that ended up costing me everything. At the time, it felt like it wasn’t an option. When called, you go, and you never leave a man behind. That’s your job, and you do it without question.” Leo’s voice breaks on the last word, and he clears his throat while he takes a moment to regain his composure.
“My wife begged me to stay home, said my son was acting weird, wasn’t himself. I knew the job was important. She knew the job was important. So, I went…and I lost them both.”
Elliot wishes he knew what to say, but he was always crap at offering words of comfort. Facts, that’s what he is good at. But spouting off the divorce rate and how common it is right now probably isn’t the best idea, so he stays quiet.
“It’s easy to get caught up in ‘the job.’” Leo uses air quotes to make his point. “But in the end, the job doesn’t matter. It’s why you were doing it in the first place. You can still save lives without being a doctor, Elliot.”
“That’s what I was trying to do, but they didn’t care…”
“Tell me.”
Elliott looks over and can see Leo looks like he really wants to know. This giant of a man, a stranger who has taken on the world and all its problems, actually cares about Elliot’s. Something about that breaks him enough to talk about the one subject he swore he would never even think of again.
“I grew up in the system and had to claw my way out of it. You don’t have to guess that someone of my stature didn’t fare well, but I was smart, and I kept my head down, and I studied. I rocked the SATs and ended up with a full ride. Med school was hard, but I excelled at it. Then I got cocky. I was the top of my class, and all the attending doctors listened when I spoke…”
“Britches got too big?” Leo asks with a smirk, and Elliot just shrugs.
“Something like that. I lived in a less desirable area, I guess you could call it. Residents get paid next to nothing, and I came from nothing. Anyway, there are several refugees and illegals who live in my complex with no insurance and terrified of getting sent back. The first time I helped, it was a little girl who cut herself so bad she needed stitches. I always carried sutures on me to practice at home, so it didn’t seem of much consequence.”
“But I’m guessing it didn’t stop there?”
“No, it didn’t. I started ‘borrowing’ supplies from the hospital, and somehow the hospital found out what I’d been doing, and I basically lost my license before I ever well and truly started. So, you see, I can’t save lives. I can’t do what I’ve trained and studied for my entire life. No matter how hard I worked to become someone, I’m still that nothing kid who grew up to be an unworthy adult, just like everyone said I would.”
“If you try to find your worth in others, Elliot, you’ll come up short every single time. Your worth is in you. It’s in the things you do when nobody is around. It’s in how you treat those who have less than you. It’s putting others before yourself and the goals you had planned out. The man I’m looking at has far more worth than most, and I’ve been all over the world and encountered all kinds of men.”
“Where were you when they passed out dads?” Elliot tries to joke, to lessen the confusion Leo’s words caused him.
“For you? Probably elementary school.” Leo chuckles. “What do you say we head back down and get a beer, huh? There’s this little dive bar a few miles down the road.”
Leo looks so hopeful that Elliot finds his resolve waning. He takes a breath then sighs, knowing he can’t do anything but agree. Leo seems like the type of guy who would sit here all night if that’s what it takes to keep Elliot from his final goal.
“Oh, all right.” Elliot finally gives in. “I have a feeling I won’t shake you otherwise,” he admits, causing Leo to chuckle again at the truth behind his words.
“Let’s go, then. We have a trek ahead of us if we want to make it down the mountain before dark.”
Elliot follows the man down the trail that he was hardly able to climb in the first place. He was never one for physical activity,