Archer
“Saturday? What the hell do you mean you’re discharging him on Saturday?” Minka paces Steve’s hospital room, throwing her hands in the air as frustration wars with rage, and both poke at the good mood she left her office with.
Date night?
Not happening.
“He’s just had open-heart surgery, Fielder! He can hardly stay awake long enough to eat a meal. He’s definitely not strong enough to go back to his place alone, and we haven’t had time to secure a nurse for him yet.”
“His vitals are strong,” Doctor Fielder counters calmly.
Too serene for Minka’s liking. “His echocardiogram shows positive recovery. Blood tests are excellent, blood count is up. Kidney and liver function are fine, cholesterol and glucose levels are being monitored, and he’s received a new medication regimen we feel is working.
Mr. Morris is showering independently. He’s walking the ward with our acute care nurses, and frankly, this hospital is bursting at the seams. We need the beds, Chief Mayet, and Mr. Morris is well enough to vacate his. ”
“You’re rushing him out!”
“I am not,” she counters sharply. Woman versus woman, doctor versus doctor.
The pair face each other and fight it out.
“I do not rush my patients, Chief. But I will not baby them, either. While I accept Mr. Morris must rest, you must accept that too much rest can be just as detrimental to a man’s recovery. He can go home.”
“And what? Die on his couch?”
Steve lays back in his bed, his eyes droopy—but then again, they always have been—and a smug grin curling up on one side of his lips. “I can hear you, Miss Minka.”
“He’s lucky to be alive! The fact I had a nineteen-year-old kid on Steve-duty this week is the only reason he’s still breathing. But the psychological damage that kind of responsibility puts on a person is too much. I can’t expect him to keep that up.”
“Mr. Morris was assigned a cardiac rehabilitation nurse. She’ll be with him every step of his recovery.”
“Will she move in with him? Will she be available twenty-four hours a day?”
“Well, no. But—”
“There is no but, Fielder! I have to work. Archer has to work. We have a freakin’ wedding to go to on Saturday. We need more time to find a nurse who can stay with him.”
“You have time. It’s currently Thursday; he won’t be discharged until Saturday, noon at the earliest.”
Minka balls her fists and growls, a furious vibration rolling through her chest. “You’re testing me.”
Finally, Fielder cracks a small smile. “He’s my patient, Doctor Mayet, and I deem him well enough to go home.”
“And you take full responsibility, do you? You volunteer to be his home-stay nurse?”
“No.” Too calm. Too casual. “I am a cardiothoracic surgeon. I do not conduct home visits.”
“Great, so you discharge him, send him home, and never think about him again. That is, until he’s back on your table. And he’ll only make it to your table if he’s lucky. Let’s be real, it’s far more likely he’ll drop dead when no one is around to watch him.”
“Can still hear you,” Steve chuckles.
“Let her go.” I take a seat on his left and study his big, dopey eyes and gap-toothed grin. “She needs to get this out of her system. It’s how she shows love.”
“We do not have a nurse to be with him! We need more time. If you send him home on Saturday knowing adequate care has not yet been put in place, then you’re sending him home to die. All so you can clear a bed? What kind of bullshit is that?”
“It’s understandable that Mr. Morris, and those who care for him, are experiencing emotional turmoil and concerns surrounding his recent ordeal.
” Fielder is to Minka what Kryptonite is to Superman.
She’s lack of oxygen to fire. Minka wants to fight, and Fielder is merely…
uninterested. “For the first week, everyone is likely to be especially sensitive to the subject. However, Mr. Morris’ team remains dedicated and knowledgeable.
” She brings her focus this way. “Your cardiac rehabilitation nurse will advise you on what they expect, Mr. Morris, but I would think small, incremental active sessions that eventually lead to thirty minutes a day will be good for you. It’s normal to be tired.
It’s absolutely okay to become short of breath.
Stop your activity immediately, and that feeling of discomfort should recede within two to three minutes.
If you feel pain in your chest, contact your team immediately, and we’ll reassess. ”
“He doesn’t have a team!” Minka roars. “We haven’t had time to assemble one yet, because you’re more concerned with emptying beds than you are with the heart you worked so hard to save just hours ago.”
“Days,” Fielder admonishes. “It’s been a couple of days.”
