Catalina Di Angelo stands in the middle of the emergency room covered in blood. The patient is wheeled away from her and into the OR, and her fellow attending, Dr. Davis, gives her a nod before turning away. "Good job, Doctor."

Catalina stopped the bleeding just in time.

A nurse takes off her gown and gloves. She feels sticky all over, feels the blood on her face, neck, and hair. As the anxiety and panic slowly melts away, Catalina takes a deep breath, rolling her shoulders. She needs a shower and fresh scrubs.

The other doctors and nurses who were watching her emergency operation give her a smile. She weakly smiles back and turns to head to the locker room.

Catalina dries her hair with a towel and sinks down on the bench, feeling her legs finally give way when a wave of thorough exhaustion crashes through her.

"You did an open-heart in the ER," her friend, Dylan, murmurs, slamming her own locker closed. Sighing, she says, "What the fuck."

Catalina can't help a chuckle. "I was given the okay. I had to keep him alive."

Dylan turns to her with a glare. "I can't believe you. I would have killed to do that."

Catalina believes her friend. In their years in the hospital together, she knows Dylan was capable of murdering anyone for an interesting case and hiding the evidence. Just like Catalina, she graduated top of her class in med school, and they've been bumping heads since their internship year because they were both used to being the smartest and the best. Catalina, however, has never met anyone as intense and relentless as Dylan when it comes to surgery, and she's happy to even sacrifice food and sleep to operate.

Grant grabs the towel from her hands and ruffles her hair with it with a laugh. "You are a fucking goddess. That was—God, you were amazing."

Catalina accepts the hug from her friend and smiles. "Thanks. I'm beat, though, so I don't think I can make—"

"Nope." Dylan smiles at her, leaning against the locker. "You don't get to back out from Honey Night. You have to tell me what happened play-by-play. And I promised you I'm going to find you good dick—which I think you deserve, even though I'm still so jealous and annoyed."

Damn it. All Catalina wants is to sink into her covers and never come out until tomorrow.

"I'm right here," Grant offers, blinking, which makes Catalina snort.

"Sweetie, those who brag about having good dicks are usually the ones who don't have 'em, so no thank you," Dylan says, rolling her eyes. To Catalina, she tells her, "Go take a nap, I'll wake you at nine."

Grant is still glaring at Dylan when she leaves the attending's lounge, laughing.

Catalina rides the elevator with a tired smile on her face, her nerves still humming with leftover adrenaline from the operation in the ER the way they always do when she saves a life. Her phone buzzes in her pocket just as she's on the way to the on-call room, and her good mood bristles.

Preston: I heard what happened. You did amazing. You should get some rest, maybe I'll see you at Honey Night. :)

She rolls her eyes and pockets her phone, continuing on, ready to crash—when she's paged to the ER again.

Catalina groans out loud and heads back to the elevator.

"Dr. Di Angelo," one of her interns call towards bed four. He looks nervous. "This patient won't let me treat him, he wants you. I checked his vitals and they're stable, but he won't let me touch his cut—"

"Shut up." Catalina's brows furrow, and then she slides the curtain open.

The patient on the bed is seated upright, torso facing her.  She blinks, meeting beautiful brown eyes.

"Doctor," he says in a low voice, an alluring smile on his lips. "I think I need help."

Catalina blinks again, and her gaze travels from dark hair, thick eyebrows, the silver in his ears, the strong angle of his jaw, the ink slithering up both sides of the curve of his neck and disappearing into his black button-down. The tattoos appear again down his rolled sleeves up to his wrists.

"Doctor?" he says again, smile widening.

Catalina clears her throat. She's not usually distracted by gorgeous patients, but she's tired and exhausted, damn it.

She looks at her intern. "Prancer, what's the problem?"

It's not actually his name, but Catalina finds no meaning in learning her interns' names when they don't have a guaranteed spot yet in their residency program. They might break before then.

Her intern moves forward to raise the patient's shirt, where blood is seeping through a long and thin line. "Knife cut. It didn't hit any major blood vessels, so it's a simple suture—"

"I requested for Dr. Di Angelo," the patient says, staring at him.

He's still smiling, but his voice dropped lower. Catalina's intern steps back, looking at her.

"Go and take care of my post-ops in the NICU. Don't kill anyone or I'll kill you myself," Catalina tells Prancer, taking a seat next to the bed. The intern leaves in a hurry, sliding the curtain closed. She leans down to inspect the wound, a little taken aback by the other year-old scars littering across his skin. "What's your name?"

He watches her put on gloves. "Kael Riaz."

