Chapter 2
Mr. Rhett's surgery went well. It was even faster that what was planned. Neil and Alex who were operating together washed their hands and changed their scrubs. Morgan and Claire were with Lim and Marcus today. Shaun with Glassman.
All met in Neil's office at 6PM as decided the day before.
"Can we draw the name so all of this is over?" Morgan was already grumpy about this secret Santa. She was not the only one. They were just polite enough not to complain aloud as she was doing.
"Morgan, this is almost done. Can you just please remain quiet and suffer in silence as everyone in this room?"
Alex smiled at Claire as she shut up Morgan. Neil smiled secretly. He loved when she was being a little bitchy. Shaun finally joined them.
"Sorry, I was with Dr. Glassman and he was telling about Debbie and…"
"It's OK, Shaun. Take a seat, so we can draw the name of the secret Santa and go home." Neil cut Shaun, maybe a little too abruptly but right now all he wanted was to end this new tradition he was not fond of.
He put the box in the middle of the table. "The principle is simple. Each takes a piece of paper. I wrote the name of all of us. If you pick your name, you show it and you put it again in the box. Like this, no one is cheating."
Morgan went first, of course. Then, Shaun who was the only one excited by the idea of the secret Santa. Then Alex, Claire and finally Neil.
"Everyone has a name now. The rules are simple: no gift must cost more than 75$. We have one week to find a gift for the person you picked and next week at the same time, we meet here and exchange gifts. Is it ok for you?"
All nodded in agreement. In one week, this nightmare will be over for everyone.
The week spent quickly. Their surgery schedules were full, the number of patients was growing every day. Holidays made people crazy. Claire couldn't count the amount of them who was admitted to the ER because they felt from their ladder decorating their houses or cut their fingers chopping the turkey. Each one of them was focused on their job. Even if the secret Santa never left their minds. Alex, Morgan and Claire often vanished during their lunch time to go shopping and each time, they were disappointed when they came back and didn't find anything.
"This is a pure waste of time!" Morgan complained each day, eating her lunch. Claire rolled her eyes looking at Alex. She was exasperated by Morgan's behavior. Alex waved at her to drop it, it was not worth it. But even, it was infuriating. They were all in the same troubles and they kept it to themselves.
Neil was more secretive, not telling a word about the secret Santa event anymore. Even when he was alone with Claire. She tried to make him talk the other night as they were on bowling night and he remained perfectly silent. He was good at this game.
The week finally ended. "Thanks good ness, it's over. Tonight, we share our gift and we can get back to our daily routine. That is to say when I all hate you."
For once, they all agreed with Morgan. It was very uncommon to be noted. This day was gonna be long anyway, they all had many scheduled surgeries and it didn't include the surprises coming from the ER.
"I've got 4 surgeries today, who says better?" Alex was trying to ease the atmosphere. He winked at Claire.
"5 for me. I'm exhausted. I just want to finish to fulfill these files and go home and sleep for 12 hours. Which I couldn't do because my next shift starts in less than 12 hours."
"I've got 5 too. That makes two of them, Claire. Except I'm off shift tomorrow."
Claire looked at her, rolling eyes. "Lucky girl…" And they dived her head in her files. Only 3 left and she was done for the day.
Neil came back hours later. Him saying "Hey" made them all jumped. "Sorry to disturb you. Are you done with your files? I was thinking we could make this Santa thing in about half an hour in the board meeting room. Dr. Lim confirmed me it was free tonight. What do you think?"
They all agreed. They just wanted to end this and go home to sleep. Claire was dreaming about her pillow right now.