“Screw you,” she seethes. “You don’t know anything. You aren’t me. You aren’t the one whose whole life was ruined by one accident! I am! Just get out of here.”
“Emily…” I try, in a softer voice.
“NO! Get out of my room! Leave me alone!” She points to her door and glares me down. “If you don’t, I’ll scream for help. I don’t want you here. Get. Out.”
I want to argue. I want to tell her she’s just lashing out because she feels alone, but she isn’t. She’s not alone. She never has been. But she won’t hear it. And I know it’s useless. The damage is done, and I feel awful.
“I’m sorry for upsetting you.” I try to stay as calm as I can then I turn and walk out of her room. None of the nurses are running to see what’s wrong, so I have time to let Miranda know what happened. I need to chart it too.
I step up to the computer to do just that when my phone rings.
Shit.
It’s Xavier. I need to let Miranda, Nate, and the rest of the staff know what happened with Emily. But I’ve been trying to get a hold of him all week.
“Hello?” I answer the phone and glance around, spotting April a short way down the hall. I need to make this quick and find Miranda.
“Dee?” Xavier asks.
“It’s me. Hey, Xavier,” I say lightly, as I walk past April. “It’s nice to finally talk to you.”
“You too. I’m sorry I’ve been so hard to track down. Work has kept me incredibly busy.” He chuckles and it makes me smile, he sounds so much like Nate right now, it’s insane.
“I can’t even imagine. You’re doing so great though. I’m happy for you all.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that.”
“You’re so welcome. It’s hard not to follow you.” I step into one of the stairwells and let the door close with an echoing click. “Are we all good for next week?”
“We are. I’ll be landing on Thursday. Can you still pick me up?”
“Absolutely. Nate will have no idea.”
He sighs and I know what he’s thinking, but I need this to happen for so many reasons. “Are you absolutely sure about this? I don’t want to make him mad. You’re too good for him.”
“I’m positive. It’ll all be worth it. Just trust me.”
“I’m trying. I really am. I don’t want to lose my brother either, though.”
“I won’t let that happen. I swear.” If everything goes according to plan, this will all be amazing. Every bit of it.
“God help me if he finds out, but I have faith in you, Dee.”
“Thank you. I’ll email you later on. I’m getting paged to a patient’s room. But we will talk later, okay?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Bye, Xavier.”
“Later, Dee.”
I end the call with Xavier and take the stairs up to the floor I’m being paged to. One of my coworkers needs a transfer assist with a patient at high risk for falling. By the time I finish helping them, I have to get to my next patient. It’s nonstop, wall-to-wall visits and sessions from here on out today. But it’ll all be fine. I’ve got it covered.
****
Nate
I don’t have time for this shit today. I stride down the hallway toward the main conference room and check my watch, calculating just how long I have before I need to be in the OR.
I knock on the door when I get there and step inside. “I’m not sure who is threatening to sue this time, Sue, but I swear it’s a crock of shit. I’ve done everything by the book with all my patients.”
“You may have,” April says. I scan the room to find her seated at the table beside Dee’s boss, Miranda, my supervisor, Sue, and the rest of the legal team here, and the head of the board, “but Cassidee Parker has most certainly not.”
I come up short and stare at her. “What do you mean?”
“So you haven’t heard yet, then?” Sue asks, making a note in her file.
“Heard what?”
Miranda hangs her head, and Sue asks me to sit.
“It appears, Dr. Alexander,” the chairman of the board says, “Miss Parker spoke out of hand, bullied a patient, used your personal relationship with her to do so, and caused the patient not only to leave, but to do so before she was medically cleared. She up and ran. I would be worried about her bill, if I weren’t more worried about the lawsuit that is sure to follow her disappearance when her family finds out what happened today.”
I drop into the chair I’m supposed to and stare dumbfounded across the table. “What the hell are you all talking about? I haven’t heard a single complaint from anyone.” I shift my focus to Dee’s boss. “Miranda, what’s going on?”
She looks up at me, disappointment and sadness in her eyes. “She got too close, Dr. Alexander. When the patient was upset and refusing to work today, Dee berated her. Told her it was hopeless anyway, the patient brought it on herself. She said you even said so.”
Too close? Fuck. It can only be one patient.
“Emily McCarthy?”
Miranda nods.
Goddammit, Dee, what did you do?
“So you had reason to believe this would happen?” This time it’s my chief surgeon, Dr. Nordman, who speaks up.
“Absolutely not.” I’m not sure what she did or said, but I can’t abandon her right now. Not like this. Not to save my own ass. She would never turn her back on me.
“How did you guess the patient name then?” He presses me harder, daring me to put our relationship in the hot seat.
“She expressed concern to me yesterday the patient was not taking her therapy seriously. I reminded her not to get too close; Miss McCarthy was due to be discharged today anyway.”
“Did you express your concerns to Miss Parker’s supervisor?”
“I had no reason to. I had zero concerns.”
Dr. Nordman shakes his head, as though I’ve done something wrong, and he looks to our director. “What should we do at this point? How do we counter any harm this may bring?”
