ARIA'S POV
It was Dr. Patel who told her.
Not intentionally. That was the thing that stayed with her afterward.....it wasn't malicious, wasn't gossip for the sake of it. Priya Patel was one of the good ones, had been since Aria's first rotation, the kind of colleague who said what she meant and meant what she said and didn't perform things she didn't feel.
Which was why, when Priya stopped her in the corridor outside the nurses' station on a Tuesday morning with an expression Aria had never seen on her face before, Aria knew immediately that something had happened.
"Can we...." Priya looked at the corridor. At the nurses' station. At the two junior doctors coming around the corner. "Can we go somewhere."
"Priya....."
"Somewhere private," Priya said. "Please."
The small family consultation room off the east corridor was empty.
