Saving Us

Unpredictable

It's New Year's Eve. Neil and Claire are off today so they have decided to spend the day with each other. They started off jogging. Later they watched a movie together and now it is evening. He dropped at her place afterwards and agreed to pick her up later. Neil has made a reservation at a fancy restaurant.
He is wearing a suit and tie. He heads to Claire's place to pick her up.

He sees her walking and opens the car door. She wore a simple dark blue dress with straps.
"You look lovely." said Neil.
She smiled. "Thank you. You look quite handsome."
He smiled.

Just then, their phones vibrate.
It's a page.
"Trauma influx. All hands on deck."
They look at each other.
"Should've known. It was too quiet yesterday." Neil said, disappointed.
Claire sighed.
She rubs his arm.
"It's okay. We can have dinner tomorrow. Hopefully."
He nods in disbelief.
"Let's go." she said. Neil nodded and started driving towards the hospital.

They arrive at the hospital and Claire seems overwhelmed at the influx of patients.
"Morgan wasn't exaggerating." said Claire.
Neil nodded. "Yeah."
He took a deep breath. He headed to Dr. Murphy while Claire followed him.
"What have we got?"
"Antonio Grayson. T.A victim. Lacerations to the head. He can't feel his legs, so I assumed he has a fractured spine. Possibly severed." said Dr. Murphy.
"Severed?" Antonio said, with a worried expression.
Neil gave Shaun a look.
"Possibly, but we need to do a full body CT to determine whether or not it is severed."
The nurses take him up to the CT room.
Neil's expression is stern.
"Dr. Murphy. He is already scared. You had no reason to say that about his spine."
"I thought he should know. He deserved to know."
Neil sighed.
"Shaun, sometimes people don't need to or want to hear things like that. This is one of those times." said Neil, raising his voice.
Claire stares, stunned.
He turns to Dr. Browne.
"Dr. Browne, can you please check on our patient in the CT room?"
She nodded.
Dr. Melendez walked away to another patient while the two of them went upstairs.

Later, they arrive at the residents' lounge and find Dr. Melendez there.
"It's fractured. Not severed." said Claire.
"That's a relief. Okay, go ahead and prep him for surgery."
They nod.
"Dr. Murphy." said Dr. Melendez.
Shaun turned around.
"I apologise for earlier. It was wrong of me to go off at you like that."
"You weren't wrong."
Dr. Melendez nodded.
"Still. I shouldn't have done that."
Dr. Murphy nods and heads with Claire to prep their patient.

Dr. Melendez arrives at the OR, getting ready to scrub in.
"Scalpel." he said to one of the nurses.
"Dr. Browne, you looked very beautiful. I assume you had a date with Dr. Melendez." said Shaun.
Everyone looked at her.
"Uhh... Yeah, but we never went."
"Why?" asked Shaun.
"We got paged, so we headed to the hospital instead." said Claire.
"Is that why you got mad?" Shaun asked Dr. Melendez.
He looked up.
"Let's focus on the surgery." he said.

He avoided the question throughout the surgery and was exhausted by the time they had finished.
"Dr. Murphy, please close up."
He nodded amd Claire assisted.
Dr. Melendez scrubbed out and went to his office.

He then went outside to the balcony, still in scrubs.
Claire joined him later.
"Hey." he said, feeling her presence.
"How's the patient?"
She nodded.
"His vitals are okay. Still waiting for him to wake up."
"Good."
Silence fills their conversation.
Neil checks the time. It's 23:45.
"Wow. That's the time?"
Claire smiled, nodding.
"It's almost the start of another year."
Neil took a deep breath.
"And a new beginning." he said.
She turned to him and he held her hand. "Claire, when I first met you, I knew that you would be trouble. I just didn't realise how much."
She smiled.
"Until you slowly began to creep into my heart and I couldn't get you out of it." He takes a breath as his voice cracks a little, trying to keep his tears from falling. One nearly falls and he catches it with his thumb.
"You make me whole. Without you by my side, whether it is in the OR or outside of work, I cannot focus. You're my anchor. My strength. My everything, Claire."
She exhales, with glassy eyes.
"I know. I know you don't want to rush things, especially since you're still a resident. And mine, to be more specific. But Claire, we nearly lost each other. And you saved me. You saved us. I cannot bear to imagine living without you. I love you, Claire Browne."
He holds her hand, pulls out his hand which was behind his back, hiding a small, black velvet box.
He bends down on one knee. Claire deeply inhales and then exhales, slowly.
"Claire, will you make me the happiest man in this hospital...never mind that.. Happiest man in the universe and marry me?"

She exhales and stares at him for a while, trying to digest everything that he just said.
He raises an eyebrow.
She wiped her tears.
"Yes! Of course I will marry you." she said.
He smiled and put the ring on her finger.
He got up and gave her a hug.
He then pulled away.
"I'm sorry. I wanted to ask earlier at the restaurant, but then the page... I was so mad."

She shook her head.
"You know I'm not a fan of romantic things. But I would've have made an exception tonight. Just once. But this... This is perfect."
He smiled.
She leaned in, putting her arms around his neck.
He pulled her closer.
"I love you, Neil." she whispered.
He smiled.
"I love you too."
He then kissed her passionately.
As they kissed, fireworks went off in the distance.
They stopped and noticed it.
"Happy New Year." Neil said to her.
"Happy New Year."
She smiled and he pulled her closer for another passionate kiss.