Over the next few days Mari interrupted Rose and Kate at every turn.

Spilled coffee (not too hot), flying lessons for pudding (failing grade), inconvenient stumbles (some quite theatrical) and a myriad of other annoyances had been on the order. Not to mention countless terrible pickup lines. To make things easier, Mari had requested to be booked on Kate's surgeries whenever possible, and it was working. They had already reached the point where the mere sight of Mari was enough to send Rose turning around in an angry huff.

Part of Kate always hurt a little at the sight, but not as much as she had expected to.

"Did you see her face?" Mari snickered, her face reflected in the glass that made up the right side of the hallway they stood in. "It didn't even take five seconds before she turned around this time. See, your indispensable friend Mari has got your back!"

While those weren't the exact words Kate would use, she supposed she had to consider Mari a sort-of-friend at this point. A sort-of-friend she kept at arm's length, but still relied on. It was more complicated than she would have liked, but a smile still crept onto her lips.

"I'm grateful for all the work you've put in for my sake, truly."

Mari grinned in response. "Aw yeah! You did good work on today's surgeries too. I don't think anyone but you could have handled today's first case."

Kate had to make a conscious effort to maintain her smile.

"That's an exaggeration, but I appreciate the sentiment." It was only possible thanks to her magic. While she had to put work into it, magic still felt to her like an unfair advantage, something slightly disingenuous. If her colleagues had the same abilities they would surely have been capable of the same feats. Even then, she was dependent on the rest of her team. Not all anesthesiologists were equally easy to work with, thankfully Mari was one of the great ones.

"See you around. Just shoot me a message if Rose stops by to bother you again." Mari replied, the grin still huge on her face.

"I'll be sure to." Kate gave a polite nod and they parted ways.

While Mari made her way down the hallway, Kate elected to take a deep breath and silently enjoy her freedom for a moment. Rose had stopped trying to text her, and she hadn't had the opportunity to ask her any substantial questions either. The relatively empty hallway only strengthened that feeling. Once satisfied she made her way to her office to do paperwork, even humming a small tune as she went.

By the time she went home she hadn't seen any more of Rose. She slept well that night.

---

Just after Kate had done her morning rounds the next day, she received a text on her personal cell phone. She had been checking it more frequently due to the need to coordinate anti-Rose action with Mari. The text that showed up on her screen, however, was not one she had been hoping for.

"Code red: Rose in the operating room."

Kate had to shake her head at the first two words. Code red stood for fire, which might actually have been preferable to facing Rose. Her first patient of the day was not in good condition by any stretch of the word. There still was time for Kate to fake something and returning home, but it would mean abandoning her patient. She knew for a fact that none of the other surgeons at the hospital would risk taking on poor Jocelyn Winters with her myriad of medical conditions and reoperations.

Jocelyn's damaged voice played back in her mind. "I'm sure there are good reasons behind your decision." A woman who wanted to live, at least for a little longer, but had become afraid that she was asking too much. Kate clenched her fists. She was going to do it, and Mari would help her.

"I can do it if her attention isn't on me the whole time. Distract her when I mention energy bars."

A verbal signal was required because her hands were going to be occupied. Hopefully energy bars wouldn't be too conspicuous, especially given Mari's vast consumption of them. The only thing she had to watch for was the case where someone else mentioned them, but she figured that would make the signal harder to pick up on for Rose. She pressed send and took several deep breaths to calm herself. This time, she wasn't going to run away.

She was glad she had received warning prior to stepping into the operating room, or she would have had trouble responding to Rose's fake smile and overly polite tone.

"The director arranged a few more observation sessions for me. As we have some experience with each other by now, we reasoned that this shouldn't present any obstacle to you," Rose explained.

Kate had no choice except to play along. She settled on a simple nod, not sure that she could keep the spite out of her tone if she was to give a verbal answer. Seeing Mari wave at her from her spot by the anesthesia machine offered some relief.

The surgery commenced, Kate focusing to accomplish as much as possible without the use of magic. Mari too was doing her best to create favorable conditions, but the point eventually came where regular skill couldn't take Kate further.

"Mind throwing me one of those energy bars of yours?" Kate said, doing her best to utilize the tone of a lighthearted quip. "This is getting fairly stressful."

"All right, catch!" Mari responded.

Kate kept her eyes trained on the surgical field, but she hoped that Rose was doing otherwise. As if reading her thoughts, Mari continued.

"No need for such wide eyes, my fair flower. I was just pulling her leg."

Kate could hear an aggravated huff from Rose's corner of the room. "I have a name, it's Rose. And for the love of all that is good and holy, please stop hitting on me."

Diversion successful. Kate quickly applied her magic and returned to performing surgery the traditional way. Mari had to bait Rose a few more times for Kate to be able to finish, and she easily fulfilled her task. By the time Kate was closing up the patient, Rose had already said her thanks and left the room.

Mari flashed Kate a knowing grin which Kate returned, albeit in lesser magnitude.