Getting back to "Normal" | Rhekker

Chapter 27- Gala

Ava drove them to the venue, following Connors directions. She switched from her flats back into her heels when they arrived. Ava flipped down the mirror above her head and took out a tube of lipstick, tracing her lips carefully. When Ava had just passed her Cupid's bow her hand let out a little tremor.
"Dam it" Ava cursed.
"Here, let me" Connor took the tube from her hand and held her chin, finishing of the line for her.
"Thank you" Ava smiled in his hand, rubbing her lips together.
"It's just because I'm a little nervous" she said, pulling back, popping her lipstick into her purse.
"There's nothing to worry about" he assured her, getting out of the car.

"Oh wow" Ava said as they walked up to the building.
"Pros of having wealthy donors" Connor joked, holding the door open for her.
"Always the gentleman" she teased him walking through the lobby and up to the lifts.
The lift doors close behind them and they start being lifted into the sky. Standing in opposite sides of the lift, Ava smiles down at the street below them.
"Chicago's always so pretty at night" she sighs softly, studying the ground below her.
"Do you ever miss anything about Capetown?" He asks suddenly, drawing Ava's attention to him.
"The mountains. We have a fair few high rise buildings, but wherever you go you can see the mountains over the buildings. I always like to think they were watching out for us all. And the stars, when there were power cuts you could see hundreds of them"
Ava looks back up to Connor, who smiles to her, listening intently to her story.

"I told you that was the wrong floor!" Sharron's voice floods into the lift as the doors open in the ninth floor.
"I could have sworn it was the ninth" Daniel replies as they step into the lift.
"Dr. Rhodes, Dr. Bekker, lovely to see you both at this event" Sharron greeted them.
"So it's floor nineteen then?" Daniel comforted as the doors closed behind him.
Ava gave him a nod and a light smile while the lift took them up.
"So Dr. Bekker you've chosen to stay at med I seen?" Sharron says.
"Yes" Ava confirms, glancing to Connor. "For the foreseeable future"
"Well we'll always love having you"

They exit the lift onto the nineteenth floor which is alive with party.
Sharron and Daniel head off to one side to speak to someone while Ava and Connor stick together.
"Dr. Bekker, Dr. Rhodes. A comment for the Chicago times about your attack?" A reporter asks coming up to them. "No thank you" Ava says coldly walking past him.
"I didn't think they'd be so blunt" Ava whispers to Connor as they make their way to the bar.
Connor go a whiskey and Ava just got a Sicilian lemonade.
"Dr. Bekker I'm Sarah Biden, I'm one of the donors on the hospital board. I just wanted to say how sorry I am for want happen, I hope your recovering well" she said quickly, placing a hand on Ava's arm.
"Thank you" Ava gave her a fake smile before she walked away.
"I feel like such a fraud" Ava whisper, turning to lean back on the table.
"C'mom Ava, Sharron decided to go with that, you had to follow" He said softly back to her and Ava nodded in agreement.
"It would be worse if they knew" she shook her head, turning back around.

Connor placed his hand discreetly in Ava's wrist, rubbing his thumb over hand in support. A light clinking sound came over the room and Connor pulled his hand away. Sharron made her way up onto the stage in front of the mic.
"Thank you all for coming today, our wonderful donors" she greeted them.
"You donations have helped countless people, build our famous hybrid OR room, and had helped Gaffney grow to the beauty we see today. Some of the best of our best are out in the crowd. Sam Abram and of course of amazing Cardiothoracic surgeon duo"
Ava smiled at the mention of her and Connor, knowing the cameras would be on them at their mention.
"We have some new and exciting projects coming up in the hospital, a new maternity ward refurbishment and some new chemo treatments that will be getting trialed. Gaffney would also like to announce our first wellbeing and anti-suicide course and team"
Ava threw her glance down to the table at that mention.
"Ava I didn't know" Connor mouthed to her as she looked up to him.
"After the death of the late Dr. Wheeler at our hospital three years ago, we felt that enough wasn't down to prevent doctor and nurses suicide." Sharron says, swallowing.
"A doctor and other medical staff have some of the highest suicide rates, and it should be a national headline every time it happens. I refused to let my people go on in a system like that" she said confidently.