Behavioural Crises

Bob appeared at Gerard’s office door at quarter to one sharp.

“I bought you a Chicken Valentino. It’s not exactly a sandwich, but it seems edible, clean, easy to eat and…it definitely looks good.”

Gerard looked up from his paper work and was glad to see what Bob had brought with him. It does look tasty.

It was until Gerard and Bob were half way through the corridor and Gerard was ready to take his first bite, Frank had appeared. Frank eyed the food in Gerard’s hands with a frown and pointed at his watch. “One o’clock?”

Gerard’s heart skipped a beat in faint horror. “Shit.” He turned to Bob and covered his forehead with his hand. “Oh man, Bob. I’m so sorry.”

“What?” Bob asked.

“I kinda promised Frank I’ll have lunch with him, but I totally forgot about it. I’m sorry.”

Gerard glanced at Bob like he was a nuclear time bomb, even though evidently, the worst Bob was gonna do to Gerard was to let him check his patients alone.

“Yeah, I blackmailed him. You can come along too if you want. It wasn’t anything solid anyway.” Frank smiled. He did not plan on monopolizing Gerard on his first day of work in this hospital.

“Nah. I’ll join Mikey and the others in the conference room.” Bob shrugged.

“Really?” Gerard asked, unsure.

“Really.”

“Okay.”

“And, are you gonna eat that? Since you’re having lunch with Iero…”

“Yeah, of course. Why not.”

Both Frank and Bob eyed Gerard and his food doubtfully. Despite hadn’t planned on anything solid, Frank did plan on taking Gerard to a proper restaurant. Bob glanced at Frank and scoffed.

You need to do better than that, kid.

Ah, thank you. Frank nodded with a hint of acknowledgement.

*

“We can eat in the conference room?!” Frank asked excitedly once they got out of the elevator.

“Yeah. I mean, we shouldn’t, but it’s one of Cazifield’s special offers to the doctors in his department. So…yeah, most doctors eat there. And the lounge room too, but - ” Gerard shrugged.

“Cazifield?”

“Yeah, Cazifield. John, Cazifield.”

“Cool! Can we eat there tomorrow?”

Can we. The question hit Gerard’s mind hard like it did last time. Why we? Gerard knew maybe Frank was trying to stick with him because he was the only person he ‘knew’ in the hospital, compared to the others. But Frank didn’t seem like that kind of person. The other doctors and nurses liked him already. They probably had black mailed him for lunch. Especially the nurses, they always thought new young doctors are more than adorable, and cute.

“Can we?”

“Uh…hum…”

Having lunch in the conference room meant he had to skip a patient check again. Skipping once was acceptable, but twice? Gerard frowned.

“I don’t think I will, but you should. They’ll be glad to have you.” Gerard added the last part just incase Frank really was feeling insecure around the others.

“Of course they will.” Frank beamed.

Gerard took back every single thought of Frank being insecure around people in the hospital. Frank, in fact, seemed to be far from insecure.

“But why can’t you come with me?”

The answer was however, stuck in Gerard’s throat.

Not many doctors actually worked as hard as people thought they do. Lunch breaks, were the most exciting part of the day to most of the doctors and nurses. That was also why John had opened up the conference room for them during lunch, so that they could hold a lunch party or something. Gerard didn’t know what kind of doctor Frank was. If Frank was also a workaholic, which didn’t seem to be a word that could describe him, Frank would take Gerard’s daily lunch time routine as a norm. But if he was one of the doctors who appeared at the conference table fifteen minutes before the lunch break, he would frown and think Gerard was a weirdo until he finally knew enough about Gerard. And that was going to take him months to accomplish.

Gerard hated being labeled as the employee of the month kind of person. Most of his co-workers thought he was trying to get promoted by making himself look busy all the time when they first met him. But as time past, they all seemed to realize that Gerard was, in fact, only a simple-minded workaholic.

A simple-minded psycho workaholic, if they had took the interest of knowing their department consultant better.

“Patients. Bob.”

Frank nodded.

*

Frank made Gerard wait on a bench in the ridiculously huge central park a few blocks away from the hospital. Proper restaurants can wait.

He came back with flatbread and ice coffees.

“Another Starbucks fan, uh?”

“Yep. Just for the drinks, though.” Frank sat beside Gerard.

“So the flatbread?”

