Sheridan loves this time of year, and this is the first year in as long as Sheridan can remember that he is not scheduled to work or be on-call on Christmas Day. His plans for the day include skiing down the snowy slopes just outside of the city he loves and now calls home. Being alone does not bother Sheridan. He is much too busy with his career to invest much time in a relationship. When a man from Sheridan’s past approaches him while he is taking a break in the ski lodge, Sheridan’s lone Christmas takes an unexpected turn.
As his fellow former students began their careers under a mountain of debt, Sheridan was relatively unencumbered. Being the newest member of his practice, Sheridan unfortunately had been scheduled to be on-call Christmas Eve, but at the stroke of midnight he would be free, and he had made plans to spend the day of Christmas on the slopes. Sheridan had celebrated Christmas with his family at Thanksgiving when his sister could join them, so he had made plans to ski the entire day of Christmas alone.
After a surprisingly quiet Christmas Eve with only a couple of calls from patients, Sheridan awoke early on Christmas Day, called his parents to wish them a Merry Christmas, put his skis in his SUV, and left the city for the snow covered mountains.
The slopes were perfect today, and from the ski lift the beauty of the mountains was breathtaking. After a few hours on the slopes, Sheridan took a break and was drinking coffee and warming up by the fire in the ski lodge when he heard an unfamiliar voice call his name. “Dr. Grey?” Sheridan turned toward the sound of the man’s voice. “Yes,” he said. His eyes immediately grew big at the sight of his old friend. “Nathan?” Sheridan nearly knocked the man over in his rush to hug him. Sheridan couldn’t believe it. Nathan and Sheridan had had a whirlwind romance during their first year of medical school which had unfortunately been very short lived. That was seven years ago, almost eight now, and Sheridan had not seen or heard from Nathan since.
