The Doctor's Heart

The Social Structure of a Hospital

Riza left the crew with Johnny, promising them that she would be back in a couple of hours. She also left her interns there with a threat. That if anything happened to Johnny while she was gone, she would ruin their careers. Now, she patrolled the ER where Lavinia placed her for the time being. According to her former teacher that was the price of taking in Johnny, she had to save lives. It wasn't a punishment to Riza in the slightest. Surgery was never is a punishment, no surgery was torture to any surgeon but Lavinia took advantage over her skills to the fullest. Riza was just fine with that. Not one complaint from the Ship's doctor. She hummed as she wrote on her chart before her when a hand brushed over her lower back. She stiffened as a shiver ran down her spine.

"Hey, Ri'." Mark said, a chuckle in his voice at her reaction. "You seem a little tense."

"A little?" She snarked back at the overly confident surgeon with a scoff in her sharp voice. "Don't you have nurses to flirt with?"

"Maybe?" Mark laughed, leaning against the nurse's station next to her. Almost brushing his shoulder with her own. "How long has it been?" He asked, strumming his pen on the laminated countertop. The plastic surgeon peered at her chart with vague interest. Mark hadn't been invited to the rare abdominal wall transplant, so he didn't really care for it.

"You know how long I've been gone." Riza hummed, still reading Lucy's patient's chart.

"That wasn't what I asked." Mark leaned in, to where he could whisper in her ear. Why was it so hot? Riza wondered, adjusting her lab coat and warmth pooled in her stomach. "How long has it been?"

Riza looked at Mark and the smug smirk on his handsome face with really beautiful blue eyes. Mark's muscles and great hair. She remembered him, really well. Really well and missed it, a lot. He wasn't even a couple inches away from her face, it wouldn't take much to... Riza glared and turned her attention to the chart, her face burned but something did stir within her. A deep laugh told her that he knew she was hooked. "A couple months before I left." She admitted, weakly. Riza closed her chart and placed it on the other side of the nurse's station. The chart would still be there when she got back. "Where's the nearest on-call room? I have a wardrobe malfunction." Riza asked the nurse.

The older nurse with aged old eyes sat at the desk gave her an unimpressed and very judgmental look, she knew. Riza didn't recognize her but the nurse seemed to know her and certainly knew Mark. "Down the hall, second door on the left." She answered with pressed lips. Riza didn't like to be judge and if it was anything else, she would've said something but the nurse was right. She deserved that look.

"Meet you there in five." Mark murmured with a knee-weakening chuckle as he wandered away, leaving a heavily breathing Riza behind him.

Riza let out a shaking breath and smoothed over her scrubs, she felt butterflies flutter in her stomach despite this not being her first rodeo with Mark. She needed this. A year and a half without that was difficult. It was a monster that had been asleep for a long time and Mark reawakened it with a handful of words and a well placed touch. "Riza!"

Riza jolted up to look at The approaching figure of Emily, her heart thundered in her chest. "Hey!" Riza called back.

"I have an awesome surgery in an hour if you want in?" Emily grinned with a quirked eyebrow as she leaned against the counter, next to her. Emily loved the adrenaline rush that came with Ortho surgery almost as much as Riza did with Trauma. Trauma and Ortho often went hand in hand with each other. The two often collaborated on surgeries with each other, meaning they knew each other well. If anyone understood just how much Riza missed surgery was Emily and Mira. 

Riza smiled at the older woman. Emily was her hero, full in cowl and cape. Then her smile faded. Mark. Mark was waiting in the on call room. Surgery or... Mark. Mark or surgery... Riza frowned, conflicted. Why not both? A steamy Mark and then an amazing surgery. That sounded heavenly. "Yeah! I'll be there, I just need to... need to consult with Mark on a case. It won't take long." Riza nodded, eagerly and answered just as fast. "Thirty minutes tops, see you!"