Chapter 43 : Welcome back

First day back at Bonaventure. Time to go back to their routine. This morning was hard for Neil and Claire whose minds were still in Thailand. As soon as they passed the doorstep of the hospital, they knew their holidays were over. They said goodbye in the elevator, sharing a kiss in front of the others. To be honest they didn't care anymore. They had passed this moment when they were embarrassed to show signs of affection in front of people. Now they were married and whatever people said, their couple was solid as a rock. They were just jealous of what they shared.

"See you tonight."

"Can't wait for this… Have a good day, honey."

She smiled and blushed. She loved when he called her this way. Her day was starting well after all. She was welcomed by Marcus and Audrey. Both asked her about her holidays. She told them about the beauty of Thailand but decided to remain vague when it came to Neil and her. She loved to keep people in the fuzzy. With Neil, they liked to see their curious faces and let them in the dark. A way to take her revenge for years of untold things and retained feelings because the stupid policy of Bonaventure.

She asked them about the hospital. What happened here during six months? She only knew about Mrs. Weeks she had on the phone two days ago and she planned to see next weekend. They told her about the quirky surgeries they had to perform: the leg of man crushed by a yack, two people tied by a bar crossing their abdomen and a child who ate several pieces of lego.

"I see you had a lot of fun without me!"

They let her some time to read all the files that were on her desk and promised her to come back in the afternoon to talk about her new position in the ER. And she had to go to the HR to get her badge and keys. She could take Neil's one at the same time. Mrs. Lynch won't disagree. She left her office some minutes to take care of this.

Neil opened the door of his office. It was weird to be here. It seemed both familiar and unknown. Being in Thailand for 6 months with Claire had made him see life differently. Before, he believed Bonaventure was all his life but now he started to see things otherwise. He found Alex in the meeting room next to his office.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Working on my next surgery! My office is not ready yet…Dr. Glassman has troubles to leave the place."

Neil gave him a faint smile. "He can be stubborn."

"Yeah, let's say this." They laughed for a while before Neil came back to his office and opened his email box. Thousands of messages were waiting for him. A long day in perspective. After two hours, he had only read a hundred of them.

"Can I come in?"

"Hey Marcus! How are you? Glad to see you!"

"I'm fine! And you? I just saw Claire this morning, she's glowing. Like you. You seem to have found the one."

Neil lowered his eyes and smiled. Oh, he did and she was his wife now. "I do and she agreed to spend the rest of her life with me…"

"Oh my God, you guys got married?! Congratulations, that's awesome!"

Marcus shook his hand and gave him a tap on his shoulder. He seemed very happy for them. "I'm gonna tell you something, I've always rooted for you. From day one when I was told she contradicted you in the ER, I knew she was the perfect match. Really who dared to oppose you before her?"

Neil let out a laugh.

"Yeah no one! And she did. Add to this she went directly against me during a surgery, disobeying a direct order and I booted her out of my team."

Marcus burst into laughing.

"You and your ego problem! She finally subdued the great Neil Melendez."

Neil laughed. "Don't think it's because she's tiny she can't be scary. She can be pretty scary when she decides to be."

"Anyway, it's good to see you like this…"

Marcus remained silent for a while. Neil felt as if his friend wanted to talk to him about something but he didn't know if he couldn't. He preferred not to tell something about his behavior. Time will tell him the truth of Marcus' uneasiness.

"Are you OK, Marcus?"

"Yeah… Will talk to you later."

And he fled from the office, not even looking up. Something was weird. And he will find what it was. But first, he needed to work. A lot of files were waiting for him in his office.

[…]

Claire was alone in Lim's office, working on her patients' files. She needed to be familiar with the people she was about to meet in the next days. As she deeply focused on her work, she was interrupted by Audrey and Marcus. She found them abnormally close, she couldn't say why but she was feeling something weird. She had a thing for this. A sixth sense. She will see this later.

"Can we bother you for a few minutes?"

"Of course, Marcus! I was just checking on the files you left me. Pretty interesting cases. I'd be happy to assist you, just to get into the ring again."

"I'd be happy too." Marcus winked at her. He had always been nice to her, even when she had got into a fight with Neil years ago during her residency.

They talked to her about her new position as the lead surgeon in the ER. She will be still attached to the trauma service but as soon as there will be a patient needed to be operated in the ER, she will be the one to be called. Her first shift will start in three days, to give her the time to become familiar with the new procedures. And she now had an office for her at the end of corridor, she could settle in from tomorrow.

"Any question?" In fact, she had a lot of questions right now but not about her new job. On this point, everything was crystal clear. What she was curious about was the reason why Marcus and Audrey were acting so weirdly since this morning.

"No. But if I have one, I won't hesitate to ask you."

As they left the office, Claire noticed once again something. It was subtle but it was there. She had to tell about it to Neil.

On dinner, Claire and Neil shared their work stories. There was a lot to be said. First days were always exciting to be fair. "You're biting your lower lip… You're hiding something, I'm sure."

"Stop reading my mind, this is embarrassing… In fact, I witnessed something today. First, this morning, then I had the confirmation this afternoon. I'm not sure of anything yet… But I'm 100% sure something is going on…I'm just telling there's something weird going on…"

"You're making me curious, Miss Browne."

"Mrs. Browne-Melendez! I've made my official request to change my name on my badge, this afternoon…."

He put his hand over hers. He was proud she took his name and kept her in the same time.

