Prescription for Miss Walker

*ASH'S POV*

Things had been different between Michael and I since I admitted my affair. He said we couldn't have couples nights until I either told Amy the truth, so we could patch things up and move on. Or I left her.

Now, as a best friend, I wasn't sure if it was right of him to give me an ultimatum. Wasn't he supposed to question me and get me to think about what I was doing? If it truly was worth it or not?

But such thoughts as that be damned, since he was already stalking into my office.

"This just keeps getting worse..." He flung his arms up in the air. I found it oddly amusing and the ghost of a smile tried to emerge on my face. "How can a patient whose health is getting worse be... ugh."

"Which one is it this time?" I flicked my pen around my finger, catching it each time it threatened to fall.

"Yours. Miss Walker."

I was startled into moving. I set the pen down and caught his gaze. His nostrils flared in a way that told me he was upset. Dr Spears was very sympathetic with his case subjects, which could only mean it was something serious...

Now, I tried to appear as what every doctor should when it came to the decline in a patient's health. I sat up straight, pushed my chest out and held my head high, to show I was eager to intake every piece of information he may have.

But I wasn't just showing this time.

"What have you found out?"

His arms flopped to his side as he moved them out in a gesture of uncertainty, or disbelief. I was peaked.

"She's pregnant."

Desperately wishing what he'd said was just white noise, I rubbed my nose and clicked my pen. I think my head was moving, but I wasn't too sure.

I mean, I was in shock. What else was I supposed to feel?

"What did you say?"

He rolled his eyes melodramatically as he approached. He leaned on the neck of the chair in front of me, the same one he'd sat on last night, and leaned in until his face was close.

It's a wonder how Michael managed to settle down with someone like Cheryl, to be honest. He was tall and nerdy-looking (and in the head too, as he honestly was a great oncologist), whereas his wife could've been a supermodel. She was older than him by two years, nearly, but it hadn't taken anything from her. If anything, she truly did age with grace.

"She's pregnant, Ash. I know it's uncommon for people in situations such as this but--"

Bringing myself out of my head long enough to register his words, I slipped my lab coat on and asked him where to find her.

"Well, I handed her over to a nurse to do an ultrasound. She might still be in the room, if you're lucky. I don't think she's capable of making a decision..."

Locking my computer screen, I went to head out when his hand on my elbow held me back. He didn't know what he was doing.

"Ash, she's not in any danger. Why are you leaving to go get her?"

There was a smirk on his face on his face I'd only seen a few times before. Once, when I was planning a surprise vacation to Santa Monica for Amy's thirtieth birthday and I pretended to everyone, including him, that all she'd be getting was a night of fine dining. He'd approached me a couple of days before we had to depart and said he'd been spying on me, he knew there was no dinner. And again, another time when we were at a medical conference, and I'd switched his PowerPoint presentation with a doctor's from the cardiovascular team.

It was a curve of the mouth that had calculated every word and action I'd made which, in turn, caused him to be suspicious.

"She's my case. I think I'll go to her now."

Like the sun sets at six-thirty every day, his expression dropped and became a whole new one. Just like that, his suspicions were confirmed, and he knew.

"Y-You can't be serious! She's a patient!"

Dismissing him immediately, I left him standing there while I headed for the stairs. Elevators were a waste of time. I was by the sonogram ward when I noticed baggy clothing. These days she wore baggy clothing!

I made a dash for it, as I caught sight of her stuffing something into her pocket and turning for the elevators.

I grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around. When I looked at her, I was staring into the face of a woman who was unrecognizable from the outside. Skeletal, grey and blue-skinned, bruised and the example of how disgusting death could be... But a singular look into her eyes and I knew it was still Shira.

Not giving her time to brush me off, I brought her into the closest room. It was extremely dark in here, as blinds were down on every window, closing us off from the outside world. Now, it was just us.

"Were you just going to leave here? After using my equipment, my nurses, you weren't even going to take the few flights up to my office? You were just going to walk out!" The shock from hearing the news quickly turned into anger for me. I hadn't been informed about this and I wanted to know why.

She bunched her hands through the sleeves of her hoodie and threw them up, mirroring Dr Spears as he'd entered my workroom earlier.

"I don't know! I wanted to, but she asked me if I wanted to call anybody and--"

"And you what? Planned that this would remain your secret? Our child."

Rubbing her face with her sleeves, I'd seen Shira cry a few times now, but it was nothing compared to this moment. For a woman aged just twenty-five, she'd been dragged through hell from a adolescence and still she hadn't been able to fight the demons off and rise back up to the earth.

I wanted to hold her, to pretend things were normal between us. I'd forget about the conversation for a few hours or so if it meant she'd stop being upset. Shira, when she smiled lit up the room, but it also meant she darkened it when she was upet.

"I didn't want you to know because..." Her voice dropped to lower than a whisper, and I wasn't very good at reading lips.

"Tell me." I didn't mean to sound as aggressive as I did, but I didn't apologize either. I wondered what stopped me.

She bit into her bottom lip, tasting the tears that kept on falling on them and trapping themselves there. It didn't matter how often she wiped her face, she secreted more.

"I worried about us, okay! I like what we have now and I knew... I knew this would change everything. Even now, we're never going to be the same. You're either going to back off for a while, after saying you won't. Or you'll just... you'll stop."

I liked what we had. Sure, it was unfortunate timing and I felt guiltier than the sun for taking all the shine away from the moon. But overall, I was content with my and Shira's relationship. Even during events such as this, I never doubted that.

After a one-sided debate, I enveloped her in my arms. She tried backing off, screaming for me to let her go. I knew though, she was only distressed. She had every right to be, the woman was dying and she'd been given something she could never have.

She pulled away to look up at me, those eyes of mint leaves fixated on my own, latched for dear life.

"I couldn't keep it... I couldn't... I--"

I hushed her, closing my mind and eyes as I fought to steady myself. She was soft and warm in my embrace.

I sat us down on the middle of the floor, tucking her legs in when they lay askew. I looked to the wall as she curled her fingers around the collar of my shirt and let her heart out. The sounds of her misery drowned out my own.