Sarah was surprised when she heard the murmur of Did you hear she's dating Dr Rhodes from cardiology? when she was collecting her morning coffee in the canteen the next morning. She shouldn't have been.
Life in the ED was fast but the gossip mill at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center was faster.
Thankfully, Sarah thought, that meant that Maggie and Will and everyone's mission was complete. All she had to do was go to a gallery opening that Friday and she could shut the entire fiasco down. The only thing worse than the breakup was dragging Connor into her mess. They were more than just colleagues, but she didn't know if she would be considered his friend. There was always something about him she just couldn't pin down whereas he always seemed to be able to read her like a book.
So the sooner this fiasco was over the better.
She was over her relationship with Joey and she was fine.
Her heart, it seemed, didn't agree as it clenched in discomfort as she saw Joey and Rachel enter the canteen as Sarah thanked the barista and picked up for cup.
Joey's eyes met hers and he put an arm possessively around Rachel's shoulder. He had never liked even such simple displays of affection when he was with Sarah.
She had never thought of Joey as a particularly mean person but he had become somewhat vindictive when she chose to quit pathology, taking the decision personally. Everything she did was wrong now that it didn't align with his plan for her and she had become uncomfortable in her own skin.
But he found someone who was a better fit and even looked nothing like Sarah with her hair straight as a die, flowing dresses under her white coat and a striking look that Sarah just didn't possess. She had always flown under the radar.
Sarah quickly left the canteen and headed down to the ED to get to work and get on with her professional life now that her personal one was in tatters.
"Sarah, there you are!" Madison, another first year resident and Sarah's new best friend in a world where she thought she'd never make proper friends, called to her from down the hallway.
"Hey, how was shift?"
Her friend gave a weary sigh and her blonde hair was now hanging limply in it's ponytail, "Long. But at least I have time to call my Dad."
Like Sarah, Madison was from Connecticut but unlike Sarah, she had a great relationship with her father.
"That's good, hey did you see the roster for next week, I was going to text you we're on a few of the same shifts." Sarah tried to raise her spirits.
"And a good thing too because apparently I have been missing a lot?" Her friend raised an eyebrow and put a hand on her hip, a well practiced gesture given that she was the eldest of a large family and used to dishing out instructions and reprimands.
"Like what?" Sarah asked.
"Like you're dating Dr Rhodes?" Madison whispered.
Sarah still thought it was weird when other people referred to him as Doctor Rhodes. She did when talking about or to him, but he was always Connor in her eyes, since his first day at work. Not that they were particularly close but he was on the peripheral of what she classed as her ED family.
Something that she was glad of when starting her residency as she saw how hard it was for Madison and the rest of her year to start afresh and forge new relationships with the staff.
"What? Oh no, that's a whole thing. I'm not dating him, I'll fill you in after shift."
"No! She argued, "But he's so cute. Yes you had better tell me everything."
"I will I promise. It's not that exciting though." She warned.
"Doesn't matter, with all these graveyard shifts they have us doing, we need a catch up soon. Have a good shift Sarah."
She waved off her friend and took the elevator down to the ED.
"Dr Reese, good morning." Maggie greeted her, "Got a patient in trauma three for you." The charge nurse handed Sarah the tablet with the patient information. Sarah scanned it before getting to work.
After quitting pathology Sarah had been terrified that she would never be able to practice medicine and that her mother would have been right, she should have gone into law like her. But after an emergency medicine match had dropped out, it had left the hospital lacking a resident at the last minute before the new rotation started.
Sarah had had to go through a grueling interview, more tests and hope that she had worked hard enough in her student trial to get good references from the staff. Apparently she had and now she owed them all her livelihood and passion.
They had turned out to be a family that had her back, a family she had never had.
She got about diagnosing her patient and transferring the patient up for a CT scan to double check. An ambulance rush arrived soon after, keeping Sarah on her toes until lunch time. Or rather the few minutes she had to breathe and inhale more coffee.
But the precious minutes left her with far too much time to debate the Connor Rhodes debacle. There was no way he'd want to bring her to some social outing. She'd have to talk to him.
Sarah made the mistake of asking Maggie if Connor was on trauma that day.
"Ah, asking after your new beau are you?" Maggie grinned.
"Maggie." Sarah moaned, she had been thinking about it that morning and while the rumors may be circulating, she doubted people actually believed that she and Connor were dating.
"No he's on cardiology duty until the weekend." Maggie replied, checking the roster on her hand held. It was only Wednesday.
That didn't give Sarah much time to catch him and bail from the event on Friday evening.
She thanked Maggie for the help and got back to work.
Time flew in the ED. It was getting close to the end of shift, when she was chatting to Noah and the other new residents on her rotation at the medical bay when the ED was flooded with the victims of a major car collision.
It was tough, but she asked for help when she needed it, lent a hand where she could and kept Ethan's advice in mind; to take one case at a time.
She was finishing signing off on an admission of her last patient on her tablet when she bumped into one of the other staff as she cut across the bay.
"Sorry." She apologized, regaining her balance and looking up.
"Sorry Reese." Connor Rhodes, of all people, echoed her words, placing a steady hand on her upper arm to steady them both.
"I thought you were in cardiology." Was the first thing that she blurted out.
Connor blinked, "I got called down for the last accident, all hands on deck." He explained. "Did you need me?"
Of course, the sensible part of Sarah's brain knew that he meant did she need him for a cardiology or trauma work related issue. But all she could think was that since the first day he had burst into the ED Sarah had needed to know he was around. He was her self-belief when she had none. Saw her when nobody else did.
That and she wasn't blind. He was Connor, all blue eyes and secret tattoos and a certain confidence that made most of the staff swoon that first day.
"Actually, can I talk to you?" Sarah asked, but feeling the eyes of every staff member in the ED on her, she continued, "In private?"
Connor seemed to sense her unease, flicking his gaze around the room, "Sure thing." He led her to the doctor's lounge.
He opened the door for her. Something that Joey had never done.
"What's up?"
She was alone with him. That hadn't really happened before unless it was work related. Words failed her for a split second. Were they friends? Acquaintances? Close but also distant colleagues?
"About the gallery opening on Friday, I don't have to go if you don't want me to. Don't let Maggie railroad you. And I'll tell her to stop the rumors." She let go in one breath.
"Sarah, honestly the rumors don't bother me." Her body seemed to startle at the sound of her first name coming from his lips. She had never heard him call her that before. "And you don't have to come with me, I don't want you to feel any pressure. It's just easier when I have a plus one. Claire, my sister, and her friends like to…target me if I turn up alone." He let out a self-depreciating sigh, "At the end of the day I'm a 'trust fund, eligible bachelor' according to my grandmother."
Sarah tried to process his words. He wanted a plus one to keep women away from him? It was almost laughable but he seemed quite desperate about it.
But she appreciated his good humor so far with Maggie and Will's ploy so it was the least she could do. She just wasn't sure she was the one that would deter other women from him.
"No, I can be your plus one. A night out might be nice."
"I'll pick you up at seven then, on Friday?" He asked.
"Sounds good…Connor." His name felt foreign on her lips but she supposed she had to get used to it, she couldn't go around on Friday night calling him Dr Rhodes.