The office door slammed behind her as she strode rigidly to the desk and sat down heavily in the chair with a sigh. Across the room, Ric raise his eyebrows and tapped his biro pensievely against his finger.
"Anything I can..." He started.
"No." Bernie interrupted with a huff, dismissing his offer of help. "I can deal with whatever this place throws at me, thank you very much."
The last thing she needed was Ric's smugly zen attitude when she was irritated, it only served to highlight how much she was struggling to keep things together without Serena's soothing presence.
She logged into the PC, her fingertips crashing into the keys, and a small popping sound announced the arrival of an email in her inbox, marked with a red flag and the word "Urgent" in the subject line. She paused monentarily to consider if she had forgotten to do anything, and drawing a blank she opened it with trepidation, only to be confronted by an angry multi-paragraph message from the head of the ED.
"What on earth?" She muttered under her breath. Ric looked up from his paperwork once again, clearly glad of the distraction.
"Hanssen?"
"No, some jumped up doctor from the ED, sounds like a right bossy madam."
Bernie leaned back in the chair and tried to recall the patient she was being berated about.
"Stephen Skinner, 43, came in with a metal bar through his abdomen. I thought he was better off up here so I diverted the paramedics straight to AAU. Apparently that was a 'serious violation of accepted protocol' and sets a 'dangerous precendent for future critical care pathways'."
The corner of Ric's mouth twitched into a smirk.
"What does that even mean?" She continued without waiting for a response. "I thought we were all meant to be doing what's best for the patient!"
Bernie felt her face flush slightly with anger, fed by the chaos she had been dealing with all day on the ward, along with perhaps a slight hint of guilt that she hadn't entirely followed the rule book on this one. Ric was silent.
"You don't agree with her surely? Come on Ric, she's probably just some frumpy clipboard toting administrator who's worried about her ever decreasing budget. And how dare she address me like that?!"
The office door opened suddenly, and Ollie Valentine half fell through it, tripping slightly when he saw the look on Bernie's face.
"Uh, everything ok?"
Before Bernie could continue, Ric replied.
"Ms Wolfe has just recieved a rather difficult email from Mrs Beauchamp I believe." He said, giving Ollie a knowing look.
Ollie paled slightly at the mention of the surgeon's name. "Oh I see. Hmm. Right, well good luck then..."
He looked from Bernie to Ric and promptly backed out of the office.
"Who is she?" Bernie asked. "Do you know her?"
Ric chuckled. "A little." He replied. "She's... a force to be reckoned with."
"Hah well we'll see about that."
"Bernie, I really would not recommend making a enemy of Mrs Beauchamp. Trust me."
"She doesn't scare me Ric. This is unacceptable. I'm going to tell Hanssen he needs to sort it out."
"Oh I really wouldn't."
Bernie glared at him and left the office, slamming the door for the second time that day. She needed to vent her rage somehow, and feeling justified about her response to Mrs Beauchamp's snotty email was a good start.
As she approached Henrik's door, it opened just enough for Dom to slip out of the office. He gave her an odd look and paused. "Err, Mr Hanssen is a little busy. Perhaps you should come back later."
"Oh I can wait, thank you Dom."
Bernie wasn't going to waste all of the pent up anger that had got her this far. Whatever Hanssen was up to, he would have to open that door sooner or later.
After 10 minutes though, standing outside his office like a naughty schoolgirl waiting to see the headmaster was beginning to feel a bit futile, and she was considering going back to the ward and getting on with some actual work, when the sharp click of a pair of stilletto heels announced the approach of a second person to the CEO's office.
A woman appeared around the corner, moving with a quick, purposeful stride in those fancy shoes but concentrating hard on typing something on her phone rather than where she was going. Her cheekbones were pleasantly highlighted by the glow of the screen, Bernie noted, and framed by soft waves of long dark hair.
She walked straight into Bernie, who despite seeing the collision that was about to happen, had opened her mouth to say something but was temporarily distracted and too late to prevent it. Instead she found herself catching the lady as she lost her balance, the phone crashing to the floor as hands clutched at her blue scrubs and Bernie caught her safely around the waist. The woman looked up and smiled, blushing a little, clearly embarrassed at her carelessness. Bernie suddenly felt her anger melt away, to be replaced by a pleasant feeling of curiosity and the warmth of a very attractive body against her own.
"Sorry, I got distracted. The wonders of modern technology...Is he in?"
The woman extracted herself from Bernie's arms and bent to pick up her phone, inevitably giving Bernie a very pleasant view down her flimsy blouse.
"Mm? Oh Henrik, yes, well no, I mean apparently he's busy."
The woman smiled wryly and rolled her eyes. "I see."
She rapped on the wooden door and pushed it open before the occupant could reply, leaving Bernie feeling a bit silly waiting outside. As she hovered awkwardly in the corridor she heard Hanssen's voice.
"Ah Mrs Beauchamp, do come in, I see that you already have." He stated humourlessly, as the alien noise of his latest musical fad faded away.
Mrs Beauchamp. Mrs Connie Beauchamp of the Emergency Department. With the long legs and the hair and the cheekbones. Oh.