After a case, the boys always get a drink after work. Samantha usually makes her excuses, saying she's spent enough of her time with Bud and deserves a nice long bath. Megan doesn't even entertain it as an option, waving a goodbye over her shoulder as she steps into the lift. Kate isn't always invited. But today, she is. And for some reason, she says yes.
It's Curtis, Bud, Ethan and Kate all sitting in a grimy bar. Kate, sipping at a particularly unpleasant glass of red wine, is already wondering if it's too early to go home.
"Peter is good for her," Curtis slurs. He's had one too many drinks and his lips are loose. "She's nicer now. Asks us questions and all. It almost seems like she cares ."
Kate freezes. "And that's all because of Peter?"
Upon reflection, she supposes that it's true. Ever since Megan started working with Peter, she's been different. More malleable, somehow. More willing to see a world beyond the bodies on her tables. That's not to say she isn't still impossible. In fact, sometimes she seems insufferable. But she is different.
"He challenges her," Ethan says. "He tells her that she needs to have a life—to have friends. He gives her advice on Lacey all the time."
"I didn't know that."
Kate tips her glass to her lips, quickly downing the rest of it. Somehow, it tastes even more bitter than before. She wonders why it hurts, hearing that Peter's encouraged such change in Kate. Hasn't she been there all along? Hasn't she been right beside them, saying all the same things Peter has? Why should he take all the credit?
Bud only rolls his eyes. "She seems the same old Doctor Hunt to me."
"Really?" Curtis says, chuckling. "Cos I heard she gave you advice about your wife. Would the old Doctor Hunt do that?"
All of a sudden, Megan's head is pounding.
"I have to go." She stands too quickly, and the room spins. "Sorry."
She can barely hear their protests as she scurries out of the bar. Her own thoughts are too loud—pounding in her mind. Why is it Peter? And why the hell isn't it her?