True Love

Mia stood still.
Her arms crossed tightly over her chest.
She was trying her very best not to hyperventilate.

Zack's stare was piercing.
He threw his cigarette to the ground, crushing it with his shoe. He shoved his strong arms into his pockets, she looked over them, they were tattooed down to his wrists. The artwork that covered his body now was high quality, it was a grade if artwork he hadn't been able to afford years ago.

But what Mia didn't know was Zack was doing the same. He was examining Mia's every curve, her olive skin, her brunette hair, and the tattoo she had tried to hide on her side, the one that just barely peeked about the threshold of her top, he wondered how far down her rib cage it went...what it was.

She was flawless, he had never thought she could get more beautiful, but the years had been good to her.

And as much as he wanted to hate the woman standing before him, his heart ached and his feelings from over a decade ago slapped him square in the face.

Mia bit at her lip, she was sure he would hear her heart which she was pretty sure was about to beat out of her chest.

But to her surprise, it was Zack that spoke first.

"So what?" he spat, venom in his every word, "You left me for some ass in New York and then got knocked the fuck up?" Mia rolled her eyes.

"Yell at me all you want, but don't you dare bring my children into this. They did nothing to you," Mia spat right back. Zack let out a deep breath.

He wasn't quite sure why, but he knew she was right. He was a grown man, and it wasn't fair for him to throw a couple of kids under the bus, but Mia? Well, she was fair game.

Zack rubbed roughly at his face.

"What’s his name?" Mia looked at Zack, her nose scrunching as her eyes narrowed.

"That’s not going to solve anything, were adults now. Besides, what are you going to do? Fly across the country to kick his ass?" Mia challenged.

"I said," Zack said a little more calmly this time, "what’s his fucking name?"

"That's not your business," Mia said confidently, Zack approached her, had she not known better she would have thought he was going to hit her. He backed her up against the house grabbing her wrists pinning them above her head, she shifted uncomfortably.

"You left in the middle of the night without so much as a fuck you, so yeah, I think it is my business." Mia took a deep breath as he held his face closer to hers, closing her eyes she could smell the cigarettes and cheap beer on his breath. But still, she said nothing, he only clenched her wrists tighter.

"Chance, his name is Chance McMillen..." she finally said. Zack let out a cynical laugh. Mia yanked hard finally freeing herself from his grasp.

"What? Is he one of you daddy's oil trust find babies?" Mia placed her hands firmly on Zack's chest pushing him away.

"Yeah, he is. Are you happy now?" Zack stopped, his eyes burning through Mia.

But suddenly they heard someone clear their throat. Zack backed off, hastily running his fingers through his hair.

"Am I interrupting something?" Val asked stepping out as she crossed her arms over her chest, hesitantly looking between Zack and Mia. Zack pulled his hands from his pockets as he fumbled with a cigarette, desperate to light it.

"Not at all..." Mia almost whispered.

"Okay...well..." Val began awkwardly, still looking between Zack and Mia, "your girls are asking for you, something about video chatting with their dad?" Zack's head shot up. Mia just nodded.

"Just...just tell them we can do it when we get home, we can do it on my MacBook..." Val shook her head adamantly.

"Oh God, Mia I'm sorry-" Val said, holding her hands up in defense, "I told the girls they could do it here, they're on Matt's computer Skyping with him..." Mia suddenly felt nauseous, "I'm sorry I-" Mia looked up, smiling softly.

"It’s okay Val, really. I just didn't want to be rude..." Val crossed her arms over her chest, smiling back at Mia.

"They're in the living room..." Val said, Mia just shook her head softly before walking into the house. Val waited a moment before shutting the front door. She walked closer to Zack, examining him closely.

He looked hurt.
He looked heartbroken.
He looked angry.
He looked confused.
She could still see love in his eyes.

Worst of all his eyes were glazed over, something she didn't see often from Zack.
It meant he was on the verge of tears.
And that...well that just broke her heart.

Zack looked up her, his stare brooding as he took one last puff from his cigarette before tossing it to the ground.

Zack wanted to play hard, he wanted to tell Val that he could care less. That Mia could fuck off and he wouldn't care, but they both knew that wasn't true.

"I know you both still care for each other..." Val said taking another step closer to Zack.

"Yeah," Zack snapped back, anger think in his hurt voice, "you could just see the love in her eyes..." he groaned, rolling his eyes. Val let out a low chuckle.

"Actually I could..." Zack looked up at Val, his eyes wide, "you gonna go in there and get a good look at your competition or what?" Zack looked up curiously at Val, "Don't you want to know what you're up against?" Zack thought for a second, biting nervously at his lip.

Val motioned towards the house with a wide smile, Zack walked over, wrapping an arm around Val's shoulders. They walked into the house only to hear wild laughing from what could only be Mia's girls. Zack hesitantly followed Val, he walked slowly trying to prepare himself.

Val walked into the room, stopping behind the couch. Matt's laptop was sitting on one of the girls laps. The man on the other end had a wide white smile, his hair was long and shaggy and his face had a trimmed scruff to it. He was sitting a little ways back from his computer. He was in a pair of jeans, with a plain white t-shirt. His bare feet bouncing up and down on the hardwood floor, he was tightly clutching a dark acoustic guitar. As they listened to him speak they could tell he had a deep voice.

He was a lot better looking than Zack expected.

Zack stood staring, he could see himself on the computer screen, but he didn't care.

"any requests?" the voice played through the speakers. The girls all remained silent, "How about Mama's favorite? Sweet thing..."

Val watched Zack from across the room.

