Chapter Eleven
"It's still so weird seeing him like this," Morgan says grabbing her drink from the bar.
"Who?" Claire leans into the counter waiting for her beer. She'd just caught Neil staring at her. Again. She'd rolled her eyes at him and then turned away so as not to get sucked into his flirting tactics from across the room.
"Melendez." That draws Claire's attention away from the bartender and to the woman beside her.
"What's weird about seeing him? You've worked with him for over four years now."
"No, it's not weird seeing him generally. It's weird seeing him out in the wild. Ogling you from across the room as if he wants to eat you alive."
Exasperated by Morgan's observation, Claire still can't help searching for Neil where she'd last seen him making his way to where the rest of the St. Bonaventure folks are gathering. When she finds him, he's back to his idle conversation with Noreen and Marta.
"You're imagining things that aren't there. We've been nothing but professional. Trust me, he overcompensates all the time." Even when Neil had convinced her to sneak away to his Miami medical convention with him, he'd been ridiculously careful where any of the conference attendees could spot them being less than professional. Though, once they'd left the hotel, all bets had been off. He'd had a hard time keeping his hands to himself during those few days.
Morgan waits for the bartender to hand over Claire's beer before explaining herself. They wander out of the way of the people waiting behind them to stand on the other side of Lim and Glassman. She's a little annoyed with Morgan's snark. They mostly get along well these days, but she has her moments of being a pain in the ass.
"Oh, at work you're on your best behavior. But during off hours, Melendez is definitely the possessive type. He really enjoys having you on his arm." Noticing Claire's not-so-pleased look, she puts a defensive hand up. "Don't get me wrong, I think it's adorable. It's just something I'm not used to seeing is all."
Claire narrows her eyes at her friend. "You've barely seen us outside of work. Probably just at Park's wedding."
"Where he practically attached himself to your hip the entire time, arm around your chair, holding hands and practically skipping down the aisle himself." Claire laughs at the description. "And at Semler's retirement dinner?"
"We weren't even sitting together!" Claire points out, incredulous.
"And he pouted about it all night. Puppy dog eyes, for hours. It proves my point."
Claire shakes her head, letting out a deep breath before finally taking a sip of her beer. Truth be told, Morgan's not really wrong. Neil is a bit touchy-feely outside of work, probably because they have to practice so much restraint during their normal work day.
"You're also really good at not squabbling at work, which is better than a lot of people. That would be irritating. He and Lim could get so annoying at times."
"I remember you telling me that." Claire thinks back on that time in both her and Neil's lives, which now is a bit of a fog. "I must have just ignored it. They were together one minute and then the next I'm in surgery with Park, and Neil's very matter-of-factly telling all of us they'd broken up. The experience has definitely made him really squirrely about how he conducts himself at work. Sometimes too well," she adds. "I think he doesn't want to deal with people making trouble for us, and he's probably a little afraid about things turning out like his last relationships. We both love it at St. Bonaventure. One of us would leave if we had to, but we'd rather not have to."
"I don't think you'll have to worry about that. First, there's no way that man is letting you go and vice versa." Claire smirks at her, but her eyes soften accepting the truth of that. "And second, people barely know you're dating. By the way, that new scrub nurse totally as eyes for Melendez, so watch your back."
"The one that just started?" Morgan nods. "Hmm. She's been really nice."
"Then she definitely doesn't know you're together, or she'd be out for blood." Morgan sips her beer, and then recalls something that makes her snicker. "I think the only time I've ever seen you two fight was before you were even together. Remember that case we worked on with the Aidens? You two really got into it." She takes another pull of her beer. "Although, I do feel a little bad about that since I kind of instigated that situation by making the favoritism complaint." She turns to Claire. "Good thing I've grown since then," she grins.
Claire winces. "Uh, Morgan, about that …"
"So, you do remember? You were so pissed at me."
"Uh, yeah, I was pretty angry. But I feel like I need to come clean about something, and you might get mad at me."
This seems to interest Morgan. "If you need to tell me something that you think will make me mad, it's probably something devious that'll actually impress me." She smiles and prods Claire to continue."
"You see," Claire sighs. "I may have been so annoyed with you that I told Neil you were the one that filed the favoritism complaint. And he might have been a bit annoyed too. So, we kind of fabricated that fight to make you feel bad."
Morgan straightens. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah."
"But you were really going at each other. It was pretty awkward."
"Well, that was the point," Claire says, a tiny grin forming.
Morgan crosses her arms, beer sloshing a bit at the move. "So, the two of you pretended to have a blowup to cover up what? Were you two hooking up back then?"
"No! We were friends. Just pissed off that you'd caused so much trouble. It really did mess things up for a while. Park can back me up. Melendez started second guessing himself and said we couldn't be friends. I had to track him down and practically beg him to continue mentoring me."
