For weeks, now, Conrad has been going toe to toe with Dr. Bell. The two would argue and plead with each other. Conrad would call him a murderer and psychopath while pleading for him to leave and find a job in the medical television area. Somewhere where he couldn't injure someone, even more so, fatally. Bell would call Conrad mentally unstable, below him, etc. He'd plead with him to suck it up and understand he was only doing his job and that complications were a part of it. This time, both suffer for their hatred for each other.
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"She died on the table. I'm sorry, Conrad." Nic looked into Conrad's eyes, seeing the anger radiating from them.
"Hodad?" Conrad's clenched his teeth and locked his jaw. He did his best to hold his rage down.
"Yeah." She watched the resident storm off, down the long hospital hall. She knew exactly what he was going to do. She felt a knot in her stomach but chose to ignore it.
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"Do you just not care or do you actually like the feeling of taking a life? You get to play God, right?" Conrad managed to find Dr. Bell in the hallways. He stopped in front of the older man, commanding an audience with the prince of death.
"Now, why you keep accusing me of-"
"Stop. Just stop. There's no one here. No one can hear you so just cut the crap, Hodad." Conrad crossed his arms, adjusting his stance, knowing he'd regret informing the man of his nickname.
"Who?" Dr. Bell lifted his eyebrows in question.
Conrad, in his anger, decided to get it over with. "HODAD. Hands Of Death And Destruction. It's my own little nickname for you." He'd decided not to let the serial-killer-doctor know that he wasn't the only one who called him that. "But that's not the point. You killed my patient. Again. This is the third one this month."
Hodad elected to ignore Conrad's nickname. "There were complications you missed. It happens, Dr. Hawkins." He started to walk away before Conrad spoke up. "Next time, keep a closer eye on your patient's conditions and put it in their file so I don't have to deal with any fatal surprises in my OR."
"I'm having your work reviewed. This needs to stop before you kill anyone else." Conrad walked the same way Dr. Bell was, hoping to find Devon before he felt a sharp burning pain in his stomach.
"As you can tell, I didn't hit anything vital. I'll let you have your time to say goodbye out of a respect for your work, Dr. Hawkins. But aside from that, I can't have you going around, looking into my business." Bell left the scalpel in Conrad's stomach. He grabbed another one off of a med cart nearby and continued walking away as Conrad attempted to address his wound.
He grabbed his phone from his back pocket with his free hand, pressing Nic's contact. While the phone rang, he attempted to stable himself on a rolling med cart, falling over, knocking the cart over and spilling all of the contents onto the ground. The sound was loud and echoed throughout the empty hallway. He dropped the phone, taking most of his weight on that arm, keeping the scalpel from making contact with the floor and going even deeper than it already was.
"Why are you calling me on my phone, Conrad? Can't you just page-" She sounded irritated with him. It wasn't uncommon but it was definitely unhelpful at the moment.
"Nic. Southwest hallway... Now." His voice was shaky and breathy. A tone she'd only heard in the times he'd call her at night when they were together, and he'd had a nightmare. She kept her ear to the phone, running through the halls to find him.
"Conrad..." She frantically spoke, hoping to keep him talking. What was the problem? Emotional? Physical? What?
"Hodad. He-agh-he stabbed me… Nic, i-it's pretty deep." He brought his legs up further, trying to get at least a little comfort. Minutes felt like an eternity while Nic tried to find him. He knew she would, though. She always did.
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"Conrad!" Nic found him lying on his back, a pool of blood under him that wasn't huge but not one to ignore, either.
"N-Nic." His eyes were heavily lidded while he reached out for her hand. "S-s-sh-shock."
"I need a gurney in here!" Nic's scream tore through her throat painfully. "You know what's next. Hold on." She began putting pressure around is wound, gaining a cry of pain and some writhing. His legs kicked slowly. She used the leftover bandages on the floor from the overturned med cart. "Stay with me, Conrad. You know what happens when people pass out. Talk to me. What happened?"
"Hodad. He-ugh-he did this." Conrad's words were breathy and concerning to Nic.
"He's a doctor, Conrad. He could have and would have hit something more vital than this." She continued to yell for help before he could gather the strength to reply.
