Epilogue
A couple of months later
Xavier
The morning light streams through the blinds, casting stripes across the kitchen table where I’m nursing my second cup of coffee.
Zach leans against the counter, scrolling through his phone with one hand while the other absently rubs circles on my shoulder.
We’ve settled into a new normal with Daphne safe at a Devil Souls safehouse two counties over, the clinic reopened with enhanced security, and me…
Well, I’m about to find out what’s next for me.
My phone vibrates on the table, Janice Fletcher’s name lighting up the screen. My attorney. I take a deep breath, meeting Zach’s eyes briefly before answering.
“Hello?”
“Dr. Blane,” Janice’s crisp voice comes through. “I have excellent news. The hospital has agreed to settle.”
My heart stutters in my chest. “They have?”
“Full wrongful termination package, as we discussed. Two years’ salary, benefits continuation, and this is the good part, a formal retraction of all allegations against your professional conduct to be sent to the medical board.”
I grip the phone tighter, hardly daring to believe what I’m hearing. “They’re clearing my record?”
“Completely.” I can hear the satisfaction in her voice. “The board will receive formal notification that the hospital’s claims were without merit, and all references to the incident will be expunged from your file.”
“What changed their minds?” I ask, still stunned. The hospital had been adamant about fighting the case, insisting my treatment of Devil Souls members constituted a breach of protocol.
“Let’s just say certain members of the hospital board received some compelling evidence regarding discriminatory practices,” Janice replies carefully. “Evidence they very much didn’t want made public.”
I glance at Zach, whose expression remains carefully neutral despite the intensity in his eyes. I have a feeling I know exactly where that “compelling evidence” came from, but decide not to ask for details.
“When will it be official?”
“The paperwork is being drawn up as we speak. You’ll need to come in tomorrow to sign. After that, your professional record will be clear, and the settlement funds should be in your account within five business days.”
After I hang up, I sit motionless, trying to process what just happened. Zach moves behind me, his hands coming to rest on my shoulders.
“Good news?” he asks, though his tone suggests he already knows the answer.
“They settled,” I say, the words still feeling unreal. “Full salary for two years and complete clearance of my record.” I turn to look up at him. “Janice mentioned ‘compelling evidence’ that suddenly appeared. Wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
His half smile tells me everything. “Grey might have had a conversation with some people on the hospital board. About certain financial irregularities we happened to discover during our… research.”
“Research?” I repeat, raising an eyebrow.
“Mmmhmm.” He leans down to press a kiss to my forehead. “Amazing what people will agree to when presented with the right motivation.”
I should be appalled. Should lecture him about blackmail and ethics and letting the legal system work as intended. Instead, I find myself laughing, a release of tension I didn’t realize I’d been carrying for months.
“Thank you,” I say, reaching up to cup his face. “Though I probably shouldn’t be thanking you for what I suspect is highly illegal activity.”
He shrugs, unrepentant. “They hurt you. They deserved worse.” His eyes soften as he looks at me. “Besides, now you can practice medicine anywhere you want. Your reputation is clean.”
The implication hits me suddenly. With my record cleared, I could apply to any hospital in the country. Could return to a prestigious trauma center, resume the career trajectory I was on before everything changed. Before Zach.
“You think I’m going to leave?” I ask, searching his face. “Now that I have options again?”
Something vulnerable flashes in his eyes before he can hide it. “Would you? If you could go back to Johns Hopkins or Mayo Clinic? Somewhere worthy of your skills?”
I stand, wrapping my arms around his waist and pressing my face against his chest. His heartbeat is steady beneath my ear, a rhythm I’ve come to rely on.
“I have a clinic,” I remind him. “Patients who need me. A community that’s become home.” I look up, meeting his gaze directly. “And I have you. Why would I want anything else?”
The tension in his body releases as he pulls me closer. “The settlement money could help expand the clinic,” he suggests. “Maybe hire another doctor so you’re not working yourself to death.”
“I like that idea,” I agree, my mind already racing with possibilities. A pediatric specialist, perhaps. More examination rooms. Maybe even a small outpatient surgery center.
