Page 17 of Silver Fox's Intern Dilemma

"Twin Peaks is beneath you, Sophia. This is an opportunity to expand your potential." He shook his head, and I could see the frustration creeping into his face, around his eyes, as creases formed there. "You will enjoy this. You'll see."

"No, Baba." I stood and huffed. "I'm not going to Maryland. I want to learn from Dr. Thornton." I surprised myself by remembering to call him by his title, not by his given name. Dad wasn't at all happy about it, though. He looked up at me in frustration as it dawned on him that I wasn't going to do what he wanted. The happy and light mood that had hosted our dinner thus far had dissolved and was replaced by tension in the air.

"Sit down, Sophia. We aren't discussing this. You will have your things packed and ready by September first."

The way he spoke to me as if I were a child enraged me. "No, Baba, I won't. I'm not moving. I am going to continue my internship at Twin Peaks." I picked up my plate as tears filled my eyes, and I wished my mother would have stepped up and said something. But she sat silently with her head down in submission the way he taught her to respect him. "I'm going to clean the table now. Finish what you want to eat."

Taking my plate and glass, I walked away from the dining table into the kitchen, just out of earshot, and finally, I let my tears flow. Standing over the sink, I scraped the food off my plateinto the disposal and rinsed my dishes, then loaded them into the dishwasher. And it wasn't Mom who came after me.

Andrew appeared around the corner, where no one from the dining room could see us, and set his dishes down. "Hey, come here," he said, pulling me into his arms. The embrace was comforting, but I knew he would only side with Dad, if for no other reason than not incurring my parents' wrath onto himself. Any of us children would have done the same.

"I'm not going, Drew. I want to stay here. I don't want to move away." My tears were finally abating, but my resolve hadn't waned.

"I know you don't like the idea, Soph, but if you don’t do what he says, he'll cut you off. Would it really be so bad to travel a little and see more of the country? It's just five years. Then you can take whatever job you want." Andrew brushed a tear off my cheek, and I shook my head.

"Let him cut me off then. I know I can support myself. I don't need all of this," I told him, waving my hand around to indicate the wealth of my parents. I had never struggled or lacked for anything in my life, but I wasn’t afraid to. "I do need to be able to choose my own path, though."

Andrew nodded, but I could see he thought I was making a mistake. "I love you, Sis," he said, then he pecked me on the cheek and walked away as I stood there fuming.

I refused to be controlled by money. I wasn’t going to move to Maryland to take that job. I wanted to live in Denver. I wanted to work for Jack.

14

JACK

Iwalked into the room, coffee in hand, and found Chen and Briggs already waiting. They were reviewing the charts for our bowel resection case, a bad biopsy from the week before that had led us here. Normally, Sophia would be hunched over her notes, nervously chewing on her lip, but today… She was different. Confident. Composed. Almost unnervingly so.

“Morning, doctors,” I said, setting down my cup. “Let’s hear it. What’s the game plan for the resection?”

Sophia spoke up before I had the chance to make eye contact with anyone. “Well, considering the tumor’s location in the sigmoid colon, we’ll need to perform a segmental resection with primary anastomosis, leaving enough of the healthy bowel to maintain function. I’ve already flagged potential complications—perforation, anastomotic leak, post-op ileus—and we’ll need to closely monitor for ischemia post-surgery.”

I raised an eyebrow. "Good catch on the complications, Dr. Chen. And what about the margins?”

She didn’t even blink. “We’ll aim for at least five centimeters clear on either side of the tumor to reduce the chance of recurrence. I’ve prepped the patient file for the OR and madesure blood products are on standby, in case we hit any unexpected bleeding.”

I glanced over at Dr. Briggs, who was flipping through the chart with a furrowed brow, clearly trying to keep up. “Dr. Briggs, thoughts?”

He cleared his throat, a bit slower to respond than usual. “Uh, right. Well, I mean, what she said. Plus, we should, uh, consider the patient’s age and comorbidities. Might complicate recovery, right?” It was odd to see him as the one squirming and uncomfortable.

“Right.” I nodded, waiting for more. “And?”

He fumbled for a moment. “And… we need to ensure adequate pain management, post-op fluids, and… you know, the standard stuff.”

Sophia shot him a brief glance, not smug, but certainly more in control than I’d ever seen her. It was enough to make him tighten his grip on the file. I wondered what had gotten into her. In the past ten days, she'd been coming out of her shell more and more, and I wondered if it was the one-on-one coaching or something more.

“Well, it sounds like you’ve both got the basics down,” I said, not bothering to hide the amusement in my voice. “Dr. Chen, anything you’d add?”

She didn’t hesitate. “I’ve already discussed the case with anesthesiology and flagged the patient’s mild COPD. They’re ready to modify the ventilation plan accordingly.”

Dr. Briggs shifted, clearly annoyed. “Right, of course. I mean, I was gonna mention that.”

I looked at him, then back at Sophia, who, for once, wasn’t second-guessing herself. “Good work, both of you. Looks like the roles are reversing a bit today, huh, Dr. Briggs?”

He forced a smile, but there was a tinge of frustration behind it. “Yeah, seems like it. Dr. Chen’s on fire this morning.”

Sophia smiled politely but kept her eyes on the patient’s chart, pretending not to notice his irritation.

“Alright,” I said, standing up and grabbing my coffee. “Let’s get this patient through surgery without any surprises. You’re both scrubbing in. Dr. Chen, you can lead the resection prep.”

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