It's been a lifetime, ten years to be specific, a lot have changed.

Alhamdulilah, I've managed to get into the medical school, my brother somehow provided the money I needed, it was a miracle.

I've graduated with good grades, and managed to earn internship in one of the decent hospitals in LA.

What is my specialty?......Neurosurgery.

I know, one of the most difficult specialities out there, not so many females chose it, but what can I say, I love challenge, and competition.

Recently, a relatively new hospital in San Francisco contacted me and offered me the position of a resident doctor in their neurosurgery department.

Of course I said yes, it was a huge opportunity, with good money, but I had to move out of the city.

Alhamdulilah, Allah kept me busy all the time, to help me forget, or at least to pretend to forget.

Forget about everything.

My senior year, my dreams, my father's accident, and..........him.

Those memories kept lurking in the shadows in the back of my mind, tormenting me, turning my life into hell.

When I moved out of the house to go to the medical school, mum and grandma were super upset about it, but I saw it as a blessing, an opportunity to run away from the past and it's demons that kept haunting me.

However, some memories I have about this time of my life seem foggy, others seem vivid, like the dream I had about James that sometimes I think was real.

But hay, I have a new life now, miles away from this drama, I should only care about living the moment.

However, sometimes I think about.........him

Does he hate me for running away ?

Does he know that I had to ?

And most importantly.....

Does he still care ?

I tried my best to push everything about him to the back of my mind, but who am I fooling here?......I couldn't.

I'm still stuck, with that stupid dream about him, about the life we were supposed to share, the few laughs we were supposed to have, and the few moments of peace we were supposed to enjoy together.

But all this is gone, I messed up my opportunity to have a fellow fighter to help me get through this, through life.

I've avoided searching for him on the internet, or trying to find out about his news from my family, because I had my one image about him in my head.

I always imagine him as a successful businessman, married with kids, two of them, or three, two girls and a boy, if I were lucky enough, he could have named one of the girls after me, I could even hear his hot wife with the model body call her " Jenna " in her American accent.

How lucky his wife must be???!!

All these thoughts were storming in my head as I was driving to the new hospital where I will be working.

When I got to the hospital garage, I stopped the car, and tried to take some minutes to fix my look after travelling for hours from LA.

I tucked my baby hairs back under my hijab, put some concealer under my eyes to cover my under eye circles, and used some lipstick over my lips and cheeks, just to look alive.

With being a doctor, sleeping goes out of the window.

I got out of the car and headed to the front of the hospital, it looked huge, the walls had that smell of new buildings, everything looked new.

Inside, a neatly dressed receptionist was standing, I approached him

" Excuse me, where I can find the neurosurgery department please? I'm the new resident here " I asked innocently.

" It's on the first floor, at the end of the passage on your right, may I ask for your name doctor? " He said smiling.

" Jannah Mohamed, doctor Jannah Mohamed " I answered.

I will never get used to calling myself a doctor.

" Oh, welcome doctor Jenna, doctor Miller is waiting for you in his office " he said in a wellcoming tone.

" Thank you....David " I read his name off his badge.

I headed to the neurosurgery department, and I looked for Dr Miller's room, I finally found it.

Dr Miller was the one who called me to tell me about the offer, he is the head of the neurosurgery department.

I tried to check my appearance again by looking into my phone's black screen, not like I'm expecting Dr Miller to be Brad Pitt or something, he is probably 120 years, he sounded really old on the phone.

I knocked on the door of his room.

" Can I come in? " I asked loudly, in order for him to hear me on the other side.

" Yes " I heard a faint voice from behind the door.

I opened the door, and my eyes have fallen directly on this old man.

He was sitting to his office, studying most likely, as there were many large books opened around him, and yes, doctors study their whole lives to keep up with science.

He was a man in his sixties, from his look I could tell that he used to be handsome, do you know this feeling when you see some old dude who is no longer handsome but he still has some remenants of his youth, like Clint Eastwood for example, Dr Miller was this type of man.

