As her first year as an intern at Edenbrook draws near its end, after having to fight for her career while falling in love with her mentor, Blue Hunter finds herself feeling empty as Ethan Ramsey flies off to The Amazon to work with the WHO.
Having...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
°●°☆°●°☆°●°
Ethan had an early night off that day.
The team of volunteers that included Ethan, Adriana and Owen, along with a few other doctors, had managed to identify the strain that the virus contained, and it was linked very closely with Rocio, a virus from the same family that produces yellow fever and West Nile.
They just had to wait for the results from one of the nearby research labs to confirm their suspicions, before starting to work on the vaccine.
It had been two weeks since Blue's letter, and Ethan had been rereading all the previous three letters almost every night, just to give him a little strength to press on, as the climate was kind of changing in Brazil, and working under the heat was almost unbearable.
Ethan brushed his hand against his jaw, which was now covered by a beard. He had almost no time for self-care and grooming, as he grew accustomed to his new beard. He was grateful that he at least had the luxury of being able to afford a decent shower and to cover his basic toileteries needs.
Right as he entered his tent, someone called out to him from behind. It was one of the volunteers, Dr. Lisa Kepner. She was from Seattle, been there for only two weeks as she signed up late for the volunteering part.
"Dr. Ramsey, you have a mail from Boston." she informed him, as she handed him the familiar envelope that Ethan had grown so fond and excited about. However, Ethan noticed the way the Lisa's hand lingered over his when handing him the letter, and he immediately retreated his hand, holding the olive green envelope protectively in his hand.
"I heard that you ended work earlier today. Would you like to grab a drink with me? I've got some red wine in my tent." Lisa asked shyly. Ethan was far too experienced with the same situations before. He internally sighed as he look at her. "I would like to retire for tonight. I'm quite tired, but thank you for the offer." he replied.
He saw the flicker of disappointment in Lisa's eyes, but she managed to mask it quickly. "Oh, alright. No worries. Maybe another time?" she asked expectantly. "We'll see." Ethan replied bluntly, as Lisa waved goodbye as she left.
Ethan shook his head slightly as he sat back on his desk. When Lisa had offered wine, Ethan could only think back to one of his first memories with Blue. It was at Donahues when she came up to talk to him. She accurately guessed what he drank always, scotch neat, and had even managed to crack a smile from him.
He should have known.
He should have known that she was something special from that very moment, and not let it escalate it this far, to the point that a painful seperation was inevitable.
Maybe it would have hurt less.
Sighing, he opened the envelope to the letter he had been waiting for two weeks.
"Hey, Ethan. It's been a while, but I have been using the time to really focus on my patients, and I didn't really want to bother you too much as well."
Ethan frowned a little at that. Blue would never be a bother to him. In fact, he had been looking forward to her letters everyday, and even got disappointed when he did not see the familiar olive green envelope or someone had not delievered him his mail. But of course, he would not tell it directly to her.
"I had a little break yesterday, but Dr. Myles, our head of cardio had approached me to ask if I wanted to scrub in with her on a heart transplant. Remember she had said in my hearing that she was impressed with how I jumped in to assist Dr. Emery? Yeah, she followed through and wanted to give me a new experience in the O.R. It was great especially since if I did not choose diagnostics, I would have most probably gone into cardiothoracic surgery to be honest.
She had even let me transfer and transplant the heart. This is most probably gonna sound cheesy as hell, but the only thing I could thing of when I held the heart in my hand...was you. It was a split-second thought, but it made me realize how much I actually miss you. I just hope your safe, and are doing well there, doing what you do best.
Solving mysteries and saving lives.
Love, Rookie."
Ethan smiled widely as he finished reading the letter. He was touched that she still thought of him at times like this. Blue had been writing letters to him for one and a half months now, with no letter nor even an acknowledgement in resturn. However, she still thought of him and wrote to him.
As usual, he picked up a blank piece of paper, and began to write his reply that would be unsent.
"Rookie, I am very proud of you. It's amazing that you have been expanding your horizons even during your intern year. I'm just afraid that the surgical side would steal you away...I'm kidding. I am glad that you have other senior doctors who recognise your talent and are looking out for you in my absence as well.
Things are looking rather promising over here. We have identified the strain we collected as Rocio, and we just need to run some more tests to confirm, so that we can immeidately start working on the vaccine and treatment plan for those already infected.
Also, while I was working with your parents on the research, I had accidently showed your mother my wallpaper, while unlocking my phone to show her something. Not exactly one of my best moments. I spent five minutes trying to come up with an excuse, but thankfully she did not press the issue further, and changed the subject for me. This is rather embarrassing.
I miss you a lot too, and to hear that you thought of me while you held an actual heart in your hands, makes me realize how much exactly I'm underserving of your affection. I have done nothing but caused you pain, but you still show me so much affection that I have never gotten in my life before. You are truly one in a million, Rookie.
Love, E.R."
Ethan put his pen down, doing his usual routine of placing his letter together with Blue's in the envelope before putting it in his suitcase. Overtime, Ethan had come to be able to do these things much more easily.
It was hard for him at the beginning as he always felt constrained. Like as if he allowed himself to read her letter, feel something, and write back even if it would not be read by her, it would open the dam he had tried so hard to lock by coming all the way here to the Amazon.
However, over time he had realized that he had no choice. No matter what he did, Blue was going to be in his system forever. She was the first and only person to have ever penetrated his steel exterior, helping him to actually feel something, ever since all those years ago he started building his walls up.
Even if they were not physically together, in his mind they would always be, no matter how much he wanted to translate that into reality. After all, whatever happened, is happening, and will happen between them, is not at all an Open Love.
