Doctor Romano was true to his word on Thursday, and allowed Melanie to work on some more difficult cases. They were also unpleasant ones, like draining abscesses. Romano claimed that it was to see her skills with a scalpel, but she thought he was secretly taking great delight over her discomfort. The smell alone from the infections was stomach-turning. After completing her first one, she politely excused herself from the room and made it to the restroom just in time to be sick. When she was done, she sat on the floor in the stall for a few minutes, contemplating her intestinal fortitude, and wondering if she was making the right career choice.
"Are you all right?" a concerned voice called out to her.
Mel carefully got to her feet and opened the stall door. "I think so," she replied. "I just drained my first abscess and…"
The woman laughed lightly and patted Mel's arm sympathetically. "Don't worry, everybody pukes the first time they drain one," she reassured her.
"Really? That makes me feel a lot better," Mel said weakly before rinsing her mouth out and washing her face.
"You will get used to it eventually."
Mel looked at the woman's jacket to see the name on it: S. Lewis. "I sure hope so. Thanks, Dr. Lewis," she said with a smile.
"You're Romano's student, aren't you? We haven't seen much of you. He seems to keep you locked away in the suture room most of the time," Dr. Lewis replied. "Melanie, right?"
"Call me Mel," she said with a nod.
"And you can call me Susan," Susan said. "I'm one of the attendings in the ER. Feel free to come to me with anything if you need help. We're all here to help each other out. I can't imagine it's been easy having Romano as your advisor."
Mel shrugged her shoulders. "I haven't noticed anything horrible so far," she said. "Everybody keeps saying that about him, but I don't know what they're talking about."
Susan's smile faltered momentarily. "Well, maybe he's turned over a new leaf…" she replied. "It's just that he's rather infamous for his tirades. Just be careful to stay on his good side."
"Oh…well, I'd better get back to him then. I don't want him to yell at me," Mel said, feeling uncomfortable to hear such things being said about her mentor. She was startled to find Dr. Romano waiting outside the door for her when she opened it. "Hi," she said quietly, looking embarrassed over having been sick.
Romano reached into his pocket and took out a peppermint candy. "Eat this, it'll make you feel better," he said, placing the sweet into her hand. Susan opened the door to leave the restroom at that moment and gaped at him. "Yes, Lewis?" he asked coolly.
"N-nothing," Susan said, her eyebrows raised. She closed the door behind her and walked away, leaving Romano and Melanie by themselves.
Mel unwrapped the mint and popped it into her mouth. "I feel like such an idiot," she murmured.
"Don't," Romano replied. "It happens to the best of us." Mel sighed and glanced at him. She looked at him curiously but didn't speak. "Yes, even me," he answered her implied question. "It really is normal."
The next few hours were spent with other disgusting tasks, and Mel never quite recovered, but didn't get sick again. When Romano asked her if she wanted to go to lunch, she shook her head. "I don't think I can ever eat again," she replied.
Romano took her by the elbow and led her down the hall. "Come on, it's my treat," he said insistently. "It's soda cracker and ginger ale day in the cafeteria…"
(SCENE)
Mel sipped her pop and nibbled on a cracker while watching Dr. Romano tear into a ham sandwich. "How can you eat that when you've seen and…smelled what we worked on today?" she asked, wrinkling her nose.
"I promise you, you really will get used to it after a while," Robert said with a smile. "You'll be back to normal in no time."
Mel looked skeptical, but didn't say anything. She glanced around the room. "Why haven't you introduced me to anybody else yet?" she asked, realizing she recognized nobody in the room except for Romano. "How can I work with everybody if I don't even know them?"
Robert set his sandwich down and looked at Melanie, trying to figure out why she was asking him this so suddenly. "I thought keeping you focused on your work was more important than fraternization," he said quietly. "You're here to work and learn, not to socialize."
"Dr. Lewis said that nobody even knows who I am," Mel pouted. "I want to learn all I can, but I feel like I'm invisible here."