“Honey?” I set my foot on my opposite knee, sweetening my voice and smirking as Minka rotates her head, exorcist style. “I’m sure if we try hard, we could secure a nurse in time for Steve’s discharge. It’ll be okay.”
“When, Archer?” She swings back around, wild-eyed and dangerous.
“When do you expect us to do that, Doctor Fielder? He’s a homicide detective and is currently tied up with an active investigation.
I’m the chief medical examiner, and like you, I have a facility overflowing with bodies.
But unlike you, I don’t toss them out just because I don’t have enough beds.
Tomorrow is Friday. The next day, you intend to discharge a patient who, in my professional opinion, is not ready for it.
We have an event we must attend on Saturday evening, since I’m a part of the stupid wedding party and, oh!
Oh!” she exclaims. “I still have to try on the stupid dress for that. And get my hair done. And makeup. Perhaps I can interview nurses while I’m sneaking in a three-second bathroom break between activities? ”
“Your personal life is not of my concern, Chief.” Fielder slips her hands into her white coat pockets, a power move Minka can’t imitate, since hers is a block away.
“For now, I must go. I have every confidence in your planning prowess.” She looks across and nods to us, so after we return her gesture and Steve sluggishly lifts his hand, giving her a finger wave, she straightens and strides out of the room.
“That bitch!” Minka stares up at the ceiling. “She thinks she’s the be-all and end-all around here? Does she know who the hell I am?”
“Oh, geez.” I drop my foot and push up to stand.
“That’s the Malone coming out in you, Mayet.
” I tap Steve’s foot as I pass, earning a playful smirk from the old dog who gets a sick thrill out of watching her go to bat for him, then I circle the bed and take Minka’s arms. “It’s gonna be fine, babe. We’ll figure it out.”
“Even if we find a nurse in time, which, by the way, will be damn near impossible, what do they expect me to do? Pick him up, dump him with this chick we hope knows how to do her job, then I put on a pretty dress and hit up a wedding with the mob?”
“Well…”
“Aubree already knows I’m… ya know… intolerant of her wedding. If I bail and stay with Steve, she’ll think I planned it on purpose. She’ll be hurt. But if I go, and bail on Steve, and then he ups and dies anyway—”
“Can still hear you,” he repeats. “My hearing is as fine as always.”
“I’m being pulled in two, and letting either down is not something I can do.”
“This is what it is to have a family, I guess.” I pull her in and say nothing when she smacks face-first against my chest. She could have turned.
She could have leaned in for a proper hug.
But she chose to smoosh her nose and smother herself for a moment.
“What if I told you it’s gonna work out?
What if I promise to help make arrangements, and I won’t step aside or attend any weddings until I feel the situation is under control? ”
“I can take care of myself,” Steve murmurs. “You actually don’t have to worry about me.”
Vibrating with rage, Minka inches to the side and glares. “Shut up, Steven. Nobody asked you.”
I choke on my bubbling laughter and pull her back again. “It’s going to be fine.”
She drops her lips into a sad little pout. “You promise?”
“I already did, didn’t I?” I slide my thumb beneath her chin and tilt her head back, all so I can taste those pouty lips with ease. “We’ve got this. Besides, I have an idea for who to hire, and I have connections that might make it easier to tempt her away from her current place of employment.”
“You do?”
“It’ll mean calling in a favor. Slipping.
” I brush the tip of her nose with mine.
“But it’ll be worth it. In the meantime,” I glance across just in time to catch Steve’s droopy eyes close and a long yawn take control of his body.
“You sleep. We’re leaving. Mayet needs dinner and meds and another one of those eight-hour downtime kinda nights. ”
“We can’t just leave him here,” she grumbles. “He’s a dying man.”
“He’s not dying!” I chuckle. “In fact, he’s healthy enough that the best-ranked cardiothoracic surgeon on this side of the country deemed him dischargeable. Night, Steve.”
He waves, already halfway unconscious. “Night.”
“We’re going home.” I snag Minka’s hand and tug her toward the door, across the threshold, and when I find Doctor Fielder still within thumping distance, I take us the long way down the hall and find a different set of elevators to use.
“I feel you’re a little over-enthusiastic in your rage, Chief. ”
“Why? Because I’m holding a medical professional accountable to the patient she swore an oath to?” She punches the button for the ground floor. “She’s making the wrong choice.”