It was a normal morning in New York City. Streets busy with taxis and various other cars. Subways packed with people making their way to school or work. This day was just like any other for every citizen of the city, including Regina Mills.
She had woken up to her very obnoxious alarm clock at the wee hour of 5:30am. She went through her daily routine- shower, hair and makeup, clothes, then finally breakfast.
Today she had on a simple black pencil skirt, a burgundy blouse, and black patent leather pumps. She wore the heels despite the fact that she knew she'd regret it very much later on. As a doctor, and a pediatrician at that, she was always standing, never really getting a chance to sit down except during her 30 minute lunch break.
For breakfast, she made a small bowl of oatmeal and a very large cup of coffee. If there's one thing Regina Mills loves more than anything, it's her coffee. With the job she has, coffee is a necessity throughout the day. There are many days she'll have 5, or maybe even 6 cups a day without realizing it. Coffee is almost equivalent to oxygen in her world. Without it, she just might die.
When she finished making her coffee, she grabbed her phone and noticed the time was 7:05am. "Shit!" She is supposed to leave at 6:50am. She has to be at work at 7:15am, and she lives 20 minutes away.
She runs to the foyer, grabs her purse and her keys, and barges out the door. She quickly makes her way to the elevator of her condominium and presses the button impatiently. When the doors finally open, she rushes inside and waits eagerly for them to reopen. As soon as the elevator arrived at the main floor and the doors opened again, Regina runs out and makes her way to the parking lot. She ferociously opens the car door of her Audi R8 and plops down onto the seat. She speeds out of the parking lot and onto the road.
Only a few minutes into her fast paced drive, flashing lights appear in her rear view mirror. "Damn it! Not now!" she says angrily. This is not the first time she's been pulled over; it happens several times a month. She slows down and pulls the car over to the side of the road. She rolls down her window and grabs her wallet and slides her license out of the pocket. She then leans over to the glove compartment to get her registration out.
The cop approaches the window. "Good morning, ma'am. Do you know what you have been pulled over for?"
"Most definitely for speeding," Regina says sassily.
"That's correct. Do you have an idea of how fast you were going?" The cop asks.
"I have no clue."
"Well you were going 65 in a 45, which is dangerously fast, especially in this part of town," the cop informs and Regina just nods. "Now can I see your license and registration please?"
"Yes, yes I know the drill." She lifts her hand out of the window and hands the cops the requested items. As she does, she actually notices the cop for the first time. She's blonde haired and blue eyed, and wears the name tag labeled, 'Emma Swan.' This isn't the first time Regina has been pulled over by this specific cop.
Swan takes everything from Regina. "I'll be right back. I'm going to go verify your information and write your citation."
"Wonderful. Thank you, Officer Swan," she says sarcastically. After about 5 minutes the cop arrives back at the car.
"Here you go ma'am," she says as she hands Regina her license and registration. "Now I wrote your citation for $159 dollars. You must bring the payment to the court house within 3 weeks from this date. If you would like, you have a month to take a driving course to clear your record of this occurrence, otherwise this will be marked on your driving record permanently. Do you understand?"
"Yes. Thank you," Regina replies and puts on a fake smile. Inside she's really dying and thinking to herself, 'Alright, lady. Just shut the hell up and let me get out of here. I'm already late for work, and I don't need your blabbering mouth.' But obviously that would only get her in more trouble if she said it out loud.
"Have a good day, and please drive safely," Swan commented and then walked back to her car.
Regina took a big sigh of relief and put her car in drive and slowly and safely made her way to work. 15 minutes later she finally arrives. She parks her car and swiftly makes her way in. She walks to the front desk.
"Here you go Dr. Mills, your messages from this morning," Belle, the receptionist, said.
"Thank you, Belle. I'm so sorry for being late. I had...an interesting morning," Regina replied. "I'll be in my office. Let me know when my first patient arrives please."
"Will do. The first is scheduled to arrive in about 30 minutes," said Belle.
"Wonderful. Thanks." Regina made her way to her office, which was located in the back corner.
It was large. An L-shaped desk sat in the corner of the office. An Apple computer laid on top, with various paperwork neatly organized around it. A rolling office chair sat behind the desk, and two other chairs stood across from her.
As she walked in, she sat her purse down underneath her desk and sat down in her chair. She leaned her head back and tried to calm herself down and relax. She works with kids, so it's not good for her to be tensed up and stressed when she is around them. She reaches for her pager inside her purse and pages her assistant, Ruby. While she waits, she gets on her computer and begins looking through her thousands of emails.
When Ruby walks in, Regina looks up from her computer and smiles. "Would you go make me a cup of coffee? My morning was so hectic I didn't get to finish mine and I left it in the car."
"Of course," replied Ruby. She knew how important coffee was to her boss, so she never questioned Regina when she asked for coffee, even if it was her 5th cup of the day. She goes to the kitchen in the back of the practice and perks a fresh pot of coffee and then pours some into a mug. She adds two spoonful's of sugar and a little bit of creamer in it, just as Regina likes it.
When she's finished, she swiftly makes her way back to Regina's office and gently lays it down on her desk. "Is there anything else I can do for you, ma'am?"
"No. I believe that's all for now. Thank you," Regina replies without looking up from her computer.
Just as Belle had said, 30 minutes after Regina's arrival, the first patient showed up. Regina felt her pager vibrate and she saw Belle had notified her of the family's arrival. Regina grabbed her coat off the back of her chair and her stethoscope from her desk drawer and made her way to the exam room.
As she walked in, she had the biggest smile on her face. Children brought so much joy into her life. As stressful as her job can be, seeing these precious faces, and knowing she was helping them, made it all worth it. "Good morning! And how are we doing today?" She asked sweetly.