My phone buzzes again, with a text from Daphne this time. The ultrasound image shows a tiny, bean-shaped form, the message below simply reading, It’s a girl. Thank you for everything.
I show Zach the image, watching as something soft transforms his usually hard features. His finger traces the outline of the tiny form on my screen.
“She’s going to be okay,” he says, and I’m not sure if he means Daphne or her daughter.
“They both are,” I reply with certainty. “She’s strong. And she has us now.”
The weight of that statement settles between us. The expanding circle of people we consider family, and the responsibilities that come with it. Once, I might have found it overwhelming. Now, it feels right.
My phone rings again, Tiana this time, calling about a patient at the clinic with a complicated case.
As I answer, explaining treatment options and medications, Zach moves around the kitchen, making more coffee, starting breakfast, and creating domestic normalcy in a life that’s anything but normal.
When I hang up, he slides a plate of eggs and toast in front of me. “Eat. You’ve got a full day ahead.”
I smile up at him, this dangerous man who makes me breakfast and helps clear my professional name through questionable means. “We both do.”
He nods, understanding everything I’m not saying. The clinic. The club. The growing family we’re building that includes blood relatives and chosen ones alike. The future stretching before us, complicated and messy and perfect in its own way.
“Wouldn’t have it any other way, Doc,” he says, and I believe him.
Later, as I pull into the clinic parking lot, I notice the new security cameras Zach insisted on installing after the brick incident.
The front window, replaced and reinforced with bulletproof glass.
The silent alarm that connects directly to the clubhouse.
All reminders of the violence that touched this place, which touched me.
But inside, it’s still a place of healing. Tiana greets me with coffee and patient files. The waiting room is already half full with a mix of club members, their families, and regular community patients who’ve found their way here through word of mouth.
“Morning, Doc,” calls Grey from his seat in the corner, where he’s accompanying an elderly man I recognize as a club elder. “Heard the good news about your settlement.”
News travels fast in Devil Souls circles. “Thank you,” I say, knowing he understands what I’m really thanking him for. “For everything.”
He nods once, a silent acknowledgment of services rendered, debts paid.
* * *
As I move toward my office to prepare for the day’s appointments, my phone buzzes with a text from Zach.
Dinner tonight to celebrate? Whole family wants to be there.
I smile, typing back a quick, Yes, before pocketing my phone and donning my white coat.
The weight of it feels right now, here in this space we’ve created together.
My name on the door, my patients in the waiting room, and somewhere across town, a man who would tear down the world for me preparing a celebration dinner with our unlikely family.
The hospital settlement isn’t just about clearing my name or the financial security it provides. It’s validation that I was right to stand my ground, to treat patients regardless of their affiliations. To be the doctor I always wanted to be.
And as I open the door to greet my first patient of the day, I realize I wouldn’t trade this life—complicated, dangerous, and beautiful as it is—for any prestigious position or conventional career path.
This is where I belong. With my clinic, my patients, and the family we’ve built from the most unexpected circumstances.
With Zach.
* * *
Six months since the shelter incident
Zach
I jolt awake, my hand automatically reaching for Xavier’s warmth beside me. Finding only cool sheets, I blink away the last vestiges of sleep. The digital clock on the nightstand reads 3:17 AM, so it’s early for him to be at the clinic, even with his workaholic tendencies.
“X?” I call softly into the darkness of our bedroom.
No answer comes, but I notice a thin strip of light spilling from beneath the door across the hall. The nursery. My chest tightens with a feeling I’m still getting used to, something tender and protective that has nothing to do with the violence I’m capable of.
I swing my legs over the side of the bed, not bothering with a shirt as I pad barefoot across the cool hardwood. The door is slightly ajar, and I push it open to find Xavier standing in the center of the room, illuminated by the soft glow of the cloud-shaped night-light.
He doesn’t turn when I enter, his attention fixed on the white crib against the far wall.
The room is fully furnished now: changing table stocked with diapers, dresser filled with impossibly tiny clothes, stuffed animals arranged in the corner, and a rocking chair sitting by the window, a handmade quilt from my mother draped over its back.
“Can’t sleep?” I ask quietly, moving to stand behind him.