I turned to see both Kyle and Julia sneering at me. Those two were the only other interns in the ER this year and they seemed to have both come to the conclusion that making my life a living hell was their main priority. I knew they were only jealous that I'd been chosen to help out in surgery, present a case at an M&M conference, and work closely on a special project with the CEO of the hospital-all within my first month at Miami General.
I wanted to tell them that none of those events had turned out as planned and I would gladly hand off my extra duties working for Makarov if I thought for a moment that would be allowed. Instead, I rolled my eyes and turned away from them, not dignifying Kyle's statement with an answer.
I knew, however, that I would probably need to brace myself for the rumors they were sure to propagate about me.
Chapter 10
Nothing spreads as fast as gossip, and by the end of the week, half of the Emergency Room staff seemed to be under the impression that I really was in a relationship with Lex Makarov. No matter how many times I denied it, people continued to talk about it.
When a piece of equipment when haywire on Thursday afternoon, one of the nurses cursed as I tried to help her fix it.
"Can't you get your fancy boyfriend to approve some new monitors?" she asked as she kicked the machine. "Something good has to come from sleeping with the CEO of the hospital. Surely you can talk him into replacing this piece of crap."
"I don't know what you're talking about," I replied icily, moving away from the machine.
"Sure you don't," she snapped as I walked out of the room.
If possible, things went even further downhill from there. I was unable to stop the hemorrhaging of a patient admitted after a car accident, resulting in an emergency surgery being performed right there in the ER.
It hadn't been my fault-I was completely sure of that. No one would have been able to stop the flow of blood the patient was experiencing without surgery. Dr. Talbot, however, the attending who had been forced to perform the emergency surgery, saw things differently.
"God, what is wrong with you?" he demanded after the patient had been stabilized and sent to the OR. "You may have been able to sleep your way into this internship, but sexual favors can only get you so far. One more mess-up like this, and you're done. I'll make sure you never work in another hospital ever again."
With that, he turned and stomped out of the exam room. For a long time I stood there, frozen in place. I had no idea what to do. It appeared that even the attendings were now under the impression that I had slept my way into this internship. At this point, no one seemed to believe that I had earned my place here, even though I'd made far fewer mistakes than Kyle or Julia combined since we'd started.
Taking a deep breath, I texted my friend Lori, a resident in the surgical department, asking if she would be available to get coffee anytime soon. Luckily, she was about to go on break and agreed to meet me in the cafeteria.
"Everyone in the Emergency Room seems to think I'm sleeping with Lex Makarov," I announced as I collapsed onto the seat next to Lori. She raised an eyebrow as she pushed a coffee across the table towards me.
"What? Why?"
"Kyle and Julia are spreading rumors, I guess. They learned that I've been working with him on a special project, then he came to meet with me in the ER a few days ago. They just assumed that it had to be sex related-as if I'm not competent enough to actually be working with him. I don't know why they hate me."
"Because they're envious over-privileged brats," Lori replied. "But seriously, how did they convince the entire staff of this?"
I wasn't ready to tell Lori about my little indiscretion with Makarov. It's not like anyone else was aware of it anyway. They were only going off of rumors. At this point it was all hearsay. "I've been working on that project for him, so I've had to meet with him regularly after hours. And then he made that visit to the ER on Tuesday. Nothing inappropriate happened at all. We just talked in an empty room for a minute-strictly professional. I don't understand where all this is coming from."
Lori was studying me closely as I spoke, a critical expression on her face.
"And nothing is going on between the two of you?" she asked when I was finished.
"What? No!" I insisted. "Not you too!"
"No. Obviously, you haven't slept with him," Lori said.
I tried to keep my face neutral at her assertion, not allowing the truth to show. I thought again about admitting my mistake to Lori, but I just couldn't do it yet. I was still too ashamed, especially now that people thought it was how I'd landed my internship in the first place.
"I just mean," she continued, "are there any sparks between the two of you? Sexual tension? Something casual observers might pick up on and misinterpret?"