"Well, Alexa here has a terrible cough, and is complaining of a sore throat. I've given her children's Tylenol, but it hasn't helped much," Ashely Boyd remarked.
"Well let's see what we can do about that little one," Regina said as she took her stethoscope off of her neck. "Can you lay down for me sweetie?"
Though hesitant, the girl laid back and Regina began doing her work up. She placed the earpieces of the stethoscope on her ears and the other end on Alexa's chest. "Her breathing does sound a bit raspy," she comments. She then pulls out her otoscope to look inside the child's ears. "Now I'm going to check your ears, Alexa. Do you mind if I do that?"
The little girl shakes her head as she sits up and Regina puts the tip of the instrument inside Alexa's ears. "There's no sign of an ear infection, which is good." Regina smiles back at the mother. "Now mommy, the next part may need some assistance from you. I need to check her throat, and that may not be very comfortable." Ashley understood immediately and came to her daughter's side.
"Lay back for me baby," Ashely asked her daughter. Alexa complied once again and lay their patiently. Regina went to get the strep kit and brought it back to the room.
"Okay mommy, you ready?" Ashley nods her head and takes her daughter's hand in hers. Regina pulls out the stick that resembles a Popsicle stick. "Can you open your mouth for me princess?" Alexa opens it up slightly, but not big enough. "Just a little bit more." The girl opens it a tiny bit. "That's it. Good girl." Regina carefully places the stick towards the back of the girl's throat and presses down on her tongue so she can see a little better. Alexa gags and begins crying. "I know princess, I know this isn't fun. We're almost done."
Regina looks around Alexa's throat for a few seconds, then removes the stick and grabs the thing that resembles a Q-tip. She moves that into the little girl's mouth and has to wipe the back of the girl's throat. When she does the girl screams even louder than before. Regina removes the swab. "It's okay. We're all done!"
She smiles at the girl and helps her sit up. "You did a great job, Alexa!" Regina grins and grabs the swab. "I'm going to go run this and check for strep, which will take about 5-7 minutes. Meanwhile, a nurse will be in here shortly to take her temperature."
"Great! Thank you," Ashely replies.
Regina runs the test and waits about 6 minutes until she's sure she's got an accurate result. She heads back to the little girl and her mother. At this point, the nurse has already taken her temperature (nothing too bad- 99.3). She walks into the exam room.
"Well, it looks like this little girl does have strep. Now, I will write her an antibiotic to help with that. You can check at the front desk and make sure the information gets sent to your correct pharmacy. You'll need to give it to her every night before bed. And also for the cold, I am not going to write anything for that currently. I will say give her some Delsym twice a day, and that should help within a few days. If not, come back and I will write something stronger to help knock it out."
"Thank you very much! I appreciate it," Ashely says.
"No problem." Regina walks over to Alexa. "Now since you did such a great job today, would you like a lollipop?" Alexa nods her head excitedly and Regina presents her a basket full of lollipops to choose from. The little girl chooses the strawberry flavored one. "Ooo! That's my favorite too!" Regina laughs slightly. She looks back at Ashely. "Have a nice day!" She smiles and walks to the front desk. She hands Belle the girls chart and Belle files it away. "I'll be in my office. Page me when the next one shows."
She worked in a small private practice. As expensive as her services were, she still had many clients, but not many were sick at the same time. So she went back to her office and sat down and began looking through her emails once again. About 45 minutes later, Belle rushes in. "Um... Dr. Mills, I have a man out here... He says he can only speak to you."
Regina hesitantly stands up from her desk and walks to the front of the practice. She is greeted, not so nicely, by a man in a suit. Before she can speak, he does. "Are you Regina Marie Mills?" the man asks.
"Yes, yes I am," she replies.
"You've been served," the man says as he shoves an envelope into her hands, and continues, "These papers are legal documents. Information regarding the case and the lawyers involved can be found within this envelope. If there are any questions, I suggest you contact them and your lawyer immediately."
Regina's eyes widen as the man walks away. She's had this happen before, but it's always a surprise when it does. She is a great doctor, she knows that. But when things like this happen, she immediately begins to question herself, though she'd never admit that to anyone. She turns around quickly and walks to her office before anyone can comment or ask anything.
She shuts the door to her office and paces back and forth. She hesitantly opens the envelope. One of the papers had the description of the case on it. Apparently, she is being sued by a 'Thomas Smith.' She can't recall who that is immediately. So she pages Belle. When Belle walks in she asks, "Can you look up and see if I have any patients under the last name 'Smith?'"
Belle nods and goes to the front desk computer and searches. She comes back minutes later with the file. "Yes. It seems you have a patient named Lilith Smith. She's 5 years old, and her last appointment here, you diagnosed her with bronchitis and prescribed her amoxicillin." She says as she hands Regina the file.
Before looking at the file, Regina continues to read the case. The father's reason for suing is on the grounds of negligent drug treatment. The girl was allergic to this specific antibiotic and had a terrible reaction to it and was sent to the Emergency Room.
Regina flinches when she reads that. "Did I really cause that?' She asks herself. Now she really doubts herself. If she was truly negligent in her prescription of that drug, she'd never forgive herself, especially if that child had died.
Belle was still standing in the doorway. "Do I need to call your lawyer?" she asked.
"No. I'll handle it. You can go," Regina replied. After Belle left, Regina went to her desk and sat down in her chair. She grabbed the phone and dialed her attorney's office. The phone rang a few times before someone picked up.
"Nolan and Locksley Law Firm, how may I help you?" the woman said on the other end of the line.