Epilogue 2. Doctor Aubrey Tracy is scandalized.
I am not sure if I know enough of the UK doctorate system, but then I've messed with neurology, virology and all the positions at hospitals, not to say that the London may not have been a teaching hospital at all. So, I am sorry, and yet I am not sorry for writing this chapter.
On the Monday morning after Shelagh Turner's submission of her Doctor's thesis and a successful viva, Doctor Aubrey Tracey strolled happily along the halls of the London Lab. It was 8 am and he was sure that after all that post-Viva partying at the weekend, no-one had succeeded to arrive at the lab this early.
He opened the door and saw the newly-minted Doctor Shelagh Turner in a close embrace of her husband, who despite the fact that his doctoral laurels had withered a long time ago, seemed to kiss her with an eagerness much more suitable for a hungry, greedy undergraduate on a path to...ermm...scientifically confirmed results in the art of making love.
Doctor Tracy harrumphed.
"Oh, hi Aubrey," said Patrick in a muffled voice.
"Good morning, Aubrey," piped Shelagh in a similarly absent-minded way, her focus being somewhere else. "We were just going to check the first overnight exposure results on the guinea pigs."
"And then we were going to start the tests on bunnies," reported Patrick somewhat uncertainly.
Doctor Aubrey frowned his eyebrows. "Shelagh, when I said to you that you should properly celebrate your achievement, I didn't mean early morning snogging at the Lab. Are the shades of this respectable place to be thus polluted?"
"Go away, Aubrey," Patrcik muttered.
"Yes, please, Aubrey, get lost. Shoo. Shoo shoo," commanded the always correct Shelagh.
"You are shameless. Both of you." Doctor Tracey withdrew, and Doctor Shelagh Turner, still in that tight hold in her husband's arms, made them move closer to the door and kicked it close with her foot in high heels.
"May I say, dear Doctor Turner, a beautiful move," Patrick snickered.
"May I say, dear Doctor Turner, a good riddance. Now Patrick, let's take a look at those bunnies..."
"So soon? You are so dominating now that you have climbed higher on the ladder of medical research."
"Let's reserve domination to..ermm...other areas of life."
Doctor Tracy puffed and shook his head. He headed to the coffee room. There he found Timothy Turner and Patsy Turner enjoying a similar warm discourse of kisses and embraces.
He turned around. "Bunnies, guinea pigs, four doctor Turners. What has my life come to?"