"You're right we need to stand together."

Late into their residency, Neil and Audrey were lucky enough to be a part of a rare case with Dr. Andrews and Dr. Glassman. They've got an infant with craniosynostosis and are planning a surgery to correct the defect. Glassman had brought the two residents to discuss the plans to the parents days prior to the surgery.

The anxious first time parents were so worried for their baby but Dr. Glassman reassured them that the team are confident about the surgery.

"You're going to be the one performing the surgery right?" the father asked again.

"Me, Dr. Andrews whom you've met first, Dr. Melendez and Dr. Lim," he confirmed and gestured to the two beside him.

"Oh, I forgot they're surgeons too," he said.

"Still surgical resident sir but soon hopefully," Neil replied.

"Oh okay..." he said before turning to look at Dr. Lim. "I thought you were a nurse actually."

"Nurses are great people but I'd like to do more than what they can do," Audrey answered.

"But isn't the training so long? Surely you'll want to have a life other than seeing internal organs all the time. My wife was a nurse but I had her stop working to take care of our baby now."

Audrey kept a polite smile but Neil knew better than that. She's faking it of course. He knew that Audrey hates these kinds of patients. Those patients who'd look at her differently because she's a woman and expects her not to be committed enough to being a surgeon once having a family of her own. It's a good thing she's already proven herself to her bosses and earned their respect. But for the patients who are constantly changing, it's frustrating when she meets someone like this person.

.

Later that day Neil joined Audrey for lunch. They've been spending a lot of time studying and preparing for the surgery tomorrow.

They were chatting about the patient until the topic arrived to the parents. Neil felt comfortable enough to press her about his observations awhile ago.

"You were pissed at him,"

Audrey sipped at his drink. "Annoyed maybe. I don't count the number of people who'd asked if I'm a nurse. Even if I'm wearing that white coat they would always look in disbelief if I say I'm a surgical resident."

She looked at him. "Don't worry about me. I don't care about what the patients think of me. I don't care what kind of person the patients are or their beliefs unless its medical related. I'll just do my job well so that they can get out of hospital fast," she with a small smile.

"I don't know but you being nice to these kind of people is weird...after seeing how we bicker with each other," he laughed.

"Oh in my mind I have a lot to say to him. I just can't speak sarcastically to a patient especially infront of Dr. Glassman," she admitted.

.

.

.

Dr. Browne wanted so badly to talk to Dr. Melendez but he was so busy so she waited until he was alone to apporoach him.

"Dr. Melendez can I talk to you for a moment?" she caught up with him as he exited SICU.

"Can this talk happen while walking? Because I'm busy right now,"

"It's about Dr. Lim. Could you talk to her?"

"Don't tell me it's about that incident in OR"

"She told you?"

"I heard from the surgical staff when we're inside the OR,"

"Is she pissed? If she was then kudos to you, that's an achievement I used to do when we were residents," he almost smiled at the memory. "But that is not a thing I would do to my superiors," he pointed out.

Claire didn't get it. "What did Lim expect me to do? Stand there and smile while she called my medical judgement into question?" she complained which earned her a look from Melendez. He remembered debating with her regarding their medical judgements but it was always civil. If he didn't raise his voice to Audrey who's in the same level as him surely he wouldn't dare raising his voice and publicly arguing with his bosses that time as a resident.

"Your patient nearly died waiting on that OR right?" Claire added.

"It was bad what do you want me to do?"

"Tell her to back off."

"No."

"He's a complete and utter--"

"Not one of those nice racists huh?"

"I shouldn't have to be--"

"Claire," Neil stopped and faced her. "Here's what you have to do. Shut up and do exactly what Dr. Lim tells you to do." He spent a long time training with Audrey to witness how she dealt with nice and difficult patients. Their residents needs to learn this too.

"But--" she tried to argue but Melendez stared at her sternly.

"Yes sir."

"Dr. Lim had dealt with a lot difficult patients too when she was a resident, sometimes it was frustrating but it all lead her to where she is now,"

Claire nods and went back to her patient in SICU.

.

A few days later Audrey approached Neil to inquire about his patient. She saw him after he was done talking to Avery's parents.

"How is she?"

"She's out of danger, finally. And she'll be moved out of ICU later this day," Neil informed.

"That's good to hear, or else I will feel really bad that we successfully treated her attacker." she admitted.

"He was a difficult patient, I heard from Browne," he said.

Audrey rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah...but the residents got the worst of it I guess,"

"Is everything okay now?"

"She apologized properly. I accepted it. Case closed." Lim said.

"That easy? It wasn't like that whenever I apologize at you before?" he frowned.

"Because you're different from her."

"You gotta expand on that Lim,"

"She's my resident and I was teaching her a lesson to which she realized and learned from it..."

"And?"

"You were my fellow resident who likes to compete with me so its fun to mess with you once in a while," As she said that she made the mistake of staring straight at Neil's eyes. Only then she noticed that he was already smiling at her.

She forced herself to look away before it got weird. She tried to quickly think of a reason to excuse herself when her own pager saved her from the situation.

"Dr. Lim," Neil called her back before she left.

"What?"

"Next time we argue it'll be my turn to mess with you," he stated with a smirk.

Audrey just playfully glared at him.