I apologize that it isn't very long, this chapter introduces what other characters there will be. Thank you so much to everyone that reviewed and for all the wonderful suggestions, if you weren't anonymous, I replied to you. If you were...make an account :)


After Athrun had left the bistro, he quickly hailed a taxi, since being his lunch break; he had decided to leave his car in the hospital parking lot to avoid having to drive in traffic.

Once a taxi had arrived, he quickly got in, telling the driver his destination and sat back to relax. Athrun's mind instantly drifted off to the intriguing blond haired stranger he had just had the pleasure of meeting.

Athrun found her to be very good company, they effortlessly held a conversation for a few hours despite the fact that they hardly know each other.

"To think, this all started because I left my jacket on the seat," Athrun thought smiling.

There was something about Cagalli that interested him; it was probably a lot with the fact that she's a friendly stranger with a good sense of humor and the fact that she's so innocent when it comes to New York. Watching Cagalli deal with her first time here reminded Athrun a lot of his fiancé, Meer, when she just moved here from Maryland.

Athrun recalled the first time he asked her out and told her to meet him at the restaurant. An hour after the time Meer was supposed to arrive she didn't show up, Athrun had started worrying. When he called her, he found out she had been waiting at the wrong restaurant the whole time, thinking that Athrun had stood her up. Athrun smiled at the memory of how their first date did not go as he had planned.

The taxi pulled up into the hospital drop off zone.

"That will be seven fifty sir," the cab driver said.

Athrun handed him the money saying a quick thanks before rushing into the front entrance.

Immediately upon entering the hospital he was greeted by his fellow colleague who seemed to have been waiting there.

"You're late."

Athrun rolled his eyes, a habit he had developed from working with people that can get annoying.

"No, I'm not," Athrun replied, "May I remind you Yzak, that I'm not even supposed to be working today."

"The fact is you are," Yzak said starting to walk towards the elevators as Athrun followed, "and since you're here, you have to act like it's any other regular working day."

"Yes father," Athrun joked.

Yzak narrowed his eyes at Athrun as they walked into the elevator.

"Where were you anyway?" Yzak asked as he pushed the third floor.

"That Italian bistro that we went to for Dearkka's birthday last year," Athrun replied leaning on the walls.

"The one where he was hitting on all the female waiters?" Yzak questioned.

Athrun laughed, "that's the one."

When the elevators opened they were greeted by Dearkka who had been waiting for the elevator.

"Speak of the devil," Yzak mumbled.

"You can't deny the fact that your life would be nothing without me, Yzak," Dearkka said.

"Didn't know you felt that way about him Dearkka," Athrun teased.

Dearkka blushed, "No, I didn't mean it like that!"

"Shut up, before you say something else stupid!" Yzak growled walking past Dearkka.

Dearkka and Athrun watched him walk away before turning back to one another.

"Well, I better go find out why I was called here," Athrun said patting Dearkka's shoulder, "Later man."

"See you later Athrun," he replied before stepping in the elevator.

Athrun headed towards his bosses office as some of the nurses and surgeons greeted him as he walked by. Being one of the head surgeon's at the hospital, he was very well known among the workers.

Reaching the office, he knocked on the door and waited for a reply.

"Come in."

Athrun stepped in to be greeted by his boss Mwu and Yzak.

"I'm starting to think you're stalking me Yzak," Athrun smiled.

"Oh please, I was here first," Yzak said.

Mwu laughed, "It's good to know that I hired some very mature people."

"Its Zala over here, always making these comments," Yzak said glaring at Athrun.

"Well, if you weren't so fun to tease and such a tight ass," Athrun replied, "maybe I'd stop."

Mwu burst into a fit of laughter, "Okay guys, its work time now."

"Athrun I called you in because there is a lack of surgeons today, a lot have called in sick," Mwu explained.

"Why is everyone suddenly getting sick?" Yzak asked.

"There the old ones," Mwu said, "I was always told the older you get the more sick you become."

Athrun sighed, "Alright, so there's not really an emergency at the moment, but I'll be taking someone else's shift?"

"Exactly," Mwu confirmed, "don't worry, we'll pay you extra for this."

"Oh, you better," Athrun smiled, "I'll go change."

Athrun left Mwu's office walking towards the employee's room. When he arrived, he went to his hook and took his uniform, which is the mandatory light green surgeon's suit. He turned around as Meyrin, the office secretary walked in.

"Oh, I'm sorry Athrun, were you about to change?" she asked standing in the door way.

"No, its fine, I'll just go to the bathroom," he replied walking past her to the bathroom.

Once changed Athrun walked back to the main area.

"Athrun, there's a young boy who just got rushed here from a car accident," Meyrin reported, "he's in room 307."

Athrun quickly rushed to the room and prepared himself to help the boy. Before Athrun walked in he sighed, "this is going to be a long day."


Hours later, after dealing with a few patients and doing a whole bunch of paper work, Mwu finally let Athrun off. Athrun decided to change back into his regular clothes. On his way to the employees' room, he ran into Dearkka who had been with patients all evening as well.

"Calling it a night?" Athrun asked as they both walked to the room.

"Hell yeah," Dearkka said after yawning, "Today was so busy I can't wait to leave."

"Same, I mean, I love my job, but with the lack of workers today it just got too hectic."

