Chapter 47
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Julian
“X-ray,” I bark for the second time and throw down the instrument on the tray. The clattering of it hitting and scattering the other tools causes Tasha to flinch next to me.
My patience is already waning, barely hanging on by a thread and the tech is on his phone, not paying attention to the case.
“Uh?” Startled eyes flash up. Confusion clearing away as the tech glances around the room to see all eyes on him. “Oh! Sorry,” he stammers as he straightens up, but he takes the damn shot.
Relieved the fracture is reduced, I’m about to call out the first implant I need when the door from the inner core opens. In saunters Devin.
She’s carrying the packaging for her gown and gloves.
I gnash my teeth because this is a very familiar scene, one that happens whenever a scrub tech is getting relieved for a break or for the remainder of the case.
Devin is a pretty shitty scrub tech. I don’t know if it's because she doesn’t know what she’s doing or doesn’t care, but the last thing I want is to work with a sloppy tech when I feel as if I could erupt at any moment.
“Tasha, I’m here to relieve you. Dr. Merritt has added a case that he’s requested you to scrub,” Devin announces.
“I need her to finish this case,” is my flinty response.
“Dr. Merritt is waiting. But don’t worry Dr. Jacobs, I’ll take care of you.”
“Just scrub in so we can do our jobs and get the hell out of here.”
This is bullshit.
Turning around, a look passes between the anesthesia provider and myself over the drape, but her eyes cut away quickly.
Cracking my neck, I attempt to get my short, fast breaths under control.
Tasha should finish this goddamn case before she goes to scrub Diego’s, and normally I would insist that happen.
Except he’s the fucking Chief of Surgery and I’m the newest surgeon on staff. The bottom rung in the seniority chain.
I’ve been frustrated as hell this past week.
Something is going on with Leena, and there has been a distance between us that is eating me alive.
Many times I’ve felt like she’s on the verge of telling me something, then ends up staying quiet.
I know she has to be as sick of me asking if everything is alright as I am of asking, especially since I know she won’t tell me. It has me fucking losing my mind.
It’s never felt like this with her, even when she was avoiding what was between us in the beginning, and I’m freaking the fuck out.
I’m so fucking gone for this woman, I’m tied up in knots over it.
It felt like everything was falling into place.
We’ve confessed our love, we’ve met each other's families, and we’re practically living together.
We’ve also become a little reckless with keeping our secret—the storage room and bar are blaring examples of that.
It’s almost like we were on the cusp of not needing to hide anymore, like she is almost secure enough in us that she’s ready to go public.
Now, as I’m left floundering about what to do, the strongest urge to flip the back table comes over me as I watch Tasha and Devin trade places.
“Hi, Ian.” I’m not one to stand on formality, but I really have to bite my tongue and not insist Devin call me Dr. Jacobs. “How are you doing?” she simpers.
I just grunt. Then call for the implant size I want.
When passing it to me, she holds my hand in a completely unnecessary way, almost dropping the implant in the process.
“You know, Ian, you’re still pretty new around here.
We should get drinks, get to know each other a little.
What do you say?” She drops her voice into a low whisper that I assume she intends to be sexy.
“No. I have a girlfriend.”
“That doesn’t matter to me.”
“I’m not interested. What I want is to finish this damn case,” I sneer.
Unfortunately, she is not deterred. Devin continues to try flirting with me for the remainder of the case and the next one. I grunt or speak in monosyllabic words only when necessary.
When the surgery is finally over, I rip off my gown and gloves and toss them in the trash. Pulling my mask from my face with a sharp jerk of my wrist, I suck in a lungful of oxygen, but it does nothing to lessen the vise gripping my chest.
As I stride from the room, I feel a tickling of fingertips curl up my spine. My body goes rigid.
I spin around and swat Devin’s hand away from me. She purses her lips in a pout. “What's the matter, Doctor?”
“I have a girlfriend, Devin.” And only she is allowed to call me Doctor like that.
She makes a show of looking around. “She’s not here right now though, is she? And I am.”
“She doesn't have to be. She's all I think about.”
I try to step around her, but she grabs my bicep, giving it an appreciative squeeze that makes me grimace. “Come home with me, and I can give you something better to think about. “
I yank my arm from her grasp. “I highly doubt that.”
Anger courses through my blood as I storm away.
This is something I need to report. Fuck.
I know I said I didn’t have any cases lined up today when I spoke with Leena this morning, but I don’t fucking control what comes through the ER.
Blowing out a breath, I tell Joanne, the nurse in charge of the desk most days, “This is an emergent case. I have been told and assured emergent cases take precedence over scheduled cases. Hold a room so we can get my patient into surgery.”
“Of course emergent cases are the priority, Dr. Jacobs. And we can get your case started immediately with our team that would otherwise be giving breaks and lunches. But it’s not the crew you’re asking for.”
What the fuck?
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I try to focus on my breathing. My agitation has been on a steady simmer this past week, the weekend only amped that up to a slow boil. But, right now, I feel like it's finally going to explode from what Joanne is telling me.
Once again repeating myself to her, I bite out the next words. “During the week, I’ve always had Charlie and Sarina. They know the ins and outs of our service, and I need that right now. Send the relief crew to relieve them so they can do my case.”
“I’m sorry, but you have to understand why we try to avoid that if at all possible. We want to prevent contamination risks with unnecessary staffing changes during cases.”
“But—”
“Dr. Jacobs, I understand you want your normal crew for this case, but in a bid to limit room traffic, we try not to change staff if at all possible. And right now, we have a crew for you. Devin and Myles are already pulling the case and setting up the room.”
This is fucking bullshit.
Yes, it's imperative we take all reasonable actions to prevent contamination and unnecessary breaks in sterility. But what I’m asking for right now was exactly what happened to me this weekend.
Tasha was scrubbed into a case with me when Devin came in to relieve her, all so Tasha could scrub a case for Diego.
I know they are involved and work seamlessly together, and if it had been anyone else but Devin coming in to take over, I would have been fine.
Ordinarily, Devin fumbles around in cases, almost as if she’s clueless about what she’s doing, more often than not. However, this weekend she was more interested in flirting with me than actually pretending to know what she is doing and scrubbing the case she came in for, or the one that followed.
She started off subtly, and by the end of the day, she had come right out and asked if I wanted to go home with her. It pissed me off because with her initial flirty innuendo, I told her I had a girlfriend.
My mind is still boggling over her response.
So, no, I don’t want to fucking work with Devin today.
“Call Leena up here, now. I need my crew.” I know I sound like an asshole, but I don’t care.