"Do we have to go?" Connor asked, half way between being serious and joking. He wasn't actually sure if he wanted to go.
"Yes we do, it's my first invitation and after my first week, I thought it would be nice. Pretty please?" She asked, placing a light kiss on his lips.
Go to Molly's after work with people he worked with?
He was doing it purely because he loved his wife.
"Okay, fine, I'll go." He sighed.
"I love you."
"I love you too." He replied on instinct, "But what exactly am I going to have in common with these people? I see them in work, do I have to sit around discussing cases at the bar?"
Sarah bit her lip, "I'd like to think we could be friends. You never know, you might like them if you give it a chance."
"Uh huh." He said as he sat down but Sarah wandered over to him, taking his hands in hers, "Remember we talked about this, letting people in?"
"I do. I'll play nice for you, I'm not promising developing a bromance with these people." He warned.
"I know. Thank you." She said, sneaking a hand behind his neck and kissing him again. He smirked into the kiss, pulling her closer, "Do we really have to leave?" He asked between kisses.
He could never and would never get enough of her.
She laughed, a sound he cherished because he had been there when there were times she had nothing to laugh or smile about.
"Yes, now stop trying to distract me, let's go."
He may have grown out of his childhood faults and habits, no more partying like he did in high school, he had been working on keeping his ego in check and working hard enough to make people forget he was a Rhodes. But his pride still clung to him.
And it was his pride that wouldn't let him admit that maybe Sarah had been right, maybe he should give the Gaffney staff a second chance. That maybe he had had a good time at Molly's.
He hadn't really given them a chance in the first place, he had been new, competitive, strong headed.
He was still competitive and strong headed when it came to his career but he had also grown and realised that maybe they weren't all out to stall his progress or bitterly snipe about his money and reputation.
Maybe to this mismatch of people working in such chaos, he could just be Connor, the surgeon.
But like hell would he admit it to Sarah anytime soon that he was reconsidering.
"It wasn't that bad was it?" She asked, squeezing his hand as they made their way to their apartment.
"No, it wasn't that bad. It doesn't mean I'm best friends with Halstead now." He warned.
"I'll take what I can get." She smiled.
They went about their nightly routine and were lying in bed in silence later on when Connor broached the elephant in the room.
"How are you feeling about tomorrow?" He asked, as he placed his hand over Sarah's that was rubbing circles onto her stomach.
Their 12 week scan.
She laughed rather breathlessly, "Excited, nervous, slightly overwhelmed…" She admitted.
"Hey, I'll be right there remember? We're in this together."
It was a rather foreign concept to Sarah. Having someone be there no matter what. Good days and bad days. That kind of loyalty and love and care was something she couldn't learn about from a book, instead she had learned it off Connor.
Having a Dad who ran off when she was little and a Mom who seemed to view her as a slight inconvenience and who thought the only merit to Sarah's medical career was so that she could use it as chit chat with her legal clients, Sarah never thought she's find someone who wanted her.
She had forged on through school, despite the bullies and through medical school and her residency despite the mean girls and snarky commentary about her bedside manner, all alone.
Unsure of how to go about making her friendly acquaintances into friends and devoting herself to her career with her lack of confidence in finding a significant other.
But then she had met Connor.
He saw her as a medical student with stubbornness but lacking self-confidence and she had been met with a hot shot surgeon trying to hide his own insecurities.
And everything had somehow fallen into place.
"I know." She told the dark room.
"At least the morning sickness should wear off soon huh?"
"Yes please." She laughed. Natalie had been amazing in work, covering for any time Sarah had to excuse herself and flee to the nearest bathroom.
And Connor of course had been her rock, making multiple different breakfasts for her every morning despite his shift work in the hopes that she could keep something down.
"Still blows my mind we'll see this little one tomorrow." He admitted, she could hear the smile on his face at the very thought.
"I know." She whispered. "It'll make it so much more real. Should we have started buying things for them yet? I mean how long does it take to decorate a nursery exactly?" Her worries were running away on her again. It happened when she was tired or when she started trying to plan too much.
This whole baby was kind of out of her control and she desperately wanted to be prepared.
"Babe, we have plenty of time. We'll get through tomorrow first and I'm sure Claire would be over the moon to recommend interior designers to attack the spare bedroom."
Sarah smiled, Claire Rhodes was a force to be reckoned with.
"We can put the scans in a frame right? Right beside our wedding picture." Her Mom had never been into showing affection, she had never really felt like the house they shared was a home and she would not do that do her child.
"Sounds like a good plan."
"I hope our baby has your eyes." She said, turning her head to look at him.
"Oh yeah?" His entire face lit up. She hadn't meant to, but apart from the mechanics of the pregnancy, the morning sickness, the tiredness she hadn't really gone as far as talking about the baby to Connor that much. She knew he wouldn't push her, she was still overwhelmed, but she didn't want him to think that she didn't care, that she didn't love their child a million times more than she imagined she could already.
"Yeah. Or my nose, or maybe your ears." He pulled her even closer.
"I just hope they don't have the unfortunate Rhodes feet." That made her laugh.
"I don't mind really what they look like, once their healthy." Another thing she was worried about, she may be a doctor but she was seriously considering starting to specialise in paediatrics just to make sure she could mind her baby right. Science she could do, but nurturing? She wasn't so sure.
But lying there with Connor beaming about her and their child, she was sure as hell going to try.
"Dr Rhodes, glad to have you here today." Maggie greeted him as he crossed by the ED bay.
"Glad to be here Maggie." He smiled, and he was, he lived for the days that he was on trauma.
