Mac switches the slide on the overhead projector and brings up an MRI image of the patient’s last brain scan.
“She’s been here a number of times in the past for her epilepsy. Her family has always come with her. Her condition is managed with the standard drugs. Two months ago her seizures got worse, and she’s been having them more regularly and violently. That’s why she’s been referred to us.”
I look at the brain scan and there’s nothing that jumps out to me. There’s the standard I expected to see for someone with epilepsy.
“Mac is there a history of epilepsy in the family?” Tania asks.
“Not immediate. Her grandmother had it but not as bad as her.”
“Are there any other neurological problems?” Celine asks.
“No,” Mac answers. “Not a thing.”
Chad is unusually quiet. It’s not like him to just observe. On the rare occasion he does, it’s usually when he’s stumped. Like I feel now.
It’s always these cases that puzzle me because you have to pick apart everything and go back to where things first started going wrong.
“How many seizures does she usually have on average?” I ask.
Mac looks to me and his face softens. He’s probably grateful I’ve lived down my embarrassment from the other day.
“Good question, and one I think we should focus on.” He raises a finger as if to make a point. “When she was younger she had them more frequently. Then with medication it was one every other year. The gap in between the last episode and the one before they got bad was three years.”
“Three years?” I ask, and we all exchange glances.
“Three years,” he answers. “Something set it off. That’s what we need to investigate. What changed? What happened? Why, after a break of three years, did she get them again? Why are they coming rapid to the point where she’s been having one every week?”
Every week. I write that down and wince.
That’s way harsh. Every week a seizure. That sounds above the rim abnormal. My toughest case was a guy who’d suddenly developed an allergen to chicken and anything poultry-related. He’d had it all his life then suddenly went into anaphylactic shock.
Of course, to figure out what the problem was, wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. It took weeks of tests and deep investigation.
Sometimes we can be like the police investigating a murder because on occasion we sometimes have to talk to everyone close to the patient.
We gather anything wherever we can find it that will help.
Mac wanted him tested for allergies and that’s what came up in the end.
This case sounds like it could be that.
“It’s gonna be a tough one guys. I want you on it day and night if needed. You get what you need to get done before you leave the building. Understood?” Mac says, and we nod. “Good. First of all, no one meets her until tomorrow. You go in with a full history of everything about her—which you will do today—before you meet her. I’ve spoken with her and her family this morning. We don’t need to do anything more with her today. They’re all very distressed, as you can imagine.”
“When can we start testing?” I ask, and he smiles.
“Dr. Lincoln, that’s entirely up to you guys now. That is going to be the difference between last year and this year. No more hand-holding. You have Celine now as your senior who will step up, as will all of you.”
I nod with conviction.
“I expect you guys to do the usual. We go over everything. Every single thing from start to finish. Every record we’ve had here. Get to grips with all of it today and you come back tomorrow with ideas. Please communicate with the doctors and nurses tending to her as much as possible. You see something, anything that doesn’t look right, tell me, flag it, do something about it.”
“Got it.”
He switches off the OHP and gathers his documents.
“Over to you guys.” He points to the cabinet next to him that has Lizzie’s notes. The whole thing is full. “I will be here all day. I’m moving my office over to the new section after lunch. If anyone needs me I’ll be around.”
“See you later Mac,” Celine tells him. He goes and Chad follows.
I watch Mac as he neatens his paperwork and starts talking to Chad. I haven’t been in the new section yet but our offices will be finished this afternoon. At the moment we share Celine’s office which is exactly behind us, next to Chad’s. Mac’s actual office isn’t even over here and it was the reason for the expansion. Along with the MRI facility we’ll get.
“I think we need to do another MRI on Lizzie,” I suggest, and Celine nods.
“Yes, we’ll need to monitor what’s going on in her brain as much as we can,” Celine answers.
“I agree too, but what if we take it back a little bit?” Tania suggests. “The tests. Usually somebody missed something somewhere along the line.”
“We’ll try to find out what the culprit is. That whole blast of weekly seizures is totally the onset of something. It’s like throwing fire on gasoline. You’re gonna get a reaction,” Celine surmises with a stern face.
I stand, make my way over to the cabinet, and grab the folder with the blood work. I always start with blood test firsts.
“Plenty in here to look through,” I say, scanning through the documents. The folder is so full it just might burst at the seams. “Girls, should we perhaps split the blood test records between us and look at those first? Then maybe look over the MRI scans after?” I wait for a few seconds but they don’t answer.
As I look up I see why and frown so deep I’m sure I’ll give myself premature wrinkles.
Outside the office is Dylan talking with the receptionist. He’s dressed the same way he was when we met. Black leather biker jacket, Levi’s that show off his long legs, but a black t-shirt this time that makes a great display of the muscles lining his abs. He turns and walks into our office. What I see is badass marine and I truly hate it with a passion that my stomach clenches into a knot and my nerves scatter when he glances my way and winks at me.
