July 26th
"Please tell me why you feel you're the best person for this job." Sarah leaned back a bit and waited. She resisted the urge to tap her pen on the pile of applications hidden out of sight of the webcam.
"Well . . ." The young woman hesitated. "I just want to help people. This seems like a good way to do that." She gave Sarah an innocent look, her big blue eyes wide. "It is, isn't it?"
"If that's your main goal you could find work in almost any doctor's office or clinic across the country," Sarah said. She struggled to be polite at this stage. Fifteen minutes with Miss Krystle Condon had proven revelatory. When the interviewee had found out Sarah and Greg were both married, her interest in the clinic had increased markedly, and she'd even managed to insert a few personal questions about their respective private lives in with her answers to Sarah. Where I come from we call your kind homewreckers, Sarah thought, and kept a polite expression pinned to her face.
"I'd like to work with the best." A charming smile was aimed her way, in much the same manner as you'd toss a treat at a dog. "That's always been my goal."
I'll just bet it has. "Understood, Miss Condon. Thanks for your time." Once the webcam was off Sarah dumped the folder in the trash and picked up the next one in the stack. She regarded it with something less than enthusiasm. Four interviews just this morning from the files she'd chosen the day before, and not a single one had proven worth her time. To make matters worse, another dozen resumes had arrived in the mail an hour ago and she needed to vet those as well.
Sarah put the file back on the stack as Gene appeared in the doorway. He held two glasses of iced tea. One he offered to her; the other he kept for himself. He grabbed the Eames chair from Greg's desk and rolled it so he faced Sarah, then eased his lean body down and sipped his tea. His dark eyes held amusement and concern.
"Aren't you supposed to be in Newark?" She drank some tea and enjoyed the cool astringency as it hydrated her dry throat.
"Decided to take a little vacation," Gene said. "It's too damn hot to be anywhere but in the shade in my own back yard." He glanced at the stack of folders. "How's it going?"
Sarah gave him a wry look. Still, she was glad of his company. She knew he was did this as much for her as for himself. "It isn't."
"No one's lookin' good for this job?" He stretched his legs and crossed them at the ankle.
"I'm not being too picky," Sarah said.
"Did I say you were?" Gene said in a mild tone. He lifted the glass to his lips as a dimple appeared in his cheek.
"Stop it," Sarah said. "It's important to find the right person for the position."
"You're trying too hard," Gene said.
"If you're gonna harass me you should have brought cookies too."
"Sarah Jane." He hadn't raised his voice, but she could feel the change in intensity. "The right person will show up."
"I can't rely on that," she said. "This is important."
"This is a position in a clinic, nothing more, nothing less. Your boy isn't worried."
"Because he knows I'm taking care of it," she said, and winced at the terseness in her tone.
"You're obsessing over it," Gene said. "Two very different things." He rested the glass on his chest as he leaned back and watched her.
"Maybe I need to obsess a little, did that ever occur to you?" She took a large swallow of tea.
"I think you need to go do something else. Set up the sprinkler for Jason and Mandy. Curl up in front of the fan with your husband and watch the game. Get some pizza from Lou's tonight because it's too damn hot to cook." He smiled a little. "Let whatever's nagging at you have a chance to surface."
Sarah didn't bother to ask how he knew; they'd been together long enough to understand each other's nuances and patterns. "Yeah, okay. I guess you're right."
"I know I am," he said, and laughed at the dirty look she sent him. He set his tea aside and held out his hand. "Come on."
Ten minutes later Sarah was in her old one-piece swimsuit, while Gene wore a pair of ragged cutoffs. He carried the sprinkler out onto the lawn amid the stands of white clover and alfalfa, going slowly so he could watch for bees. Sarah stood by the faucet. She waited until the hose was played out and he was about to put the sprinkler down. Then she turned the water on full blast. It took a few moments for the flow to travel the length of the hose, but Gene was too preoccupied to pay attention. Thus he caught a powerful slap of cold water as he bent down. Sarah laughed at his strangled yelp and took off when he dumped the sprinkler on the ground and headed for her. As fast as she was, his legs were longer and he was more determined. In short order she was hauled to the sprinkler and held in place as it drenched her. She squealed and struggled and was held tight while Gene kissed her.
