I Believe in You

The Prince & the Pauper

I woke up early on my husbands thirtieth birthday to make breakfast. Ace and Lily sat at my feet hoping I'd drop scraps for them to devour.
Conrad wrapped his arms around me from behind while I stood at the stove his bare chest pressing against my shoulders.
"Smells good, baby." He sighed kissing my neck.
"Only the best for my love on his birthday." I giggled leaning back into him.
After breakfast I took his hand and lead him back to our bedroom shutting Ace and Lily in the hallway. I sat him down on our bed, straddling him. My red satin nightie that normally rested at my mid thigh now around my stomach as I took his face in my hands and kissed him. I could feel his hands on my back the thin satin fabric the only thing separating us.
"Meghan." He sighed when I moved to kiss his neck.
I rubbed myself against him as he moved back towards the middle of our bed and pulled me down on his chest. We worked together to remove his shorts he wore to bed. I hardly ever wore anything under my nightgown and we effortlessly joined together once his shorts were down.
I pulled my nightgown over my head as I rode him on our bed.
He sat up still inside me gripping my shoulders as we danced. He moved me so I was underneath him and kicked his shorts off so we were both naked in the bed.
We climaxed together with him on top of me still inside me.
I screamed out his name as he rode me through my climax.
He remained inside me as we breathed heavily together.
He sat up on his knees pushing my legs further apart before laying back on top of me sliding all the way in incredibly slowly.
"I love you, Meghan." He kissed my neck as he started moving again inside me consistently hitting my spot sending me over an edge again and again.
It wasn't often we had the time before work to really pleasure each other.
After a joint shower we left for work.
As soon as we stepped out onto the hospital floor Marshall Winthrop walked up to us.
"Will you two come upstairs to Bell's office for a meeting?" He asked.
I looked up at Conrad and shrugged.
"Yeah, okay." He told his father.
The three of us took the elevator up to CEO Bell's office.
"Randolph. We need to talk." Marshall said as we walked in.
"Meghan, Conrad, please sit."
Conrad and I complied. I for one was beyond interested in why the Chairman of the Board wanted Conrad and I to sit in on a meeting with the hospital's CEO.
"Chastain isn't bringing in adequate income." He stated looking between the three of us.
"Mr. Winthrop, we don't handle income." I motioned between Conrad and myself.
"Our job is strictly to make the sick well and to heal the injured."
"Meghan, if I may? I'm your father in law. We're beyond Mr. Winthrop. Marshall, please." He started.
"I didn't ask you and Conrad here to discuss the hospital's income. I asked you here to get some insight into patient care. When I asked some of the doctors yesterday who I should talk to about patient care the consensus was that you two are the ones to talk to." He smiled at us.
I nodded and Conrad took my hand.
"Now, Dr. Bell, what can we do to increase revenue?"
"We need to push more patients through the hospital." He answered.
I shook my head as Conrad gripped my hand.
"What is it?" Marshall asked looking at me.
"Bringing in more patients is only going to decrease the quality of patient care. The worse our patient care the less people are going to want to come here. I treated a woman when I got back from our honeymoon who had visited the emergency room six times in the three weeks we were gone without receiving a diagnosis nor adequate treatment. This isn't a way to run a hospital. We can't keep doing this to people. We're a hospital that operates on word of mouth. If we have people coming back over and over for the same reason then when that person's friend is thinking about going to the hospital emergency room she'll tell them not to come here unless they want the runaround." I argued.
Marshall nodded.
"Conrad, is there anything you'd like to add?" He asked.
"Not really. Meghan pretty much covered it. As a hospital we are too concerned about the bottom line than patient care. We are constantly hitting walls trying to adequately care for our patients and provide them with the tests and treatments they need. We can do better." He said looking directly at Bell who was fuming.
"We're discussing that we already don't make enough money." Bell growled.
"And your solution is to make it even harder on doctors to provide quality care?" I shot back.
"What would you say to me if our roles were reversed? If you were trying to save lives and I looked at you and asked how to save the hospital more money to line my own pockets?"
"Now wait just a minute." He stood up to physically step to me.
Both Conrad and his father stepped between us.
"Meghan and Conrad are right however the four of us need to figure out how to get along. Meghan and Conrad are the face of the hospital to the patients. Randolph is the face of the hospital to the investors. I'm the one trying to get both of those ideal to match." Marshall insisted.
I sighed and nodded.
"Randolph. I will tell you one thing. If you ever physically step up on my daughter in law again I'll see to it that you never practice medicine again."
I glanced at Conrad who was looking at his father seemingly in awe.
"If you'll excuse us. I'd like to sit down with Meghan and Conrad to discuss what they need to provide proper care."
Marshall lead us down into the hospital and out into the courtyard.
"Thank you, dad." Conrad said wrapping his arm around me.
"She's family now. I won't let another person try to physically intimidate my family." He answered.
"What do you two need to make this hospital successful?" He asked looking at us.
"Less political hoops to jump through. We need to be allowed to run the tests we need to run in order to diagnose patients correctly. We need to then be allowed to treat those diagnoses with the best treatment possible as opposed to the cheapest." I sighed.
"I will see what I can do to make that happen." He answered looking at Conrad.
"Happy birthday, son." He smiled before turning and walking away from us.