Chapter 62 : Back to business

Neil parked his car in front of Alex and Morgan's building. He was still sad not to be able to take Gabbie with him but he understood Mrs. Kays's position. She only thought about Gabbie's good and it implied that she stated in the institution. He knocked at the door, trying to clear his mind.

"Hey! Welcome in our new apartment!"

"Hey Morgan! See you're still in good fit for someone up since very early this morning."

"Tell you a secret, Alex and I took a nap this afternoon before going food shopping. Life savior. Let me show you your room. Alex is taking a shower."

She led him to a large room at the very end of the apartment. "This is your place for the next days to come. And we left you a key next to the door if you need to come and go, just in case. I let you get comfortable and I'll make you visit the whole place after."

He sat on the bed to remove his shoes and opened his suitcase to prepare all his stuff for the day after. Then he joined Morgan in the living room, she was folding her laundry.

"Hey, bro! Finally here. "

"Yes! Long day but I made it to your new place that looks perfect!"

"I let you make the visit, I've some laundry to end and a pie to check on it."

Alex made Neil visit the whole apartment, explaining that Morgan and he had a crush on it from the moment they pushed the entrance door. Neil could understand why. The view over the city was amazing and the rooms were large and bright.

They ate – a lot – before spending the rest of the evening in the living room to talk, drinking a good whiskey. The movie will be for another time.

"Everything went well with Gabbie when you brought her back to the institution?"

"Yeah, yeah, it did… She was happy to find her friends again…"

"But you seem preoccupied anyway… Is Claire ok? Is there a problem with the clinic? With Greta?" Morgan was worried.

"No, no. Claire is Ok, just pissed at Dr. Litt for making her a dirty trick again but she'll figure it out. And Greta is fine! Like the clinic. Never been better. I've talked with the banker last week and we're actually making benefits thanks to the selling of goodies and workshops."

"But anyway you seem sad…" Alex concluded.

"It's just that Claire and I thought about… Maybe… Taking Gabbie with us in Raleigh… But it's impossible. Mrs. Kays confirmed it to me this afternoon. We both knew it was a pipedream but we wanted to believe it was possible anyway…"

Morgan and Alex remained silent for a while, not knowing what to say. "Mrs. Kays confirmed that people with ID can't change their routine, that it is really important to them to get attached to some habits to live well. And Gabbie has found them at the institution… Not that I'm complaining about this, it's just that for a while we dreamed it was possible to keep her with us."

"Sorry to hear this, bro." He put his hand over his shoulder.

"Thanks… To be honest, deep down I knew it was impossible… Claire warned me too… But sometimes miracles exist…"

"And you're the proof of them. " Morgan answered immediately, which made Neil laugh.

"Not wrong. Anyway, I'm not gonna ruin our evening because of my story!"

"Don't say this, Gabbie is important, she's part of family… And maybe if you agree Morgan and I could continue to see her on a regular basis. We're kind of love spending time with her."

Morgan nodded in agreement. "Alex is right. Gabbie is really cool and we like to go and see her. And we could make visio calls while we'll take her on a stroll!"

"You're really nice but I don't want to impose you such a burden…"

"Come on, Neil. Gabbie is not a burden at all! She's so sweet. It's very cool to spend time with her."

"I don't want to annoy you with this…"

Morgan looked at him in the eyes. "If you call Gabbie a burden again, I could punch you in the face."

"Be careful, she could totally do this." Alex answered, laughing.

"I don't know how to thank you… Really…"

"Send us She-Crab soup." Morgan joked.

He was really lucky to have found friends like them. As the adage said, it was during the hard times that you found your real friends. This earthquake could have deprived him from eating some food, it had brought him the best friends he could ask for.

This night he went to bed appeased, knowing that even if he was living in Raleigh Gabbie had in San Jose people she could count on.

[…]

"What about the accounting?"

