Page 9 of Falkner
Drake didn’t like showing the new doctor around.He should have been able to stay in his office and let the other younger men show the new doctor how they did things around here.It was beneath him to have to do what he was doing.When he told him about places that he could catch a good snooze, he’d actually turned his nose up at him like he didn’t like the idea of someone napping on his shift.Well, he did, and he enjoyed it.And damn the person who woke him up from one of his naps, too.There would be hell to pay, no matter what the circumstances were that brought them to his office.
He knew something was going on between that bitch of a nurse, McFarlen, and the new doctor, too.He just knew that she was telling him things that weren’t true about him.Well, they were probably true, but he didn’t like her to be spreading gossip around like it was her duty or something.Like just this afternoon.He’d actually sat down at a table full of doctors and nurses like he was one of them.Well, Drake had ended up eating in his office instead of joining him.The upstart was going to cause trouble if he didn’t watch himself.And he was the one who was going to catch him at it, too.
Drake read his emails and was concerned that none of the other doctors were running things by him before making them policy, like having the nurses not work so much overtime.That’s what they were there for, to take up the slack of the doctors around so they’d not be overworked.Did they want them emptying bed pans and handing out meds like they were worthless at their duty?He’d gotten to where he was today on the backs of nurses, and he’d do it again in a heartbeat if given the chance.That’s why he hated that McFarlen girl so much.She didn’t give him the information that he wanted to hear when she was around.
Oh, she’d give him the temp and blood pressure, things that she was required to do, but she never slipped up and told him what she thought the patient needed, like he knew she did for other doctors.If she were to do that, he’d have her fired so quickly that she’d not know what was up until she was out the door.Stupid cunt.He disliked all nurses, especially the male ones, but he hated her.The funny part was that he didn’t even know why he hated her so much.She’d never done anything wrong to him.Never back-talked like he knew she could with other doctors.She was almost too polite with him, and he wanted her to mess up so that he could get rid of her.
“Damned girl.”He looked around to see if anyone heard him.He’d been warned about that before.Cursing around the patients.Like they’d never heard that before in their lives, he’d always think.But she was the bane of his workday, and the sooner she messed up so that he could have her fired, the better he’d like it.
He didn’t know why they wouldn’t allow him to just fire who he wanted.He’d had enough seniority that he should have been able to do what he wanted when he wanted.But they thought, and it was more than likely true, that had he had that ability, he would have just fired them all and been done with it.Then where would they be without staff?
“A damned sight better off than we are right now with them fraternizing all the time.”Not that he’d ever caught anyone doing that.He knew it was going on, but he’d been told, even going so far as being written up about how he couldn’t accuse people of having an affair unless he had solid proof.Which was never the case.It was like the new doctor and McFarlen.
He’d never so much as seen them in the same hallway together, yet he knew that something was going on between the two of them.Even when they just happened to be working on the same patient, they were professional.They didn’t touch either.Something that he’d been trying to catch them at for days now.
But they were either sneakier than he’d thought or they weren’t having some kind of affair behind his back.And if they were, he’d catch them by golly and have her fired for it.Christ, he hatedthat girl so much.
Drake had been called to his boss’s office on more than one occasion about the girl.He’d tried spreading rumors about her being knocked up, but that didn’t turn out well for him.That had cost him a write-up.He’d also tried having her get into trouble about missing drugs.But it never panned out either.She was just too good at her job, and he abhorred her for it.
“Dr.Mulkeen, your cell phone is ringing.”He was so flustered that he didn’t even try to hide the fact that he didn’t hear it going off.Pulling it out to answer it, he flipped the nurse off—a male nurse of all things and turned his back on him.
“Dr.Mulkeen, this is Dr.Manchester, chief of Genesis Hospital.”He asked him what he wanted, as he was a busy man.“You’re not busy but sulking around the hospital looking for trouble that’s not there.Did you actually accuse one of the nurses of giving out free blow jobs in the operating room again?We can’t keep having these conversations.She’s going to press charges, and I’m going to have to take action against you.Again.This is serious.She said you did it in front of her husband.”
“How else does she get to work with our top surgeon all the time?She must be doing something wrong.”He said that he didn’t want to hear his lame excuses.Then he told him to come to his office.“I’m too busy to be coming to you.Why don’t we set up a time later, after I’ve had time to look into things?Speaking of which, have you looked into Dixon and McFarlen?I know something is going on there.”
“You’ll stop with that nurse.She’s a good nurse and well thought of by your peers.You’re the only one who has a beef with her, and I don’t understand why.It’s not like you work with her at all.”He let out a long breath.“You’ll come to my office right now.I’ve had enough of you for a lifetime.I’ll see you in ten minutes.”Then the line went dead.
