Anxiety - A Rhekker Story

Lunch and Tea

(Connor's P.O.V)

"Hey Maggie, where's Ava?" I ask Maggie as I walk out of the doctor's lounge.

"I think she's still with Dr. Charles," then as if on cue, the elevator door rings and Ava walks out. I watch as she smiles and walks up to me and gives me a kiss.

"Hey Aves, how was the meeting?" I ask Ava, trying not to overstep.

"It was alright. It's gonna be a thing to get used to. It's going to be happening every week," I kiss her once more before I sign in to one of the computers. I suddenly hear footsteps walking towards me and I look up, and it's Will. I quickly sign out of the computer and talk to him.

"Hey mate," he says to me.

"Hey," I sigh.

"What's up? You're sighing."

"I feel useless at the moment, everything with Ava is hard and I don't know how to help her."

"Do you wanna help Ava? Well here's my advice, tell her that you're not going anywhere. She needs to know that you're going to be there forever and not only do you love her, but you're also gonna be by her side to always help," Will tells me.

"You think that will work? You haven't even been able to stay with Nat," I laugh out.

Natalie walks up to us from her computer after overhearing our conversation, "Hey, that's really good advice though, another thing, do something big for her, not a proposal, unless you want to, but maybe bake a cake or something to show that you aren't useless, but now if you don't mind Dr. Rhodes, I need to take Halstead,"

"Okay thanks, Nat," I say not realising what she said immediately, "wait! What do you mean about useless Manning?" I quietly yell as I chase her giggles around the E.D.

(Ava's P.O.V)

I rub my head in frustration as I walk from my patient in recovery into the elevator to the cardiology unit. After my meeting with Dr. Charles, I'm really tired and I don't want to put any effort into anything, luckily I have no surgeries today so I don't have to work as hard as usual. I go to the lounge on the cardiology floor and I lean myself against my locker and begin crying. I stand there and suddenly cry harder when I realise that I'm in the same position as when I left an instrument inside of a patient. It was the first time I showed my vulnerability and insecurity in front of Connor.

I hear the door open and I quickly wipe my tears away. I look to see who it is and its Marty, "h-h-hi, Marty," I stutter out.

"Hi, Dr. Bekker. Are you okay? Should I get Connor?" He asks me.

"No, I don't want Connor to know, I'm just really tired and stressed out."

"Ava, be real with me, have you eaten today?"

"Wait, who told you?"

"Dr. Rhodes told Dr. Latham to tell us so we can keep an eye on you so nothing happens. Now please answer my question, have you eaten today?"

I sigh and rub my eyes, "no, no I haven't, but I'm meeting Dr. Manning for lunch at 12."

"Well sorry to interrupt you. You were probably about to leave then. It's 11:52."

"Oh crap! Thanks for the chat Marty, let's do it next time I'm crying, and remember, do not tell Connor," I walk out of the door to meet Natalie.

"Hey, Nat! Ready for lunch?" I ask her.

"Yeah, let me quickly grab my coat." I watch as Natalie goes in and gets her coat and immediately comes back out. We both walk out of the hospital and go to get pizza.

"Hey Ava, are you okay? It looks like you've been crying." Natalie asks me, concerned, after a while.

"I haven't been crying, what makes you think that?" I ask.

"Nothing really, just your dried up mascara dripped falling down your face." She tells me as she pulls out a makeup wipe to clean up the mess.

"Well, I can't really hide it now can I? I was having a breakdown and I luckily had a weird connection thing with Marty from anesthesiology. I mean, we've always gotten along because we work together quite often, but today I was crying and he was there to comfort me."

"Are you gonna tell Connor?" She asks me.

"I don't wanna put unnecessary stress on him," I reply.

"Ava, Connor loves you. He won't care if you tell him about your problems. That's what boyfriends are for."

"Did you tell Will everything?" I ask.

"Yeah, but Will didn't tell me everything," Natalie sighs.

We keep talking for another half hour until we have to go back to work. "That was nice, let's do it again sometime," I say to Natalie.

"Definitely. At least once a week right?" Natalie asks me.

"Well of course! I don't see why not!" We say our goodbyes and I go back to my floor.