Frieda was getting the brunt of Jac's bad mood at work. Her boss really was doing everything she could to make the Slav's life hell. She came to work every day and she did her job and still, Jac treated her appallingly.
She might have cared more if she believed it was personal. It was just Jac being Jac.
Things had been tough recently, for everybody, and she was just glad that she still had a job to turn up to every morning.
"Ms Naylor, surgery's scheduled for ten minutes, are you ready to scrub in?" Frieda asked as she entered Jac's office and found the consultant looking rather bemused.
"On my way now, Petrenko. You're still leading, yes?" Jac replied, receiving a curt nod from Frieda as she made her way towards the door and walked down the corridor towards the scrub room.
Despite how much pressure they seemed to constantly be under, Jac still found the time to push Frieda close to breaking point just for the fun of it. Somewhere deep inside though, Frieda was grateful that Jac had the faith to challenge her.
The patient on the table had come in from an RTA and had managed to get a sheet of his windscreen lodged in his chest. There was an aortic tear, and his mitral valve was irreparable. Frieda had started out well, she had replaced the mitral valve without any issue at all, and it was only once she moved onto the aortic repair that came into bother.
He was bleeding out too fast for her to do anything. Suction was failing to clear the cavity and she was going in blind, after fifteen seconds of struggling, she looked to Jac for guidance.
"I won't be here to fix your mess next time, Petrenko, this is your responsibility," she stated sharply, clenching her jaw as she watched the patient's blood pressure continue to fall. After another 60 seconds, she knew she had to intervene. "Move, his organs are dying."
In a matter of seconds, she had clamped the artery and patched the tear. With an air of contempt, she stalked out of theatre and told Petrenko to close without killing the poor man.
She snapped off her surgical gloves and threw them into the bin, wondering how she had failed to see this degree of incompetence in her pupil. Petrenko had proved herself, she had shown that she was a talented surgeon and she still failed to seal an aortic tear by herself. It was ridiculous.
Heading back to her office, she knew that Frieda was going to argue with her. If there was one thing that Frieda wasn't, it was afraid of Jac in any capacity.
"What the hell was that?" Frieda snapped almost on cue as she walked into the office and slammed the door shut. "I looked to you for help because I couldn't get control. If that man wakes up and he's suffered complications, I will not hesitate to throw you under the bus. You are my superior and I asked you for help, your stupid attempt to get me to prove myself may have cost a man his liver."
"Don't hold me accountable for your failings, Petrenko. You said you could lead that operation, you told me that you were completely capable, and you were wrong. If you are going to lead an operation on my ward then you better be damn sure you could've done it without me there to babysit you and clean up your mess afterwards!"
Frieda met her gaze with fury in her eyes like Jac had never seen.
"Maybe that operation was tougher than I expected it to be, maybe I hadn't anticipated the risk of a major bleed, but you are the one that is making an innocent man pay for my mistake. You were right there Jac and you could've taken over and just put me on scut duty for a week, but instead you put a man's future in my hands and that was not fair."
Jac demanded that Frieda leave her office. Whether she was at fault or not, she would not be held account by her own pupil, not if her life depended on it. Frieda could go to Fletch, or she could go to Serena, and she could make a complaint and then perhaps Jac would begin to take a word she said seriously.
Unlucky for her, her own imagination had played her.
Seven hours later, Serena Campbell stormed into her office with a presence like thunder and an awkward Frieda at her side.
"Guess who's post-op CT showed that his liver's failing. Well done, Miss Naylor, you've ruined another life today!" Serena greeted sarcastically, staring Jac down with an impressive measure of disgrace. "His family are with him and they're all about to be informed. All we can hope is that they don't want to make a formal complaint, or your head is well and truly on the chopping board."
"You actually went to the Acting CEO because you're mad at me? I didn't think I was working with a child, Petrenko," Jac snarked, removing her glasses and setting them down on her desk.
"Now is no time to be criticising Dr. Petrenko, Ms Naylor. Whether a complaint is made or not, there will be an in-house investigation into your conduct today, because quite frankly, it's irreprehensible that such an experienced consultant could behave so immaturely."
Serena stalked out of her office and Frieda followed, pulling the door shut behind her. Jac realised in that moment that she had well and truly messed up, that the line she had been toeing for twenty years had finally been crossed.
