This is a version where if Robin dumped Connor in 2x18. So, when he first meets Ava, he's single.

It was May 11, 2017 and was 7:10 AM when Connor arrived at Chicago Med for his shift. He parked his car in the reserved staff parking lot next to the entrance of the Emergency Department and proceed inside like how he always does.

He walks through the waiting room and enters the ED. Like most mornings, things start off slow from the night shift staff.

"Good morning, Ms. Goodwin." He greets the familiar Chief of Services. "Dr. Rheese." He also greets his young psychologist friend.

"Ah! Good morning, Dr. Rhodes. Though, I would use that word loosely." Sharon replied with a small frown.

"Did something bad happen?" He asked.

Sharon nodded her head over to the room in Treatment 6. The surgeon followed her motion and saw Robin Charles, his ex-girlfriend, lying unconscious in bed with her father sitting beside her.

"Whoa! What happened to Robin?" He asked with a concerned look on his face.

"She had a psychotic break last night when she was in holding." Said Sarah.

"Oh my god." He looked back at her.

He and Robin first met back in the Fall and he was reluctant to date her because of her father but decided to date her in the end. Their relationship was fine for a few months, till she saw she was competing with other women for his attention. Leading her to break up with him back in late March. It was also around the same time when she started to act differently. Connor was hurt about the breakup, but then got over it and continued to move on with his life and his career as a cardiothoracic surgeon, as Dr. Downey would have wanted him to.

"I hope she gets better soon." He looked back at her before he felt his phone vibrate. He pulled out his phone out from his back pocket. It was a page from Dr. Latham.

== Dr. Rhodes, please come to the CT floor ==

"It's Latham." He looked back up at the two women. "Give Dr. Charles my regards for his daughter."

"Of course." Sharon nodded.

Connor gave her a timid smile before heading towards the elevator.

Connor was looking through his phone as the elevator was heading up to the CT floor. Once he felt the elevator stop, he looked up as the doors opened and appeared behind the doors was the Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery.

"Dr. Rhodes, I have news for you." The older man looked up from his watch when he saw him arrive. "Oh, I should say good morning."

"Good morning, Dr. Latham." Connor nodded. "Did you page me?" He asked as the two men proceed to walk in a different direction, leading them to the operating rooms.

"Yes! Do you remember when I told you that you weren't my first choice for this fellowship?"

"Yeah."

"There's a South African woman from Groote Schuur. All the hospitals allow a 2nd year CT fellow, so she's here! Joining our team." The older man looked at Connor as he held up his left arm, "Dr. Rhodes, meet Dr. Bekker."

The two arrived to the nurse's workstation and saw a long blonde haired woman leading against the counter. She turned around, revealing her face. She had pale skin, a small face that looked completely flawless, a slim body figure, and had her hair pushed to the back.

Connor hid his facial expression the second he laid eyes on her. She was very attractive.

"Wow, now I'm really glad I'm not with Robin anymore." He thought in his head.

The South African woman took a moment to stare at Connor before she held up her right hand. "Ava." She introduced herself.

"Connor." He accepted her gesture as he introduced himself and shook her hand.

They both retracted their hands but continued to stare at one another.

"I'm sure you two will enjoy working together." Dr. Latham looked between the two. "I'll leave you two, to get. Acquainted." He paused for a moment before walking away.

Ava stared at him as he walked away. "He's very odd. Asperger's?" She spoke with an accent as she turned around to face Connor as she asked him.

"Yeah." He nodded. "But Dr. Latham is a great surgeon, teacher and friend." He replied.

"Oh, Loyal? That's sweet." She gave him a mocking smile.

"Okay, she's hot, but also seems to speak what's on her mind." He thought in his head.

"So, Dr. Bekker..." he adjusted his messenger bag on his shoulder as he tried to change the subject. "how long have you been in Chicago? Dr. Latham told me that you're from South Africa and was at Groote Schuur."

