Paul watched as Madison shut her eyes and clenched her fingers. The pain etched there made his heart ache. It made his gut wrench. It made his toes twitch.
He ignored the sensation in his limbs and reached for her. He took her hand in his and unfurled her fingers. He reached his other hand to her brow and smoothed out the creases he found there.
Madison opened her eyes and looked at him. For one perfect moment, no one else in the world existed but the two of them. In that perfect moment, Paul saw his life flash before him.
Not the events of the past that those near death saw as they were near dying. No, Paul saw his future as it was going to be because he was going to live. He was going to live the rest of his days with this woman.
He saw her kicking those heels off after a long day of surgery and running to him. He’d catch her in his arms and twirl her around in a field of green. A stable of horses would whinny their approval as their trainer sipped from the lips of the woman he adored, the woman he loved.
He loved her.
The hard facts of that singular truth knocked the breath out of him. He’d always known that when he fell in love, it would be hard. The landing into this reality smarted but in the best way possible.
A chuckle escaped his lips. Madison’s lips parted as she gazed up at him. He’d been so near to kissing her just a second ago before they were interrupted.
In Paul’s mind, a scene from the end of The Return of the Jedi played in bright technicolor. It was the scene where Leia and Han were trapped on Tatooine. There were stormtroopers at Han’s back, and it looked like all was lost. Until Leia revealed that she had a blaster.
“I love you,” Paul said, just as the anti-hero of the film had said to the princess when danger was at their backs.
Madison didn’t repeat Leia’s line. But she had to know. Even though they’d been caught, he had to make his feelings known.
Instead of a blaster to take down the intruders in the doorway, Paul pulled Madison to her and stole a kiss. She might as well have had a blaster because the moment his lips impacted hers, everything inside him was blown apart.
Paul’s heart raced when Madison pressed into him. Her pulse raced at the base of her neck, where he held her. It matched the quickened pace of his own heart. If he hadn’t already been laying prone, his knees would’ve gone weak.
“Dr. Gray, may I see you?”
Breaking apart from Madison was the hardest thing Paul ever had to do in his life. And he’d seen three tours and come far too close to an explosive. But nothing matched the tingling jolt of Madison’s kiss. He felt empty and void when she pulled away from him.
Madison's eyes didn’t leave Paul as she stood. She swallowed as she set her features, removing all traces of the desire she’d shown him only a second ago. She began to turn away from him, beyond his grasp. Then she took a step, and he could not follow.
“Maddie,” he called after her.
She paused. But she did not turn. Her shoulders went back as though she was preparing to face a firing squad. It wasn’t stormtroopers with blasters. It wasn’t Dr. Vader in his white coat.
Chief Pena raised a brow as he looked at Paul. Paul supposed that was too familiar a name to call his surgeon. But then again, kissing his surgeon was likely far worse an offense.
“I know what this looks like,” Paul said to the elderly doctor.
“I don’t think you do, Major.”
“It looks like Dr. Gray was fraternizing with a patient. But I’m not just any patient. I’m going to marry her one day.”
Madison’s shoulders straightened. “He’s joking.”
“No,” said Paul. “I’m definitely not joking. But I’m not going to ask her to marry me until after the surgery, so there won’t be any hypocrisy.”
Madison huffed a breath as she whirled back around. “It’s Hippocratic, not hypocrisy. And that’s not what’s happening here.”
Paul looked past Madison to the man in the doorway. Chief Pena didn’t look angry as he regarded the two of them. He looked pensive, as though the two of them were a complicated puzzle that he was deciding where to begin his problem-solving.
“You’re a fine man, Major Hanson,” said Chief Pena. “Dr. Gray could certainly do a lot worse.”
“Thank you,” said Paul. His chest puffed up under the compliment. But when he looked to Madison, she looked crestfallen.
“She might one day become your wife,” said Chief Pena. “But, unfortunately, she can never be your surgeon.”
The tingles that had started in Paul’s toes crept higher. He felt them in his shins, and the back of his knees, and now higher up his thighs. He wondered if he did have the strength to stand. He needed to do something to prop Madison up. Her shoulders slumped, and her chest caved in.
“Maddie?” Paul called to her.
“Dr. Gray?” Chief Pena called to her.
Madison didn’t turn to look at Paul again. She walked forward toward Chief Pena and then on past him. Paul could only lay there and watch as Madison walked out the door and followed the chief down the hall.