At Rachel's home

The whole day passed by with everyone spending some time with Liz and getting emotional.

​​

James cried a lot seeing Elizabeth's condition but he consoled himself saying she is at least alive.

Right now, they were all sitting in the living room, to discuss their next steps.

"What's next?" Michael asked everyone.

"For now, we need to find that person who works for Ethan." Harry replied.

"Hmm, I'll also use my contacts" Michael declared.

"Yeah, if we use all the contacts we have, it won't be long before we find that bastard" Catherine was agitated, Harry stroked her arm to calm her down.

"Uncle James, if you don't mind, can myself and Catherine stay here for tonight?" Harry requested James.

"What about me?" Anthony glared at his son who forgot him.

"I assumed you were going to stay here." Harry explained.

"Oh okay"

"Of course, you and Catherine can take the guest room"

"Thank you uncle"

"Can I also stay over here grandpa?" Daniel asked James as everyone is staying here and he would love to stay around Rachel.

James was about to agree to his request but Will interrupted him.

"Why do you want to stay, Daniel?"

Daniel started feeling nervous around Will, so he carefully answered, "What if Mrs. Richardson would need a doctor around"

He put a point forward that no one could reject.

Before Will could think of something, Harry said, "No need for that, the housekeepers are trained enough to take care of her, you don't need to bother"

"Yeah, you also have to go to work tomorrow, you go home it would be more convenient for you" Catherine innocently added as she had no idea what was going on between her husband and son.

Daniel was feeling helpless, his own father was separating him from the woman he loves.

At that moment, Daniel realized his dad indeed loves his friend more than him.

Will smirked at Daniel, as his strategies won't work in front of these sly people, his smile clearly informed him of that.

Rachel looked helplessly at Daniel, as right now she couldn't do anything for him, so she kept quiet.

After a while Daniel reluctantly left for his home.

…

Next day Daniel went to his hospital as usual. He called his senior, the one who requested him to go to Ireland for Elizabeth's operation.

He informed his senior that the operation went well and didn't tell him anything else as they had to keep everything under the wraps.

Later, he called his interns to take updates from them as he was absent from the main hospital for the last few days.

Steve and Lisa showed up in his office and they updated him on everything they were supposed to.

"Good, it seems you two are learning things faster" Daniel commented, impressed at how they worked with other Neurologists and did their job well in his absence.

"How can we not? After all we have such a nice boss" Steve praised him and Lisa giggled but she immediately composed herself.

"Seems like you are in a very good mood" Daniel commented as last week Steve was sulking and acting weird.

"Haha, boss knows everything."

"Call me Daniel. Anyway, are the reports of that patient out, the one we were working on before I left for Ireland?" Daniel asked Lisa.

"Yes sir."

"Call me Daniel. Give me that patient's file, if everything is fine with her reports, we can schedule an operation this week"

"Sure Daniel." Lisa went to get the reports and Steve too left as he was done.

Daniel smiled seeing the friends being back to normalcy, it was clear whatever problem they had until last week was all cleared.

Later, he met Emily and Matt for lunch just like always.

"How is my Rachel doing?" Matt asked Daniel as soon as he joined them.

"She is mine not yours" Came the cold reply from the calm doctor.

"Woah, see Daniel getting all riled up" Emily teased him.

"What do you expect me to do when this desperate single man keeps eying my woman" Daniel didn't hesitate in teasing Matt.

"Hey, who is desperate? Also, I am not interested in your Rachel. She is not my type" Matt rolled his eyes at them.

"Oh? Then who is your type?" Emily asked him.

"Classy, lady-like women. Who are calm, composed and only talk when necessary. Smart, Beauty and gentleness is just in-built in them and…"

"How many women do you want?" Daniel made fun of him, making Emily laugh harder.

"All these qualities can be found in one woman. Only because your woman lacks all these qualities does not mean, a woman like this does not exist" Matt scoffed at Daniel.

"Hey, what is wrong with my woman?" Daniel glared at Matt.

"Your woman is tomboyish, does she even know how to be gentle and polite? Huh" Matt scoffed, making Daniel and Emily laugh at his antics.

"No matter what you think, for me Rachel is the most amazing and the perfect woman I ever met in my life" Daniel didn't hesitate in declaring his love openly towards Rachel.

"Yeah, men in love are always blind and for them the woman they love is always the best. See, for Patrick too Emily is the most perfect woman in this world"

Emily wanted to beat up Matt as she and Patrick were hiding their relationship from everyone.

Daniel ignored Matt's remark sensing Emily's discomfort in mentioning Patrick.

"Anyway, you tell me, didn't you ever come across the perfect woman you just described?" Daniel questioned Matt.

Matt was not sure but he was feeling weird when Daniel asked him this question, as the woman who keeps appearing in his mind when he thinks of the most perfect woman in this world, scared him as he believed he is not allowed to think of her this way.

So, Matt was silent and shook his head saying no, he didn't come across anyone like that.

Daniel and Emily laughed at his state.

Emily excused herself to get some food leaving Daniel and Matt alone at the table.

Just then, Steve and Lisa entered the canteen, smiling and laughing with each other.

Matt and Daniel looked at these two with two completely opposite reactions.

Daniel was glad these two friends made up, while Matt was not sure why but he didn't like seeing them back together.

Matt's discomfort didn't go unnoticed by Daniel, who observed Matt's reaction when he saw Lisa with Steve.

'Things are getting complicated' Daniel thought to himself as he understood something.