"And how did you get this cut, Mr. Riaz?" Catalina begins to clean it carefully, ignoring how his toned muscles are right in her face and she is having a one-on-one meeting with his V-line and happy trail.

How does he smell as good as he looks?

"I was in the kitchen with my brother. It was an accident."

If Catalina looks up, she's sure she'd find his eyes on hers.

She carefully stitches the wound together, not so sure how an accident was able to produce such a clean and precise cut. It's almost scary how straight the line is.

"You look like my first wife," Kael murmurs.

Catalina's head raises at the admission, and she regrets it almost immediately. She was right—his eyes are on hers.

She frowns. If she has to guess, she'd say early thirties. "Been married before?"

It's probably inappropriate, but she couldn't help but ask.

The corner of his lips twitches. "No."

Catalina huffs out a scoff, feeling her cheeks heat. She looks down and focuses on her sutures. "Flirty," she murmurs.

"A beautiful doctor is touching me, how could I not be?"

She cuts a thread. "This beautiful doctor is holding a needle and cuts people up for a living. You should reconsider hitting on her."

The muscles of his abdomen flex when he laughs quietly.

The sutures take a little longer than usual because of the cut's length. In the silence, she asks, "Is that why you asked for me? You find me pretty?"

Catalina knows she has a decent face and a decent body, and it wouldn't be the first time. Over the years, even back in med school, she'd needed to prove there's a working and brilliant brain inside her 'pretty little blonde head'.

"No. I saw you earlier," Kael answers without hesitation. "Over at the next bed."

Ah, the emergency operation. "That was a sight, I suppose. I was covered in blood."

He doesn't say anything for a while. Catalina raises her eyes to find him smiling. Her heart jumps.

And then: "You have very steady hands and impeccable focus."

Catalina blinks.

She was panicking earlier, saving that patient. Her skin felt cold, sweat ran down from her brow to her chin as her mind raced.

But she had only one goal—to keep his heart beating. It was what kept her voice calm and her hands steady and meticulous when she sliced him open.

Kael tilts his head to the side. Just a bit. "You're not afraid of blood."

"I shouldn't be," she answers, laughing quietly. "I'm a surgeon, I deal with it every day. But, uh, thank you."

"You're welcome," he says.

Afterwards, Catalina covers it with a gauze, fingers on his skin. "They can be removed after a week, but you'll need to keep the area sanitized until then. Change the dressing every day. If the wound begins to swell, develop a fever in the next few days, or if they reopen, come back and we'll take a look at it again."

"Thank you, Doctor." He lets his shirt down, still smiling at her. His gaze makes her nervous—only because she feels like he's really looking, like he wants her to know he's staring and that he likes what he sees. Christ. "Hopefully, I'll see you again soon."

Catalina finishes up and stands up. Over her shoulder, she tells him, "Try to stay out of the kitchen with your brother in the meantime."

His grin is mischievous. "No promises."

Catalina tells the nurse at the desk to page her if Kael Riaz comes back.

Instead of heading straight to the on-call room to get that much-needed nap in time for tonight's clubbing, Catalina clocks out and leaves a message for Dylan.

sorry ive had enough of humans today going 2 bed luv u

She turns off her phone in case her friend screeches in her ear about her betrayal and heads home, fingers gripping the butterfly knife in her hoodie pocket.

*

Blitzen and Donner follow behind Catalina skittishly into the room.

"Donner, suction, set up for intubation," she orders, putting on the stethoscope and leaning down over the patient. Her intern follows what she says. "Blitzen, what are the possibilities for a post-op aortic ulcer coughing up blood? Give me a guess. A good one."

Blitzen stutters, "Uh, a fistula o-or a dissection?"

Catalina looks up and demands quietly, "Are you asking me?"

"N-no, sorry, fistula or dissection, we won't know for certain until he's opened up," she rushes out.

"Repeat CT stat," Catalina orders, hanging the stethoscope over her neck. "And prep the OR, both of you are scrubbing in."

She rolls her eyes when both of them light up.

The operation takes hours and it takes all of Catalina's patience not to scream at her interns. One of them was muttering under her breath, and Catalina snapped, "Do your panicking quietly or I'll kick you out, Donner. Suction."

In the lounge, she finds Dylan munching on a banana and she sinks down next to her, rolling her muscles.

"Interns? Residents?" Dylan asks, blinking.

Catalina huffs and doesn't answer.

"I got one of mine banned from the OR because she hooked O2 to the IV," Dylan tells her. "And she let the patient know she was going to die while pulling it out."

