Both slaves knelt before the desk, Foreman standing behind them; Cuddy was seated at her desk. The slaves had disciplinary cuffs on, holding their wrists together tightly behind their backs. Greg was gagged.
"Greg. You were in a patient's room, without permission, and without escort. When instructed to leave you argued with the patient's family and hospital staff. You have been repeatedly warned for this type of behaviour in the past. I allow you to consult in an unofficial capacity on cases. You are not permitted to have patient interaction, unless it is expressly arranged. You will receive twenty lashes and be detained in the cells for forty eight hours."
She dismissed her own slave's case, ignoring the pleading look in his eyes, and turned to the other slave.
"Jimmy, I understand that you were only following Greg, as you had been ordered to do, but you also broke the hospital rules. You should have realised that you weren't permitted to be in a free patient's hospital room with permission. On this occasion I will leave your discipline to your master." She turned to Foreman. "If you wouldn't mind, Doctor Foreman?"
"Of course," he came up behind Jimmy and put a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Would you prefer me to do it somewhere else, or would you like it dealt with here?" He asked Cuddy. She glanced at the slave, he looked terrified. Good, it would make him think twice the next time. This was a good opportunity to show the new slave and his master that she ran a tight ship.
"Here will be fine – Greg can watch, and see that he's caused Jimmy pain – although I doubt he will care."
Foreman nodded and removed his slave's handcuffs. Then he slapped him on the shoulder. "Over the desk, pants down, Jimmy."
The slave crawled on his hands and knees to the desk and rose up to loosen his pants, pushing them down his legs, his hands paused on his underwear but at a smack on the ass and a sharp command from Foreman he rolled them down as well. Cuddy took a quick look; James was reasonably well endowed, although it was difficult to tell with him being flaccid. She thought about having Foreman show him off but it would be unprofessional in this situation. Instead she watched while the slave lowered his upper body over her desk. She moved her papers out of the way, and sat back in her chair.
Doctor Foreman was looking around for her cane and she waved a hand at the stand in the corner where she kept a selection of canes and paddles for use on Greg, and any of the hospital slaves that needed attention.
Foreman selected a paddle; it was a long one, with a nice heavy weight behind it. Cuddy nodded approvingly. Jimmy would feel that. A shame really for Jimmy, he had been led astray by Greg after all, but it would provide a quick sharp lesson for him, and it was always better, with a pet or with a slave, to correct any misbehaviour before it got out of hand. She nodded to Foreman to begin.
At the first stroke Jimmy yelped and twitched, his eyes meeting hers before he hastily looked away. By the sixth stroke there were tears running down his cheeks but he hadn't pulled away or done anything other than lie there and take it. She spared a glance at Greg; he was staring at Jimmy with an odd look in his eyes. Interesting. She looked up at Foreman and saw that he was lost in what he was doing. Some slave owners hated having to cause their slaves pain, as necessary as it was for having a well-kept slave. She could see that Foreman was not in that category. Although he appeared calm and dispassionate she could see signs of arousal on him. Paddling Jimmy was turning him on. She'd previously thought him rather boring, maybe there was more to him than met the eye.
By the time he reached twelve Jimmy was openly crying, and making small, pathetic sounds of pain. She caught Foreman's eye, nodded slightly and he stopped. He pulled up Jimmy's head by the hair and quickly scanned his face. Seemingly satisfied he let the head drop down and gave him a slap to his sore buttocks.
"Pull your pants back up, Jimmy. Then go and kneel in the corner until we're done. Face the wall, and if I hear one sound from you I'll gag you. Understand?"
Jimmy nodded, tears still crawling down his face. Foreman sent him on his way with another slap to the ass. "Get going then."
They both watched as his crawled to the corner and knelt there quietly.
"I'm sorry for the disruption my slave caused on his first day here. I assure you it won't happen again, Doctor Cuddy." Foreman said smoothly.
She waved his apology away. "It must be unsettling for him to come to a new place. I'm afraid Greg is at fault." She looked at Greg; he was still kneeling in place, the gag preventing him from saying anything. She knew he hated being gagged, which was why she did it of course.
"Does he often go into patient rooms?" Foreman asked, "From a legal standpoint that seems very hazardous. He could be resumed by the Government if a patient complains."
As if she didn't know that. She'd had to buy off patients in the past, when Greg had overstepped his boundaries and the patients were looking for some quick money.
"Greg knows not to go into patient rooms without prior permission. He knows the procedure for gaining permission - he just doesn't always choose to use it. I'm afraid Gregory has very little common sense or self control. No doubt that is why he is a slave."
She saw Greg's head snap up, his gaze sharpen. She recognised all the signs; he was having an epiphany about the patient. Good. She came around the desk and bent to his head, unbuckling the gag. It was a large gag and his jaw was obviously stiff, he worked it a few times before trying to speak. Grabbing a bottle of water from her desk she held it to his lips and permitted him to have a few swallows.
"You needed to speak, Greg?"
"Yes... yes ma'am," he said, obviously doing his best to speak politely. "I know what's wrong with the patient. It's like you said - it's just common sense."
She had no idea what he was talking about but she picked up her cell phone and dialled the number for Chase. Placing the phone on speaker she put it on the floor next to Greg, as his hands were still bound behind him.
When Chase answered he and Greg began a rapid fire conversation. She listened to Greg outline the patient's diagnosis, speaking in a crisp authoritative voice. The contrast of this conversation with the sight of him kneeling before her desk with his hands cuffed behind him was amusing.
Foreman was staring at Greg and she smiled, Greg's abilities always surprised people when they first saw him in action, the general image of slaves was that they were dull and simple, having to be instructed in the smallest of things, and having no ability to think for themselves. In reality she had found that slaves came with varied personalities and abilities, although Greg was obviously an outlier. The brighter and more independent the slave the more useful they could be, and the more control their owner had to keep them under. There was a skill to successful slave handling, and she'd been practising it ever since she acquired Greg.