"The guy is a pompous asshole," I replied, not wanting to lie about our chemistry, but not wanting to admit to it either.
"Yes," she agreed. "But he's also young, and rich, and kind of hot when he isn't glaring at everyone."
"Why would I care that he's rich? I'm going to make money of my own, if I make it through this damn residency. Plus, have you ever even seen him not glaring?" I asked.
"Well, no," Lori replied. "But I imagine it could do wonders for his face. You have to admit that he is at least a little good looking."
I didn't agree or disagree. We were heading into uncomfortable territory so I tried to steer the conversation another way.
"People are starting to think I slept my way into the internship," I told her.
"What? Who?" she demanded.
"Dr. Talbot accused me of it this morning," I said.
"He accused you of sleeping your way into this internship?" she asked, angry on my behalf.
"Yeah. He was mad because I'd failed to stop a patient from bleeding out in the ER and he had to perform emergency surgery. He even threatened to have me fired. And it wasn't my fault, I'm sure of it. No one would have been able to prevent what happened."
"Even if it had been your fault," Lori replied. "I'm pretty sure that's harassment. You should complain. You could have him fired."
I thought about that for a moment. I didn't want to be seen as a tattletale and I didn't really want Dr. Talbot to be fired. But I did want the gossip and harassment to end. Because Lori was right, this was harassment. Dr. Talbot had accused me of sexual misconduct, and he called my abilities into question. He'd used rumors as a means to threaten me, but even if I had been seeing Makarov, his comment would have been out of line.
"I'll talk to Grimes about it," I promised Lori.
I left my lunch break with Lori a little early and headed to the office of Dr. Viola Grimes, the ER Residency Program Director.
"Michelle," she greeted me with a smile as I entered her office.
"Hello, Dr. Grimes," I replied. "Do you have a moment to talk?"
"Of course, what's going on?" she asked once I was seated.
"Do you remember that rumor that was going around?" I began. "The one about me sleeping with Makarov?"
Dr. Grimes nodded.
"Well, I think it may have gotten out of hand," I replied.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Today, I had trouble preventing a hemorrhage in the ER-which wasn't my fault, I don't think anyone could have stopped it. Anyway, Dr. Talbot was angry because he had to perform an emergency surgery, right here in the ER. Afterwards, he insinuated that I'd only received this internship because I was sleeping with Makarov, which is crazy since I didn't even meet him until weeks after I started here. And we aren't together," I added hastily. "But Dr. Talbot threatened to have me fired if I messed up again."
She was silent for a long time, a serious look on her face.
"Well," she began after a while, "first of all, Dr. Talbot cannot have you fired. That is outside of his jurisdiction. And second, you are correct, what he said was inappropriate. Even if you were in a relationship with Lex, Talbot would have been out of line. You were hired by a large committee of doctors, who offered you this internship spot due to your remarkable qualifications. You have every right to be upset, and I suggest that you speak to the department chief about this. I will be more than happy to back you up."
I nodded, a little bit dazed. Her response was far better than anything I was expecting or could have hoped for.
"I will do that," I assured her, standing. "Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it. But I better get back to work, my break is almost over."
She stood and smiled.
"If there is anything else I can do for you, Michelle, please let me know. We are really happy with you here, and I want to make sure that you're happy as well."
"Thanks," I said again as I left her office, feeling more confident than I had in a very long time.
Chapter 11
After my conversation with Dr. Grimes, and a similar conversation with the Chief of the Emergency Medicine Department, working conditions in the ER began to improve drastically. A memo was sent out, reminding employees that one's personal life was personal and inappropriate to bring up in the work place.
I was pretty sure that Dr. Talbot also received a reprimand. He never apologized to me for what he had said, but he hadn't repeated any similar sentiments. In fact, he had since avoided me like the plague, and when we were forced to interact, he went out of his way to be professional and detached. I was okay with that, even though the guy was grumpier than normal and taking it out on everyone else around him-other than me.