"Stupid," Catalina says. "Can't even read scans—"

She has a page to the ER. Damn it.

"Oh?" Dylan sits up, grinning. "Another one crushing on you? Has Dustin come back with another fake injury?"

Her patient who came in every Saturday night during her ER shift just so he could see her. God, she hopes it's not him.

Catalina groans and stands, leaning against the wall inside the elevator. Through the doors, she looks at her watch and groans, "Who is going to ruin my day this time?"

"I'm sorry, Doctor."

Catalina's feet stop in front of the reception desk where Kael is standing, hands inside his pockets. He's in a dark gray sweater today and jeans, and he's wearing the same heart-melting smile as a few days before. "I don't mean to ruin your day, but my stitches reopened. I can come back another time...though the wound might get infected. I might possibly bleed out, too."

"Right," is what comes out of her stupid mouth. Her neck is flushed hot at his stare and widening smile. "No, I mean, you don't need to come back, I am—I am free, I said we'll take a look at it."

"Yes, you did," he confirms, amused.

"Sorry Doc, you told me to page you," the nurse behind the desk says.

Catalina flushes. Kael grins at her.

Grant is suddenly next to her, leaning down and whispering in her ear, "Damn. Didn't know you're screwing patients now."

"I am not," she hisses, burning red.

"Babe, all this sexual tension could be sliced with a knife—"

Catalina pushes him hard that he stumbles and gestures to an empty cubicle. "This way, Mr. Riaz."

"Dr. Di Angelo," Rudolph rushes, coming up behind her. She told her to cover the ER today. "I can handle—"

"Get me those labs I need and don't kill anyone or I'll kill you myself. Go away." Catalina slides the curtain closed and shoves her hands inside the pockets of her coat, trying to keep her heart rate in check. What the hell is wrong with her?!

Kael smiles. "Bad day, Doc?"

She clears her throat, putting on a pair of gloves and taking a seat next to him. "Not at all, Mr. Riaz." Not anymore, at least. Catalina leans down just as he pulls his shirt up.

"Kael," he corrects. His smile is making her brain short-circuit.

"Kael," Catalina says, lips turning up. He gives her a nod. "How'd these open back up?" She takes off the dressing carefully. There's a little bleeding, so she disinfects the area first.

"Strained myself," Kael answers, his voice dropping lower when Catalina inches closer. "Doing, ah, cardio."

She raises her eyebrow and meets his eyes. "Working out?"

His smile widens. "Yes. Working out."

She focuses back on his wound before she can blush under his stare. She rolls her shoulders back before she begins with the sutures.

"You look tired, Doctor."

She smiles weakly. "Saving people's lives is exhausting work."

"I'll bet," he mutters, staring at her.

"Mm." Catalina cuts a thread. "So, what are you?"

Kael raises an eyebrow.

"Are you a young single father, a bachelor billionaire, a mass murderer, a supermarket manager, or a stripper after ten?"

His muscles flex again when he chuckles breathlessly. "What do you think?"

Catalina mutters without thinking, "I can see you working a pole."

Her hands freeze after the words are out. She shuts her eyes. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be, I'm flattered." He's laughing a little. Catalina relaxes, but her face is burning.

"Cata."

Goddamn it. And her day was just starting to get better.

"I'm busy, Dr. Suarez," Catalina says icily, not bothering to look at her fellow attending slash ex.

"An intern can do what you're doing," Preston says, sighing. "I need an assist for a thoracic aortic dissection repair."

"I'm almost done, I'll meet you in the OR," Catalina says dismissively.

He closes the curtain and leaves.

Kael tilts his head toward her. "So an intern can do what you're doing, and yet the great and busy Dr. Di Angelo is wasting her time on me. She told the nurse to page her if I come back."

Damn it. Catalina bites her lip, careful with the stitches, and doesn't say anything.

"Doctor."

"You're distracting me," Catalina mutters, heart pounding.

His breath is skittering on her cheek. "Good. Would you have any more time to spare in your busy schedule for dinner? I'm sure surgeons need to eat, too. Plus, I was told to keep out of the kitchen for a while. Doctor's orders."

Her hands stop.

Catalina blinks at him, perplexed. "Are you usually this straightforward?"

Kael is smirking, peering down at her. "If you're not interested, you have to tell me outright. Men like me are stupid, you see. We kind of get nervous around women like you."

She has a hard time believing this man is ever nervous around anyone. He's tall and broad and gorgeous and carries confidence with his presence alone.

Between them, Catalina should be the one nervous and intimidated. She is.

