Witch Hunt

"No, they're saying she propositioned the girl."

"No gossiping."

Both nurses looked over at Kerry and left the admit desk. "What are they talking about Randi?"

"Kim, Doctor Legaspi. She's being accused of sexual harassment by the suicide girl."

Kerry's jaw worked, "Damn."

"Yeah. Would she do that?"

Kerry took a breath in and slowly let it out. "We were all so... I think they called her in, and that young woman was so distraught."

Randi looked one way, then the other and leaned her head down so that it was closer to Kerry's. "I heard that the reason everyone's so pissed is 'cause she told the girl that she was gay."

Kerry's eyes raised and met Randi's. "I hope you're wrong..."

Randi shook her head, "I'm not."

Kerry stood still for a long minute or two, the chaos of the ER sweeping around her. She finally nodded, "Okay, it'll be okay."

"You can't let her go Kerry." Randi looked down, "She's really good. Whatever they say she did, she didn't Doctor Weaver."

Kerry put a hand on Randi's shoulder, "I'll figure something out."

oOOOOo

"Is bloody Mary settled in?"

"Upstairs."

Kim paused, and Kerry took the opportunity to pull Kim into the bathroom. "What happened?"

Kim blinked, "It doesn't matter."

"Of course it matters. Do you know the rumors that are swirling?"

"I've heard them, sure."

"You don't care?"

Kim took a step towards Kerry, towered over her, "I had police detectives come to my house. Interrogate me. Of course I care. But why do you?" Kim took a step back, belatedly realizing what she was doing.

"I don't. But, you're the best Psychiatrist this ER has seen. I won't let that go."

"You haven't asked why I would tell a patient that I'm gay."

Kerry took a step back and bumped into the sink, "I haven't asked because either you didn't. Or if you did it was quite possibly the stupidest and most irresponsible thing you've ever done." Kerry turned and left the bathroom.

Kim stared at Kerry's back and then the door. "Lord."

oOOOOo

Malik entered the exam room, "Hey, Doctor Weaver. This is Detective Graham."

"Detective, what can County do for you?" Kerry had a sinking feeling she knew.

"I'd like to speak with you."

"Why would you want to talk to me?" Kerry continued before Graham could answer. "I take that back, but, not here, and it needs to be quick." She left the exam room and didn't look back, allowing the Detective to either follow her or not.

The two entered the Doctor's lounge, it was empty. Kerry turned and faced the Detective. The walk through her ER had centered her and let her marshal her thoughts.

Detective Graham spoke, "You saw a patient by the name of Shannon Wallace that Doctor Legaspi also treated?"

Kerry nodded, "Yes, I called for the Psych Consult."

The Detective frowned, "But you didn't stay with her?"

Kerry shook her head, "No, we had a mass casualty situation and she only had minor injuries."

Kerry's inner mind yelled at her, 'sure you coward, don't tell him that you couldn't stay in the room for one second more than you had to'.

"So, you effectively left Doctor Legaspi alone with the patient."

There it was. Kerry paused and nodded. "I suppose."

"Are you aware that the patient said that Doctor Legaspi sexually assaulted her?" The detective had a thing with his hands, or the two fingers on his right hand at least. Using them to punctuate his points, but at least he wasn't crowding her.

"Yes. And it's ridiculous. The young woman had psychological problems, she tried to kill herself."

Again with the hand, though Kerry thought it a good sign that this time he used a sweeping away motion. "None the less, we have to follow up the accusations."

"As you should, but in this case Detective, the young woman is making this up to deflect the blame onto someone else for all the deaths she's caused."

Detective Graham studied Kerry, "That's almost exactly what Doctor Legaspi said, though with more specific diagnostic terms." He paused, "What exactly is your relationship with Doctor Legaspi."

Kerry shrugged, "Friends." A wince came unbidden to her face, "Though perhaps more like work colleagues. She is one of the best Psychiatrists this hospital has ever seen. She would not ever sexually assault or even harass any patient or co-worker. Period."

Detective Graham clapped his hands soundlessly together, "As I said, we have to follow up these sorts of things. Thank you for your time."

He left and a half a second later Randi stuck her head in. "Two things. One, I glowed when he talked to me. Two, Romano's asking for you."

"Asking?"

Randi snapped her gum and smirked, "Well, he did say something about firing, but I rarely listen to what comes out of his or Brenda's mouth. Still..."

"I'm on my way."

oOOOOo

"Hey."

"How's she doing?" A calm seemed to have come over Kerry. She'd had it out with Romano in his office, basically calling him a homophobe and a misogynistic bigot. It was a cathartic experience, though she was surprised that he didn't inquire as to why she cared so much.

Some in the ER had joked awhile back that Kerry was turned on by confrontation, especially those confrontations she had with Romano.

The truth was that every time she turned on her bitchiness it felt like a cinch on her heart and it twisted her guts into Gordian knots. No, she fought everyone else, she was going to give up fighting herself. Maybe she was gay, maybe she and Kim would wind up married, or the Illinois equivalent whatever that would wind up being, with two point five kids, a dog, a cat, and some oft dying fishes. Maybe she wouldn't, but she was going to stop the worry. Shannon Wallace's reaction to her own sexuality conflict had shown her, there were more important things in the world than her insignificant self-labeling problem.

"She's doing better than I would be." Kim guided Kerry away from the room where the mother of the baby that Abby had misplaced still sat talking to the police and into an empty exam room. Kim was slightly surprised when Kerry didn't even jump as Kim used her hand to guide Kerry into the room. She closed the door, walked over to a bench in the window and sat.

"How was your meeting with Romano?" Kerry sat at the other end of the
bench.

