5. Megan
CHAPTER 5
MEGAN
M egan could have sworn she saw the briefest smile on Charlie’s face, but it was gone now, and she began to question its existence. She was determined to bring it out again, but how? He was impossible to read.
They made their way to their next patient, a teenaged girl with an injury to her lower calf. The girl lay on her stomach, stretched out on the examination table. Her vitals had been taken, and her injury exposed for examination. The fact that her mother was in the room, watching like a hawk over every little thing, only made Megan more confident. This was where she knew she could shine. So when Dr. Ralter asked Megan to take care of this particular patient, she did so with confidence.
“So what happened to your leg, Sarah?” Megan began after reading the girl’s file.
The girl’s mother answered on her behalf. “She was handling a neighborhood cat. I told her not to handle cats she doesn’t know. Flea-bitten — that’s what they are. But she never listens to her mother, do you, Sarah?”
Sarah tucked her hands under her chin and sighed. “It was a nice cat. It just got scared.”
Her mother rolled her eyes. “You only see what you want to see, just like your father.”
“That’s not true,” Sarah muttered. She was a sweet-looking sixteen-year-old, someone who would take in strays for her entire life, Megan thought. She reminded Megan of herself at that age.
“I’m sure the cat was just scared,” Megan said, affirming Sarah. Right now, she was the injured patient, and her mother was making her feel like it was all her fault. “Animals can be hard to predict sometimes, but I bet they feel the same way about us. Don’t you think?”
From her place on the table Sarah nodded. “Right? Think about how many people might have picked up that poor little thing to abuse it. We don’t know what it’s been through. Maybe people treated it bad in the past, and it’s afraid that might happen again. I don’t think the cat meant any harm.”
Her mother chimed in. “Well, it certainly did a boatload of harm, whether or not it meant to.”
“It’s okay,” Megan assured them. “We’ll have it cleaned up and bandaged in no time.”
She got to work washing the wound, warning Sarah when she might feel a sting, and applying ointment. “This has some pain reliever in it, too, so it should help with that.”
“Thank you,” Sarah said.
Her mother scoffed. “That will be added to the bill, I suppose?”
Megan bit her tongue. She didn’t know how to keep responding to this woman, and she was beginning to become more than a little uncomfortable with the way the woman treated her daughter. Megan had such a wonderful relationship with her own mom that she couldn’t stand to see anything less for other young girls. To Megan, a mother was supposed to be your number-one advocate. This mother seemed to have nothing but criticism for her daughter.
And that was when Charlie said his piece. “The oral antibiotics will also be added to the bill,” he said. “Don’t forget those, Bright.”
Megan shot him a look. “Right, but your insurance should cover it.”
“After the deductible, of course,” Charlie added.
Sarah’s mother frowned. “Do we really need antibiotics? It doesn’t look that bad.”
“Doesn’t matter how bad it looks, Mrs. Greenwood. All cats have a lot of bacteria in their mouths. It’s best to nip it in the bud. Oh, by the way, is your daughter up to date on her tetanus boosters?”
“Her what?”
“Tetanus,” Charlie said with a shrug. “You may want to get one soon if she’s not, in light of this situation.”
“Great,” Sarah’s mother said with a groan.
“It’s not a bad bite,” Megan said in an attempt to diffuse the situation. “At least you won’t have to get treatment for rabies.”
Sarah’s mother gasped. “Rabies!”
Finally, Dr. Ralter stepped in to smooth over the situation. “We’re not worried about rabies, Mrs. Greenwood. It sounds like it was a familiar neighborhood cat without symptoms that was caught and handled, so the bite wasn’t unprovoked. Let’s just keep an eye on the wound and make sure your daughter takes her full course of antibiotics.”
Mrs. Greenwood sighed and seemed to accept the inevitable. “Thank you, doctor,” she said.
“Well, thank our wonderful residents,” Dr. Ralter said, shaking the woman’s hand. “They gave your daughter excellent care today.”