Robert considered her words. This was the first time Melanie had been anything but completely obedient and complacent. She was hardly throwing a temper tantrum, but it was a start. It would be difficult to foster this attitude while making sure she remained obedient to him. He knew it was probably her upset stomach talking more than anything else, but maybe he ought to let her meet the other ER doctors and nurses. She would have to work with them soon enough.
When they'd finished eating, they walked back towards the admit desk and were cut off by a gurney being rushed through the doors. Doctors flew into action, wheeling it into one of the rooms. Mel walked to the door and looked in, watching the doctors work to save the man on the gurney. Romano walked over next to her, and grabbed her hand. "Move along, Hahn," he said, gently tugging her in the other direction.
"I want to watch!" she cried, holding his hand tightly so he couldn't move. He decided to give her a couple minutes to watch, and stood next to her, looking into the room. "Tell me what they're doing," she demanded.
Robert talked her through all the procedures they were performing on the man. He explained how they were done and why. All the while, Melanie kept her hand in his, holding it tightly as though she were scared. The door they were standing in front of burst open suddenly as a nurse ran out of the room for something and Robert had just enough time to yank Melanie backwards to keep her from being smashed in the face. She lost her balance and fell against him. He quickly untwined his hand from hers and placed it around her waist, keeping her from falling to the ground.
Mel was breathless and her heart was pounding. After she righted herself, she ran her hands over her hair to smooth it down again, and took a deep breath. Romano still had his hand on her waist and she could feel him gently digging his fingers into her side, holding her tightly against himself.
"You alright?" he asked quietly into her ear. When Mel nodded, he let go of her and started to walk to the admit desk. "Move along, Hahn." This time she followed him without a word.
Robert tried to distract himself from his thoughts while they walked. Her hair smelled like apples and was incredibly soft. He'd gotten a face-full of it when he'd pulled her back towards him. The corner of his mouth twitched into a glimmer of a smile as he thought about how lucky he was to have such a pretty med student who smelled so alluring.
A quick glance at the board showed two patients in need of sutures, so he had Melanie do them while he observed. She was making rapid progress and he couldn't help but feel fiercely proud of her.
Dr. Corday, having just finished with a surgical consult in the ER, stopped by the room on her way back to see if they were there. She joined Robert and together they watched Melanie sew up a patient. "She's quite the seamstress, isn't she?" she said quietly.
Robert nodded in agreement, but kept his eyes on Melanie's hands. Her speed was coming along nicely as well. He glanced out the window. It was raining too hard to send her outside for tennis, but maybe they could try out something else he'd thought of…
"Melanie, you're doing remarkably well," Elizabeth said with a smile once the younger woman had finished and walked over to where they were standing.
"Thanks!" Mel replied happily. "I'm really enjoying it so far. I got to watch a trauma today. Dr. Romano was telling me everything they were doing and it was really exciting. He says he'll let me join in next week maybe, right, Doctor?"
Romano nodded his head. "If you can keep your lunch down over the next few days, I think you'll be ready," he said lightly.
"Dr. Lewis says I'll get used to it eventually, and I really hope so, because I can't live my life eating crackers all the time."
Elizabeth laughed lightly. "Everybody has something that's harder to get past than other things. Just keep working on it," she assured Mel.
Mel nodded. "Oh, Dr. Corday, I was thinking about something," she said, changing the subject. "I was wondering if you'd be interested in a trade." She looked at Elizabeth and waited for her to look confused before continuing. "Dr. Romano's mentioned you have a young daughter. I was thinking that if you wanted, I could do some babysitting for her in exchange for that prank you're going to play on me."
Elizabeth smiled. "That would be wonderful," she said.
"Great! What do you think, maybe the next two Fridays? I can come to your place, stay with your daughter and you can go have some fun on your own."
"Oh, that would be lovely. Just perfect," Elizabeth replied. "Ella's two and a half years old now. I'm sure you'll get on very well with her."
Romano stood in silence, watching the two women strike a deal. He placed his hands on his hips, feeling left out and outdone. "Well this is lovely, seeing you two wheel and deal, but if you don't mind, Miss Hahn needs to return to work now," he interjected. When they didn't stop gabbing, he stepped in between them, placing his hand on Mel's wrist. "All right, let's go find some more boils to lance," he said, tugging on her wrist.