“Falafel and Hummus Flatbread, a near-perfect balance of carbs, protein and unsaturated fat, rich in fiber, too. Ice coffee isn’t the ideal but it feeds the obsession.” Frank explained.

“I’m guessing…a clever counter girl?”

“World domination will be based on the internet.”

“I believe so.” Frank handed Gerard the extra cup of medium ice coffee.

“For me?”

“One large ice coffee satisfies the caffeine addiction. You can have the rest.”

“I’ll share you some of my weed sometime.”

Frank scoffed. “Yeah, whatever.”

Gerard smiled.

“Don’t you wanna know why I changed hospital?” Frank asked through a mouthful of food a couple of minutes later.

“Is it interesting?”

It took Frank aback a little but he thought for a while and said. “Not really.”

“Tell me anyway.” Despite what Frank had told him, Gerard believed he was somehow more than what he was willing to let him believe. Also, given that the other choice was awkward silence.

“It really wasn’t anything special.” Gerard nodded and Frank continued. “I worked night shifts in Lenox and life was hell. Never really knew when was night and when was day.”

“I know a couple of doctors in Lenox Hill.” Gerard pursed his lips to think. “You know Wilson Williamson?”

“Yeah! Funny guy.”

“Funny name, too.”

“Yeah.” They both chuckled.

“Anyway, my boss at Lenox was a friend of Cazifield’s and knew he wanted a new doctor. He also knew I was dying for a day shift job so, yeah, that’s pretty much all of it.”

“You have plenty of doctors over there, huh?”

“Well, yeah…Y’know, the insurance, dental care, free annual body check, awesome parking spaces…” Frank trailed off.

Gerard chewed on the inside of his cheek and frowned. “Is that why you can be at Margaret’s coffee shop at three in the afternoon? Sitting there like you don’t have a job?” It took Frank a couple of seconds to realize that they weren’t talking about employees’ benefits anymore.

“Yeah.” Frank scoffed. “Wasn’t such a big fan of sleeping anyway.”

Gerard’s frown deepened. “That’s not very healthy.”

“Well, y’know – ” Frank made a huge display of what he was trying to say. “You’ll know it when you start doing night shifts. It’s hell.”

Gerard watched and was highly amused by Frank trying to straggle himself to show how horrible night shifts were for him.

“If you don’t mind me asking, is that why you weren’t there for a whole week? That was your last week, right?” Sometimes Gerard just couldn’t help himself.

Frank stopped and sat straight. “Yep. It was my last week and the paper works are murders.” Gerard was well aware of that fact.

Gerard smiled and stood up. He threw the plastic wrapper of the chicken valentino into the trash can and bobbed his head towards the hospital. Frank downed his ice coffee and caught up with Gerard a minute later.

*

Mikey suggested it calls for a celebration as Frank apparently did well on surviving his first week in their hospital. Keith brought cookies from Mrs. Fields and Mikey bought a few low alcohol level sparkly drinks from a nearby 24 hour convenience store, which taste more like grape juice with 7-Up.

At about a few minutes before midnight, when the hospital was at its calmest state, Frank stumbled into the ‘staff only’ lounge and inhaled deeply. The smell of chocolate and all sorts of different flavors were mixed into the air. Frank exhaled with an almost content smile on his face and inhaled again.

“Stop that.” Bob said flatly and handed him a milk chocolate chip cookie. Frank gladly accepted it.

“This hospital is so awesome.” Frank mumbled through his mouthful of wonders. Keith nodded in agreement.

“The smell was killing me, I had to open it before you came in. Sorry.” Mikey said, but didn’t sound terribly sorry.

“Nah, just save me one more of this and it’ll be fine.” Frank pointed at his mouth and peered over to the cookie tin on the table.

*

Their department consultant came in a lot later that night. The door flew open and Gerard was holding a blank patient history clipboard in his left hand. Gerard counted the number of doctors in the lounge and coughed.

“Why am I not surprised?” Gerard said.

“What’s up G. Way?” Mark smirked and picked a cookie from the tin.

“Eat your damn cookie, Mark.” Gerard said impatiently and turned to look at Mikey. “You remember Ms, Petrova?”

Mikey stopped chewing and tilted his head. “That Russian woman with a nasty infection? But I thought I already gave her some antibiotics and…” Gerard nodded and waved the clipboard in his hand.

“Oh come on, I’ll do it tomorrow. I promise, first thing in the morning.” Mikey took his advantage of being the department consultant’s only little brother.

