5 years later...

Neil and Elena are in their car. They just stopped by in Salinas to see how the bakery was doing. Lynn and Justin have been married for three years and are still working together at the bakery. They are now headed to Newport Beach to visit Nicole and David for the holidays. Kristina and John are there too.

"I'm surprised that your grandparents are there." said Neil.
"Yeah. Dad texted me yesterday to say that Mom took an impromptu trip to San Jose and then drove back down to Newport Beach."
He shakes his head.
"Your mom is always unpredictable. She clearly got that from your grandmother."
Elena nods and rolls her eyes.
"For sure."
Neil laughs.
"Who would have thought that Justin and Lynn, of all people, would end up together? When they started out, they struggled to work together, but then after a month or so, they started working quite well."
Neil smiled.
"Well, they did stare at each other, quite often."
Elena laughed.
"True. Kind of like us, at the hospital. Well, mainly you."
Neil scoffed.

"Me? You're the one that stared at me."
"No ways. Grams was going on and on about you and I was too embarrassed to even make eye contact with you."
Neil shook his head.
"Admit it." she said, crossing her arms, looking serious.
"Okay, fine. No need to get so worked up."
He laughs.
"You call this getting worked up?" she scoffed. "Please."
"Call it whatever you want. You know you were smitten with me."
Elena rolls her eyes, and then smiles, hoping Neil wouldn't notice.
"I saw that."
"Well, I was smitten with you. Still am. And I always will be."
Neil raised his eyebrows. He then chcukled and grinned. He then held her hand, interlocking their fingers.

"Are we there yet?" said a voice from the back seat. The girl popped her head forward in between Elena and Neil's seats.
Elena and Neil both close and open their eyes in surprise and let go of each other's hands.

"Sofia Melendez, stop sneaking up on us like that." said Neil. He and Elena then look at each other and chuckle, as if they were school kids.
"Sorry. I'm just excited to get there. I can't wait to see them." said Sofia.
"Well, time will go faster if you stop asking and go back to sleep." said Elena, caressing her 4 year-old's hair.
Sofia nods and falls asleep within seconds.
Elena sighed of relief.
Neil laughed.
"She is really excited. Overly excited." whispered Neil.
Elena laughed.
"Yeah, well I guess the driver needs to pick up the speed a bit." whispered Elena.
Neil shook his head.
"I think I like the slow drive. We get to have moments with each other. Like this." he said, lifting their hands, which are interlocked again.
She smiled.

Neil pulled the car over.
He checks if Sofia is still asleep.

"What's...?" said Elena, before being interrupted by Neil, with a kiss.
"Mmm..."
He pulls away.
"And moments like those." he whispered.
She blushed.
"You stopped the car for a kiss?"
He nodded.
"Is that a problem?"
She smiled.
"If every kiss is going to be like that, then no."
He grins, giving her another kiss before heading back onto the road.

"Well, that was unexpected." she said, seemingly gasping for air.
He smiles and nods.
"Just like our love."
She looked at him, smiling.
"I love you."
"I love you too." he replied.

The End

Writer's Note

Firstly, thank you so, so much for reading An Unexpected Love. This was written last year and I wanted to release it around the same time as Saving Us, but I decided against it as I felt the timing was a bit too close. It is another story that resulted out of grief so I just poured all of it into this story as well. I had a lot of fun writing this story, especially since it was different from the previous one as I could get more creative about Neil's character in the romantic area, as we never really saw it on the show.

The other reason why I thought about writing this, aside from the one shot that I read was because of the conjoined twins in Season 1, who were smitten with Neil and I thought: What if there were patients who trying to set up someone, like a relative, with Neil? As I started writing, the thoughts just flowed, which is why it is longer than the chapters of the other story, which comes back to being more creative. In Saving Us, Neil already has certain characteristics and so does Claire. He is an established character, which in this story, it is a bit different, as I mentioned before.

If you enjoyed the story, please reread it and rewatch The Good Doctor if you want more of Neil Melendez in your life or if you cannot get over what happened. 😉