After they’d left the room, Dr. Ralter pulled Megan aside to talk to her. Then he invited everyone else to join in. “Gather round, kids,” he said with a soft laugh. “This will be a good lesson for all of you. So… you’ll learn over time that certain words are a trigger for most patients. Cancer is one I’m sure you’re already aware of. Rabies is another. Obviously, we deal with these conditions all the time, but when we’re dealing with them in front of patients, especially those who have yet to be diagnosed, we like to use alternative language. For example, we’ll use mass instead of tumor until we’re certain what we’re dealing with.”
Kayla, who had been quietly observing everything from the background, finally had something to say. “Will we be given a list of these words?”
Dr. Ralter shook his head. “It’s not protocol. You generally learn them on the job, and they’ll be different for each patient. But there are some that are universal. I suppose I can write a few down for you this evening. Just know the list won’t be exhaustive.”
“Oh, can I have a copy, too, Dr. Ralter?” Megan asked.
Their attending nodded. “Not a problem.” Then he turned to Charlie. “Would you like a copy as well?”
Charlie smirked and shook his head. “No, I won’t be needing a list. Thank you.”
That got Megan a bit hot under the collar, but she couldn’t tell whether she was angry or maybe a little aroused. Or both. Charlie Sullivan really did know what he was doing. He was competent and confident in his abilities in a way that people like Megan and Kayla never could be. Megan envied that about him, but she told herself, it could also get him into trouble one day. And, disturbingly, that thought comforted her.
Their next patient was even younger. Dr. Ralter put Charlie on this one, which Megan couldn’t help thinking he might have done for her sake. Joseph, who looked to be about six, had an arm injury from public playground equipment. Charlie got to work cleaning the wound while Dr. Ralter watched on. He concluded the boy would need sutures and began preparing to apply them.
“What are sutures?” the boy asked.
“They’re stitches,” Megan clarified. “They’re super cool. You can show all your friends, and they’ll be really impressed.”
“Really?” Joseph asked, looking to Charlie for verification.
Charlie answered in a flat tone. “None of us can promise anything in regards to the behavior of your friends.”
Megan’s hand flew to her forehead. Was he really this dense? He was talking to a child, for crying out loud! Then, without ceremony or explanation, he pulled out a whole-ass needle. The boy took one look at it and started screaming. His mother swooped in and tried to comfort him, but he only screamed louder.
Like an idiot, Charlie tried to belatedly explain what he was doing. “This is just to numb the area. It’s nothing to be afraid of.” He was acting like he could reason the fear out of the child. The man clearly hadn’t spent much time with children. “You won’t feel anything after the initial sting,” Charlie assured Joseph, who only wailed louder.
Both Kayla and Dr. Ralter turned to Megan with pleading expressions. Megan was thinking it would be more beneficial to her to just let Charlie fail at this. Point for her. But poor Joseph was getting traumatized, and he was, in his own way, traumatizing everyone else in the room. It was obvious that Kayla couldn’t stand to hear the poor kid howl. She was a sensitive soul. And Joseph’s mother was absolutely beside herself with panic.
Whether Dr. Ralter was more interested in ending the chaos or saving Charlie’s butt wasn’t clear, but it didn’t matter. At this point, what mattered most to Megan was the kid. She sat next to him, on the opposite side of his wound, and addressed him.
“Hey, do you prefer to be called Joseph or Joey?”
The kid turned back to her and answered tearfully, “Joe.”
“Oh, just Joe is it? How come?”
His mother answered for him. “It’s the name of his favorite paleontologist. He loves paleontology.”
Megan settled in for a lengthy conversation as Charlie inched closer. “Paleontologists study dinosaurs, right?” Megan asked.
The kid nodded, and his tears slowed.
“That’s so cool!” Megan watched as Charlie bent down to numb the area around the wound. “I bet you know a lot about dinosaurs, don’t you? Which one’s your favorite? Is it the Tyrannosaurus rex ?”
The boy shook his head. “No, that’s kid stuff. If you want to learn about a really cool dinosaur, you have to read about Allosaurus. It was the best ever hunter in the Late Jurassic Period. Well, maybe only one of the best, but I think it was the best-best for real.”
