She's On Top

3: It Only Takes One Second

2004.

"Hey, Baby... I just clocked out and Shannon and I are walking over to the bar now. How are things at home with you and the munchkin?" Shayla asked Marquis, while removing and tossing her stethoscope into her Louis Vuitton tote.

"Everything is good. She actually JUST fell asleep. I gave her a bath, put her little scarf on, gave her a cup of warm milk and she was out like a light. I'm glad you and Shannon are stepping out for a second. I'm sure you both needed a breather after tonight's shift. The people from that bus accident earlier got sent to your hospital, right? I saw it on the news." Marquis took a sip from his beer, while rubbing his forehead.

"Aww, my baby. I'm happy she's getting some sleep. You know how she can be at night—I swear it was much easier to put her down when she was a newborn than it is now." Shayla chuckled before answering her fiancé's question. "We definitely needed a reprieve. Our E.D. was FLOODED today. It was patient after patient, one traumatic injury after another. We lost two patients today... one at the hands of Kathy, of course. She's like a walking-malpractice lawsuit waiting to happen." Shayla rolled her eyes at the thought of her new but least favorite co-worker.

"I'm sorry to hear that, baby. I know how badly those impact you. Even though it's apart of the job, it still bothers you a lot given everything you've gone through. I get it. Hey... You know... Speaking of Kathy. A few members of the board had questions about her. She got fired from a previous hospital but the record is sealed for some reason and her previous employers declined to be contacted for an interview. A few of us thought it was off but Todd says he's worked with her before and you know he doesn't put his neck out there for just anybody so the board voted in favor of bringing her on as the charge nurse who would take your spot once you got that promotion. What exactly did she do today?" Marquis' brow raised quickly once he processed Shayla's statement in its totality.

"I just wish I could've saved them somehow, babe... I feel like hospitals are supposed to HELP not HURT. Kathy obviously hasn't gotten the memo, however. That's kind of odd... You're telling me TODD got her this job. The same Todd who preaches at every doctor or nurse on a daily basis about keeping the 'fatality' rate low, so HIS hospital can look good on paper?? No way."

"Uh yea... That's exactly the Todd I'm talking about. I don't know what the relationship is between the two of them but he was pretty adamant about hiring her." Marquis shrugged.

"Well, he'll be happy to know his star-employee made the call to avoid doing an ultrasound on a patient's abdomen, who came in from that bus crash. She told the poor man he was probably just 'sore and shaken up' from the whole thing. It turns out, he was bleeding internally because of how hard he fell on impact. She claimed he was stable and she was preparing to discharge him. Before one of the assistants could get the paperwork printed out, he coded." Shayla walked him through the incident.

"Damn... Something tells me that'll be on my desk tomorrow when I get to work. I don't see how the board expects me to defend a case like this if she was exercising in a negligent manner like that. Listen... We can talk about this more later. You go have fun for a minute with Shannon and call me right before you leave there. I'll be downstairs waiting on you to get back." Marquis told her as he remembered she was supposed to be taking a moment to clear today's events from her mind.

"Okay... Shannon is giving me the death stare anyway. I guess I'll go have a bit of fun. The real fun starts when I get home though, Sexy. I might take a shot just for you. We both know how much you enjoy me after I have shot or two of Tequila." She said flirtatiously.