Roan took Clarissa’s hand as the doors opened onto the sixth floor. They passed back into the anesthesia admin offices, still empty at this hour. “Yes, this morning is full of surprises. I have one more for you.”
He beckoned everyone into his office and handed Drew a familiar packet of papers from his desk. “This is the inter-department dating form. We’ll be leaving the two of you alone to figure it out.”
Clarissa gave Willow a gentle push toward Drew. “You have fifteen minutes till morning sign-out.”
“Better work fast, Crozier. That’s an order.” Roan took Clarissa out with him, closing the door firmly behind him. He sat down in his secretary Sandra’s empty chair and situated Clarissa on his lap.
Her eyes were dancing. “I’m in shock. What do you think they’re going to do in there?”
“I expect Crozier will make a very strong argument on the merits of immediately rebounding with him.”
“What kind of strong argument is there when this dumping came out of left field, as did the dating proposition?” Clarissa craned her head toward the door.
“If he’s smart, this one.” Roan turned her to kiss her full on the mouth. He kept his hands limited to her arms, lest they get a new visitor. Still, even under relative control, they were panting when they parted.
“Excellent argument.” She went in for another kiss, and very little was said for the next several minutes.
The sound of the office door opening ended their makeout session. Drew strode confidently forward and plopped the signed form in front of Roan. “Figured it out.”
Glancing over at Willow, whose hair was now just as mussed as Clarissa’s, Roan commented, “I see.”
It appeared Drew had quite effectively sold his value to Willow in the exact way Roan had suspected he would. As would any straight male who needed to convince a possible girlfriend to flip to girlfriend. A solid declaration of his feelings followed by an appropriate application of kisses.
Clarissa stood up, retying her scrub cap from her recent application of kisses, and joined Willow. “Off we go to sign-out. See you later.”
Willow waved, slightly dazed. “Yeah. Later.”
Drew watched them go, grinning. “Well, I’ve got to check on the post-op appy before I head home.”
Roan cleared his throat and gave him a warning. “Hold off.”
“What?” Drew turned back, sounding a little annoyed. “Are you going to reprimand me for convincing her to sign the forms? What did you expect me to do?”
“I expect you’d like to know your white coat is inside out.” Roan wagged his finger at the offending object. “May want to fix it.”
“Oh.” Drew was red and took off his white coat. “I can explain?—”
“Not here.” Roan cut him off, before adding, “Maybe over a beer. Or at the love triangle gym with me and Casserty.”
“There’s a love triangle gym? Where? When?” Drew got his arm tangled in the coat.
“Second floor by IR. I’ll tell you on the way to your post op.” Roan helped him get the coat back on. “Someone’s gotta teach you the ropes. I guess it’ll be me.”
Clarissa had been right—grumpy anesthesia chiefs could turn nice given the right motivation.
More to come!
PART THREE
THERE ARE THREE TYPES OF LIES — LIES, DAMN LIES, AND STATISTICS.
CHAPTER 16
As team size went in MetroGen, no team in the entire hospital rivaled the size of the NICU team, with four residents, two medical students, the bedside nurse, a nutritionist, a pharmacist, a respiratory therapist, a speech therapist, an occupational therapist, and intermittent guest stars from subspecialists including ophthalmology, general surgery, neurosurgery, neurology, cardiology, GI, and genetics. It took a large group to make the NICU run, and at the helm of this beast was the captain, the neonatologist.
So, morning rounds were in trouble when their substitute captain went off script on the sixth patient.
“We’ll keep her NPO for another few weeks and begin TPN tonight.” Intern Kimberly Long finished describing the plan on Dizyre Wiggins, the 24-weeker in bed 14 that Clarissa had admitted on call overnight. Unlikely on L and D, she didn’t have to attend the deliveries. The delivery team brought them over, and it was the NICU’s job to stabilize them, which she had done at midnight before catching a full two hours of sleep.
