Disclaimer: All still apply.

SOMETHING TO PROVE

(PART SEVEN)

Mark watched sadly as all of the colour drained from Jesse's face.

"No," the young man whispered. "They can't do that, can they? They can't just... fire me."

"No Jesse, they can't," Mark answered, forcefully. "I will fight them every step of the way on this."

"What do you mean, fight them? They haven't actually... agreed to the offer yet, have they?" Jesse was forcing himself to ask questions that he clearly dreaded the answers to.

"No, they haven't," Mark quickly assured him. "And they're not going to either. I swear to you, Jesse, I won't let them throw you to the wolves over this."

"But I didn't even do anything," the young man moaned, covering his face with his hands, seeming already resigned to losing his job.

"I know you didn't and don't worry, my friend, I intend to prove it."

"But how? It's only my word against hers and we've already seen who the Board are going to believe."

"Don't give up, Jesse." Mark laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "The Board are just panicking because they don't want the bad publicity. That's the only reason they'd even consider Flynn's offer. Now, I don't know exactly how much compensation is being discussed, but I do know that it will easily be five figures and I can't see the Board parting with that sort of money, not without exploring every other option available."

"How about the option that they just take my word for it?" Jesse snapped.

"Losing your temper isn't going to help matters one little bit. And neither," he added, remembering the original reason for his visit, "is getting drunk."

Jesse felt himself blush with embarrassment. He was already seriously regretting his actions of the previous night.

"It's okay, Jesse. I'm not going to lecture you," he said, taking pity on his young friend. "Besides, I'm sure that Steve has already had plenty to say on the matter."

Mark had to smile at Jesse's mute nod. He had seen the mood that Steve had been in that morning and hadn't envied it being Jesse who was on the receiving end of it.

"Seriously though," the older doctor went on. "You really do need to keep a clear head while we get to the bottom of this. The hospital Board are going to want to speak to you at some stage. Do you know what you're going to say to them?"

"What can I say, that I haven't already said? I didn't do anything, Mark, but I don't know how I can convince them of that."

"Think back, Jess," Mark prompted him. "All of the times that Melissa was at the hospital, did you ever say or do anything that might have caused her to develop this fixation with you?"

"I was kind to her, Mark. That's all."

"And you never said anything that she might have interpreted as meaning her feelings were reciprocated?"

"No!"

Jesse's denial was vehement, but his mind was racing. So we're still friends? He'd been concerned about that question when Melissa had asked it, but then had chosen to take the easy way out and just say yes. Now it wasn't looking quite so simple.

He remembered how Melissa had then kissed him and wondered what the hospital gossips were saying about that little episode. It was amazing that it hadn't got back to Mark already.

Well, it was bound to come out in the course of the investigation and Jesse decided that it was better to tell Mark himself, than to wait for Melissa's twisted version of events. With a sigh, he quietly confessed to what had happened in the hospital corridor.

"And you've only now thought that it was important enough to mention?" Mark couldn't hide his disbelief. "Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

The conversation only went downhill from there. Jesse was also forced to admit that, on Melissa's second visit, he had been alone whilst he treated her. It was just more ammunition for Eric Flynn to use.

When Mark left his Jesse's apartment later that evening, he no longer seemed quite so confident in his young friend's future.

*****

The next morning, Mark found himself facing the most unexpected visitor. He was in his office, trying to catch up on some of the paperwork that had piled up while he tried to deal with Jesse's crisis, when there was a light knock on the door. At Mark's bidding, the door opened and a young girl stepped in.

"Hi," she said. "I was looking for Jesse, but they told me to come and see you."

"Are you Melissa Flynn?" The doctor knew the answer to that question even as he asked it.

"Yeah!" The girl's face lit up. "Did Jess tell you about me?"

"Young lady." Mark took his glasses off and looked at her sternly. "With what you are putting my colleague through at the moment, I didn't need anyone to tell me about you."

"That's why I'm here," she answered, her face clouding over. "I want to apologise to him."

"Why don't you just dispense with the apology and start telling the truth?"

"Oh, Jesse told me all about you. You're his boss, aren't you? Well, of course he's not going to tell you about us."

"Miss Flynn..."

"So where is he?" she interrupted him. "I really need to see him."

"Miss Flynn," Mark continued, more loudly. "Doctor Travis isn't here and even if he were, I think you'd be the last person he'd want to see."

Melissa's face crumpled and, for a moment, Mark thought that she were about to burst into tears. Compassion won out as he realised that, whatever else might be happening, this girl still had some serious problems of her own. The still livid bruises on her face were testimony to that.

"Why don't you sit down?" he said, his tone softening. "Then you and me can have a little talk."

Melissa, making a visible effort to control herself, nodded and took the seat opposite the doctor.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," Mark began. "But you've got Doctor Travis into an awful lot of trouble and I'm just trying to help him."

"I guess." Melissa looked far from convinced. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

Mark felt a brief surge of hope that, maybe, he was finally starting to get through to her. But her next words swiftly dashed that hope.

"My dad wasn't supposed to find my diary."

"Melissa, about your diary..."

"I hate it when he goes snooping like that, but when Becky told him about Jess, he just went ballistic! I mean, I guess I should have known. I really should have found a better hiding place."

"Melissa!" Mark had to raise his voice again, before she would finally shut up and let him get a word in. "Please, just listen to me for a moment. I've known Jesse for many years and he is a very good friend of mine. He is a very kind and caring person. I also know that, sometimes, he can do his job too well. That's all he was doing with you, Melissa. His job. He..."

"His job doesn't include taking me for a drive," Melissa reacted furiously. "His job doesn't include kissing me, does it?"

"But he didn't do those things, did he?" the doctor pressed on relentlessly. "At least not in the way that you say. He was just being kind, just trying to help you, like he would anybody else."

"No!" Melissa almost screamed.

Leaping to her feet, she yanked the door open, then paused on the threshold and turned back to him.

"You can't bully me!" she cried, in the same piercing tone. "And you can't threaten me!"

With that, she was gone and Mark could only stare at where she had been, completely dumbfounded by what had just happened. A moment later, he took off after her, but Melissa was running down the corridor towards the elevators, leaving a dozen astonished witnesses in her wake.

TO BE CONTINUED...