“Ladies,” he says simply to Tania and Celine, then makes his way down to the new section, to Mac’s office.
Tania and Celine watch him until we can no longer see him, then they look to me because they totally saw that wink. Damn him.
And damn me too.
“Abby, who was that?” Tania asks.
Celine is looking from me to the empty trail he left. It’s just the effect of him that lingers. All masculine with an overdose of testosterone.
“Mac’s nephew I told you about,” I answer. They both look at me now.
“Told who about what?” Celine chimes in. “And what who? Mac talks about his little nephews like their kids who just signed up for the Army.”
“Yes,” Tania agrees, then points at me. “You made him sound like a brat…and you conveniently forgot to tell me he’s smoking hot.” At least she has the good sense to keep her voice down this time. It’s a good thing she does because he comes back the way he went with Mac this time, who’s actually smiling as Dylan talks to him.
He sees me looking and I drop my gaze to the files, refusing to be like Tania and Celine who stare after him like he’s a piece of meat. A very nice, sexy piece of meat.
When I look back up I catch the last sight of Dylan and Mac before they turn the corner.
I can say whatever I want. I can call him obnoxious and a jerk because he was that. But I can’t knock that he is really hot.
Dylan
I saw her. Miss Thing did her best to avoid me yesterday.
She did it again today.
I’m too old for this shit. The damn looking game you play when you’re in high school, when you see a girl you might be interested in and all you do is look.
In high school I would have just walked up to her and told her she was mine. The same way I did with Allison. I met her in my sophomore year when her family moved to Chicago. I was seventeen and thought I owned the world.
I’m thirty years old now and while I may still be that guy who thinks he owns the world, I know I don’t own shit.
Back then I really believed I could have anything I wanted. No one could tell me I couldn’t have certain things. It may make me sound like an asshole but it wasn’t that at all. It’s ambition.
I’m a firm believer in all those positive sayings. I just keep going and trying.
Still do.
The difference between high school me and who I am now is that all the stuff that’s happened in between has made me wiser.
I know that while I can be that way with things, I can’t be like that with a person. Doesn’t stop me from looking and annoying her with my greeting wink.
I just walked past her and those other two women who were gawking at me yesterday.
They still gawk, and she still scowls.
No matter how deep that scowl goes, it doesn’t falter her looks. She still looks like sex on legs in a white overcoat and those fuck me heels that made her legs look longer.
I can see why Mac likes it here. All the women are beauties, and I don’t fail to notice that the hottest ones are on his team.
He’s sitting in his office and it looks a mess. I know how he hates messes and how he will miss lunch if someone doesn’t remind him to eat. Yesterday I went to town so I could book an appointment for my physical therapy consultation, and thought I’d meet him for lunch. Today is just for meeting’s sake while I figure out what I’m doing.
Mac smiles when he sees me walk in but he looks stressed trying to set up his computer. Just like yesterday when we got back from lunch.
“Hey son,” he sighs.
“Hey there,” I answer, and look over the state of the place.
“I hate this. I thought being closer to the team would be good but I’ve never moved offices. In the twenty years I’ve been here I’ve always been on the other neurosurgery unit.” He shakes his head.
“You’re moving twenty years over. That’s gonna be tough.”
“It’s going to be hell and I don’t have time. I have paper-based documents because I loathe computers.”
I smirk and he frowns at me.
“Don’t you dare call me old. I just like things a certain kind of way.”
I wave my hand around at the place. “Mac it looks like a pigsty in here. There’s no way you can agree to liking things this kind of way.”
“I don’t. I hate it. I have to get this piece of crap running. The system here sucks. What I need is it all fixed. This new extension was supposed to make things easier. Five new offices, a lab at our fingertips, and our own MRI facility. It’s all good, so I don’t want documents and tech to let me down.”
“Is there a tech team that’s going to be helping?” I ask.
“Dylan, don’t even ask me that.”
“Why not? It couldn’t hurt to get help. You need it.”
“The last time I trusted people like that, patients’ files got all scrambled. The medical staff here are second to none, the admin staff not so much. It’s because they’re understaffed. Most departments end up hiring out to get things like this done,” he explains with frustration.
Hmmm. An idea is brewing in my mind. “Hiring out?”
“Yeah…I hate hiring people I don’t know, but I think I might have to hire someone to go over what I need doing. Possibly get one of the girls to work with them for a bit or they can take it in shifts to get the files controlled. I don’t have time for this.”
I beam at him. “Would you hire me for free?”
He starts laughing. “Don’t play with me.”
“I’m being serious. I’m staying at your place. I could come help out. Earn my keep.”
“I don’t want you to have to feel like that. You don’t have to earn your keep with me.”
I hold up my hand. “And I know that. Trust me, you won’t get anyone more qualified than me.”
“It’s not that. I kind of just wanted you to live a little. A break...you’re like your father. You just keep going.”
