#evening break

“You got it clamped?” The cardiac surgeon asked his surgical resident. 

“Yup, I got it.” The surgical resident replied. 

“Keep it steady. I’m gonna stitch it closed.” He told his resident. “Sutures?” He reached his hand out, closing his hand the moment he felt the tweezers in his hand. He adjusted his hand and brought the curved needle up to the muscle. He made sure to keep his hands light, but firm. If he didn’t, then he may rip the muscle as he’s suturing it. 

The surgical resident watched her mentor very carefully. His movements were so clean and careful, it was always admirable. She’s seen it over a million times and yet…she can’t help but watch her boss with awe. 

“Almost done here.” the cardiac surgeon said, forcing the resident to get back into the zone. She looked down and unclamped the muscle. 

“Alright. Dr. Browne, clamp-” 

“Way ahead of you.” She clamped the skin with the clamps. 

The surgeon smiled under his mask. “Good to know.” The surgeon started to suture the layers of skin together with the absorbable sutures. When that was done, the surgeon gave the tweezers to the nurse. “Gauze?” He said, offering his hand. When he felt the wrap in his hand, he carefully placed it over top of the sutures. “Second gauze.” He called. He repeated his last step, making sure the entire suture and surrounding skin was covered up. “Alright. And tape.” He said next, taking the medical tape from the nurse and taping the gauze down nice and securely. “Alright. Take the patient to the ICU. Well done, everyone.” He told the team. 

With the help of a nurse, Dr. Neil Melendez and his surgical residents were able to get their surgical covers off. The surgical gloves were removed as he headed into the wash station. Pushing a mountain of soap onto his hands, Neil covered the skin from his fingers to his elbows in a huge layer of medical soap. He was always adamant about making sure he was completely scrubbed up after surgery, just to make sure absolutely nothing leaked onto him during the surgery. Once he finished scrubbing, Dr. Melendez rinsed off every last drop of soap from his arms. 

With his hands and arms now clean, Neil changed into a brand new pair of scrubs and made himself over to the break room to eat his lunch. Though he had felt quite awake during the surgery, he had to admit…The constant focus to be delicate and accurate during an entire 12 hour operation, was starting to really physically drain him from the inside out. While beforehand he used to run on a mix of adrenaline and coffee, his body just refused to cooperate with him. So this time, Neil was only running on already-digested coffee during this operation. 

Neil put his lunch bag down on the table. He pulled out his container holding his sandwich, and drank a few gulps from his water bottle. He put the lid back onto the bottle before leaning back with a sigh. 

Though it looked like Neil was staring at his sandwich, the cardiac surgeon was actually zoning out a little bit. It had been the first time in over 10 hours he had been able to rest, and the evidence that he needed one, could not have been more clear. 

“You look tired…” Someone said behind him, as a chair on his right was pulled out from the table. 

“Yeah…I am.” Neil admitted. “I’m not able to handle the 12 hour surgeries as well as I used to.” Neil admitted. 

“I get that…” Claire muttered. She pulled out her food and started to eat as well. “What are you having?” She asked, taking a bite of her salad. 

“Just a ham sandwich I whipped up in 5 minutes.” He admitted. 

“Nice. I’m having a chicken caesar salad.” She told him. 

Neil took another bite and put it down. “Mhm…” He sat back. “I need a nap…” He muttered. 

“In need of a coffee?” She asked. 

“Yeah…but the coffee here kinda sucks.” He admitted. 

“Can’t you drown it in sugar and cream?” Claire asked. 

“Yeah…I guess.” He muttered. 

“It’s better than nothing.” She mentioned. 

Neil sighed and chuckled. “True.” He said, rubbing his eyes with a smile. “But I feel like I won’t get any of the caffeine if I drown the coffee in cream and sugar.” He admitted. 

“Mm…True.” Claire muttered, swallowing her food. “Maybe you just need a different kind of pick-me-up?” She asked. 

Neil smiled slightly. “Oh yeah? Like what?” He asked. 

