Saving the Doctor Pt. 05

He called the number and thankfully she was still around. She apologized for not getting back to him until now, but was very eager to talk to him about working in the clinic. It was small, and only ran occasionally, but they were always very short-staffed. She warned him that it was low pay relatively speaking, but Jon said he didn't mind, and she was impressed to hear about his experience with the inner-city clinics back where he had done his residency. They made tentative plans for him to swing by next week for a tour and probably set up a few occasional days of clinic either just before or after Christmas if that went well.

Jon smiled and felt like he had made a positive change in his life for the first time in a while. He headed home in good spirits.

He got home to Elaina preparing a very gourmet meal with some expensive-sounding fish. It smelled amazing and tasted even better, and his mood was the best it had been in a while.

After supper he asked her how her first counseling session went. She offhandedly remarked that she didn't attend. They had scheduled it between her two clinics but apparently there was too much work for her to make time for it. He asked her if that was going to cause problems with the administration. She gave him a cold stare behind her tight smile, and reminded him that she was going to challenge it, and was already planning on meeting with a lawyer to discuss her contract. The look in her eyes told him he was obliged as her husband to agree with her, and he simply said "okay".

He decided to change the subject. "So I had a great conversation with with Dr. Hartman."

"I'm not familiar with him," she said offhandedly

"Her actually," he clarified.

Her eyes suddenly shot up to him with jealous concern.

"She works at the clinic that runs at the shelter downtown," he explained, ignoring her response.

"There's a shelter downtown?" she said.

"Yeah. It's not very big but it's there. This is a small city but there's still a need for it, and apparently it's usually pretty busy. I had mentioned this about a month ago, that I had heard about it and wondered about working at the clinic there occasionally."

She sighed, "I thought you were done with all that silliness."

"It's not silliness Elaina it's what I had essentially trained for, and where my career was headed before we moved here. It was why I was hesitant to move here at all, if you remember, and now it's perfect, I can have it both ways if this works out."

She crossed her arms. "I would've hoped you would run it by me before calling this woman."

"Why? What would y-"

"Because I'm you're fiance! That's why!" she bit back.

"Would you have forbid it?" he asked.

"I would have... expressed my concerns, about how it might effect us. Financially," she said, softly but threateningly.

"We're doing fine financially Elaina, at least fine enough I can handle one day every week or two making slightly less at this clinic."

"You let me be the judge of that. Evidently I'm the only one mature enough to."

He got up to leave in frustration.

"And your bank statements are absolutely my business by the way, I don't care what you said before," she called after him. "I want to talk again about a joint account. I checked and we don't have to wait until after the wedding."

He closed his eyes and sighed as he shut the door and headed down to the basement.

Later that night Beth finally texted back.

- Lol, thanks, I'm feeling a bit better I think, I'll prob be back in tomorrow but I'll see you Thursday I guess right? :)

- Yeah, that's great to hear.

He sighed in relief, at least clinic would improve.

That night Elaina surprised him by slithering her naked body over his under the covers. She hadn't talked or payed much attention to him at all that evening, but apparently was determined to not let his body forget about her. It felt clinical and impersonal, but his cock disagreed. 15 minutes later after panting out a promise to never make any decision without her again, he was grunting uncontrollably and cumming inside her as she rode him hard. As she caressed him afterwards she reminded him to cancel his counseling session like he had promised...and that she loved him.

Wednesday was his day assisting in the O.R. After one of the surgeries when he was charting in the recovery room, he overheard two nurses chatting behind the next patient's curtain.

"Hey did you hear about the nephro-mancer?

"Oh God, what did she do this time?"

"Well you heard about the rehab ward last week right? The mess with all the blood on the floor and the screaming and all that?"

"Well yeah, who didn't?"

"Well I guess that was the last straw and admin finally grew a backbone! They're making her do therapy and sensitivity training and all that."

"That's it?"

"I know!...but get this. Jane works in dialysis right? She told me she skipped out on her session yesterday. Sounds like she's trying to fight it and not even do them."

"What? Why?"

"Cause she's a stubborn self-absorbed cunt, why else?"

