It’s really peaceful on an evening like this to sit up there and watch the lights of town wink on. If you’ll give me a minute to check on Jen and get a blanket and some wine, I’d like very much to go up there with you.”
“It’s okay not to, you know.”
She smiled in a way she hadn’t all evening.
“I know,” she said.
The soft evening air was filled with the hum of cicada wings and the chirping of peepers and crickets. For nearly an hour they lay side by side in the noisy silence, watching the mountain shadows stretch out across the valley. High overhead, a solitary hawk glided in effortless loops, its silhouette a dark crucifix against the perfect, blue-gray sky.
“The girls in the O.R. said you did a beautiful job on thatwoman’s neck this morning,” Suzanne said at last, sipping at what little remained of a bottle of chardonnay.
“You checked up on me?”
“Of course I checked up on you. Do you think you have a corner on the attraction-to-someone-you-just-met market?”
“No,” he said, trying to ignore the sudden pounding that seemed to be lifting his chest off the blanket. “I guess not.”
“Technique, high marks; speed, high marks; looks, high marks.”
He grinned. “Well, I’m glad I made a decent first impression on the nurses. After nine years in various O.R.s, and all that time on rock faces, there’s not too much that rattles me. This morning, though, I’ll admit I was a little nervous.”
“I can understand that. Doctors are
always
under a big magnifying glass of scrutiny, but never the way we are during the first few months at a new hospital. For a time after I arrived on the scene, I felt sort of like a new haircut. Everyone had to express an opinion.… The case you did is doing okay?”
“Pain free for the first time in a year, and moving all the parts that are supposed to move.” Zack held up crossed fingers for her to see.
“That’s super. You know, I’m curious. You seem like the type who would thrive on an inner-city madhouse like Boston Muni—all that action.”
“Actually, I loved that part of it. But not just that there were so many cases and so much trauma to work on. I loved the patients—talking with them; getting a sense of their lives; becoming important to them; even growing into friendships with some of them. But I never was comfortable with the pressure in big teaching hospitals to become the worlds expert in some little corner of neurosurgery.”
Suzanne nodded. “And if you don’t play it that way,” she said, “then you end up being the world’s expert at being passed over for promotion.”
“Exactly. I also confess that I was getting a little tired of the political bullshit—the empire building and back stabbing; having to grovel before a department head or administrator just to get a lousy piece of equipment that the hospital would have been able to purchase out of petty cash if it weren’t so damn inefficient.”
“So you thought corporate medicine would be more streamlined—more responsive to the needs of the hospital and the patients?”
“That’s what I thought.”
“You say that as if your opinion’s already changed.”
Zack propped his chin on his hands and stared out over the valley.
“I don’t know,” he said. “A few things have happened since I arrived here that …”
His voice trailed away. Throughout the day, he had more and more come to realize that there was no way he could discount Guy Beaulieu’s claims. And if they were true—if Ultramed or Mainwaring or Frank had conspired, for whatever reason, to drive the old surgeon out of practice—then the situation in Sterling was more virulent, more frightening, more … unacceptable than anything he had ever encountered at Boston Muni.
He also knew that if his old mentor’s concerns about the ethics and practices of Ultramed proved accurate, there would be no way he could walk away from the problem. He had returned to Sterling to practice the best
“It’s okay not to, you know.”
She smiled in a way she hadn’t all evening.
“I know,” she said.
The soft evening air was filled with the hum of cicada wings and the chirping of peepers and crickets. For nearly an hour they lay side by side in the noisy silence, watching the mountain shadows stretch out across the valley. High overhead, a solitary hawk glided in effortless loops, its silhouette a dark crucifix against the perfect, blue-gray sky.
“The girls in the O.R. said you did a beautiful job on thatwoman’s neck this morning,” Suzanne said at last, sipping at what little remained of a bottle of chardonnay.
“You checked up on me?”
“Of course I checked up on you. Do you think you have a corner on the attraction-to-someone-you-just-met market?”
“No,” he said, trying to ignore the sudden pounding that seemed to be lifting his chest off the blanket. “I guess not.”
“Technique, high marks; speed, high marks; looks, high marks.”
He grinned. “Well, I’m glad I made a decent first impression on the nurses. After nine years in various O.R.s, and all that time on rock faces, there’s not too much that rattles me. This morning, though, I’ll admit I was a little nervous.”
“I can understand that. Doctors are
always
under a big magnifying glass of scrutiny, but never the way we are during the first few months at a new hospital. For a time after I arrived on the scene, I felt sort of like a new haircut. Everyone had to express an opinion.… The case you did is doing okay?”
“Pain free for the first time in a year, and moving all the parts that are supposed to move.” Zack held up crossed fingers for her to see.
“That’s super. You know, I’m curious. You seem like the type who would thrive on an inner-city madhouse like Boston Muni—all that action.”
“Actually, I loved that part of it. But not just that there were so many cases and so much trauma to work on. I loved the patients—talking with them; getting a sense of their lives; becoming important to them; even growing into friendships with some of them. But I never was comfortable with the pressure in big teaching hospitals to become the worlds expert in some little corner of neurosurgery.”
Suzanne nodded. “And if you don’t play it that way,” she said, “then you end up being the world’s expert at being passed over for promotion.”
“Exactly. I also confess that I was getting a little tired of the political bullshit—the empire building and back stabbing; having to grovel before a department head or administrator just to get a lousy piece of equipment that the hospital would have been able to purchase out of petty cash if it weren’t so damn inefficient.”
“So you thought corporate medicine would be more streamlined—more responsive to the needs of the hospital and the patients?”
“That’s what I thought.”
“You say that as if your opinion’s already changed.”
Zack propped his chin on his hands and stared out over the valley.
“I don’t know,” he said. “A few things have happened since I arrived here that …”
His voice trailed away. Throughout the day, he had more and more come to realize that there was no way he could discount Guy Beaulieu’s claims. And if they were true—if Ultramed or Mainwaring or Frank had conspired, for whatever reason, to drive the old surgeon out of practice—then the situation in Sterling was more virulent, more frightening, more … unacceptable than anything he had ever encountered at Boston Muni.
He also knew that if his old mentor’s concerns about the ethics and practices of Ultramed proved accurate, there would be no way he could walk away from the problem. He had returned to Sterling to practice the best
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