It was early in the afternoon on Friday as Dr. Aaron Shutt went around the hospital on his daily rounds.Well they used to be his daily rounds, now they were Dr Lisa Cateras rounds, he was really just following her. She needed a lot of consults lately. For a while after his aneurism the chief of staff of Chicago Hope changed his position. He was now a pyschiatrist while Dr. Catera took over Aarons old job as neurosurgeon. It'll be a long time before he will be in surgical scrubs again. Aaron walked into a room for a consult with Dr. Catera and leaned on the wall as she explained the patients situation and what she needed help on.
"This is gonna be a looonnnnng day." Aaron intoned in his head, mostly blocking out what Dr. Catera was telling him. "I think your best bet is laproscopic on the lateral nerve. You patch that up and Miss Tonya Harding will be back to skating and whatever as soon as possible." Aaron said and left the room. Exiting the room he nearly ran into Chief of Staff Phillip Watters.
"How are you feeling today Aaron." Phillip said poking him. "You look a little more sleepy eyed than usual today. I hope this isn't affecting your consults with Lisa."
"This job makes a load of sense." Aaron said yawning. "I am now in the mental business and yet I'm still making most of the decisions in the neurosurgery ward. Phillip, what is the problem with this picture?"
"I think I know." Phillip said grabbing Aarons hand and pulled him to a stop. "Come with me, I have something to show you."
"You know after Camille I decided to stop dating my colleagues." Aaron noted with that famous dry wit of his.
"Just come on." Phillip chuckled. "Thats an order Shutt."
"Yes sir." Aaron said as he reluctantly followed.
Meanwhile in a city on the east coast....
Monica Geller gasped as she dropped another plate of food on the ground. She was carrying a load of crayfish to be fried for the days daily special, Jumbalaya. And one of the citys most repsected restaurant critics was waiting for her outside, and he had ordered the daily special.
"What am I gonna do?" Monica said as she hurriedly picked the stray fish up and washed it up. She looked around. No one was watching so she pushed the freshly cleaned crayfish into the fryer. She was satisfied with her job when one of her coworkers walked behind her. She wasnt very popular as head chef with her new coworkers, she replaced a well loved colleague a while ago.
"You dropped one." He said and walked by. She looked down and found she was standing on one forgotten crayfish. She picked it up and threw it in the trash.
"I need a vacation." Monica sighed as she got ready to leave work for her late lunch break.
Chicago
"Mandatory vacation?" Aaron almost yelled as Phillip brough him into his office.
"Take it easy Aaron." Phillips said calmly from his chair.
"Calm down?" Aaron said sitting down himself. "I'm just getting use to being a head doctor and now I have to go on vacation. You know vacation is an alien word to me, Phillip."
"Look at me!" Phillip pointed at himself. "When was the last time you saw me take a break? I dont remember taking a break ever since I became Chief of Staff. And to tell you the truth I was gonna make a try this weekend."
"Really?" Aaron asked leaning forward."What?"
"I won a ticket on a radio show this morning." Phillip said taking a envelope from his upper desk drawer. "I was calling for information on traffic, little did I know I would be the 97th caller on 97.3s Choose to Cruise contest." Phillip sat
up. "I have a medical convention this weekend so I cant take this trip. Seeing you on your consult rounds this morning with Lisa made me think you needed a break."
"I'm not sure." Aaron said. "Last time I went anywhere remotely romantic was with Camille and that was to the cheese chili dog wagon on 34th street."
"Aaron you have to take this trip. Your skills as a decision maker will be effected. You don't go, it will be a matter of when something will go wrong." Phillip said his serious tone returning.
"Can I think this over?" Aaron asked. "I left someone waiting for me in my office when I went with Lisa."
"Sure. Try and let me know before the day is over. Otherwise I may offer this to Dr. Wilkes, who is the second person most in need of a break."
"Okay, thanks."
"And Aaron." Phillip said as Aaron stopped at the door. "Be careful."
"You know if Dr, Nyland was here, he'd take the ticket in less than a New York minute."
"Thats why I asked you." Phillip said with a grin as Aaron
left the office.
New York
Monica yawned as she threw her coat on the coat rack near the door to the apartment she shared with good friend Rachel Green. Rachel was sitting on the couch watching the tv when she came in. She looked up from her tv watching and smiled.
"I'm so glad you're home Monica!" Rachel partically jumped out of her chair. "I have a huge favor to ask you."
"Rachel I told you already that I'm not interested in Dave from accounting." Monica said as she got a juice from the fridge.
"No no, its not about this." Rachel got her purse and grabbed an envelope from it and plopped it on the table. "Get a look at that!"
Monica picked it up and looked on the outside."What is it."
"Its a ticket to a cruise!" Rachel said happily. "Alison in lingere won it and found she couldnt take the trip this weekend. Its been through a nice round of "pass the buck" til Sophie gave it to me."
"Why doesnt she take the cruise?" Monica asked opening the envelope. She looked at the ticket, turning it around in her hand. It was an all expense paid trip around Manhatten island other smaller islands. It was a three day cruise.
"She's afraid of water, sun, boats, sea gulls. So shes basically out of the running. And I thought of you." Rachel said smiling.
"So?"
"I'm not sure." Monica said.
"Not sure???" Rachel pratically yelled. "Are you nuts? Its a free trip out in the fresh air, fun and freedom too! And you need a vacation, cause if you dont take a break now you may lose your job."
Monica put the ticket in the envelope and thought for a minute. "Okay." She said finally.
"Great!" Rachel said. "Come on, lets go to Bloomingdales before it closes!"
"Why?" Monica said a sshe let herself be pulled along by Rachel.
"We need to get you a new bathing suit. The less material the better!!!"
