Jay

You'd only recently started working at the clinic after residency, and shifts still felt like a test of your endurance. Night shifts, callouts, the smell of antiseptic—it was all gradually becoming familiar, until one day he walked into the emergency room. A guy with a straight posture and a gaze too calm for someone with an obviously serious wound. He sat down across from you without rushing, as if he weren't in a hospital, and only then did you notice the blood under his clothes. A bullet wound.
You tensed, trying to maintain a professional tone. He didn't look like a normal patient—there was something different about his silence and the way he controlled every movement, as if the pain was secondary. When I asked him what had happened, he didn't answer, only briefly saying that he needed stitches and treatment as quickly as possible.
You locked the office, prepared the instruments, and only then did he allow you to begin. Everything happened in near-total silence, broken only by the clanking of metal and his even breathing. When you carefully widened the wound and removed the bullet, he didn't even flinch—he only tightened his grip on the armrest of the chair. You froze for a second, watching his overly calm reaction, and then you couldn't take it anymore and told him that with a wound like that, he needed to go to the police, because it was more than just a trauma.
He slowly raised his calm and cold warning gaze to you:
No need to tell the police and don't tell anyone about this, he leaned forward a little and added softly , it will be better for you if you just forget that I was here.
You gripped the instruments tighter, trying not to show tension, and continued working, carefully working the edges of the wound. He watched you silently, too intently for a casual patient. But you broke the silence anyway:
“You’ll need to come in for a checkup, otherwise there could be complications ,” you said in an even voice, without looking up.
He smiled faintly, and his gaze softened for a second.
“It would be easier to use the informal ‘you’,” he said evenly, a little quieter than usual.
You paused for a moment, but didn't answer, continuing to work.