Thinking that was the end of the discussion on Project Lazarus, Sara nodded and picked up her burger, taking another bite as Kelly finished his complements to her character and ability. She wiped the ketchup from her lips and thanked him for saying such nice things, her education and training being the core of who she was as a person. Perhaps if she had more to lean upon, via a person or deity, her world would've remained in tact the last time she tried something exploratory and it blew up in her face.

She sat back, rubbing her belly as she looked up at Kelly, her expression softening just a little as he turned the conversation toward them with the nice caveat that it would do nothing with work. She dug down into her background beyond the situation with Matthew and found that she held quite a few pleasant memories. Not wanting to share really but still wanting to know more about Dr. Scott, she sighed softly and started to talk.

"I was born in Boston, my mother a model and my father a scientist who should've gone into medicine where the money was." She smiled at remembrance of her father and his crazy ideas. "I worked hard and listened well as he worked at the house now and again, my own love for discovery growing by leaps and bounds during my teenage years. Graduated school at seventeen and went to Harvard, graduating at the top of my class for pre-med only to join NY Gen to work on the Trauma team. I moved up quickly and love..." she paused and smiled, "just love... science. I think it is a gift to those of us that embrace it and honestly believe we will be able to make the world better by applying our craft and pushing past prejudice and normalcy."

She slipped a fry into her mouth and mumbled, "I love chocolate and Van Halen too. Your turn."

Scott was impressed with himself in the sense that he was probably the first person in Portland who got Sara to open up like this. Granted it wasn't anything of great substance, but it was a start and Scott was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. When she finished and said it was his turn.

Scott said, "Ahh yes Quid Pro Quo dictates that I share as well." He smiled and said, "Which I don't mind at all." He took a drink and said, "Just a city boy boy born and raised in South Detroit. Oh sorry I've had that song stuck in my head all day let me try again."

He took a deep breath and said, "Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Dad worked for the Government and walked out on mom and I 15 years ago. No reason just one day said, 'I gotta go on a trip' and he never came back. Mom worked in city hall in the parks and rec department. I graduated high school with a full ride scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh playing football. I played safety and the coach believed if i really applied myself I could've had a good solid career in the NFL, but medicine and science were my areas of interest. I wanted to know why the body does what it does and how it works. Besides I saw what playing ball was doing to my body, and decided I wanted to be able to walk without pain when I was 40."

Scott took another drink and ordered a slice of strawberry chocolate cheesecake for desert. He then continued, "Pitt has a great med school program,So I worked two part time jobs, and applied for every grant and scholarship under the sun to pay to go to Med school. I was still going to be short financially until my mom was killed in a car crash and the settlement paid for it all. Talk about your mixed blessings. I still miss her to this day. I think she would've liked her son being a doctor. So then I realized I had nothing left in Pittsburgh really and decided I had to get away. I applied to UCLA and got in where I did my residency at the Med Center and also worked as a grad assistant to earn some walking around money."

Scott leaned on his folded hands and then raised up and said, "What I'm about to tell you I've never told another person, but I just feel I can trust you Sara. Don't ask me why. I met a young lady and we fell hard for each other. We got engaged and we were two months away from graduating. We we're gonna get married the day after graduation, but one night her father came to visit me. He told me that he didn't like me at all. He thought I was too arrogant and not good enough for his daughter. He wrote me out a sizable check to call it all off, and if I didn't he would cut his daughter off from the family. To make it even better I could never tell her the truth, so I told her I wasn't ready and that it would be better off if we ended it once and for all. I did it so she would still have her family something that I didn't have anymore."

Kelly bowed his head and said, "$50,000 dollars later and being called and viewed as a son of a bitch by all of our friends and her family I applied at several hospitals and went to the first place that hired me which was right here."

Scott shrugged his shoulders and said, "And there it is. Oh yeah I like to workout and I like Van Halen too. 'You really got me' is a great workout song and I also like Italian Food. Now as much as I like Van Halen Bruce Springsteen is my favorite bar none."