As Mel was pulled behind him out of the room, Elizabeth shook her head and laughed lightly. He was still as obvious as always. She just hoped Melanie had a thick skin, because she would need one.
"Don't think that because you're busy Friday night that I won't be giving you plenty of homework," Romano said coolly as he pulled Melanie back to the admit desk. "That was pretty clever of you, getting out of your prank like that. You have some potential after all. Although, if you hadn't mentioned anything, Lizzie probably would never have gone through with it. So, you just got yourself set up with two weeks of babysitting for nothing. But, you're still learning, and at least you have the master to learn from."
Romano had Melanie work on stomach-turning tasks for the rest of their shift. She was proud to be able to say she held her own and didn't have any issues with her stomach, though she had no appetite whatsoever for the rest of the day.
After her shift ended, she and Dr. Romano went up to his office. She hoped he wouldn't make her play tennis outside again, because the rain was so hard that she couldn't actually see out his window even with the blinds up. "The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play," she quoted while squinting and trying her best to see outside. "You aren't going to make me go out there, are you?" She looked at him imploringly while he walked to his desk.
"No," he assured her. "I have a better idea for today." He reached into one of his desk drawers and pulled out a box. "Remember this game?" he asked while setting it on the desk for Mel to look at.
Mel looked down at the box and grinned. "Operation! That was one of my favorites! Except for Candy Land which was the best game of all time," she replied with a laugh.
"Candy Land! No way was that the best game of all time," Robert said. "The greatest game ever invented, is Monopoly. You're lucky I didn't bring that, because you would lose so badly you'd probably cry."
Mel laughed and rolled her eyes. "We'll have to play some time, because I'm pretty good at it actually."
Robert opened the box and started setting up the game. "I thought we could make it interesting," he said slowly.
"Uh oh, that's never a good way to start a game," Mel laughed. "Are you going to hustle me?"
"You've only known me for a few days, yet it seems you know me inside and out already," Romano said with a grin. "Actually, I thought you could play with your left hand. It might be fun, and good practice."
"That does sound kind of fun."
"But that's not the interesting part. I thought that for each mistake you make, I get to ask you a question, and you have to answer it."
"Ahhh, the catch. And what about you? Will you have to answer a question of mine if you miss?"
"Well I don't intend to miss, but I suppose on the rare chance that I do, yes, I will."
Mel sat down across from Robert. "All right, let's play," she said. She shuffled the specialist cards and dealt them between herself and Romano. Her first try was on the Adam's Apple, usually a very simple one, however, using her left hand made it much more difficult. "I almost…Ahh!" she cried as the buzzer went off loudly, startling her.
"This isn't looking very good for you, Melanie," Robert said with a grin. "Let's see, what's a good first question? First of many no doubt…What were you in high school?"
"What? I thought I'd have to answer medical questions or something…"
"That's no fun," Robert said, "I want to get to know you. So…What were you in high school? Cheerleader? Band geek? What?"
"I was…a brain, I guess. Always the top of my class, never had much time for fun and games, never time for sports. Though…I was in the glee club. I did enjoy that," Mel replied, blushing at the lameness of her high school experience.
Robert shook his head and sighed. "Of all the options out there, I got landed with a singing nerd…" he said mournfully.
"Hey! It wasn't that bad! And hopefully I'm not so nerdy now…"
Robert smiled. "You seem ok to me," he assured her. "All right, it's my turn to play."
They played for over an hour, and Robert only made one mistake. Mel asked him why he'd decided to become a doctor. "People are always so impressed with doctors," he said, considering it. "And it sounded more fun than being a lawyer. Being a doctor is really important and I think it's a good match for my personality."
Robert had the chance to learn a lot about Mel during the game. It turned out her small motor skills weren't nearly as advanced as he'd have liked them to be. He'd learned about her family, her childhood pets, her hometown of Astoria, Oregon, her favorite music—mostly classical, and whether or not she had a boyfriend. She did not.
