Peridot comes into the coffee shop the following morning, she's wearing dark grey scrubs, with a different car. A Rolls Royce this time, 'okay...really wealthy. Amethyst wasn't lying when she said she was loaded,' Lapis thinks to herself as she goes to the register, "Good morning Peridot, what can I get started for you?" Lapis asks smiling, excited to see this woman once again.
"Ah, just a large double shot flat white please, oh and you're not sneaky," Peridot says looking up from her pager with raised eyebrows. Lapis gets worried all of a sudden,
"I'm sorry I don't know what you're talking about," Lapis says defensively. Peridot smiles, she really is adorable.
"Oh, don't worry, I'm talking about the vanilla in my drink yesterday. It was lovely. Please add it in again," Peridot says shyly shoving her hands in her pockets blushing. Lapis giggles.
"They call it flat for a reason. It's boring, I wanted to spice it up for you. I'm glad you enjoyed it," Lapis pauses ringing up Peridot's order, "That's going to be $3.99," Lapis says opening up the register, Peridot hands her a fifty. Lapis goes to hand her change but Peridot stops her.
"You keep that," Peridot says winking once again as she steps aside. Lapis shakes her head in astonishment.
"Order up for Peridot!" Lapis calls out after a few moments setting the drink on the counter.
"Oh and this is on the house, Dr. Greene!" Amethyst says placing a paper bag on the counter as well, "She really likes blueberry muffins," Amethyst says discreetly to Lapis,
"Thank you, girls," Peridot says suddenly absentminded noticing the vibrating in her pocket from her pager.
No problem, any plans for today Dr. Greene ?" Lapis asks. She notices that Peridot is not really listening and is fishing a pager out of her pocket, she starts to leave.
"I'd love to stay and talk but I gotta run," Peridot says as she rushes out of the building waving thanks to her baristas and jumping into her car. She leaves just as Lapis starts to hear sirens. It takes much effort to tear Lapis away from the window as Peridot drives off.
—-
Peridot goes in for her drink once more this morning, she meant to talk to that Lapis girl a little more in-depth but her pager goes off, head trauma coming in an ambulance ETA 12 minutes. Peridot has to rush away. Once in the hospital, she chugs the coffee and heads directly to the emergency room. She prepares for immediate surgery. She ties her scrub cap and puts a gown on waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Pearl is not far behind, prepared for anything Peridot has to throw at her. The ambulance arrives and they roll a young man out on a gurney.
"Talk to me," Peridot instructs the on-site EMT.
"16-year-old boy, Blunt trauma to the back of the head, excessive bleeding and skull fracture, loss of vision," the EMT informs.
"Not good," Peridot says as they take him directly to the CT scanner. The family follows closely behind, Peridot has to stop them at the door, they look overly concerned. "I will do everything I can," Peridot says to the family before turning and following the gurney to the scanner.
The scan comes up in minutes. "Severe damage to the occipital lobe," Peridot says punching the desk, she looks at the boy in the scanner, he's too young to go blind. He has gauges in his ears, Peridot remembers the time she got gauges in college, she took them out shortly after but she liked the way they looked. Her heart breaks for the boy. "Damn it," she says now angry.
"Is there no way to save his vision, Dr. Greene?" Pearl asks, almost too hopeful. Peridot thinks for a moment.
"Blood may be obstructing the scanner's view, if I can clear it out I'll be able to see the true injury. So I'm going to try. Get him out of here and prepared for surgery. Time is money," Peridot orders Pearl,
"Yes doctor," Pearl responds, going into the scanner room and Peridot goes to scrub in.
The surgery is going better than Peridot thought it would. Pearl watches Peridot closely and silently, Peridot's hands are steady as she carefully inspects the damage to the occipital lobe. "Suction please," Peridot says when the fluid starts to obstruct her view again and Pearl follows the order, holding the suction, it clears the view, and Peridot is relieved.
"It's not as bad as the scan showed, he might have some vision loss but not total blindness, the kid will still be able to drive a car," Peridot says applying sutures and cauterizing the bleeding. Pearl sighs in relief, Peridot stitches the boy's skin and scrubs out. Peridot and Pearl go to give the family the good news.
—-
"He will have some vision loss, but what matters is that Dr. Greene here was able to salvage Mr. Barriga's nerves," Pearl says kindly to the family. Peridot was never one to be empathetic, but she was nice when she had to be. She's there to save lives, not to be emotional support. Peridot is grateful to Pearl for her empathetic nature. The family is teary-eyed and thankful. They hug Peridot tightly, Peridot does her best to reciprocate.
Peridot has nothing else on the schedule for the day, and that surgery ate into her other patients' schedules so the other neurosurgeon on call took care of various minor surgeries she had planned. So she changes clothes and leaves on-call.
