Two very different chapters for you today.

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Chapter 39. EVERYBODY'S TALKING 'BOUT YOU

Cuddy's office - 5 PM

I sit in my office with Sergeant Alonzo waiting for Arthur Billings and Fred

Jenkins, the orderly who helped him two days ago. The two of them are coming

to give their statements about what they saw and did. They should be here as soon as they're through for the day.

Meanwhile, Alonzo is reviewing the files from Davidson's lawsuit

against the hospital, Clair, Allison and me. Just looking at those files brings

me back four months or so to Stacy's marathon of interviews in this office.

Stacy planned to talk to quite a few staff. She'd set up several appointments

for that day.

First Meggie came by. Of course, she had to stop and chat with Sean first. The

two of them had been dating about two months at the time and never passed up

a chance to talk, hug and kiss. Fine by me, since the young man had turned out

to be the most competent assistant I ever had.

"Stacy, this is Megan Mallory," I introduced her once she entered my office.

"She's a lab tech working for Clair Palmer, and she also assisted Cameron in

her Brazilian flu research."

Meggie flashed her pretty smile at Stacy. "Anything I can do to help Dr. Palmer

and Dr. Cameron."

"What direct experiences did you have with Dr. Davidson?" Stacy asked, getting right

down to business.

"He kept coming by the lab, trying to pump me for information about what Dr.

Cameron was looking for." Another bright smile. "He was so obvious! I just told

him that I did whatever Dr. Cameron wanted but didn't know why I was doing the

tests, even though Dr. Cameron explained it all to me. It was really fascinating

stuff! And she even mentioned me in her article. I also refused to tell him what

tests I was doing." She told Stacy some of the questions Davidson had asked,

laughing at his attempts to get her to 'spill the beans'.

Soon after Meggie finished and left my office, Josh Beaumont arrived with stacks

of printouts. Most of them had been submitted during Davidson's dismissal

hearing. They were irrefutable evidence of his unsuccessful tries to harass

Clair, to access our files, and to change the records of Allison's patients and

his own.

"He seemed to think he was some kind of genius computer hacker." Beau laughed. "Some genius! Even if we didn't have safeguards in place, he never

would have gotten into Dr. Cuddy's and Dr. Cameron's files. They're both too

smart to leave any important stuff unprotected. Even Dr. Palmer took some

precautions."

"What about the patient files?" Stacy asked.

"By law, those have to be tamper-proof," Beau said. "We've got the most

sophisticated file protection in place," he added proudly.

After he left, Stacy turned to me. "How could Davidson think he could get away

with all of that?" she asked. "And then to file suit over his dismissal because

of his actions!"

"He's either got chutzpah or he's stupider than we thought" I replied.

There was a knock at the door and Sean poked his head in. "The Kirks are here."

"Send them in."

Ashley had long ago fully recovered from the flu and gone back to school. At the

time she was looking forward to spring softball practice. Her parents had given

permission for Stacy to talk to her, as long as they were present.

"Ashley, you were a patient of Dr. Davidson's?" Stacy began to set the stage for

further questions. With consent, she'd been taping all of the interviews.

"Yes, and Dr. Cameron, too," the teen replied. "I was one of the oldest flu

patients, at least that's what Dr. Cameron said."

"The two doctors were working together when you were a patient here, is that

right?" On the stand, that might have been considered leading the witness, but

this was an informal interview.

"Well, sort of," Ashley replied. "Dr. Davidson seemed to be keeping a separate

file from the one he started with Dr. Cameron."

"What do you mean?"

"A couple of times I saw him close my file and go into his personal directory

to make entries, notes that he wasn't sharing with Dr. Cameron. They seemed to

be based on the results of my tests."

Stacy and I exchanged looks. What a sleaze that guy was!

And still is, I think now. What he did to Allison was terrible. It was far

beyond his breaches of ethical conduct.

Billings and Jenkins finally arrive. They each shake hands with Alonzo.

"I hope you put him away for good," Billings says vehemently as they settle in

to tell the Sergeant what they saw and had to do to save Allison Cameron's life.

Chapter 40. HE SAID, SHE SAID

Cameron's room - 6 PM

Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Billy just went to the cafeteria to get us all food, even

Mom, but not Alex. My cousins and I are talking to him. I don't think he knows

who we are or what we're saying, but Dad says babies need to hear people's

voices. Mom says it's the way they 'acquire language'. I think that means that's how they learn to speak English words. I wonder whether he'll be confused if I speak French to him. Maybe I'll try sometime.

Dr. Zeigler was here a little while ago. He said Mom and Alex can go home

tomorrow. Isn't that great? But I wonder how Mom will manage without being able

to see. She won't be able to cook. Of course, she doesn't cook that much, but

I guess it's back to take-out every night. Not that I mind.

We've lived in the house almost nine months, so she knows where

everything is. She should be able to get around there. I guess if I was blind

I'd be able to get around, at least in my room, the family room and the kitchen. Except, when I get up during the night to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water, I always bump into things on the way.