"Troublemaker," he said against her mouth, and dumped a handful of cold water down her cleavage.
It wasn't until after Jason and Mandy showed up that the mysterious niggle at the back of Sarah's mind finally revealed itself. She paused in the middle of a water balloon fight, transfixed by the sudden knowledge, and was bombarded for her inattention.
After she'd gone inside and toweled off she went into the office, sat down and stared at the stack of resumes on her desk. She took them in hand, hefted their weight, and dropped them into the trash can before she picked up the phone. "I'm looking for Colleen McMurphy," she said to several people at the VA hospital. "Could I please speak with her? Yes, I'll wait."
"Doctor Goldman?" The older woman's voice held faint surprise. "What can I do for you?"
"Ms McMurphy, I know we didn't get a chance to talk when Greg and I visited over the weekend, but I'd like to change that if possible." Sarah hesitated. "How would you like to come up to our place for a few days?"
A long silence followed. "I'd be very interested in why you're asking me," Colleen said. She sounded wary.
"I'm gonna lay my cards on the table," Sarah said. "Doctor House is starting his own practice. He needs an executive secretary, someone who can handle anything, and I do mean anything. I think you're the right person to do it."
"Doctor Goldman—"
"Please call me Sarah."
"You don't even know me. You have no idea of my capabilities, my experience. Besides, I'm a nurse, not a secretary." Colleen spoke with a certain amount of coolness that told Sarah she'd better get her counter-argument in before the conversation was ended.
"Ms McMurphy, have you ever had that little voice deep inside tell you to do something, even when you know it's completely bat-shit crazy?" Sarah held her breath. A moment later she was rewarded with a reluctant chuckle.
"More times than I can count."
"Then maybe you'll understand why I'm callin' you out of the blue this way. I can't really tell you why you'd be the right person for the position. That's actually a good thing, because I believe you need to decide that for yourself. And the best way to do it is to come up here, take a look around, talk to some people."
"What makes you think I want to leave the job I'm in now?" Curiosity touched that cool tone for just a moment. Sarah fought a smile. She'd nearly won; now she'd have to tread carefully.
"I hope you'll forgive me for bein' nosy, but I watched you with the guys. You're great with them. They consider you to be both a brother and a sister, and that's not an attitude they bestow lightly, I'm thinking. You love those boys with all your heart. But it hurts to be around them, even though you've resolved most of your issues with your time in Vietnam."
"Could be," Colleen said finally. She sounded a little stunned.
"It would make sense that you'd be considering something different. What I'm offering is something very different. Greg House is a brilliant doctor. He needs someone who can handle him at his worst and at his best. I think you're the person to do it." Sarah crossed her fingers. "You both hit it off at the hospital."
"That's hardly the phrase I'd use."
"You connected. It wasn't sweetness and light, but there was something there, substantial enough for me to pick up on," Sarah said. "You saw his wounds, and you didn't pity him. And he knew it. That's a good place to start."
"And on the basis of fifteen minutes in the same room together with Doctor House, you want me to give up my work here?" Colleen made a little noise of derision.
"I'd like you to think about a visit," Sarah said. "Just to look around, that's all. You can stay at my place, we have plenty of extra rooms."
"You know this is not going to work," Colleen said.
"I have to try," Sarah said.
"He means a lot to you, doesn't he?"
"Yes." She said it simply. "He does."
There was a little silence. "I'll . . . I'll let you know," Colleen said. "Don't count on me saying yes."
"Whatever you decide is fine," Sarah said.
After the call was done she wandered into the kitchen, took a cookie from the jar on the counter and munched it. She watched Mandy chase Jason with a water balloon. He laughed as she launched it and got him in the small of the back, only to get drenched in turn when Jason turned around and lobbed a balloon back at her. The boy grew fast now that he was got three good meals a day, as well as anything he could find between times; he'd gained two inches in the last month, and his limbs had taken on a gangly look that meant he'd be on the tall and lean side like Gene eventually. Mandy had lost a little weight and gained a nice tan. In another year or so Jason would probably find he looked at her in a different way, and things would never be the same for either one of them ever again.
Everything changes, Sarah thought. She finished off the last of the cookie and headed back outside to where her husband waited under the shade tree, as he listened to the sound of laughter and cicadas.