Julia Rolled Her Eyes, Laughing Softly, Sure While He Was Technically Right That Didn’t Mean She Wouldn’t

“Shit…” She looked down at her watch, fully aware her shift had finished a whole three hours ago. Luckily she wasn’t on shift again until tomorrow evening so she would have a little time to rest but this was Julia we were talking about so it was likely she wouldn’t do that anyway. “I was going home hours ago, but then I changed my mind. I wanted to be here when she came out of surgery incase something happened, so I could speak with her parents, I think they deserve that.” She rubbed her eyes mid yawn, letting it pass before speaking again. 

“She’s a fighter, and you’re an artist, she’s lucky to have you on her team.” The compliment entirely genuine as she let out a sigh of relief to hear the little girl was back in her room at least stable. That’s the least they could hope for right now. A drink. God that sounded so good right now - a chance to just take a breath, and the positive side of doing it with Rhys was that he would understand what she needed to detach from after the day they’d had. “Yes, absolutely, wherever you want to go.” Standing up from the bed as she tried to straighten herself a bit, still wearing her rumpled scrubs. @tctteredwings

Rhys did almost laugh at Julia's immediate reaction to being woken, but her words weren't exactly a laughing matter. That was and would always be the worst thing to get woken up over. At her second question, however, he shook his head and cast a glance toward his watch. "A little after eight-thirty now," he answered her. "I thought you were going home hours ago." His following words travelled with him as he moved around the room to pick up what he'd left there earlier. As Julia continued, he sobered, giving her his full attention. It was a serious matter, even if there was nothing bad to report. "She's doing fine," he answered. "We had a moment in there, but she's strong, she's a fighter. Knew that from the second I met her." A flicker of a smile then. "Everything went as planned." He grabbed the pen ( a favourite of his ) from the side, and then looked back to Julia again. "So you coming for a drink or what?"

[ Midori Francis, cis female, she/her ] — whoa! JULIA SATO just stole my cab! not cool, but maybe they needed it more. they have lived in the city for THREE MONTHS, working as a PAEDIATRIC DOCTOR. that can’t be easy, especially at only 33 YEARS OLD. some people say they can be a little bit PEDANTIC and GUARDED, but i know them to be EXTRAORDINARY and PATIENT. whatever. i guess i’ll catch the next cab. hope they like the ride back to BROOKLYN! 

Tw: Unwanted pregnancy, adoption, trauma

Julia wasn’t born wanting to be a doctor, she didn’t grow up playing doctor, but little did she know it was always on the cards for her. Pushed from a young age to focus closely on her academics she had two choices - doctor or lawyer, and in the end she chose the former. Her father was a well known cardiovascular surgeon and her mother one of New York’s top OBGYN, so it was hardly surprising when their only daughter was said to have her eyes set on medical school (Even if they were telling people long before Julia had any idea that’s what was happening.)

They tended to do that though. The pair of them would decide on something and before you knew it that was exactly what was happening, it was a control thing they loved to have, and it overflowed into every aspect of their daughter’s life. On the most part Julia was a sweet, normal child, she did well in school and didn’t make too many waves that drew extra attention to herself. With a select circle of friends - she was the girl you wanted to be in group projects with because it meant the ball wasn’t going to be dropped, you would have a finished project bang on time, and the lettering on the poster board would be impeccable to boot. Well if you’re going to do something you might as well do it properly, she knew the past of least resistance in her family was to excel so she didn’t put up a fuss. Just knuckling down to do what was expect of her. It wasn’t a miserable existence, did she get to go to as many social events as the rest of her classmates? Maybe not, but she never felt she was being deprived of anything. 