How is she going to handle taking care of Alex if she can't see? Mom and Dad

are talking about that now. It started when she told him to take me home for the night.

"You need some sleep," she said. "You only had a one-hour catnap when you lay

down with me earlier. How much sleep have you gotten in the last sixty hours

or so?"

"I don't need sleep, you know that," he said. "I always get by on just a little."

"If you don't go, then Gretchen will want to stay, too," she said.

I hate when she plays the Gretchen card, but she's right. If he stays another

night, I won't want to leave either. Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Billy can take care

of Junior for us.

"You know I won't be able to sleep if you aren't there," he said.

That's true. Since he and Mom have been together he's been sleeping a whole

lot better than he did before.

"And how will you manage with the baby if we're not here?" he's now saying

"I'll call a floor nurse if I have to," she says. "I've got to get used to taking care of him even if I can't see. What'll happen when I go home, and you're at the hospital and Gretchen's with her friends?"

"Do you think I'd give up an excuse to stay home and not have to do clinic

duty?" he says.

Mom just rolls her eyes. "You'll just do what you think is right."

It's not as if they're arguing, really. Not like Tommy and Tara did when they

were co-Mayors of Our Town.

Yes, the day had finally come for our class trip. I'd been reading about what

it took to be a doctor. I mean, I'm the daughter of two doctors, so I know a

little about it, but I hadn't realized how much training you have to go through

to become a doctor. By the time you're finished with pre-med, medical school,

internships, and residency, you must be really old, like twenty-eight or more!

The school bus picked us up at our school and drove about half an hour to the

place where Our Town was. It's sort of like those historic villages where they

dress in old-fashioned clothes and tell you about how things were back in

colonial times or something. Only Own Town is very modern, and instead of

watching actors in costumes, kids wear the clothes for their professions and

pretend to have the jobs they've chosen. That meant I got to wear a lab coat

and have a stethoscope around my neck. Most of the clothes were too big for the

kids in Mrs. Bean's class, because usually sixth graders got to go there, but

mine fit pretty well because I'm so tall.

Audra hardly spoke on the bus, even though everyone else was chattering in

excitement. When we arrived, the people who ran the place showed us where to go

and took her to the bakery. It was across the street from the doctor's office

where Ruth and I waited for our first patient, so I saw her put on the white

coat and that tall hat that chefs and bakers sometimes wear. I had to smile but

she wasn't smiling at all. She'd been like that ever since she learned about

her grandmother being in the hospital. Mom and I, and sometimes even Dad had

tried to distract her. Mostly she spent time after school with Dr. Lloyd. I

thought that it was really nice of Dr. Lloyd to spend so much time with her.

Tommy and Tara were taken to the City Hall at one end of the town square. Tommy

told me later that they weren't sure either of them would be able to make it

up the steps at the front of the building, but then they remembered that there

was a ramp, so someone pushed Tara's wheelchair up. Tommy struggled with the

steps. He was used to the stairs in his house, but these were different somehow.

It was really a fun day. We had one patient with a sore throat, and another

with a broken arm that we got to put a cast on. One patient had lots of things

bothering them and I wrote them on a big whiteboard like my Dad does. I decided

the patient had Lupus, even though everyone knows it's never Lupus.

Ruth turned out to be a really good nurse. She was gentle with the patients

and very helpful to me, the doctor. I think she felt really good about how well

things went.

In the late afternoon there was a town meeting in front of the City Hall. Tommy

and Tara came out to the steps and began to argue about which of them was going

to talk. Tommy finally said, "Fine, go ahead," and let Tara speak to everyone.

"Citizens of Our Town," she said. "As Mayor of Our Town..."

"Co-Mayor," Tommy said.

"As Mayor of Our Town I welcome you," she said.

"Me too," Tommy piped up.

She gave him a disgusted look. "I have decided that all of my subjects, I mean

citizens, should do everything I say."

"You can't do that," Tommy said.

"I make the decisions, and set the laws of Our Town," she said.

Ruth whispered to me, "Lucky we'll only be here another couple of hours."

"And what about me? What am I, chopped liver?" Tommy said.

The kids all laughed and a chorus of "Tommy! Tommy!" started up. No one would

let Tara say anything else. Mrs. Bean finally had to calm everyone down,

including Tara.

"Children, we are here to learn about careers and about being good citizens,"

she said. "Tara, the mayor doesn't make the laws you know. And remember, you

are co-Mayor and Tommy has a say too."

Tara frowned and crossed her arms, "Then I don't want to play." She was acting

like a five-year-old brat.

"Then you won't participate in this at all," the teacher said. "Go sit by the

bench near the school bus and wait until the other children finish the day."

She wheeled Tara back down the ramp and set her off in the direction of the bus.

The rest of us were glad. I know Tara was hurt, but she brought it on herself.