I'm so conflicted over what they've with Claire on the show, and I don't really want to think about it too much at the moment. This chapter is more Morgan-centric and all about Park being a good friend, because I think he's the only one who has really taken the time to understand who Morgan is.
Claire was putting on her white coat in the locker room when Morgan arrived for work the next morning. It was clear that Claire hadn't gotten over Morgan's confession from the night before when she deliberately failed to acknowledge Morgan's "Good morning". Claire continued to quickly organize her things for the day, grabbing everything she needed before slamming her locker shut and proceeding to leave.
Morgan sighed and moved to block her way, forcing Claire to acknowledge her presence. "I'm sorry," Morgan breathed in exasperation, "I'm sorry I filed that complaint. I know you're angry with me, but you can't go on ignoring me like this."
"I'm on Andrew's service today, with Shaun," Claire said nonchalantly, "I don't see why there's any need for us to speak." With that, she sidestepped Morgan and left, leaving Morgan staring, dumbstruck, at the empty locker room.
If Morgan had any doubts last night that her impulsive decision to file that favoritism complaint had destroyed her friendship with Claire, there was absolutely no room to misinterpreting Claire's opinion of her today. Morgan blinked back tears and sat down heavily on the bench, regretting everything – filing the complaint and admitting to doing it. She berated herself over letting something as inconsequential as a friendship with a fellow resident – especially one she'd have to be competing for jobs with – cause her so much grief. She was Morgan Reznick, she'd grown up being treated as the hopeless, rebellious, unappreciated child of her family and it hadn't stopped her from being happy and successful. Even if Claire was right and no one liked her, it hadn't stopped Morgan from enjoying herself before.
She couldn't let Claire Browne get to her like this.
"Good morning!" Morgan said, greeting Park with a wide smile.
"What's got you so happy today," Alex asked, amused and a little taken aback.
"Why shouldn't I be happy?" Morgan asked in reply, accepting their patient's chart from Nurse Petringa with a polite nod and smile.
"I saw you leaving with Claire last night, I'm guessing this means you enjoyed yourselves," Alex commented, trying not to appear too interested in her personal life while they scanned the patient's chart together. Morgan gave a noncommittal hum in response, which seemed out of character considering her usual arrogance. Alex was about to question her further but was interrupted by the arrival of Melendez.
"Good morning, Dr. Reznick, Dr. Park," Neil said, greeting his residents with a grin.
"Looks like you're not the only one in a good mood," Alex mumbled to Morgan, exchanging a knowing look as they followed Melendez into the waiting patient's room. After a quick discussion with their patient to confirm his scheduled pacemaker insertion, Melendez left them to prepare the patient for surgery.
"Dr. Melendez seems to be quite cheerful today," their patient commented to the two residents, lying back as they rearranged tubes and wires so he could be transported to the OR.
"I'm sure he is," Alex replied, "If what the nurses say is to be believed – something about him and Dr. Lim in the rain last night. Did you see anything, Reznick?"
"Okay, we're done here," Morgan said with a smile to their patient, ignoring Alex's question, "Someone will come by soon to take you up to the OR." Morgan picked up her notes and left the patient's room, heading towards the OR with Alex following closely behind her.
"Browne was right about you," Morgan said mockingly as they hurried through the hospital corridors, "You really are a busybody."
"It's not like her to criticize," Alex commented, a little surprised that he'd come up in conversation between the two women.
"She said you told her you filed the complaint about her and Melendez," Morgan replied, slowing down so she could observe Alex's reaction. "Why did you tell her it was you?"
Alex shrugged. "I thought it would create a little less drama for our team," he said indifferently, "I knew it was you – I know I didn't do it, and I couldn't imagine Shaun doing it, so it had to be you." Morgan took in his assessment in silence as they walked into the OR and prepared to scrub in. It was supposed to be an anonymous complaint, but somehow everyone seemed to know it was her. If Lim hadn't told anyone, then how was it so obvious? And what had Melendez meant when he said her jealousy was as clear as day?
"Claire already suspected it was you," Alex said, breaking the silence again, "I think she's good for you. There's something about her that brings out the kinder, more caring, more human side of you." Alex turned to face her before continuing, "You should give her a chance to be a good friend to you. I've seen how she can bring down your walls. You don't have to pretend to be tough and happy with everyone, you know."
Morgan considered his advice and couldn't help feeling like it was a little ill-timed. "I told her last night that it was me, that you'd lied to her," Morgan admitted, trying to make it seem like no big deal.
"What?" Alex said, startled. He wanted to understand why she'd done something so stupid but didn't get the chance to ask as Melendez had just arrived at the OR, preventing him from questioning Morgan for the second time that morning.
After a busy morning operating on a couple of scheduled patients, with an emergency surgery slotted in, Alex finally had the chance to catch Morgan and force her to continue her story about the previous night. Finding her at a table to the side of the cafeteria, he dropped his tray onto her table and took the seat facing her without an invitation.
"If you already knew I'd taken the fall, why did you tell her you'd done it?" Alex said, not one for beating around the bush.
Morgan shrugged, "I guess it just felt like the right thing to do at the time."
"You got angry, didn't you?" Alex asked, knowing Morgan a little too well after the last three years of residency, "She said something, pissed you off, and you did something impulsive that hurt everyone involved." Morgan glared at him in response. "Well, no wonder she was so cold with me this morning," Alex continued, "I thought she'd already gotten over the complaint, but she must now blame me for lying to cover for you, which tells me she hasn't forgiven you either."
Park's heightened observation skills from his experiences as a cop were usually helpful and well appreciated, but Morgan decided that right now, she'd rather he couldn't read her quite so well. Stabbing at the tomato in her salad, she said defensively, "I've apologized. If she doesn't forgive me then that's her decision. I'm not going to beg her to be my friend – we're not in primary school."
Alex sighed and shook his head to himself, "It's obvious she's important to you. You're just not ready to admit it."
Morgan scoffed, "You make it sound like I'm going to die without her. Yes, we may have been getting closer and I may have considered her as something of a friend, but it's not like she's my only friend."
Alex tried to accept her explanation, considering the fact that she probably wouldn't listen to anything he had to say but couldn't help himself. Maybe Claire had been right, maybe he was a born meddler. "I can't say I understand exactly what went on in your head when you decided to file that favoritism complaint. I can't even say exactly why you did it. But I've known you for a while now and I know how competitive you can be. I've watched you try to hide your own issues and shortcomings by drawing attention to other people's problems. Maybe that's what was happening here, but I don't think it was just a coincidence that you chose to target Claire. Her relationship with Melendez was bothering you."
Morgan didn't want to hear what insights Park had about her relationship with Claire so she tried to change the subject by rebutting with, "I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't have any issues!"
Unfortunately, Alex didn't miss a beat, "We all have issues, Morgan. Just because you think you're brilliant at hiding and ignoring them doesn't mean they don't exist." Satisfied that he'd quashed Morgan's attempt to distract him from his train of thought, he continued, "If you were just trying to bring someone else down to draw attention away from yourself, you didn't have to choose Claire. Shaun should have been the obvious choice. Lim was clearly playing favorites with Shaun. She gave him what was supposed to be my first lead surgery and then let him practice his second shot at a solo surgery with a full team of OR staff. Everyone saw that, but you never filed a complaint about Lim."
"Well you didn't file a complaint about it," Morgan said pointedly, "We all let Murphy off the hook once in a while."
Alex sighed, "I've said what I can, Morgan. If you're going to keep telling yourself that Claire isn't anything special to you, there's nothing I can do." He quickly finished the rest of his lunch in silence and left Morgan to her own thoughts.