"I cannot wait" she heard him say with some gusto as she walked up to the table to join them with her coffee. They weren't technically on s shift together, but they would always try and catch up for a few minutes if they saw each other in passing.

"First weekend off in six weeks, I bet you can't" Kevin smiled at him. "You must be looking forward to seeing..."

They heard a small cough behind them as she cleared her throat in time to stop Kevin finishing his question.

"Adam" Kevin finished. "Seeing Adam at his wedding this weekend?" he finished as Audrey sat down and smiled when she realised the conclusion she had jumped too. Kevin gave her a sympathetic smile and a small shake of his head.

"Ah yes, best man duties" Audrey smiled. "Get him to the church on time, remember the rings and give a good toast. Should be a breeze."

"Don't forget, you're meant to sleep with a bridesmaid" Jo teased, winking at him making him laugh out loud.

"Not my style" he said smiled. "But if someone wants to help get me drunk, I'm not going to complain. I've got student loans to pay off you know!" he laughed.

They passed a few more minutes together before Jo stood to head home after what had been quite an intense shift for her. She had dealt with just one patient for almost the entire duration, but it was not the actual patient themselves that caused the stress. Considering the procedure they were in for was relatively simple, the family had been very full on and they had exhausted her. She was glad to be getting out of there today, that's for sure.

Kevin had another couple of hours to go of his overtime shift and he'd had an easier time of it so far. Considering his focus at the start of his residency on plastic surgery for the rich and famous, he had fully embraced the general surgery residency and had learned there was so much more he could use his skills for. He was truly talented, this was evident at even this early stage of his career and they all knew he would go far.

"I can't believe you aren't taking me as your plus one" Kevin teased a little more. "I love a good wedding!"

"Ha, no plus one for me this time" he smiled a little ruefully. "It's all too complicated" he said glancing briefly at Audrey.

"Have the best weekend" he said to Neil, clapping him on the shoulder as he got up to go back to the floor. "I'll be living it vicariously through social media so make it a good one please" he teased.

"I'll do my best" he laughed.

Then it was just the two of them left. Neil finishing up his lunch and Audrey still with a pretty full cup of coffee.

"I forgot you were away this weekend" she said trying to sound casual. She was rather pleased that he had just announced he was going stag and not taking Nicola to the wedding and was hoping that it wasn't too obvious. "I was going to catch a movie and was going to see if you wanted to come along" she smiled.

"Sorry" he smiled giving a little shrug. "I would have liked that though. Thank you" he said.

"At least I can be more flexible with the time going by myself. Not like it matters if I'm running late then does it?!"

"True" he agreed giving her little laugh at her curious logic. "Thor right?" he asked.

"So you do listen to me?" Audrey said.

"Every word" Neil smiled, before scooping up the last forkful of his lunch and moving to clear his things.

As they headed back towards the elevators, they saw Jo making a dash for the door. She must have been side-lined by the family again considering she'd left the table a good fifteen minutes earlier. They called goodbye across the foyer and watched her leave in rush.

X

After a busy few hours, Neil caught up with Kevin again briefly before he headed home and it seemed he wasn't done fishing for wedding details.

"I've got to ask the question we all want to know' he started as he and Neil stood shoulder to shoulder at the main desk, filling in paperwork.

"And what's that?" Neil replied, never sure with Kevin what was coming next.

"Why aren't you taking your new piece of fluff to the wedding?"

Neil laughed and shook his head. "Nicola, her name is Nicola."

"Fine, why aren't you taking 'Nicola' to the wedding?" he said using air quotes, making Neil roll his eyes in response.

"It's complicated" he replied flatly.

"Yes, you said" Kevin pushed. "And you know I love complicated, so spill."

"I'll be staying with my folks most of the weekend, they are a bit strict on that sort of thing. You remember my good catholic upbringing, yes?" he replied, hoping that being that blunt would put him off. No such luck.

"You could have got a hotel?"

"For the whole weekend? I'm not made of money!"

"She'd split it, surely. For a weekend with you, I'm sure she would" Kevin winked.

"Okay, okay, enough" Neil said, admitting defeat. "Truth is, I've seen her twice, briefly, since Vegas. Turns out, she has a kid so it's hard to get together and she couldn't just take off for a whole weekend without more notice."

"Briefly isn't something you should boast about Neil" Kevin admonished with a smile, giving him a nudge in the ribs. "Serious though, you asked her?"

"No, I used common sense" he replied. "And I didn't ask" he confirmed after a pause.

Kevin just smiled to himself knowingly while Neil continued to scrawl in the chart on the desk in front.

"You want to take Audrey don't you?" Kevin said in a stage whisper.

Neil didn't reply, he just shook his head and carried in making notes. Their friends were having trouble coming to terms with the fact the he and Audrey were working well as friends. It so happened that Kevin was right and he really did want to take Audrey, but how would that look?

Drifting off into his own thoughts, he left Kevin talking to himself. He would have jumped at the chance to see that movie with Audrey any other weekend, it was just bad timing.

"Got to go" he said suddenly to Kevin, stopping his chatter in his tracks. "Sorry."

Kevin looked around to see if he had been called or paged but nothing seemed untoward so he just continued with his paperwork.

The rest of Neils shift flew by with this idea floating around in his head. He left the hospital bang on time and set out to put his plan in place.

X

Audrey finished her shift a few hours later and dragged her feet back to the locker room to change. Maybe she would give the movie a miss tonight, she had all weekend after all and was a little worried right now, that she would fall asleep during it.

Stretching the knots from her neck and shoulders, she went to open her locker to find the lock already hanging loose, she must have forgotten to close it in a rush earlier. She wasn't too worried as there was absolutely nothing in there that was worth stealing in her opinion.

After throwing her shoes into the bottom, she unhooked her ID and went place it on the shelf when her fingers felt something that shouldn't be there. Pulling it a small envelope she smiled as she recognised Neil's writing on the front.

'We're both off rota, I checked' he wrote in his familiar scrawl.

Looking inside she found a pair of tickets, looking close she saw they were to a morning showing of Thor that coming Tuesday. She smiled to herself as she tucked them safely away again. She was going to look forward to Tuesday, she thought.