⇢ CHAPTER 91 - EXTRA

curiosity nip at her mind as she stretched her limbs outwards and looked around, wondering where her husband could be. 

"Huh," She muttered, quirking a brow as the clock beside her illuminated the date and time— December 25th, 10:15AM. Figuring it was her birthday, something Jackson  to celebrate, she found it odd he was nowhere to be seen. 

It wasn't that Holly  her birthday— rather, she seemed to usually find things more important on that day so she would  the fact it was her birthday. Perhaps it was a result of the normalcy she felt in placing things revolving around her away— an affect her sisters, excluding April, would typically do. 

So, as Holly sat upright, the covers cascading off her upper body as she rubbed her eyes— the peace was quickly disturbed as the sound of nails tapping against the floor got louder with each step Frodo took from his bed in the living room to his destination, Holly and Jackson's room. 

With that, Holly's eyes darted to the door.

She smiled, watching as Frodo rushed over to her side of the bed before scratching at the sheets— a signal meant to say , to which Holly did so and grinned as he began to roll around the covers with a smile, "Don't tell Jackson, and we won't have a problem." Holly joked, giving Frodo a joking squint as they  knew Jackson would usually be the one to place Frodo on their bed.

Taking his attention away from rolling around their scent, Frodo turned to Holly before he pounced— licking her face as a sign of affection while his tail wagged endlessly. 

"," Holly chuckled, brushing her hand through Frodo's smooth fur while the other tried to gently push him away, "thank you for the birthday kisses."

Frodo barked, taking a step back as he smiled at her before another thing gained his attention— his tail, which he began to chase. 

"All right." Holly exhaled, cracking her hands as she nodded lightly, "Time to go to work." 

✧

After leaving Frodo off at his doggy daycare where the facility would train him to be a certified service dog, Holly made her way to the hospital— and standing in front of the elevator, waiting for it to arrive, she began to bop her head to the soft Christmas music playing around the hospital's halls. 

"Happy birthday!" Derek announced, standing on the other side of the elevator doors as they opened and Holly turned her attention to him, "And Merry Christmas, I guess."

"Thanks." Holly grinned, walking inside to join him as she quirked a brow, "Are you getting off?"

"No, actually, I've just been riding this elevator until you got here." Derek commented before giving her a look to indicate he was joking as Holly quirked a brow, "An intern lost our patient's files."

" patient?" Holly quirked a brow as the doors closed, "I didn't know we had one?"

"Billy Carter." Derek informed, passing her a folder as he continued, "We have a tumor dissection scheduled in a few hours."

"Have we gone back to the ancient times?" Holly asked, frowning her brows as she opened the folder before her eyes doubled in size, "That is one  tumor."

"Yeah..." Derek nodded, sneaking a peak at the image in front of Holly before he answered, "The intern deleted the file off of the database and he said we already had  scans in the Nurses' Station so I went off to get it before he somehow got rid of those too."

"Ah." Holly nodded, closing the file and placing it under her arm as she joked, "So you turned  on and didn't realize how to get the file back?"

"I'm not  old, Holly." Derek squinted his eyes at her, scoffing as they both exited the elevator, "How old do you think I am?"

Holly shrugged, "Well—"

"Merry Birthday!" Jo greeted, grinning as she ran up to the duo before she cringed, "I mean, Happy Christmas! Crap." She closed her eyes, embarrassment hitting her as she realized she had messed up in front of her favorite attending, "You know what I mean."

As Holly and Derek laughed lightly, the former smiled while she spoke, "Thank you, Wilson, I appreciate it."

"Great." Jo beamed, opening her eyes as she cleared her throat, "So, um, do you want a coffee? Donut? Oh—!" She gasped, "?" 

"Tempting..." Holly replied, eyes wide as she and Derek continued walking while Jo followed, "Wait—" Holly turned her attention to Jo as she squinted her eyes, "Are you trying to bribe me to let you scrub in the surgery?"

"...What?" Jo awkwardly laughed, shaking her head as she tried to continue the lie, "What tumor?"

"She knows." Derek answered, shaking his head at her as he grabbed the file from Holly, "I'll meet you later."

"Okay." Holly nodded before quirking a brow at Jo, "You're a horrible liar."

"You're just perceptive." Jo deflected, raising her hands in surrender as Holly walked over to the Nurses' Station, already attempting to regain the patient's file on her tablet.

Holly lightly scoffed— the numerous amount of times she had received the message  from  people running through her head as she responded, " people would  to differ."

"Okay... well..." Jo paused, thinking over her words carefully as she stood still with her mind racing, "What if I—"

"You're scrubbing in, Wilson, don't sweat it." Holly snickered, shaking her head as she, from her peripheral vision, saw Jo raise her fist in the air out of victory.

✧

"He forgot your birthday?!" Jo scoffed, shaking her head as she suctioned beside Holly while the two attendings continued to dissect the tumor.

Holly chuckled, "No, he didn't—"

"He saw her, said , and didn't even say anything about today's date." Derek mentioned, adding onto the drama as Holly paused her work to glare at him.

"He has a lot of patients today, it's perfectly fine—"

"So what? Even knew it was your birthday. I mean, come on." Jo scoffed again before glancing over at her attending, "Do you want me to... you know?"