The other nurse giggled. "Gail! Sheesh, I've never even heard you swear before."

"Well it's true! I mean come on I'm like the hundredth person to say it. Anyway she might be making a mountain out of the mole hill and actually getting herself fired over this!"

"Oh my God please please please. That's the best news I've heard all day," she giggled. "We gotta throw a party if so."

"Oh some of the others are planning it already."

They laughed and walked away.

Jon's heart sunk and he headed back to scrub in again.

That evening Elaina was late getting home.

"Useless waste of time!" she exclaimed as she walked in the door.

"What is it honey?" he asked gingerly. Gesturing towards the cold food at the table.

"I was at a lawyer's office," she explained, as she sat down at the table. "Thankfully he fit me in at the end of the day, though it took more nagging than I would've cared to do, and he charged me overtime rates. I figured it was worth it since he specializes in this type of issue..."

"What did he say?" Jon asked.

"I'm getting to that!" she snapped at him. "I explained the issue and gave him my employee contract. For some reason he insisted on learning the details of the incident. I tried to explain it from my perspective, such as how I didn't intend to seriously hurt anyone or spill the blood, and that the biohazard from something like that was reasonably low risk for anyone in the vicinity. I clearly hadn't been INTENTIONALLY violent."

She paused as if waiting for him to agree.

He made a small nod.

"Anyway, he barely looked through the contract, and then told me point blank there was nothing I could do, that they were within their every right to make me do all of this and more. Then he had the gall to tell me that if they changed their mind and charged me with assault or reckless personal endangerment, to come talk with him THEN, and he'd see if he could get the charges reduced! The nerve of the man!"

Jon gulped and tried to choose his words carefully.

"So, legally though, he's still correct?" he said.

"YES Jon, fine! He's technically correct, are you happy?"

"I'm just... making sure I know where you're at."

She brushed him off, "To him, the right or wrong of it shouldn't matter, he's a lawyer, his job is to defend me, but if there's no legal recourse to be had, then fine. I guess I have to go to this fucking session tomorrow. Administration called me in again today to bitch about me missing it yesterday. I tried to ask them if they really want me to sacrifice patient care and rush through my work just for this petty bullshit, but they didn't seem to want to hear reason either."

Jon nodded and tried to finish his food in silence, preferring it to his foot in his mouth, but she pressed him.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" she demanded.

"There's not much to say. It's...unfortunate you can't fight it, but if you go to the sessions and participate then it'll hopefully all work out for the best."

"Well I'll go to them, but I don't know if I'll be willing to 'participate' per se."

"Won't he or she have to sign off on your... 'success' with the sessions?"

She gave an annoyed sigh, "I suppose. It's a she, by the way. She called me yesterday after I missed the appointment. Nosey bitch. Lana, I think she said her name was."

"Sanderson?" he asked.

"Yes actually, why?" she squinted at him

"Well I make a lot of referrals to their care group, she's actually one of the more highly regarded counselors. PhD in clinical psychology, been there for years, sits on a few boards," he shrugged.

"You actually think I need this don't you?" she looked at him accusingly. "You really think there's something wrong with me that I need fucking therapy!"

He sighed hopelessly. "No one is perfect Elaina. Even you. We can all become better people, and why wouldn't you want to take the opportunity to better yourself? For free even!?" he put up his hands in desperation.

"You said you would be on my side with this! You promised!" She threw the fork down on the table and it bounced onto the floor loudly, and she stood up to leave.

"Elaina please! I can be on your side and still have a different perspective can't I?"

"Not as far as I'm concerned!" she yelled back as she stormed off.

He decided to fit in a workout after supper, and they said few words to each other for the rest of the night.

They crawled into bed silently and lied down facing away from each other.

"Jon... I love you, but I was very disappointed that you weren't more supportive today. I need you to do better from now on okay?"

Jon closed his eyes tightly in hopeless anger but said nothing. She went to sleep without laying a finger on him, and he was relieved. He told himself again that he would just stay with her until she got over this emotional hurdle. Then, he would make good on his promise to himself. He hoped he was strong enough.

