Walking down the hallway in her search for Cale, Cadence literally ran into Eliza stepping off of the elevator. "Hey!" the San Fran leader exclaimed, steadying herself on too-high heels. "Watch it, Cadence. Geeze!"
"Sorry," Cadence muttered, completely unaware whether or not it was truly her fault. "Have you seen Cale?" she asked, in too much of a rush to really care if she had pissed Eliza off.
"No, but by the looks of your neck, you have," Eliza remarked.
"Never mind, there he is," Cadence said dismissively, spying the doctor near the reception area, and absently rubbing at her neck.
"Hey, where's Aaron?" Eliza shot after her.
Cadence ignored her, rushing to catch up with Cale instead. "How's Jamie?" she asked, tugging on his arm so that he would turn around.
He was writing on a chart and only glanced up at her for a second before answering. "He's going to be fine," he assured her, smiling. "Should be able to go home in a day or two."
"Thank God," she whispered. "Can I talk to you for a minute, in private?" she asked, her hand still placed conspicuously on her neck, unsure of exactly what Eliza was referring to, but thinking it must be pretty noticeable.
"Sure," he said, putting the chart on the counter, and leading her into an empty exam room nearby. "How are you?"
Cadence could hear the genuine concern in his voice, and it made her extremely uncomfortable. She shook her head, unsure exactly how to answer. She thought for a moment before saying, "It's going to take some time--a long time--to even begin to move on from this."
He sat down on the edge of the examining table, and she stepped forward, but not too close. "I'm so sorry," he said, staring at the floor. "If only those helicopters would have left when I gave the order. If we had gotten there earlier..."
"There are lots of things that could have gone differently, and Elliott would still be here, but the bottom line is he's gone, and there's nothing we can do about that. But I wanted to thank you for everything you've done. You've been incredible tonight. You saved Jamie's life, you led us to Camilla, you got the rest of the team out safely. Cale, I can't tell you how much we appreciate everything you and your team have done."
The verbiage wasn't lost on him, and he looked up at her. "We?" he asked.
Cadence crossed her arms. "I'm so sorry. There's no easy way for me to say this, Cale, but... I love him."
"He loves you, too, by the looks of it," he remarked, his voice full of disappointment, with a tint of anger.
She placed her hand on her neck again. "Listen, I could say some canned bullshit about how I know you'll meet someone, but of course you will--you're hot as hell, one of the kindest people I've ever met, and you're a doctor. The bottom line is, you deserve to be with someone who loves you with her whole heart. And as much as I wanted to do that, I couldn't."
"I see," he said, folding his arms across his chest and returning his gaze to the floor.
Cadence was carefully choosing her next response when there was a loud crash from the reception area. The sound of metal and the rippling noise of what sounded like thousands of pieces of paper fluttering to the floor made them both jump up and head out the door.
"You can't remove me!" Eliza was screaming at Aaron, who was calmly standing a few feet away from her. A twisted metal filing cabinet lay on its side behind him, papers strewn about the reception area, some still floating down from the ceiling. Apparently, she had thrown it at him and missed. The frightened middle-aged human woman behind the desk was cowering in the corner, trying to get as far away from Eliza as possible.
She continued her rant, pushing a stack of files off of the desk onto the floor. "When I'm done with you, you won't even be the Leader anymore!" she screamed.
Cadence ran into the small waiting area, Cale behind her, a look of disgust on his face at seeing the mess she was making. Aaron gestured for both of them to stay back. "She's tearing up my office!" Cale exclaimed.
Aaron nodded. "I know. She's going to put everything back though, just as soon as she's done."
"The hell I am!" she spat. She looked around, as if she was trying to decide what she should tear up next.
"Yes, you will, because otherwise, not only am I removing you from your position, I'll reassign you to some place you'll find revolting, like Somalia, or Slovakia. And I'll make sure to take back all of the clothes and other personal items you've been purchasing on your company account," Aaron explained, his voice as calm as ever.
She looked as if she were about to burst into tears. "I hate you!" she screamed, crossing her arms, as if necessary to keep from knocking anything else over.
"Thank God," he remarked, turning to walk down the hallway toward the patients' rooms.
Eliza wasn't through. Before he was out of earshot, she yelled, "It's not my fault your jackass friend died--it's yours!"
Aaron stopped for a moment, but didn't turn or otherwise acknowledge her remark before continuing on his way to Christian's room.
Eliza let out a small laugh, hints of mania clearly coming through despite her tears. She turned and looked at Cadence who had taken another step closer, her fists balled. "God, you're snorting like a horse," she muttered.
Cadence delivered a right hook that sent Eliza sprawling across the floor, blood shooting out of her eye as she screamed in pain. "I've wanted to do that for so long," she said, her teeth still clinched. She glanced at Cale, his eyes wide with shock, and walked past him headed the opposite direction from Aaron, shaking her aching hand. She was ready to get out of there and leave some of the chaos behind, at least for a few hours.