" Please, do come in, Dr Mohamed " he said with a warm tone.

" Than....thank you Dr Miller " I said, surprised that he identified me instantly.

" Oh, I saw your picture in your file, don't worry I'm not a stalker, please have a seat " he said trying to break the ice.

" Thank you sir " I thanked him pretending to laugh at his silly joke.

" I was so lucky to come across your file, Dr Grayson suggested you to me when I told him that I needed a good promising neurosurgeon, he instantly gave me your name, and he never disappoints " he said.

" Dr Grayson is my teacher, I was so lucky to work with the best, and I'm looking forward to learning from you Dr Miller " I said trying to be on his good side from the start.

" Oh cut the compliments, it's time for work, can I give you a tour of our department? " he suggested.

" Yes, yes of course I'd be honored " I said, exhausted.

We both got up, his physique looked really good for his age, on the contrary, I was dragging my legs which were exhausted from the journey.

First he showed me the investigations rooms, like the MRI, and the CT. Then he showed me the operating theatres, which were supplied with the most advanced equipments I've ever seen.

" This is gonna be fun " I said, rubbing my hands together.

" What? Did you say anything Dr Mohamed? " He asked.

" This is great, I said this is great " I said, mentally facepalming myself.

After about five minutes of walking through the passages of the hospital, he suddenly looked around at me, and said

" And now, the crown jewel, our ICU, it is the most advanced in the west coast, it is specialised for the most critical cases of skull and brain injuries " he explained with honor.

He oppened the door to one of the ICU rooms, a doctor and a nurse were standing by a bed, on which an unlucky patient was lying.

The doctor looked my age, late twenties, he had blonde laid back hair, small green eyes, some freckles here and there, decent straight nose, and there was a wide gap in between his front teeth.

He was wearing big -Clark kenty- eyeglasses, your typical nerd turned doctor type of people.

Obviously he was speaking to the nurse about the patient on the bed, giving her some instructions.

" Dr Kent, meet Dr Mohamed, your new colleague in the department " Dr Miller said.

OMG, and his name is Kent!!!!!!!

I tried my best to control my laughter, I didn't want him to hate me on my first day.

" Honored to meet you Dr Mohamed, I've heard so much about you " he said, with intense eye contact, outstretching his hand to shake mine.

" Thank you, honor is all mine " I said uncomfortably due to his intense eye contact.

I didn't know where to look, and I couldn't look away, and if I looked away he would think that he won in our first encounter.

Plus I hate shaking hands with men.

I swear I could smell competition in the air.

But I know how to beat him...........kryptonite.

I'm crazy, I know, but this type of humor helps me go no!!

Dr Miller noticed and tried to break this session of intense starring by saying

" Dr Kent, why don't you walk us through this case? " He interfered.

" Oh " Dr Kent said, touching his eyeglasses, then continued " white Male in his late twenties, admitted into the hospital about five weeks ago, with a gunshot to the head, he had intracranial heamorrage and a comminuted fracture in his skull, after the initial resuscitation process, he underwent an emergency surgery to fix the bleeding and the fracture, then he needed two more surgeries to relieve the edema inside his skull, he has been in coma since his admission, we have been giving him stroids to relieve the compression on his brain cells, and neurotonics " he said, trying to show off his knowledge.

But as he was speaking, I wasn't even listening to what he was saying, I was focussing on that poor soul on the bed.

Something about him looked familiar, and I didn't know what?!

He was on a ventilator, because he obviously couldn't breath alone.

His eyes were swollen, and he had tubes going through every opening in his body.

His case looked almost hopeless, whoever shot him in the head wanted him dead.

He had bandages all over the circumference of his head, it was covering the upper part of his face.

Curiosity got the best of me, so I elevated part of the bandages that covered his eyebrows.

That's when my heart literally stopped

" James!!!!!!!!!! " I shouted.