After losing the first game, she had to explain why she'd decided to go to medical school. "I come from a small town, I mean a really small town. Like, there's less than ten thousand people living there. And with the grades I got there were too many opportunities available to me to stay there. I had to get out and make a good future for myself," she said with a shrug. "I wasn't sure what to do exactly, but I wanted it to be important. Like you said. And I'd always been best at science, so being a doctor seemed to be a good fit." She stopped talking and looked down at the game for a moment, her brow furrowed. After a few seconds, she spoke again, telling Dr. Romano about the role her father had played in the decision to become a doctor.
He smiled sympathetically at her before setting up for the next game.
"My fingers are cramping," Mel complained when they'd finished their second game.
Robert took her hand in his and massaged her fingers. "It's been a long day," he said
quietly, looking down at her hand. He resisted the temptation to wrap his fingers through hers, though it was difficult. "Why don't you get out of here? Tomorrow we'll work on what is sure to be many more fun cases."
(Scene)
Mel felt much better on Friday, after a long, hot shower and a good night's sleep. Doctor Romano kept her busy all day long with a variety of cases. He also became more aggressive in asking her questions to test her knowledge. He made her hypothesize every diagnosis, questioning her so thoroughly that she started to doubt herself. After she'd seen a patient whose symptoms could have been at least five different ailments, Robert pulled her out of the room to talk.
"Miss Hahn, one thing I've learned over the years is, if there are multiple choices for a diagnosis, the most likely one is usually the most pedestrian one. It might not be very exciting, but it's probably correct," he said quietly before taking her back into the exam room and allowing her to correctly diagnose the patient.
They'd just finished lunch, and were walking back to the admit desk to pick another patient, when an old man wobbled out of an exam room, and over to them. "Doc, I'm not feeling so good," he said to Doctor Romano before clutching at his stomach, bending over, and vomiting on the doctor's shoes. Mel gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. She looked with wide eyes to see what Doctor Romano would do.
Romano froze where he was, trying to control the rage building up inside him. He glared at Melanie, who stood there, looking like a deer caught in headlights. "Uh…" she stammered stupidly. Suddenly, she jumped into action. "Don't move, Doctor Romano," she said while taking hold of the elderly man and walking him back into the exam room. "I'll be right back."
"Where would I go?" he yelled after her, shaking his head.
Mel led the man back to his bed and looked at his chart to see which doctor was assigned to him. Kovac. She'd never met him, but she knew Romano wasn't too fond of him based on the few things he'd ever said. This ought to be fun, she thought to herself.
When the man was settled into his bed, Mel looked through the cupboards, found a basin and filled it with water from the sink. She also found several towels and a pair of gloves. She was back at Romano's side in less than two minutes.
"Ok, Doctor, why don't you take a step and put one foot into the basin," she commanded after setting the basin on the floor by him and putting on the gloves. "Those shoes are ruined," she declared. She set the towels around his feet, and knelt down next to him.
Romano grumbled before grabbing Mel's head and using it to steady himself while placing one of his feet into the basin. "You know, while I love the idea of you being on your knees in front of me like this, this was not quite the scenario I had envisioned," he growled.
"Doctor!" Mel cried indignantly. "We're in public!" She tapped the foot that was in the basin. "Ok, step out onto the towel so I can take the shoe off," she commanded. She was glad for the gloves when she started to slip off his shoe. "This is so disgusting," she muttered. When his shoe was off, she slipped his sock off before wrapping a clean towel around his foot. "All right, next foot." They repeated the process until he was barefoot, but somewhat clean again. The last thing she did was to roll up his pant legs just to keep the sick from touching him.
By now they had drawn a small crowd of onlookers. "What are you two doing?" Abby Lockhart, one of the nurses, asked.
Mel stood up and stretched her legs out. "Well this patient was walking towards us, and he got sick," she said quickly. "Doctor Romano pushed me out of the way so it wouldn't get on me, and he got hit with it instead…He's such a gentleman…"
Abby's eyebrows rose in wonderment and she nodded in agreement. "Wow, that was nice of you, Doctor," she said. "I'll go call somebody to clean this up."
