Fight or Flight [Rooster x OC]

Chapter 1

Present Day

~~~~~~~~~~

Kate leaned back against the palms of her hands, sinking them deeper into the sand as waves crashed against the shore. It was close to dawn, the sky just starting to turn pink and lavender as the sun crept toward the horizon behind her.

At the shoreline, her father's golden retriever was splashing around, chasing the water back into the ocean. Nor'easter, or East as they all called him, was a very pale shade of silky gold, but at the moment he was more of a sandy blond.

There weren't many people out on the beach yet. A couple surfers were sitting on their boards out in the water, waiting for the perfect swell. In the far off distance, a runner was jogging along the hard-packed sand.

Kate pressed her toes down. The uneasy feeling that had driven her out of her parents' house was sticking around, gluing itself to the inside of her chest. Her mom had called a week and a half ago to ask her to come home for a while. An impromptu family reunion.

But there had been something in her mom's voice and the suddenness of everything that put Kate on alert, no matter how calm her mom seemed. She had been in-between traveling nurse practitioner jobs, so it had been easy to pack up her apartment in Atlanta and head to Miramar, settling in with her parents while her stuff stayed in storage.

Her parents said everything was fine, but she knew they were lying. Dot had taken leave off work to spend her days at the house, her kids running around in the backyard, and TJ had somehow gotten sent home by his admiral. It wasn't fine. Her dad's voice was so weak; it had already been ravaged by throat cancer a few years ago, but now...he could barely talk. They weren't telling her the truth about why they had asked her and her siblings to come home, but Kate was a nurse. She knew deep down inside that it might be that. Still. She was having trouble asking the question that she already knew the answer to.

Asking would make it real.

For now, living in willful ignorance felt better. Besides, she worked in ERs. She was good at shoving down her worries. Taking a deep breath, she tried to compartmentalize the unspoken dread and focus on East and the waves. The dog was her father's constant companion, which struck her as funny. Tom Kazansky had always been more of a cat guy, but East had won him over.

The steady crash of the ocean started to soothe her tension. In and out.

East's sudden wild barking broke her concentration. He tore off down the beach, hurtling toward the runner, who was much closer than before but still hazy in the early morning heat. That was California for you. Something in his movements, even at that distance, picked at her sense of familiarity, but she had to deal with the dog first.

"East!" Kate shouted, scrambling up from the ground, sand scattering around her. She rushed after him, yelling at him to stop, but he was too excited.

The golden bounded up to the runner and began to whine happily and bounce in circles. The runner crouched down to ruffle his soft ears. He was bowled over by East's enthusiastic greeting, and Kate slowed down as she recognized his laughter. His hazel eyes lit up as he met her gaze. The uneasiness inside her was tamped down to something more manageable as she flopped down in the sand next to Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw.

"I thought you weren't getting in until tonight," Kate said, shoving her wild blond curls back, acting like it was totally normal finding him out on the beach. She didn't bother to save him from East. She knew he liked being lovingly attacked.

"Hey, buddy, good buddy, who's a good dog?" Bradley said to East. A smirk popped across his face as he looked up at her, squinting. "And I thought you didn't do mornings."