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"An old age home, Tendai? Are you serious?!" I spat, anger spreading through my veins like a malignant cancer as I stared my chief resident down. Thanks to my gossiping colleagues, I'd found out the reason she'd sent me a message to see her before I'd even made it to her office, and I wasn't having it.
She sat stone faced as she continued to do admin work at her desk, the title plaque on the table a painful reminder that she had all the authority to make the call she had.
"I'm a surgeon, Tendai. Not a damn babysitter." I continued when she didn't so much as look in my direction after I'd stormed into her office.
"You should have thought about that before you operated on a four-year-old without her primary guardian's permission." she huffed. "And keep your voice down when you talk to me, Alex. You made your bed, it's not my fault that you have to lay in it."
"No." I said, stepping closer and banging a fist on the table. "You've made this bed. Everyone else in this hospital understands my intentions. Are you really going to punish me like this over a little mistake?"
"What do you mean, mistake?! You opened my daughter up before you'd done enough research to be sure that the surgery would actually work. Even the interns know we don't do such a thing! It wasn't a mistake! You knew exactly what you were doing." she yelled, her eyes a breeding ground for rage as her chest visibly rose and fell.
"She's my daughter, too! Was I supposed to sit around while she was dying?"
"Your surgery could have killed her!"
"But it didn't! She's alive and recovering well. You're just bitter because I'm the one who saved her. Tendai, I can't--"
"It's Dr. Murozvi to you!" she barked, standing from her seat and coming around the table to jab a finger into my chest. "I am your chief resident and I am fully authorised to deal with your little mistake in whatever way I please! Alex, you operated on your own child. You're not even in the cardio department, or pediatrics. You filled the minor consent form with nothing but lies. I ought to have you fired for all the rules you broke!"
"You might as well have fired me!" I shouted, pushing her hand away from my chest. "This is so much worse. It's an insult to my hard work and dedication to this hospital."
"Oh? Is that so?" Tendai said in a voice that bordered on evil. "I guess I haven't done enough."
"Tendai. Don't you dare do anything else." I hissed, my face now inches from hers.
"Who the hell do you think you are, Alex?!" she growled, taking a step closer so I could feel her breath grazing my chin as she spoke through an angry scowl. "You're lucky you're still on the hospital's payroll right now. I could have listed you as a volunteer for the months you'll be working at the nursing home. Don't come in here with your broad shoulders and that narcissistic attitude, making commands. And this is the last time I instruct you to address me with respect. Call me by name one more time and I'll add so many disciplinary flags to your profile, no one will want to hire you once I kick you out of here. Do you understand me?"
