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I also went over everything that happened with Sunita and Lisa Monroe.
Not very pleasant things to talk about to a family lawyer.
“You have to lay your cards on the table — all of them,” Ben told me. “I have to know everything if I’m going to help you. Good and bad.”
“You’ve got them all,” I said. “Good and bad.”
He nodded. “I can work with this. I’m confident given that you were awarded custody when Maureen and Chris were in China that the judge will be completely willing to award joint custody when you both live in the same city. You’ve shown your commitment to Liam and provided him with a safe environment for the past three years. No judge is going to take that away. All you and Maureen have to do is work out the details. It would be good to live as close as you can to their new home so that the transition between homes is easy and the least disruptive. Liam will have friends and will want to spend time with them, have extracurricular activities to attend, etc. You’ll want to make his life as seamless as possible.”
“We will.” I had already spoken with Kate. Our priority for a home would be to get as close to Maureen and Chris as we could. They didn’t have the financial resources I had but we would be able to live well, wherever they ended up. Maureen wanted somewhere in Brooklyn, in a family neighborhood, and that was fine by me. Even if I never got hospital and OR privileges again at a hospital in New York, I could still work on the charity. I’d find some way to be useful.
My next meeting was with Will Austin, a colleague at NYP, once I was finished with Ben. We were to meet at the cafeteria at NYP during a break in his schedule and talk about the latest developments at the hospital and how the admin had changed considerably since I left. I arrived at the hospital and made my way through the familiar halls to the cafeteria in the lobby of the Carrington Pavilion.
There, at a table in the back of the cafeteria, sat Will. He looked like I remembered, with a shaved head, covered partially by a pale blue surgical cap, his scrubs, and some white Crocs. In his forties, he had a pleasant face and quick smile.
“Drake,” he said and stood when I arrived at the table. “Good to see you, man.” We shared an awkward embrace and patted each other on the backs. “Long time no see.”
“Good to see you again. I’ll grab something to eat and a coffee and join you. Just finished a meeting with my attorney and I’m starved.”
“The soup is good today.”
I nodded and went to the cafeteria, grabbing some soup, an apple and a cup of coffee.
It felt like old times, and I felt a stab of sadness that depending on the attitude of the new head of the surgery department, I might never be able to call these halls my home again.
Hopefully, Will was right and things had loosened up a bit when it came to the current admin’s attitude towards me.
All I could do was apply and hope they saw beyond the issues in my past.
I sat down with Will and together, we ate our late lunch and caught up with each other’s previous three years. We’d worked together before on cases and I hoped we would do again.
Finally, when we were both finished, he wiped his mouth on a napkin and leaned back, his eyes narrow.
“So, you really want to come back to NYP?”
“I really do,” I said. “I think I have a lot to offer, given my recent experience at the Children’s Hospital in Southampton. We’ve had great success since the new robotic surgery unit was set up. I think I have experience that would be beneficial to the hospital.”
“You don’t have to sell me,” Will said and nodded.
“Say, didyou tell anyone about my phone call and that I was coming back to New York and interested in working again at NYP?”
Will frowned. “No, other than a few mutuals. People both of us know from NYP in the department. A few nurses and docs. I didn’t realize it was supposed to be private. I mean, you wanted to meet…”
“No,no,” I said and held up my hand. “No problem. I just wondered what the general reception would be, given what happened before I left.”
“It was positive,” Will said. “People were aware of what you and Michael accomplished in Southampton and were excited to see you back.”
“Good.”
I smiled, and hoped it was true. I didn’t tell him about the man I saw outside my apartment. No need for him to feel guilty for something that might turn out to be just my overactive imagination. So, quite a few people from NYP were aware I would be back and looking for a job…
That meant the man I saw outside my apartment could be anyone who might have held a grudge from my time at NYP.
Nurse friends of Sunita. Maybe friends of Lisa.
It was impossible to know.
So, I tried to put it out of my mind.
