NO POINT OF VIEW
4:45 A.M.
GRAYCEN'S HAIR SHOP
Graycen stared at the shards of glass that laid outside of her shop and watched as police arrested her coworkers: Ruth, Tonya, and Aaliyah. Graycen had gotten a call from her security system about some vandalism on her property. Luckily, Taylor was already up and reorganizing her files. Once Graycen told Taylor, Taylor had taken her to the salon and stuck by her side.
"Graycen, you gotta calm down, okay?" Taylor whispered in her ear as she started to just stare blankly. "Don't forget you're pregnant, you cannot afford to stress yourself out."
Graycen sniffled at that and looked at her sister, "This is not fair, Taylor. I worked so hard, oh my-" Graycen wiped at her eyes. "All my time, money, and work is gone. What did I do to deserve this? This is my fault, I should've been working more and-"
Taylor wrapped her arm around Graycen's shoulder and allowed Graycen to cry on her shoulder, "It's not your fault, Graycen. I can always help you get a new one."
"I don't want a new one!" Graycen cried even harder. "I'm so scared now, what if they were to attack me? If you steal, you kill." Graycen knew she was being a hit extra, but she had every right to be. Her body was shaking almost uncontrollably and Taylor had to walk her over to her car.
"I don't think you can handle looking at your shop. We can always get some fixes done and alter it. Just not right now." Taylor said as she used her hands to pick her face up. "Look at me, Graycen." Graycen wrinkled her nose before she slowly looked at her sister. "You're a fighter and you'll come back from this. I'll give you all the help you need. Trust me, I got you."
Graycen nodded slowly, "I don't want to tell Taehyung. I know how he is, he's going to try to help me. I don't want his help or pity, it's not his business." Graycen didn't need Taehyung to worry or try to help to replace anything.
"You have to Graycen." Taylor took a deep breath. "Just tell him, okay? Taehyung is your baby's father and your friend." Taylor moved her hands.
Graycen laughed bitterly at that, "Taehyung and I? We're not even friends, we can't even talk to each other. Which I guess makes sense, we're exes."
Taylor tried to lighten up the mood, "Not all exes have tense relationships."
Graycen instead just blinked, "Well, this is different. Let me go talk to the police to take care of things I guess." Taylor kissed her sister's cheek before she was to walk away. "I'll be waiting for you, sister!"
>>>
7:15 A.M.
Meanwhile, Taehyung was sitting in his office with Katie. Katie was an obstetrician at the hospital and had been cool with Taehyung for years. He called her into his office the day before so he could request something.
"What's up, Taehyung?" Katie asked as she played with the coffee in her mug. "I haven't really sat down with you in months."
Taehyung chuckled at that, "Yeah, we've both been very busy. Congratulations on the new program you've opened up by the way." Taehyung congratulated. "The program with helping with postpartum depression, it's very genius."
"Thank you, thank you," Katie gave him a tight-lipped smile, "how is everything with you? Is it going good?"
"It's been great, I just need a favor from you," Taehyung said a bit slowly. "It's totally fine if you cannot help me though."
"It depends."
Taehyung asked, "Do you mind if you can have an appointment with Graycen around this week? She told me she was going to set one up, but knowing her I doubt she did already." Taehyung knew Graycen cared about the baby and health, but he knew she was forgettable. He wanted an appointment set up immediately.
"Uh, can she come by today? Like in three hours?" Katie requested from Taehyung. "This week I'll be very busy and I already have meetings and such." Taehyung was already pulling his phone out.
"I'll contact her now," he told Katie, "then I'll tell you if she can. Thanks, Katie."
Katie stood up and gave Taehyung a thumb's up before she walked out of the room. Taehyung dialed her number and waited on the second ring for Graycen to pick up.
"Hello?" Surprisingly, it was Taylor who had answered the phone. "Taehyung, what's up?" Taehyung already sensed that something was off by the reluctance in Taylor's response.
Taehyung was a bit confused, "Everything's going okay. Where is Graycen cause I need to talk to her?"
"She's actually napping," Taylor said then sighed, "she didn't have a great morning like at all."
"What do you mean by that?" Taehyung supported his phone with his shoulder as he started reading his emails. "Is she good, what happened?"
"I'm honestly not sure if it's my business to tell."
Taehyung then started getting annoyed because he didn't like not knowing anything. Definitely when it had something to do with his baby's mother. "Taylor, I advise you to just tell me. I'm working and I'm getting anxious."
Taylor took a pause before she started to speak, "Fine, fine! Three workers of Graycen vandalized her shop and stole any money from there. She's pretty out of it and even had a big headache, I had to bring her back to the house to calm her down."
Taehyung didn't believe what he was hearing, "Are you kidding me?"
"I wish I was." Taylor took a deep breath. "She was bawling her eyes out and shit. All she has been doing since she got back was cry and sleep. I got her to eat like one banana, but that was all."
Taehyung sighed, "I had set up an appointment for her at around ten in the morning. Make sure that she's here, please. Also, keep an eye on her. I'm sure she's already stressed out."
"Of course!" Taylor said in a way as to agreeing to oblige to his request. "It's perfect actually. I have a brunch date at ten thirty so I'll drop her off. Keep an eye out for your phone."
Taehyung hummed, "Okay, see you later."
