The New Horizon

Four weeks later.

The spring sun was brilliant and warm, cutting through the usual smog of the city. Elias stood outside the sliding glass doors of Metro General Hospital.

He was not wearing his scrubs. He wore a simple, dark jacket, jeans, and a pair of sturdy boots. In his hand, he held a sleek, heavily insulated thermos of coffee.

He checked his watch.

The glass doors slid open. Harper walked out. She looked slightly paler than the night she had first walked into his ER, and she leaned very slightly on a sleek black cane to favor the lingering weakness in her right leg from the neuro-toxin, but the vibrant, unrepentant energy was completely intact.

She spotted him by the curb. That wide, beautiful grin spread across her face.

Elias walked toward her, meeting her halfway. He didn't offer a clinical observation. He didn't ask her for a pain scale rating.

He simply reached out, sliding his hand to the back of her neck, and pulled her in, pressing a deep, lingering kiss to her lips in the middle of the crowded hospital drop-off lane.

Harper laughed against his mouth, dropping her cane so she could wrap both arms around his neck.

"You're out of uniform, Dr. Vance," she murmured when they finally pulled apart, her hazel eyes dancing with mischief.

"I took an indefinite leave of absence," Elias said, looking down at her, feeling entirely, wonderfully untethered. The fear that had paralyzed him for years was gone, burned away in the dark of the Blackwood Annex. He had faced death, he had broken the rules, and he had won.

"Dr. Sterling?" she asked softly.

"Indicted on federal murder and trafficking charges," Elias replied smoothly. "The hospital is cleaning house. I decided I didn't want to be inside those sterile walls anymore."

Harper raised an eyebrow, a slow smile spreading across her face. "Is that so? And what exactly does the hyper-cautious toxicologist plan to do with his freedom?"

Elias reached down, picking up her cane and handing it back to her. He laced his other hand through hers, his grip warm and solid.

"I know a guy with a key to the roof of the Hawthorne Bridge," Elias said, looking up at the towering, steel architecture of the city skyline. "I thought we might go see what the wind feels like."

Harper’s eyes widened, shining with brilliant, unshed tears of pure joy. She squeezed his hand, leaning her head against his shoulder as they turned away from the hospital doors.

"Lead the way, adventurer," she whispered.