That was until she met and fell for Leo West. The two had been in the same grade for their entire school life but it wasn’t until they turned fifteen that their paths properly crossed and Julia’s eyes were suddenly opened to a world beyond her school books and music lessons. He had an freedom she had never been around before but wanted more of as soon as she’d been exposed, and it wasn’t long before (much to her parents disapproval) the two were dating. Julia’s first romance and it was a total whirlwind of infatuation and codependence they were inseparable and soon became a package deal. Even as she continued to study hard, it wasn’t with the same dedication that she’d had before and both the Sato parents started to notice, concern growing that this boy was turning their daughter’s head in the wrong direction. Not that they ever acted upon that thought - but they certainly made it known to Julia. Leo was due to go away on a year abroad once he finished high school and the Sato parents had already decided that this would be the end of their daughters relationship with him. And just like that he left when summer broke that year and Julia was back to focusing her attention onto her studies. 

Kinda. 

About three weeks later it was discovered that she was pregnant. A total disaster in her parents eyes the girl was made to go through with the pregnancy, hiding it for the most part thanks to her mother’s medical field, and the baby was put up for adoption the moment it came into he world. Never up for debate. Julia never got to hold it, they never even told her what she’d had. Instead she was just expected to go back to her studies as if nothing had happened without any kind of mental health or trauma support, and she did. But she was never the same. By the time Leo came home from his time abroad (which ended up going from one year to two) she had left for medical school so her parents didn't have to worry about the two of them reconnecting.

That was sixteen years ago and even after earning a place at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, a placement at Boston Children’s Hospital, and finally getting a job offer she couldn’t refuse back in her home town of New York, she still felt totally lost. So to combat it she threw herself into her work without letting up for a second, no time to think meant no time to hurt. At least with this career she could help children in a way she could never help her own child, but that didn’t stop her eyes from lingering a couple of seconds longer on kids that came in with features that reminded her of Leos’, wondering what had happened to their son or daughter. 

Wound tight, laser focused, a stickler for detail, and well overdue for everything she’d squished down to the depths of her soul and darkest parts of her brain to come bursting out, there was really no telling when this ticking time bomb was going to go off. 

If anyone else had told her that everything was okay, the child was in a good place, the parents were happy, she probably would have double checked herself but hearing that from Rhys allowed Julia to believe it. To let out the tension she’d been holding in her chest even during sleep to give him a smile, nodding her head. “Okay, alright great, thank you. I guess that means we need to have a drink to celebrate your handiwork and I can set it to one side until I check on her in the morning.” Knowing full well she’d be in at least an hour before her shift started in order to check in on patients before she was pulled to all directions by emergencies. “That works, give me five.” Holding up five fingers before heading off towards the locker room to collect her stuff. 

Throwing on her civvies in record time Julia looked at her hairbrush in the locker considering pulling through her hair really quickly, but then deciding against it. Instead just making her way to the front of the hospital where Rhys was waiting for her, feeling a little more relaxed than before. Which for her was saying something since Julia was never truly relaxed at all. “Where do you fancy tonight? My drinking future is in your hands.” @tctteredwings

Shit indeed, Rhys thought, but he didn't voice it, instead he merely nodded his head and offered her an encouraging smile. They'd all done it every once in a while, it came with the territory, especially so if you adored your job, if it meant absolutely everything to you. It did to him, it did to Julia, he'd known that the moment he met her. "Well her parents are bouncing off the walls with happiness right now, so you're off the hook," he answered her kindly. "You can relax. For tonight, at least." At her words, he shook his head, shrugging it off —- all in a day's work. He'd never really accepted compliments all that well. As she gathered herself once again, agreeing to join him for a drink, he nodded his head. "Okay, you go change, grab your stuff and I'll meet you outside in ten? That work?" he queried with a smile.

