Disclaimers: I don't own ER, or any characters thereof. I don't own Vioxx or Merck, and take no stand on the current bit going on with them, just see them as a potential plot device. Any characters I create for this story are mine though.

They chatted a bit more, but soon both pagers were going off, and Susan and Kerry had to abandon the coffee and depart, one to bail out a couple of med students that'd gotten in over their heads, the other to diffuse tensions between a few disgruntled oncology residents and the department head before anyone decided to take a swing at anyone else, which seemed to happen more there than in any other part of the hospital, though never in front of the patients. (Staff of that department dealt with more death than any one should, and were generally a bit too tightly wound for it.)

She arrived just in time to see the first punch land, but as soon as the would be combatants caught sight of her, they pretended it was an accident. It was almost funny. Almost, but not quite. And then, when they tried to pretend that nothing happened, it was mildly insulting, like they thought she was deaf, dumb (and not in the mute sense), and blind. She had nothing against individuals with hearing, visual, or vocal problems, but she knew what she had seen and what she had heard, and didn't appreciate their attempts to persuade her to believe them instead of her own senses. Kerry chewed them up, spat them out, and left them in the dust. She had better ways to waste her time. Like the mountain of paperwork on her desk that she'd chosen to neglect in favor of a few minutes in the ER. One of the perks of her job that offset the many downsides, she could choose what to focus on, medicine or administration, as long as the paperwork got done and the meetings were attended.

Of course, there were times when she could send an aide to the meeting. Or secretly do paperwork on an unrelated matter while in it. Or cancel it if there was no actual point. Not that she did any of those all that often, but there were times when it was appropriate.

After an hour of playing with budgets and salaries on a spreadsheet program, Kerry had officially beaten the security hiring problem into the ground. Christ, she wished somehow it could be someone else's problem. But she could have turned down the job, and she didn't, and now having gotten what she wanted for so long, she couldn't. Well, not if she planned on having any sort of career or maintaining her self respect. She minimized that file and went to her e-mail.

The business of finding a new ER attending wasn't all that pleasant. Most of the applicants were either terrifyingly underqualified (Kerry prayed that a few of them never wound up finding attending positions, as it would be a death warrant for any challenging or critical patients they might face), or overqualified, but with no idea how a real ER worked, educated and trained, but coddled so that they would likely crumble or panic in a moment of stress. Had the prospects been that bad last time she'd had to find an attending? Probably, and she'd almost definitely blocked out the memory for just that reason. If she thought about how poor most of the candidates were, she'd dread the process even more.

When the two hundred and thirty seven e-mails in her inbox (how had that many built up? Wasn't her secretary supposed to weed out most of the junk? Oh wait, she'd fired him for deleting important ones as well…) had been reduced to only fifty one of at least marginal importance, Kerry looked up at the clock. It was approaching three, which meant the early lunch she had been planning on sneaking out for would be either a very late lunch or a very early dinner. She considered putting off food altogether until she got home at the end of the day, but her stomach argued against such action, so she snuck down to the cafeteria and got some fruit and an iced tea. Not a real meal, but it'd tide her over for a bit.

"Twice in one day, Kerry? Shouldn't you know to avoid the caf by now?" Susan snuck up behind her.

She shrugged, "You're here too. Besides, it's nearly impossible to get food poisoning from an orange."

"ER is heating up, think you can spare a few minutes?"

Any excuse not to do paperwork, "I suppose, as soon as I finish this," she popped a section of the orange into her mouth.