1980
After a late class during their Senior year, they stopped at their favorite Chinese restaurant and picked up dinner. When they arrived home, they sat on the couch and ate while watching television. During a commercial, Greg looked over a Reilly.
"I know what I want to do once I get my medical license," he said.
"Diagnose patients?" Reilly asked and took a bite of an egg roll.
"All doctors do that," Greg said.
"I know what you want," she told him. "You want to diagnose the patients other doctors can't. You want to solve medical puzzles. But there's nothing like that. What would a department like that be called? Diagnostics?"
"That's it exactly!" Greg said with excitement. "Get a bunch of docs with different specialties and figure out why someone is sick and dying. We could talk about the symptoms until we figure it out. We'd have to do a lot of different tests until we get to the diagnosis but all doctors do that."
"It sounds fascinating but there's nothing like it out there."
"Well, someone will start it or I will," he told her. He grabbed a wonton and popped it in his mouth.
"Doug is driving over on Friday night," she told him. "We're going to Boston for dinner so I won't get back until pretty late. So, feel free to herd a few girls through here."
"Why are you marrying him?"
Reilly looked at him in astonishment. "How did we get from you banging a couple girls to my engagement to Doug?"
"Why are you marrying him?" he asked again.
"Because I love him."
"Really? Your mom and dad got married three months after they met. My parents were high school sweethearts who got married after they graduated. You got engaged freshman year and you aren't getting married for almost six years. So, I'm asking again. Why are you marrying him?"
Reilly blew out a loud sigh, "You are not going to let this go are you? Jesus, you're like a damn dog with a bone sometimes."
He leaned in close to her and looked into her eyes. "Why are you marrying him?"
"Because he asked me!" Reilly shouted. "Because I was only in two very short relationships before I met him! Because I don't think anyone else will ask me! Because my parents expect me to marry someone and have children!"
She tossed her carton of Lo Mein in his lap and stalked into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her. Greg picked up her Lo Mein and looked at her door. He put the cartons he held on the couch and went into her room. She sat on the edge of her bed staring out the window. He sat down beside her.
"Don't marry him," he said quietly.
"I'm going to," she responded just as softly. "He loves me. He's going to be a successful lawyer and he's so good looking. Plus, he's really nice to me. And he's willing to wait."
"You don't love him."
She shrugged. "I like him. A lot. I'll learn to love him."
"Those are some shitty reasons to marry someone," he scoffed. "And why do you have to get married at all? I'm not going to."
"That's your choice and I respect that. Why can't you respect mine?"
"Because you deserve to be happy."
"I will be. Now, we'll speak no more of this" She sounded eerily like her mother as she said this. "We need to study."
Greg knew not to push her even though he wanted to so he got up and went back to the living room. He came back in a few minutes later with two large manila envelopes.
Reilly looked up from her notes. Her eyes widened when she saw the envelopes.
"Is that the paperwork from our advisor to apply for med schools?" she asked.
He nodded and tossed hers to her. "Let's get them filled out and in the mail!" he asked.
She jumped up from the bed and ran into the kitchen. She carefully placed her envelope on the table and rummaged around until she found two black ink pens. Greg sat at the table with all his paperwork in front of him. He held the paper with the results of his Medical College Admissions Test and stared at it. Reilly sat down and opened her packet. She pulled out her MCAT results.
"I got a five hundred," she told him with a wide smile. "What did you get?"
He looked up at her and smiled. "I got a five twenty-eight."
Reilly squealed and snatched the paper from him. She looked at it and squealed again. Greg covered his ears.
"Stop squealing!" he implored.
"You got a perfect score!" she shouted. "A fucking perfect score!"
"I know," he told her with a slight smile. "I saw the score first."
"You have to call your parents!"
His smile faded and she swallowed. Slowly she sat down and gave his test results back to him.
"He has to be proud of that, Greg. It's a perfect score. He will be proud," she told him.
"No he won't. It's not a Marine score." He shook his head. "Let's get the applications filled out and in the mail."
They sorted out the paperwork. Letters of reference went in one pile. Copies of their MCAT scores went in another pile. Applications went in a third pile. They spent two hours filling the applications out and then stuffing and addressing envelopes. When they finished they pulled on their coats and walked down the street to the mailbox.
They graduated from Harvard in June, 1981, with high honors. They were both accepted to Johns Hopkins and would start med school there in the fall. They continued to work at the county morgue but took two weeks off to go visit Reilly's grandparents in Ireland.
In August, they moved from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Baltimore, Maryland. They found a small two bedroom apartment close to the school and got settled in two weeks before classes started. They both decided to pursue double specialties. Greg chose infectious medicine and nephrology and Reilly chose infectious medicine and general surgery.
