Grabbing her mobile and depositing her now cold coffee from earlier down the drain in the loo, Bernie headed to the lift to go grab a fresh drink from Pulses. Remembering how breezy it was when she arrived, she figured it would be even worse up on the roof, so she opened the messaging app on her mobile and typed in a message for Dom: 'Peace Garden. 10 minutes?'
When the lift opened up onto the main floor entrance, she stepped out to find a bit of a commotion taking place, other staff looked on in some discomfort while they waited for their orders to be processed, as the one person she was hoping to find was being backed up into a group of chairs and tables.
"What exactly are you meeting that cow for?" Isaac was using his taller physical presence to stand over Dom. "You do realise she reported me to HR? Meddling bitch." The utter disdain dripped from Isaac's voice. "Who does she think she is besides someone else screwing her coworker to get ahead?"
"Good." Dom spoke up, trying to move away from the chair that was threatening to push into his back. "She's a friend. A good one. I do have those, remember?" Dom pointedly did not respond to Isaac's accusation about Bernie's relationship with Serena; it wasn't any of Isaac's business.
"Not for long." As if seeing the disquieted crowd gathered for the first time, but without seeing Bernie, Isaac leaned in, grabbing a tight hold of Dom's upper arm and uttered menacingly, "Not if I have anything to say about it."
Blowing out a long slow breath to calm herself, Bernie placed her phone quickly into her pocket, and she quietly snuck up behind Isaac, grabbing his free arm and pulling it up behind his back, guiding him away from Dom. Using her element of surprise, not giving him an ounce of space to counter her movements, she pushed against the back of his knees, leveraging him down to the floor, placing him into a hold position, where she pointedly told him, quietly though loud enough for others in the immediate vicinity to hear, "Fortunately, you don't have anything more to say about it at this point." Looking up, she quickly spotted Essie Harrison waiting in line for her order. "Essie, can you call for hospital security please?"
Startled out of her staring, Essie grabbed the nearest wall phone and dialled the security office. Alerting them of the incident, she hung up and went over to Dom to offer some support, guiding him to a nearby chair.
Handing the Keller nurse a £10 note, Bernie asked, "Can you grab him a tea with plenty of sugar and meet me in my office as soon as you can please?"
"Certainly, Ms. Wolfe," Essie responded.
What seemed to be an interminable time, two security guards approached the situation in progress, inquiring what happened.
Identifying herself first, Bernie responded, "Berenice Wolfe, Consultant Trauma Surgeon, AAU. When I arrived here, Doctor Mayfield was verbally accosting Doctor Copeland here, he then became physically aggressive. I intervened on Doctor Copeland's behalf. Can you take him to your office. I will be there shortly. He's already got a written warning on his record with HR."
"Will do, Ms. Wolfe." Taking over physical guardianship of Mr. Mayfield, the security guards led him out of the way, but not before he turned and levelled a glare at Bernie.
Paying the registrar no heed, she headed over to Dom, grabbing a chair and sitting down with him for a moment. She glanced at the young man who was trying his best to appear okay.
Bernie looked around and laid a hand on Dom's arm. "Let's head to my office; it'll be more private." Dom simply nodded and Bernie was worried for the young surgeon. Pulses was fine for general conversation, but not for something that is much more delicate.
Standing, Bernie waited until the young man stood and she followed him to the lift and up to AAU, not saying anything until they reached the Consultant's office.
Bernie sighed as she directed Dom to sit down in one of the guest chairs. Looking out the office door, she spotted Serena with a patient and smiled over at her partner. Serena had given her a questioning glance, tilting her head towards the office and Bernie nodded her head and mouthed, 'later?'
Serena nodded her head briefly then returned her attention to the patient that Jasmine was assessing and Bernie closed the door to the office.
"Ms. Wolfe," Dom started quietly. "What's going to happen to Isaac?"
With a slight growl to her voice, Bernie said sharply, "What I would like to see happen to Mr. Mayfield is much worse than what is likely to happen, so that should have no bearing." Bernie stopped and sighed as she dropped herself into her own chair.
Dom looked up at her suddenly as he'd not really seen this type of ire from Ms. Wolfe before. Certainly, he'd picked up on disagreements between Ric Griffin and Ms. Wolfe while she did her early stint on Keller the previous year, but it was nowhere near the response he'd just witnessed. He admired that, and frankly, in a way it kinda scared him. Thankfully, she was on his side, and he smiled in her direction.