"That certainly worked out," Morgan snarks, but with humor rather than animosity. "So, after the fight, you got me to apologize and then you two snuck off to giggle about it?"
Claire shrugs. "We met up for bowling, actually. We didn't laugh at you, though. Melendez was annoyingly sympathetic. Said I needed to be more understanding about your insecurities."
"Really? Go figure." Morgan looks quickly between her and Neil, still chatting across the room, and considers this new information. "How refreshingly petty. I kind of love it."
Chuckling, Claire takes a sip of her drink and shakes her head. "Morgan, you are always full of surprises. But we do probably owe you a debt of gratitude. Until you made that complaint, we were mainly spending time outside of work on our runs. But after I pled my case to Neil and he gave himself permission to be real friends, we moved to dinners and bowling and other stuff."
"And that was the beginning of the end, so to speak. I'll take that bit of credit, thank you."
"You should keep that to yourself, though. It's complicated enough with us. I don't want to give people any ideas."
She and Neil had kept their relationship under wraps for an absurd amount of time after the earthquake. It'd been easy enough to hide during Neil's sabbatical and when he'd returned to work part-time. By then they weren't even hiding it, having disclosed to Lim and Glassman and cleared HR, though they tried to be discrete. No one even noticed until it became really obvious that they arrived and left together more often than not.
There had a been a few uncomfortable weeks of the whole, 'did you hear about Browne and Melendez' type of gossip, which had sucked. But when the new resident from oncology started dating a minor celebrity and a nurse from pediatrics won the lottery, they became old news and people got used to it. They'd both been worried about Claire's reputation, but people actually seemed fine with them dating now that Neil wasn't her boss. No one who's seen them together – professionally or personally – can deny how compatible they are.
"I'm not 'people' I'm your friend," Morgan says, interrupting Claire's distracted thoughts. "And things aren't as complicated as they could have been if you'd gotten chief resident," she points out. That honor had instead gone to Park, and everyone seems content with that choice.
No one mentions the underlying reality that Claire had probably been the frontrunner – if not for the fact that she's dating an Attending.
Even though her team wouldn't have had a problem with it, and even though Neil would soon be getting a whole new and different batch of residents to terrorize, not everyone would see it that way. It's one thing to not mind the two of them dating and another to feed any speculation about Claire's accomplishments as a resident.
And Claire doesn't mind either. Being chief resident is a lot of work, and she'd never wanted it like Morgan or Park. Sometimes she forgets how much more competitive their residency had been their first year based on the stories they told, not to mention working with that nightmare Dr. Coyle. Unlike Neil, Coyle would, unsurprisingly, pit them against each other and arbitrarily played favorites depending on his mood. Starting her residency out with Shaun and Jared, both mild-mannered colleagues who supported and challenged in equal measure, had really set a different tone.
Claire has plenty going for her professionally anyway, so not being chief resident isn't a big deal. And it's definitely a boost for Park with employers who are more wary of hiring him because of his age, an unfair but serious reality. It seems fitting given the difficult decision he'd made to finish out his residency in San Jose rather than returning to Phoenix – in a wonderful turn of events, his wife and son had relocated to California for him.
Claire moves aside so a group of giggling twenty-somethings can pass by her to get to the bar.
"It's really getting packed in here. I was worried people would be afraid to attend because of what happened last time. It's nice to see the neighborhood support."
"And the beer's not half bad either," Morgan adds. Claire taps her glass to Morgan's in a toast, and they take a healthy drag.
"Slow down there, you two," Lim says moving from her conversation with Glassman and his wife. "The night's still young." The three of them laugh and compare notes on the beer.
"Oh, looks like they're about to make the big presentation," Morgan says, pointing to Noreen and Marta slowly heading towards the bar as they greet people along the way. Neil wavers behind them, looking lost in thought. Though, when he catches Claire watching him approach, a flicker in his eye and an instant grin in response to her makes her heart race.
"Totally professional," Morgan teases.
Neil turns in their direction to join his colleagues and girlfriend. He has to pass by the group of women who'd just reached the bar, and if he notices the widened eyes and jaws dropping as he passes, he doesn't let on. Granted, he does seem focused on getting to them. Or getting to Claire, rather.
Out of nowhere, one of the women bumps into him, nearly sloshing her drink on his arm but barely missing.
"Oh, I'm so sorry." She reaches up to run her hand along Neil's arm checking for any dampness from her spill – and likely feeling him up in the process. "Did I get you? I can be so clumsy, especially in crowds." She bats her eyelashes at him and lets her fingers linger along his forearm.
Claire, Morgan, and Lim watch from a few feet away and can barely contain their laughter.
"Uh, no harm, no foul. I'm fine." Neil continues his path to the others, but the woman holds onto his arm while her friends watch and snicker.
"Can I maybe buy you a drink? You know, to apologize for almost drenching you with my beer."