Once Taehyung got off the phone, he continued to read over his emails. He noticed some about work and meetings which he responded to. Then, there was one from Jade. It was an invitation to her wedding. Taehyung made sure to save the photo in his files.
Taehyung took a sip of his coffee as his office door opened and there appeared Dr. Edwards. Taehyung gave her a confused expression as she plopped down on the chair in front of his desk.
"So I guess knocking doesn't exist in this world, huh?"
He watched her as she deviously smirked and rolled her eyes, "I'm trying to escape Dr. Patterson, she wants me to do a baby surgery with her."
"On an actual baby?" Taehyung sat up in his seat this time. He was intrigued by the new information he just got.
"No!" She giggled then spoke again. "The surgery is an appendectomy. Do you know how many appendectomies I've done? I can do that surgery with my eyes closed!" Taehyung and Dr. Edwards (Diane) grew closer as they continued to work together. Taehyung had great thoughts about her because of how dedicated and humorous she was.
"Just do the damn surgery and get it over with."
Diane just shook her head, "Nope, hard pass. What surgeries are you doing today?"
"An aortic valve surgery."
Taehyung laughed as Diane's eyes lit up, "Count me in! Count me in, please!" This was the first time Taehyung had even seen Diane act that way. "I really want to help, I'm so good at working with cardiovascular surgeries. Ask anyone, shit, quiz me!"
Taehyung chuckled, "Aren't you supposed to be doing an appendectomy?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Diane waved him off. "Is that some type of sauce? Food?" They both started to laugh. "No, really, please! I'll do anything to scrub in on a surgery like that."
Taehyung took a second to register his answer, "I'll talk to Dr. Patterson about it and see what I can do. I also need to start getting ready for that surgery now. I'll be back."
Diane nodded as Taehyung walked out of the room. At that time, Taehyung went to find Katie to tell her that Graycen was going to come for the appointment. Then, he had to walk over to where Dr. Patterson usually is at the cafeteria.
"I wish I was surprised to see you here, Patterson," Taehyung said lightly as he sat at the table where Patterson was only sitting at. "I heard you have an appendectomy to do."
Dr. Patterson was an Indian doctor who was in her fifties but looked like she was in her mid-thirties. Taehyung was amazed at how well she kept her health. It was just that Ms. Patterson had a very slick mouth.
"Well, I'm here! I'm surprised you're not overworking yourself in that damn office." Ms. Patterson spoke after she bit into her wheat bread. "And yes I do have an appendectomy, why?"
Taehyung cleared his throat and sat up in his seat, "Well, resident Edwards was actually going to do an aortic heart valve surgery with me and another resident. I really need to take Edwards for the surgery. I start surgery in twenty minutes."
Ms. Patterson rolled her eyes and aggressively chewed on her bread, "Fine, take her! I can always do the appendectomy with Lewis. I always knew that Edwards had an attitude about that surgery."
Taehyung quickly assured, "No, no, it's not that she didn't want to do the surgery. It's just-"
"Get ready for that surgery, Taehyung." Ms. Patterson interrupted with a wide smile. "I'm eating my bread and living really great. Now get away from me!"
Taehyung thanked Ma. Patterson before he left and went back to his office. Diane was just sitting down, staring into space. Taehyung didn't say anything at first, just grabbed an apple from his desk and bit into it.
"Was that apple clean?" Diane scrunched up her face in disgust.
Taehyung swallowed before answering, "Yes, you think I'm that stupid to not wash off my apple? What are you, a germophobe? Anyways, get ready for the surgery. Set up the room for me."
Diane stood up and nodded as she walked towards the door, "I got you, Doc. Also," Diane turned her head to look at Taehyung, "I am indeed a germophobe." Then, she walked out of the office and Taehyung laughed to himself. Taehyung unlocked his drawer before pulling out his special scalpel.
In the surgery room, Taehyung was making sure to explain his steps as he was operating. There were still some people in the O.R. that needed to know certain things. Aortic valve surgery was always something Taehyung was good at. It took about three more tries until he excelled at it.
After successfully completing the surgery, Taehyung and Dr. Edwards stayed behind to clean up as the interns rolled the patient back in their room. They both scrubbed out with Edwards humming a tune that must've been in her head.
"You did good in there, Edwards." Taehyung complimented as she dried his hands and he joined her. "I gotta say you surprised me."
Edwards raised her eyebrow in amusement before responding, "Thank you, didn't I tell you I'm an amazing surgeon?"
Taehyung sucked his teeth, "This is why I can't even give anyone compliments. They let it get to their heads." They both chuckled at that before they left the O.R. The pair walked side to side and onto the elevator.
Right when Taehyung was going to spark a conversation, his pager went off. He picked it up to read the message that alerted him that it was for a meeting. He groaned and shoved the pager back in his pocket.
"You good?" Dr. Edwards asked with an amused expression."You look a bit annoyed."
Taehyung forced a smile on his face, "Just a meeting, sadly."
"Ah, I hate meetings." Diane shared with a sour expression then the elevator doors opened. "Good luck though, chief."
Taehyung rolled his eyes playfully, "Whatever." The both stepped off the elevator and Taehyung watched as she laughed. Taehyung wished that she was walking the same direction as he was, but she was already walking off another direction.
He was grateful to have bonded with Diane.