"Anyway, Audrey and Marcus welcomed me this morning. And then they came back this afternoon to talk to me about my new position. Up to this, everything was normal. But then, I notice they were close, like very close. I know they're friends but there's definitively something else going on. It's the same feeling I had when I told you about Alex and Morgan… I know what you're about to say – Stop being involved in people's personal life, stop overthinking… but I do know I feel something…"

He smiled. "To be fair, I notice the same thing with Marcus… He was very strange today. As if he wanted to say to me something but he didn't…"

They spent the rest of the dinner to talk about what they had seen. She introduced him to the world of gossips. She loved to watch people and help them get better. And Marcus and Audrey were not in a good place right now. She hoped she could help them to move on. This night, they fell asleep in each other's arms. They were tired, they needed sleep to win against the jetlag.

Days became weeks, weeks became months and soon Claire and Neil were back to their routine for almost three months. They spent a lot of time Bonaventure. Claire's new position was as exhilarating as exhausting; Neil warned her many times to go slower. Or she was gonna fall from tiredness.

Last week, she performed a thoracotomy on an ER patient who just came after he was hit by a truck. The man was in bad shape. She stayed in the OR for 16 hours; Neil even went to help her and allowed her to take some time off. It turned out that the man was never getting better, despite all the vessels she was cauterizing. A massive internal bleeding was hidden somewhere in his chest and she had to find it. She finally saved the patient by removing the spleen.

Days like this continued. On the other side, Neil did one surgery after the others: a couple of appendicitis removal, some pneumothorax to drain, tumors to cut and treat, even an esophagus removal.

They spent their free time to do consults in the clinic because Alex and Morgan – who finally admitted they were a couple since more than 6 months - had too much patients to handle. Their holidays were far away, their time together was only memories. Each night they came home exhausted. And they started to question their way of life because they argued too often because of tiredness, because they didn't see each other as often as they wanted to.

This weekend, they were off shift. They decided to go and see Greta, they didn't see her in months and they were missing her.

"Oh my kids, I'm so happy to see you! Hurry, hurry and come, I've prepared something for you!"

When they entered the living room, they saw the table full with meals. "Oh Greta, you shouldn't have... It's too much…"

"Nothing is too much for you, sweetheart! And also for you, Neil, don't worry I don't forget you."

They ate lunch all together, enjoying all that Greta had cooked. They told her about all the things they saw in Thailand, and saw us pictures on their phones.

"What did I just see on your finger, sweetheart?"

Claire and Neil blushed. They wanted to tell her about their wedding later.

"Oh this?

"Don't be shy. I want the truth!"

She gave them a stern look before laughing. Claire and Neil looked at each other. "You go first. You're Greta's sweetheart after all."

Claire giggled and took Neil's hand in hers. "Neil asked me to marry him in Thailand. Just in front of a heart-shaped gap, in the middle of a canyon. And I said yes."

"So you're engaged, then?"

"In fact, you remember when I told you Neil and I were staying a few days more in Thailand? In fact, he took me to his best friend's hotel and we got actually married here…"

"Meet Mrs. Browne-Melendez!"

Greta's eyes were full of tears. "I'm so happy for you, kids. You went through so much and you finally found you. You are so nice, so cute. When you're together, you glow. Look at these smiles on your faces, they can't be faked. You're experiencing true love. This is rare, this is unique. And you are in the middle of it. I could not say how I am grateful for the Heaven to have put you in my way, to have met you and for you to be in my life."

She hugged them, strong. It was funny to see how a so tiny person could be so strong. He reminded Neil of someone. They showed her some pictures of the wedding and shared with her all the anecdotes. They gave her the gifts they brought her, some for good luck, some for fun.

"You seem so happy… But so tired at the same time… Look at your eyes, these shadows… Please don't tell me you're doing additional hours to the hospital instead of enjoying your life as a young married couple?"

"It's complicated, Greta… The hospital needs us... And as Claire and I have not been there for more than 6 months and they do keep us our position, even give a new one to Claire, it's difficult to say no…"

"But we're gonna make it… It's only a matter of time…"

Greta looked at them sternly.

"And when all of this will be over, it will be something else. Be careful. Think about you, Kids. Your jobs are great, you're excellent doctors. But it is not everything. Think about you, about your life, about what you want, what you would like. We only have a lifetime, you know."

The drive back to their apartment was very quite. Each one of them was lost in thoughts. What about their jobs? Were they too much? Were they impinging upon their private sphere? It's true they didn't speak a lot these days – months to be fair - and sometimes they argued for a little nothing. They were tired. They did love being doctors but their schedules in Bonaventure were absolutely crazy.

Once at home, Greta's advice was still running through Claire and Neil's minds. Impossible to forget the words of the woman they considered as their grandmother. They changed and went to bed. Neil took Claire in his arms, she cuddled near to him, enjoying stroking his bare chest.

"Maybe we should go…"

Claire stayed speechless. She didn't expect this and then, it made sense.

"You think…"

He was surprised by her answer. "So you're not against this idea…"

"I mean, I love San Jose, I love my life here but Greta is right…" She sat in a hurry in the bed. "What if this job is literally eating us up alive? What if we are missing something? What if we're..."

Before she finished her sentence, he kissed her. Right here, on her lips, in a very surprising way. He smiled stupidly when he stopped kissing her.

"What if we move away from here… In a smaller hospital… So we can have time for us, time to build a family…"

She remained silent, looking at his face. She liked to see him like this, fragile and unassuming.

"I'd happy to build something with Mr. Melendez wherever you like… And if it can be in a place where we can spend more time together I won't say no…"

She dropped a sweet kiss on his lips.

"So I imagine we're moving soon…"

"I think we do…"