Tenacious

Chapter Five

The ride home was far more treacherous than the ride into hospital had been. Judging from the weather, it might've been January rather than late early April. He drove slowly down the lane that led to his house, and was relieved to see the lights of home come into view. Even though he'd been driving in this city since he first got his license, he wouldn't have normally chosen to be out on a night like this but he had no choice nowadays.

He walked into the house, stamping the mud off his boots.

Melinda, his sister and his friend, Darius were in the kitchen, downing the last of the pizza along with one of Matt's beers. "What took so long? I was starting to worry about you."

"I was working, Mel."

Dr. Darius Brandon, his best friend gave him a shit-eating grin. "Maybe you wanted to be alone with your new chief of surgery."

"You're a jackass. She's here to work." Maybe if he said that often enough, he'd begin to believe it himself.

"Maybe but you can't ignore her beauty. She really is a hot one."

Matt went to the fridge and grabbed a beer. He didn't like the way Darius talked about Gray but he didn't say anything back. "She's a nice person. She's good at what she does, Henry Maxwell was right as always," Matt said after a long moment of silence.

"So you're for it now?" Melinda asked, seeming stunned by Matt's change of heart.

"I'm not sure yet. She was amazing today, not even once she panicked or let her anger take charge. I think we should give her a chance. Who knows? Maybe she could be a good chief of surgery."

"Tell me this," Melinda said. "If she wasn't young and pretty and you weren't bowled over by her, would you want to 'give her a chance' or would you feel the same way the rest of us do?"

"Screw you guys. It's got nothing to do with that."

"Ah," Darius said with a knowing grin that made Matt want to punch his best friend the way he would've back in the day. "Anyone else notice he doesn't deny that she's young and pretty and he's bowled over by her?"

That set off the Melinda into laughter that made Matt's face heat with embarrassment.

"Darius, stop it. She really did a fantastic job. The whole day she was in command. She helped out because we're short on staff.  Especially the accident cases. She was damn quick. If I didn't already know that she was a cardio-thoracic surgeon, I would have assumed her to be a trauma surgeon. She looked very experienced. "

Melinda's eyes softened. "I know how difficult accident cases are for you."

Matt nodded. "I'm okay, Mel. It's just once in a while I think about how we lost our dad because some bastard choose to drunk drive." Matt lost his father in an accident when he was fourteen years old and it still hurt him to see a drunk and drive case.

"She looks like she had a fair share of experience in her life," Darius commented, going back to Gray.

"I don't like her," Melinda commented.

"Why?" Matt asked, intrigued.

Darius laughed. "Because Dr. Zach Maxwell talks greatly about Dr. Gray."

Matt smiled despite his irritation about Zach's interest in Gray. His baby sister have a crush on Zach which nobody but Darius and Matt knew about. "He did visit the ER today and assisted Dr. Gray in a surgery."

Melinda's eyes widened. "Why did he assist her? I mean, isn't he senior than her."

Matt shrugs. "No. Zach is younger than her and he started as a attending last year while Dr. Gray has been one for almost seven years."