Page 5 of Doctor Silver Fox Next Door

Morning comes too quickly, but I get up feeling excited. Day two at the hospital. I put my fresh uniform on and head over to work.

First things first, check my roster.

My heart sinks. I am working the longer shift today, no surgery time, my entire day is on aftercare and surgery room clean up. I don't think nurses are even supposed to do cleanup. Do they want me to get experience in it just to understand all the aspects of how things work?

I look at the bottom of the page and notice again that it is Lennox's signature on my roster.

I sigh in frustration. This is just ridiculous, or is this normal for a new nurse?

Before I start my shift, I go off to find Natasha. She is the nurse who was hired a few months before me, and she should be able to tell me about her experience starting work here with Dr. Blake.

"That is Natasha over there." Sally points her out for me. She is a curvy, red-cheeked, smiling girl with an infectious laugh. I walk over to her and introduce myself. Then I dive right in to try and find out what is going on. "Did you also get taken off surgery rosters when you started and put on patient aftercare?"

She scrunches her nose. "No, not at all. I mean, we all help out with after-care to a degree, but our job is primarily in the operating room."

I shake my head. "And does Dr. Blake ever sign off changes to your roster?" "Oh yes - for sure - on occasions when patients can't go in for surgery that day or something happens then Dr. Blake is usually the one who signs the changes or moves the surgery to a different day."

"Thanks, Natasha," I say, starting to walk off. I feel agitated because I seem to be getting nowhere further in understanding what is going on here.

I can't prove that Lennox is specifically aiming to make my life harder, but I have a suspicion and I want to get to the bottom of it. I want to know why. Is it really all because of the failed flirty comment he made? Is his ego really that fragile, or exaggerated? Can he really be that grumpy?

The nurses gather ready for the morning meeting and Dr. Blake comes in to run through the day's patient list. He ignores me. He ignores pretty much everyone, keeping things strictly business.

When the meeting is over, I skip to try and catch him before he leaves.

"Dr. Blake," I say, trying to get his attention.

"What, Nurse Emma?"

He is running through some patient charts with his back to me, so I move myself so that I can see his face. He sighs and looks at me in annoyance.

"I want to ask why I am not in surgery at all today."

"Didn't you already ask these questions in my office yesterday? My answer has not changed. Do the job I assign you. Now please move along I am busy."

"My job is surgery."

"Not unless I say it is, Emma." He says angrily.

What an asshole.

I turn to walk away, clearly getting nowhere closer to understanding.

The day floats by in a series of stitches and wound care. Fresh bandages and bandage removal and excited patients seeing some of their results for the first time. The other nurses are lovely, and I am getting along so well with everyone. They are a great team of people and I fit in nicely. Well, with everyone except for Dr. Blake.

At lunch time I find that I am feeling quite down listening to some of the other nurses talk about that morning's surgery.

I slide into an open seat next to one of the nurses I haven't met yet.

"Emma?" She looks up from her lunch with tired eyes. "Hi, yes."

I smile. "I'm Claire. Welcome to the team. Sorry, we haven't chatted yet, been so busy."

"Oh, don't worry, I understand. Do you do a lot of after-hours work? Or double shifts?"

"Oh no - nothing like the trauma nurses do. We do have some emergencies we tend to, but mostly our shift hours are pretty standard and set. Why do you ask?"

"I am just struggling a bit to understand my roster. I was taken off surgery twice now and I am working longer hours than the other girls on my team. I wanted to try and find out why, but I seemed to be getting nowhere. Is Dr. Blake always like this with new nurses?"

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