Gerard had let Mikey win far too many times as a kid. And as they grew up, it seemed to have became his habit and responsibility to spoil Mikey. But it never occurred to Gerard that spoiling Mikey was anything wrong to do, so he went with it. “Fine. Indulge yourself in indolence.” He said and collapsed on to the couch.

“You guys should really, really be out there, like right now.” The bow of tiredness beneath the sentences wasn’t hidden half as well as Gerard wanted it to be, making it sounded more like a beg or a suggestion than a command.

“We know.” Gerard gave Keith a disapproving look before closing his eyes and covering his face with both hands.

“Gee, cookie?”

Gerard moved a finger just enough to see Mikey’s face. “Nauh…” Gerard grunted and stretched his whole body in a dramatic manner. He yawned and lied on his side, facing the couch.

“Here.” Bob handed him a cushion from behind the couch.

Gerard stretch his right hand out and snatched the cushion without looking up, putting it between him and the couch. He let out a satisfied sigh.

“But there’s oatmeal peanut butter.” Mikey knelt down beside Gerard and said.

“Tell me fifteen minutes later. Save it!”

*

“Gee, Keith is trying to steal away the oatmeal peanut butter.” Mikey whispered into Gerard’s ears.

“Um…” Gerard mewled and stretched and turned over. “Keith, night shift, out.”

Keith looked at the clock and pouted. “Going out.” He said and opened the door.

“He’s taking the cookie with him!” Keith glared at Mikey and turned to the door quickly but Gerard was quicker. The door slammed shut and the cookie in Keith’s hand was gone in a blink of an eye.

Gerard dusted and blew the oatmeal peanut butter until he thought it was clean and opened the door for Keith. “Have a nice night.” He said and pushed the young doctor out of the lounge.

Everyone went back to minding their own business, show over. Gerard walked slowly towards to the table where the cookie tin had lied. He nipped his cookie little by little so that he could enjoy the cookie for a little while longer than gobbling the whole thing down. Gerard placed a hand on the tin and moved it to the center of the table. He bent down to see if it was really in the center and smiled. It was.

Behind the couch, Bob observed and smiled as well. It was alright to sometimes let Gerard entertain himself by indulging his obsessions. As long as they make Gerard happy, then it would be fine by Bob. But making Gerard anxious and afflictive was totally different.

Gerard started arranging the cookies in a particular order. He used his finger to push the white chocolate macadamia nuts cookie a little more to the left and looked at it. He soon frowned and used another finger to push it back a bit. His lips were tucked between his teeth and his fist was clenching so hard that it started to tremble. He tried to look away. Gerard knew he was doing stupid things again. It doesn’t matter if the cookies were in perfect order and place or not. It doesn’t matter. It’s fine. Gerard told himself. He bit his lips harder. It’s fine! Gerard tried to do what his therapist had told him to. Look somewhere else, think about something else, think about the patients. No!

Bob noticed Gerard’s quicken breaths and his small signs of discomfort. He paced towards Gerard and placed both hands on Gerard’s forearms.

“Don’t think, just breathe.” Bob said gently. He had held Gerard firmly in place, like he did every time. He applied the right amount of pressure that he knew was going to calm Gerard down the quickest. “Keep breathing.” Gerard did as he was told.

When Gerard was back to his normal state, Bob crabbed the tin and covered it with its lid. He shook it violently, but not enough to ruin all the cookies inside. When he opened it again, everything inside was a mess. Nothing was in order, not to mention perfect. But Gerard glanced up at Bob and smiled.

Over the years of knowing Gerard, Bob realized that Gerard seldom try to place something bizarre in order. To Gerard, bizarre and complete chaos are another type of order. Putting something bizarre pack into order was unnecessary and uncomfortable itself. Bob mirrored Gerard smile.

“Um…what was that?” Frank asked uncertainly.

On his other side, Mikey was completely amazed by Bob’s ability to calm his obsessive brother down. “Uh?”

“I said what was that, the thing they did. What happened?” Frank jerked his head over to Bob and Gerard.

“Um…Gerard has OCD.” Mikey explained simply.

Frank’s mouth fell open. “OCD?” He looked at Mikey and said. “So, just then…that was…”

“Yeah.” Mikey nodded.

“To Gerard,” He placed a hand on Frank’s shoulder. “Bob has always been better than any pills the doctors ever gave him.”