When the painful lunch of all painful lunches was finally over, Frazer made it back in time to see her patient. She even passed Alec in the hall and gave him a stiff hello. She refused to think of him as Cora’s husband, because when she did, sickly shame settled in her stomach.

The last time she’d spent even ten minutes with him had felt like an eternity. All her traitor brain had done the entire time was throw around images of Cora on that kitchen table.

The kitchen table Alec ate at.

Her boss didn’t deserve what Frazer was doing—had done—to him.

By the end of the day. Frazer wanted to text and cancel the coffee with Cora. But apparently she was a masochist, because that message never got sent.

* * *

Coffee with Frazer was nice, like it had been from the beginning.

They were in a public place, and they chatted and laughed, and it was all very friendly. Which was what Cora had wanted to prove to herself could happen, that they could be friends.

In reality, Cora had no idea what she was doing. Why she kept chasing Frazer even as she tried to slot back into her marriage. It was a distraction. From the silences at home, from the way she felt there.

Cora felt…like herself with Frazer. She relaxed and said what she thought and didn’t feel stupid for it.

So they would be friends. In public places like the café around the corner from the hospital.

At six, Frazer said, “We should go?”

The café was empty. A lone waiter wiped down tables on the other side of the room, soft-rock playing over the speakers.

“Why don’t you fill me in here?”

Frazer looked around the room, apparently to make sure no one was in earshot. “Okay. So, the case I have in mind for you is kind of…complex. And close to my heart. Part of the reason I thought you should be the mentor for this kid.”

“Kid?”

Elbows on the table, Frazer said, “Yeah. Kid. Seventeen. Living in a shelter. Needs a lot of work on the social services side. I’m already down to be the midwife. This case will be almost shared.”

Seventeen, pregnant, and in a shelter wasn’t so complex. Cora was already going over the ways she could help, thinking of the assistance schemes that so many people didn’t know were available, thinking about housing programs. Just being an ear, someone who checked in helped these cases a lot. “Sounds okay.”

“There’s another thing. The reason Jack is in a shelter is his parents kicked him out: he’s trans.”

Everything stilled for a moment.

“Oh, shit.”

For a moment, Cora stared at her. Trans? And pregnant?

“Was he raped?”