Page 4 of Egotistical Jerk
"Sebastian, listen to yourself. You're being a tad dramatic when you actually should be feeling proud."
My eyebrow arched. "Proud?"
"Yeah. You have one doctor on your team who is more than capable of doing her job." His shoulder connected with mine again. "Gotta run. We still on for drinks tonight?"
Once a month, Bridget would stay home with the kids while Simon and I knocked back a few beers. It was a good way to decompress.
"You bet."
Then he was off, finally giving me some much-needed silence—at least as much silence as a busy hospital could offer. I reached the elevator a few moments later and after stabbing the button with my index finger, my thoughts wandered back to the incident earlier.
If I were being completely honest—and I'd never admit this to Simon—I didn't even know why I was so irritated with Dr. Phillips. She actually didn't do anything wrong. In fact, she did a whole lot of things right and she did it with admirable grace, too.
I'd witnessed her arrival a few minutes ago. Even from where I was standing, I could see the wonder and amazement on her face. I didn't like it. If she was awestruck, how the hell was she going to do her job?
She answered that unvoiced question by sprinting across the waiting room and slipping into doctor-mode in the space of a breath. Simon was right, I should've felt pride bloom in my chest because I had hand-selected the four doctors on my new diagnostics team. Even though I wasn't present during any of their interviews, I'd gone through the recordings with a fine-toothed comb, looking for a spark of something.
I'd made it two minutes into Dr. Phillips's tape when I found it. The way she'd spoken about medicine was exactly how I felt about it. It'd been so easy to see that she admired the science behind it as much as she respected it.
So, why am I so pissed off right now?
As the elevator dinged to announce its arrival, the doors slid apart. I knew finding an answer to the question grating on my brain would be near impossible. Instead, I stored it away for the time being and stepped into the elevator.
When I reached the fourth floor, I didn't go to my office immediately but rather the room at the end of the hall. Cheryl DuBois had been a patient at Memorial for almost three months. She'd come in one night complaining of flu-like symptoms. After two rounds of antibiotics, her condition worsened. She'd been transferred to the diagnostics department, and I'd been trying to work out what was ailing her ever since.
"Good morning, Cheryl. Are you ready for today?"
Perching on the edge of her bed, I patiently waited while she shifted her elderly body into a seated position. I'd quickly learned that offering the feisty sixty-eight-year-old a helping hand was a lot like slapping her across the face.
She didn't like it. At all.
Once she was comfortable, she gently fluffed the soft white curls framing her face. "How do I look?"
"Gorgeous, as you always do."
She smiled sweetly and for the millionth time, I hated that we hadn't figured out what was attacking her. She should've been home, spending whatever time she had left with her loved ones. Instead, she was confined to a hospital bed and subjected to test after test.
I could only hope that my team and I would bring her an answer before it was too late. Pushing to my feet, I walked to the front of the bed and snatched her chart from where it was hanging. Flipping through the pages, I noted that she'd complained about abdominal cramps again.
"Your stomach doing better this morning?"
She waved her elderly hand through the air. "The pain comes and goes, but I'm all right now."
"You sure?" I returned the chart to its spot and folded my arms in front of me. "The team doesn't have to—"
"Stop fussing, Sebastian. I'm more than ready to meet your shiny new team."
"I know you are, but they're—how do I put this—excited to be here and I'm afraid once they pile into the room, they might forget that you're more than just a name on a chart."
With Memorial being a teaching hospital, it happened every day. Doctors would be so focused on the case they were working and learning about, they forgot patients were people, too.
"So sweet how you worry," Mrs. DuBois awarded me another warm smile, deepening the lines around her mouth. "But so unnecessary. Now, go get that team you keep going on about."
A chuckle worked its way through my chest. "Yes, ma'am."
Unfolding my arms, I gave her a mock salute and hurried to the staff room to finally meet the four new doctors I was in charge of.
Or at least, the remaining three.