"Uh huh, we'll see about that." She said as she glanced at the screen in her hand. "The Fire Department is after battling a building fire, multiple casualties on route." Her eyebrows furrowed as she read more. "Look alive everybody! There's been a fire, ambos will be rolling up any minute…"
No rest for the trauma surgeon.
It was straight to action.
Ethan and Natalie grabbed the first two gurney's and he was left with the third, a patient who had fallen badly trying to escape.
It was a struggle but he managed to get the patient stabilised enough on the ED floor to get him up to surgery.
He caught his first breather after leaving the patient in the hands of the neurology team and assisting one of the newer residents with a patient with critical levels.
"What a morning huh?" Will asked when Connor entered the doctor's lounge.
"Yeah. Tell me about." He nodded grimly as he poured himself a coffee from the pot that Will had made.
"So I was surprised to see you at Molly's last night." Will commented.
"Yeah, well Sarah's persuavsive when she wants to be."
"You should come out sometimes anyway man."
"Really?" Connor asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah." Will shrugged, "I mean you've always been a pompous egotistic surgeon but you are more bearable lately."
"Thanks." He deadpanned.
"Just saying…" Will grinned, "You never know we might actually get along one of these days Rhodes." He gave him a friendly slap on the back as he went out to face the ED again.
At one time Connor would have said that pigs would fly quicker than he would make friends at work.
Now, however?
Maybe his opinion was changing.
He checked his watch, it was still only 11 o'clock, he sighed, wishing the scan would get there quicker. It was like waiting for Christmas morning as a child.
Still, he went back into the fray, jumping straight into action again when the next ambulance rolled up. He always liked to make the most of his trauma shifts, they were few and far between. He was glad he had pursued cardiology but…
But it was becoming monotonous. He rarely had unseen surgeries before, the ones that made his own heart race and challenged him. The only excitement was bickering with Ava and even that was becoming mundane.
He had always put it down to missing David Downey but now he was thinking about it more. He had completed his mandatory two years worth of hours of his thoracic fellowship months ago and was just continuing to work until the new intake happened.
But he felt comfortable in cardiothoracic surgery now. Top in his field. But maybe he was too comfortable.
With Sarah split between the ED and psychiatry ward even on his trauma shifts, he didn't see her much at work and he thought that was probably for the best. He didn't want to intrude on her work life, monopolise her time or keep others away. She was fitting in and came home every day with nice things to say about her colleagues, he didn't want to show up there every day and ruin it all because he wasn't sure about trusting his colleagues as anything other than colleagues.
It was something he had to consider.
She was a bundle of nerves all morning. Would four o'clock ever get here? Sarah finished off her rounds in the psychiatry ward, swapping notes with Ella and helping some of the residents out with cases they had. She made her way to the cafeteria for her break, all she could stomach was water.
"Hey, today's the big day huh?" Natalie appeared at her table, taking a seat.
"Yeah, something like that." She replied.
"How are you feeling?
Sarah made a face, not knowing how to put the various emotions she was currently experiencing into words.
Natalie smiled, "That is exactly how I felt!"
"Really?" Sarah heaved a sigh of relief.
"Definitely. It just makes it so real doesn't it?"
"Yes!"
Every day the staff she was working with gave her another reason for being happy to move to Med.
"Don't worry about it, the OBs are so nice here, they make it all so easy. Is Connor going?"
"Yeah, he cleared it with Maggie last week to take some personal hours."
"I still can't believe he's married." Natalie admitted, "I think you broke a lot of hearts around here."
"I've heard that." Sarah laughed along.
"You two seem great together. It was good seeing you last night at Molly's. I'm so overdue for a girls night, I'll have to round up April and Maggie and you and we should have organise something."
Did Sarah mention that she was loving working at Med?
The doctor let Sarah in the door of the consultation room after she arrived for the appointment. "Hi there, how are you feeling?"
"Nervous." She admitted with a shy smile.
"Everyone usually is." The older woman smiled, "So I hear you're one of the new fellows here then huh?"
"Yeah, psychiatry and emergency medicine."
"Wow. How are you finding things?"
"Great actually." Sarah said as the doctor told her to take a seat on the bed and lie back.
"I'm glad to hear that. So I'm going to roll your top up now, is that okay?"
"I have to wait for Connor. He should be on his way. Can we wait?" She could not do this without him. Her heart gave a pang for Natalie, she didn't know how she did this whole thing alone.
"Of course, I was just setting up, we won't do anything important without him."
Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. Connor was almost late.
The doctor asked her a few questions about her health and how she was finding things.
"Sorry I'm late." Connor huffed as he knocked and let himself in. Sarah instantly relaxed.
He introduced himself to the doctor and took a seat at Sarah's side, interlacing his hand with hers and giving it a squeeze and placing a reassuring kiss on her forehead.
"Don't worry about. So I'm going to put this gel on your stomach okay? It'll be a little cold."
It was cold but Sarah didn't even really register the fact, she was too busy worrying about her baby. She needed everything to be okay. She didn't want to have somehow messed things up already.
"Okay, so just give me a minute." The doctor murmured as she moved the scanner in circles over her non-existent bump.
She squeezed Connor's hand so tight she was worrying about his blood flow but he didn't even blink at it, instead just lifting her hand to his mouth to kiss it, telling her it was all going to be okay.
"And there we have it, see here…that's your little baby, head, feet, all the organs look good so far. I'd say you have one little healthy baby in there."
Sarah blinked through her happy tears to see her baby on the screen. She didn't know if she or Connor had teared up first.
"There's our little baby huh?" He whispered, as choked up as she was.
It was a picture she'd remember forever, the start of their little family.