Page 7 of Healing Her (Pulse Medical #1)

“ W hat do you mean my OR staff isn’t available yet?” Ashley stared at the OR charge nurse, Sandra Ramsey, in disbelief. “This valve replacement is supposed to be happening right now. I have a patient who hasn’t eaten in over nine hours. Why do we even have a schedule if this is what happens?”

“Doctor Proctor, I apologize,” Sandra said, shaking her head.

“Truly, I do. But you know that the best-laid schedules can go awry even on a perfectly staffed day. Which this is not.” Her face was sympathetic, but her body language was resolute, arms crossed over her chest, chin in the air.

“We’ve rescheduled as many surgeries as we could.

Surgeons are completing their surgeries in as reasonable a time as is safe, which I know you of all people appreciate. ”

Ashley rolled her eyes. “Yes, of course.”

“I’m sorry Dr. Majumdar got started late, but if you can give us thirty more minutes, her patient should be in recovery, the room will be sterilized, and we’ll have nurses for you.

” She tossed her long dark ponytail. “That’s going to have to be good enough for you, because it’s as good as I can get. ”

“Fine.” Spinning on her heel, Ashley stalked off towards the room where Magnus Svensson and his wife Vita were waiting for her to update them on the status of his procedure. He was such a good and compliant patient, she hated to make him wait any longer.

Anger surged with every step she took down the hallway, with every squeak of her sneakers.

Of course delays happened, but 98% of the time, they didn’t .

Not here, not with Sandra Ramsey in charge.

Sandra was constantly being headhunted by other hospitals; she was that good at her job.

Oakridge’s surgical department was a smoothly running machine because of her.

And this wasn’t the first time they’d had people out sick or on vacation, but it was the first time it had ever been a problem to this degree.

That meant there was some kind of new variable causing today’s problems. Ashley stopped outside of Magnus’ room, her eyes narrowing as she thought about what that could be. Realization hit right at the same time that she heard footsteps behind her.

“Doctor Proctor, I’m so glad I’ve caught you. Is everything all right?” Doctor Jen Colton’s pleasant voice piping up from behind her was the last thing Ashley wanted to hear. Slowly, she turned to face the source of her irritation.

“No, Doctor Colton. Everything is not in fact all right.” She tried to take slow, deep breaths, willing herself to remain calm. “Would I be correct in thinking you’re the reason that Dr. Majumdar’s surgery began late today?”

The surgeon stepped back, eyebrows raising. “I see we’re off to a grand start today. Do you always get up on the wrong side of the bed?”

The breezy audacity of the joking inquiry made her see red. “Answer the question.”

Doctor Colton blinked and spread her hands wide. “Her patient had a lot of questions about corneal and tissue transplants. Our educational consultation did run a little long, but that’ll be an outlier, I’m sure. I got a little excited that she wanted to know so much about?—”

“My patient is starving . He is waiting for a procedure I should have started twenty minutes ago!” Ashley pointed towards the room where the Svenssons waited. “For you to hold up anyone’s surgery while you recite the contents of a pamphlet at them is inexcusable.”

“Now, hang on,” Dr. Colton began, drawing herself up taller. “I’m very sorry?—”

“You’re always sorry! Yet you never stop being inconsiderate!” The words burst out of Ashley, and she immediately regretted them. What was it about this woman that just riled up the worst in her? She’d known her for two weeks, but it felt like she’d loathed her for years.

Doctor Colton’s mouth compressed into a nearly straight line, and Ashley could hear the sharp breath she drew in through her nose.

“I am sorry for your patient. I will order him whatever he likes for his post-surgery meal and apologize to him myself. But I need you to grant me a little bit of grace here. Today is an unusual day. This will not happen again.”

“It never should have happened in the first place,” Ashley hissed, still horrified by herself but also still unable to stop.

Two weeks of bottled-up irritation and unwanted attraction were just boiling out of her.

“You knew today was an atypical staffing day. You’re an experienced surgeon.

I don’t care how excited you were about your little education initiative, you put patient care first, always . ”

“Education is patient care,” Dr. Colton snapped back. “Organ donation education is care for this patient and for other, future patients. It’s a bigger picture.”

“On a day like today, you set the bigger picture aside.” Her voice was rising.

“Immediate needs take precedence when we’re understaffed!

It’s unconscionable for you to have delayed even one procedure, let alone two.

Or more, really, since there’s inevitably going to be a ripple effect down the schedule.

Your inconsideration didn’t only cause problems for me. ”

“Well, you’re certainly acting like it did.” Dr. Colton’s eyes were flashing with anger. “Again, I apologize to you, I will apologize to your patient, I will provide him a meal, and this will not happen again. Now, are you done berating me in front of our colleagues and patients?”

To Ashley’s horror, when she looked around, she saw nurses, doctors, and even the Svenssons watching the goings-on with concern and curiosity on their faces.

Her face flushed hot at how unprofessional she was acting, and she wished the tile floor would open up and swallow her whole.

