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"WHERE IS HE?!"
Drs. Brennan, Keating, Slingerland and Lanning jumped and turned towards the echoing shout that reverberated down the hallway.
"Doctor Cori…" Slingerland groaned. "I'm guessing she's gotten Kokoris' decision on the Philders' kid. Oh, look at that! I have rounds to make. Ta-ta ladies!"
Jules and Harriet blinked as he slithered off in the opposite direction from where his rounds should be.
"You think he's still turned upside down by her outright refusal to go on a date with him?" Harriet asked quietly as she watched the younger Dr. Cori come up the hallway looking angry as a swarm of hornets.
"Nah. Public humiliation looks good on Matt. But I want to know what she's pissed about."
"Ah, Dr. Brennan…" Cori smiled a plastic smile at Dr. Rae Brennan. She had never liked the two-faced woman and took no pains to hide it. However, she turned a genuine smile onto Dr. Harriet Lanning and Dr. Keating. These two women she loved without a doubt. Always a class act and in it to help the patients. "Dr. Lanning, Jules." Her tone of voice turned a bit stiff as she moved on to her quest. "Anyone seen -"
"Dr. Kokoris is on a consult with another patient, Cori, he'll be back in about 15 minutes. Think you can keep from tearing down the house while waiting?" Harriet laughed and patted Cori's hand. She had to hand it to the younger doctor. She was ferocious when fighting for her patients and had a reputation for avoiding surgery when it wasn't seriously necessary. Plus, she was a firecracker of a woman who brought a spark to the hospital. She did, however, notice as Rae smiled a plastic smile in return to Cori and moved off to see to her own rounds.
"Someone bellowed?" Nick had heard Dr. Cori as she came down the hallway yelling. For a moment he stopped and watched as Rae walked down the hall. "Hello again Dr. Cori. I assume the 'HE' you're screeching for would be me and you're less than pleased with my decision."
"Oh you got that right! Surgery?! I told you he could be fixed with intense therapy! You didn't even talk to me when he came in the second time. Listen, Dr Ko-… Ko-"
Nick smiled patiently. "Kokoris."
"Dr. Koko-" she growled in frustration at trying to spit out his name. She'd said it before, but it wasn't coming out now. "Whatever! Next time you decide that one of my patients needs surgery, do kindly have the huevos to come talk to me first before scheduling the procedure!" She slammed down the file she'd had in her hand and wheeled about on a heel, stalking off the way she'd come.
Jules and Harriet were watching silently, wide-eyed and trying to keep from laughing. Neither one of them had seen Coriandra Eleszara this worked up, ever. They leaned over the desk as Nick followed Cori down the hallway, irritated in his own right now.
"You listen to me, you furious little banshee!" He stopped short as Cori wheeled around again and planted her balled up fists on her hips. "I can understand you're dislike of surgeons, but don't punish your patients for it!"
"How dare you!" she hissed. "I look after my patients first and foremost and you are no one to tell me how to do my job! Ask anyone around here and they will tell you that if one of my kids needs surgery, then they get surgery. I do, however, reserve the right to try everything I can before I give them up to a grandstanding cutter!"
Jules' and Harriet's eyes widened and they had to cover their mouths to keep from gasping.
"Grandstanding?! You are unreal lady! I don't know what your problem is with surgeons, and frankly, I don't care. Scott Philders needs surgery to put the bones back into their proper places and I'm not changing my decision. Get as many second opinions you want, but even a first year is going to tell you the same thing!"
Cori raised her hands to about his shoulder height, fingers clenched like claws and let out a frustrated growl. She then turned and stalked 10 feet down the hallway before turning back. "The least you could have done was come talk to me first." She calmly walked back up the hallway towards him. "The problem I have with most of you cutters is that you don't give a rat's ass about the patient. All you people see is a cadaver with a heartbeat and brain activity. Scott is a hockey player. If he has surgery on his wrist, he'll be out the rest of the season. Do you know what kind of damage that is going to do to him?"
Nick's jaw dropped. "You can't seriously be putting this kid's extra-curricular activities ahead of his well-being!"
Cori just rolled her eyes and walked off.
Nick followed her, not willing to let her go that easily. "Tell me that's not what you're thinking! Because if it is, then I misjudged your ability and common sense!"
Cori halted in her tracks and turned around. "Oh no, no, no you did NOT just go there. How dare you think that I'd put the kid's sports ahead of his health! I am not and you know it. You're all alike, you cutters, can't see the big picture and you can't see the person for the body! If Scott misses this season, his chances of going to college are going to be shot. His family isn't poor, but they're hoping that he can get a scholarship. If you would just consider physical therapy, you'd see that it would be just as effective and the scouts wouldn't blink twice at that note."
"Physical therapy? For displaced bones? Listen to me, no amount of therapy is going to move those bones back into place! Were you dropped on your head?!"
"How dare you!" Cori wheeled around and snarled at him. She could feel the flush of anger creeping up her neck again into her cheeks
"Well, will you look at that." Nick smiled and put his hands on his hips to mimic her. "Those flashing eyes, those flushed cheeks. You're breathing hard and growling too. You know what Dr. Cori? You are ugly when you're angry."
Jules and Harriet nearly fell over. They composed themselves in time to see Cori's lower jaw working like a fish and her skin turning pale save for two splotches of pink on her cheeks.
He… He just… All she could get out in response was another squeak of outrage. Cori turned around and started towards a door.
Nick followed after her, determined to get the rest of the confrontation out of the way. "I think you're speechless again. Dr. Cori, you're not living up to your reputation. If you'd-"
Cori put up a hand and halted Nick in his tracks and in mid-sentence. "Five minutes."
When he took another step towards her, she put her hand on his chest. "Five minutes." At his confused look, she sighed and held up her hands to show the door she was trying to get into. "I doubt you want to go into the Ladies' Room with me and finish this discussion, Dr. Koko." At his obvious embarrassment, she nodded and turned, disappearing into the women's bathroom.
Behind them, Jules and Harriet were snickering softly. "Dr. Koko" Jules giggled as Nick moved off down the hallway towards the hospital cafeteria with a resigned look on his face. It appeared to them that Dr. Coriandra Eleszara had finally met her match in Dr. Nicholas Kokoris.
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