Doug drove down on Friday nights and slept on the pull out couch each weekend. Reilly spent as much time with him as possible but med school kept her busy. Greg could tell Doug resented it but didn't say anything. He just came up with new and interesting ways to keep her from spending time with Doug. Fortunately she was too busy to notice.
One afternoon, Reilly hunted Greg down. He was in one of the labs doing research when she finally found him. He took one look at the stormy expression on her face and sighed.
"I hate that idiot!" she ground out. "He can't do even the simplest math! Why did I get stuck with Phillip Weber as a lab partner? We failed the last assignment because he refused to correct his math! I told him he was wrong and he ignored me. Asshole!"
"Go ask the professor to put you with someone else."
"I did. No one else wants to work with that little weasel."
"Correct his math before you turn in an assignment. Steal the lab work from him if you have to."
"You know what?" she asked through gritted teeth. "I will. Thanks."
Once she left, Greg sat and thought of a way to get Weber back. Finally he smiled. He knew exactly what to do. Reilly walked into her organic chemistry lab class the following week and saw Lola Hogan sitting on her stool next to Phillip Weber. The tall blonde leaned in close to Phillip and stroked his arm while smiling into his eyes. Reilly walked up to the professor. He smiled when he saw her.
"Miss Hogan came to see me this morning and asked to change lab partners," he smiled. "You'll work with Charlie Tate."
Reilly nodded. Last week no one wanted to be partnered with Weber and now the most beautiful girl in class was sitting next to him. Slowly she made her way to the lab station where Charlie Tate sat. He was the most intelligent and hard-working person in her class. As she sat down and pulled out her lab book, she suddenly knew what happened. Somehow Greg convinced Lola to switch. She wasn't sure how but she was grateful. Charlie looked up at her briefly and then turned his attention to the professor who explained the day's lesson.
The rest of their first year in medical school went smoothly. At the end of the last semester, a rumor blazed through campus about Phillip Weber and his teeny tiny dick. When naked photos of him were plastered across campus, Weber reported Lola. An official investigation took place and Lola was expelled. Reilly later found out she didn't want to be a doctor but enrolled because her parents demanded she did. They were both doctors and expected her to follow in their footsteps. Reilly also found out she actually wanted to be a teacher.
On the flight to Ireland that summer, Reilly questioned Greg about how he got Lola to be Weber's lab partner.
He grinned at her. "It was actually pretty easy," he told her. "Lola and my girlfriend at the time were roommates. Lola hated medical school and wants to teach first grade." He shuddered. "Well, when I found out, I knew she was nutty-"
"Wanting to be an elementary school teacher doesn't make her nutty," Reilly interrupted.
"I knew she was nutty," Greg continued as if she hadn't spoken. "I also knew she'd do anything for me." He smiled sweetly at her. "So, I fucked her, then I had a threesome with them, then I had more threesomes-"
"Ugh!" Reilly groaned putting her hands over her ears. "I get it! She wanted to sleep with you and Gretchen. But that isn't reason enough to get her to do it." She removed her hands. "Is it?"
He smiled. "Oh, yeah. Lola likes it both ways. They even let me watch. Anyway, when I told her my plan, she went for it. Von Lieberman thought he hit the sexual jackpot with her."
"You're gross," she laughed. "And Von Lieberman deserved it. Also, I love that you came up with that name for him."
"He's a pissy little dictator. He needs a pissy little dictator name."
"Did you break up with Gretchen?" she asked.
"Not yet," he said as he leaned back and closed her eyes. "It'll depend on her new roommate."
Reilly rolled her eyes and pulled a book out. He went to sleep and she looked over at him. In three years, she and Doug would be married. She and Greg planned to do their residency at Hopkins but she knew the dynamic between them might change. She didn't want it to but Doug really didn't like him and her mother kept reminding her that a wife should take her husband's feelings into account. So, Reilly knew she would see less of Greg once she was married. There was also no guarantee that they would end up working in the same department at the same hospital. At some point, they would have to go their separate ways. However, she knew their bond of friendship was strong enough to survive anything.
They returned from Ireland at the end of July and settled back into their apartment. The second year of medical school was much like the first except Reilly didn't have any classes with Von Lieberman for which she was eternally grateful. Greg went through four girlfriends that year. They went to Ireland again and saw more of Europe. It would be their last trip to stay with her grandparents and they wanted to make the most of it. Before they left, her grandmother told Reilly she would make her wedding dress and veil. Reilly was ecstatic but for Greg it drove home the fact their lives would change once she married. He knew Smug would do his dead level best to keep them apart. He just wished Reilly realized that, too.