Megan smiled as Charlie finished numbing and began the stitches. Joseph’s mother fell back into a chair, clearly relieved. Dr. Ralter nodded to Megan with a knowing look. And the boy went on and on about his favorite dinosaur while Megan asked all the right questions to keep him talking.
“Did you know they found out lots of dinosaurs had feathers?” little Joe was saying. “And they were probably colorful, too. People used to think they looked like lizards, but now they think lots of them looked like birds. Did you know that?”
“I didn’t! That’s amazing, Joe. I’m learning so much today. Thanks for teaching me. I can see why you like paleontology so much if this is what you learn.”
“Uh-huh,” the kid agreed, and his new, excited energy was noticed by everyone in the room. “You should check it out. I’m going to be a paleontologist when I grow up, so I could teach you some more things if you want.”
Charlie stood after having added the sutures and announced. “All done, kid. Now wasn’t that easy?”
The kid turned his head to see the gash on his arm all stitched up. Megan glanced over, too, and couldn’t help admiring Charlie’s work. He’d had a steady hand, and the stitches were perfectly placed. It was a work of art, truly.
Megan turned back to her new paleontology teacher and smiled. “That wasn’t so bad, was it? Now we just have to add a bandage, and you’re good to go.”
“Band-Aids aren’t so bad, I guess,” little Joe said with a much more confident look on his face. His eyelids were still a little puffy, but his tears had completely dried and were replaced by that twinkle kids often get in their eye when they’re talking about their favorite thing.
After Charlie was finished bandaging the wound, Joe’s mother approached Megan and shook her hand. “Thank you so much,” she said. “He hates doctors, you know, but I think he did about as well as he ever has this time. You’re a miracle worker.”
“Oh, it was my pleasure,” Megan assured her. “Now I know a whole lot more about dinosaurs than I did this morning.” They both laughed, and Charlie handed the mother her aftercare instructions.
Outside the room, Dr. Ralter gave Megan a pat on the back. “Good work, Miracle Max,” he said with a laugh. “Now I know who to assign the kids to. Hope you like getting puked on because you’ll be getting a lot of that from now on.”
When the day was through, Megan found Charlie outside the locker room and tried to introduce herself again. Maybe they’d just gotten off on the wrong foot, and they could start again now that they both knew the other was serious about learning.
“I thought your stitches were really good,” she said to him. Starting out with a compliment would get her far, she assumed, but she was wrong.
Charlie glared down at her. “I don’t need to be pandered to, Bright. I know what I’m capable of.”
His rudeness struck her seconds later than it should have. She just hadn’t expected anyone to be that openly hostile, especially when they’d barely scuffled, and even then, it was just friendly competition. “Jeez, I was just trying to give you a compliment. Why don’t you try pulling your head out of your ass and being civil for a few minutes? It’ll get you further in life.”
Charlie burst out laughing at that and walked away.
Kayla stepped into his place beside Megan, who asked, “What the hell was so funny about what I said?”
“Probably the whole further in life part,” Kayla answered with a shrug. “He’s basically already as far as he could be at this point. He doesn’t need to be nice because he’s a Sullivan. Everyone’s going to assume he’s good because his father and grandfather were both good. I’m pretty sure his brother’s also a surgeon, if I remember right. It’s a family tradition.”
“I’ve never even heard of his family,” Megan admitted.
“Really? They’re responsible for a lot of medical advancements in the last fifty years. They’re practically a household name. I’m shocked that you haven’t heard of them. That’s why they have money, the Sullivans.” She paused and added, “That’s why they have a hell of a lot of money.”
Megan frowned at the quickly retreating shape of Charlie Sullivan. “I’m glad his family has done so much for medicine, and maybe they deserve the wealth they’ve earned. But he hasn’t done a damn thing for medicine yet. So until he does, I’m not going to treat him any differently than I treat every other resident here. And that means, if he’s going to act like an asshole, I’m going to treat him like one.”
Kayla grinned. “Ooh, you’re bad. He’s not used to being treated like an ordinary person. He’s going to absolutely hate it.”
“Good,” Megan said viciously, and despite usually being the Pollyanna in the room, this time, she really, really meant it.