The director looks at me. “You were the only doctor who hadn’t signed off on discharge yet. Was she clear to go?”
By all my previous exams, yes. But I didn’t perform my final one. April was supposed to do that today on my behalf. I shift my look to her, hoping she will confirm everything for me.
“I was on my way in to evaluate her for discharge,” April says, looking away from me. “I never got the chance. Miss McCarthy stormed out of the room crying hysterically after she had shouted at Miss Parker to leave. I heard it all myself.”
“Tell us more,” the director says. “What did you hear?”
April clears her throat and keeps her eyes away from meeting mine. “Miss Parker was in the room, telling the patient a full recovery was hopeless. She said Miss McCarthy hadn’t put the work in herself, and as a result a full recovery was never going to happen. She has been skirting the edge with these patients for a while now. I know she felt she could, given her relationship with Dr. Alexander. But it is my belief she was just using him to get away with things here.”
My eyes snap to her. “What are you talking about, April?”
“Well, after she berated our patient, instead of stepping out of the room and charting the encounter, or finding any of us in a supervising position, she made a call to her new boyfriend, it seems. I can’t confirm this, but she bypassed the computers and was talking to some man named Xavier as she gleefully walked past me. It was as though she hadn’t just ruined a young, fragile woman’s life as she knew it. There was no remorse whatsoever.”
“Excuse me? Why didn’t you come to me with any of this?” I want to shout, but instead I keep my voice low and direct.
“I’m sorry, Dr. Alexander. I told you I thought you two were too close. I questioned her working with us, but you assured me you had it under control. With all the slack you’ve cut her, the stolen moments you two have had, I didn’t want to put you in this position. I thought it was best to come to Dr. Nordman, Miranda, and the bo
ard instead.”
I can’t think past Dee talking to Xavier, but I need to. My patient comes first.
Put her first, Nathan. Focus on Emily right now.
“Did you speak to Miss McCarthy at all?” I need to know everything.
“I wasn’t allowed the chance. She stormed out and while I called after her, she wouldn’t listen.” April looks so remorseful, so worried. My head is reeling with all of this information.
“Miss Fritz,” the director addresses Miranda, “have you been monitoring Miss Parker’s work?”
“I have, sir. She’s been doing a phenomenal job. But…” Miranda sighs and shakes her head. “Before she even left to work with the patient today, I warned her not to get too close, or too invested. I told her to remain professional.”
“So, you were aware of a potential issue?” Miranda just nods as a response.
“And you were also, Miss Johnson? You thought there might be an issue with Miss Parker’s work?” he asks April.
“I was. She seemed to be doing so well, and I had even complimented her work on a few occasions over the past couple weeks. Right, Dr. Alexander?”
I nod my head absentmindedly.
April continues, “But I had reservations about her working with Emily McCarthy from day one. I felt the case was too tender for such a new, green therapist to be working with her. Dr. Alexander defended her work, though. And he told me he was the boss, and he could make those decisions.”
Dr. Nordman looks at me. “So you allowed the relationship I reluctantly said I’d overlook, as long as you remained professional, to cloud your judgment.”
He’s not asking me. He’s telling me. And right now, I have no argument. I told her last night to be professional. I told her to respect the boundaries that were necessary with Emily McCarthy. She didn’t listen.
And she has been talking to my brother, the little voice in the back of my mind that has been warning me not to trust her, or anyone, shouts loudly.
“Dr. Alexander?” he prods again.
“I guess I did,” I admit, realizing how wrong I was about everything. “She had me believing she was acting in the best interest of my patients. And I thought I had a handle on our relationship.”
“I see,” Dr. Nordman says. “We will discuss disciplinary procedures for you later. The more pressing issue at hand right now is Miss Parker.
“I agree,” the director says. “Miranda, is Cassidee Parker still in her probationary period?”
I don’t have the heart to look up. I know what she is going to say.
“She is.”
“The way we handle this is simple then. You need to fire her. Admit once you found out about her behavior, we discussed, and we all agreed she was acting on her own accord, the hospital in no way, shape, or form supports her claims, and as a result she was terminated. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir,” Miranda agrees quietly.
“And you, Dr. Alexander, is that clear to you?”
I can feel everyone’s eyes on me, and all I want to do is bolt out of this room and put my fist through a wall. “It’s clear. I never once said her case was hopeless.”
“The issue is settled then. Legal will handle any lawsuits from here, this conversation is not to be disclosed in any part to anyone…” He looks around the room. “You all will be held accountable if details are shared.” His eyes land on me now. “Understood?”
“Yes,” I grind the word out past the bile and anger rising in me.
“Very well then. Hopefully we can shift the blame where it is due and escape without too many ramifications. Thank you all for coming in to discuss. This matter is closed, you can return to work now. Miss Fritz, I expect you to handle Cassidee Parker’s termination immediately.”
Thirty-Two
Dee
“You’re fired, Cassidee. You need to clear your locker, turn in your badge, and security will escort you out. I’m sorry this has to happen, but your handling of Emily McCarthy’s care has left the hospital at risk of lawsuit, and was deemed wildly unprofessional. As your probationary period is not yet up, this is the only course of action I can take.”