"No. No, he said he wanted to give me time to say goodbye for 'respect for my work'." He looked over to the pool of blood forming under his body. "Class two hemorrhaging."
Nic felt his forehead. "Yup. Your skin is clammy and you look kinda pale."
"More than usual?" He tried to laugh but his exhaustion was pulling him towards unconsciousness. His eyes started to close, sending Nic into a controlled panic.
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The nurses wheeled Conrad through the halls on his bloodstained bed with an oxygen mask over his face and an IV in his arm. He pulled the mask off for a moment. "Dr. Okafor will do my surgery. Only her."
"I promise." Nic held his hand while she ran aside the bed down towards the OR.
Devon caught sight of his injured mentor and came rushing over to his side. "What the hell happened?! Conrad!" The resident was taken through the doors, out of Devon's sight. Nic stayed behind, watching the doors swing shut. "Nic! What happened to him?"
She wiped a tear from her face and walked up to him, holding his biceps in her hands with a tight but gentle grip. "Hodad stabbed him."
"We have to tell someone! We have to-"
"No. No-one will believe it." Nic clenched her jaw.
"Exactly!" The two booked it towards the security room, nearly pushing over medical equipment and personnel on the way there.
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"You saw the camera feed?" Conrad's voice was raspy when he woke up the next day. He slowly sat up, leaning against the raised head of the bed.
"We did…" Nic sat down next to his thigh on the bed. "You were in a blind spot, Conrad."
He stared at her, not knowing how to respond.
"I'm so sorry." She grabbed his hand, holding it in hers.
"The higher-ups aren't gonna believe me, Nic." Conrad leaned his head back, staring at the ceiling. "He's gonna get away with it." She wanted to convince him to file a police report. Continue the attempt to tell the cake eaters at the top but she knew he wouldn't give in. Be it pride or a legitimate lack of hope, it was pointless to try.
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The room was dark and colder than Conrad would have liked it to be. He pulled his blankets up a little further up his bare chest, half asleep. He tossed and turned with his nightmares of being in the medical tent overseas. They'd been ambushed and the med tent had run out of painkillers and anesthetics. They were supposed to get a shipment in but it was delayed due to the inability to get any aircraft in the area without the enemy's new defense systems taking them down with multiple casualties and waste of supplies. Conrad's GSW could have been avoided, sure, but at the cost of another operative's life. He was perfectly fine with that.
The nightmare ripped through his mind, gripping him by the throat, threatening to kill him altogether. He was suddenly awoken by a chill shooting through his spine and he quickly sat up. He saw that in the doorway stood Dr. Bell. "Hello, Dr. Hawkins." He started to walk over to Conrad's bed before the resident quickly got up, dislodging his leads and painfully tugging on his IV line, but not ripping it out.
"Hodad." Conrad leaned against the windowsill, still a little weak from the blood loss and pain the wound was caused.
"I was just checking in. Seeing how you were recovering." Bell took a step closer to Conrad, making him flinch. It wasn't fear in his eyes, though. It was defiance. Anger? No, not anger. Rage.
"I'm fantastic. You can go, now." He balled his fists.
"No… I don't think I'll be doing that."
"I was hoping you'd say that." His smirk was devious, confusing Hodad. Conrad ripped his IV out, knocked the stand over, then shuffled over to stand in front of Bell. He squeezed his eyes shut and punched his still unhealed wound, with a cry of pain. He dropped to his knees, then on his back, swinging his legs around swiftly. When a nurse came rushing in, he quickly shuffled back, away from Hodad. "He-agh-he attacked me again! He wanted to finish me off!"
"It's obvious you did that to yourself, Dr. Hawkins." Bell crossed his arms, watching the fake fear in Conrad's eyes. The performance was flawless, though, causing the nurse to call in security to escort Bell to the hospital boardroom.
Conrad laid on the floor, panting against the pain he'd subjected himself to. His bandage bled, given the fact that he'd snapped a few stitches. The nurse helped him, assisting as he made his way back to his bed.
Nic stormed into the room, her body language practically commanding the nurse to leave as fast as she could. Once the door was shut, she sat next to him, tucking him back into bed, eyeing his new bandage. "Are you okay?"
