Page 44 of Ellie 1

“You’re seriously in your new practice stuffing your face with dumplings when no one is around?” Sean asked, rubbing his hand over his head. “Oh, pup, you are too much.”

The large Alpha wolf actually blushed. “I skipped breakfast because I had so much to do. I was starving and needed to check the new steamer worked.”

Each practice had a break area with kitchenette. Nothing too much given our massive and impressive cafeteria. A few round tables, fridge with freezer, microwave, and small dishwasher.

And apparently, now a dumpling steamer in Clark’s.

That was too fucking cute if I was honest.

“Want some?” he asked, gesturing to the loaded steamer that smelled heavenly.

Sean snickered. “Ellie never says no to dumplings.”

“Only the spicy ones,” I hedged.

Clark shook his head. “I don’t like spicy dumplings—I mean prepared spicy. I dip into spicy.”

Fair enough.

Sean and I sat with a plate of dumplings and some iced tea that Clark had made while he reloaded the steamer. He simply shrugged when we chuckled.

“I had this setup at my last offices,” he explained when we were clearly curious and checking things out. “This line of work is stressful and snacks in the afternoon just help. It’s not always dumplings, but—the freezer is stocked and I’ll keep it that way. Some of the staff—hopefully—will pick up a bag here and there and add to them. Some to try maybe.”

“You’re building a team and working to keep everyone happy not petty,” I praised before gesturing to what else was set up. “Even the teas. You’re British, so you have the kettle, but you made sweet tea for others. Very inclusive and—nicely done.”

“Thank you.” He cleared his throat before dipping a dumpling and popping it in his mouth. “I realized it was going to be a bit of a minefield. I just about got my arse kicked for asking for unsweetened tea at the place I tried the other day.”

I frowned, shooting a glance at Sean. That hadn’t ever been my experience.

Sean snorted. “I think it’s you asking in that accent, Ha-joon. They probably took it as an insult or that you were about to start a fight.”

That made more sense. I asked for half sweet and half unsweetened tea all of the time. IlovedSouthern sweet tea, but it was a lot of sugar.

“Okay, so, as long as you’re here, walk me through this idea of a physical therapist on your staff when we have ahuge department already,” I said to Clark as we enjoyed our dumplings.

Which were really good. I needed to know what brand they were because they did not taste like factory-made frozen dumplings. Or maybe it was the way he steamed them? Either way, they were delicious.

I nodded along as I listened to Clark, Sean jumping in with his thoughts and how he saw it working as well.

“Okay, I’ll make it work, but there are a few things I want in return,” I said when they were done, hurrying on when heat filled Clark’s eyes. “I want them cross-trained with our physical therapy department. Ortho has one of the best in the world. I’m not allowing this to be some area of contention and problems.”

“I fully agree and think that’s great,” Clark hurried to say. “And I asked Dr. James for an intro to the ortho docs so we can get on the same page. No one has been doing anything wrong and—I sense more. For shifters. I also want to be available for any consults they might want.”

I couldn’t hide my surprise. That was very giving of him especially when he was new… Because it wouldn’t pay out to his bonus structure.

Nothing was perfect. I knew that. I saw the flaws of my hospital.

And one of them was different practices taking over patients like they were clients and commissions sometimes instead of just lending a hand like other hospitals with consults. There should be a lot of back-scratching and joint handling of patients, but supe doctors who were mostly Alphas got territorial and competitive.

It was a problem, and every so often we had to smack people around. Like surgeons and especially trauma bitching they didn’t have the chance to get appointments made like others and have their own practices for the bonuses.

Yeah, our surgeons shouldn’t ever complain. I knew how much they made, and the trauma surgeons like Tommy… They wouldn’t find better.

Especially for the headaches they tended to be.

I promised to put a meeting on the books and figure out a way to get things going even before the renovations. I wanted to make sure this didn’t piss off ortho first and they didn’t just find out a shifter doc was getting a physical training addition. That would validly set them off.

We thanked Clark for the dumplings and headed out to finish our days. I did notice there were about twenty dumplings left for him to stuff in his mouth and be adorable again.

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