Page 11 of The Grumpy Doc's Surprise Delivery

The training isn’t supposed to start until a little later today, probably to everyone’s relief. I can’t imagine any of us were happy to be up so early in the morning talking to a stranger. I definitely wasn’t.

But despite the later start time, my casual breakfast is over too soon and I drag myself off to the conference room. Not that I’m keeping score, but I arrive before Liam, and as the minutes roll past, I start thinking that maybe I could be lucky and maybe he won’t show up. There’s a part of me that’s delighted about that, but there’s another part, something strange, which is almost disappointed.

It’s been a long time since I met anyone capable of challenging me like he does.

I don’t have a huge amount of seniority in my hospital, but I have been there since I was an intern. It’s been years. Some people do look up to me as an authority voice, and when that starts to happen, people stop being able to say no to you. As a doctor, it’s good to learn how to accept when you’re wrong.

As much as we want to be, we can’t always be perfect. Being able to let someone check us on our work is a good thing. Maybe this course has taught me something after all.

Bruno is standing at his makeshift podium by the time Liam slinks into the room. He looks more bedraggled than yesterday, the bags under his eyes suggesting that he slept about as much as I did. I still think it’s his fault that neither of us slept at all.

“Good morning, everyone,” Bruno says, far too chirpy for this time of day. Maybe he’s actually a robot. That would explain so much.

Without a single flicker in his smile, he explains what the activity for the day is; he’s set up a trail in the forest that we have to navigate to find hidden waypoints so we can mark them off. It is, he claims, an exercise in teamwork and managing stress in challenging circumstances.

I think that’s a load of absolute nonsense.

And, of course, so does Liam.

It takes us all a while to set up, so by the time we’re heading out into the forest, it’s midday. Bruno hands each team a map and a GPS tracker so we can prove we went to the waypoints. The map is barely marked, and we hardly have a chance to look at it before we’re bundled onto a bus and driven out to the forest.

Liam and I don’t say a word to each other as we travel, only acknowledging each other when our knees knock together every time we go over a bump.

When we arrive, we get no further instructions. Bruno smiles and waves us off, and all the teams stumble off into the forest, slightly baffled and completely out of their depth. I’ve beenon hikes like this before, but never alone and never without someone with real experience.

We still don’t talk as we head out into the forest. The path is well marked enough that we don’t struggle to see it, not at first, anyway.

As the path narrows and grows darker, Liam insists on taking the map. I don’t try to take it because I don’t think it’s worth the argument, but I have absolutely no confidence in his ability to read this thing.

Lord knows why Bruno has set this up for us. It has nothing to do with medicine. More than anything, it seems like an excuse to get us out of the room for the whole day so he doesn’t have to teach us anything else.

Maybe I’m just grumpy because I don’t want to spend this time with Liam.

I guess if crisis management is the point of all this, then I can definitely pretend the crisis is happening. It’s the only way I would ever work with someone like him.

However, here in the forest, he’s also decided to dress like he’s on vacation. He’s in shorts and a light blue polo, the kind of thing that’s giving me “dad on the beach” vibes.

I cut that train of thought off right there, forbidding it to go further. I’ve been thinking about family a lot recently, and the last thing I need is for my subconscious to latch on to the image of Liam as some sort of father figure.

“This is stupid,” he says for the four-hundredth time this morning.

“I agree,” I say, gritting my teeth. “But we have to do it.”

“Do we, though?” he says. “It’s not like we’re legally bound to do what we’re told. No one will know if we cheat.”

“We can’t cheat. That completely defeats the point of the exercise.”

But he’s on a roll now and isn’t listening to a word I’m saying. “And anyway, the certificate is just a piece of paper. He’ll give it to us anyway.”

“You really have no work ethic, do you?” I snap, tired of his relentless stream of negativity.

He recoils at that and winces as if I’ve just said something unforgivable. “Don’t judge me by your standards,” he says darkly. “You have no idea how hard I work.”

“Sorry,” I mutter, even if I’m not that sorry. I almost want to keep pushing; I didn’t realize I’d hit such a sensitive subject. But he’s clearly in a bad mood, so I don’t push him any further.

We continue into the forest until we hit a fork in the path. One way seems to keep going on the well-paved path, and the other keeps narrowing, overgrown by bushes and definitely more work than I would like.

“We’re coming up on a marker,” I say. “Which way?” I ask Liam, in the spirit of teamwork. I feel like I should let him feel like he’s in charge, if only just for now.

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