“Uncle…do you need help?” I lift my shoulders into a shrug.
He chuckles. “I’m kind of desperate.”
“Then it’s settled. I’ll sort it all out. All the documents and the database too.”
“Thank you! I’m seriously relieved right now.”
“I’m happy to help.”
“I’m grateful. I’ll get you clearance by today and a security pass.”
“Perfect, so I’ll start tomorrow morning and neaten up the place. Is this everything from the old office?”
“Sadly it is not.”
That doesn’t surprise me. “It already looks like a library in here.”
“I know. It’s times like this when I wish I could get on with technology. I’ll have to.”
“I’ll set something up so you’ll find it easy.” It sounds like he literally just does everything by hand and paper. No wonder he is always so busy.
A knock sounds at the door.
“Come in,” Mac calls out, and Abby comes in. She barely acknowledges me.
“Hi, sorry to disturb you. Just wanted to check something. I’m about to meet Lizzie,” she says.
“Fire away.”
“Is it okay if I set up something with her parents for later in the week? I just want to cover all bases.”
She must feel me burning a hole in her with my stare but she’s doing a great job of ignoring me. I don’t think a woman has ever done that to me before.
“By all means, sure. That’s a good idea.” Mac nods, proud.
“Thank you. I thought it would help.”
“It will, and you’re good. Abby you don’t need me anymore, not for things like that.”
“I know, I know,” she says, and gets ready to go. “Just had to check in with you.”
There’s no way I’m gonna let her just go when I’m standing here and she hasn’t acknowledged me.
Just like the other night, that dose of crazy comes to get me and I think of something to rile her up.
“Or check on you,” I fill in sneakily, and her gaze snaps to me.
Mac casts me daggers.
“I’m sorry, what?” Abby asks, challenging me.
That is the worst thing to ask me since I love a challenge.
“It’s a good excuse to check on him. Maybe someone’s trying to steal his research like a burglar, or maybe you needed to check on him for other things?”
I give her my trademark wink and grin when she glares at me, her cheeks turning red, then she saunters away and the door swings shut.
I look back to Mac and see he’s shaking his head. “Will you please stop making my staff crazy? Especially her.”
“Can’t help it. Too many encounters with that one.”
He doesn’t know the full details of the other night, or about the bitch slap she gave me. I’d said she wanted to drop something off, but he knows what I’m like so he knew I said something to rile her up for her to leave the way she did.
Mac shakes his head at me, but the hint of a smile pulling at the corners of his lips gives me the perfect idea, and I think of the best person who can help me get started on it tomorrow when I come in.
Abby
What a jerk.
I’m making my way down to the unit where Lizzie is staying, and I can’t get Dylan out of my head.
I always clear my head of anything and everything, even Jack, when I first see a new patient. Always.
I strive to have my attention to detail be spot on. Nothing more because it’s key for my job.
That first meeting for me is always the one that counts. It’s the one where you have to make that connection with the patient to basically get them to trust you.
It’s important, so I shouldn’t allow Dylan, the jerk with a gorgeous smile, to stay stuck in my head. I think something is wrong with me because me thinking he’s a jerk is the correct line of thought, but must I fall prey to the spell that’s taken every woma
n at Northwestern who’s laid eyes on the man?
It was only yesterday that he came here. He must have been around for a good couple of hours, which was enough to get all the women talking about Mac’s hot nephew.
Then he had to come back again today. Tania and Celine did the same thing they did yesterday, and so did I.
Scowl.
I scowled at his wink because I didn’t know why he thought it would be a good idea to keep doing that, and of course since he did that the girls gave me a hard time.
Ughh.
This is all so high school. And these are serious times.
I get down to the unit and when I see Tania and Celine I force Dylan out of my head. It’s time to switch into business mode.
Oftentimes, with cases like this one, the patients that come to us have already been through a lot of testing, medication, and all sorts of treatment.
People tend to lose hope when they try one thing after another and nothing works.
That’s why this first meeting is important. We have to renew trust.
The girls smile at me when I approach.
“All good?” Celine asks.
“All good,” I answer.
I notice how she’s giving me the reins too because when I had the idea to speak to Lizzie’s parents she told me if I thought it was a good idea I should do it. I only checked with Mac to be triple sure.
I thought it might be necessary to meet Lizzie’s parents, and wanted a history from both of them if possible. I have a bunch of questions.
“Are we ready then?” Tania says, looking from Celine to me.
We’re all a little nervous. I nod my head and Celine does too.
I smile. “Let’s go girls.”
We proceed on to the neurology wing. I’ve always liked how they designed this section of the hospital. There’s lots of green plants like potted palms and various designs with other flowers. There’s also more open spaces in the patients’ lounge and visiting rooms.
In this area we allow more than two visitors in patients’ rooms. It’s sad to think it, but sometimes we can’t find a cure and some of the patients with more serious conditions can pass away at any time.
Dylan Page 5