The young nurse picked up the elder woman's arm, placing her fingers against her wrist to check the steadiness of her pulse. She held her own breath as she did and closed her eyes for slight concentration while she determined the condition of the patient. With a confident conclusion, the young nurse took a deep breath as she gently set down the elder woman's hand and opened her eyes, offering her a small smile.
"The doctor will be right with you. She'll only be a few minutes more before she can come to see you," the young nurse said. She lifted the stethoscope from her shoulders and placed the rubber ends into her ears. As she raised the other end, she noticed a frown on her patient's face. She paused and asked, "Miss?"
"'She.' You said 'she.' Where is that fine young doctor?" the elderly woman asked. "Aren't you His assistant nurse?"
"I am," the young nurse answered, "but Doctor Gannon is on leave for a few months."
"How can that be," the woman said. She sounded like her world was collapsing. "This place will fall apart without him."
The young nurse had no response. There wasn't much she could say. She could not disagree with the patient as it might make the elderly woman upset. It would also talk down her teacher's skills as if they were not needed. If she agreed with her, it would insinuate that the hospital was in danger without the lead doctor there. All she could do was finish up the check-up.
When Doctor Gannon came to Liwayway and told her that he was going to take three months off, she was utterly shocked. She thought he was playing a prank on her. He was a known workaholic! To take three months off was completely out of character for him. She stood in his office when he had told her, holding a clipboard of papers to her chest, and stared blankly at the floor while she tried to think of a good reason as to how the impossible was happening.
Doctor Gannon was a man in his mid thirties. He was the lead doctor in their entire medical facility. While the chief of the hospital was Doctor Mane, Doctor Gannon oversaw everything he was meant to, slowly taking over the position for Doctor Mane to retire.
To Liwayway, Doctor Gannon was the smartest doctor she ever knew. She envied him, and she wanted to be like him. Doctor Gannon could determine people's issues with a vague and horrible description from a patient, and his stitching was gorgeous, and his incisions were perfect. His attitude, however, felt like talking to a brick wall sometimes, but she learned that it was his outer personality. Doctor Gannon was a man of professionalism when he was in the workplace, and for the most part, he was completely work and no play. When he was out of it, he was quite lax, kind, and even had a tiny bit of a humor that his co-workers or patients would never expect from him.
He was tall. At least, taller than Liwayway. She was a small, young woman. Her hair was originally blonde and consistently dyed a light shade of pink. She usually wore it down in a double set of twin pigtails and had a white headband to keep her bangs in place. A blush was usually on her face from her body running hot, blending her freckles into her cheeks, and a smile was always to be seen.
Meanwhile, Doctor Gannon had straight black hair a little past his shoulders that was typically pulled back into a lower tie. His posture was always like a metal ruler and snapped at attention. His frame was not large for a man, but it was also not small for a man either. He appeared quite androgynous. Though he was handsome, he could also be described as pretty.
The look on his face was always just. It was hard to tell if he liked his job or hated it. Everything about him seemed to be incredibly relaxed. If he smiled, he would be quite handsome. The doctor was not ugly even without smiling, but there was no doubt he could be the most charming man on the planet if he put in a little bit of effort; with a little curve of his lips, people would flock to him. Perhaps he knew that and didn't want to attract anyone to him.
The doctor suddenly sighed. He stopped gathering his work together and looked at his confused student. "It's for a friend," he said.
"A friend?" Liwayway had no idea that he even had friends given his attitude, personality, and how dedicated he was to his work. "You're going to hang out with a friend for three months straight?" she asked. It was a very intrusive question considering it was her boss' personal life. The question slipped from her. She was about to apologize.
"I guess," he answered half-heartedly. "My sister asked me to do a favor for her, so I'm leaving for a bit."
A bit?! Three months was a lot longer than 'a bit.'
"To do what?" Liwayway already got one unexpected answer out of him. She saw no harm in trying again. Besides, he was leaving for three months. His anger with her questions would subside by then, so she took the risk.
"To… it doesn't matter," he answered quietly. Damn, he almost told her! Liwayway was so close! She took a step closer to his desk.
