Thank Her Dad

Thank Her Dad
Talia wasn’t working that day, which was fortunate. She was not ready for her to allow her suspicions slip in front of Brenden. It would be supporting her previous accusation but Brenden was right. She didn’t have evidence. Just petty jealousy that didn’t look good.
They went through the main lobby to reach the elevator that would take them to the floor. People she didn’t know greeted Brenden and Irene felt like they were staring, but it was nothing mean or unexpected.
The first person they saw on their floor was Kiki, who was sitting at the desk with the phone cradled between her ear and shoulder. She saw them, paused, then tried to make eye contact with Brenden, but he wasn’t even looking her way. She took a deep breath before lowering her eyes again and pretending they didn’t exist.
Irene mentally patted Brenden on the back because she loved getting under Kiki’s skin and because that was awesome.
They passed by Haley on the way to Vin’s room, who greeted them with cool familiarity. Then Gavin, who said hey to Brenden and ignored her, just as expected. Finally, Sine, who was gowning up for a room down the hall. She smiled and gave a quick, cautious wave from a distance.
They reached Vin’s room and Brenden knocked. It was there that she realized she had nothing to worry about.
“Come in!” Vin bellowed from below.
Nothing to worry about except this.
.
Vin was nothing short of what she expected. He was hungry and anxious from sitting around all day without working, which was apparently difficult for some people.
He was sitting up on the bed, wearing a plaid, button-down top rather than one of their ratty gowns, and Nina was sitting stiffly in one of the hard chairs that was pushed up against the wall. The exhaustion showed in her eyes, and after saying a quick hello to Vin, Irene hung back to talk to her.
“I begged the doctor to give him something to knock him out,” Nina whispered to Irene about a minute after they arrived. Vin was mouthing off to Brenden about a surgery he had scheduled for the morning and wasn’t paying them any attention. “If it were a woman, she would have been more sympathetic.”
Irene secretly agreed, although she thought Andy would have gladly done the deed if he had the license for it.
“Do you know when he will get to go home?” she asked, leaning on the wall beside her.
The sooner the better and preferably before Irene returned to work.
“Not yet. They’re doing a procedure in the morning, so I guess it will depend on what they find. His tests didn’t look too good, so he definitely has some bleeding…” She looked over at Vin suddenly and said in a tired voice, “Vin, you know the blood-alcohol level was standard.”
“Irene,” Vin barked, pulling away from his conversation with Brenden. “Would you order a blood-alcohol level on a man at eight in the morning? Or do I come across as a drunk to you?”
Irene was taken off guard by the question. “It would depend on whether or not he seemed drunk,” she answered carefully.
“See? Even she would have known not to order the test.”
Irene clenched her teeth together and tried hard not to mouth him off in front of Nina and Brenden.
“You were dizzy and swaying, Vin,” Nina interrupted impatiently. “You did seem drunk.”
“I’ve been working here for twenty years. The least they could do is know whether or not I’m an alcoholic.”
“Does it really matter, Dad?” Brenden asked reasonably.
“Of course, it does! I’m not paying this joke of an ER for tests I don’t need.”
“It’s the hospital, which is where you work. Not just the ER.”
Vin looked at Brenden with unmasked impatience. “Have you never been taught about budgets? Each unit in this hospital has its own that they need to manage. Our privileges depend on it…”
Irene zoned out of the conversation after that, quickly excusing herself to use to washroom. If she were lucky, she could procrastinate long enough until Brenden was ready to leave, and judging by the annoyed look on his face, it wouldn’t be long.
It gave her a new appreciation for the type of man Brenden became because she couldn’t imagine having to deal with Vin for any extended amount of time. In fact, she probably would have stabbed him in the throat with a blunt pen and been thrown in jail for murder for a third of her adult life.
Thank god she had Greg. She wanted to send him an appreciation card and a gift for her freedom and felony-free record.
After using the bathroom, Irene hung around the nurses' station for a few minutes, chatting and wondering what the hell she was going to do about the drug situation. She hadn’t seen Dr. Swift, but she figured the other would be in surgery. And what was she going to do when she saw Dr. Swift? Confront her? Ask her nicely?
Riley was working on their floor that day and he stopped by to talk, asking her how she had been and when she was working again. They were still in conversation when Brenden approached, and Riley shrank back, suddenly remembering he had important things to do.
Brenden didn’t look happy to see them talking, but she chalked most of it up to his conversation with his father. “Are you ready?” he asked irritably.
“Let me tell your parents bye,” she said softly.
“Okay…” He hung back, obviously not eager to set foot in the lion’s den again.
When she returned, she asked him if he was feeling okay.
“Just tired,” he said, reaching forward to take her hand, because Vin was a pain in the ass. She felt even worse for Brenden because he had to put up with his behavior more often than her.
But despite everything, Brenden wouldn’t be in the world without Vin. Pain in the ass or not, she was grateful.
.
Brenden and Irene returned to work two days after and she was still no closer to finding out anything related to the drugs. Talia still believed they should talk to Haley but Irene was on the fence about the idea.

Dr. Swift had been there longer than she had and no hospital in their right mind was going to want to risk losing one of their good surgeons. And they hadn’t fired her or anything, so she didn’t think she should become a pot-stirrer without a good reason.