Neil and Morgan were working on the financials of the clinic since the early morning. The lawyer of the clinic, Mr. Novak will call at the beginning of the afternoon and they wanted to give him the precise numbers.

"All is written in the books. Cassie took great care of it. Let me call her!" Morgan stood up and went to look for her in the office next door. In less than two minutes, the two women were back.

"Hey, Dr. Melendez! How are you? And Claire?"

"Hello Cassie! Happy to see you! Claire and I are fine, thanks for asking. She's just angry at one of the docs back there but you know her, she's gonna figure this out. And the doc will soon regret it."

She let out a laugh. She did have notice Claire Brown-Melendez was the kind of woman you didn't want to mess with. She could seem like the sweetest and the most helpful person you could find, you didn't want to be around when she was mad at something or someone.

"I'll pray for him then." Cassie answered, smiling.

"Oh this, you can!" Morgan concluded.

"We're sorry to annoy you with this" Neil told Cassie, "but you seem like the most competent person to deal with this. We need to give Mr. Novak, our lawyer and counsellor, precise numbers about the clinic and I must admit I don't understand the half of what he's asking us. Morgan sees a little bit clearer but this is not enough…"

"Happy to help. What do you need?"

Morgan handed her the list that Mr. Novak emailed them earlier. "Talk to Mr. Novak. He told me we've made benefits for the last six months." Neil answered. "But he needs some precise numbers for the IRS. And despite all the research we have done, we still don't know what he's talking about."

Cassie took some minutes and read the email attentively. She took some notes on her tiny pad while doing it. "I think I can help you to get what he wants. Just need to go and grab the accounting books and the bills. You can focus on other points, I take care of this one!"

She stood up and vanished in the corridor. Morgan and Neil kept working for the whole morning, reading and writing about statistics and assessment. Just before lunch, Cassie popped in the office with the numbers they needed.

"You're a life savior, Cassie. " Morgan stood up and hugged her briefly. "Really, I was becoming mad!"

"You're welcome! Let me know if you need anything else!" And she left the office.

"Had to see patients this afternoon. You could call Mr. Novak by yourself?"

"Yes, no problem. I should be able to decipher all of this." Neil told Morgan with a smile.

The afternoon went quickly, Mr. Novak and Neil talked for hours about numbers, incoming and ratings. Meanwhile, Morgan welcomed her patients for consults and took care of some emergencies. On the evening, she came to join Neil in the office.

"Over?"

"Still needs to fulfill some documents in the days to come but it's only paper works. Less annoying than accounting and statistics. Mr. Novak calls me in two days to give me his conclusions about the clinic. Time for his specialists to treat the data. But according to what he said, all seems good… It's a big relief really!"

"That's great! What did he say about hypothetically hiring a new doctor, even part time?"

"He didn't seem opposed to the idea. I presented him the plan you made with Alex. He listened and told me he'll study if this is doable. But on the principle, he agreed."

Morgan nodded, with a happy smile on her face. "Time to go home, then. Alex ordered some Italian food, you like so much."

"Veronica's?"

"Exactly!"

"More than hungry then!"

He took his phone and texted Claire to tell her he called her later. She answered immediately

*Can't wait to hear your voice. 3*

Evening was nice. Peaceful. Talkative. Neil left his friends around 10PM to go in his room. He needed to rest and to call his wife.

"Don't wake you up… I forgot it was 2 hours later in Raleigh."

"Don't worry, I'm still reading my book with Scooter. Scooter, tell hi to Daddy on the phone." Neil heard the dog barking as soon as Claire told his name. "How did it go with Mr. Novak?"

"It was fine. Actually, he's calling me in a few days to make a general assessment but everything seems good. Morgan could even hire a new doctor as the workshop and the cheap consultations are a success. And the partnership with some drugstores and pharmacy companies from the areas are a success."

"OMG that's great! I mean I know the clinic was Ok but I didn't think it was going so well! Morgan must be over the moon!"