"Doctor Gannon, isn't this a little… how are you going to convince Chief Mane to let you take so many days off?" Liwayway questioned. "I'm willing to help you, of course, but it would help knowing why, so I don't say anything that doesn't make sense."
"First off, quit referring to me by that long title. We're alone."
Since Liwayway had taken up a position in the hospital during her college years, she had always been overseen by Doctor Gannon. He helped her, and he taught her what it was truly like to work in a hospital. When she graduated university, he took her as his personal medical assistant—he trusted no one else with his patients but her. So, the two of them had a close relationship, like an elder brother and a younger sister. He doted on her. In private without anyone else around, she typically referred to him by a nickname from his given name rather than the strict title of 'Doctor Gannon' that she used in front of coworkers.
"Sage, what's the meaning behind this trip?" she asked.
Doctor Sage Gannon was quiet for a few moments. He stared at his desk that he had been cleaning up. Silently, he reached forward and began to finish picking up patient folders. With them in his arms, he walked over to his file cabinet, and with his back finally to Liwayway, he began talking: "I won't be here, so it doesn't matter too much on the details. I'll be traveling around."
"Traveling around?"
Doctor Gannon struggled to find words without revealing so much or embarrassing himself. Both things were impossible. The doctor began to place the files away as he spoke as if it were a prepared script.
"Isa's friend is a business consultant. He has a three-month trip that was planned and pre-paid for by his company for him and his wife to go on. It was to act as a working vacation, but a week ago, he left her. He didn't want to go alone after his wife had been planning to go with him, so he wanted someone to take her place to avoid long and embarrassing conversations with business partners, to avoid looks of pity, and to only talk business."
"…"
Huh?
Hah?!
In her silence, the doctor turned around as he closed the filing cabinet drawer. His face was like a stone, unmoving.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, I'm confused," Liwayway blabbed quickly. "Your sister's friend is using you as his wife so that he can avoid telling his work partners and clients that he broke up with his wife?"
Doctor Gannon shrugged and then nodded.
"Y—you have to dress as a woman for three months?"
"What? No." Doctor Gannon shook his head. "They have never met his wife, so I'll just be pretending it was me all along."
"Sorry," she quickly mumbled. But her words were pointless when her next question intruded once again and asked, "But they think you're a wife. How are you going to do it?"
"I—mostly, I was just going to not be in the picture," he explained. "Chief Mane assigned me the job of being a travel doctor."
Of course, Doctor Gannon did not need Liwayway's help in convincing the chief of the hospital to let him leave for so long. He could do well enough on his own. So, everything he told her, he told her because he trusted her. A smile stretched to Liwayway's face, and she clapped her hands together.
"Let me teach you everything I know!"
He raised an eyebrow. "Everything you know?"
"About being in a relationship!"
The doctor blinked a few times. He taught this girl how to be a doctor. Now, she was going to teach him how to be someone's lover?!
Doctor Sage Gannon was not helping out of the kindness of his heart for his sister's friend. Not a chance. However, for the last decade of his life, Sage had been working in the same medical facility. He wanted a change of scenery without being permanently relocated elsewhere or having to move his whole life to another district.
He had a single suitcase with him that was jam packed, which he thought was appropriate for a three-month period. Seeing his 'husband' with the two suitcases made him feel like he didn't bring too many things with him.
"Sorry to make you do this."
"You're not making me do anything," Sage muttered. "If I had nothing to gain from it, I wouldn't have agreed," he added.
"Still." The other set down his suitcases so that he could offer Sage a polite and exaggerated bow. Sage almost flipped out, wanting to pull him up off the ground, but he began talking before he could reach for his shoulders to get him to stand. "I, Rowan Mayle, will do everything in my power to treat you with the utmost respect and care and repay this favor."
Sage's face almost went red. The heat was creeping up his neck. He grabbed Rowan's arms and hoisted him up to stand. "Get up, get up. What the hell is wrong with you? Enough of that," he cursed. "Pay me back by not acting like this," he muttered. "Let's go before we're late."