Mind the Bleep

18 | Are We Good?

Thirty minutes painstakingly trickled by before Mr Campbell's epidural abscess had been thoroughly drained. And upon completion, Caliana was convinced that her fingers would be stuck permanently throwing up gang signs from the way she'd had to keep her fingers angled to manipulate his spinal column from the site of infection.

"You do know it doesn't really work that way." Preeti's voice rang in the air as Isaac and Caliana had now retired to his shared office for a well-earnt break. Caliana heaved a small sigh as Gerrard's gangly stature came into view — the apparent recipient of Preeti's words. He was residing in the farthest corner of the office, with his trainers kicked away and his feet planted upon his desktop moments away from his computer screen monitor.

Preeti circled as the door swung to a close with a harsh, resonating bang alerting her to Isaac and Caliana's presence. She waved a curt hand to the two. "Oh, are you two here to finalise the arrangements for the Conference Trip this weekend?" She didn't await a response before resuming. "Gerrard and I will be out of your hair in two mins, tops! Let me just quickly down this coffee before I have to head back to the wards." She flipped up the lid of her scalding beverage, before bringing it to her lips.

"Wait. Since Callie's here, why don't we ask her what she thinks? I mean, she's a girl with a good head on her shoulders, I'm sure she'd agree with me." Gerrard slanted his head quizzically at the latter girl, a small snigger escaping from his thin lips as he presented Caliana with a wry grin.

Caliana narrowed her eyes as she spun to face Gerrard. She could hear Isaac sifting through several incomplete discharge summaries from behind her; the rustling sound of paper against paper hanging in the air. "Ask me what, exactly?"

Preeti unleashed a subdued yawn, a cast of hot air blowing from between her lips as she ambled towards the door. "Gerrard doesn't understand how a woman can be gay without having been with a Man before. He thinks it's like saying you're allergic to fish without ever having eaten it."

Caliana clenched her jaw, her eyebrows knitting together as she met Gerrard's unwanted gaze. She wondered if he could see the seething steam arising from her ears, as she prepared a lengthy monologue for his wealth of ignorance.

"I concur." Caliana's mouth tumbled open as she recoiled from the familiar sound of Isaac's gravelly voice materialising from behind her.

He peered at Caliana's look of contempt, before meeting Preeti's wary gaze. "Well, he is right. One hundred percent." He projected his voice as he continued, draping one hand over the other upon the melamine surface of his desk. "So then, Gerrard, tell us all how many times were you sodomised before you realised you were straight?"

The words were spoken with such solemness that everyone in the room was rendered silent before Caliana broke it with her clangorous laughter. Preeti set a hand over her mouth to stifle her more subtle giggles. Gerrard huffed then, tossing a grated countenance over at Isaac as he mumbled an inarticulate sentence about needing to check on his foundation doctor as he trodded out of the room. Preeti mouthed a quick 'thank you' to Isaac as she swung her stethoscope around her neck, lifting it slightly to remove the hair caught in the neckline before following suit and exiting the room.

"You know, you almost had me there," Caliana spoke first. "I guess you really can be diplomatic when you want to be, after all."

"Mhmm." He mumbled in return, a smug smirk playing on his face as his fiery-blue eyes impaled the numerous papers on his desk, once again. He grasped his reading glasses, swinging them between his elongated fingers before perching them onto his nose. Caliana couldn't help but follow the angle of his jaw with his movement– sharp enough to be one of the most noticeable parts of his face, and yet it had felt impossibly silky smooth when it had rested against the crook of her neck earlier. "Ah, you'll be glad to know I found out why your bleep was constantly ringing, by the way."