"Homophobic, misogynistic, the usual." Kim let a sigh go. "Degrading." She stared at the floor and nearly left her body in surprise when she felt Kerry's hand on hers. "Kerry..."

Kerry scooted a bit closer as she spoke, "This isn't about me, it's not about you. It's about a scared kid who's trying to blame someone else for her feelings and the ass upstairs who's taking advantage of the situation to fire you because he'll never get you in bed."

Kim sat there and blink at Kerry. "I... there's going to be a disciplinary hearing."

Kerry stood. "I know." Kim nodded and stared for the door. Kerry stopped her with a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "Don's not unreasonable Kim."

"But Romano is." Kim stared at Kerry, "Do you truly believe what I did was wrong?"

"Telling the patient you're gay, yes." Kim started to speak, but Kerry held a hand up. "But doing that and sexually assaulting her are two totally different things Kim."

Kerry pushed by Kim into the hall. Kim watched as the door swung closed.

oOOOOo

Kerry nearly ran into Dave, who was ghosting about in the hallway. She paused in her mad dash to get to the hearing. "You... head butted a patient's father?"

Dave shrugged and braced himself, "Look, I know..."

"Did you head butt the patient Doctor Malucci?"

"What?" Dave crossed his arms over his chest, "Of course not Chief... Doctor Weaver. And I am going home, I just..."

Kerry interrupted the young doctor, "You're on 'til eight."

"Doctor Greene said I'm off the rest of the week."

Kerry glanced over her shoulder where Mark and Elizabeth were celebrating him keeping his medical license. "Here's the thing David. I'm the Chief, as you like to remind me often. You're on until eight, and for the rest of the week as well."

"Th..."

Kerry cut him off again, "Don't thank me, get back to work, though... you may want to wait for Mark to leave."

"And the rest of the week?"

"He can take it up with his boss."

oOOOOo

Kerry entered the conference room. She was the last one to arrive. Don and Romano were at the table and Kim was standing near the door, waiting for them to pass their judgment on her. Kerry chose to stand. "Doctor Weaver, better late than never. Let's cut to the chase shall we. So that we can all get outta here and go home, okay."

Kerry met Kim's eyes, but after a moment broke the gaze and looked down at the floor.

Romano kept going, "Doctor Legaspi, recently, for whatever reason had what I hope was a momentary lapse in judgment."

Kim wasn't having that. "I take offense to that."

"Really. Well, I take offense to you coming out to your patient, which was grossly inappropriate."

Don cut into the conversation, "Doctor Legaspi is a valuable asset to the Psychiatry department as well as this hospital as a whole. I think her instincts were correct and intentions very honorable considering the situation."

"Honorable, perhaps, stupid, definitely."

Kerry couldn't look at Kim as the two men went at it. Kim kept glancing over at the red head. The blonde Psychiatrist had no idea what would come from Kerry's mouth.

"Come on Robert. Patients with Psychological problems falsely accuse their doctors of all sorts of things." Kerry finally glanced over to meet Kim's eyes and just as fast focused forward as Don continued. "I had a guy today blame me for hypnotizing him to drink his blood."

"Well, we'll have to look into that another day Don. The fact is, to the best of my knowledge, you are not actually a vampire. Doctor Legaspi, however, is a lesbian, am I right?"

"I've never hi..."

Kerry interrupted Kim. "That has nothing to do with why we're here and you know that Robert. While you were plotting how to jettison the lesbian. I did some research, made a couple of calls. Never have any of her previous workplaces seen a whiff of wrong doing from her. Sexual or otherwise. As a Med Student, Intern, Resident, or Attending."

Kerry tilted her head to one side. "Did you know that she was the perfect employee for most of her life at her mother's grocery store Robert? Helped the little old ladies, gave the tips she got to the store's bottom line."

Kim stuttered, "Yo-you called my mother?" She somehow managed to close her mouth before it started attracting flies.

"And yet, we're not here because of missing tips."

"No Robert." Kerry closed in on Romano and leaned on the table so she was right in his face, "We're here because you don't know the difference between a lesbian and a child molester."

Kerry stood straight up again and Romano's gaze never left hers. "Okay, my recommendation is administrative leave pending a criminal hearing."

"That will make her look guilty."

"I think that's premature."

Romano swung his head towards Don, ignoring Kerry. "It's pre-emptive. And if we get really lucky there won't be any charges and you can come right back to work having learned a lesson, all be it the hard way."

Kim was shooting daggers from her eyes at Romano, her hands on her hips, ready for a fight. Kerry thought it was interesting. Usually when confronted Kim had her hands over her chest, or her trusty clipboard. This was a new Kim.

Silence came over the conference room.

It was Kerry who finally nodded. Kim's heart sank, at least until Kerry spoke. "You suspend Kim, I quit."

"Excuse me?"

"Kerry," Don had a pleading note that just barely tinged his voice. "That's not-"

"No Donald. Kim is not a good doctor, she's an amazing doctor. She gets suspended, I quit. I can keep her company while she sues the hell out of you... Rocket... and never has to work again." With that Kerry pivoted on her heel and was out the door. Leaving two stunned men and a totally blindsided woman in her wake.

oOOOOo

"Kerry, Kerry, wait." Kerry stopped and turned. "Thank you."

"So they didn't suspend you?" Kim nodded, "Good."

"Kerry."

"I didn't do anything I wouldn't have done for any other co-worker."

"What you said in there could be, you didn't have..."

Kerry cut off Kim, "I did have to. Please, just..."

Kim took a step towards Kerry, who stood her ground. "Thank you. I know that we aren't exactly working at our best here. Together I mean."

Kerry pushed the elevator down button. "You're a damn good doctor. In the end, my issues don't matter. So..." The elevator door opened and Kerry stepped in and turned. "You're welcome."