"I know, I can believe Mwu's being so laid back about all of them calling in sick," Dearkka said as he held the door for Athrun.

They walked to their hooks as they continued talking.

"Maybe it's because he's getting old too," Athrun joked, "so he can relate to all the seniors here."

Dearkka laughed, "He'd kill you if you ever said that to his face."

"You're going to tell on me," Athrun gasped.

"Any other day I would have," Dearkka chuckled, "but I'm way too tired today."

"You being tired really benefits me then," Athrun said taking his clothes off the hook, "I'll be right back."

Athrun headed to the staff bathroom to change out of his work attire, when he came back Dearkka had changed also.

"You heading home?" Athrun asked Dearkka as they were gathering there things.

"Nah, I'm going over to Milly's," Dearkka winked, "gotta spend some quality time with my girl."

Athrun laughed, "I didn't know you could be that corny."

"She seems to like it," Dearkka retorted.

"Is she still looking for a roommate?" Athrun asked as they walked down the hallway together.

"Yeah, all because you had to go and marry Meer, now my girlfriend has no roommate."

"Leave it up to Dearkka to find a way to blame me," Athrun said as they walked towards Mwu's office, "it's only normal for my wife to live with me."

Dearkka knocked on the door, waiting for an answer before heading in.

"Where's Yzak," Dearkka immediately asked upon realizing his friend wasn't present.

"He's with a patient right now," Mwu replied leaning in his office chair.

"Tell him I said bye," Athrun said, "Goodnight everybody."

"Goodnight," Mwu and Dearkka said.

Athrun walked through the halls to the elevator, saying goodnight to people he passed. He arrived at the elevators and pushed the button. He started thinking about his life. Since he's a married man now, he's been taking on more responsibilities. He stepped into the elevator when it came and pushed the ground button. Thinking about his wife made him realize he hadn't called her all day, taking out his phone; Athrun was about to dial her number until his phone rang.

"Hello?" he answered. At first there was no answer causing Athrun to consider hanging up.

"Uhm is this Cagalli?" the person on the other line asked.

"Why the hell would this be Cagalli," Athrun thought, "No, this isn't Cagalli, may I ask who's speaking?"

"I should be asking you that buddy," the person said, "why do you have my sister's phone."

"You called my-", Athrun stopped mid-sentence as he got a flashback of Cagalli putting her phone right beside his on the table, which to Athrun's perfect luck, looks exactly the same as his.

Athrun let out a long sigh, not even paying attention to the man on the other end of the phone, "where is your sister staying?"

"What!" the person exclaimed, "Why the hell would I tell you that?"

"Look, your sister has my phone and I need it back," Athrun said getting annoyed; "if you want to talk to her you have to tell me where she's staying."

"Hell no man," the man growled, "why don't you just call your phone?"

"What's your name?" Athrun asked randomly.

"Kira, now get your phone back and if I see one scratch on my sister I'll hunt you down!" he exclaimed.

"Have fun hunting me, when you don't even know my name," Athrun replied hanging up.

"Dumbass," Athrun mumbled.

Athrun stepped out of the elevator and headed for the exit. Today had taken a lot of energy out of him and to top everything off Cagalli had his phone. If Meer called, she would start questioning his loyalty to her. He quickly dialed his number while walking through the parking lot.

After a few rings Cagalli picked up, "Athrun?"

"How'd you know?" Athrun questioned.

"Well, my phone number showed up on the caller's ID and you're the only person that has my phone that would have my number," she replied.

"That explanation was extremely confusing," he teased.

"Can you just bring my phone to me?"

"Bring mine to the hospital tomorrow," Athrun said reaching his car and opening it, "then you can get your phone too."

"Why can't you just drive over now, I'm expecting a call tonight," Cagalli said.

"From Kira…"Athrun said, "I can't, it's late, just bring it over tomorrow."

"You met my brother?" Cagalli asked incredulously.

"Yeah, he thinks I'm banging you," Athrun simply said making Cagalli go silent.

Athrun was sitting in his car searching for his keys when he realized Cagalli hasn't said anything in awhile.

"You still there?" Athrun asked.

"I hope he doesn't say anything to my fiancée," Cagalli whispered.

Athrun started to feel bad, "I can call him back to clear it up."

"No, its fine, but if my fiancé, Sai, calls don't pick up the phone," she pleaded, "He means the world to me."

Athrun smiled, "I promise."

"Thanks a lot Athrun, I'll come by tomorrow and drop your phone off," she said.

"Goodnight Cagalli," Athrun said.

"Sweet dreams Athrun."

A smile came to Athrun's face knowing that tomorrow he would get to see the stranger that made his life interesting. The conversation he had with Cagalli made Athrun forget that he was supposed to call his wife. Even though he just met her today, Cagalli had already become a permanent tattoo on Athrun's mind.


For this chapter, I would like to know if you think the story's moving to fast/slow. I'm trying to get a lot of reader's input so that I most likely won't get writers block and I should update more often this way. I enjoyed reading the suggestions from last chapter and I plan on using a lot of them. I don't plan on making Meer a complete bitch in this story as one of the reader's pointed out that she's usually portrayed like that. Sorry if the characters are a little OCC, but they have to fit the story.

Looking Forward in hearing from you,

~Hegodart.