Kate heaved a sigh and rubbed her forehead. On her desk was a stack of case files. She had already looked over the cases three times and still couldn't find one that seemed like a good candidate for observation. She placed the files back in the cabinet on the right side of her desk, then slumped forward and groaned.

Did this mean that she had become too dependant on using magic for her surgeries? No, there still was the occasional surgery that got recorded. Machines couldn't pick up any visual of her magic, just as people were unable to, but she still had to be careful not to do anything that might look suspicious.

The fact that there would be a person, right there in the same room by the sound of it, was just so much more unnerving. On top of that, it was a person she was attracted to. Even though she sort of hated her at the same time, for putting her in this position. The memory of the Rose's scent popped into her mind and she buried her head in her hands. She sat back up and shook her head. No, she had to get a hold of herself. The time limit was one week. Surely, a more suitable case would come up soon enough.

She flinched when there was a knock on her door. She wasn't expecting visitors and the director had told her she'd have a week to decide, so who might have business with her?

Turned out it was just Mari, munching on an energy bar even at this time. Her slim figure belied her consumption.

"Mari? What do you need?"

Mari hastily closed the door before she walked over to Kate and spoke to her in a conspiratorial whisper. "Is it all right if I hide in here for a while? I just canceled Bron's case because his patient took a turn for the worse, and none of the other anesthesiologists are willing to take it either. It's a big one, meaning his case list for the day is all messed up now. He's not very happy with me, and I don't feel like being chewed out for a completely reasonable decision, hence my being here."

"Can't you just say that to his face?"

"It's Bron." Mari rolled her eyes. "He'd just keep insisting on taking the case, I'd cave after enough pressure, and if the patient goes bleeeep," Mari used her hand to indicate a flat line, "we all know he's going to blame me in spite of my initial objections."

Mari's head whipped around when the sound of footsteps resounded from the hallway. She turned to Kate and waved her hands. "Quick, let me under your desk!"

"You really think that's going to work?" Kate sighed as she rolled her chair back to make space for Mari to crawl into the space. "Hiding out in the toilet would have worked better, you know."

"Too far," came Mari's muffled voice from under the desk.

The door was flung open just as Kate had settled back in to her original position. Bron's red-tinged face glared at her before he shut the door with the same force and stomped onward.

Mari exhaled deeply. "Thanks. You're a lifesaver."

Kate rolled her chair back and looked down at Mari, who was squatting under the desk.

"No, no," Mari waved a hand, motioning for Kate to move forward again. "Just stay the way you were and do your work. I'm going to do some work on my phone until things calm down."

"Or your pager beeps? Listen, I really think you should talk to someone in management about this. It's not a healthy way to interact with your colleague."

"Tell that to Brom. He's the one with a problem. I'm just doing my job." Mari looked down and began tapping away on her phone. "Besides, it's not like I can have them fire him for being my ex."

Kate groaned. That was the last discussion she needed to get into at the moment. "Get out. Please. I need to focus." She didn't have the necessary energy to deal with Mari's issues on top of her own problem. Mari glowered at her and began to make her way out from under Kate's desk.

Then it hit Kate. If she wanted to evade someone, wouldn't someone like Mari be the ideal person to ask for advice? "Wait, I changed my mind."

Mari beamed and settled back into her safe spot underneath the desk. "Great! I knew you wouldn't abandon a friend in need."

Kate wasn't sure whether they were actually friends, but she decided that didn't matter at the moment. "Say, Mari, if you wanted to avoid someone, hypothetically speaking, what would you do?"

"Hide under your desk? Duh."

"No, I mean if you had more time to prepare. To plan things out. Let's say," she trailed off as she tried to think of a good example. "There's this person who absolutely insists on dating you, but you'd rather not. So you want to avoid them, but you can't let them know that you don't want to see them because, because," she trailed off again, having difficulty coming up with the rest of the example without being too obvious. "Their mother would hate you for it, and she's also the hospital director."

Mari peeked out from under the desk, her brows arched. "This is purely hypothetical? You're not being asked out by the hospital director's son?"

"Heavens, no! I didn't even know she had one." For all she knew, she wasn't even into men. Her brain had probably settled on the hospital director because of how recently Kate had seen her. "I'm just bad at coming up with examples. Please humor me?"

"Hmm." Mari disappeared back under the desk as she deliberated. "I think you'd have two main options. One, you keep making up excuses until they give up. But that won't work if they're very persistent."

"Essentially a stalling tactic," Kate mumbled as her thoughts returned to the stern words of the director. The hard part about that approach was coming up with sufficiently good excuses. She hoped that Mari would be more creative in that respect. "What would you tell them?"

"You want to avoid them, but you don't want to give their mother reason to be angry with you, right? For starters, I'd try to act like a ditz and provide them with misinformation whenever possible. It makes you look unappealing, but they can't really blame you if it was a mistake. Just don't repeat the same one too many times, or they'll become suspicious."

Kate nodded to herself. That sounded like a decent strategy. It would allow her to pick one surgery at the end of the week, feed Rose the wrong time, and hopefully see her return home without observing any of her surgeries. The hospital director would probably be mad, but she should be forgiving as long as Kate could make it seem like an honest mistake.

"That sounds good. Thank you."

Mari sounded amused. "I thought this was purely hypothetical? Well, if it ends up not working you could always pretend to already be in a relationship. I'm game. Maybe it'd get Bron off my back too. Actually, that might be worth trying. Hey, you don't think-"

"Under no circumstance." Kate rolled her chair back in one forceful motion and pointed at the door. "Get out!"

If that idea ever took hold in Mari's head Kate knew she was going to be doomed.