medicine {h.s.}

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

march.

"I've been thinking," Harry says, jogging to catch up with me. The sound of his voice was unexpected from behind me. I stop in my tracks, giving him the time to catch up with me. I've been having a good month. We're spending the entirety of it in the OB/GYN speciality again, and it's had a tangible impact on my mood, for the better. Everyone around me has seen it. I know that Harry is jealous. Next month we're going back to peds and it's obvious how excited he is by this information. Only this time around, he's not just excited for his intended surgical specialty. I know he is excited to have some time with Britt. Aside from when he told me about their relationship we haven't spoken much about their relationship. I suppose some things he does prefer to keep private. From what I can tell, he seems rather content with the relationship—nervous, but happy.

"Oh, no," I joke once he catches up to me.

Playfully he gives me a small nudge in the shoulder with his own. "Unkind," he taunts, rolling his eyes at my teasing quip. "But I was thinking: we're going to be spending so much time together in the upcoming years."

My brows furrow at the words. It's not necessarily a life changing revelation. When we signed our contracts here we mutually agreed to sign away the majority of our lives and free time to this hospital for the foreseeable future. Naturally we are going to be around each other plenty in the years to come. But the way in which he is speaking to me now suggests that he has found some sort of excitement in this information. I don't disbelieve him, but I don't understand how to match his level of excitement. "Yeah?" I agree hesitantly.

Harry heaves a sigh with a roll of his eyes. He seems to understand my unspoken confusion. "I'm focusing in peds and you're in OB/GYN. I mean, obviously we won't always be together but there is definitely going to be a very close overlap between the both of us and our specialities." Seeming to second guess himself, he shrugs his shoulders in a forced cool way. I can tell he is suddenly self-conscious. "I don't know. I thought it was cool."

"That is!" I immediately assure him, reaching out and putting one hand on his forearm. His eyes dart up to mine as he studies me deeply. He is looking at me through his long lashes and I can tell he is oddly nervous. Neither of us has made a habit of being overly conscious in what we say to the other, but there is something vulnerable about proclaiming original thought to someone. It takes an entirely different type of courage and confidence than sprouting a life story. "I hadn't thought about that, actually. But I'm really glad that you have."

I hadn't seem him much today, I realize. We'd spent our morning together working with Toussaint in delivering a baby. TJ and Monty had been with Yamamoto doing an emergency C-section and Ruth had been requested by Eze for the day. I tried to not be overly envious about the favoritism displayed in my own field. Harry knew it bothered me so he spent the morning trying to make me—and the mother-to-be—feel better by cracking cheesy dad jokes all morning. Following the delivery our miniature groups were reshuffled. I was sent off with TJ while Monty and Harry were working together doing some rounds around with the mothers who had recently just given birth.

A shy smile comes over his face and he averts his gaze to the ground as he swings the door to our locker room open. He places his foot in front of the door and allows me to walk in first. "I'm glad I'll be working with you."

The words are so unintentionally endearing. I've come to find that Harry is not overly conscious in the impact of his words. More often than not he has the habit of thinking his words thoroughly before he speaks them in his molasses and syrupy accent—but he doesn't think of how people will perceive them. Presently he is displaying such behavior. Without hardly a deeper thought he has complimented me rather sweetly. My cheeks flush with the compliment as I duck into the locker room. "I'm glad I'll be working with you, too. I'll always be there to remind you that you're not the best doctor in the program."