Truthfully, Bernie would have liked to dispose of Isaac quickly and efficiently so that he never hurt another person ever again. She ran her hands through her hair before she continued. "Given he already has a written warning on his record, and with the incident today, the disciplinary matter will now be up to Sacha, Ric and Mr. Hanssen. If you're willing to add any further incidents at this point, which you're very much entitled to report, I can provide you with an incident report form as needed. There will be an investigation into any bullying or intimidating actions by Mr. Mayfield." Bernie sighed as she looked over at Dom. While she's been involved in disciplinary investigations from management level several times over the years, it always hurt her when it was a friend who was either the victim or the one doing the bullying. She wondered if she could have seen it sooner and or intervened sooner. Leaning forward, she continued to try reassure him. "None of this is your fault, Dom. You didn't cause him to act this way; it's a power trip and he's a master manipulator. Or at least he thinks he is."
"But…" Dom interjected. "What if,…"
"No what if's, Dom. It'll drive you crazy. He's the only one responsible for his actions." Bernie reached over and placed a hand on Dom's arm. "Listen, you're also entitled to representation from a mentor of your choosing to work with you through this process and be present during the inquiry. I need to check with Hanssen to see if there are any conflicts of interest, given I was the one to file the initial report with Human Resources, but if he gives the go ahead and if you're comfortable enough with me filling that role for you, I would be honoured."
A shy Dominic Copeland looked over at Bernie. "Thank you, Ms. Wolfe."
Bernie grinned. "Dom, in here, unless otherwise specified, you can call me Bernie. I think you've earned that right as a friend."
Dom nodded.
"As for Mr. Mayfield, I'm guessing a mandatory suspension of duties while an investigation is undertaken. Some of his bullying and intimidation has been done on hospital property, to a junior doctor, so from an employer's standpoint that needs to be assessed and investigated. There are a few routes that can be taken from there on how to handle any disciplinary judgement."
Dom nodded, taking in what she was telling him but he was still in a state of disbelief; it seemed to him that everything was happening so quickly and he was struggling make sense of the situation. Logically, he knew that things between he and Isaac had being going downhill for months; it had been so insidious that it had undermined his confidence in himself and his abilities. He hated the fact that he'd felt so desperate for love, that he'd gotten himself into a situation where again, he'd been preyed upon. After Lee, he'd thought he'd escaped that particular kind of manipulative behaviour from a partner. He shivered.
Worried for the young man's safety, as Bernie was fairly certain that if he'd continued to stay with Isaac, after an investigation had been initiated, that he was likely to be facing further physical attack at the registrar's hands, she gently asked, "Dom, do you have somewhere safe you can stay tonight?"
"Zosia's offered me the spare room at hers and Ollie's for now."
"Okay. Good. That's good." Bernie smiled, relieved. "If you need some time to go get your things, we can arrange for that."
"Thank you, Ms. Wolfe…Bernie," Dom said with a wry grin, correcting himself.
A quick succession of knocks at the office door, Essie awaited Bernie's permission to enter before she opened the door. Laying the drinks on the desk, she could sense the tense atmosphere in the room.
"Dom, if you need anything, just let me know," Essie said with concern for her friend. "Yours in the one with the big D on top."
Nodding his head, Dom replied, "Thanks, Essie." He put his head down and reached for the large cardboard cup and took a large swig, grimacing as the tea was still pretty hot despite the delay in getting it.
Over his head, while nodding towards Dom, Essie looked over at Bernie with a smile and mouthed, "Thank you," before she slipped out of the room and headed back up to Keller.
Bernie stood and stretched for a moment, using the brief time to consider her next move. With Isaac still being held by hospital security, she needed to quickly speak with Serena, followed by a meeting with Sacha, Ric and Mr. Hanssen.
Noting the exhaustion that seemed to be pervading over the young doctor, Bernie placed a hand on his shoulder. "Dom, I've got to step out for a few minutes to go talk with Serena. Do you want to stay here, head back up to Keller or grab some kip in one of the on-call rooms?"
Though most of him wanted to just go back to work on Keller, get stuck in and pretend that everything was okay, lose himself in the work, he also didn't want to face the whispers and comments from colleagues at the moment. Although, he knew Essie wouldn't be behind it, there had been enough people down in the cafe that he was quite certain that what had occurred down in Pulses was already making the rounds in the hospital. "On call room. You and Ms. Campbell will need your office for work..." Dom smirked at her playfully, before continuing, "and other things." It had not escaped his hearing learning that his friend and her co-lead had enjoyed more than one kissing session in their office.
Bernie shook her head and laughed, balling up a sheet of paper from her desk and tossing it at him.