"Do you have clean shoes in your office?" Mel asked the doctor, hoping the answer would be yes.
"Yes, and clean pants, these are ruined too," Romano said, starting to walk gingerly towards the elevator in his bare feet. "I'm going upstairs. You can join me if you like." Mel ran after him and caught up with him at the elevator. "You didn't have to say that to the nurse you know," he said quietly as they rode upstairs.
Mel shrugged and smiled. "It's my job as your student to make sure you look good, right?" she replied.
Romano laughed lightly and reached out to playfully tug on her ponytail. "You're finally catching on!" he declared. "Say, let's play some more Operation," he said, changing the subject. "Instead of questions, though, we could play strip Operation…I'm already started." He pointed to his bare feet.
"Doctor, I was terrible at that game last night…" Mel said, blushing at the thought. "I don't think that's a good idea…"
"Melanie…relax…I was joking," Romano assured her. "You need to lighten up a little."
They walked to his office in silence, each wrapped in their own thoughts. Robert was grateful yet again that Melanie had allowed him to save face in an embarrassing situation. She was good for his ego.
He was also pleased to see how quickly she had jumped into action and had taken control of the situation. In the heat of the moment, she hadn't been afraid to command him. It showed leadership potential. Maybe she would be ready for her first trauma next week after all.
Mel wondered how upset Dr. Romano was about all of this, and hoped he wouldn't take it out on her. She had helped him out, after all. That had to be worth something in his eyes. She sighed. Would they stay locked up in his office for the rest of the day?
When they got to his office, she watched as he reached into one of his desk drawers and pulled out a clean set of clothes. "I'm going to go take a shower," he declared. "I'll only be a few minutes. Why don't you just wait here and we can go back downstairs when I'm done? Unless you want to take one of those co-ed showers…"
Mel sat in Dr. Romano's office, looking at all the details for the first time. He had all sorts of weaponry on his shelves. Must be his idea of decorating, she thought. She wondered what his house looked like. He seemed like a no-nonsense sort of man to her, and she decided that his house was most likely very masculine and sparsely furnished and decorated. He had a very different sense of taste than she did. Mel liked warm, rich colors, and when she had more space than her dorm room allowed, she loved decorating with seasonal flora. There was nothing better than using colorful leaves and chestnuts in the autumn, or pine branches and holly leaves at Christmas.
Looking around still, she found a miniature rocket on his desk. Mel smiled. She knew about his nickname, but hadn't realized how much he seemed to identify with it. She wondered how he'd been given the name, and by whom, and figured there was probably a fun story behind it. Maybe she'd ask him later.
Mel had lifted the blinds at the window and was gazing out, enjoying the beautiful blue sky, when Dr. Romano came back into the room. She turned and looked at him, smiling. "All clean?"
"Squeaky," Robert replied. "You ready to go back downstairs?"
"Yep." Mel smiled again and walked to the door of his office before turning around so quickly he almost collided with her. "I saw the rocket on your desk. Will you tell me how you got the name?"
Robert stopped in time to not run into her. He looked closely at her to see what her motive was. Nobody had ever asked him about the name before. People just accepted it, like he'd been born and christened "Rocket". All he saw on Melanie's face, though, was a silly smile and curiosity. He felt a little uncomfortable with the idea of her actually liking him. Like he was a person. Or a friend. People didn't usually think of him in those terms, and he'd eventually grown accustomed to it. It made him feel unbalanced when he thought about having somebody in his life who liked him.
He generally acted like a monster to everybody, and he liked it that way. It kept from having to engage in messy relationships. He occasionally fell for a pretty woman, but he usually went for the ones he knew he had no chance with. It hurt, of course, the rejection, but not as much as having love and losing it. He'd heard the old saying before that it's better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. He couldn't recall at the moment who'd said it, but he knew, with complete certainty, that that man was an idiot. It was far better to never have love, thereby never having to deal with the pain of that loss. It had worked for him so far, and he had no intention of changing it now.
Robert frowned. "No, now let's get going," he snapped, grabbing Melanie's shoulder, turning her around, and pushing her out the door.
