Carter almost dropped his tablet when he saw it. He waited until he knew that Tom would be at work, and then he called Paul. "Are you okay? Are the kids okay?"
Paul snorted. "Like you care. It's your fault, you know. None of this would be happening if you'd just joined us like you were supposed to."
"Excuse me?" Carter coughed. Some coffee spilled onto his dress shirt, but it wouldn't show up against the black fabric. He barely felt the burn. He couldn't have heard Paul right.
"Like you don't know." If a voice could sneer, Paul's did. "He's been drinking himself stupid ever since you had that fight at Silver Oak. You should have just given him what he wanted when he asked you for it. Then none of this would be happening."
Carter covered his eyes with his hand. "You're telling me that he's been on a bender for over a week."
"Of course he has!" Paul's voice dropped to a hiss, so Carter guessed that one or more of the kids had come into the room. "The kids won't go near him, he smells like a distillery, it's terrible."
Carter sighed. "Okay. You know what? Grab the kids and come here. I'll give you the key, just go to my house. Their room is still set up, it's not a problem."
"What do you mean their room is still set up?" Paul's voice rose. "What's going on? Why would you take their room apart?"
"Just go with it for now and don't argue, all right? Grab what you can. Tom needs to go dry out for a while. In the meantime, you'll have a safe place to stay. I'll explain when I see you but don't worry about that right now. Just get out, okay?" He shook his head and hung up when Paul said he'd be right there.
He'd made the right decision, when he decided to not join Tom and Paul. He wasn't into polyamory anyway, not that he was judging those who were, but their whole dynamic was pretty toxic. He had absolutely lucked out when he'd avoided marrying someone who wound up putting his own children in fear.
Paul got to the hospital, with the kids, about half an hour later. He didn't look good. His hair was unwashed, and his clothes were a mess. The kids, too, were disheveled and unhappy. Carter could swear that he saw a bruise on Adam's arm, but then again kids were always getting banged up. Weren't they?
He met Paul's eye. "Tom?" he asked. He didn't need to point. He knew that the younger man would know.
Paul looked away and blushed. "I don't think he'll even remember it."
Carter didn't know if Paul meant Tom or Adam at this point, and he didn't care. He squatted down to Adam's level. "Hey, buddy. I've missed you."
Adam threw his arms around Carter and held on tight. "Can I stay with you?" Carter thought that Adam was favoring the bruised arm a little bit, but he'd rather hold off on making any judgments until he heard from a pediatrician.
He looked up at Paul, who winced. Then he stuck his head out the door. "Hey, Laura? Could you do me a favor?" He gave his nicest smile to the receptionist. "I've got a bit of an emergency situation here. Could you ask for Dr. Melo to come up to my office as a personal favor?"
Laura shrugged and placed the call.
"I'd like Allen to take a look at you, too." Carter met Paul's eye. "It's your choice, obviously. I saw the bruise on Adam, so I have to have the kids looked at, but you're an adult so the laws are different. I think, though, it'll be best for you if you let that exam take place."
Paul scowled. "What's that going to do? Tom's an actual lawyer."
"We have lawyers here, Paul. And other people who can help you. But maybe that's something to t
alk about between adults, when these darling little ones are in their own room tonight." Carter caught the twins up into his embrace and tried to tamp down his rage that way.
Dr. Melo came up and examined all three kids. She found bumps and bruises, which she documented, but nothing that required treatment. "Dad did the right thing getting them out when he did," she said in a murmur, while Paul got an exam with Allen in another room. "It's a difficult situation, I know, and maybe their dad wasn't like this all of the time."
Carter swallowed. He didn't want to disparage Tom in front of them. "Obviously you're going to have to call Social Services up."
"Oh my, yes." Melo grimaced. "Do they have a place to go?"
"I've offered them my place." Melo's eyes widened. "They—it's complicated, but I've been close with the family. The kids have their own room at my place, and a playroom besides."
Once Allen had finished with Paul, Carter checked his calendar. He didn't have any appointments, so he shuffled his hours around a little so that he could bring the Gearys out to his place. "I don't have a panic button or anything," he said, as he let the family into the house. "I mean, it's a safe area, and of course you can call the police. I'll ask them to increase patrols around here."
