"Oh. Yeah, I don't really go to Starbucks that often. I'm more into the cafeteria coffee."

"Really? I can't stand that stuff. It's like that mashed up the coffee beans and shoved them into some lukewarm water. Hell, I think I chewed on some coffee beans the last time I drank that coffee."

Mary laughed. "Oh come on. It's not that bad."

"I'm serious, it's some of the worst coffee I've had. Ever."

"You should try the coffee over at the west side hospital. I used to intern there. You want to talk about bad coffee, that's the place to be." Mary commented.

"I'll write that as something I need to do." Doctor Herder joked.

One of the baristas placed a big cup and a small cup onto the counter. "Venti caramel macchiato and a tall white mocha."

Doctor Herder grabbed both cups and handed one to Mary. "Let's go outside."

Marry nodded and headed out. A small drizzle began to fall from the dark cloudy skies. It was usual Seattle weather making its way through Bellevue. Mary sipped at her sweet coffee and looked around at the people running, as if it would help to avoid the falling rain. Doctor Herder sighed and sipped at his coffee.

"Can never seem to get enough rain around here." He said.

"It's not that bad. Plus, the summers are decent." Mary replied.

"Yeah. Sometimes I do miss the weather back in D.C. though. Seemed to be sunny and decent all year round."

"What made you come here?"

"When they said it was located in Washington, I thought they meant D.C." Derrick joked.

Mary laughed and lightly tapped him on the arm. She couldn't believe she was standing outside a Starbucks and bantering with Doctor Herder. Actual, wholehearted banter with the man she had dreamed about.

"It was actually because of my divorce." Doctor Herder said, changing his tone. "I needed to get out of there."

Mary nodded, surprised that he had been married. "How long were you married for?"

"Oh, I don't know, a couple of years. She was a doctor, I was a doctor, it just wasn't meant to work out." Doctor Herder stated.

"Wow. I never knew. So why here?"

"You know, I don't really quite know. I think I just looked at a map, tried to figure out where a place was that was far from D.C. and just threw a dart. And I heard that I could actually get some alone time here. The Seattle chill or something like that."

"Oh yes, the Seattle chill. Nothing like it."

"You can just call me Derrick by the way. No need for formalities around me."

"You can still just call me Doctor Gray." Mary replied with a smile.

He tapped at her with his elbow and smiled back. "Fine, Doctor Gray. You think we should head back?"

Mary sighed and shook her head. "I'd rather not. Have you ever seen anything like what was in OR 2 before?"

He looked down and nodded, his smile disappearing. "I've seen some strange things before. That steering wheel thing, that was pretty bad. I've also seen some multi-car crash scenes with people all over the place. You just learn to deal with it."

"How?"

"Well, everyone has their own way of dealing with it. I just take a deep breath, stare off at the skies and count down from ten. Each time I go down a number, I try to remember that for each life I'm unable to save, no matter how easy or hard the surgery was supposed to be, there's a dozen where I saved someone. By the time I'm at zero, I remember the hundred or so people I saved and the ten that I couldn't, then I let it all go." He explained calmly as he stared off at the skies.

Mary looked up at the clouds. "Ten..."

Derrick smiled again and looked up with her. "Nine."

The two began to count down in unison. Mary began to think about the people she had saved along with the couple she wasn't able to. Why she didn't have the years of experience that Derrick had, she still was able to recall dozens of faces and names.

"One." The two completed as they turned their heads and stared at each other.

He leaned forward and Mary's heart felt as if it would leap out of her chest. He closed in, closer and closer, she could smell his cologne. She was ready to close her eyes and she slowly began to stand on her toes.