He hated that he was going to have to go to his office.But he was his boss.The man might as well get over himself because he had things to do.Just as he was getting in the elevator, he heard over the PA system that he was go to straight to Dr.Manchester’s office.
He’d have to go now, or every person who saw him would report back to the man where he was, just like a bunch of first graders tattling on him like he was an errant child.As soon as he got off the elevator on his floor, Manchester was standing at his office door waiting for him.Christ, there was no escaping him now.
Walking into his office, Drake noticed that his office was full.The upstart from Human Resources was there, and she had a thick file in front of her.Also in the room were Dixon and another man whom he didn’t know.
“You never said you were busy right now.I’ll come back.”Manchester assured him that this was all for him and that he was to have a seat.“I have plenty to do today without all this hoopla going on, too.”
“Have a seat.”There was a sternness there that he’d never heard from the doctor before.As he took a seat, Manchester closed the door.It was then that he noticed that the blinds were closed as well.He wondered what was going on.“You know Falkner Dixon, I assume.And you remember Mrs.Handy from HR.This is Mr.Steele, the head of security.We’re here to talk to you about what happened in the operating room yesterday when nurse Kelly was showing her husband and children where she worked.”
“It was all a miscalculation on my part.I didn’t know that was her husband and family.I should have approached her at another time.Of course, she was going to deny having affairs in the operating room with him around.”Manchester said that it wasn’t true at all that Nurse Kelly was a good nurse who was happily married.“So you say.But I’ve been keeping my eye on her and the other nurses.It’s like the things that are going on with Dixon there and that damned girl McFarlen.”
“I’ve had enough.Doctor Mulkeen, I’m afraid that I’m going to have to terminate you.I’ve had enough of you spreading rumors that just aren’t true.You have half the staff wanting to tar and feather you, and the other half wanting you out the door.Well, I’m going to have to do the latter of the two.For as much as I hate to lose a doctor, I need one who isn’t going to be causing more trouble than they’reworth.As of this moment, you are no longer employed at Genesis Hospital.”
“You can’t fire me.I’ve got seniority.I’ve been a doctor longer than you’ve been out of short pants.”Manchester told him that it was done.He was finished with trying to placate others when he caused trouble.It was just easier to get rid of him rather than spend his days cleaning up after him.“Mrs.Handy has your exit paperwork on her, and once it’s signed—you don’t have to sign it, but you’re still terminated—Mr.Steele will escort you out.Anything in or on your desk that belongs to you will be shipped to you.I’m well within my rights to take your retirement for all the things that you’ve caused and having staff sue us because of you, but I won’t if you leave now without incident.”
“You have no right to fire me.I’m just doing my job.”He told him that he’d not done his job in over five years, and he was wasting money for the hospital.“You have no idea what you’re doing right now.She talked you into it, didn’t she?That nurse McFarlen did this to me.Well, by god, I won’t leave here until I’m good and ready.”He looked at Dixon.“What’s going on between the two of you?She giving you head under your desk?”
He realized he had made a mistake when the big man stood up.The look on his face scared him, and not just a little bit either.From the way he was doubling up his fists and the veins popping out on his forehead and arms made him think that he was going to be killed if he unleashed his anger.
“Take it back.”His words were so hard to understand through his clenched teeth.“I said to take it back right now or else I won’t be responsible for what actions I take against you.”
“Calm down.If she’s not putting out to you, then she is to someone.That’s all I meant by it.”Dixon didn’t move.Not until Mrs.Handy said his name a couple of times, and then he shook like he was some big animal shaking off his anger.But he could still see it there.He’d never been so afraid in his life until that moment.
“I’d like to press charges against Mulkeen.I can’t think beyond my anger right now, so assume it’s defamation of character.”He finally sat down, and Drake felt his own body loosening up.He’d not realized that his dick, not terribly big in the first place, had crawled up his ass and made it his home, it felt like.Shifting in his seat, he looked at Manchester.
“I’m not signing anything.What I’m going to do is give you a couple of days to think about what you’re doing.”He stood up, no easy feat either, when his dick was still pressing hard against his ass hole.“I’ll return on Friday and we’ll go over this calmly, just the two of us.”
“Your badge has been taken out of the system.You’re no longer employed here, Mulkeen.As I said, you’re going to be escorted out by Mr.Steele here as soon as this meeting is adjourned.”He told him he’d be back on Friday.“Don’t bother showing up, as you will be barred from this facility.As I said, your badge no longer works, and your personal items will be shipped to your home.There is no other reason for you to come back here, as you will be arrested on site for trespassing.”
He wasn’t cuffed; he didn’t even know if the security here even had anything like that.But he was taken to the door.By the time he was leaving, he knew that word had spread like wildfire that he’d been terminated.What was this world coming to when a man like him was fired because he followed the rules and made sure that everyone else was as well?