"I've been in Chicago, for two weeks. I got a call from Dr. Latham three weeks ago about being accepted for the fellowship here at Med. I spent that week sorting out all my patients and moving here to States and becoming a legal citizen. When I got here, I had already purchased an apartment, so I didn't have any trouble finding a place once I got here. And after I was given a tour of Med, I spent the rest of my time exploring Chicago till my first day here." She explained as she placed her hands in her coat pockets.

"How do you like Chicago so far?" He leaned against the counter.

"It's alright. It's a nice city compared to Cape Town. It's a lot bigger than it and there's more stores here."

"Yeah, I know it's not as big as New York, but Chicago has just as many stores as them. I would know."

"Because your family owns Dolan Rhodes." She stated.

"You know about that?" He asked a bit surprised by her knowledge.

"Before coming to Med, I was curious at who was the person that got the fellowship instead of me back in the Fall. So, I researched about you."

"And? What did you find out exactly?" Connor felt like was being interrogated.

"Let's see, you're the first-born child of Cornelius Rhodes, and instead of continuing with the family business, you decided to become a doctor while your younger sister continues with the family business. Your mother committed suicide when you were 10 years old. And you were mentored by Dr. David Downey and killed him in the end." She ended with a nod.

"Okay, so she's knows a lot about me. That's a first. Maybe I shouldn't get involve with her then." He thought in his head.

"Then I guess you better watch yourself then." He nudges his head to the side. "I'll be right back; I need to go change into my scrubs."

Connor and Ava were later paged to look at Ethan's patient, Don Crocker, who was complaining about shortness of breath and chest pain. The two of them were standing in front of the patient's room in the ICU looking over his charts.

At the corner of his eye, Connor saw Ethan approaching them. "Hey, what are we looking at?"

"He needs a new valve." Ava said bluntly.

Ethan looked at the woman he never seen before.

Connor carefully pulled the tablet away from Ava as she looked up at him.

"Ava Bekker, CT fellow. Ethan Choi, Chief Resident of the ED." Connor introduced the two to one another.

The two doctors gave a quick slight nod to acknowledge one another. The three walks towards the nurses' station.

"So, we crack his chest and replace the valve." Ava spoke as she placed her hands in her coat pockets.

"No, we don't need to crack his chest." Connor denied as he turned to face her. He explained the patient's results and how it's FDA approved to do another option.

Ava countered with an aortic valve replacement as a better option than his suggestion.

"I don't agree. Why put the patient through a long operation and a long pump run. He can have a functional heart again in two hours." Connor stated.

"Less invasive the better." Ethan added.

"Exactly." Connor agreed.

"Excuse me, you're an emergency resident, why are we even talking?" Ava blurted.

"Excuse you?" Ethan leaned forward, ready to start an argument with the new doctor.

"Because I value Dr. Choi's opinion." Ava's eyes switched to look at him. "And I'll think you'll find that Dr. Latham will back me on the TAVR." Connor stared at her.

Ava looked between the two men and saw no point to continue with the conversation. "Fine." And walked away.

The two stared at her as she walked away.

"She's...very audacious." Ethan turned his head back at Connor.

"Yep. She's seems to be the type of person who always wants to win. That's the kind of vibe I'm getting from her." Connor replied.

"Surgeons always compete with another one, I'm glad I didn't become one. Good luck buddy." Ethan padded Connor's shoulder before walking away.

Connor had expected the TAVR not to take too long to do, but there were problems and now they were opening the patient's chest just as Ava said they should have done in the first place.

"Graph is in place. Let's get him off bypass." Connor said as he passed some tools over to Dr. Bardovi.

"I'm clamping the aorta." Said Ava as she passed a tool over to one of the team members.

"Let's get his heart beating on its own. Defibrate." Said Connor.

One of the team members handed Ava the defibrator and she used it on the patient's heart. "Clear." One shock was received to the heart.

"Signs of rhythm." Said Dr. Bardovi.

"Cut to two liters." Said Connor.

"Hold on, his right heart is ballooning." Said Ava.

"Back on full support." Said Connor. "Marty, what's he on?"

The anesthesiologist told him what drugs the patient was on, so Connor told him what to replace them with.

