The next time he saw her, she was surrounded by books and journals in one of the meeting rooms. There was a big procedure coming up and she was looking to get a spot on the team.
He had noticed she'd been holed up in there all morning on what should have been her day off so he had picked up a coffee for her. Besides, he wanted to catch her alone to apologise for that awkward moment a couple of days before.
He put the takeaway cup down in front of her, startling her and making her curse.
"Sorry" he said sheepishly. "I thought you heard me come in."
"Well, I was concentrating" she replied sharply, gesturing at the paperwork surrounding her.
"Can you take a break? I'd like to apologise for our misunderstanding?" Neil asked recovering quickly from the snipe.
"You don't need to..." she started but he carried in quickly.
"I misread the situation, I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking and if I'd known you were married I would have never..."
It was Audrey's turn to interrupt. "You couldn't have known I'm married" she smiled softly. "Nobody knows except HR."
"Can I ask you a question" Neil braved. She nodded her response.
"Why don't you wear a wedding ring?"
She sighed and marked the page of the journal she was reading before she closed it. "I'm not really sure" she admitted. "I wear our outside of work, just not at the hospital. I thought I might get treated differently if people knew. You know, because I'm a woman, people will assume I'm going to disappear in a couple of years to pop out a bunch of children. "
"And he doesn't mind?"
"Kashal. His name is Kashal" she replied. "And he doesn't mind, he's all about the career and how to move onward and upward."
"What does he do?" Neil asked.
"He's a lawyer" she replied. She didn't go into any more detail.
Neil didn't need telling twice that this was the end of that particular conversation so her changed the subject to keep her engaged.
"Need a study buddy for next weeks op?" he offered with a smile.
"I'll be ok, thanks for the coffee though. I needed that."
"Any time" he smiled ad he got up to leave. "Don't work too hard" he teased as he headed towards the door.
X
Audrey successfully got herself into the OR to observe the procedure in the following week. The operation itself was considered a success. The patient had suffered some major abdominal trauma and the procedure was intended to make repairs.
As the procedure came to a end, the decision was made to leave the wound open. It was covered in plastic and sealed with a vacuum and the closure would be made once he was less sick.
The events that followed made for a very entertaining tale the next time they went out a few weeks later.
The six of them were sat around a table getting dinner. They were grabbing a quick bite before heading out to a bar to relieve the stress of the month that just passed.
Audrey held the floor with a great story of the aftermath of the abdominal surgery. They all knew something had gone awry but none of them knew the details.
After giving a recap, she delved into the gory details.
"The nurse called me into the room to look at this guys abdomen because she thought she saw pieces of the bowel seeping out of the vacuum bag. I thought she was right, the bowel looked pretty dusky, so we called someone to come and take a look at it."
The senior resident marched in like he owned the place. He agreed with our assessment and talked to his attending who told him to take the dressing off, tuck the bowel back into the bag and put a new dressing on."
Alex looked horrified at the whole thing. "That sounded like it was going to be a disaster. Why did they think that was a good idea?"
The table laughed and Audrey continued.
"So, the genius resident, who shall remain nameless, comes in and takes off the dressing. The bowel had become swollen from the fluids and trauma, so when he took it off, they all just slipped."
"No way" cringed Delun. "That's awful!"
"It was pretty horrific to be honest. The bag had dislodged and as we tucked everything in one side, they'd spill back out the other. Luckily the guy was so out of it he had no idea and the drugs we'd given to control his BP meant there wasn't much blood. But there was just sooooo much mess, he was literally disembowelling and they was nothing we could do!"
"And the grand finale? How'd it end up?" Kevin asked.
"We ended up having to calling as many people as we could to tuck things in here and there until he could get back to the OR for them to get put back properly…... they closed him up this time and the guy went home two weeks later none the wiser" she laughed.
"You know these aren't the dinner conversations of normal people, you know?" Neil joked. "Imagine people could hear us, they'd never visited a doctor again" he laughed.
X
Conversation at the table took a lighter tone as the evening moved on. They check was paid and they were heading to a bar down the street for the rest of the evening.
As they ambled down the sidewalk, the topic of the hospital gala came up.
"Are we allowed to bring a date?" Delun asked.
"I doubt it" Neil replied. "I doubt we're even allowed to speak to anybody" he laughed.
Kevin and Joanne waltzed dramatically in front of them, spinning and laughing down the street. "Don't worry Del, I'll dance with you" shouted Joanne. "Come on, let's get some practice in" as she made a dramatic entrance in to the bar.
As always, Neil and Audrey were at the back of the group talking quietly.
"I'm going to try and let my paperwork overrun that night. Not sure a Gala is my scene" Audrey said as they strolled along.
"Not into dressing up fancy once in a while?" Neil teased.
She gestured to herself, dressed in her usual jeans, t-shirt and sneakers. "Do I look like I like dressing up?" she asked laughing. "Do you have a tux? I could ask Kash if he could loan you one if you wanted?"
Neil looked, not quite sure how to respond so didn't answer directly. "Come on, let's go dance" he said, grabbing her hand, pulling her through the door of the bar and straight onto the dancefloor.
"There they go again" Joanne shouted in Kevins ear. "Nothing going on, my foot!"
They danced away for a good hour before stopping for a drink. He took her hand again and guided her through the crowds to the bar. Neither of them noticed the guys stood to one side, casually snapping a photograph of them as they passed.
The night came to a close as they all stumbled out into the street. They called cabs and the guys waited until the ladies were on their way before they headed home themselves.
The last thing Neil remembered before his head hit the pillow that night, was how much fun he'd had with Audrey. He was going to have to get over this. This could be trouble.