Neil smiles, potentially unaware of the effect even his most benign grin has on this woman. "No need." He raises the half-empty glass he's carrying with him. "I'm good."
Morgan leans in to give her color commentary on what's going down in front of them. "I hope the owners invested in a good sprinkler system because this woman's panties are about to catch fire, and we're dangerously close to another catastrophe." Claire almost chokes on her beer, while Lim chuckles, not disagreeing with Morgan's read of the situation.
Again, Neil tries to extricate himself from the conversation, but the woman has literally gotten her claws into him and is reluctant to let him get away.
"Well, you could always stick around, and I can buy you the next one," she offers.
Claire knows Neil pretty well by now, and she can see the signs of his annoyance creeping in. "That's very kind of you," he says curtly. "But like I said, I'm good. Enjoy your evening, though." He pulls at his arm gently but firmly, dislodging her hand, smiles once more, and moves on.
"She shoots … and she fouls," Morgan announces. Claire wonders how many beers she had before they'd all arrived. Tipsy Morgan is rather amusing.
When Neil finally arrives at their group, he pats Glassman on the shoulder and kisses Debbie on the cheek. He raises his beer to Lim and Morgan before easing beside and then behind Claire, wrapping his arm around her waist.
"Hey," he says, kissing the top of her head.
Morgan's smirk is well-earned. This is pretty standard touchy-feeliness from him. A few feet away, the group of women, scowl and then mutter among themselves about their friend's strike-out.
"Such a ladies' man," Lim teases. Neil nudges her in the arm with his elbow and she shoves him right back.
"I don't think that's what they're saying about me right now," Neil jokes, noticing the glares the women are sending Claire's way.
"I think they're discussing a few choice words about me, actually." But she shrugs. She got the guy, after all.
"Oh, looks like Marta and Noreen are about to make their big speech." Morgan glances at Claire. "This should be good." Claire laughs and nods as Neil squeezes her in his arm
Standing up on a small platform behind the bar, one of Marta's employees hands her a microphone and cuts the music. "Can I get everyone's attention for a few. It's my bar and it's taken a lot to get here, so I'm going to have my say."
The people around the bar chuckle and the room begins to quiet down as everyone turns their attention to the women taking center stage in the back of the room.
"Thank you all for being here. It means more to me than I could ever find words for. I don't need to repeat the crazy, terrible, amazing story of how we came to be here today." She pauses and looks around the room. "Okay, I'll repeat some of it, because it's a good story."
Everyone in the room laughs, looking forward to Marta's tale.
"About a year ago, we were gathered here for a fundraiser to celebrate the last time I cheated death with the help of my friend Dr. Melendez over there." She points to Neil, who beams at her.
"My pleasure. But watch your footing on that platform, will you?" he shouts back. More laughter spreads at his teasing.
"Point taken, Melendez," she agrees, Noreen is chuckling too, but stands a little closer to her wife just in case. "Anyway, like tonight, we came together for a joyful occasion and a bit of bad luck meant the day ended in tragedy for many in our community when the earthquake hit. People were lost here. Others injured or forever changed."
Claire takes Neil's hand and holds it firmly in hers. He brushes his lips against the crown of her head in comfort.
"I honor them tonight and every night for what they and their families have gone through," Marta continues. "I didn't escape without another brush with mortality, traumatizing my long-suffering better half," she says lightly and kisses Noreen's hand quickly. "Coming out on the other end, I'm stronger and more grateful than ever to be able to stand here today.
"But we had help. The first responders, the engineers, and a few doctors who went above and beyond for me once again. When a beam landed on me, I was in danger of becoming paralyzed by my injury. The doctors who responded caught what was wrong before we could have done irreparable damage and they operated right here in the middle of debris and a bona fide disaster to save my life. Dr. Shaun Murphy, whose back at the hospital working tonight, made that initial call.
"Dr. Neil Melendez once again stepped in to fix me despite his own life-threatening injuries. What an idiot that guy is! It's a good thing he's so good looking."
Claire and the rest of Neil's colleagues erupt in laughter with Neil shaking his head at Marta's ribbing.
"Once that stubborn mule was kicked out and sent to the hospital to get his own insides rearranged, Dr. Claire Browne, who'd insisted on the procedure that undoubtedly saved my life and Dr. Audrey Lim, the best damn trauma surgeon on the planet as far as I'm concerned, got to work. They opened me up did their thing in the middle of a disaster area and stitched me back up. And this is my favorite part – I mean I was unconscious for it but it sounds really cool. They're worried about me bleeding out and Dr. Browne," she laughs at her own anecdote, "Dr. Browne runs and grabs a beer engine from right here at the bar to pump my own blood back into me, giving them time to finish the surgery and get me out of here. I have never been so thankful for ordering top of the line gear in all my life."