—-
Lapis and Amethyst are discussing their childhoods when Lapis sees the Rolls Royce pull into the parking lot once again, the shop is empty, noon is a very slow time for baristas. Peridot grabs her laptop and enters the coffee shop for some much-needed downtime.
"Welcome back, Dr. Greene what can I get going for you?" Lapis asks timidly and suddenly nervous, the surgeon looks so tired.
"Surprise me," Peridot says going to sit in a chair located in a corner, she is going to be assessing private scans after all and she doesn't want anyone looking over her shoulder. Lapis starts to make a simple caffe latte. She pours a heart design into it. It's a subtle move but Lapis doesn't care, she smiles as she sets the latte on the table for Peridot, she goes to walk away but Peridot stops her. "Wait! I um…" Peridot looks around. "You can sit down if you want, ahem," Peridot clears her throat. "I haven't seen you around before," Peridot stutters out. Lapis suddenly gets the message and pulls the chair out that's across from the doctor.
"Yeah, I'm new here I just recently picked up this job, I needed some extra spending money," Lapis says gingerly sitting down, she looks over at Amethyst who gives a thumbs up. Lapis smiles before speaking again, "I hear you're a surgeon at Gemstone Coast, is that true?"
Peridot sips her coffee and closes her eyes. She sighs contentedly before speaking, "It is," she sets the mug down and opens her eyes again, "That is lovely… the coffee I mean," Peridot says smiling and Lapis giggles.
"I'm glad you enjoy it, Dr. Greene," Lapis says and Peridot smiles.
"Just Peridot is fine," Peridot says, and Lapis blushes. "Sorry about this morning, by the way, I had an emergency page," Peridot says referring to the earlier interaction.
"I was wondering what that was about," Lapis says concern and interest woven in her voice.
"Yes, it was a young kid who hit his head, he would have gone blind if I had waited another moment," Peridot says, matter-of-fact like. Lapis is now hopelessly attracted to this mysterious surgeon. "Anyway, enough about me, where are you from?" Peridot asks genuinely interested.
"The east coast. I grew up in Baltimore," Lapis says tucking her hair behind her ear.
"What made you move out here?" Peridot asks sipping her coffee again.
"The ocean," Lapis says longingly biting her lip and smiling. Peridot nods and smiles back at her.
"How long have you been a surgeon for?" Lapis asks and Peridot chuckles softly.
"Too long." they both laugh at that. "Not that long actually, I've only been out of the residency program for 2 years," Peridot states nonchalantly.
"Was it hard, the school and stuff?" Lapis asks less knowledgeable. Peridot clears her throat again before speaking.
"Yeah, I suppose you could say it was hard," Peridot chuckles, "but it was more time consuming than anything, took me ten years to get where I am today," Peridot says setting her mug down again. Lapis is wide-eyed and clearly impressed.
"You really must like it, to do something for so long and not give up. Wow, that's impressive," Lapis says leaning forward placing her elbows on the table and resting her chin atop her hands. "I guess you've found your calling, I don't know what mine would be, maybe I don't have one…" Lapis says trailing off.
"Sure you have a calling. Everyone does, sometimes it's not a career though." Peridot says winking. She sees a customer walk towards the door. She opens her laptop as the doorbell rings. Lapis blushes at Peridot's kind words before standing up.
"Back to work for me, thank you for this conversation, enjoy your coffee Peridot," Lapis says pushing in her chair.
"Will do," Peridot says softly even though she knows Lapis can't hear her.
A small lunch rush pours in shortly after their conversation ended. Peridot looks up from brain scans every so often to watch Lapis dance around the coffee machines. Peridot smiles, finishing her coffee, 'she sure is interesting.' Peridot thinks to herself looking back to her computer.
—-
"Dude she totally digs you," Amethyst says starting up the blender.
"Hush no she doesn't," Lapis says frothing milk for a latte.
"Are you kidding me? Look at the way she's watching you." Amethyst says motioning in the general direction where Peridot sits. Lapis glances over at the surgeon who is watching her holding a pen between her teeth and smiling. Lapis blushes immediately looking away.
"Okay maybe she does," Lapis says now very flustered.
"Dude, you need to give your number to her like now," Amethyst says pushing Lapis out from behind the counter. Lapis writes her phone number out on a napkin, she then goes around wiping tables and cleaning up dishes. She goes to grab Peridot's used mug and leaves the napkin in its place. She returns quickly to the counter.
"Tell me what's happening," Lapis says trying not to look.
"She just grabbed the napkin, now shes typing in her phone," Amethyst says smiling wide and giving a play by play of the scene unfolding. Lapis bites her fingernails overwhelmingly nervous. Her phone suddenly buzzes in her pocket. Heat rises into Lapis's cheeks. A surgeon, who would've thought? Definitely not her.
—-