Julia looked at the woman in front of her, face passive of course because she was a trained professional who knew how to mask her true feelings like a pro, but she was concerned she didn’t seem to be understanding the level of disruption having kids caused. Let alone twins, aka two newborns at the same time. Not to mention the effect it would have on her hormones and mental stability, both of which came under duress. Plus she was being worryingly blasé about traveling a long way while so heavily pregnant - the whole thing made Julia incredibly uneasy. “You don’t have a doctor over there yet?” So they were travelling thousands of miles without even having medical care in place when they got to the other end? Good lord. “Excuse my honesty Mrs Caddel but if you don’t have a doctor in place yet in Stockholm then it seems like nothing is settled at all. Without a professional at the other end of the flight to properly head up your care the situation just increases in its danger to both you and the children.” 

Julia knew there were some patients you just couldn’t make do what was best, all you could do as a doctor was provide them with the information they needed and hope they heeded your advice. Nodding her head she gave her a small smile. "That would be my professional opinion - yes. Travelling at this late point, on such a long flight, with no doctor at the other end who is well versed on your medical history? It is incredibly unadvisable. Medically speaking - you’ve pretty much left it too late to travel without huge risk.” Maybe it was blunt but it was true, if she travelled and something happened, it would be on Julia for not being honest. “Plus the plane staff aren’t trained to help properly if something went wrong on the flight, it could be fatal for you or the twins.” @bjorkncaddel

𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐀 𝐍𝐎𝐃𝐃𝐄𝐃 when the other woman let her know if she ever had difficulty finding the hang of things not hesitate to find some help. ❛ Don't worry, I will let you know. ❜ The Swedish blonde thinks once the babies are out of her, things are going back to a bit of normalcy. One of the first things she wanted to do was go out and club, but deep, deep down she is aware this won't happen anytime soon. It might take a while. ❛ In the next month. ❜ She says with a warm smile spread on her rosy lips. ⎯ ❛ Karolinska Universitetssjukhuse, it is in Stockholm. As for the doctors… We are working on it. ❜ After all, she is looking for a doctor over there. ❛ But everything else is settled, doctor. ❜ The blonde is genuinely thinking of having them at 'home' there and not in the hospital, but she won't tell this part for her. Either way, she wanted a professional opinion on her situation to figure out what to do next or what is the best plan for her due date.

Bed rest? This is not what she wants. The Swedish blonde feels like a caged bird with the idea of having more bed rest. Either way, she did have the best time of her life while she was on a trip. She got married, visited beautiful beaches, swam, rode on a jet-ski, participated in some interesting events, met new people, and did a few impromptu modeling works. What she is learning in this pregnancy is that sometimes calm down is necessary. The blonde sighs ruefully. It was palpable the disappointment in her expression to hear about the damned cares. ❛ Okay, let me see if I understood correctly, to sum up, I am only allowed to travel after the babies are born, after getting all exams done and confirmed? ❜ Maybe she needed to hear it one more time to the news sink in. It wasn't asked much… Neva just wanted to have her babies in her home country like she always dreamt of.

Julia had been tapping away on her phone sending off an email when she heard the guy in front of her reference ’the person behind me’ and she looked up - that was her? “Sorry, what?” So caught off guard by someone wanting to pay for her drink for no apparent reason, that small act of kindness not common in her life. “Are you sure? I mean you don’t know…” she was going to say ‘you don’t know me’ but then realised that would be stating the obvious so instead just shut her mouth, giving him a smile. “Well, that’s incredibly kind of you. Thank you…?” Waiting for him to fill in his name. “I’ll get a skim cap with an extra shot please.” @sebastianxwinters

Starter for: Julia @doctorjuliasato

Location: Rise & Grind

Sebastian needed coffee in his system if he was going to ever get through the day. His phone had been blowing up lately with texts and call from his family because Sebastian did not immediately fly back to London. He was in Rise & Grind and he was waiting for his turn to be called on. He felt like he was isolating himself lately and he didn't want to completely feel like that so in his mind it made sense to pay for the order for the person behind him. "Yeah, I'll get a pumpkin cold brew with sweet cream cold foam and whatever the person behind me wants." he said as he gestured towards the woman standing behind him.

