While Noah was in a good mood to roast the candidates who were present to attend the interview, Aria drove to the hospital relieved. She had narrowly escaped meeting Noah for the time being. Though he was not scary, she still was not ready to face him and his punishments. She knew what was waiting for her and the mere thought of it made her nervous, yet excited. She was not sure why she felt that way, but Aria knew that once Noah caught her, he would eat her alive.
Since she was quite early and there was a lot of time for her shift to start, Aria directly went to the canteen to have something. Her gluttonous stomach was shouting at her for not feeding it and if she did not provide it with food, it would keep grumbling like an old woman who had no better job to do.
"May I have an omelet and a bottle of orange juice?" She placed her order and waited near the canteen. There were not many people at that time. There were the doctors and nurses who worked the night and some family members of patients who were admitted to the hospital.
As she waited for her food, she saw the person who had injured her a few days back walk in along with a guy she did not recognize. Immediately she turned her head the other side to avoid being caught while staring. She did not have a good impression of him as he had appeared to be rude when all she was doing was her job.
The moment Preston had entered the canteen, he had noticed Aria. He had also seen her taking a glance at him before looking away. Since the day Valarie had been hospitalized, Ryder and Preston had stayed with her taking care of her. It had become a second home for them. They had to make sure she was alright as there were people who wanted her dead. So, they were guarding her personally.
Ian had told them they would get the clip they wanted shortly. So, they could do nothing but wait. Valarie was recovering quite well, though she had gained consciousness just a day before. The doctor had informed them that they had to wait until she recuperated completely before getting discharged.
The duo went to the counter to place their orders. By then Aria had already taken her tray and had sat at the table as far as possible from them. She did not want to invite any uninvited problems, she already had enough on her plate.
The two men were silent the entire time, but Ryder could sense Preston's unusual behavior. He kept glancing at the lady in a black blouse and blue jeans. It was the first time Ryder was seeing Aria. So, he did not know what was transpiring between the two.
"Who is the lady you are looking at?" He asked tapping his colleague's shoulder.
"Who? What lady? There is no lady here." Preston said flustered on being caught. He took one last glance at Aria before he turned to look at his friend.
"Don't pretend. I can clearly see where your gaze is heading towards. I have eyes and they are quite sharp. Do you like her?" He questioned directly.
"What? No. There is nothing like that."
"Then why are you behaving this way?"
"What way?" Preston asked innocently rubbing his palms. "It must be the weather."
"Don't try to talk your way out of it. Tell me what the matter is." Ryder stressed placing his hand on Preston's shoulder. Seeing his persistence in finding out the truth, Preston realized he had no way to talk out of it. He sighed in frustration.
"When you had gone to meet Chief that night, Val's heartbeat suddenly fluctuated. I called the doctor on duty and it was she who came to see her." Preston pointed at Aria as he continued, "At first, not much happened. She monitored Val's health. But I could see that there was no change in her health. So, I got angry thinking that the doctor was not doing her duty and I pushed her quite harshly."
"What happened then?" Ryder was very interested in listening to his story. It was very dramatic and filled with a lot of actions.
"I pushed her aside, thinking she was not doing her duty when in fact, it was nothing but normal. Val was waking up. So, due to the sudden shock, her body behaved strangely. Not knowing the real truth, I ended up hurting the doctor's ankle."
"You have got to be kidding me," Ryder said in shock.
"Look, I did not know about it okay. I know it was my mistake and I apologized for it too." Preston shrugged as if it was nothing, though he was still unable to remove Aria's face when he had seen her limping.
"So, it is the remorse that is making you all fidgety?"
"Maybe."
At that moment, the chef handed them their orders. "Come, let's go and talk to her."
"What? No." Preston stopped walking listening to his friend's suggestion.
"Listen, if you want to get rid of the guilt that is eating your heart, just trust me and follow my lead." Saying that Ryder walked away and Preston having no other choice followed him to Aria's table.
"Excuse me," Ryder called, startling Aria. She saw the two men who she wanted to avoid standing right in front of her.
"Yes?"
"Can we sit here?" He pointed to the seats in front of her. Aria looked around, there were a lot of tables that were empty. She wondered why they wanted to sit with her.
Seeing her look around, Ryder cleared his throat. "We wanted to talk to you about something."
"Okay." She agreed reluctantly and the two men sat down immediately.
Five minutes passed and nobody spoke a word. Aria was almost finished with her breakfast. Seeing her plate becoming empty, Ryder nudged his friend to start the conversation.
"Hello. You might not remember me. I am the one..."
"who hurt my ankle. I know." Aria interrupted making it awkward for him.
"I apologize for my behavior."
"It's okay. Anyway, you apologized that day and I accepted it. That ends the matter." Preston nodded silently.
"I..." Preston started after some time to be interrupted again, but this time by a beeping sound.
"Sorry about that." Aria took out her pager that was beeping. "I have to go now, it's an emergency. See you later." Saying that she ran away in a hurry.
"Hmm. That went quite bad." Ryder commented taking a bite of his food. "What's this?" He took the phone that was lying on top of the table. In a hurry, Aria had forgotten her phone on the table.
"Come, let's go and give it to her." The two men ate their food in a hurry and then proceeded in the direction Aria had gone. But they had to stop suddenly on seeing the chaos in front of them.
There were a lot of kids, more than thirty, who were injured and bleeding. They were being wheeled on the stretcher, while some of them were being carried by the ward boys. Aria was in the middle of treating a child who was having a seizure. She shouted for the ward boy to get a stretcher. However, they were too busy to hear her. There were a lot of people who needed their attention.
Seeing that nobody was coming to her help, she lifted the boy with great difficulty. He was quite heavy for her and she had to struggle to balance herself and the boy.
"Let me help you." She heard someone say. It was the same guy who had injured her. Without waiting for her reply, he took the boy and lifted him up with ease.
"Where to?"
"Follow me," Aria said and ran towards the emergency ward with Preston right behind her.
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