So she hums, finishing up her sutures. "Women like me."

The hitch in his breath from the touch of her fingers on his skin doesn't go unnoticeable. "You know what," he murmurs.

She wraps his wound again and doesn't answer.

Kael stares at her, still waiting.

Finally, Catalina takes off her gloves and says, "I finish at nine tomorrow. There's a good restaurant across the street."

He may be gorgeous and charming and intimidating, but she doesn't know him well enough yet.

He nods, and Catalina catches the ghost of a smile on his lips as he regards her.

"Great." Kael stands up. Catalina's eyes are drawn to his tattoos and the shiny Rolex on his wrist. He looks at her with a smile so promising it makes her catch her breath. "Tomorrow then, Catalina."

*

Grant saddles up beside her at the cafeteria line, smiling knowingly. "So who—"

"One word and I will kick. Your. Ass," she hisses, glancing nervously at the table where Dylan is seated, making a face at her apple pie. "Shut up."

Grant grins. Thankfully, he doesn't bring it up anymore.

Unfortunately, Catalina almost forgets.

"Clear a path, people! Move!" she yells, standing on the railing of the gurney while continuing chest compressions, hands tight and strong on the patient's chest. "Is Dr. Kennedy in the OR already? She needs to be scrubbed when we get there."

"Paged her," Grant says behind her, pushing the gurney. "More packing, Abbott, she hasn't stopped bleeding!"

The intern nods furiously and does as he says. "I am, I am!"

"Move, clear the way!" Catalina yells again, sweating and exhausted, as the gurney pushes through the sea of people in the hallway and into the elevator.

When she comes out of the OR, throwing her used mask in the bin and taking off her scrub cap, she rolls her neck and hits her shoulder, yawning.

"Catalina."

Catalina jumps, almost crashing against the wall. Kael is standing in front of her, a smile on his lips. "Oh my God, you scared me."

His smile widens.

"What are you doing here?" It comes out of her mouth before she could think about it.

He tilts his head to the clock. "It's nine."

She slaps a hand to her mouth as her eyes widen, and then she turns away from him. Why does she have to look like a homeless cow right now?! "Oh my God. Oh my God, please wait a bit and I will come back when I'm cuter."

Catalina runs to the locker room, but she swears she hears his laugh behind her.

She showers quickly and opts for a black dress that hugs her curves and ends mid-thigh with spaghetti straps and a cropped leather jacket on top of it. She quickly puts on her makeup and earrings before heading down to the lobby, hands clammy and pulse racing.

It's been a while since Preston.

Kael is in a black button-down once again with two of the buttons open, giving Catalina a glimpse of the ink hiding on his shoulders. His eyes shamelessly run from head to toe, and she flushes under his stare.

"Sorry for making you wait," she says, biting her lip.

He meets her gaze again with a slow smile. "I don't mind. I didn't mind how you looked earlier, either."

She raises an eyebrow, wrinkling her nose. "Scrubs with sweat and blood all over me? Yeah, that's hot."

Kael tilts his head toward the exit, placing a hand at the small of her back, and Catalina almost shivers. "Catalina, I'm attracted to you no matter what you're wearing."

He says this lowly, face serious, as he walks beside her.

She blinks. His bluntness makes her cheeks warm. It's refreshing as it is flustering.

He grins at the look on her face and opens the door. "Shall we?"

Catalina nods, heart racing.

Oh, this is going to be a long night.

*

How did she get here, goddamn it?

Catalina can feel Kael's hand traveling down from her hips to her butt as he kisses her roughly, his other hand curled loosely around her neck. Catalina's own arms around his shoulders, gripping tight, pushing forward on his lap.

"Fuck," he breathes, hand lightly smacking her bare thigh, kisses her again.

Dinner was nice and easy conversation—he flirted and asked questions. She rambled about surgery, didn't delve into her family. He listened and paid attention. He walked with her outside, caught her stare at his lips, and said his car was in the parking lot—a sleek black, expensive car. She half-expected it—from his clothes and watch, he looks like he's loaded.

Chuck, his driver, was there, and Kael all but ordered him to take a walk outside and: "Don't come back until I tell you to."

And here they are.

Her skin is on fire from his touch and his mouth on her jaw and neck. He curls his hand on her hair and pulls it, tilting her head back for access to her throat, and sucks there.

"Oh, God," she whispers, digging her nails in his shoulders when he touches her chest through her dress. "Kael."

"You're so goddamn pretty," he mutters, hands now on her thighs again, inching up into her dress.

