by Aiden Bates
"Right. That doesn't mean you risk human lives to do it! We're a healthcare company, not a death camp."
Finn winced. "With the embezzlement, I guess I'm feeling a little more anxious to make that profit happen."
"Then do it without hurting people, Finn." Bill sighed. "I like you, Finn. I chose you for this job over other applicants because I thought you had what it took to make Silver Oak a success. I still do. You have it in you to take this labor dispute and make it a jewel in your crown. But you have to be willing to admit that you made a mistake. Go to Dr. Idoni. Talk with him, like an adult, and find a workable solution that doesn't involve letting mothers and babies die. Be prepared to eat a little crow in the public eye. You've earned that. In the long term, you'll be stronger for it."
"Yes, sir." Finn hadn't thought of it as a life or death issue. He didn't want to hurt people. He just wanted to save money. "I'll get right on that."
"I'll check in with you later this week." Bill hung up the phone.
Finn hung his head for a moment. Then he showered, changed, and drove out to Carter's house.
His palms sweated as he pulled into Carter's driveway. What would he say? What would he do if Carter greeted him with a shotgun? Everyone knew people from Tennessee had shotguns behind every door. He hadn't seen them when he'd been at Carter's house before, but maybe Carter hadn’t been mad enough to go and get them.
Finn had instructions, and he needed to carry them out. He wiped his hands on his pants and forced himself to march up to the door. He had no doubt that Carter would be awake; he knew that Carter liked to go for early morning runs. He rang the doorbell and waited.
Carter answered the door with no shirt, and a towel slung around his neck. His hair was wet, and water beaded on his smooth skin like jewels. Finn fought down the urge to lick it off. The scowl on Carter's face when he recognized Finn should have been enough to kill Finn's libido.
"Why are you here and should I call the cops?" Carter shifted his weight. Finn wondered if he was about to get a roundhouse kick to the face or something.
"I'm here to talk. About the C-section ban. I've spoken with leadership in Cleveland, and they feel that it's inappropriate." Finn sighed. "So can you call off your damn strike?"
Carter smirked. "Ain't my strike, Riley. We took a vote. I went to your office to point out that your plan was medically unsound. I warned 'em ahead of time that you weren't going to listen."
"You know that's not true." Finn stepped into the house. "I've listened plenty of times."
"And yet you still blame me for what happened. What are you doing in my house?" Carter's face darkened, and his eyes narrowed. "I told you not to darken my door again."
"Carter, I can't have you coming into my office and challenging my authority. What happened between us does not give you special license." Finn spoke as quickly as he could.
"Then don't use your damn job to lash out at me for what happened between us!" Carter shouted. "Listen when a goddamn doctor and specialist in the field tells you something, for crying out loud. You'll save yourself a lot of grief. And by the way, get out of my house."
Finn threw his arms up into the air. "Carter, can we please talk like intelligent people and get your folks back to work?"
"That depends. Are you going to listen to their advice or are you going to make random medical decisions based on Bizarro Medical Facts Dot Com again?" Carter shook his head. "I'm done waiting for you to see reason, Finn."
Finn bit his lip. "Let's just talk. Okay? Let's just talk." He sat down on the couch.
Chapter Thirteen
Carter folded his lips together and held back a shout. Finn had some serious gall, but that wasn't news to Carter. "I'm pretty sure that the time for talking got left behind a few weeks ago, Riley." He had to call him Riley. He couldn't use Finn's first name. He couldn't allow that level of intimacy. He couldn't give him that kind of foothold. Having him here at all was bad enough.
Finn paled at the reminder. "Is that what this is about? You know that I can't let what happened affect how I make decisions at the hospital, Carter. I figured you'd be more professional than that."
Rage flooded through Carter's veins, but he fought it back. Smashing up his own house wouldn't get him very far. "It's got nothing to do with the one mistake we made, Riley." Finn's flinch at the word mistake gave him a sick thrill of pleasure. "It's got everything to do with your absolute refusal to listen to medical advice about medical issues. This was an issue before we screwed up. I sort of hoped that it was getting better afterward, and that's on me because hope is a goddamn fairy tale you spread to little kids.
"Then I miscarried, and you went right back to deciding that you knew better than someone who's spent decades learning about reproductive health. Okay, fine, it hurt but I should have known better than to let anyone who'd shown such blatant disregard for medical professionals put his hands on me, so I deserved that." Finn shrank in on himself. "But this stunt, lashing out at my entire department because you're pissed at me? Because you're pissed at me for reasons that have no basis in medical fact? That's crap, Riley, and you know it."
"I have a right to be angry about you losing our baby!" Finn shouted. He stood up from the couch. "I have a right to grieve, damn it!"
"Sure. You have a right to grieve. You have a right to be upset. What you do not have the right to do is to take it out on me. You do not have the right to sit there and say, Well, I know more about what causes miscarriage than a goddamn obstetrician, because I'm angry and I need someone to kick. You think I'm not angry about it? You think I'm not grieving? Oh, you just don't care. The only person who matters to you is you."