Just then the waitress brought the desert and Scott pulled another fork he hadn't used, and placed in front of Sara. He said, "No way I'm eating this alone."

Sara was more than surprised to hear some of Kelly's story, parts of it so very heartfelt and other parts of the picture showing him to be the jackass she believed him to be. Who would take money to leave the one they loved? Sure this story on being a martyr to her being with her family was a bit tainted, but Sara simply listened and decide to forgo judgement. She had left out most of the things that she would when talking to someone casually about her own life, so she dropped her stones and picked up the fork in front of her, a large bit of the cheesecake and a groan later she was smiling, picking at her edge of the dessert again.

"I haven't had a dessert in so long I honestly don't remember what it was or when I had it." She took another bite and sat back, her shoulders relaxing and her eyes closing as she simply let the beauty of the flavors rush across her taste buds and offer her a reprieve she needed badly. The side of her lovely mouth raised in a smirk and she refocused her gaze on him before speaking again, licking at her fork a few times to clean it off first. "I'd weigh a million pounds if you and I hung out to often, Dr. Scott."

The waitress dropped off the bill and Sara grabbed it up first, offering up her card and giving Kelly a look of determination while the waitress stood there awkwardly. She glared across the table and moved the dessert to the side, placing her elbow on the white stone and bending her arm, a tinkle in her eye as she gave into the most advantageous way of setting a dispute.

"Arm wrestle me for it." She smiled at the look on his face, knowing that he would go a little easy on her because she looked small and unable to really defeat someone in a challenge of this nature, but she had several trophies from her childhood and had studied the tendons and pressure points in the arm enough to know exactly what to do to not only win the advantage of paying the bill, but putting the macho man across from her in his place.

She licked her teeth to clean them and wagged her eyebrows at him. "Scared, Dr. Scott?"

As Scott watched Sara eat her desert he could that she was enjoying it. Note to self Strawberry Chocolate Cheesecake is a good call with Sara.

Scott smiled at her remark about the weight and he replied, "I'd be right there with you Dr. Bosworth on the whole weight gain, but your appearance, which I gotta admit is very lovely, isn't all that you are...Sara. You're very intelligent and very charming but most of all self-confidence is a very good quality on you."

When it came time for the bill he looked at the waitress and said, "You might wanna come back in a few minutes..." he looked at Sara and smiled and said, "Bring a bag of ice."

He smiled at her and said, "No matter what else happens at work I get the job you get the job whatever; I'm glad that I came here tonight, and I promise I will...." he rolled his eyes and shook his head and then looked back at Sara and said, "I will try not to be such a jerk to you from now on. You're a valued colleague and you're a good person Sara. You deserve to be treated as such and I'm sorry for the times that I treated you as less than that."

Scott took her hand and said, "Now in terms of the bill I've got enough sense to know when I'm about to be hustled. There is way more to you than meets the eye Sara, but all that being said I gotta know and I can't say no even if I wanted to."

He leaned in looked her in the eye and said, "Say when."

She laughed at his words, reaching out and grabbing his hand before shifting a little and smiling at him with nefarious intent in her eyes. "I think it might be best if you... WHEN." She jerked her shoulder forward, pinching the small nerve between his ring finger and pinkie which would shoot pain straight up his arm and giver her the small advantage she needed. She wasted no time, slamming his hand to the table, sitting back and whooping for all to hear. The waitress returned and gave her the bill, which she paid and laughed again at the look on his handsome face.

"That was quite unfair. Now you see why I'm not married. I'm a bit of a bully I suppose, or my sense of wining outranks my morals." She sat back and picked up her beer, finishing it in one last gulp and moving to stand up before stretching a little, her hands lifted high in the air. "Gosh that was good. I haven't had cheesecake in ages. You, Dr. Scott are bad for me and my waistline."