He smiled with that same damn smile she'd seen time and time before. "It hurts but I think I'm gonna be okay."
"What did you do?"
"What told you I did-"
"Conrad."
"I did it."
"Stabbed yourself?" She stood, crossing her arms, making terrifying eye contact with the resident.
"Woah… Woah. No. I ripped my IV out-"
"Conrad!"
"I know! I did it carefully, don't worry. Anyway… I hit my bandage so the stitches would snap then I got on the ground and made it look like he attacked me again." He looked like a child, proud of what he'd done, even though it was morally questionable.
"Normally I'd be so pissed at you but maybe this is the push the board needed to cut him. Maybe even press charges. He's killed so many people."
"Maybe."
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"Dr. Hawkins. Please, sit." The administrator's office was gaudy and, to be frank, in bad taste. Conrad sat in the uncomfortable leather chair, if you can call it that.
"Is this about Dr. Bell? Because I'd-"
"It is, doctor. I'm afraid that with the lack of evidence in your unfortunate situation…"
"Oh, that's what we're calling it?"
"Dr. Hawkins, this is about Dr. Bell being in your room and his rude behavior."
"'Rude behavior'. Right. Okay, so you're gonna downplay what he actually did? He stabbed me. It wasn't 'an unfortunate situation'. It was a damn stabbing and I've got a scar to prove it. And-"
"Dr. Hawkins, you can't prove that your scar wasn't from your previous and... honorable service."
"I wasn't done. Him attacking me wasn't 'rude behavior'. It was painful." Conrad crossed his arms, leaning back in the chair.
"I understand, Dr. Hawkins. The hospital is fully prepared to compensate you for your pain and suffering."
"Great. By firing Dr. Bell?"
"We were thinking financial compensation in the form of a raise and maybe even a promotion if you're willing to sign a few papers saying you'll retract your statement with law enforcement and that you won't press charges."
"I know you didn't just suggest that."
"Or we can terminate your position, here, at the hospital." The administrator stood up, sliding a stack of papers towards the angry resident. "I'm sorry, docto-"
"Don't. Don't apologize. Because you're not sorry and we both know it so don't waste your breath. So don't insult me like that."
"I'll give you until the end of your shift to think it over." She sat back down, grabbing the papers and setting them in a drawer in her desk. Conrad slowly got up from his chair and left the room, intent on talking to Nic.
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"They can't do that." Devon stumbled when Conrad pulled his arm into an empty room, with Nic already inside.
"They can and they did." Conrad crossed his arms, adjusting his stance.
"You have to sign those papers." Nic looked at the floor, unable to see the look on Conrad's face.
"What?" Devon looked at her, surprised.
"It's either sign those papers or let Hodad drive him out of the hospital and then that bastard wins!" Nic waved her hands, frustrated with the ridiculous situation Conrad was faced with.
Conrad sighed, acknowledging Nic's statement. "I'm signing them. I need to be the one who gets him out of this hospital. Not vice versa."
"Dammit." Devon balled his fists, straining the muscles, painfully tightening the skin. He exited the room, trying to keep his emotions from erupting in front of his mentor.
"How are you feeling?" Nic set a hand on Conrad's bicep.
"Like crap in every way." He rubbed an exhausted hand over his face.
"Yeah, I know." She hugged him tightly, feeling him curl into her hold. He let out a long sigh, trying to release the pent up aggression and stress.
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"I'll sign." Conrad walked into the Hospital Admin's office, not knowing he'd be running into Hodad.
"Great. I'll grab the papers, now." She reached into her desk and handed him the stack and a hideous metal pen. "You two are going to apologize to each other. I'm going to grab some coffee. When I get back, I want to see a handshake between the two of you." When the door closed behind her, Conrad stepped into Bell's personal space.
"You won this battle. But at the end of this war, I'm going to watch you sitting handcuffed in the back of a cop car." Conrad signed the papers, tightly shook Hodad's hand with a painful grip, as requested, and started to leave the room.
"Good luck to you, too, Dr. Hawkins." Bell teased.
Conrad stormed through the halls of the hospital. "It's not over till he's behind bars." He repeated it like he'd die if he stopped. "Not until he's behind bars."