Danni was the first to notice the man standing in the doorway. Her face blushed with embarrassment of being watched. She retracted her hand from its comfortable position while her eyes changed their point of focus. "He’s here," she whispered to Garrett as she felt a renewed sensation of butterflies in her stomach.
The tall surgeon swallowed hard, the gulping sound almost filling the room. Her palms began to sweat as a sudden need to empty her bladder over took her body. ‘Nerves! I thought I had you under control a long time ago.’ She cursed her body for its reactions, willing herself to regain her composure. Then with a faint smile she nodded in his direction saying, "Dr. McMurray, we have that proposal ready for you."
"Good! Did you two just work it out this morning or did you spend all week on it like I suggested?" He took off striding into his office. "Well, you don’t expect me to listen to it out there in the waiting room, do you?"
"No! No, Sir." The voices of the team members piped in, one over top of the other. The nurse stood mesmerized at the view of the Chief of Trauma Services’ office as the door opened wide. Garrett nudged her gently from behind in an effort to advance into his office but the blonde was frozen in place. Bending over, she whispered into her ear. "The view gets better once you get inside." Then pushed her again with a little more force this time. "Go on."
Danni suddenly realized her fear and looked back for support from the tall surgeon behind her. Blinking several times to help her mind to register what she needed her body to do, the nurse slowly began to move forward toward the open office door, her hand wrapped tightly around the bound proposal. The gentle touches of the large hand on her back helped to ease the fear of rejection that was racing through her body with each step. Before she knew it, she was standing in front of the large desk, with McMurray seated at it. ‘Please, God. Please!’ She offered up one last quick plea on their behalf as she handed the proposal over to him. Then stepping blindly backward bumped into the woman behind her. "Sorry, I…"
"So this is the other half of your team, Dr. Trivoli?" His voice sounded slightly bemused at the nervousness that he was evoking in the small blonde. He began to look over the bound proposal, opening its cover to go deeper.
"Yes, Sir. Let me introduce Nurse Danni Bossard to you, Danni this is Dr. McM…"
"Damn it, Trivoli. She knows who I am. I’m the Chief of a Department," his voice was coarse and gruff. He shot her a glance, then let his eyes fall back upon the nurse, watching for her reaction. "Nice package you have here." He nodded to the nurse as he motioned to the document before him. "Looks like you spent quite a bit of time putting it together."
"Yes, we worked all week on it. The time that we put into the research alone was the better part of that week." Danni’s voice took on a bit of a defensive tone to it, showing her resentment of his words that were directed to her friend. "Sir, I’d like to just say that, Dr. Trivoli was only trying to do the polite and proper etiquette when she…"
He lifted his eyes from the page he was reading. "You’re right. I should have let her finish, but then I wouldn’t know if you two were really a cohesive unit or not. Now, would I?" McMurray half laughed and half-grunted. "I like what I see. I can tell by this report," he held it up, "that you’re working together, at least on paper. It’s evident that Trivoli didn’t write this. It doesn’t sound like surgical dictation." He glanced at the wide-eyed look on the surgeon’s face in front of him.
"Why, sir, is there something that you don’t like about the way I document my operative records?" Garrett narrowed her gaze at him, trying to read the body language that he was displaying.
He sat back in the comfortable looking chair. "No, doctor, there isn’t. It’s just that this document will need to reach out and grab at the heart of that cold, calculating bunch who sit on the Board of Directors here. To do that, we’ll need something with more feeling and emotion in it than any surgical report." He returned to his reading as he skimmed swiftly through the rest of the proposal.
The two women stood side by side now as they waited for him to finish. Each one praying in their own manner for the proposal to meet with his approval. With every change of his facial expression, Danni could feel her heart either rise or fall in anticipation of his words, while Garrett seemed unscathed by it all. The tall surgeon had pulled out one of her stoic masks from the dark recesses of her heart and used it to cover her emotions as she waited for his reaction.
Turning the last page of the document to show the back cover of the packet, the Ol’ Cutter sat there, his face somewhat expressionless as he thought about the proposal that he had just finished reading. ‘Do I tell them that they’ve done well, that I’m proud of their effort?’ He mulled over the possible effects that it could have on them. ‘No, I think that they need to learn that for themselves...and from each other.’ He closed the cover of the proposal, holding it in his hands in a playful motion. "Well, what are you waiting around in here for? The Board won’t meet until Wednesday, I’ll present it to them then." His lips pressed together tightly for a moment and then as an afterthought he threw out. "It should be enough to do the trick." He waved the proposal at them and then threw it off to the side of his desk. "Don’t you two have work to be doing?"
Garrett’s eyebrow raised in question to their dismissal, her body standing straighter now if that were at all possible. The nurse could sense the impending reaction as she reached out, tugging at the surgeon’s sleeve.
"Why I ought to…" the tall woman leaned forward, to which Danni’s tugging became more exaggerated.
"We ought to go back to work now, Dr. Trivoli. Thank you for your time, Dr. McMurray." She pulled her friend with her as she made her way backwards toward the door. "It was nice meeting you and getting to see your office." She quickly looked around it and smiled wryly. "Very nice. I’ll have to see it a little more closely next time." She pushed the raven-haired woman through the now open door and once outside of it, reached back to draw it shut. "Thanks, again. You have a good day, okay?"
She breathed a sigh of relief when the door finally met its frame and she could hear the clicking sound of the lock as it fell into place. She looked up to see the face of her friend. At first her expression was one of being startled then it gradually changed for the better, showing that trademark lopsided grin of hers. "What?" Danni looked at her for an answer.
"I would have said something stupid in there if it wasn’t for you. Probably would have ruined our chances of ever getting that proposal through to the Board, too."
"Well, let’s just hope that hasn’t already happened." The two looked at each other and started to head out of the waiting room. Once in the hall Danni started to giggle, trying to hide it behind her hand.
"What’s so funny?" Garrett stopped, placing her hands on her hips for emphasis.