Catalina catches his wrist and shakes her head, swallowing thickly. "Can we just...stick to making out?"

It feels stupid to ask because she can feel him under her. Hard and thick.

Kael grins, eyes dark with desire. Then he holds her to him, giving her a sweet kiss, and Catalina holds his face tenderly with one hand and kisses him back.

So they look a little disheveled when they get to the bar, but she can't find it in her to care. Kael tightens his fingers against hers as they walk in, and they're immediately ushered to the VIP section.

The people around spare them a glance and quickly look away. It happened at the restaurant, too.

Catalina looks up at him.

Kael told her at dinner he was a businessman, and when she asked, he only grinned and answered, "I own this place, for one."

Her eyes almost bulged out of her face.

As they go up the stairs, Catalina leans to him and whispers, "Don't tell me you own this place, too."

Kael looks down. "Okay, I won't."

She sighs. "So you do."

Kael merely grins.

"Sir," a low voice greets once they're seated.

"Polo is my assistant. Polo, Catalina."

They give Polo their orders. She sighs. "I kind of regret not having dessert earlier."

Kael raises an eyebrow. "What do you want?"

"I don't know. A cheesecake?"

He looks at Polo. He nods once and takes their menus. "Coming up."

Catalina blinks. "Uh, you serve cheesecake here?"

His grin is devilish. "We do now." He pulls her closer by the waist, long fingers splayed out on her stomach.

"You didn't have to do that."

"Polo is good at fetching things for me and dealing things I don't want to deal with," Kael answers. "And I wanted to."

She raises an eyebrow. Jeez. Talk about romance. "I want to know why all the men working for you are hot." Chuck has a charming smile and wavy locks. Polo seems quiet and calm, but his facial structures are sharp and his skin is beautiful.

"Are they?" Kael fingers with a loose strand of her hair and tips his head back to drink. "Well, they're not going to be working for me much longer."

She laughs at that.

Even the way Kael drinks screams control. God, it's so hot. "What would you have done if I weren't interested?"

"I would've made you interested."

Catalina raises an eyebrow, playing with his fingers. "You're very persistent, aren't you?"

Kael keeps his eyes on hers and murmurs, "I know what I want and I go for it."

Catalina feels dizzy. "And that's...me?"

"I'm very sure you felt it when you were on my lap."

Her jaw drops open. "Not—I mean, I did, but..." So you only want to get into my pants?

Kael's lips turn up into a smile at her expression. "I bought you alcohol and cheesecake. I think it's clear."

She rolls her eyes. "That's your idea of a confession?"

It was the wrong thing to say, because Kael reaches behind him and pulls out a small, velvet box.

"Oh my God, oh my God, what the hell are you doing?!" Catalina is frozen, eyes wide. "We just—are you crazy? We just met! A few days ago!"

Kael is smiling. He opens it, and she reaches out frantically to snap it shut.

"No, no, no," she hisses, pushing his arm away, because there is an actual ring in there. "Kael, Jesus Christ."

"What? You're rejecting me? Don't like my idea of a confession?"

"You are insane!"

He sees the panic in her face and voice, because he pockets the box. "Alright, alright. It's gone."

Catalina can't believe this.

Kael laughs quietly, taking her hand and pressing a kiss to her knuckles. "Maybe I should ask your father first for his permission."

Catalina did not talk about her father during dinner.

"Ah, wait. I already did. Let's go talk to him." Kael stands up, still gripping her clammy hand. He finishes the last of his drink, and Catalina watches his Adam's apple move, and then he leads her downstairs. Catalina feels like her limbs are all stuck together. In the car, she stares at him, and then he says, "Chuck, to Catalina's."

A horrible, horrible feeling begins to settle at her stomach. She never told Kael her address.

She can feel his eyes at the side of her face as she looks out the window, eyebrows furrowing as they drive past the hospital and her apartment.

Oh, God.

Catalina turns her head to look at Kael. His eyes are dark. "Where are you taking me?"

"Your house."

"Which house."

She feels like she's going to be sick when Kael doesn't answer.

The drive is long, but the second Catalina spots the mansion, she feels her stomach churn.

The gates are closed. The guard comes closer and gestures for the window to roll down.

Kael only turns his head an inch to the side when the guard's eyes widen and his face pales. He steps back and hurries to open the gate. The window rolls back up.

There are four vertical lines at the back of Kael's neck. Catalina's eyes go to Chuck's, and she pales when she spots the same lines etched on his skin.

Fuck.

She went on a date with a murderer.

She went on a date with the Fourth.

*

#ReignTheFourthWP