Chapter 23 Sensible
Aiden
It was Tuesday already, but just a regular Tuesday.
No major surgeries scheduled, no board meetings or crises that needed managing before nine, just files, and the quiet corridors.
At seven, I was already seated, as usual. I'd been at my desk by seven every morning for the last four years, it was simply my thing.
Early hours were for the thinking, going through case notes, for being the version of myself that didn't have to perform.
I had a file open, but I wasn't reading it.
Somewhere around the third time I reached the bottom of the same page, I realized this.
I heard familiar footsteps, I knew how her steps sounded because I had taken time to observe them, she walked deliberately like she had to be wherever she wanted to go.
Like every step she took was going to decide where to land.
I returned to the file.
She's been back to work for two weeks now, and I ensured that she had a lighter schedule, less consultation, adjusted rotation and nothing that required sustained physical efforts or late nights.
The department had absorbed the changes without comment, mostly because I had made them quietly and nobody had any reasons to question them.
Just two weeks,and the department was back feeling different again.
Not loud, since she wasn't a loud person, she was just somehow more occupied, like a room that had been missing a piece of furniture and you only notice what had been wrong, once it was back.
I closed the file, and opened another one.
The case review started at ten.
Seven of us were sitting around the table, with Liana at the far end of the table.
For the first thirty minutes, she didn't say anything, until Dr. Louise turned to her.
“The imaging doesn't match the presentation,” she said. “Dr.whilre the CT was reviewed yesterday.”
“I know.” She replied. “I looked at it this morning. The lesion placement doesn't account for the symptom onset timeline, we need an MRI before we can adjust the treatment plan.”
Everywhere was silent for a moment.
“I'll order it,” I said, and she nodded once and returned to her notes.
I watched her longer than I should have, then returned to the agenda.
Till the review ended, she didn't say anything else, and no question was directed to her.
“See me after the review, Miss Whitmore” I said, and she glanced up at me sharply.
I didn't stare at her, so I don't know the kind of look she gave me, but I could tell she was panicking.
A knock sounded against my door, and knowing who it was, I sat upright. “Come in.”
“Good Morning Dr. Korran.” She bowed slightly, and I gestured at the chair before me.
“Please sit.”
“Okay sir,” she replied, and I finally raised my gaze to her.
“The Harmon case.” I said, pushing the file over to her. “I've not announced it, it's a complicated family situation, the family have been in and out of the hospital I think it has something to do with their genes.”
She raised an eyebrow at me. “sir I'm lost.”
“They've been having recurring kidney failures,” I continued. “The older brother got a transplant last year, the second had one six months ago, and the third one just got diagnosed.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh no..”
“It's definitely in their genes.” She mumbled. “But there should be something that can be done right?”
I nodded. “I was going to transfer the case to Dr. Louise, but I feel like you're the best person to handle it.”
“Dr. Korran” she whispered.
“Is it going to be a lot for you?” I raised an eyebrow? “If it's going to look like that, then I don't mind transferring it back to her.”
She laughed, then shook her head. “Dr. Korran, you don't have to transfer it back, I was just going to say thank you.”
“For?”
“Trusting me enough to handle such delicate case.” She replied, and I laughed.
“I look forward to seeing what you'll do with the case.” I said, handing her the file. “If you're missing out something, feel free to reach out to me, okay?”
“Alright Dr.”
She was standing up to leave when I called her.
“Liana?”
She sat back, and looked at me. “Sir?”
“How is Liam doing?”
A smile broke out of her face, as her gaze drifted off. “He's doing fine, thank you.”
“Is he in the nursery?”
She shook her head. “Dr. Lane is on her annual leave already, so she's been with him the whole time.”
Wow.
I really had no idea.
“Alright then.”
She stood up, and walked out of the office, with each step she took, the thought of calling her back, and inviting her over for dinner became more serious, but I kept putting it back, until she completely walked out.
What is wrong with me?
Evening finally came, and it was the end of my workday, I walked to the parking lot, and found her car no longer there, meaning she'd gone.
I got into my car, and sat in it for a while before starting it.
Concerning Dr. Whitmore, I knew the implications of what my heart wanted to do, I'd known it for a while, if I was honest, which I was trying to be, at least with myself, at least in empty car parks at six in the evening when there was nobody around to see what my face was doing.
I started the car.
There were things that were straightforward, and things that were not, and the thing I was currently sitting with fell very clearly into the second category.
She was three months out of the hospital, she had a newborn and a life that had been pulled apart by someone she trusted, and she was putting it back together one careful piece at a time.
And I was her head of department.
I pulled out of the car park.
The thing I felt was not something I was going to act on.
That was the rule, and it was a sensible rule, and I was a sensible person who had operated strictly on sensible principles for the last thirty five years and I wasn't about to stop that now.
Now that it mattered the most…