The next day Jon was glad to see Beth's face in the clinic again. Her smile looked nervous as she said good morning, but otherwise she didn't miss a beat. She was back to her graceful professional persona and her smile always seemed genuine. The day went by without a hitch, so his clinic was back to normal and he was at least grateful for that.

He was finishing up his notes at the end of the day, when almost without him noticing, she had closed the door and sat down in the chair next to his desk. He did a double take when he glanced over to see her troubled face staring at him seriously.

"H- Hey. Everything good?" he asked.

"Do you really want me to keep working here or are you just being nice?" she said bluntly.

He gave her a surprised stare for a moment. "Yeah Beth I honestly do. If I didn't know for sure before, then those two days without you made me absolutely sure," he said, and gave her a supportive smile.

She narrowed her eyes, "Cause I can take it, if you don't. I have other prospects, I can waitress in the short term and find another job like this pretty easily, and then with any luck I'll be starting nursing school next year."

"Yeah. I know, and I hope you get in, but it'll be a pain in the ass to replace you when you do," he said, honestly.

She smirked despite herself. "K... And I'll get over... the personal stuff. I mean, I meant everything I said on Friday, but I'm not gonna be like, heartbroken if I never get to see you again or anything, so don't worry about hurting my feelings," she rolled her eyes and shrugged nonchalantly, but kept her eyes away from his and seemed to stiffen up.

"Yeah that's... good to know Beth, but still. Look you're a good enough assistant that it's worth the occasional tension or awkwardness between us. I'm okay with moving ahead if you are," he said.

She let out a sigh of relief and beamed a beautiful smile at him and hovered her hand over his, but then moved it to the grasp the edge of the desk instead, and took a deep breath in and out.

"Awesome. Thanks Jon. I just needed to know that. I'll see you tomorrow."

He gave a sigh of relief when she left the room. He knew that the technically correct thing to do would be to have her transfer to a different doctor, even if he didn't think she should be let go, but he meant it when he said the clinic was a mess without her. So, he stubbornly told himself it would all be fine and that they could indeed put it behind them. He turned back to finish his notes and shortly headed home.

"How did the counseling session go honey?" He asked as they sat down to dinner that night.

"I don't want to talk about it," she turned away and focused on bringing the food out to the table.

"Fair enough. They're private sessions after all," he replied diplomatically.

She gave him a mistrustful glance. "They don't feel like it. Especially when I know she has to make a report to admin."

"With specifics?" he asked in surprise.

"No," she replied curtly.

They ate in silence for a while until she finally spoke up.

"The judgmental questions she asked, I couldn't believe it. Like she needs to fix every aspect of my life for me, because it ALL must obviously be broken. She could save us both a lot of time by just telling me how to talk to the hospital staff so they don't get pissy at me for telling them the truth!"

Jon chewed thoughtfully. "Can I offer a perspective?"

She glared at him and finally responded coldly, "You may."

He hesitated for a second to find his words. "One thing I love about you is how dedicated you are, how much of yourself you give to everything you do. To your job, to me and our relationship... You give everything 100%. You do everything perfectly, or at least as perfect as humanly possible..."

He could tell she was at least slightly flattered but trying not to show it.

"And...." she said impatiently.

"And... why not do this right? Why not try to do this perfectly too. If you have to do it anyway, why not give 100% like anything else?"

She crossed her arms "I don't want to give them the satisfaction."

"Then don't give them the satisfaction of using your non-cooperation as an excuse. Don't give them the satisfaction of having grounds to fire you for not taking this seriously."

She opened her mouth to reply but closed it and gave him a troubled look, and then simply said, "I'll consider it."

They ate in awkward silence for a while.

"I have to go see her again tomorrow anyway to make up for missing Tuesday's session. Today was mostly her doing the talking and she said that was fine for the first time. Some of the things she said made sense but it still seemed very patronizing. I'll try to play along tomorrow I suppose."

"Okay." Jon said, evidently looking too happy about it, since she flashed him an annoyed glance afterwards.

He decided to change the topic.

"There's another open mic night this Saturday that I was thinking of going to. I know we don't have anything up, but I figured you might appreciate the heads up."