The restaurant had gotten quite busy, Sara feeling more relaxed around someone than she had in ages, but perhaps it was more the beer talking and less of her relaxing into the hope of starting a friendship with someone that seemed a bit out of touch with reality and certainly not her type even in the friend arena. It was a facade to some degree. That he was so perfectly complementary told her quickly that Kelley Scott was more than he appeared to be. She pressed through the crowd, hoping that he was at her back, but too contained by bodies moving through the pub to check. She stepped out into the night air and sighed loudly, turning to find him with a smile on her pretty face.

Scott knew that Sara would hustle him but he didn't seem to mind. He smiled and nodded as he said, "Okay you got me. You won, but just keep in mind I will get a rematch somehow someway."

He shook his head and said, "No you're not a bully Sara. You're a lot of things, but a bully isn't on the list and I'll deck the clown who says otherwise." Kelly shrugged his shoulders and said, "Or as I was just shown you can take care of yourself. In either case when push comes to shove you'll do what's right. I got no doubt about it."

Scott smirked as he finished his tonic water and said, "Glad you liked it. In terms of my influence over you and your waist line I think you'd be strong enough to resist if it became too much of an issue. I can tell you know when to say when and you have a strong sense of who you are. Self-confidence is a very attractive quality on you, and you have many of them, but that is one of the best."

Kelly followed Sara out of the bar and saw her smile. That smile made Scott smile right back at her as he said, "It's not too late do you still wanna continue our conversation elsewhere, or should we call it a night? Your choice."

Scott aside as though something had crossed his mind and then looked back up with a smile. He said, "Hey Van Halen as you know is coming to the Rose Garden in 6 weeks. Tickets go on sale the day after tomorrow and I know the Stadium Manager. His mom lives next door to me and I've helped her with some yard work from time to time and made a few house calls when she's gotten sick. Anyway he said anytime I want tickets to any event say the word and they're mine. So if you're interested let me know." He pulled out a pen and took a piece of paper out of his wallet. Scott wrote on it and gave it to Sara and said, "It's my home number let me know by tomorrow night." Scott could've just said to let him know at work, but if word got out that they had been seen together in public the gossip machine would've been in overdrive. Scott didn't want that really because of his own reputation, but he felt a need to protect Sara for some reason. Maybe it was because she had come out of her shell somewhat this evening, and Kelly liked what he had seen.

Scott took a deep breath and looked up at the sky and said, "It's a beautiful night." He looked back at Sara and said, "Just so you know I haven't had a night like this in ages. You really are much more than meets the eye Sara. You really are."

The derivative effects of her smile lay in his complimentary nature. There was something so very genuine about it, which was causing her guard to slip further and further down. How had he analyzed her to the point of truly seeing beneath a bit of her "make-up" as it were? His remarks were spot on and yet he didn't seem to be trying to terribly hard to be someone other than who he might naturally be when in the company of another that he enjoyed sharing a meal with. Her smile widened a little as he left the proverbial ball in her court as to when the night might end. Part of her wanted it to continue on, but the nagging of self-awareness in the comfort of his presence was something that gave her pause.

Before she could consider the question too terribly much, Scott spoke up and his words peaked her interest, Van Halen being a band she'd love to see and simply couldn't bring herself to attend a concert alone. She laughed without pretense, "Of course you know the stadium manager. Why am I not surprised?"

Sara took his offered invitation and slipped it in her purse before lifting an eyebrow and motioning for him to follow her across the busy street and to the small bridge that sat just beyond one's view. The night perfect for a walk and company as long as the conversation stayed away from her. She looked up at the night sky, the stars winking at her in various cadences as she stopped at the edge of the street and waited for the proper moment to yell, "Let's go" before crossing the street.

The sound of cars racing behind them covered up the soft swish of the water just ahead, but anticipated the promise of it's welcome. Looking over her shoulder she caught his eye, "I honestly didn't realize you could be complementary. You play quite a different role at the hospital in front of our peers. I suppose in part I do as well to be completely fair, but I certainly hope this is the real you and not who you think you should play to be in order to possibly get my help on your new project."