"Another job well done. I'm glad you're finally seeing sense and cutting down on your amount of absurdly risky cases." The voice belonged to Anna, who was making some sort of adjustment to the anesthetic behind her blue drape. Everything on the anesthesia side always seemed to be arranged with an extra level of meticulousness when she was around. Her big-boned build stood in stark contrast to her focus on details.

"Oh, I suppose," Kate mumbled absentmindedly. She had done her part of the surgery and her assistant was stitching the patient up. Anna's comment only served to remind her that the current patient should have been one of the poor souls whose procedures she'd recently canceled. The fact that she had rescheduled a few of them didn't make up for that. She felt despicable.

"At any rate, my work here is done," Kate said and made her way out of the room. It was her last case for the day, so her next task would be to take care of some paperwork. Part of her hoped the dullness of the task might help to calm her emotions. She discarded her protective equipment and set course for her office.

Only, in her tired and upset state she forgot about taking her detours and suddenly found herself standing right in front of the one person she least wanted to encounter - Rose. Not to say she could have evaded her forever, at some point she'd likely just have cornered Kate in her own office.

"You've been avoiding me." At this point Rose wasn't even phrasing it as a question. "And you've been ignoring my attempts to text or call you."

Kate looked off to the side. Denial wouldn't be of any use this time around. "Yes, that's right."

"Is your appearing in front of me now a sign that you're finally willing to talk? Or merely a blunder on your part?" Rose's gaze was hard.

Should she admit to it, or was it better to offer a lie? Kate thought back to her discussion with Mari. The plan entailed her talking to Rose, but she couldn't spot Mari in the vicinity. Was she even supposed to, or would Mari be hiding? She realized that they hadn't settled on the finer details of the plan. Panic fluttered in her stomach.

Rose tapped her foot impatiently. "Was my question that difficult?" she asked in a tone laced with sarcasm.

"No, but-"

Kate wasn't able to say any more before a figure came running in from the right and slammed into Rose, full force. Unprepared for such an event, Rose easily toppled. Only when both figures stopped moving did Kate realize that it was Mari, holding a paper cup that was now empty but had held water mere moments before judging by the look of Rose.

"Oh, whoops, my bad." Mari grinned as she rolled off Rose and picked herself off the floor, then offered her hand to the stunned researcher. "Allow me to help you up. It's not every day one runs into someone as dazzling as you. I have to apologize for breaking the speed limit, the sight of you blinded me to the signs."

Was Mari hitting on Rose? Kate stood in stunned silence. Her pick-up lines were terrible, and she couldn't tell whether Mari was doing it on purpose or this was how she usually hit on people. The performance only served to solidify Kate's decision about not dating Mari. Thankfully, Rose didn't seem to know what to say or how to react either, allowing Kate to slip away easily.

Kate's heart still beat fast in her chest. The suddenness of it all had truly startled her. She made a mental note to tell Mari to give her some warning next time, or at least give her a general rundown of the antics she might expect to see in the coming days.

She had been filling in paperwork for a while when there was a knock on her door. Fearing the worst, she quickly texted Mari to come and then stood up to get the door. Her fears were confirmed when Rose looked at her from the other side of the doorway.

"We still need to talk."

"I suppose we do." Refusing the urge to back away, Kate offered for Rose to come inside. It was unlikely that Rose would leave just because Kate said she had paperwork to do, or even believe it. If Mari turned out to be busy she was going to be doomed. She plastered on a fake smile as her mind frantically tried to think of ways to delay the conversation she didn't want to have.

Rose took a deep breath, as if preparing herself for something, before she spoke. "Listen, Kate. All I want is for us to give this another try. You don't have to be afraid of me, I promise that I don't have sinister intentions."

Of course she was going to claim that. Kate wasn't falling for such a simple trick.

"And how would you back it up?"

"You just have to-"

Rose was interrupted by the sound of shoes skidding against the linoleum floor, before a loud crash caused both of them to jump in their seats. The door slowly opened and Mari staggered inside. Both Rose and Kate stared, the unspoken question of what in the world Mari had been doing on their lips.

"Oh hey, um, Kate, I needed you to-" Mari clasped a hand in front of her mouth when she noticed Rose's presence. Or rather, pretended to notice her presence.

Kate bit back the urge to comment on how terrible her acting was.

"Fancy meeting you here! Seeing each other twice in the same day, it must be fate." Mari continued her train wreck of a flirting routine. "Why don't we step out for a moment and talk in private?" She wiggled her eyebrows in a bizarre fashion, which was possibly her failed attempt at raising just one of them.

"Kate, can you tell her to go away?" Rose looked at Kate with what looked like a touch of desperation.

Kate squirmed on her chair. While this was part of the plan she felt that Mari was making things a lot more awkward than necessary. "I'm sorry. She's my colleague and if there's something she needs to discuss it's probably important."

"I suppose there's no way around it then. I'll talk to you at a later time." The heavy sigh that left Rose was a clear mark of Mari's success. She stood and strode out of the room with quick steps.

Mari and Kate waited for a moment, allowing some time for Rose to get a ways down the hallway. Then Mari grinned gave Kate a high five.

"Looks like it's working beautifully, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. I see now that I have nothing to fear as long as you're nearby." Kate smiled in return.