"That's not fair, Carter. I came over here as soon as I could get away with it, without raising suspicion." Finn stepped in closer to Carter, eyes narrowed.
Carter wanted to back away, but he couldn't show any weakness in front of this alpha. "Well wasn't that sweet of you? You waited to secretly come over here and kick me while I was already down. If I wasn't already very well educated on that subject, I'd have been devastated. You're the only person who knew about Toby, the only person in the area. I trusted you, and that was a mistake."
Finn, to his credit, turned his head away. "I hadn't been thinking of your brother. I—I apologize for that. Was it the same cause?"
Carter stepped away from Finn and walked toward the kitchen. He'd just finished a pot of coffee and he needed something to do with his hands. "No. Toby miscarried at nineteen weeks. He had a condition—there's not a word for it with guys, but in women it's called an incompetent cervix. In an omega, it's highly dangerous. If the birth canal doesn't form, or doesn't form in time, the omega will die. He'll bleed to death internally, and that's what happened to my brother." He took a deep breath.
"With me, I lost the baby early. My guess, and there's no way to check given how things went, is that it implanted wrong. That would be why I lost so much blood. It was doomed from the start, and there's nothing that could have been done." He poured himself a cup of coffee.
Finn stared at the coffee pot. "My mother. Um." He gestured. "May I?"
"Help yourself, I guess." Carter stepped aside. "You will anyway."
"My parents decided that they were going to put an ad out on a matchmaking site. They wanted a Paul." Finn shuddered. "I wasn't having that. We had a bit of a dispute about that. And, uh, I told them. About the baby." He poured a mug for himself and went to the fridge looking for cream. "Do you have any half and half?"
"Yuck. Skim milk is all."
"Ugh." Finn took the milk and added it to his coffee. "Anyway. I might have shared my anger. They were less than supportive. Of me, that is. They were pretty vocal about what a prat I was being. They actually left the house, and they're not speaking to me."
Carter snorted. Was Finn trying to get his sympathy? "Well they shouldn't. You're being an ass."
"I am." He smirked. "It doesn't change how I feel, but at least I know that I'm being an ass. It turns out my m
om has had five miscarriages. She's been pregnant six times, and I'm the only one that made it all the way." Finn sipped his coffee and grimaced. "Skim milk has to come from Satan. Anyway, I'm still angry. And there's a big part of me that still can't believe that after everything you couldn't have found some way to prevent it. I keep hearing about what a rock star you are in the field.
"But I guess that's not rational." He swallowed. "I don't think anyone processes grief rationally. And I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the most in touch with my emotions guy in the first place. I apologize for taking it out on you. I'm still angry, and I'm still resentful. But I'll try to… I don't know, stow it… until I can process things rationally and handle myself like an adult."
Carter had no idea how to respond to that. It was as reasonable as he could expect from Finn at this point. "Okay," he said, blinking. "Good talk, I guess?"
Finn shook his head. "I'm not done."
Carter let his head fall back. "Of course you're not."
"I absolutely cannot have you being insubordinate. I am the chief executive. You are the employee. The fact that we had sex once doesn't give you license to come in and push back against my directives and then declare a strike against me. What the hell was that, Carter?" Finn slapped his hand against the granite counter. "I honestly believed you were a professional. I didn't think you'd let our relationship affect the workplace like that. You've put me in a very awkward position."
Carter laughed out loud. "Oh, you think that was about us?" He waved his free hand between them, hoping to dissipate some of Carter's scent while he was at it. "First of all, there never was an us. We made one mistake. You made it abundantly clear that it was a one-time thing, no strings attached, and I sure as hell took you at your word. What I said and did yesterday had nothing to do with sex, and everything to do with patient care.
"I told you from the beginning—from the very first time we locked horns, in fact—that the patients come first. If you're sitting there trying to punish us for taking care of our patients, for making decisions based on our patients' needs, then yeah. I'm going to fight you." Carter shrugged. "I don't know what else to tell you, buddy. That's just the way it's going to be. And sure, you can fire me. I'll keep our little tryst a secret. What I will tell the whole world is how you chose, of your own free will, to risk patient lives for a couple of bucks."
Finn pursed his lips. "You've got an awfully smug and one-sided way of looking at it. The Obstetric department has a high cost rate, and we need to get that down. And experts all over the world agree that there are too many C-sections."
"None of them are involved with patient care. I do happen to have published more than one article on the subject. Would I rather deliver a baby the other way? You bet. Recovery time is faster, yada yada yada. Is it always feasible? No. Medical technology has allowed more parents to survive childbirth, thanks to the C-section, than ever before. That's why we're seeing a spike in C-sections. People aren't dying in childbirth on the kitchen table and getting tossed into an open grave by sunup anymore." He sipped from his coffee. "It's a decision that needs to be made—"
"I saw you on TV last night, you don't have to say it again." Finn shook his head. "I am the ultimate authority at Silver Oak. You don't get to make those decisions without me."