“I,” she began, and had to pause to gulp down her humiliation. “I am sorry, everyone.”

She didn’t know what else to say. What could make up for the scene she’d just caused?

At least the Chief hadn’t witnessed it. But Elaine had, and that was more than Ashley could bear.

With a whispered further apology to the Svenssons, she shoved past startled hospital personnel and walked briskly to the stairs.

Steps echoed behind her as she took the cement stairway down towards the basement. “Go away,” she hissed, not bothering to look behind her. She knew it was Elaine. “I’m fine.”

“Oh, no you’re not.” Her mentor caught up to her and grabbed her arm, forcing her to stop on a landing. “Absolutely you’re not. I’ve never seen you like this, Ashley. What’s going on?”

“There’s nothing going on, Elaine, I had a momentary lapse in sanity.”

“Yes, in front of half our department and the patient you’re supposed to be cutting open today.” Elaine’s blonde eyebrows nearly disappeared into her hairline. “What do you think that little display did to his confidence in you?”

Ashley winced. “I’m going to apologize to him personally.”

“I feel like it’s going to take a little more than that to calm him down before you get to slicing into him, but sure, good start.

” Elaine’s eyes were full of worry. “When I said I didn’t expect you cared for Dr. Colton much, I didn’t know just how little you liked or respected her.

That was a very unprofessional display on your part. ”

“Well, I mean, she’s wrecked the surgical schedule for the rest of the day, that’s not very professional either,” Ashley countered.

“Yeah, I think you win the lack of professionalism sweepstakes for the day,” Elaine replied dryly.

“You went a little far, and for the life of me, I can’t imagine why.

In all the time we’ve known each other and worked together, I have never once seen anything like this from you.

” She looked searchingly at Ashley, who squirmed under the scrutiny.

“You’re lucky as hell the Chief didn’t see it, although I am certain he’s going to hear about it before the day is out. ”

Oh no. Ashley cringed. “God.”

“So.” Elaine took her hands and guided her to sit on the stairs. “Tell me. What the hell caused all of that?”

“I don’t know, exactly.” Ashley sighed. “She does just rub me entirely the wrong way, Elaine. No, I don’t care for her.” Picking at her cuticles, she thought about how much, exactly, she should reveal. “We actually met before she was announced as the donations director here. Well, not met.”

“Do tell.” Elaine lifted an inquisitive eyebrow.

“I went to the Indigo Lounge to meet up with City. I was looking for her on the dance floor, Dr. Colton was out there dancing, we collided.”

Elaine frowned. “Okay. That happens.”

“She had a drink in her hand, it got all over me.” She blew out a breath. “The next day we had that meeting where she was introduced. Which was the first time we met formally. She did apologize to me and offered to pay for my dry cleaning. But she also teased me during the meeting.”

“She did?” Elaine’s frown deepened. “How? Oh, wait, the dancing remark?”

“I can’t believe you remember that,” Ashley groaned.

“Yes. That. Look, she’s just so… cavalier about everything.

I feel like she doesn’t fully comprehend the damage she causes, doesn’t understand the effect it has on people.

You don’t think that’s dangerous in someone who says she wants to save lives?

How far will she go? It’s like she thinks ‘better to ask forgiveness than permission’ has any validity in the surgical world. ”

“She wouldn’t be the first or the last surgeon to believe that,” Elaine said, lightly. “Some would argue it’s how some of the greatest innovations in our field were discovered.”

“And that makes it okay? To risk people’s lives?” Ashley shook her head. “Never mind. I’m just going to get wound up again, and it’s past time for me to go up and talk to the Svenssons.”

Elaine got to her feet, brushing off her backside before reaching out to help haul Ashley up. “Ashley, can I make an observation? Without you biting my head off?”

“Um…” She didn’t like the way this was going, but she was dead curious. “Sure, okay.”

“You say that Doctor Colton rubs you the wrong way, that she just gets your back up.” Elaine tilted her head, a tiny smile playing on her lips. “But I’ve seen a lot of people get your back up over the years. Not like this, though. This is different.”

“I don’t follow.” Ashley rubbed at her temples.

Elaine stepped close and peered up into her eyes. “I just wonder if there’s something else buried deep under that anger of yours.”

Yep. She definitely didn’t like where this was going. “Still not following,” she hedged.

She didn’t expect the left turn and the pinpoint accuracy that came next. “When’s the last time you were seriously interested in someone?”

Heat washed through Ashley, and she hoped to God she wasn’t blushing. “What does that have to do with anything at all?”

“Oh, maybe nothing. Or maybe something. Only you can say.” That was definitely a twinkle in Elaine’s eyes. “Do you have anything you want to say about that?”

“Nope. Nope, nope, nope.” Ashley shook her head and began to ascend the stairs back up to the surgical floor. “Lovely chat, Elaine. I’ll be getting back to my patient now.”

Her mentor didn’t say anything else, but her amused chuckle followed Ashley all the way back upstairs.