“It could, that’s true. Hmmm. I’ll think about it. Anyone can switch therapists, if they’d prefer to see someone else. If she had an issue with hers, I would hope that she’d made it known.”
“Do people often switch therapists?”
“Sometimes. You need to feel comfortable with your therapist, and not everyone has a good rapport with the first therapist they meet. I switched therapists for that reason.”
When Ethan stopped dead in his stride, Lorenzo paused, as well, his eyebrows raised. “Problem?”
Holy fuck. They all thought he’d stopped seeing one, not that he’d started seeing someone else. One of the reasons why the family was still worried about him. Since Lorenzo’s stint in the Army—which had ended when nearly his entire team was killed and he’d been injured—the whole family worried about him. “You switched therapists?”
Lorenzo’s eyes shuttered and he began walking again. “Yes.”
Ethan strode quickly to catch up. “I thought you just gave up on therapy when the first therapist didn’t work out.”
“Well, I didn’t. I switched to the doctor I see now and it’s worked out well.”
“You still see a therapist?”
“Some things take a while to get over, Ethan. Surely you understand that.”
Ethan put a hand on his arm to halt him. “I do. I’ve seen things I wish I hadn’t. I, well, that is to say, we—”
“You mean our nosy brothers told you I woke up screaming from a nightmare and now you’re trying to see if I’m regressing back into a pit of despair?”
Ethan’s eyes flitted away for a moment before coming back to his. “Not exactly.”
Lorenzo jerked his arm away. “It is exactly that. Listen to me closely, little brother.”
Ethan’s eyes narrowed, but he ignored Lorenzo’s baiting.
“I do not need your fucking pity. If there’s one thing you should have learned by now in the Navy, it’s that no soldier or sailor wants pity, anyone’s pity. What they want is respect.”
“We respect you.”
Lorenzo scoffed. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“You shouldn’t have to see it to believe it.” Though Ethan would never take his own advice; with him, he’d needed to see the proof his family respected him and trusted him as an adult. With Lorenzo, however, Ethan already knew the family respected him. Yet, as a doctor, he often saw how concern for a patient who was family could be construed as disrespect, or as believing the patient didn’t know their own mind and body and choices.
He wished he could just tell his brother that he understood what he was going through. Though Lorenzo typically teased him the most—well, it was a toss-up between him and Nate—they actually had the most in common. Both of them were underestimated by their family. Ethan because he was the youngest, Lorenzo because he’d been through some serious shit in the Army and was still struggling with it.
The way Lorenzo was feeling at this moment, however, he wasn’t sure that telling him now was the right way to go because he might not be ready to listen.
Lorenzo shook his head. “No, I shouldn’t. However, since none of you believe I can do anything until you see me do it, I’m not going to believe you, either. Not until I see it with my own eyes, until I feel it in my heart.”
“We’re just worried about you.”
“Stop worrying, and start trusting and respecting me. That’s what I fucking need from my family.” He spat out a curse when he glimpsed the time on his watch. “Come on. We’ll be late for tea.”
Lorenzo walked off and Ethan sighed, sending a quick and secure message to Anda before following him.
They were due back at the MARC for afternoon tea, one of the social activities held every day. Today, Ethan, Alex, Nate, Marcello, and Eddie would also be attending, so it was a big deal. Rebecca also attended, though she arrived late and Ethan could tell something was troubling her. She seemed to be in pain at times, though hid it well. If he wasn’t a doctor used to paying attention to a patient’s body, he might have missed it. Alex certainly didn’t but his brothers might have.
Ethan was too busy to see Anda, though they traded messages and phone calls whenever possible. Marcello had already asked her to look into Fields, and she didn’t hesitate to pass the intel to him, just in case another meet was set up at the last minute.
The whole situation was becoming, effectively, their first mission together.
He loved it, every single minute, except for the fact he didn’t get to see her as much as he would have liked.
Only two days later at the hospital—he was there because Lorenzo, the fucking idiot, had gotten hurt trying to save Alex—did he and Anda finally find a moment alone together.
