"Well, you do. I just hope that you do it for yourself too, Doc." Chris winked and searched the face of the surgeon to see if she understood.
"Well, some things don’t always happen like you want them to." She turned her attention to Marie now. "Let me take a look at that face of yours, Marie."
The quick glancing of eyes passed between the two older women as each wondered what she had meant.
"Doc, ain’t Danni, the nurse, here with you?"
"No," the surgeon cleared her throat. "She’s on vacation."
"But she’s coming back, right?"
"Yes, she’ll be back shortly after I’m gone." Garrett rolled her tongue around her teeth and raised her eyebrows like a shrug. "I’ve accepted a position in Arizona. I’ll be leaving tomorrow."
"You sure that you want to do something like that? I mean…all that way across the country?" Chris was intent on bringing it to her attention.
"Yeah, I’m sure. It’s a good job offer that I can’t pass up."
"Does Danni know about this?" Marie was quick to ask. "I’m sure that she wouldn’t want you to…" she stopped suddenly noticing the face that Chris was making. "Well, we’ll miss you, Doc. That’s for sure."
"Thanks." It was all that Garrett could say as she continued with the closer examination of the woman’s face. "Looks like that scar is healing nicely. A little while longer and you’ll hardly know that it’s there." The words echoed into the surgeon’s own head and she hoped that they would be true for her too as she thought about the scar that would be etched on her heart by leaving Danni.
It was the end of her day and now all she had left to do was stop by the office for her picture of Lucas and turn in her keys, Hospital I.D., and pagers to Dr. McMurray’s secretary. It wasn’t much but it was the last reminders of her year of Fellowship here in Pittsburgh, well, that and the occasionally sore ankle from that pothole.
Garrett turned the doorknob on her office door and was surprised to see it was unlocked. Opening it, she saw Rene Chabot sitting at the desk, his long frame stretched out and lounging from chair to desk.
"Taking over a little more of the office since I’m leaving, eh, Rene?" She teased him, her eyebrow high upon her forehead.
"Well, I did think that the office was going to be a little bigger with you gone, if only for the last week. But I can see that I was wrong." He smiled at her and joined in her laughter. "So, you really are going to Arizona?"
"Yes, I’ll be leaving to drive out there tomorrow." She shrugged not knowing what else to do. "Why, you going to miss me?"
He slowly nodded his head, "Yes, I will."
"Well, don’t let me disturb you. I just stopped by for my photograph." She motioned to it on the bookcase. "It was nice working with you, Rene. Heck, you weren’t too bad to get to know even if you were Canadian." The tall woman chuckled at the face he was making to her comment as she picked up the framed picture and tucked it into her pocket.
"Hey, do you want an international incident or what?"
"No," Garrett shook her head. "It’s just my way of letting you know that I enjoyed our little talks here in the office. You know, Rene, they always made me think."
The tall man sat up, attentive to her words. "That’s what they were supposed to do. Although…I’m not sure that they did."
Her raven hair moved softly around her shoulders as she nodded her head. "They did, believe me, they did."
Dr. Chabot stood and held out his hand to her. "Well, perhaps our paths will cross again, my friend and I’ll get another chance to work on you to open you heart and let the love enter in."
She took his hand and shook it first as one colleague to another and then as friend to friend. "Maybe someday. You never know what the fates hold in store for us."
They let their hands glide smoothly past one another, as their eyes registered what they could not say.
"Good-bye, Garrett." He moved around the desk and hugged the tall woman who had become more of a friend to him than his colleague.
"Good-bye, Rene. Kiss those little ones for me, will you?" She said softly next to his ear.
"I will." The man let her slip away from his grip even though he wanted to hold her in place, not letting her leave until she would come to her senses.
Garrett nodded and left the office as the tall French-Canadian sank into his chair and propped his head on his hands with his elbows on the desk. He sighed loudly. ‘Now what is Danni going to do without you, my friend?’ The man shook his head in disbelief. ‘Better yet, what are you going to do without her?’
She was off the clock now, if you wanted to think of it as such. The surgeon entered the reception area outside of McMurray’s office.
"Hi, Stella." She greeted the woman behind the desk. "I’m supposed to drop these off to you." She held out her hand with the key, pagers and hospital I.D. for the woman to see.
"Yes, Dr. Trivoli, I was expecting you." The older woman smiled politely as she accepted the items. "If you would just sign here, you’ll be free to go."
Garrett acknowledged the requirement and complied by lifting the pen on the desk and scribbling out her signature. Standing back up, she turned and stopped looking at the wall to the left of the door.
"New pictures going up, Stella?" The surgeon pointed to the empty nails on the wall and wrapped frames on the counter right below them.
"McMurray didn’t tell you?" She thought for a moment. "I bet he forgot in his hurry to get out of here last night." The secretary rose from her chair and went over to the packages in question and opened them.
The surgeon’s eyes grew wider as she saw what was going to be hung on the wall. They were mounted photographs of her and Danni. The larger of the two was the PR shot for the Flight Team, while the smaller one was in black and white from the E.R.’s annual Softball game that she had participated in. It was the one that they had used in the hospital newspaper of her and the petite nurse sprawled out like two rag dolls on top of each other in the dirt.
Garrett stood in shock, not realizing that the woman was picking up a third package and unwrapping that also. When she finally saw what it was, she sank down into one of the chairs and just stared at it.
"When…when was that one taken?" The dazed surgeon asked, still glued to the photograph.
"You should know, you were there, Dr. Trivoli."
"I had…I had no idea."
"You don’t think that it’s a good likeness of you?"
"No, it’s good, in fact, it’s great even." Garrett bit at her lip. "I…I got to go. Thanks, Stella for showing them to me." The surgeon got up and left, letting the third photo be the last thing she saw as she walked out of the room.
Stella watched as Garrett departed from the room. "Hmmm…" she turned back to the picture in question. "You sure do always know how to pick them Mrs. McM." She went over to the photo and brushed a piece of lint from the glass. "Don’t want anything to cloud your vision." She giggled. "Just like that Ol’ Cutter of yours, she’ll be back once she finds out what she’s left behind." The secretary looked at the photograph of the four people, Dr. and Mrs. McMurray and Dr. Trivoli with Nurse Bossard at her right. "Yep. Just going to take some time."