Her Normal

Chapter 25

My heart shattered. The judge dismissed us, but I just sat. Jason winked at me and left the room, only leaving me and the team. I heard Spencer yell profanities before slamming the doors behind him. I didn't cry; I was too scared. My heart was pounding and the room was spinning. Jason was walking free.

"Maddie," Emily knelt down beside me. "I am so sorry, we're going to get him nailed down. One way or another."

"How exactly are you planning on doing that, Emily?" I asked. "Obviously he wasn't 'nailed down' for what he's already done, how are any of you supposed to do anything to constitute helping at this point? He's walking free. That's it. There's nothing left to do." I stood to walk out but Morgan grabbed my shoulder, giving me a stern look.

"Hey," he warned. "That's certainly not helping."

"Neither are you," I shook him off. "Leave me be." I walked out and walked to the hotel. When I got there, I stripped out of my business attire and got into sweats and one of Spencer's t shirts. I took a deep breath and heard the door open. It was Spencer. He sat next to me and looked at me, but I didn't look back.

"I'm so sorry-"

"Stop apologizing!" I snapped. "Sorry isn't going to put Jason where he belongs." He nodded.

"Okay."

I shook my head and looked at him. "I'm sorry," I said. "I'm just scared he's going to come back."

"He'll have to get through us first," Spencer said. I nodded.

The next day, we packed and left. I apologized for my outburst in the court room, but the team forgave me immediately, saying it was a normal reaction.

After taking a few days of personal time with Spencer to get things worked out and relieve some of the stress, I began working at Stafford again.

I walked through the doors into the familiar ICU. My boss greeted me and shook my hand.

"Good to have you back, Dr. Collins," Mr. Brunswick smiled.

"Good to be back sir," I smiled back. It really was good to be back somewhere that I knew well and the people respected me.

The morning was spent on a less fortunate Mr. Heathman, who had eaten too much fast food and was in for an emergency triple bypass. Stacy and I worked together like two cogs in a machine, just like old times. She handed me tools, I did my job. She took the tools from me and did her job.

The early afternoon was doing rounds. I checked on a few elderly patients that had to have joint surgeries due to arthritis. They were so kind, reminding me why I loved my job.

The rest of the day was a staff meeting. I was introduced to new coworkers, giving me deja vu of my first day here. All my old coworkers had either quit or been transferred to a new unit. I didn't mind; the fresh set of faces gave me a new thing to look forward to.

Despite how great my day had gone at work, I was ready to get home to Spencer. I just wanted to lay around with him for a little while. I decided to call him when I got off.

"Hello?"

"Hi," I smiled for no reason.

"Hey, how was work?" He asked.

"Good," I said. "There's a whole new staff team and it's really nice to have new faces. I still have Stacy though."

"Great," Spencer said. "Hey, I have some stuff to talk to you about, but I need you to meet me at an address. Do you have a pen and paper?" I pulled out a pen and decided to just write on my hand.