Chapter 47
The theatre team gathered in a semi-circle around the team board, the hum of preparation filling the air.
Karen, the scrub nurse, led the briefing.
"Right, team, let's go through the plan. We've got Mr.Arav Patel, 67 years old, BMI 33, past medical history of hypertension and type 2 diabetes. He's down for a right total knee replacement under spinal anaesthesia. Side confirmed as the right knee."
Gray gave a curt nod. "An hour and a half."
Karen turned to Vanessa. "Anaesthetist?"
Vanessa flipped through the patient notes with deliberate slowness, her voice smooth but edged with ice. "Spinal block planned, light sedation if required. Twenty minutes."
Karen continued, moving briskly. "Prophylactic antibiotics are given. Patient position and prep, any additional requirements?"
Gray shook his head. "Standard setup."
Vanessa didn't respond, just gave an indifferent nod.
There was a beat of silence, the usual friendly ribbing of the briefing weighed down by an undercurrent of tension.
The atmosphere was unusually sombre as the patient was anaesthetised and cleaned and draped.
It was broken by Sophie, who was clearly biting back a grin as she glanced at Gray's theatre cap.
"Right then, boss. Are we supposed to be calling you Jedi Master today?"
Gray smirked, adjusting the navy-blue cap covered in tiny Star Wars ships.
"Tomos picked it. Said I'd be a better surgeon if I channelled the Force."
Sophie whisper snorted. "Right. And what does that make Vanessa? The Emperor?"
A few of the team stifled their laughter, pretending to be preoccupied with the instrument trays.
Gray didn't react, but he could feel the weight of Vanessa's glare from the other end of the table.
Karen, keeping things professional, moved on.
Gray glanced at Sophie, their conversation shifting to a lower register, just under the hum of surgical prep.
"Mayo scissors."
Sophie handed them over with practiced ease. "Here you go, Yoda."
Gray smirked. "Kocher's."
Sophie rolled her eyes, passing the instrument. "You better not start tryin' to lift them with your mind."
Gray chuckled, keeping his voice low enough that Vanessa, standing at the dead end of the theatre table, couldn't hear. "Don't tempt me."
"Rongeur."
Sophie passed it over, whispering, "Use the Force, Gray."
He bit back a laugh, focusing on the work ahead.
The theatre was running smoothly. The surgery was textbook.
Later, Gray stepped into the surgeons' room, stretching his shoulders as he pulled out his dictaphone.
He had barely begun dictating his notes when the door swung open.
Vanessa.
Fuck.
She shut the door behind her, arms crossed, her expression set. Dangerous.
Gray didn't even look up. "If ye're here for an argument, don't waste yer breath."
Vanessa took a step closer. "You went to Burton."
Gray kept his tone calm. "Aye. I did."
She laughed—sharp, humourless. "You seriously got our unit chiefs involved? Jesus, Gray. You're really that scared of me?"
Gray clenched his jaw. "I'm not scared of ya, Vanessa. I just don't trust ya. And I don't want to be in the same room as ya if I can avoid it."
Her eyes flashed. "And here I thought we were friends."
And once, they had been.
Not friends in the way he was with Byron, or Cadi. But colleagues.
They had spent hours together in theatre, complaining about the rota, laughing at the ridiculous things juniors said, sharing stories about their families—Gray about Cadi and Tomos, Vanessa about her nephew who wanted to be a doctor.
Vanessa had always flirted—lightly, nothing Gray ever took seriously. He had ignored it. Kept things professional.
Then, at some point, he had stopped talking about Cadi.
And Vanessa had noticed.
She had stepped in, assuming the cracks in his marriage meant opportunity.
But he wasn't interested.
Not once.
Not until the day he had been an idiot.
Until the consultants' room, when he had let his own insecurities get the best of him, and used her to try and make Cadi jealous.
A mistake.
A fucking disaster of a mistake.
Gray exhaled sharply, looking at her now. "We were never friends. I was an idiot. I let ya mess with my head, an' that's on me. But this? This stops now."
Vanessa took another step closer, voice dropping into something dangerously soft. "You really think you can get rid of me that easily?"
Gray looked at her, finally meeting her eyes. "Aye. I do."
Vanessa smiled. It wasn't pleasant.
"There's no proof, Gray. Nothing happened, remember?"
Gray's jaw tightened. He clenched his fists, feeling his pulse drum against his skin. It was good he didn't hit women.
Vanessa stepped even closer, her voice turning mockingly sweet.
"You know that. And I know that."
She tilted her head, studying him like a predator considering its prey.
"But will Cadi believe it?"
Gray's breath hitched.
Vanessa smirked. "The woman is always right, isn't she? Just a small allegation of sexual misconduct, and boom—there goes your life, Gray."
Gray felt rage coil in his chest, sharp and uncontrolled.
She was playing dirty.
Cadi.
What if she believed it?
What if Vanessa twisted things?
Vanessa's voice was silk and venom. "And I will ruin your marriage."
Gray's stomach dropped.
Then—
A small red light blinked on his desk.
His dictaphone. That usually got stuck at record.
Still recording.
His pulse spiked—not in fear this time, but in something colder, sharper.
Slowly, he turned his gaze back to Vanessa.
And smirked.
Vanessa frowned, something uncertain flickering across her face. "What?"
Gray sat back and slowly reached out to hold the dictaphone up. "Oh, nothin'. Just... ya might want to be more careful with yer threats. Wouldn't want them endin' up in the wrong hands, now would we?"
Her eyes flickered to the desk.
To the blinking red light.
Her face drained of colour.
Gray leaned forward, voice low and lethal.
"Now get the fuck out of me sight."
Vanessa whirled around and stormed out, her shoes squeaking hard against the floor.
Gray let out a slow breath, his heart still pounding.
Then he picked up the dictaphone, turned off the recording, and smiled to himself.
Checkmate.