“Stop playing games. And don’t threaten Fiona again.”
She spread her hands. “If anyone here is playing games, it’s you, Dr. Coarse. You’re the one breaking into offices. You’re the one digging.”
“My office was ransacked, although I’m sure you won’t admit to having any knowledge of that.”
“If someone broke into your office, you should report it to security.”
I rolled my eyes. “You should know that some of my patient files were destroyed. Some of my notes are missing. That could cost someone.”
“We have electronic backups.”
“Not for my notes, we don’t.” I clenched my jaw. “Tell your thugs to leave Fiona out of this.”
“I have no control over these thugs, whoever they may be. And if you were smart, Dr. Coarse, you might counsel Fiona to listen to those men. Maybe it would be better for everyone if the two of you went back to business as usual. You do have important jobs, after all.”
I stood staring at her, heart beating heavy in my chest, each pounding thump nearly pushing me toward desperate acts. Instead, I turned away.
“You’ve made your threats, so I’ll make mine: leave Fiona out of this.”
“Or else what? You have nothing to threaten me with, Dr. Coarse.”
“I’ll make sure you burn for this, one way or the other. I suspect if you weren’t worried about that—you wouldn’t be bothering with all this.” I walked to her door and pulled it open.
She said nothing as I left, stalking back toward the elevators. I felt her secretary stare into my back as I went.
I nearly trembled with rage as I rode back down a floor. I stopped at the lounge to grab some coffee then walked out onto the floor, forcing a smile on my face, nodding at the nurses who lounged behind their stations, looking half-bored, half-excited, the way hospitals always were on the verge of something happening. It was never quiet, not exactly. There was silence, or at least there was silence punctuated by bleeping machines and the soft drone of human voices, but quiet suggests a lack of action. Even in the middle of the night, the hospital was never still.
I caught Fiona coming out of a patient’s room and she nearly startled as I approached.
“You okay?” I asked.
She nodded, accepting the cup of coffee I offered. “Just on edge.”
“Busy right now?”
“Not really.” She chewed her lip and looked back toward the station. Mary sat behind the desk, gazing in our direction, and I could only imagine the sort of gossip she was brewing.
“I talked to Maria.”
She froze up, eyes darting side to side. “What happened?”
“She denied everything, of course, but threatened me at the same time. She’s a serpent, that one.”
Fiona nodded and fidgeted with the coffee cup, the white waxed cardboard the same color as her skin. “Did you record it?”
I nodded and took the small recorder from my pocket. “She didn’t give up much though, but of course.”
“Good.” She sucked in a breath. “I don’t know what to do. I keep thinking about those guys just showing up like that.”
“You can come stay with me.”
She looked away and shook her head. “No, thanks. I’ll get a dog instead.”
I laughed. “You can’t take care of a dog. You work too much.”
“Then a gun.”
“Not a terrible idea, although you’ll probably shoot yourself by accident. Might as well get a dog.”
She gave me a look. “What should I do then?”
“Get better locks on your door and keep your head down. Or come stay with me.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but Mary suddenly stood and came barreling toward us. “She’s crashing,” she said, storming into the room Fiona just walked out of.
Fiona gave me a wild look then her face seemed to shift into something solid and stone-like. She followed Mary into the room and I ran in on her heels, dropping into doctor mode, our previous conversation completely forgotten.
That was how it went at Mercy: one second we were talking about the mafia breaking into her house, and the next we were saving a patient.
The girl on the bed was young, mid-twenties at most. She was having a seizure, and Mary and Fiona worked to get her stabilized as I skimmed her chart then stepped in to help. We got her physically under control, making sure she couldn’t hurt herself, then I got an anti-seizure medication and added it into her IV. The drug took a few minutes to work, but soon she calmed down, and Mary stepped away from the bed with a sigh. The girl was pretty, brown hair, round blue eyes, and she groaned softly, making strange sucking, grunting noises, as Fiona touched her shoulder and spoke to her in a low whisper.
I stepped out of the room and stretched my back.
“Lucky you were there, doctor,” Mary said, giving me a look. “What’s going on with you and Fiona, anyway?”