Mel's smile faded and she bit her lower lip. Maybe the story was personal and she'd been impolite to ask about it. "I'm sorry, Doctor Romano," she said as he hurried towards the elevator. "I was just curious, that's all."
"Well next time don't be curious," he growled irrationally. He kicked himself mentally as he saw her shoulders sag. It had been a simple question, why hadn't he been able to just tell her? What was wrong with him?
Once back in the ER, Robert assigned Melanie to lancing duty for the rest of the afternoon while he tracked down Dr. Kovac and chewed him out over the earlier shoe incident. When Kovac refused to pay for a new pair, Romano presented him with the soiled ones, telling him to keep them.
His anger towards Kovac mellowed his frustration towards Melanie. He was determined to be kinder to her to make up for his behavior. She hadn't deserved it. He found her in the curtain area, working on a patient with a broken finger. She'd just ordered an x-ray when Romano joined her. "How are things going?" he asked quietly.
Melanie looked at him warily and shrugged. "Ok, I guess," she said, just as quietly.
"Look, about earlier…I'm just not used to people asking me personal questions," Robert said, trying to explain his behavior.
"I don't have to, if it makes you uncomfortable," Mel said.
"No, you can ask me, it just threw me off, that's all."
"You aren't used to people wanting to get to know you?"
Romano shrugged and didn't speak.
"Well it's their loss." Melanie returned to her patient, leaving Robert alone, thinking about their exchange.
(SCENE)
By the end of the day, Mel was exhausted. She could hardly believe it was only her first week here. She felt tired enough to have been working for two weeks straight, at least. Hopefully she'd have a restful weekend.
Before going to Dr. Corday's office, she stopped at Dr. Romano's office to wish him a good night. "Oh, I wanted to give you something before you left," he said with a small smile. He reached into one of his desk drawers, pulled out a paper bag, and held it out to her.
Mel took the bag and opened it. She furrowed her brow and looked at the package in her hands. "Needlepoint? I've never done this before," she said. "I've only ever seen, you know, old people do this before."
"I want you to do it with your left hand, it'll be good for your coordination," Robert declared. "The pattern is just letters and numbers, and there's a border. It's pretty basic, but I think it'll be pretty challenging when you use your non-dominant hand. When you're done, if it looks good, I'll pay to have it framed for you."
Mel beamed at him. "Really? Thanks!" On a whim, she walked around the desk and leaned down, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "I wanted to thank you for making it such a memorable first week here. I think we're going to make a great team during my rotation," she said earnestly.
Robert tensed up as he felt Melanie's arms touching him. He couldn't remember the last time somebody had willingly embraced him. Was he supposed to hug her in turn? As he caught a whiff of her apple shampoo, he willed himself not to look at her. If he turned his head just right he'd be able to look right down her shirt. He had the feeling that this girl would be his undoing if he wasn't careful around her.
"All right, Miss Hahn, that's enough sucking up for one day," he said gruffly, reaching up with this good hand and unwrapping her arms from him. "Go on, get out of here. Have fun babysitting tonight."
"Thanks, I'm sure it'll be a great night." Mel left Dr. Romano's office, needlepoint in hand, and walked down the hallway to Dr. Corday's office for a ride to her home.
Mel and Ella had a wonderful evening together. They watched My Neighbor, Totoro, and ate hotdogs. It was Ella's idea of a perfect night, apparently, and she fell asleep with a smile on her face.
Mel settled herself onto Dr. Corday's sofa, with her battered copy of Jane Eyre, and read for about five minutes before falling asleep. She awoke the next morning with a blanket over her that hadn't been there the night before, and a moment of disorientation. Where am I, she thought to herself while sitting up and looking around. It dawned on her a moment later, and she smiled. It was nice of Dr. Corday to let her stay the night rather than making her leave when she'd gotten home, whenever that had been.
It was currently 9:15am according to her watch, and she stretched and stood up from the couch, feeling well-rested. Ella was awake too, and quietly playing with the toys in her room when Mel came in to check on her. "Shh, mummy's sleeping," she whispered to Mel.
