Page 3 of Bad Blood

Holy shit.

My breath stalls in my chest. “Another one?”

If he’s calling me, it could mean one of two things: a) it has something to do with our department, or b) it has something to do with me.

I choose to believe it has to do with the former and shove away the idea of the latter. I’ve been at the top of my game lately. No mishaps. Nothing out of the ordinary.

There hasn’t been a single instance where my quality of patient care could be called into question. Not since the last time I was hit with a wrongful death lawsuit.

Collins’ case was an anomaly that led to his death because of my need to push bounds with a new and experimental treatment. But I learned my lesson. I was finally putting it behind me. And now this.

The thought of the new Ewing’s Sarcoma patient from Dr. Gibbons flies to the front of my mind. The one with special circumstances. The one I’m not supposed to keep because of hospital referral protocol. The protocol was put into place to protect us from mistakes, such as the one I made with Collins.

The kettle whistles from the stove behind me, and I startle, an unexpected coldness settling in my core. “When you say we, you mean the oncology department, right?”

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it. This doesn’t look good.”

“Luca?” I breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth to calm my racing heart. It’s of no use. The fact that he doesn’t confirm my question has me jumping to the worst conclusion. I turn the stovetop off and move the kettle off the burner.

“Yes?”

“What’s it over this time?”

“There’s a meeting at eight-thirty tomorrow morning.”

“I have a patient at nine.” One I’m reticent to see, but a patient, nonetheless.

“It will be quick. The lawyer wants to talk to you.”

This can’t be good. The last time I had to talk to the hospital lawyer, things didn’t go well for him. My case got dropped, and he got in trouble. I’m sure he holds a grudge.

“Me?” My thoughts race through anything I could have missed. Anything I could have done wrong. There’s nothing. I’ve dotted all my I’s and crossed all my T’s. I’m thorough, if nothing else. There has to be an explanation for this.

And it has nothing to do with me.

“We’re following protocol. The lawyer will talk to Kline as well. It’s nothing out of the ordinary. They have some questions.”

My stomach churns. Of course Kline would be involved. He takes every opportunity to remind me of how he handled the fallout of Collins’ case and how he did it all for me. But he made that choice, and as a result, everything between us changed.

“What did he do now?” Any time anything has to do with Kline, it’s a problem.

I can’t count how many times I’ve had to deal with his shit, and this new malpractice doesn’t mean I have to put up with any more of it.

It’s not like going through eight years of school, four years of residency, and three years of grunt work was an easy feat to get to where I am today. I’m not going to sit by and get my ass handed to me on a platter because of someone else’s mistake. I’ve fought for my position tooth and nail, and I won’t let Kline rip it out from under me. His behavior could cost me all my hard work.

Luca humphs. “It’s a lot to go over on the phone, and it would be easier to discuss in person.”

“I’m available now.” I grab my lab coat from the back of the chair next to me and drape it over my shoulders as I stand and grab a mug from the shelf next to the stove.

“The specifics haven’t been announced. But this time”—Luca swallows, pausing for a few uncomfortable seconds—“you’re named in the lawsuit.” He clears his throat before he continues. “And there was a death.”

The mug slips from my grasp and shatters when it meets the floor, shards of ceramic sailing in every direction. “What?”

“We’ve had suspicions for a few months. This recent wrongful death lawsuit has us looking into other cases.”

I stop listening to him, lost in my thoughts. Did he say I’m named in the lawsuit? “Wait, back up. A few months? What do I have to do with this?”

“I wasn’t supposed to give you any information besides the time for the meeting, but I felt you deserved to know.”

---