Grumpy Doctor

I took a breath and put my food down. “What’s going on?”

“I overheard something.” He looked up at me. “Swear you won’t mention my name.”

“Whatever you’re about to say, I didn’t hear it from you.”

He nodded once. I didn’t know why that was enough for him—he didn’t seem to like me all that much, and he definitely didn’t trust me. But maybe none of that mattered to him. I liked to think I was an honest person, and he could’ve seen that, despite how he might’ve felt about me personally.

“I overheard Dr. Baker and Gina talking this morning,” he said, still watching the nurses, squinting slightly like they were rare birds about to take flight. I felt like we were in a spy movie, exchanging words in a subway stop in Berlin, pretending like we were strangers. “They were talking about Piers.”

I felt my stomach drop. “What did they say?”

“Dr. Baker didn’t say much of anything,” he said. “Gina did most of the talking. I got the feeling Baker wasn’t too happy about it.”

“Gina doesn’t exactly like Piers.”

He smiled a little. “That’s an understatement. She wants to get rid of him.”

I sat back and let that sink in. “Really?”

“Really. For her, it’s personal.”

“How did you hear this? What did she say, exactly?”

He glanced at me sideways, then looked back at the nurses. “They were in the lounge drinking coffee. I was looking for Baker to ask him a question about rounds, but when I got to the door, I overheard Gina say something about Dr. Hood. I paused and I listened, which I’m not proud of, but I’m kind of happy I did. She said she thought Piers needed to be thrown out, even if he was really good at his job, he was clearly a liability. She said she doesn’t like him, doesn’t like his attitude, and a man like that didn’t belong in a major hospital.”

I let out a long breath. I knew he had issues with Gina, but I didn’t think she was actively against him. It felt like a chasm opened and swallowed me, and I was tumbling down, down, down, deeper and deeper into a hole, with no end in sight. I wondered if there was anyone in leadership that cared about Piers, and how he could possibly survive this if there weren’t.

“Thanks for telling me,” I said.

“No problem. I didn’t like the way she talked. And I got the sense that Baker didn’t either. It’s just that…” He paused for a second and tugged at his scrubs absently. “Dr. Hood is very good. Maybe the best in the city. Maybe the best in the country, who knows, but he’s very good. I want to learn from him one day, but I can’t do that if he gets thrown out of here.”

I smiled slightly. “I’m glad you’re not being entirely altruistic.”

He rocked his head side to side, like it was no big deal. “It’s the truth. Gina talked about Dr. Hood like he was some kind of bratty nuisance, but he’s more than that. He’s a damn good doctor. I just… I didn’t like it.”

“I appreciate you telling me. You know I have to tell him, right?”

“I know. I think you need to.” He stood up and looked down at me. “Just keep my name out of it.”

“I promise.”

He nodded once, then walked away, disappearing back inside.

I looked at my salad and put it down where he’d been sitting a second ago. Suddenly my appetite was gone, replaced with a smoldering anger, and an even more intense uncertainty.

I believed in Piers. I knew he had a bad reputation, but not because he was a bad doctor. He refused to play the game, refused to be a political entity. In his mind, the only thing that mattered was the job, and everyone else was only an ancillary issue.

He didn’t understand that it was all one and the same. He couldn’t be a doctor without dealing with the administration—he couldn’t be an employee without having a boss. It was the way of things, for better or worse.

I stood, threw out the rest of my food, and started toward the elevators. I wasn’t thinking as I hit the button for the third floor, and it was only when I stood in the hall outside of Gina’s office that I realized what I wanted to do.

It was stupid and impulsive, and I was supposed to meet with Piers in a few minutes anyway, but I knocked. I heard her voice from inside, and I cracked the door slightly, stepping onto the threshold.

Her office was different from Piers’s. She had more color, more personal items: photographs of her family, a toy rabbit that must’ve been from her kids, a mug from the Virgin Islands. Piers’s office was austere and orderly, and while Gina’s was well organized, it felt more like a home.