Page 24 of The Doctor's No-Strings Deal

Their next patient was also assigned to both of them, although Megan would take the lead on this one. Dr. Ralter seemed determined to watch his two most contentious residents go at each other’s throats on a regular basis. Although, when Megan had asked him why they were paired together so frequently, he simply replied that the two of them had a healthy competition between them, and he felt they would fuel each other’s advancement. Megan suspected he just enjoyed the drama and tension. If only he knew how deep that tension went.

Their next patient was a girl of fifteen who had been dropped off by her parents. Every time a child came in alone, Megan felt a little pang of sympathy for them. She didn’t know what she would do if she didn’t have her mother to confide in.

The girl, Suzie, presented with intermittent light-headedness, shortness of breath, shaking and sweating. She also apparently passed out pretty frequently. Megan brought her stethoscope to her patient’s chest to listen to her heartbeat. It was overly fast and strong, even for someone who was nervous around doctors. “Do you ever have chest pain?” Megan asked.

“Sometimes,” the girl answered. “It feels better when I lay down.”

“And worse when you stand up?” Charlie asked, flipping the pages of her chart.

The girl nodded. “I’ve always felt a little bit like this, but it’s never been this bad before.”

Charlie leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms. “We should get her up to the labs for a blood test.”

Megan cocked her head at him. “You think it’s POTS?”

He nodded. “I’d put money on it. She’s been here before. I just finished reading her files, and most everything else has already been ruled out.”

“What’s POTS?” Suzie asked.

Megan took the time to explain. “It stands for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.” She smiled reassuringly when Suzie made a confused face. “It just means your heart rate increases when you stand up.”

Suzie’s eyes went wide at that. “Am I going to die?”

“No, no,” Megan quickly answered. “Lots of people live with POTS.”

Then Charlie stepped in and did something Megan had never seen him do. He comforted the patient. “You’ll probably just need to go easy on the exercise. You know… sit out of gym class.”

For the first time since they’d walked in the room, Suzie cracked a real smile. “You promise?”

Charlie nodded. “We’ll make sure you have a note.”

Suzie laughed a little. “Almost worth it.”

And Charlie patted her on the shoulder. “You’re going to be just fine.”

On their way out, Megan repeated the gesture with Charlie. “Look at that! You do have a heart, after all.”

“Don’t you dare go spreading that rumor around, Bright. It’s a filthy lie.”

They passed Dr. Ralter in the hall. “What’s the diagnosis?” he asked them.

“Suspected POTS,” Megan answered. “She’s headed to the lab to confirm.”

Dr. Ralter arched an eyebrow. “Good catch, Megan. That’s an easy condition to miss.”

“Oh, thank you, but I can’t take the credit for it. Charlie was the one who caught it.”

“Well then, good catch, Charlie. You both deserve lunch.” Dr. Ralter paused and glanced back at them with a malicious glint in his eye. “I recommend you take it together… if you really want to impress me, that is.”

He left them both with their hands to their foreheads. Apparently, they’d been working together so long, they’d begun to mirror each other. When their attending was out of sight, Charlie turned to Megan. “I don’t need your charity,” he said with a scowl.

“It wasn’t charity — it was just the truth. I know this may be a foreign concept to you, but not everything I do revolves around our little rivalry.”

He grumbled, “Well, it should,” and that made her smile.

“Let’s go get lunch together. It’ll be a temporary truce, just to impress the attending.”

“Fine,” Charlie said. “Just to impress the attending.”

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