It's been a very long journey for Ava and I, but I feel like she finally trusts me and it's time to push more. She's about to finish her residency and that's when she said she'd be ready.

In these past two years, Vidal has found someone, even Remi seems to have something going and Theo is Theo as usual, he won't even think about anyone but his high school sweetheart. At least Evan is open to anything and isn't hanging off an eleven year string.

Now it's time for Ava and I to take the next step. I just need to push. Rico offered her a position in his own medical practice after she finished her residency and he's been working his butt off to achieve that. All the paperwork, all the government stuff and the money. It's all a big mess but he's coping well because he already has more than enough money for it and Dad is really helping him out.

It's been a full two years of waiting on Ava and I'll wait longer if necessary. But I really just wanted her to go out with me. She knew how silly I could be and she thought it was funny. She told me her problems at work and I told her mine. I listened to her and tried to help when she was upset and she did the same to me. We were good together. I would even say we were close friends at the moment. I just needed to push the friendship a little bit.

Everyone else at the hospital knew I was pursuing her. I could imagine a full future with this woman, she was amazing. So one day, I found her leaving the hospital for work and decided it was time to expand this friendship and push for a date.

Maybe that was wrong, but somewhere deep within me, I knew she wanted more than what we had now. Just seeing her happy and laughing around me made me feel like I was good for her. She just needed a little push to forget about her worries and just let me in.

So I got out of my car and ran up to her. She looked like she planned on walking home which didn't really sit well with me.

"Hey, Ava!" I called out, watching her turn to me with an amused smile.

"Hi." She laughed. "Are you planning on kidnapping me?"

"Oh, come on, Ava. I would never kidnap a girl without her permission... I'm here to get your permission to kidnap you for a short period of time... and I'll even be a good captor and drop you off at home." I said to her.

"No, Gabe. I need to go straight home, I'm tired." She said to me.

"Dr. Ava Dara, you are going to stop being so stubborn. Either you get in my car and let me drive you home or I'll walk you home... your choice." I said to her.

"I'm tired." She said softly.

"Alright perfect. Car it is... get in, Doc." I said, rushing to my car and opening the door for her to come in.

"Gabriel!" She groaned.

"Ava!" I mocked. "Get in the car."

She pretended to be unhappy about it but she came over and got into the car. I felt on top of the world in that moment. The most beautiful person I knew was in my car allowing me to drive her home. I'd be an idiot not to make the most of this moment. I was going to try and get her some food since she seemed tired and hungry.

"Alright." I said, getting in the car and strapping on my seatbelt. I started the car and then drove out of the parking lot.

"I'm just going home." She said to me.

"Aren't you hungry?" I asked her.

"I am." She nodded.

"Then we're getting you something to eat, no arguments." I said to her.

"Please, I just wanna go home!" She whined.

"You will. Just relax, Ava." I said to her.

"Fine. If you're buying food, I want a carrot cake muffin from Tim's and I want a warm drink." She said to me.

"A french vanilla?" I asked her.

"You know the drill." She nodded.

"Alright." I smiled, driving into the Tim Horton's Drive Thru.

I contemplated not ordering anything for myself, knowing it would make me sick. But it felt wrong to order for her and not eat anything.

"Welcome to Tim Horton's, what can I get you today?" The employee asked me.

"I'd like two carrot cake muffins, a large french vanilla and a small french vanilla." I said to him.

"Alright, anything else I can get you?" He asked me.

"Nope. That'll be all." I smiled.

"Alright. That'll be seven eighty six, you can pay at the window." The employee told me.

"Great, thanks!" I said, driving off.

I got our food and paid and then I ate the muffin, hoping it wouldn't make me sick. I even had the french vanilla, which was definitely a mistake. My stomach was sensitive to everything except the food that Sophie made. I guess Sophie's food is just high quality stuff. Besides, Dad's stomach is sensitive too, just not as sensitive as mine.

I ate my muffin and drank the warm beverage and then I instantly began feeling off. I didn't expect it to hit so fast or so hard, but it did. I felt sick. Halfway to her apartment, I had to pull over and throw up. Ava freaked out, wondering what happened to me.

"What's wrong?" She asked, getting out of the car and following me to the side of the road. "Are you ok, Gabe? What's going on?"

I finished emptying my upset stomach before I could speak.

"I'm good. Can you drive?" I asked her.

She nodded her head, and then she took the driver's seat. I sat in the passenger's seat and she drove us to her place. When we got there, she took my hand, making me feel very, very happy despite how sick I felt and she lead me up to her apartment. I ran to her bathroom as soon as we got there and she followed me in horror.

"Gabe. What's going on?" She asked me.

"I don't know." I lied.

"Alright, just go lay down." She said softly, running her palm over my forehead to check for a temperature.