“I don’t know…Something better than coffee?” She suggested. 

Neil raised an eyebrow. “I don’t follow.” He admitted. Claire’s growing smile only doubled his confusion. “What could possibly wake me up more than a coffee?!” He asked her. 

Claire looked away with a toothy smile. “Hehehe- Ihi don’t know.” She mumbled. 

Neil raised an eyebrow. “What were you thinking of?” Neil asked. 

Claire bit her lip to try and lessen her smile. 

“Claire, I can see your face. You’re not exactly good at keeping a poker face.” Neil reminded her. 

Claire snickered as quietly as she could before shoving more salad into her mouth. 

“Oh, so now you’re gonna ignore me?” Neil asked next, smirking slightly. 

Claire covering her mouth in an attempt to cover up her full mouth while she laughed. 

“Come on, Claire…” Neil sighed with a chuckle. “I’ve got zero energy right now.” He whined slightly with a small smile.  

Claire giggled. “Then it looks like you’ll never get your answer, Melendez.” Claire teased, poking his chest. 

Neil narrowed his eyes at her. “Oh really?” He smirked and got up. “Is that so?” He poked her shoulder. “You wanna test that?” 

Claire laughed and poked him back. “I prefer the phrase ‘press your buttons’.” She declared. 

Neil poked her shoulder a few times. “Oh, you wanna press people’s buttons?” He poked her arm and poked her elbow before continuing: “Okay, I’ll play your little games.” 

Claire backed up a few steps, and readied both her index fingers for poking. “Ready when you are, Melendez.” She declared. 

And the poke fight was off. They ran around the room, trying to chase each other down while also trying to dodge each other’s pokes. It was a constant strange mental fight between going in for the kill, or running away to stop their opponent from poking them. From an outward perspective, it was really hard to tell if they were trying to run away from each other, or get closer to each other so they could roughhouse. 

Neil eventually slid into one of the sliding chairs by accident, knocking the chair onto the ground and nearly falling onto his face himself. “Dammit!” He yelled in annoyance as he picked up the chair. 

“Are you okay?” Claire asked him, offering him a hand. “Yeah…Yeah, I’m fine.” He replied, waving his hand to reassure her. 

Claire smiled a little bit and poked his side. “I win.” She declared. 

“Ah-!” Neil jumped and grunted, grabbing his side. 

Claire raised an eyebrow. “Ticklish?” She asked him. 

“Me? No. Why?” He asked, looking at Claire with confusion mixed with slight worry. 

“Oh, no reason…” Claire giggled as she struggled to contain herself. 

“Claire, don’t you even think about it.” He warned, putting up his hands in defense. 

“Don’t think about what?” She asked with a smug little grin. 

Neil wasn’t used to seeing Claire so…playful. “Th-That’s a trick question.” He said out loud. 

“Is it?” Claire teased, wiggling her fingers. 

Neil widened his eyes and froze slightly, now unsure what to do with his hands. This gave Claire just enough time to engulf him in pokes against his sides, abdomen and ribs. “NoNO-GAHaha!” Neil doubled over, trying to grab her hands. But trying to grab her hands was extremely difficult due to how fast she was compared to him. It also didn’t help how twitchy and jumpy he had gotten from the tickles alone. It was so unfair…and yet, he didn’t feel mad at her. He was more impressed than anything. “C-CLAHAIRE DOHOHON’T!” Neil pleaded. 

“Come on, Neil! Is it really that bad?” She asked him. 

“YEHEHES!” He yelled back. 

“Oooh, well that’s a damn shame.” She teased before changing her pokes to skitters. 

Neil’s body overtook him as a wheeze flew out of his mouth. He had hung his head in an attempt to try and hide his smile. “Nofahair! Nohotfair!” Neil tried to argue. 

“Am I going too far?” Claire asked, her voice switching to a more genuinely worried tone.

Neil nodded his head a little bit as he grabbed Claire’s hands. 