The crowd seems a bit stunned, many staring in their direction as Marta recounts her story. Sure, it's funny, but there's a seriousness to her words, too, at how close she came to dying that night.
"I didn't die. And neither did this place. I recovered, we took care of business, and we rebuilt. Noreen and I are so thankful for these blessings, and not a day goes by that we don't appreciate each other and what we've gone through. And we don't want another day to go by without acknowledging, at least a little bit, the folks that helped along the way.
"So tonight, at our grand re-opening, we are unveiling our new signature beers that will remain on tap for as long as this place is pumping out brew." Noreen reaches around and uncovers the taps that had previously been hidden from view. "Our new Bold Statement line, Guardians of St. B!"
At the bar, there are three taps, each a similar design, though slightly different color schemes. One has a striking red and black image, the second is a soft blue with an apple, and the last is a bright floral design.
"The Lim," Marta explains pointing to the red and black tap, "has a robust, brash flavor and clean finish that's sure to be a best seller in line with the Bold Statement brand." Lim seems to approve of the assessment as Morgan laughs at the description. Marta moves on to the blue tap. "We've got the Murphy, our cider representing with a crisp, complex apple flavor profile."
"I hear it's even Shaun-certified," Claire says to the group, snickering.
"High praise," Lim confirms.
Finally, Marta runs a hand over the final floral tap, "And our beloved Browne brew, a mild beer that hits you with a bit of the punch in the finish, slightly sweet, and a dependable go-to for any beer lover." Neil squeezes Claire once more as she raises her chin in pride.
"And we've got one last creation that's not at the bar, but is no less special. We decided to dip our toe in a different direction and our old friend gave us the opportunity. In the back, we've got a very limited-edition Bold Statement concoction in the Guardians of St. B. line: the Melendez isn't ready yet and won't be for another few years – well one production of it. By then, we think it'll be a pretty tasty whiskey. But we couldn't leave you hanging so we have the bottle design for you."
She points to the TV screens in the corner which now show a bottle with a mostly plain label adorned with just the horns of a stag inching up the side. "We did pay special detail to the authenticity of the image from the original tattoo, so if you pass by him tonight you can confirm that we got it right."
All eyes turn to Melendez, but Claire blocks any view of the only spot where you can see his tattoo.
Neil gives a thumbs up. "Looks good, Marta. I could do without the target on my back all night, though," he shouts up at her again. She laughs not seeming the least bit sorry.
"I'm sure some of the ladies over there are sad they can't get a taste of that Melendez," a tipsy Morgan comments before downing the rest of her beer. Lim and Claire crack up at that while Neil glares at his former resident for her not untrue but certainly unwelcome snark.
Looking up at him, Claire's giggles subside and she reaches up to stroke the edge of his collar where his signature tattoo peeks out. When her finger brushes an exposed part of his neck, he pinches her side where his hand rests. "You better behave yourself," he whispers in her ear. "We are in public." Remembering Morgan poking fun at Neil's PDA, she decides to follow his advice.
"Drink up, everybody!" Marta declares, waving for their group to come up.
"You all come over here and get the first pour!" Noreen calls out.
The room erupts in applause as Lim, Neil, and Claire beam, so pleased and excited for the honor. Many in the crowd shout their thanks and congratulations to them. Claire feels a little embarrassed by it but also proud. They'd all done great work that night, and Marta is right.
They'd survived.
Neil lets go of her and follows Claire and Lim as they make their way over to Marta and Noreen to trade their mostly empty glasses for a pour of the new beer. The five of them toast and taste while the photographer snaps a few candid photos of the occasion. And all are delighted at how delicious the beers have turned out. Glancing back at their friends, they all grab some extra tasters to bring to the others as the rest of the crowd gathers in for samples as well.
But Marta stops them. "Hey you too, I have one more trick up my sleeve. I know it didn't work out so well last time, but I'd love to take you to the back and show you where your whiskey-baby is gestating."
Claire cackles at the description and looks at Neil to see if he's up for it. He's been relaxed all night, but she could see it being a bit stressful to retrace his steps from last time. There doesn't seem to be any stress in his demeanor, though, just excitement.
"I'd love to," Neil tells her without hesitation. "We'll just drop off these drinks and then let's do it." Claire nods as well.
Beer delivered, they follow Marta over to the side door leading to the brewery proper.
"This is going to be fun," Neil tells her, taking her hand. "Much better than last time, that's for sure."
Claire squeezes his hand. "Definitely. We'll just have to make a few better memories this time." Neil smiles down at her and leans in for a quick kiss.
Marta chuckles in front of them. "Okay, knock it off. We've got a tour to get underway."
"I can't help myself." Marta rolls her eyes at Neil's excuse. "But we'll be on our best behavior."
"Right," she says, skeptical. "Okay kids, let's go."
TBC