Chapter Ten

Glenn arrived at the small ER conference room fifteen minutes before her scheduled seven o’clock lecture and found Mari already seated at one end of the oval conference table with her iPad and a cup of coffee in front of her. Dressed for the workday in pale blue, wrinkle-free scrubs, her name tag clipped to her breast pocket and a stethoscope slung around her neck, she looked rested and relaxed. No one else had arrived yet.

“Did you take those home and iron them?” Glenn asked.

Mari frowned. “Oh! You mean the scrubs? Yes.”

“When did you do that?”

“I picked them up yesterday when I was here and ironed them this morning.” Mari gave a pointed glance at Glenn’s equally pressed darker blue set. “Don’t you?”

“I used to. Now a friend in the laundry does them for me.”

“Ah—special status. Let me guess—ex-Army?”

Glenn grinned. “Navy, but us vets stick together. I’ll ask him to do yours. You want the same color all the time?”

“I’m not fussy.”

“They look good on you—I’ll tell him the baby blues.”

Mari quickly looked down at the iPad, color racing across her cheeks. “Thanks. If he can’t do it, that’s all right.”

“Billy won’t mind.”

“Well then, I owe you double.” Mari leaned over and lifted up a small green thermal insulated bag covered with multicolored fish. She unzipped the top and withdrew a cardboard cup with a Styrofoam lid that looked very much like the one she was drinking from.

Glenn stared at it and actually felt her taste buds start to tingle. “Is that—?”

“A little thank you for giving me a break on the lecture today.” Mari slid the cup down the table toward her. “Double espresso, macchiato. I just guessed on that part.”

Glenn scooped up the cup, removed the lid, and took a deep breath of some mighty fine coffee. “Perfect.” She sipped and sighed. “You have my undying thanks.”

Mari laughed. “I sort of owe you for rescuing me and taking this session.”

“Believe me, if this is what I get in thanks, I’ll do all of yours.”

“Well, I stop there almost every morning, so it’s no trouble.” Mari smiled. “Free of charge.”

Glenn settled a hip on the edge of the table. “It’s absolutely not required, but whenever you happen to think of it, you will have my eternal gratitude.”

“You’re welcome, and let’s call it done.”

“Done. How did you sleep?” Glenn asked.

“Just about the best night I’ve had in forever.” Mari paused a second. If she thought Glenn looked like she’d had less than three hours’ sleep, she didn’t say so. “You weren’t on call, right?”

“No, I wasn’t, and I decided to leave Dr. Jaspers on his own last night. I saw Baker in the cafeteria, so she survived her first night too.”

Mari laughed. “Was it difficult for you, not checking up on them?”

“Actually, yeah,” Glenn confessed. “A good friend of mine, you’ll meet her before long, Carrie Longmire, suggested I’m too controlling.”

A good friend. Girlfriend? Mari assumed Glenn’s interest was in women, although she hadn’t actually come out in so many words. The tone of the whole conversation the night before had left little doubt, but she hadn’t considered that Glenn might have a girlfriend. But then, why would she think about it? It wasn’t like they were out on a date. Still, she felt a moment’s discomfort. “Does Carrie work here?”

Glenn nodded. “Yeah, she’s the CEO’s admin.”

“She obviously knows you a lot better than me,” Mari said lightly, “but I think you’re just doing what needs to be done, especially this time of year with so many newbies aboard.” She pointed to her chest. “Including staff.”

“You’re practically a vet after yesterday’s initiation.” Glenn drained her cup and fervently wished for more. She’d gone home but she’d had a hard time falling asleep. Her body had been as keyed up as it used to be waiting for a call out in the field, only last night there’d been an undercurrent of excitement in the unrest that buzzed in her veins still.

“And really,” Mari continued, her tone unexpectedly urgent, “do you know anyone in medicine who would want someone taking care of them who wasn’t a control freak? I wouldn’t. I’d want someone in charge who was going to be looking at every single little detail and double-checking every single person who had anything to do with taking care of me. Believe me, when I was—” Mari broke off, embarrassed to discover she was trembling. Why was it so easy to open up to Glenn, to reveal everything she’d kept from everyone else?

Glenn glanced at the door, saw the shadow of a student pass by. They only had a few more minutes. Gently she said, “When you were what?”

“Sorry. I…” Mari shook her head. “Not exactly the right time or place.”

Glenn nodded. “You’re right. Your call, anytime.”

