by Aiden Bates
The details of the position followed. Carter almost stopped breathing when he saw the salary; he'd be making a good two hundred thousand dollars more than he was making now, and he'd never have to pay for snow removal again. He would be able to build up the department as he saw fit, and he would be able to teach at least one class per semester at the university as well. He had the chance to do research as well, real hardcore research in conjunction with the UT system. Research that could save lives.
He sent a quick note back to Sibley, thanking him for the offer. It was a true honor, and he loved the idea of working with his mentor, but he didn't want to make any hasty decisions. Would it be all right for him to take a couple of weeks to think about it before he gave an answer?
He knew that Sibley would be okay with that.
Carter stood at his window and looked out over the city. He'd never been ambitious, not in that way. He'd never aimed at a senior position with a hospital. He'd only ever wanted to be an obstetrician and save lives, especially omega lives. In a more senior position, though, he could make changes to save even more lives.
And San Antonio… well, Carter wasn't foolish enough to think that living in San Antonio during the rest of the year would be at all like being at a conference. He wasn't going to go out there and suddenly find true love, or find joy and life and love again. He had to admit that the idea of living out there, far from the people who had seen him thus humiliated had a lot to recommend it.
He didn't want to leave the kids. After his confrontation with Tom and Paul, he didn't think he'd be allowed to see the kids again.
He didn't want to leave Finn. He needed to stop thinking of himself as having a relationship with Finn. He might want one, but he wanted a lot of things. He needed to remember who he was, and to keep his expectations realistic. That would be a lot easier at a healthy distance from Finn.
At the same time, could he stand to be apart from those hands, and that scent?
***
Finn could see the hospital's coffee budget increasing with every hour he spent at work, and there were a lot of them. He got to the office at six, or seven if it was the weekend. He left between eleven and midnight. Sure, they had accountants for this stuff, and the most senior among them were putting in their fair share of long hours.
The only people who were slogging it out with him in equal measure, though, were McCloskey and Wyszniewski. They were the only people that he trusted to get to the bottom of everything, and they were the only people with enough knowledge to pull things together. It wasn't enough that they had caught Gerig. It wasn't enough that they'd arrested him.
No, Finn had to make sure that it wouldn't happen again. What was more, he needed to make sure that this fraud wouldn't affect his bottom line any more than strictly necessary. He needed to prove to McCloskey, and to himself, that he could make money with Silver Oak. He needed to prove that McCloskey hadn't made a mistake, that Gerig hadn't been right.
McCloskey wasn't the type to argue. He didn't complain about what had happened, but he made it clear that he expected not to see it happen again at Silver Oak. Johnston sent a preliminary list of control recommendations that would help ensure it didn't happen again, and Wyszniewski started setting them up before her name even went on the front door of her office.
The hospital still needed to be run, of course. Part of the reason that Finn had to get to the office so early and stay so late was the fact that he was still doing his regular job even while he was trying to help rebuild from the mess that Gerig had left behind him. Finn had to meet with regulators, and with media, and with vendors. He had to meet with union representatives, too, which made his gut twist in a knot after the walkout months earlier.
All kinds of contracts had suddenly come up for renegotiation. Finn sat in his office the night before his meeting with the union that covered the housekeeping staff and looked at the numbers. The budget looked huge to his eyes, and his instinct was to cut back by at least ten percent across the board. The last time he'd tried that, though, someone had been irrevocably harmed and the hospital had been hit with a major lawsuit. He needed to consider the consequences to patient care before he pulled money from the housekeeping budget.
He considered asking his Chief Medical Officer. When he looked at the chain of documents in his budgeting folder, though, he noticed that he'd already submitted the proposal to Dr. Richards for comment. The CMO hadn't bothered to reply at all. Dr. Richards had only come into the hospital three out of five weekdays ever since July fifteenth, and Finn hadn't thought much about it.
Now he was starting to wonder if it wasn't a problem.
On a hunch, he called down to Carter's office. It was already late, nine o'clock, and Carter wasn't scheduled to be there, but he picked up the phone anyway. "Hey, what's up?"
"Dr. Idoni, what're you even doing in the office this late?" Finn kept his voice light and teasing, even though he was hiding real concern.
"I'm waiting on this mother to accept the fact that her twins just aren't going to come the way she wants them to. We've got monitors on, we're not going to let them go into distress. If they come the old fashioned way, great. But Huntington went home already, and someone needs to be ready to help out if necessary." He yawned. "You know, they have a whole pile of obstetric surgeons on staff at Lazarus Health, in San Antonio."
"I'm sure they do." Finn glanced down at the phone. "They probably serve margaritas in the cafeteria too, but that's in San Antonio. This is Syracuse." Why should he care what kind of staff they had on hand in San Antonio? They probably had a lot more funding in San Antonio. They had more wealthy donors down in Texas, what with all of that oil money and whatnot. "Listen, I have a patient care question that relates to the budget. Do you mind coming up here to answer it?"