"Actually we do. In conjunction with our patients, of course. You're not a doctor. You have no authority to make medical decisions. Look it up. I mean, go ahead and fire me, I don't care." Carter tapped his chest with his hand. "It's not going to change the fact that you can't make medical choices. It's not going to change the fact that you're looking at a strike right now. And it's not going to change the heap of trouble you're going to have when patient care declines.
"Face it, Riley. You jumped on a chance to punish my department because you couldn't find a way to punish me."
Finn's lip curled. "And what if I did?"
"That's going to look great on your resume." Carter took a deep breath and instantly regretted it. Finn's scent was overpowering. "You took down your own hospital because you were feeling pissy about an omega you couldn't control."
Finn chuckled. "You were pretty willing to let me touch you, for being someone I can't control."
Carter put his coffee down. "Finding someone attractive doesn't mean he controls me, jackass. And in case you hadn't noticed, you don't control me. I'm my own person and you've got nothing to hold over me. I don't give even half a crap if you fire me, and I'm pretty sure you're not dumb enough to actually retaliate against my department once I'm gone."
Finn lifted his eyebrows. "Okay, why is it that every time we talk we wind up fighting?" He stepped back. "I came over here to try to work out our issues and end that strike."
Carter chuckled. "I'm not in charge of the department, Finn. You'd need to talk to everyone for that to happen. And I don't think you're ever going to listen to a doctor. You're too insistent on being right. It doesn't matter what the facts are, you need to be obeyed more than you need for patients to be healed."
Finn shook his head. "You're wrong. You know you're wrong."
Carter sighed. "I'm not wrong. Every time I have to come and tell you, Hey, this is going to cost lives, you're infuriated that someone dared to stand up to you. And it's a shame. I think you could have been a decent guy." Carter mentally kicked himself for having let that part slip out. It was a weakness, and he needed not to show weakness in front of a guy like Finn. That got him every time.
"Could have been?" Finn scoffed and stepped closer. "Do you honestly mean to tell me that you hated the time we spent together out on your patio, just chatting and enjoying the sun?"
"Not at all. That's why I said you could have been a decent guy. But you can't respect someone who isn't you, and you can't listen to anyone who's telling you no. It's just not in you to do that. It's a pity. We're both going to die alone, but it's for very different reasons." Carter turned his head away.
Finn smirked at him. "If you're so sure we're both going to die alone, you probably won't mind a little fun in the meantime."
Carter looked over at him. "You're not serious right now."
Finn raised his hands. "Look, the last time it brought us some peace. It cut the tension between us, which is what we needed. Same deal as last time. No strings. Just blowing off steam, and then we go about our merry way. Hell, you'll still be suspended."
Carter laughed. "I can't believe you're suggesting this right now."
"It worked the last time. We didn't even fight until—well." He stepped in and put his hands on Carter's shoulders. "You have to admit that it was effective."
Carter sighed. "I can't believe that I'm even thinking about saying yes." He knew that he should knock Finn's hands off of him, and push him down besides. He didn't want to fight. Finn's presence, his scent, the feel of his hands against Carter's body, they all conspired to lead him down the garden path. "Come on."
Finn pulled Carter's shirt off before they even got to the master bedroom. Carter grabbed lube and condoms from the nightstand and left them there on the big, soft bed. He didn't want to make any mistakes.
Finn was apparently feeling aggressive today, not that this was news to Carter. The hard part was that Carter himself seemed to be inclined to let it happen. Something about Finn's presence triggered something else in Carter's brain that just made him feel safe and want to give. He was still angry. He was angry at the intrusion into his day. He was angry about Finn's punishment of the Obstetrics department and about his choice to harm patients.
But his body wanted to yield so badly that his anger got shunted off to the side.
Finn mouthed along his collarbone and took off today's fashion monstrosity. He licked along Carter's nipples, which were still oversensitive since the miscarriage. Somehow Finn seemed to grasp that without Carter having to say anything, because he only licked. He didn't pinch or nip or suck, and that was enough to get Carter's temperature going.
Finn might be more sensitive to Carter's
needs than Carter had expected, but he wasn't feeling all that patient. He wrestled Carter's jeans off and opened him up quickly, and Carter couldn't pretend that wasn't uncomfortable. He made himself breathe through it, though. He wanted this, and he knew that it felt good on some level. He just had some lingering pain where the birth canal had been. He would get through it, if he positioned himself in such a way that he could minimize contact.
They both inspected the condom before Finn put it on. It was funny how they'd both looked forward to the baby and now they couldn't do enough to make sure they didn't have another one, but Carter wasn't here to be bitter. When the condom was proven to be sound, Finn put it on and slicked himself up. Carter rolled over, and Finn sheathed himself in Carter's body.
Carter would hate himself for this later. For now, he could only lose himself in bliss.
***
Being buried in Carter again was like coming home. Every piece of the puzzle clicked. Silver Oak faded away, and took Brian and Sheila's disapprobation with it. Even the miscarriage receded. The only thing that was real was the tight heat of Carter's body. Finn held still for as long as he could and then he set up a rhythm.