She looked like she stopped herself from her immediate response, then paused and carefully replied, "Yes I do appreciate you asking me."

"Thanks, It starts at 8 but I w-"

"I don't want you to go," she interrupted him.

"Oh, uh... what did you have planned?" he asked.

"Nothing."

"...Then why?"

"Does it matter?" she said, her eyes challenging him to dare to respond.

"It... would be nice to know..." he replied, in cautious annoyance.

"I don't understand what you get out of those things. Plus, since you know I don't like them, it feels like an excuse to go to a bar without me, and I don't like the thought of that. I want you to to stay in. We can watch a movie," she said calmly but authoritatively.

He sighed and shook his head, sick of arguing, "Fine."

"Oh I'm sorry spending time with your fiance is such a chore for you!" she said, unimpressed with his response.

"It's been weeks since I went to one Elaina. I thought one night would be okay," he said feeling tired.

"Well you thought wrong."

"You've told me I can't hang out with my current friends, and now I can't do things like this to make new ones..."

"We'll have a party in January. You'll meet plenty of people there. Though I'm going to be much more selective with the guest list this time."

He regarded her proud face with hopelessness, then finished the meal in silence.

They spent most of the evening apart, and he was glad for it.

That night as they laid down in bed and she turned the lights out she asked him why he still had a counseling session on his calendar for next week.

"...were you looking through my phone??" he asked suddenly terrified.

"I was just curious. I didn't snoop around much."

"Elaina that's NOT okay, that's really invasive," he said.

"Why? What are you keeping from me? Should I have found something?"

"No. Look Elaina, is it okay for me to look through your phone?"

"Well... no. I mean I'd have nothing to hide but... that's not the point. You should lock it better then. And my point is you promised to cancel the sessions, you lied!"

"I thought you meant try to see a different counselor, which I am, even though the last one was really good and we really connected," he replied in frustration.

"Well I didn't. By the way I don't like how your texts with Beth look like two chummy friends chatting rather than professional colleagues."

"Oh my God... I forgot I'm not allowed to have friends. I thought you said you didn't snoop much," he said, pushing back his guilt, and confident he was justified in his anger.

"Not MUCH, and I'm not saying you can't have friends I just... well you know how I feel about her."

He fumed silently in the dark.

"Who's Carly by the way?" she asked after a minute.

He went bug-eyed and was glad she couldn't see his face. His heart-rate almost doubled.

"The pharmacist, she was hanging out with us at the gala, and she was at our party back in the fall, and Grace and Jeff's games night," he said, trying hard to sound normal.

"Ohhh right the large one. Married to that Brent fellow," she said, sounding relieved. "Well you two seem to share the same terrible geekish sense of humor from what I presume were drunken texts at the gala. I guess I'm glad someone finds you funny"

"Um... yeah. She's fun," he said.

"See honey, you can still have friends."

He thought for a moment as his heart raced. "I don't suppose it matters that she's best friends with Grace?"

"Oh. Well never mind then," she said, and rolled over to go to sleep.

He stared at the wall as his heart rate slowly settled and once he heard her snoring he grabbed his phone and re-set the lock code.

The next morning in clinic he sat down at his desk and Beth walked in immediately after and closed the door, a scared look on her face.

"Did you tell Elaina about what I did??" she said quickly, as she sat down.

"What? No. I never said anything."

"Ever? Like not hinted or anything like that? You're sure?"

"No, Beth I swear. I mean she's acted jealous of you, but not because of anything I've said specifically, just because you're... Well y-... I mean you must be used to women being jealous of you right?"

She suddenly looked up at him with a brief smile and a blush before catching herself.

She brought out her phone, "Well... tell me why I got THIS last night."

He looked at her phone and saw a text from him. Only it wasn't from him.

- I would appreciate it if you kept your communications with my fiance on a professional level. Please and thank you.

"Fuck," Jon said.

He pulled out his own phone and checked the text messages.

"She must have deleted it off of my phone after she sent it, it's not on here. I found out last night that she snooped through my phone, so I changed the lock."