The Way I Loved You (Rhekker- Chicago Med)

Gold Rush

AUTHOR NOTE: i am so so sorry for the huge break that i took! i had a lot of things to deal with...mostly exams but i'm back to posting regularly now! hope you didn't miss me!

"But I don't like a gold rush, gold rush, I don't like anticipating my face in a red flush, I don't like that anyone would die to feel your touch. Everybody wants you. Everybody wonders what it would be like to love you..."

It was like there was a spring in Ava's step. It felt foolish to think, but she kept on thinking about that night with Connor. He had shown her the stars. He had kissed her in the front seat of his car. He had told her that she wasn't just another girl.

She was even excited to see him today, to see what he would say to her. She felt like a naive girl again, waiting for the next time she'd see him. Fortunately, she was walking into the locker room now, and she was almost certain that she'd be coming face to face with Connor pretty soon. Luckily, she didn't have to wait for too long.

"Hey," a voice said, and it was Connor's. Ava immediately softened her face into a smile. "I was wondering when you'd get here. Dr Latham just talked to me. We've got a really important patient coming in. He's the hotshot CEO of some important company, and he's about to come into our OR. We need to get scrubbed in."

Connor didn't say a word about what happened the previous night. He was thinking about how it felt to kiss Ava, how it felt to see her face, looking up at the stars in awe and gratitude. She was so happy. He hadn't seen her that happy before. It was a new side of Ava that he hadn't gotten a window into.

Once they were ready to enter the OR, Ava tried to get a chance to talk to Connor, before the surgery started. She just wanted to say something to him, about the previous night. Everything he did, everything he said, she was still in awe of it all. The stars were breathtaking, too. She wanted to say something to him.

Except, Dr Latham approached them both, issuing a strict warning about punctuality. There didn't seem to be a chance for Ava to talk to Connor alone, without everyone else being in the room. Sure, they would engage in their usual banter, but everyone was used to that. She didn't want to share the details of their more intimate moments, the kiss and the stars. It felt wrong.

"You coming?" Connor asked her, pushing open the door. He wanted to say something to her, but Dr Latham was already hurrying them along. This surgery would have to be done quickly, the patient was a very important man. Connor had heard it all before. This wasn't his first experience with high-profile patients like this one.

Ava followed him in, and the entire surgical team shifted into position. Ava walked to her usual place, opposite Connor, where they could maybe exchange low whispers, without anyone else hearing. It was the best that they had.

The surgery began smoothly. There were a few students doing a surgical rotation, forming part of the surgical team. One woman, standing to the left of Connor, kept on making mistakes, and hurriedly apologising for them.

Ava knew that she could be unreasonable at times, and definitely impatient, but these mistakes just seemed to be getting bigger and bigger.

Still, Connor seemed to be fine with helping her out. "I don't know what to do with this," she had remarked, holding a simple scalpel in her fingers. Connor had calmly guided her hands, telling her gently where she was going wrong. He had a lot more patience than Ava did, that was very much evident.

Ava realised that she'd been so preoccupied with a particularly stubborn artery, that she hadn't realised what was going on. The student, the one standing to the left of Connor, had completely frozen up. She had her hand around the heart of the CEO, and was completely frozen, not moving.