Carter sighed, but it was more of a wistful sigh than a sigh of aggravation. He was probably thinking about all of those margaritas. "Yeah. I'll be right up."
Carter showed up in Finn's office within minutes. He looked exhausted, with huge dark circles under his eyes and disheveled hair. "Are you okay?" Finn asked, even as McCloskey walked into the office. Damn it. He couldn't get more personal with his boss in the room.
Carter understood that. He just ducked his head and nodded. "It's been a long couple of days. But hey, that's what we signed up for. You said you had a budget question?"
Bill frowned. "Is Dr. Idoni involved with the budget now?"
Finn sighed and explained the issue he'd had with Dr. Richards. Bill frowned, but shrugged. "It's better than not getting medical advice, I guess. Idoni's got a good, solid head on his shoulders." Carter blushed, and Finn felt free to explain the situation and show him his spreadsheet.
Carter frowned and leaned over the back of Finn's chair. Their faces were next to one another. Finn had missed Carter's scent. He hated that he'd have to continue to miss it until they got things under control here. "I think ten percent is kind of a lot," he said after a moment. "That creates a serious risk of problems if we get slammed in the ER, or if we have a spate of seriously messy issues in another department. I know I don't have to tell you about the importance of cleanliness in a hospital." He chuckled.
"What do you suggest we do?" Finn turned his head so he was looking right at Carter. He could have kissed him if he wanted, or rather if he dared. "We need to do something to rein in these costs, but we can't sacrifice cleanliness. That's dangerous."
"It is." Carter scratched at his jaw for a second. The light from the screen gave his face a hollow look. "I think that if, instead of layoffs, we reduce hours from forty to thirty-five, that will save some money while letting people keep their benefits. Changing suppliers on housekeeping equipment will help to cut costs too—not on the chemicals, but on things like sponges and brushes and mops. We don't need to pay top dollar on that. I don't know what our contract with that supplier is, but I know that the brands I see used here cost three dollars more at Wegmans than the brands I use at home."
Finn
used a cleaning service at home. He wouldn't have thought of that. "That's probably brilliant. A five-hour reduction in hours won't be too unpopular, and if we need to beef up staff on any given day we can pay them overtime."
"If we must." Bill made a face. "I'd rather avoid that if we can—but we'll do what we have to. I'm not risking patients to any kind of super bug either. Thank you, Dr. Idoni. You've been a huge help, more than once now."
Carter lowered his eyes and blushed again. "Thanks, sir." His phone buzzed. "That's my patient. I should get going."
Finn and Bill watched him go. "You're going to lose him." Bill met Finn's eyes.
Finn couldn't look away, although he wanted to. "I'm not going to lose him. We've got an understanding. I mean, we had some challenges for a while, I'm not going to pretend we didn't, but we've gotten over it for the most part."
Bill stood up and stretched his back. "You think you've got an understanding. And I've spent enough time around the two of you, in close contact, to have a good idea of what kind of understanding you think you have."
Finn sputtered. "Sir—Bill—it's not like that!"
Bill held up a hand and closed his eyes. "I don't know Dr. Idoni well, but he doesn't seem like the type to do anything he doesn't have a mind to do. I should be concerned about harassment, but right now that's not something that I've got on my mind. Finn, that man's not content. He's got a foot out the door. And he's too damn smart to keep going on like this if he's not getting something out of it."
"He's getting plenty out of it." Finn growled the words out. "Look, we've got an agreement, okay?" His cheeks burned, and he found himself grateful for the beard that hid the evidence of his embarrassment. "We agreed that it wouldn't be anything but physical. He's getting exactly what he wanted."
"Is he?" Bill raised an eyebrow. "I suppose you know best. Anyway, let's get back to work. I think that I've found another control to add that could put the brakes on another embezzlement like this. I think that if the Regent CFO has to examine the monthly statements from each property, it could prevent something like what happened with Gerig from happening again."
"Could be." Finn grimaced and switched tabs. "Regent has an awful lot of hospitals in its family, sir. I'm not sure that Howie would be able to handle that level of increased workload. He'd probably just push it off on someone else. I think that if the CEO of each hospital has to check each month's balances, and demand an accounting for any inconsistencies or oddities, that might be a little more effective."
"Good point."
The subject changed, but even as Finn pushed forward through the rest of his evening's work and then went home he couldn't help but think over his boss' words. Was he really in danger of losing Carter? He couldn't be. Carter loved Syracuse. He wouldn't have stayed in town for so long if he weren't so attached, and they were doing better. They'd made up after the disaster of the miscarriage.
Finn knew that he could do better, be better, as a lover. He wanted to be better. He didn't know how, and he wasn't sure how much better Carter wanted him to be. Carter hadn't said anything about wanting to change the terms of their agreement. He'd never said anything about wanting to be with Finn on a deeper level, or about wanting to be with anyone on a deeper level.
Finn knew that he needed to get himself together and talk to Carter about it and see how he actually felt. They were grown men, in their thirties. They weren't in junior high school anymore. They needed to sit down and actually communicate. Of course, that was easier said than done.