"Greg is somewhat of a medical savant Doctor Foreman. He attended me throughout my college years, and med school, and picked up a thorough education - although of course he has no practical skills to speak of." Greg had finished his conversation and she picked up the phone and said a few words to Chase, confirming that he had understood his instructions. Satisfied, she hung up and nodded to Greg.
"Good work, Greg." She went to the door and told her assistant to call for security, there was the matter of Greg's discipline to attend to.
"I saved that patient's life," Greg protested, another infraction of the rules but one she would overlook, for now.
"Reaching correct diagnoses for patients is part of your duties, Greg. An important part, if you didn't do that I would sell you as you well know. You don't receive any special consideration for doing your work. You broke the rules and will be punished for it." She picked up the gag and after a moment of closed mouth defiance he opened his mouth reluctantly and she buckled it back on behind his head. "It's important that a slave knows the rules, and that you will enforce them at all times," she told Foreman.
Two men from security arrived and she waved her hand at Greg.
"Twenty lashes, then cells for forty eight hours, have him checked out afterwards but no pain killers. Take him outside and get him ready, I'll be along in a few minutes."
The guards hauled Greg to his feet and half dragged him out of her office. Cuddy nodded to the corner where Jimmy was still kneeling.
"Would you like to bring Jimmy outside to watch? We usually have as many slaves as possible witness a whipping," she smiled, "It seems to focus their minds on their work very well."
Foreman smiled and glanced down at Jimmy. "I think that might be a very good idea."
James knelt quietly by Doctor Foreman's side, the hard concrete cold beneath his knees. The handcuffs hadn't been replaced but he held his hands behind his back and kept his head bowed. They were in a small courtyard, surrounded by three walls. There were a handful of free people present and eight other slaves besides himself. He guessed that they were either personal slaves of hospital personnel, or slaves owned by the hospital. They were all kneeling as he was, in the front row, with an unimpeded view of the whipping post.
James felt sick; he'd never seen a slave being whipped before. In the training facility the occasional slave had been caned, or paddled, but James had never been in need of that. He'd learnt, in training, that slaves could be whipped but this was the first time he was seeing it.
Greg was stripped to the waist, his bare chest shivering in the cool wind that blew across the yard. James was so close he could make out the faint outline of scars across his back, fine white lines. Greg had been whipped before, perhaps many times.
His clenched hands were cuffed and bound to the top of the whipping post, held far above his head. His legs were slightly spread as he faced the post.
Doctor Cuddy read out the charge, and the sentence, and then picked up the whip. It was a multi tailed whip, and James found his eyes riveted to the strands that would soon be lashing Greg's body.
"Heads up, slaves." Doctor Cuddy commanded and he reluctantly put his head up along with the others, staring straight at Greg where he stood, lashed to the post.
He thought for a moment that Doctor Cuddy was going to administer the blows personally but instead she handed the whip to a security officer.
It happened quickly. The fall of the whip on Greg's back, his muffled grunt of pain and the arching of his back. Then the whip fell again, each blow coming quickly after the next. After several blows the skin was reddened, and then welts and fine lines of blood began appearing. James wanted to look away, to look down but he kept his head up and witnessed Greg's agony. Greg's body was covered in sweat, his head hung down between blows, only to jerk up again at each stroke. James twitched in place, he wanted to get up, and run over there and cut Greg down, he wanted to stop his pain. He must have made some movement because Foreman looked down at him in surprise.
"Stay still, Jimmy. Greg is getting what he deserves."
After the twentieth blow the guard put the whip down and James felt a wave of relief that it was over. He felt sick, lightheaded, almost like he was going to faint. Greg's back had several welts on it, there was blood smeared across the surface. Greg was slumped against the post, his body shaking.
As he watched, Greg was taken down from the post and marched off by the guards. James turned his head to watch him go, wondering where they were taking him. Doctor Cuddy had said 'the cells'.
"On your feet James, we're going home." Doctor Foreman clicked his tongue. James looked up at him for a moment, feeling suddenly lost and Foreman frowned. "Up, James. Now! Or do you want another paddling?"
He scrambled to his feet, still feeling light headed. His buttocks were sore from the paddle, he didn't want another dose and he definitely didn't want to be whipped like Greg had been.
Doctor Foreman led him to an office close to Doctor Cuddy's.
"I'll be working here, you'll attend me. Pick up those files over there," he pointed to a stack on one corner of the desk, "I'll be looking those over tonight. You've wasted a lot of my time today, and Doctor Cuddy's. I expected much better behaviour from you, Jimmy."
"I'm sorry, sir." James said humbly, picking up the files, he heard the tremor in his voice and felt ashamed. Greg wouldn't be scared like this.
Doctor Foreman sighed. "I'm sure you were led astray by Greg. He's a bad influence, Jimmy. I will be working intensively with Doctor Cuddy, so you will be around Greg a lot. You don't want to end up like him, do you? You don't want to go back to the slave training facility and be mind wiped again do you? They do that to slaves who can't behave themselves."
"No, sir." James said in a quiet voice, he didn't ever want to go back to that place; he certainly didn't want to be mind wiped again. He had little enough of himself left; he didn't want to lose even that tiny bit.
"Then see you behave yourself. Now pack those files in my bag and let's go."
James packed the files away, helped his master into his coat and then carried everything to Doctor Foreman's car.
As he sat uncomfortably strapped into the slave harness in the back seat of the car, he thought about the day he'd just had. It had been a bad day but he had met another slave. A very interesting slave, a slave who had given him some hope that things could be different to this. He was glad that he would be working with Greg a lot - he was sure that he could learn a great deal from him.
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