"I know, she had a late night," Mel whispered back. "What do you want for breakfast today, Miss Ella?"
Ella looked thoughtful for a moment before declaring: "Jell-o and 'nanas and biscuits."
"Oh, that's a lot of food," Mel replied. "How about a banana and some bacon and eggs?" She and Ella walked into the kitchen. She let Ella stir the eggs in a bowl while she placed slices of bacon into a hot pan. "You're a good stirrer," she praised the young girl. In a short time the two were seated at the kitchen table, eating their food.
Mel had just taken a bite of eggs when her cell phone rang. She looked to see who was calling but didn't recognize the number. "Hello?"
"Miss Hahn, I trust you slept well last night," the voice on the other end said.
"Who is this?"
"Oh, I'm hurt," the voice replied. "We spent nearly every moment of the past week together and you can't recognize the sound of my voice yet?"
"Oh Doctor Romano! Hi! I just didn't expect to have you call me. I was confused," Mel replied quickly. "To answer your question, yes, I slept quite well." She wondered why he was calling her. "And how are you this morning?"
"Just dandy," Romano said curtly. "Listen, I didn't have time to give you your homework assignment last night before you left. I wanted you to have plenty of time to work on it. I'd like you to write me a ten-page paper on the advantages and disadvantages of vertical mattress sutures versus simple interrupted sutures, as well as examples of injuries that would require them. Due on Monday. I trust you won't have a problem completing it?"
"Monday?" Mel said faintly, trying not to panic. "No, I'll get it done by then."
"Good," Romano said. "And don't forget to work on your needlepoint. I want you to try and practice daily if you can." He hung up a moment later after wishing her good luck.
"Who's that?" Ella asked, looking curiously at Mel.
"That was Dr. Romano," Mel said, taking a deep breath and setting her phone down.
"Is he your boyfriend?" Ella asked.
"No! He's my teacher." Mel blushed at the thought of Doctor Romano being her boyfriend.
"What's he teaching you?"
"He's teaching me how to be a doctor."
"My mummy's a doctor."
"Yes, Doctor Romano and I work at the same hospital with your mom. She's very nice." Ella nodded her head in agreement.
Doctor Corday was up and out of bed by the time the other two had finished cleaning up in the kitchen. Her red hair stood up in all directions, and she looked very groggy. "Thanks for feeding Ella," she said while setting the kettle on the stove to make tea. "What will you be doing today?" Mel told her about Dr. Romano's phone call earlier and declared her plan to work in the school library most of the day and well into the next. "It would be just like that man to spring something on you like this at the last minute," she said, shaking her head. "Don't let him take advantage of you, Melanie. Learn to stand up for yourself early on, otherwise he'll trample all over you. Believe me, I know."
"Just how horrible is he, really? Everybody I've spoken to this week has done nothing but give me warnings about him. He has his moments of being harsh to me, but I just don't see what everybody's making such a big deal about."
Elizabeth sat down at the table across from her, looking thoughtful. "He likes to have his way," she started, choosing her words carefully. "And he doesn't always act reasonably when it comes to disappointment. If I've learned anything over my years working with him, it's that he does better if you're just open and honest with him. Even if you have to go against him, just don't lie to him. Ever. That's a mistake I made in the past and did I ever regret it."
"That doesn't sound too unreasonable to me," Mel replied. "Nobody likes being lied to."
"Robert might not look like it, but I think he actually feels things very deeply. He likes to put on a tough-guy act, but I think he's really very sensitive."
Mel nodded her head. "He seems sort of…flirtatious sometimes too."
"Oh yes, very. And it's not all bad. I just hope he doesn't get too inappropriate with you. But, since he's Chief of Staff and your advisor, hopefully he'll remember that and not step out of line."
Melanie flushed at the thought. He'd already said things to her that would be considered inappropriate, but she hadn't minded it too much. Perhaps because she was his student she was more forgiving of his foibles. Though maybe she was being too forgiving if she was willing to consider sexual harassment a foible…
After a cup of tea and a little more chatting with Elizabeth, Mel excused herself and left for the library. She spent the rest of the day there.