Precaution

I leaned against the counter of the nurses station in the surgical wing, absentmindedly doing charts. I endured the longest morning ever with Derek’s mother, trying on dresses and having her tell me it would be great if I could just lose some weight all over. The heckling about my body I could take, but the trying on ridiculously large, expensive dresses made me want to bridge jump. But now, even doing scut for Dr. Savard made me happy.

I was on cardio today, which embittered Katarina, but made my day a little brighter. Yesterday started off on such a high note with Marc and Lucy and the rest of the boys and it felt like ever since I got home, it felt like it progressively got worse. I knew Derek would be at the hospital later to check on his heart just as a regular checkup from after the accident. It was not, as Lucy suggested earlier, to see if he still had one.

I felt Mark wander over next to me, peering over my shoulder to take a good look at my chart. “Scut work?” he asked with a crooked grin and I just shrugged. I would literally take anything at this point.

“Hey, you try putting on thirty three wedding dresses and then come back and see what you’ll take in order to get out of it. I had to bribe Tyler to fake an emergency and page me. “ I said, waving over at Tyler’s direction. He was probably the most talented nurses on the whole floor, despite the fact that he was also one of the youngest.

Mark patted my shoulder and gave me another smile. “Did you hear the chief is going to try to resection a leiomyosarcoma on a twelve year old.” He said casually and I almost dropped my chart.

“Who’s the intern on the case?” I asked, a little out of breath and Mark grinned at my excitement.

“Swenn. But I’m watching up in the gallery. Are you in?” He asked and I nodded, closing the chart I was working on. Mark pulled out a ten dollar bill and thrust it in my hand.

“We need snacks.” He said and I smiled back. I felt the familiar buzz of the pager in my pocket and pulled it up to take a look. “Perfect. I was paged to Ortho anyways, so I’ll be getting the good snacks.” I replied, turning around to go to the coffee cart near the Ortho wing. For some reason, the carpenters in Orthopedics get the best pastries and coffee and the rest of us are stuck with glazed donuts and flax-seed muffins.

I moved my way through the main floor lobby to Orthopedics. The lobby connected the surgical wing to the other wings of the hospital and was possibly the least gloomy place in the whole building. Massive glass windows allowed the sun to stream in from the outside, displaying the Pittsburgh skyline. I took a moment to look out before turning back to the cart, waiting for my turn in line. As I looked back, I noticed a very familiar figure leaning up against the nurse’s station. I shook my head as he wandered over here, his face bearing a quiet smile.

“What are you doing here, Sidney?” I asked as I waited for my turn in line to get food. The nurse at the station grinned over at me, giving me a shrug. He had made her page me and I wanted to reach out and give him a solid punch.

“I wanted to see if you wanted to get breakfast with me. You know, it’s the most important meal of the day.” He said and I smiled back at him, reaching to get my money.

“I ate already.” I said, handing the cashier my cash. “Coffee, two sugars and one of those rice krispy things.” I said, pointing. Sidney shook his head.

“Really? What did you have?” He asked and I looked at him with a smile and an expression of disbelief. This friendship thing was turning out to be harder than I thought.

“Leftover grilled cheese.” I said with a small laugh and he looked taken aback.

“That’s not a breakfast. Come on. Go out to eat with me.” He persisted and I took my coffee and dessert from the cashier.

“What are you doing here anyways?” I asked him, turning to face him in front of the cart. He looked down at me and frowned a little and I felt my heart rush thinking about Chloe and her attempt to start a family with him.

“My dad’s here visiting. He fell from the shower and broke his arm.” He said and I frowned.

“Oh no. I’m sorry.” I said, putting my snack in the same hand as my coffee so I could pat his arm. He just smiled back down at me.

“So does this mean you’ll have breakfast with me? Look at that. Coffee and a rice krispy.” He said, taking my coffee from me and I hit his arm. But when I looked up and past him, another equally familiar figure caught my attention. Well, two.

The clicks of Manolo Blahniks could not be ignored as I saw the both of them walk through the lobby, looking around the hospital with their Louis Vuitton bags firmly planted against their wrists and hermes scarves tied around their necks. I grabbed Sid and dragged him in front of me, darting out to a corner and into a very small supply closet. We stood almost face to face in the dark closet and I pressed up against the wall, absolutely terrified.

“What just happened?” he asked, clearly confused as he stood there holding my cup of coffee. I swallowed hard and opened the door to peek out a little, seeing the two of them at the nurses station ask for me. Or for a plastic surgeon—not that either of them needed more botox.

I shut the door and grabbed my coffee, taking a huge drink before setting it down on the metal cart in the closet. “That was my mother. And Derek’s mother. Together.” I said nervously and pressed up further against the wall. But Sidney was clearly unfazed. Maybe that was because he hasn’t met either, or maybe it was because he had lost his mind. He grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the closet, out into the lobby where at that point, he had let go of me.

But I hadn’t let go of him. One of my hands grasped the back of his t-shirt as we walked to greet the two women.

“Hello Marriane, mother.” I greeted the two of them and their hawk-vision both turned to Sidney.

“Who’s this?” My mother asked and I rolled my eyes. My mother was a walking, talking headache. She was the reason I hadn’t gone back to Seattle in years—I was happier away from her, I was a better person.

“Sidney Crosby, how strange of you to be here with Violet.” Marriane de Gaudet answered, and my attention shifted to her.

“You two know each other?” I asked and Marriane shook her head.

“Hardly. But what Canadian doesn’t know the name of their Golden Goal hero?” She said coldly and I could feel myself getting smaller and smaller around her presence. I hadn’t let go of Sidney yet and Marriane noted this with a raised eyebrow.

“We’ve been looking for you all day. Have you been hiding?” She asked, her face completely expressionless. I laughed nervously and shook my head.

“No, I’ve been on Cardiothoracic’s all day and Savard is a Nazi so I’ve been busy.” I said, and it was partially true. I have been on Cardio all day.

Marriane frowned at me. “Did you just refer to Jackson Savard as a Nazi?” she asked bluntly and I stood there, unable to formulate an answer.

“No. Well yes, but….” I stumbled and she just frowned at me

“You do understand that the Nazi's were responsible for the worst genocide in the history of man. And a racist genocide at that. I would think that as a doctor, you would think twice about using that word as a punch line.”
“I will think about that in the future, Mrs. De Gaudet.” I said and bit my lip. I then let go of Sidney and smiled back up at the two of them.

“Well, I actually have to go check on Sidney’s dad now. He’s on my attendings service now so uh, I’ll talk to you two later.” I said and turned quickly on my heel, with Sidney following me.

“She scares me.” Sidney said as soon as we were out of earshot and I nodded.

“Let’s go get breakfast.”