I collapsed on her couch, regretting my decision to eat anything. I felt her soft hand on my forehead again and then I watched her go lock the door properly. She went and got me water and she came back with a blanket. She helped me get my shoes off and covered me up. She said she didn't want me driving home in the state I was in.

She sat beside me and she propped her feet up on the coffee table. She called her parents and talked to them, and then she got herself something from the kitchen. The best thing about all this was that her hand would meet my forehead every few minutes to check if I was developing a fever.

She had me drink lots and lots of water and she sat with me. Eventually, I felt good enough to sit up beside her. I actually can't remember falling asleep, but I fell asleep with my head on her shoulder. I woke up in a daze when she was helping me lay down and I watched her walk off to her room with a cookie in her hand.

She seemed perfectly relaxed about me being in her apartment. She wasn't bothered by it at all. When I woke up, Ava was off to work. She left a note on the coffee table beside me telling me to drink some water and telling me that the door would lock itself on my way out. I got up, grabbed my phone and made my way to my car.

I was meant to officially meet Vidal's girl that day. She had a very long and sad story, and she wasn't the best with people, but she was getting much, much better.

I drove over there, feeling myself becoming more and more sick. As soon as I reached their floor in the apartment building, I hurried to their door. I knocked and the door swung open.

"Hey." Kiara, Vidal's girl said softly.

I smiled in discomfort, feeling the urge to throw up growing.

"You ok?" She asked me.

I tried to be calm and not throw up everywhere.

"Yeah... c-can... water?" I asked, feeling more and more sick as I spoke.

"Yeah, sit down." She said, gesturing to the couch and running off to get some water.

"What's wrong?" She asked me.

"I don't feel good." I said, one hand on my stomach and the other thrown over my head.

"Did you eat something bad?" She asked me.

That was a pretty good explanation of what had happened so I just nodded, not wanting to speak.

"Here. Have some water." She said, handing me the cup.

I gulped down all the water, and felt a little bit better.

"You ok, now?" She asked.

"I'm good, thank you." I told her, smiling or effect.

"You ate something bad?" She asked me, and I suddenly remembered how much she'd changed. She used to be a scared little thing who wouldn't speak to anyone and stayed curled up in Vidal's lap.

"Not bad, just different." I explained to her.

"You didn't like it?" She asked me, trying to understand.

"No. It's not that. It's just... I've eaten Soph's cooking for my entire life and I never really eat anything that isn't her recipe and stuff... My stomach just can't handle things that are slightly off. So I went to a café and had a muffin and it messed my stomach up. I just have a really sensitive stomach, basically." I told her.

"Oh, I see... why'd you go to a café? You could've just gotten something from Sophie." Kiara told me.

"Ava, wanted a muffin from the café." I sighed, rubbing my stomach in hopes of easing the pain, but beginning to feel more sick again. I wasn't sure why I'd called it a café when it was actualy just Tim's, but Kiara wasn't familiar with these things yet, so I suppose that's why I felt the need to specify that it was a café.

"Ava?! Doctor girl!" Kiara giggled in excitement.

"I see you've had several conversation's with Ari." I said, laughing and making my stomach flip dangerously.

I threw my hand over my mouth and my eyes widened. I flung myself towards their bathroom and then I found myself throwing up again. Kiara seemed quite alarmed, she called out to Vidal.

I emptied my stomach and flushed the toilet. My eyes were watering and I felt like I was sweating and heating up.

"More water?" Kiara asked me as I looked up at her.

"Yes please." I managed to get out, straining to keep the rest of the contents of my stomach inside it.

She immediately got me the water and I drank the cup immediately before collapsing on the couch.

"I'll call Coco." Kiara said, but my brother in law was boring, I wanted to see Ava.

"No... no... take me to the hospital." I said, smiling at the thought of seeing Ava.

"You just want to see her again." Kiara chuckled, rolling her eyes at me.

"Of course." I smiled, still rubbing my stomach.

We were off before I knew it and when we arrived, my girl was giving out orders to a few nurses, she was just being her perfect self. The she saw me and her face fell in concern. She hurried over and put her hand over my forehead.

I was basically relying on Vidal and Kiara to stand at this point. I didn't feel well at all.

"What happened? Your stomach still hurts?" She asked me.

I nodded my head, loving the attention I was getting and pouting as well as leaning more on Vidal.

"Go to room three, it's right over there." She told us.

Vidal, Kiara and I walked over there and I laid down, Ava handed me a bag to throw up in if necessary and then walked off. I felt like I was burning up a little, and Ava came back with some tools for drawing blood.

"I'm going to draw some blood and see if you have some sort of infection." She told me.

"He doesn't have an infection." Vidal said with a roll of his eyes, making me want to smack him.

Ava looked up at Vidal with a raised eyebrow, looking unimpressed and waiting for him to explain who he was. That's when I decided to step in and introduce them. I was just very happy about this progress, I hoped I wasn't the only one who considered it progress.