Nikita

"Are you guys done?" Nikita asked as Carrie and Qiao stopped talking, almost like there was a stopper to everything they were saying. Somewhere in their bickering, they had gotten so close, Nikita was tempted to tell them to kiss and get it over with, but that was just something they wouldn't do. 

"It's his fault—" Qiao said while Carrie interrupted him.

"Oh, you little—" 

"Okay, okay. Please, dear old couple, I think we're done here, no?" Nikita said his backpack was ready. He wanted to leave before the conference. He needed to get out there and blend in.

Nikita knew that after the conference, there would be a lot of people at his house, and he didn't want to be there when they came, or rather, he didn't want them to think he was home which is why he had already created a diversion. The man already had his plans.

"Be careful out there, Nikita," Carrie said to her friend, clearly still worried about him. She knew how hard everything had been for him and just wanted him to be happy.

"I will. C'mere," Nikita said, pulling his friends into a hug. That shit felt like goodbye. Had it not been for the fact that he had to show up to their dates every night, it would almost be like they were a happy family.

Carrie sighed into the hug, wishing everything would have been different, but the bullets had already been fired when the Pavleko plane came crashing down, and they lost their people, and nothing could be changed about it at the moment.

She knew that the press conference would be pretty intense, and there would be questions about his efficiency and outrages from the people and the board members.

However, none of them would have the power to change shit because Mykolajki Pavlenko had already made the final sign. No one would ever be able to challenge what Nikita had written successfully, and that's what made it enjoyable.

However, it was also a noble thing to do for their best friend.

Nikita didn't know how long it would take for him to get to the bottom of all this, but he knew that no matter what happened, he needed to get to it and ensure everything was alright for when he met his brother. 

He had a lot waiting for him, most of which needed his attention and got him in a predicament he didn't even care about. He was sure he would find what was needed for everything.

A lot had happened in the past twenty-four hours, and the young Pavlenko was right in the middle of it.

His friends were worried and rightfully so, which is why as they sat in the spotless office,  as they waited and watched the hospital go back to normal,  as they hoped the world would understand their friend,  they had made themselves a pact,  to never let go of each other's hands,  especially in the face of adversity. 

Of course, right now,  Nikita was the main focus,  but they all knew it wouldn't be easy. It wasn't going to be something that they'd face alone. They were in this together. Nikita had already packed and wanted to go out, and he needed a new way out. 

"Goodbye," Nikita said, his voice weary like this was the time he was seeing his favorite people. He didn't want to make a fuss about it, but he hated how things were and how he had to leave his friends with the most significant responsibility of his lifetime.

He hadn't had enough time to coach them through it, but somehow he was sure they would manage without him. Besides, there were two of them, right? The outcome of all this shit was either executed, or Nikita had gone in way over his head with all his hope on his friends.

Maybe they would learn to get through it, or perhaps they would eventually give it all back to him and make him come back and take responsibility. Whatever it was, Nikita could only hope that it didn't take a short time because right now, he wasn't even focused on the press con.

He wasn't even focused on the ripple effect the sudden change in management would cause, but he was focused on a certain someone, or rather, a particular package that had left the hospital. The body parts that Samantha had successfully smuggled out of the hospital.

He needed to ȧssess them independently and find out why the specific parts were the main interests when there were so many other things she would have taken. He would then go after the tech that had been in the victims' eyes.

The very thing that could give him his first clue into whoever was pulling the stunts at the hospital.

"Oh and Qiao, I'm sorry about the coffee spills in your house," Nikita said while he was at the door, making Qiao want to run after him, but it was pointless. The officer couldn't help but wonder what it was that they had used his friend to make him that stupid, but at least he was his friend, right?

Just like Liza, Maggie had gone back to work. Even though she would have liked to sit there with Nikita and console him, she knew she had a duty to her patients because, at the end of the day, she would always be a doctor no matter what happened.

She didn't want to risk the lives of the innocents, and they all knew that. Nikita had had a free pass because he was still technically on forced leave by his superior, the director. 

As Nikita was trying to find his way out of the hospital through the rare exits, he couldn't help but feel nostalgic. In these corridors, he has saved lives, and he has given people hope and apologized for deaths that were not even his fault.

The hardest thing to do as a doctor was to call the deaths of the patients, but being the herd of surgeries, Nikita sometimes never really had an option. It all came with the job. However, just because he was good at what he did, didn't mean that it made it any easier.

The pain on the faces of the patient's families would always break his heart, even when the patient he called wasn't really dead because of him. There was not much he could do.

With one last look at his home of so many years, Nikita walked down the exit, hoping that someday the universe would be kind enough to allow him to put on the white coat and do more than just be the surgeon.

Maybe by that time, he would have fixed himself and would be feeling ready to handle anything that was sent his way; until then, goodbyes were at their best today.