Seeing the signals, Claire removed her hands and reached for the office chair that was still nearby. “There.” Claire placed the chair against his backside, and made sure Neil didn’t fall while trying to get himself on. “You okay?” She asked. 

“That was…Very unprofessional.” Neil told her. 

Claire bit her lip and fixed her hair, not entirely sure what to say. “I-” 

“However…” Neil put his pointing finger up. “I won’t hold it against you. It was a little justified.” He told her. 

Claire wasn’t sure if she should be relieved, or more worried. He was being considerate considering the nature of her actions…but this also meant he was favoring her over the other residents. And…she didn’t know how she felt about that. Only one question kept going through her mind: “Are you sure it’s okay?” She asked. 

Neil nodded his head. “I’m just as guilty as you were.” Neil told her. 

Claire was taken aback a little bit. Dr. Melendez? Guilty as well? “What do you mean?” She asked for clarification. 

Neil chuckled. “Well…” He sat himself up with an awkward smile. “I didn’t exactly stop you, did I?” He reminded her. 

Claire hummed and smiled a bit too. “A little bit, but-” 

“Dr. Browne-” He waved to her. “It’s okay. As long as we keep it quiet, it shouldn’t matter.” He told her. 

Claire nodded her head and looked towards the table. “Your sandwich is on the table.” She told him. 

“Right…” He wheeled the chair over and went back to eating his sandwich. Claire sat herself at the same spot where her salad was still sitting. 

Neil and Claire resumed eating in almost complete silence. Though the tension was almost unbearable, they both didn’t really have anything else to say. So they remained sitting in silence. The only sound that was heard in that room was the crunchy chewing of the salad, mixed with the constant beeping of the heart beat monitors and the occasional ‘Code yellow’ calls. 

Soon, her fork began to touch nothing but plastic. Looking down, she quickly noticed that her container was empty. So, she put the lid onto the container and put it back into her lunch bag. She sighed and sat back, unsure what to do now. She could feel her eyes getting droopy…

*Poke* 

“HoLY-?!” Claire sat up with a big gasp. Who did that?! She looked over to Neil, expecting him to still be eating. But to her shock, Neil was covering up his own mouth, trying not to laugh. 

Claire narrowed her eyes. “What are you laughing at?” She asked with a little crooked smirk. 

“Nothing…” Neil smirked. “Just your reaction.” He added with a snicker. 

“My reaction?” Claire asked. 

“Nooo, your stern face…” Neil said somewhat playfully.  

Claire threw several pokes back to him. “If you think I’m so funny, why aren’t you laughing?” She asked. 

“What- aH-! Yes I WAs!” He jumped and snorted, trying to cover up his side. “eeEEK!” Neil shrieked the moment he felt her wiggling little finger in his armpit. 

“What was that?!” She busted out with laughter. She grabbed his arm, held it out beside him and tickled his armpit more. “I could never have predicted that you squeal when you laugh!” She reacted. 

“NOHahaha! S-Stahahap! Thisisn’tfahahahair!” He shook his head as he tried to pull his hand free. 

Claire was smirking rather menacingly as she shoved her fingers deeper into his armpit. “Not so powerful now, huh?” Claire teased. 

Neil had only managed to pull his hand back part way before he guffawed and bursted out cackling. “SHUHUT UHUHUP!” He slid himself further down his chair. He was attempting to escape from her grasp by pushing himself under the table. Just seeing his head and his upper arm visible from above the table, was more than enough to make Claire burst out laughing. She had to let go of his hand so she could cover her mouth while she laughed. 

Meanwhile, Neil had slid himself down the rest of the way before crawling himself out from under the table. He took one look at his watch, and looked back at Claire with a smile. “Almost time to go.” He told her. 

Claire took a moment to calm herself down. “Ohokay…okay.” She took in a deep breath and let it out. 

Neil chuckled and poked her side. “Was it worth it?” Neil asked her. 

Claire jumped and looked at Neil, before rolling her eyes with a giggle. “Definitely.” 

Neil and Claire picked up their bags. “Not a word, alright?” Neil warned.