"She is! Couldn't stop talking tonight."

"You mean more than usual?"

"More, I swear!" He burst into laughing. "But it's fine, I'm used to it now."

"And you, what about Dr. Litt? "

"This asshole took some vacation days ! But trust me, he'll be well-received as he comes back! My fight mood is activated!"

"Glad I'm not him! «

« You can! I've already told Cameron about it, so she knows about the whole situation and she completely agrees with me. House even asks that I call him the day I crush Litt so he can enjoy the show. Took this as a compliment, especially coming from him… And after we disagree on a patient. But you know him, he can be a jerk sometimes."

"Sometimes?"

"Ok, often… No... More like all the time, but he has his good sides. The man is confusing."

"I know but he's such an interesting mystery!"

"And here we go again, you want to study him like a medical case."

"Tell me you don't want to do it either?"

"Not wrong… You got me!" She yawned. Loudly. It was almost midnight. in Raleigh.

"I let you… You seem tired, time to go to bed. Even for me! I've to get up early tomorrow. A lot of paper works to do. Goodnight, C. I miss you."

"Goodnight N. Miss too. From the moon and back. You call me tomorrow evening?"

"Of course, I will. You won't get rid of me so easily."

"Damn, and yet I tried."

They hung up, both with a smile on their lips.

[…]

Neil spent the next two days at the clinic, doing all the paper works asked by Mr. Novak. Everything needed to be perfect when he will go back home. So Morgan and Alex will be good for another year. He was not his cup of tea but he knew what he was dealing with when he decided to create this clinic.

On his last evening at Morgan and Alex's, he had something to ask them. They had discussed about it the night before with Claire and they both agreed it was the best option, but before they had to ask them. You couldn't impose this to people without talking with them before.

Claire proposed to join using Zoom if needed. But Neil told her to focus on her problems with Litt to crush this sufficient man as he should have been for already a long time. She laughed and told him to call her to tell her about the talking after it was done.

He took his jacket, wished Cassie a very nice evening. "See you soon, Dr. Melendez. My best wishes to you and Claire! Hope to see her next time!"

"Will tell her. See you soon, Cassie. And once again, thank you for your help with the accounting. Couldn't have done anything without you!"

"My pleasure!"

He left the clinic with a weigh removed from his shoulders. Everything was great, even better than he had expected. He had extremely good news to announce to his friends and an important question to ask them. He drove till their apartment, made a stop on his way to his favorite wine shop and parked the car.

"Hey, it's me, I'm home!"

"Hey! Come early finally." Alex welcomed Neil.

"Yeah! Take a shower and tell you about the assessment after."

He dropped all his stuff in the bedroom, went to the bathroom and took his clothes off. The shower was the better thing that could happen to him right now. Ok to be fair, it should have been better if he had shared the place with Claire but soon it will be the case. He got out of the shower, dried his body with a towel and got dressed casually.

Morgan was reading on the sofa while Alex was preparing some appetizers. "You feel better?"

"Much better! Ready to give you Mr. Novak's conclusions."

"I'm listening!" Morgan raised her head from the book she was reading. Alex joined them, bringing some taps. Neil sat and put the bottle of wine on the coffee table.

"So Mr. Novak congratulated us for our management of the clinic. Our turnover is very good, our partnerships are very valuable and the place is actually growing."

"Oh that's great! And did he say something about hiring a new doctor? Because today was still complicated with only one doctor and three nurses… Even a part time doctor would be awesome!"

"You can even hire a full time doctor if you want, Morgan. We have the necessary income to do so."

"Really?"

"Validated by our lawyer! And I also need you to sign those documents to renew our agreement, you as my delegates here."

"Of course! Let me take a pen!" Alex stood from the sofa to look for a pen. He came back with two of them, handed one of them to Morgan and they signed the documents.

"And as we are in signatures… Claire and I would have another request to do to you two… "