"Well, if you could accuse anybody of being downright evil, it would be him." Candace Walker said to Samantha Wright, as they trotted past the farmers market, the brisk November air nipping at their heels.
"Honestly Candy, how you overreact! Hitler was evil. Rasputin was evil. But Dr. Brunner?" Beatrice said as she stopped by a pumpkin stand.
"Definitely NOT evil." She stated decisively as she speculated over one of the vegetables, its waxy husk nearly the same hue as her elbow-length hair.
"But Sam, you weren't there!" Candace protested, her conservatively heeled feet tapping on the concrete sidewalk.
Earlier that day at Saints Felicity and Perpetua Children's Hospital, Candace had been working with the children as usual. That particular day she was carting around a 10 year old girl by the name of Clarity MacAlister. Clarity had broken her leg earlier that week and was confined to a wheelchair until it healed. As many other children of her age, all she wanted to do was run and play with her friends, and resented her room, with its matte white walls, white tile floor and white ceiling. She had complained of her boredom in near tears to Candace, whose heart bled for the girl, whose usually wild black curls were limp and flaccid from the stale hospital air.
So, naturally, she had commandeered a wheelchair for the girl, and wheeled her down to the Children's Play Area, so she could interact with the other children of her age, and not just the plain white walls of her "antibacterial prison", as the girl herself put it.
Clarity was sitting comfortably on the plush floor of the Play Area, building some kind of robot out of LEGOS, and Candace was brushing her hair into two French braids, so she could play with her sight unhindered by the curly mane, when Dr. Frank Brunner walked in.
At 6 foot 2 the man cut an imposing figure with his deep set eyes, glinting like cold steel, hooded by heavy eyebrows. His angular nose did nothing to soften his countenance, nor did the thin set of his lips. He stood tall and straight, showing no signs of age from his posture, but the stress of many years as Chief of Medicine at the Children's Hospital showed in the touches of grey along his hairline. His brusque manner and condescending, almost mock-sensitive bedside manner did not win him any popularity points among their young patients. Most reacted fearfully toward the scathing, brooding man.
Clarity was one of those children, and so when he walked up to them with firm but quiet footsteps, she froze, one LEGO clutched in her small, pale hand. Candace was still immersed in taming her unruly hair and stayed blissfully ignorant. At least for a while.
"Doctor Walker." He said in a soft but gravelly voice.
Candace jerked, and stilled in her braiding. Slowly she stood up and met the eyes of her boss.
"Y-Yes Dr. Brunner?" She winced slightly at how weak and timid she sounded.
"You do realize that this is a Children's Hospital, not a hair salon?" he quietly inquired, slanting his eyes at the little girl still seated on the floor, her casted leg lying straight out, her other leg curled under her. Half of her hair was tied back in a long French braid while the other half only sported half a braid.
"Well, yes sir, it's just...her hair was getting in the way, and she was complaining...so I thought that-"
"You thought that you would play hairdresser on my time? Or maybe dawdle the day away, doing no actual work, wasting my time? Neglecting the other children?" His tone got progressively darker, the only indication of his subdued anger.
"No sir! I just... I just thought that maybe…well she was so bored, cooped up in that little room, and all I wanted to do was help and-"
"And what of the others? What of the dozens of children "cooped up" in their rooms? Or do you not care about them."
Candace felt the telltale prickling in the corners of her eyes. No dammit, I won't cry. I will NOT give him the satisfaction.
Brunner continued his little rant, finally ending with a scathing remark questioning her abilities as a pediatrician and shattering her hard-earned but meager self-confidence.
Taking a deep breath to bolster her courage, she apologized to Dr. Brunner and quickly wheeled Clarity out of the room, shuddering under the dark gaze of the dark man.
She kept her head down all the rest of the day, keeping her nose to the clipboard, and performing menial office tasks to keep her mind of her crippling self-doubt.
"Oh wow, he really stuck it you ya, huh." said Sam, taking her eyes off the eggplants at the stall over and embracing her forlorn friend.
"It was really, really awful." Candace was sniffling now, trying for the second time that day to hold back tears.
"Let's go get some ice cream okay? Then we can discuss exactly how you're going to prove to that asshole Brunner just how much that hospital needs you." Samantha had that twinkle in her eye. The one she gets whenever she thinks up a scheme.
"Well…okay." Candace cracked a smile. She knew very well she was overreacting, but it felt good to vent, especially when you had such a loyal friend there with ice-cream and a plan.