“Thanks.”

Glenn wanted to know more. Whatever darkness haunted Mari’s past, every time Mari touched upon it, her eyes filled with sadness. Glenn ached to stanch the pain as much as she ever had a battle wound. Not the place, and not the time. The students filed in and Glenn grabbed the remote for the projector and moved to the head of the table. As she launched into her abbreviated intro at precisely 0700, she watched Mari out of the corner of her eye. When she brought up an aerial shot of the hospital to orient the students to the critical locations, Mari’s attention swung back and forth from the screen to Glenn. She’d given plenty of briefings before, but she’d never enjoyed having an audience. Mari’s attention wasn’t really on her, but she enjoyed the fleeting imagining. Quickly, she pointed out the east administrative wing, the central building with reception, the library and cafeteria, and the six-story west wing with the ER, OR, ICUs, outpatient clinics, and the patient floors.

“And here”—Glenn tapped a spot at the west wing—“will be an open colonnade leading to the building”—she made a circle with her laser pointer a few inches away—“housing the new MRI suite.”

“Nice,” Antonelli said. “When do you think that will be up and running?”

“We hope to break ground before the end of the summer and have the facility opened by late spring.”

“No shi—kidding.” Antonelli whistled. “That’s pushing things. You’ll be lucky if you have your bids in by three months.”

“Got some experience there,” Glenn remarked.

“My old man used to be a general contractor. The company put up a lot of buildings in this area, and there’s pretty stiff competition for something like this.”

Glenn would have agreed if it hadn’t been for Presley Worth. Their new CEO had a way of making things happen a lot faster than anyone else could ever anticipate. She had all the resources of the SunView Health Consortium, a huge international medical consortium headed by her brother, at her command and numerous contacts of her own. In addition to being the CEO of the newly minted Argyle Community Hospital System, she was the head of the eastern division of SunView. Presley had the power to get things done on her timetable and did. As much as Glenn revered Edward Rivers and the entire Rivers family, she was convinced along with most everyone at ACH that Presley Worth was the CEO they needed to keep the Rivers alive and flourishing.

“Until the MRI suite is up and functional,” Glenn said, getting the discussion back on track, “we’ll evaluate traumatic injuries, neurological events, acute abdomens, and the like with CAT scans and X-rays. Most things that require an MRI would be done after the initial evaluation and treatment anyhow.”

“What about the helipad?” asked Baker, a short, serious, steady African American student. “I heard that could be happening a lot sooner.”

Glenn nodded. “You’re all here for three months. There’s a good chance we’ll be taking medevac patients before you’re finished.”

“Oorah,” Antonelli muttered.

Marine, Glenn noted, dimming the lights. “So let’s start with the evaluation of the multiple trauma patient.”

When the hour was over and Glenn finished answering the students’ questions, she waited while they all trooped out to join Mari.

“I imagine that was all pretty boring for you,” Glenn said.

Mari closed her iPad. “Not at all. I think it’s good to know what they know, and what I can expect them to know because I’m absolutely certain they heard it before.”

Glenn laughed. “And so you can remind them when they forget?”

Mari grinned. “Absolutely.”

“Speaking of remembering, or remembering to remind you,” Glenn said, grinning when Mari gave her a confused look, “Carrie informed me I needed to tell you about the hospital staff barbecue this Saturday afternoon. It’s an annual thing. Kind of a celebration of summer and the chance for everyone at the Rivers to get together and celebrate…well, just that we’re all still here, and the hospital is still standing strong.”

Carrie again, Mari thought. “Why the Rivers? Almost everyone calls the place by that name.”

“Flann and Harper’s great-great-great-grandfather founded the place along with a few of the town notables a little over a hundred years ago. There’s been a Rivers as chief of staff here ever since. Their father Edward heads the medical staff now, but since the hospital was sold, Presley actually runs the place.”

“That’s some legacy,” Mari said. “And of course I’ll be there. It sounds like fun and it will give me a chance to meet some of the other people from the hospital.”

“I don’t suppose you play softball, do you?” Glenn surveyed her with unabashed eagerness.

“Ah, no,” Mari said. “Is it a requirement?”

“No, not really.” Glenn sighed. “We’re always looking for new talent. The ER has a team and we play a bunch of other teams from the hospital, and town teams like police and firefighters. Not everybody on our team is actually from the ER—Flann and Harper play for us, and Carrie, she pitches—wicked, wicked pitcher.”