Her words play over and over in my head again for the thousandth time this evening. After she was finished, she took my staff ID badge, watched me clear out my locker, and then had security lead me out of the building, just like she said they would.
I knew I should have charted Emily’s notes; I shouldn’t have talked to Xavier, but we had been going back and forth for days playing phone tag.
After our call, I got so busy with work I completely forgot… Until Miranda let me know she needed to see me. Even then, though, I never imagined I would be fired for showing a patient a little tough love. I just wanted Emily to know she could believe in herself—she needed to—she could recover.
To make matters worse, Nate hasn’t responded to one text since I was fired, or called me back. He is unreachable, and I just need to explain what happened. I need him to know I heard him last night—I wasn’t trying to get too close—I just wanted the best for our patient too.
I try his phone again and it goes straight to voicemail this time. There is no ringing, there is no hope of him finally answering, I’m simply met with his voice recorded on the machine again, telling me to leave a name and number.
I’ve already left him multiple messages, there’s no use leaving another. I end the call and back into my wall, sliding down it.
He’s ignoring me.
I’ve lost my job.
I have nobody.
This is what rock-bottom feels like.
It’s useless fighting back the tears any longer. Nobody is here to see them anyway. With the thought, the first tear drops, followed by the second, followed by the floodgates opening.
I draw my knees up to my chest and bury my face in them, sobbing hysterically and rocking back and forth.
How did this happen?
How did I get here?
Why didn’t he defend me?
The thoughts roll right along with the tears, and I spend who knows how long letting it all go on my floor.
By the time I finish, my eyes hurt, I can’t breathe, and I know if I were to look at myself in the mirror, my face would be covered in little broken blood vessels from the force of my hysterics.
What do I do now?
More tears start to fall in slower, more manageable streams, and I pick my phone up again. It’s eleven thirty at night here now. I can call her.
I need to call her.
I press speed dial two on my phone and hold it to my ear, feeling the tears pool and soak the screen over my cheek.
“Dee?” Tate answers on the third ring. “I thought you were going out with Dr. Sexy tonight?”
The minute his name is out of her mouth, I’m starting to cry hard, body-wracking tears again.
“Oh my God, Dee. What’s wrong?” Tate’s voice shifts from light and playful to full of concern instantly.
I try to explain to her, but the words come out broken and garbled, just like my thoughts and my heart are. She doesn’t try to stop me, she doesn’t interrupt, she listens as I attempt to make it through the whole story, and only after I stop stuttering through sobs does she speak again.
“I think I got all this, but I’m going to make sure, okay? You were fired today?”
“Mhmm.” I start rocking back and forth again.
“You were accused of crossing boundaries with a patient, getting too close?”
I nod my head, realizing almost immediately she can’t see me, so I whisper, “Yes.”
“Nate is ignoring all your attempts to contact him, he hasn’t tried to call you, and you are completely lost as to what happened?”
That about sums it all up. Miranda informed me legal would mail me a letter explaining the cause of my termination tomorrow, but she wasn’t at liberty to discuss it. “Yes.”
I have no more strength to answer her. None at all.
“Oh, sweetie,” she coos
soothingly. “I am so sorry. I’m sure this is all just a big misunderstanding.”
She doesn’t get it; they wouldn’t make this mistake. Everything I have worked for is gone; it’s over. Nobody will hire me now. I was fired during my probationary period. This was it.
“I don’t think it is.” I lie down on the floor and curl my legs to my chest, sniffling back more tears. “She made it clear, I’m done. I fucked up. Now he’s not speaking to me. Where could the misunderstanding be?”
“I—I don’t know. I’m just trying to make this better.” At least she’s honest, it’s exactly what I need, but it won’t help.
“I wish you were here. I feel so alone.”
“I can be on the next plane out.”
I let out a strangled half sob and half laugh. “You need to be there for Cody and Lillie. I’m sure I’ll be home soon. There is no reason for me to stay out here any longer than necessary. Once my lease is up, or money runs out, I’ll probably move back to Colorado. I won’t be able to afford anything else.”
It’s a sad reality that hits me like a ton of bricks. This is really it. I was just settling in and now it’s all gone. I have to move home. I have to pray someone will hire me. I have to leave here.
“Don’t make any rash decisions yet,” Tate suggests. “You need to find out what the cause of your termination was. You need to speak to Miranda’s supervisor. And you need to talk to—”
A pounding at my door has me silencing Tate. “Someone’s here.”
“I heard that. See who it is, but do not open it for a stranger.” Just like back home, we still employ the buddy system for safety, and we probably always will.
The pounding starts again and I glance through the peephole, seeing a fuming Nathan standing on the other side. “It’s Nate. I have to go.”
“Are you going to be okay? I can stay on and listen.”
“No, I’ll be fine. I have to do this, face him. I’m just glad he’s here.” I start working the locks open.
Doctor Desirable: A Hero Club Novel Page 24