The girls fell silent, Mia smiled, placing a kiss on one of their heads before the music played through the speaker, "When I picked you up for our first date baby. Well, your pretty blue eyes, they were drivin' me crazy. And the tiny little thought that was so amazing. Is they were lookin’ at me...I held open the car door for you then you climbed. Inside and slid on over. To the other side.. I thought my, oh my...Sweet thing, The moon is high and the night is young. Come on and meet me, in the backyard under the cottonwood tree..."



Mia exhaled deeply.

Leaning against the cold steel structure she stared at the picture hanging on the door of her locker.
It was Chance holding both Emma and Kenzie. They were young in this picture, not a day over four of five.

She hadn't slept a wink all night, and this was not how she wanted to spend her first shift on at the hospital, exhausted and stressed beyond belief.

But Chance had gotten a glimpse of Zack in the background last night, and he had not answered a single one of Mia's attempts to contact him. Not that she could blame him but-

"Mia?" the voice pulled her from her thoughts, and that's when she glanced over.

There stood Graham, he was in pale green scrubs, his sandy hair was slicked back, and the tattoo on the left side of his neck which read 'cura te ipsum' in the intricate script was completely visible.

cura te ipsum was a phrase they learned in medical school, loosely translated it meant 'take care of your own self' they had been taught to take that as, you are first a surgeon, and you must take care of yourself, before you can tend to others, and that was just how Graham had lived his life and he never dared to mix business with pleasure.

Graham looked unlike any doctor most had ever seen, and on most occasions, those who caught their first glance didn't feel him capable, but in reality, he was one of the world’s most talented vascular surgeons. It was Graham, or Dr. Webber as he was known, who brought Mia to California. They had attended Harvard together he had been a fourth year intern, while she was in her first, and thought Mia had never told another soul, she and Graham had maintained a quiet purely sexual relationship in school, when Mia met Chance, she was actually casually (and sexually) involved with Graham.

But it had been years, they had grown up since then.

"Hey," Mia mumbled softly as she shut her locker, she was wearing pale green scrub pants, a white t-shirt, a pair of bright pink Nike running shoes. She grabbed her white lab coat, slipping it on she placed her phone in the pocket.

"You missed rounds..." Graham said simply, Mia swore under her breath, Graham let out a soft chuckle, "I brought you a black tea, two sugars..." Mia managed a half smile as he handed her the steaming cup, "we have a patient being flown in from Cedars, a valve replacement, the guys in bad shape." Graham said simply.

"ETA?" Mia asked absent-minded, Graham glanced at his watch.

"Twenty minutes tops?" Mia felt a sudden vibration from inside her pocket, retracting her phone Chance's picture and name flashed across the screen.

"I'll meet you down in pre-op, I have to take this..." Mia said not even giving Graham a chance to finish before she slid her finger across the glass screen pressing the phone to her ear, "Chance," Mia blurted hoping he wouldn't hang up at the sound of her voice.



The guys all sat surrounding the metal deck table, the fresh ocean air was the only real sound and the air was cool, it was a typical June day in Southern California. Everyone sat quiet, they were waiting for Zack to speak.

Zack hadn't said another word to anyone since last night when Mia left the party. Instead, he went home and showed up at Matt and Val's that next morning, they had gone on to call Brian, Michelle, Johnny, and Lacey over. They figured that at this moment, Zack could use all the support he could get.

Zack finally cleared his throat.

"I uh...I have a question..." Zack finally spoke, everyone's eyes went wide.

"Anything bud," Matt began, sitting up in his chair as he propped his elbows on the table.

"did she uh...did she ever say how old her kids were?"

Zack had done a lot of thinking last night, most of which revolved around Mia and what a heartless whore she was, but somewhere around six this morning his thoughts shifted. They had shifted to her daughters. Her daughters who, in all reality, didn't look one bit like their 'dad'.

He knew he sounded crazy, but there was something about it he just couldn't let go.

"We really didn't talk specifics..." Val said slowly as she played with the sleeves of her hoodie, "all I know is that...they just turned thirteen, I think she said it was sometime earlier this year. I know she went past her due date, she had to be induced..." Zack leaned over taking his head in his hands.

"If she left here in June..." Zack went quiet, counting under his breath, "there's no way that guy could be their dad-" all the color drained from his face. He sat back in his chair, his eyes wide. He bent over, taking deep breaths before he looked up again searching his friend’s reactions.

Shocked.

"Oh, God." He breathed out helplessly, "where do I even fucking start?" Val scooted her chair closer, laying a soft hand on Zack's shaking clammy one.

"You take this slow," Val said calmly, "you think first about the girls..." Zack looked up, tears welling in his bright green eyes, "you can't go and blurt it out, I'm pretty sure the girls don't know...and you don't want to destroy what relationship you could eventually have with them..."

Zack nodded quickly.

"Jesus Christ, I don't even remember their names." he was frantic.

"Emma and Mackenzie..." Val said, her voice calm and soothing, "listen" Val was so calm and so confident, he wasn't sure how she was managing it, "Matt and I will plan a get-together tonight, a bonfire at the beach, okay?" Zack just looked from Val to Matt, "We will all be there to support you, and we can keep the girls busy while you talk to Mia..." Zack looked quickly to everyone for reassurance, something they all gave him in the form of confident head nods.

Val grabbed her phone and quickly began to type.

Mia, bonfire tonight on the beach. Bring the girls and you have to be there, it’s important.
-Val

And with a deep breath Val hit send, knowing that their lives were about to change, she just wasn't sure if it were for the best or the worst.