They were both busy professionals. Finn didn't have the time to make romance a priority, at least not right now. He wanted to prioritize Carter, but he'd made a commitment to Regent and to Silver Oak. His need to fix the damage Gerig left behind went deeper than that, though. Gerig had done what he'd done on Finn's watch, with a specific goal of hurting Finn.
Finn needed to erase that for his own sake. It wasn't just about what Finn owed to his employers anymore. It was about what he owed to himself, and it was about revenge. He'd had no idea that Gerig hated him that much. He'd had no idea that Gerig had that much of a problem at all. Gerig had led a campaign to deliberately assassinate Finn's whole career, and Finn had almost let it happen.
Finn needed to recover his own dignity. He needed this, for his pride. He needed this for his honor, and for his sense of self. Once he'd found a way to make a success out of Silver Oak, he would be able to focus on showing Carter just how much he meant to him. Until then, well, Carter didn't seem unhappy in their current arrangement. He didn't have any other suitors, as far as Finn could tell, and he didn't want any either.
Finn buckled down to work even harder at the books. He worked with Jason, the chief counsel, to try to recover as much of what Gerig had stolen. The housekeeping union agreed to Finn's proposals once he explained that there had been an embezzler, and that they needed to restrain costs as much as they could to make up for it. He got the sense that they were a lot more cooperative when they realized that no one was going to lose their jobs or benefits.
Other unions followed suit. Donors that had fallen off during the bad publicity of the walkout and the lawsuit showed their sympathy when the news of the embezzlement hit the papers and gave generously. Delancey managed to get some of the money Gerig embezzled back into Silver Oak's coffers within a week, and projections for the current fiscal year slipped from red to black.
Finn, Bill, and Wyszniewski could relax. Wyszniewski finally started looking for a place to live. Bill went back to his hotel and went to bed. He would go back to Cleveland soon, but he needed his rest first.
Finn felt the effects of the past week every bit as much as Bill did, but he was younger. He had a lot to say to Carter, and a lot to do. He drove out to Carter's house on a hill, but before he could say anything to his omega he fell asleep in his arms. He didn't feel bad about it. There would be time later.
Chapter Eighteen
Carter saw the exhaustion on Finn's face when he got to Carter's house. He didn't complain when Finn fell asleep on him, even Finn's mere scent had him stiff as a board. Finn had been putting in so many hours at the hospital trying to undo what that prick Gerig had done that he'd worked himself half to death. Carter didn't have it in him to obstruct his sleep.
When Carter woke up the next morning he went for a run, just as he usually did. Finn was still asleep when he got back. Finn slept through Carter's shower, and Finn slept through the breakfast Carter made. It wasn't much, just eggs and toast, but Carter had gone through the trouble of ordering a basic cookbook so that he could figure out how to cook eggs and how to make toast. He couldn't help but feel put out that Finn slept right through it.
He thought about waking Finn up when he left for the hospital, but decided to let him sleep. Obviously, the guy needed it. It wasn't like he had anything Finn would want to steal. Maybe Finn would take back the baby crap from upstairs.
Carter both loved and hated working on Saturdays. He loved them, because they were quiet unless someone went and had a baby. He could do research. He could get paperwork done. He could read up on what other doctors were doing around the country, or around the world, and see if there were any techniques that might be applicable here in Syracuse.
He hated them, because they were quiet. He had time to think.
Fortunately for Carter, Allen was working today. He showed up at two and passed a small bag of apples over to Carter. "My niece went apple picking yesterday. There's no way that I can eat all of the apples she brought me." He rolled his eyes, even though a fond smile crossed his lips. "I keep telling her I'm not a doctor, and they're not going to keep me away, but she doesn't listen."
"Kacey adores you, Allen." Carter bit into one of the apples right away. Were there crisp, delicious apples like this in Texas?
Allen sat in one of Carter's guest chairs. "We haven't had a lot of time to chat lately. Definitely not since you got back from the wilds of Texas. What's been going on with you, man?" He leaned forward, elbows on his
knees. "Don't think I haven't seen that you've got something on your mind."
Carter grinned and shook his head. "Maybe I have been here too long, if you know me that well." He looked out the window to see the stunning red and gold foliage that covered the city. "San Antonio was amazing. It was fantastic to be around so many people who are passionate about the same thing. I went to a lot of great workshops, and I met a lot of great people. I think I aimed some of them in your direction; you should have heard from some of them by now."
"Yeah, absolutely." Allen grinned. "It's always good to talk to folks in other parts of the country, you know? But you've obviously got something else on your mind, other than just post-conference ennui."
Carter ran his tongue along the back of his teeth and looked away. "Did I tell you about Tom's offer?"
Allen coughed into his hand. "No. But ah, it got around. You know, during the week."
Carter's cheeks burned. "Yeah. I guess it did. I'd successfully blocked that from my memory, thanks." He took a deep breath. "Anyway. After I got back from San Antonio, I got a job offer. From my old advisor."
