Dara crawled groggily out of bed at 6:00am in the morning the following day. She dragged her feet towards the percolator. Scooped a fresh batch of ground coffee beans and turned it on. She slumped on top of the kitchen counter, drew her hoodie up to cover her face and dozed off. She was due for a 36hour shift at the hospital later and she was not looking forward to it.

Twenty minutes later the smell of fried bacon assaulted her consciousness. She opened one eye and saw GD preparing breakfast. 

"You're the best flatmate ever." She declared.

"And you're the worst." He answered readily. "You have drool all over your face. Wipe it off."

"Yes, sir. Right away, sir." She searched her pockets for something to wipe her face.

"I can't imagine how you could take care of your patients at the hospital when you could barely take care of yourself."

"That's why I have you. You take care of me so I can take care of them. Think of it as your service for God and country." Without looking up he threw a damp face towel right at her face in response.

"Yeh! GD! Is this even clean?" She gingerly held the damp rag between her thumb and index finger.

"I think so." He paused and grinned widely. "It was before I used it to wipe the countertop."

"Yah!" She yelled at him.

"Nah. I prepared that when I was grossed out by the sight of your drool pooling on the counter." 

She yelled at him again but nevertheless used the towel to wipe her face clean. She grabbed two mugs from the rack and poured coffee for both of them. She added creamer on one and on the other she added one teaspoon of sugar. She pushed the latter towards him.

"You won't be going home tonight?" He confirmed with her.

"Nope. I won't see you until tomorrow." 

They ate their breakfast in comfortable silence afterwards. They finished simultaneously and like everyday for the past ten years they did the dishes together. She did the washing up while he did the rinsing. 

It was their usual morning ritual. Whoever wakes up first preps the coffee. By default the other one cooks. Normally, Dara hates to put effort in cooking so no matter how tired she is she would force herself to get up early. 

Then they both eat and then wash the dishes. They have really busy schedules that breakfast is the only time that they could usually spend with each other so eating breakfast together has become an unspoken sacred rule for the two friends. 

*** *** ***

It was a busy day at the emergency room. A mass vehicular accident happened and four of the