"That's not gonna cut it. His heart isn't coming back. He's not leaving this room without ecmo." Said Ava

"Why don't you just set him up with complications later?" Said Dr. Bardovi.

"Why do all of the residents in this hospital think they can offer up their opinions?" Ava blurted out.

"No ecmo. His heart is strong enough to come back on its own." Said Connor.

"I disagree." Said Ava.

"Noted, but this is my case." Connor stopped Ava's hand with the instrument she was holding next to the heart. "Okay, cut to two liters." He told Marty.

Ava stared at the man who was disagreeing with her words and actions.

The team all stared at the monitors to see the results.

"The heart's coming back." Said Dr. Bardovi.

"Pressure's holding." Said Marty.

"Good call, Dr. Rhodes." Said Dr. Bardovi.

Connor didn't reply to her, he was staring at the South African woman and was waiting for her response.

She was staring back at him as well. She took a quick glance at the resident doctor before looking back him. "Yeah." She spoke softly, finally acknowledging his skills as a surgeon.

"Let's continue." He spoke as they continue to perform the surgery.

Connor learns from Dr. Charles that the reason for Robin's psychotic actions is because she has a mediastinal teratoma, a tumor and it's attacking her brain.

Dr. Latham was going to perform surgery on her and have Ava assist him instead of Connor due to history.

"Dr. Latham, I understand your concerns, but I can assure you, I've moved on from Robin and harbor no ill feelings towards her. I'm just her friend and I want to help her get better." Said Connor.

"That may be true, Dr. Rhodes, but still, friends care about one another and I'm going to ask you to wait outside in the waiting room like all friends and family members should be at."

Connor sighed. "There's no need, I have other patients to look at. I'll check in later to see how she's doing." Connor slightly nodded before leaving the recovery room.

At the corner of his eye, he could see Ava staring at him as he left the room.

After Connor checked in on Robin after hearing the surgery was successful, Connor was finishing up last minute paperwork before calling it a night.

"So, I think we can call today a draw." Ava spoke walking up to the nurse's workstation, dressed in casual clothing as she set down a folder.

"Didn't realize we were in a competition." Connor spoke keeping his eyes down.

"Come on." Ava scoffed and smiled looking behind him before walking around him to face him.

"Ya know, you're quite the gossip magnet around here. I mean, I already know that your mother committed suicide and that you murdered your attending Dr. Downey, but I didn't know that you dated someone that went crazy." Ava nodded.

"Technically, she dumped me around the same time as the tumor, but I'm not the one that drove her crazy. That was on her father. At least I learned something from this."

"What's that?"

"Never date your friend's daughter, or else it bites you back in the ass in the future. But hey, at least I dodged a bullet on how I didn't have to witness her having an episode. Talk about dangerous, that's my life everyday here." He took a glance at her before putting his paperwork away.

Ava continued to stare at him, and her smile turned into a smirk. "I like dangerous men." She said before walking away.

"How dangerous?" He asked.

A smirk appeared on her face before she turned around. "Buy me a drink, and maybe I'll tell you."

Connor thought about it for a moment. "Why not, we're calling it a draw today."

Just as Connor was about to enter the doctor's lounge to change, he was paged into the ED about Dr. Charles being shot. He took Ava with him downstairs.

"What the hell happened?!" Connor and Ava came running into the ED

"He got shot in the abdomen. He lost a lot of blood." Sharon spoke in a very concern voice for her friend.

"Bagdad!" Shouted the nightshift ED charge nurse.

"No, we're going straight to the OR. Tell them we're on our way up!" Connor shouted placing his hand against the covered gunshot wound to add more pressure.

"Hang on, Daniel. Stay with me." Sharon spoke comforting words to him.

"His pulse is dropping. We need to move fast." Said Ava.

"We're gonna take good care of you, Dr. Charles." Said Connor.

"Stay with me, Daniel." Said Sharon.

Once in the elevator, Connor uncovered the wound to see how bad it was as the elevator closes be hide them.

That's the first chapter that includes 2x23-3x01

Tell me what you think about it so far!