"Come in!" Han answered, so Melendez opened the door and they walked in, their hands still briefly touching. "What can I do for you?" he asked and glanced at their hands.

"I've heard that you were interested in 'Dr Lim's secret lover'." Melendez started. Lim was way too anxious to say a word; she let him talk.

"Indeed." Han raised his eyebrows.

"You can stop threatening Dr Murphy. I'll tell you; it's me." Melendez announced. Han didn't seem stricken at all in particular after seeing Melendez holding Lim's hand, but they could easily tell; he wasn't pleased.

"I'm assuming you'd talked to Dr Murphy. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not moving him because of his loyalty towards you." he shook his head. "But enough of him, I'm your boss, when did you want to tell me about your relationship?" he asked.

"Not yet, since it's none of your business." said Lim with fury. "We wouldn't have told you now either, but I can't let my resident to be moved in belief of his loyalty being the reason." she continued; she wanted to talk about Shaun on the first place despite Han's will. "He is the best resident I had in my carreer and in spite of his condition he tries really hard every day. I've known him for almost two years now and let me tell, he has come a long way. Give him a chance."

"Dr Lim, it's not a question anymore, he is going to be working at the pathology from tomorrow. That's my decision. The reason is that he has autism and I don't want him to get in touch with patients. I would never fire him, 'cause I know he is a precious member of the hospital. He has special skills, but I'm convinced that moving him to the pathology is the best I can do for him." Han explained.

"But..." Lim opened her mouth to object, but Han lifted his hand in order to shut her up.

"I'm not done yet, Dr Lim." Han looked at her. "About what you said earlier...It is my business since I'm your boss. I don't support your relationship. It's unprofessional."

"What?! There is no rule against us. We are at the same status, none of us is the other's boss, so technically you can't forbid us to be together!" Melendez vetoed.

"No, you are not each other's bosses, but I'm yours. I make the rules here. I will talk in front of the board and I will convince them about your love affair being a bad idea."

"Sure you will." Lim rolled her eyes. "So what can you do? Will you try to convince us too to break up? Because that won't work." she shook her head.

"I'll have to fire one of you then." Han said without even trying to hide his indifference in his voice. He could see both of them firing up. "It would be probably you, Dr Lim. You have to admit; Dr Melendez is a better surgeon." he shrugged his shoulder. Lim was ready to jump on him and punch him in the face but Melendez grabbed her arms and hold her back.

"Audrey, chill." Melendez whispered. "Be smart. This was enough, let's go!" he looked in Han's eyes; he could kill him with his look but he had to behave. Lim pulled her arms out of Melendez's hands and rushed out of the office. Fortunately, nobody was in the hallway in front of Han's office to hear Lim swearing.

"Fuck, I can't believe what he just said! If you weren't there I would have beaten him up!" Lim grumbled.

"Calm down, Audrey..."

"Really? You tell me to calm down? " she slapped him in the chest. "I am the one about to lose my job, not you, Mr 'Better Surgeon'!" Lim yelled at him. Melendez didn't pick it up; he knew it was only her anger to speak -and act- for her.

"Don't give him a reason to actually fire you! He has to talk to the board and I'm positive they won't agree with him." he still remained calm somehow. Lim hesitantly nodded and took a deep breath. She needed a few seconds to cool off.

"You're right." she sighed. "I'm sorry for hitting you. You didn't let me punch him so I slapped you instead..." she chuckled.

"Never mind, you are not that strong to hurt me." Melendez shook his head and started laughing, but Lim just rolled her eyes. "Are we official yet?" he asked.

"I guess so." Lim shrugged her shoulder. This was the approval for Melendez; he stepped closer, laid one of his hands on Lim's face, grabbed her waist with the other and kissed her on the lips without hesitation. Lim returned the kiss with a smile then looked in his eyes. "You desired to kiss me where and whenever you want, didn't you?" she laughed.

"You caught me." he laughed as well. "I won't jump on you every time we meet though. I can behave." he nodded with a smile.

"Great." Lim stole one more quick kiss. "Thank you for being there for me." she tilted her head.