It was fairly rare that Julia had time to(or allowed herself) to talk about things that weren’t in some way relating to medicine or her patients which meant whichever poor sod was saddled with her when the inclination struck was forced to listen to her musings. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Mostly I just have to lock myself in an on call room if I want some quiet, even then people end up knocking on the door to get me to do something. It’s not quite as calm as out here.” She half smiled, knowing it was her own fault since she was the one who remained at the hospital even when she didn’t have to be, it helped occupy her brain. “Sometimes the quiet isn’t really…that good of an idea so maybe it’s for the best I don’t get out here that often.” @tctteredwings

"Let's hope so," Anna answered with a smile cast in Julia's direction, her shoulders lifting in a shrug a moment later. She wasn't all that bothered if her friend continued to ramble about things, it didn't make any difference to her, she'd listen all the same to whatever she had to say —- it couldn't be any worse than when she started talking about her gaming. At Julia's words, as they walked, she nodded her head. "Exactly why I come out here," she admitted simply. "In the mornings it's my thinking place. Quieter then, y'know?" There was a reason she loved to sit out there and watch the sun come up, enjoy the silence as a bunch of crazies jogged past.

Julia was just catching up on some paperwork at the nurses station - for once things had quietened down a bit (famous last words) so she could take a breather. Her coffee sat next to her forgotten as it so often was because despite being incredibly smart when it came to her own self care she had the memory of a goldfish. Tucking some hair behind her left ear she initialed a box when she felt a tap on her shoulder, looking up with the expectation of seeing an intern or nurse who needed something, but instead she was faced with a woman she’d never seen before. 

About to ask if she was looking for a patient it soon became clear that wasn’t there reason for being here, listening to the request with a small smile. “Oh, how sweet. No, of course I’d be happy to help. I actually think it would lift quite a few kids spirits to have someone come in and help distract them for a bit. Not that I’m diminishing your tutoring to just a distraction, but you know what I mean. Often the older ones end up actually missing being at school.” She looked back down at the pamphlets again. “Tell me more, do you do all ages?” @callmecharliejones

starter: closed for @drjuliasato

where: pediatric ward.

The hospital wasn't Charlie's favorite place. Well, she supposed it wasn't anyone's favorite place but Danny had sad it would be a good idea to put up pamphlets in the pediatric ward of the hospital he worked at and Danny was full of brilliant ideas, so with shaky hands and a deep breath, she headed inside and as she saw a woman in a white coat, she came over to tap her shoulder.

"Hi, I'm so sorry to bother you. I promise I won't take long." She started. "My friend Daniel works here, he said I could put some pamphlets up. I'm a teacher. I'm looking for some kids to tutor." She handed her one of the handmade and photocopied pamphlets she made herself, with silly drawings, flowers, stars, hearts, a few bunnies here and there and her contact number. "Could you help me? If you are not too busy of course. I'm sure you have a million kiddos to see. I don't want to be an imposition. I can wait for your break as well, or come some other time."

Julia was well versed in talking to parents about the patterns their babies might fall into depending on outside influences, but right now she was just imparting the most generic for Elliot meaning there was every chance the timeframe could be wrong. “Well, that’s a generalisation, every baby is different.” She attempted to reassure him with a soft, encouraging smile. At his return comment she couldn’t help but chuckle, knowing full well the thing she didn’t often do was lie to preserve a parents feelings because that was a recipe for disaster in the field. If she lied then that would cause chaos with their preparation with what was to come. “I hate to break it to you, but I’d be breaking my oath as a doctor if I told you otherwise, I don’t want to give you a reason to come back to me in a week threatening a lawsuit from misinformation.” She nodded, a half shrug thrown into the mix as well. “Well if there is one thing you can count your blessings for it’s that once she falls asleep a sudden accidental loud noise isn’t going to wake her up. The amount of parents I have bickering in front of me about how one dropped something and woke the baby up…it’s a long list.” @elliot-appsley

