Page 82 of The Girls of Pearl Harbor
‘Hasn’t she told you that she wants to be a doctor? I humored her little confession and let her take a look at my handiwork,’ Grey said with a nonchalant shrug. ‘Silly girl must have dropped it in there. She shouldn’t be allowed near a patient again.’
‘No!’ April gasped. ‘You’re lying! You know I didn’t have anything to do with this!’
Grey shook his head and gave her what she imagined was supposed to be a sympathetic look. ‘Dr. Evans,’ he said quietly, ‘I haven’t wanted to embarrass April, but I’ve noticed she has quite the crush on me, and well, I should have mentioned it earlier, but I’m wondering if this might have affected her work?’
What?She gasped, staring between the two men.
‘I mean, I’m a married man, and it’s highly inappropriate, but I was hoping it was harmless.’
‘Married?’ she whispered. ‘But it was you, it was you who led me on, you kissed me, you ...’
‘Please don’t embarrass yourself any more than you already have,’ he said, frowning at Dr. Evans past her head.
April was shaking, staring at Dr. Evans, desperate to explain it all to him, hating the lies he’d heard. He might not believe her, but she needed to try.
‘It’s not true,’ she pleaded. ‘None of this is true, and I’m sure I didn’t do anything wrong! You have to believe me, Dr. Evans.’
‘April, that’s enough. Please,’ Grey said, shaking his head. ‘Don’t you remember that I went to the bathroom and left you to watch the patient? What on earth did you do while I was gone, try to play doctor?’
‘I didn’t,’ she sobbed. ‘Dr. Grey, you know that’s not true!’ She racked her brain. Hehadstepped out to relieve himself—she remembered that—but wasn’t it after the surgery was completed? She tried to recall it, wishing her memory weren’t so fuzzy.
Evans moved in front of the door, and she clenched her fists, waiting for the worst to happen. Was he going to side with Grey too? But instead he seemed to block the door.
‘Get out of my way,’ Dr. Grey demanded.
‘You try to pin this on her, and you’ll have me to answer to,’ Dr. Evans said. ‘We’re all fatigued and doing the best we damn well can, but we don’t blame our nurses for our mistakes. We’re surgeons, and this is on you. No matter what the personal circumstances, no nurse can be blamed for a surgical error, and she certainly never should have been left alone with a patient open on the table!’
‘Look, the nurse did it. You know and I know it,’ Grey said. ‘Try pinning this on me, and I’ll make sure neither of you ever work in medicine again. Do I make myself clear?’ Dr. Grey stormed out, slamming his shoulder into the other doctor as he passed, and the second he was gone, April thought she was going to collapse. Suddenly there wasn’t enough oxygen in the air, her breath coming in short, sharp gasps.
‘Is it true?’ Dr. Evans asked in a low voice. ‘Any of it?’
‘No! I was just assisting at his side, like I was with you today. I didn’t do anything wrong, Icouldn’tdo anything wrong,’ she stuttered, trying to remember, reaching desperately for the memory. ‘I mean, I can’t have, can I?’ Could it have been her fault?Hadshe done something wrong?
‘I meant about you wanting to be a doctor?’
April slowly breathed deep and nodded, not about to lie. ‘Yes, it’s true.’
He shook his head, and she waited for him to ridicule her just as Dr. Grey had. But he didn’t.
‘You’d make a better doctor than him—that’s for sure.’
‘You don’t think it’s a stupid idea? That a woman might want to become a doctor?’ she asked.
Dr. Evans laughed. ‘What’s stupid about it? The fact a womancouldbe a doctor or that you want to be one?’
April was baffled. ‘Both, I suppose.’
‘You want to train to be a doctor, that’s your decision. I’ve grown up with three sisters, and I know full well what women are capable of and just how determined women can be when they set their mind to something.’
April couldn’t believe how supportive he was being. ‘Well, that went down better with you than with Dr. Grey.’
Evans scribbled something on the patient’s notes as two corpsmen came in to move the body.
‘What did he say?’ he asked, without looking up. ‘When you told him, I mean?’
‘Something about women needing to know their place,’ she muttered.
‘He’s going to come after you, April. I hope you’re prepared for it.’