"Of course." Melendez smiled but his phone buzzed in his pocket. "Crap, I totally forgot I'm still working." he moaned, let her go and answered the phone. "Yeah, I'll be right there. Lim? Yeah, she is here with me actually." he looked up at her and gestured with his hand to follow him. Melendez hung up and turned in the direction of the ER. "There is a bus crash coming in. Several injured, at least five serious." he informed her on their way.

"Great, so we will have some extra hours today." she sighed.

As they expected, dealing with the bus crash patients took four extra hours after their shifts ended and they both were in separate OR's for most of the time.
Melendez wrapped his last surgery before Lim, so he decided to wait for her. There was something for him to deal with anyways, so he made advantage of his free time.
When she came out of the OR, scrubbed out, changed her clothes and went to find Melendez right away. She just wanted to go home finally. Fortunately, she found him in his office, waiting for her. although he was actually busy with something on his computer, he looked up at Lim and closed his laptop immediately.

"Shall we go?" he asked. Lim seemed pretty devastated. "You ok?" he stood up, grabbed his jacket.

"I lost him." Lim sighed. "But it happens. Part of the job..." she mumbled. "Yeah, we can go home." she nodded eventually.

"I'm sorry. It was a pretty crap day then, wasn't it?"

"I swear the best part is that I can leave now with you and have some good sex at home." she shook her head and headed out of the office. Melendez couldn't help laughing.

"I like your plans." he agreed. While driving home then later that night there was something on Melendez's mind that didn't let him rest. He could only forget about it for that sweet hour, which they spent together in bed before falling asleep. Making love with Lim made everything better all the time, even after a rough day like this one. He felt incredibly lucky to have her as his better half and as their relationship progressed his feelings towards her only deepened. However, a new day started as the sun rose the next morning and Melendez was sure; this day is going to be just as rough as the previous one, at least for him.

This time it was Lim's opportunity to sleep longer, Melendez had to go to work early in the morning. She didn't even wake up; he was so quiet but he gave her a small kiss on her cheeks before leaving. He had some time thinking about the decision he was about to make while being stuck in the traffic. He knew he is going to regret it at some point, but he felt it was the right step to take in order to save their relationship.
Right after arriving to the hospital he sat down to his desk in his office and opened up his laptop. The document he was working on last evening was still opened. He quickly read through it and continued writing without any hesitation. He wanted to finish it, print it out and hand it to Andrews before his shift started.

"Good morning, Sir." he sneaked in to Andrews' office after knocking in. "Can we talk?"

"Sure, quickly. My meeting with the board starts in ten minutes. We are going to be discussing your relationship...with our special guest today, Dr Han." Andrews sighed. "I am looking forward to it..." he rolled his eyes, Melendez could totally feel Andrews' pain.

"Yes, in fact I want to talk to you about that." Melendez closed the door behind himself. Andrews noticed that he was holding a brief in his right hand.

"Is that...?" asked Andrews. He would have never had expected to see this turn from Melendez.

"Indeed." Melendez nodded. "Let me explain. I don't know whether you are aware of Han's plans or not, but in a nutshell, he wants to fire Lim because of our relationship." he started.

"I'm aware, unfortunately. I know he'll try to convince the board but I won't let it happen." Andrews stated.

"We are very thankful for that, but he is way too good of a demagogue I'm afraid and I feel like he can do whatever he wants in this hospital. I want to avert anyone being fired, let it be Lim or Murphy. In spite of Han's theory, Lim and Murphy both deserve to work here as surgeons still they are both in a situation where they can lose their jobs. Unlike me." Melendez said but stopped here for a moment before he could continue. "I want you to take my resignation letter. I'm ready to quit my job in order to save my relationship with Audrey and for their jobs sake. There is nothing to discuss with the board this way. Lim is not in a relationship with any other surgeons of St. Bonaventure anymore so Han has no reason to fire her. And Murphy...maybe he has to work at the pathology for a short amount of time but I'm sure he will get back his residency as a surgeon." he said and released a sigh after his monologue. Although this decision was hard for him to make, he knew that this is what he wants to do right after the conversation with Han.

"You sure about this?" Andrews asked for reassurance.

"Positive. If I have to do this to save our relationship with Audrey, I'll do it. I don't want to lose her..." said Melendez quietly. "I love her." he added to himself.