A soft smile graced his lips as he watched Julia's hands, not even minding when she got some of the words mixed up with other signs. Pretty sure that he was still getting the gist of what she was trying to ell him. So he gave a nod of his head in encouragement before his eyes switched over to reading what she had typed down afterwards. As he did so, Elliot made a slight face over at Julia. "Months?" He signed with a raise of his eyebrows, pausing for a moment as he grabbed for his food and took a small bite of it. This time reaching for his own phone as well. See, this is where you were one hundred percent supposed to lie and say only a few days or something. Not months. Letting out a laugh as he turned the phone back towards her before he added more. That's what I sort of figured though, that it was just one of the joys of having a baby. She's just done so well with sleeping that I guess it threw me off when she started having some rough nights. @doctorjuliasato

Julia sort of regretted going to the festival as soon as she got there, she thought it would be good for her to get out and be among other people but really the noise and crowds was just increasing her stress levels. She had a drink in her hand that was rapidly being drunk just to help loosen her up a bit, wandering over to the lawn games in the hope it might be a bit calmer there than near the main stage. Puzzles were something she’d done since she was a kid, very encouraged in the Sato household as a problem solving activity, not that they were ever fun brightly coloured ones. In fact the main beast she remembered from childhood was one that was entirely blue - all one shade, it had taken her two months to complete. This was jenga though - she wasn’t as well versed in that. “What about this one?” Moving round to where there was one block that technically might be possible to remove without the whole thing tumbling down. “As long as you take it from the right side so as not to throw off the balance with the movements. Plus if it fell then it would fall away from you, not towards.” @expirednostalgia

STATUS: closed for @doctorjuliasato / @collinsappsley / @rowanelodie (whichever muse you prefer)

LOCATION: Puzzles Lawn Games

With the way Miguel carried himself throughout the whole festival, one would have thought someone forced him to be there, and they would sort of be right. He did pretty much force himself to come out to the festival for at least one day seeing as though he already had the day off and could definitely use a break from his very uninteresting usual schedule of work and strictly going out for the sake of his kid rather than actually doing something for himself. In an attempt to actually enjoy himself, or maybe just get time to pass quicker, he found himself partaking in one of the lawn games Puzzles had set up. "I'm beginning to think there aren't any safe blocks left to pull and I might just have to accept defeat on this one." He commented as he carefully examined the giant Jenga tower in front of the pair.

Julia didn’t comment on her helping because if the roles were reversed the last thing she’d want was another person drilling down on how they’d had to lend a hand. Too many people took pride in their independence for her to risk saying the wrong thing. Instead she just gave her a small smile with an incline of her head, picking up the handle nearest to her. 

“I don’t know if this can be considered a walk of shame, I mean what part of being well read is meant to be shameful?” If that was the case then maybe she should just bury her head in the sand right now because she’d much rather spend time with a stack of books than another human most of the time. “Or you could get one of those ones that old people take to the grocery store, the old lady shopper bags. Then no one would even know what was in it.” A shrug of her shoulders as they headed into the library, realising that Zahra didn’t realise that she was arriving rather than leaving. “Oh you know me better than that, I’m on my way in to pick up a couple I’ve had set aside for me. Don’t worry - I’ve not been replaced by an alien.” Julia joked softly. @ofzahras

While she had never been great at accepting help, Zahra was grateful she had run into Julia, and even more grateful she seemed to be more than willing to offer a helping hand. "Thank you," she sighed, still catching her breath.

Zahra pulled an amused face at Julia's suggestion. "That's not a terrible idea. Although I hope I won't have to do this sort of a walk of shame anytime soon." Yes, she could have made multiple trips to the library, but somehow that had sounded even more laborious before she had actually started her perilous journey. Now she wholeheartedly regretted making said decision. "But I will definitely keep that in mind if I do end up in a similar situation." Glancing at Julia, she managed a brief yet knowing smile. "I see you're leaving empty-handed."