Finding Joy

CHAPTER 10: THE THINGS THAT FOLLOW MISTAKES

Joy sat face to face with CEO Winter in his office. He leaned forwards and rested his arms on his desk in a clenched position.

"So you're suggesting that I shouldn't fire the employees involved?" He paused. "Are you, perhaps, involved?"

Joy, without hesitation replied, "Yes."

Winter, taken aback, widened his eyes. He took a deep breath and replied, "Thank you for your honesty, but you do know what this means, don't you?"

Joy gulped, but managed to force out her words. "Yes, sir. I understand. I understand I-  we made a mistake, but I don't think we should be let go."

"Joy, as much as I appreciate the work you have done for this hospital, I can't listen to your request. Their mistake could have cost us greatly. We need to remove liabilities for both the hospital's and their sake. Please understand."

Joy thought to herself, "He has a point, but I still don't think this is right. What do I do?"

After a period of silence, Winter stood up. "Now that we're done here, I have to leave for a meeting. I suggest you get back to work as well until I sort this out."

As Winter walked closer to the door, Joy yelled to herself inside her head. "Joy! You have to do something. It's now or never!" 

"Have you ever made a mistake?" 

Winter stopped and turned his head to the side. "What are you trying to say?"

Joy stood up. "Surely you've made mistakes at some point in your life. But weren't you forgiven? Didn't you get a second chance? Making mistakes is a part of learning and that is how we grow. But, we won't be able to grow if we aren't given the chance to fix our mistakes. It's better to have a veteran, who has been torn down but gets back up every time, compared to a constant flow of clean palettes that knows little adversity. Yes, a mistake to such a degree will fill us all with frustration and anger, but the only thing we can do now is to get stronger and move forward. You'll lose more than you gain if you keep letting people go."

Winter stood still at the door deep in thought. "I should know more than anyone."

-

Back when the Hospitals were being threatened and closed, Winter believed that the only way to escape from being a target was to, of course, get rid of his liabilities. Since the culprits were wagering their target's families, he reasoned, in the spur of the moment, that he should leave his child. Few, if not none, knew of his scandal, and they labeled him as ruthless. Perhaps, they realised, Winter had shown his true colors after hiding behind his facade for so long. And, perhaps, he was just as ruthless as those behind these crimes. However, what they didn't know was that behind closed doors, he had another side to him. The side that wept knowing that he had just given up the most important thing to him in the world.

-

"I really haven't learned, have I?"

As Winter turned around to Joy, she quickly turned her head away and nervously stretched out her arms and waves her hands. "Ah! I misspoke. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you."

He paused and, to Joy's surprise, he laughed and smiled warmly. "You've grown up well." Winter thought for a moment and said, "Fix this first. Then we'll talk."

Joys, for a moment, paused, unable to register what just happened. But, when she did, her face immediately brightened up. "I won't let you down!" Joy walked out the door and, before she leaves, bows. "Thank you!"

Outside Winter's office, Edan was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, relieved that she wasn't a burden. 

She exited the office, just missing him, and made a mad dash back to the lab. She slammed the door open and Lily and Nick immediately rushed up to her.

"Oh my gosh, we're fired aren't we?" cried Nick as he grabbed onto Joy's arm.

"Of course we didn't get fired." Lily said as she used her index finger to forcefully push Nick's forehead, knocking him backwards. Lily turned back to Joy and asked her anxiously, "There's no way we got fired, right?"

"No, actually, it went surprisingly well!"

Lily sighed in relief and aggressively pat Joy on the back. "So how'd you do it? I need to get some tips just in case."

"Um," said Joy, hesitant to tell her the embarrassing truth. "I just asked him nicely and promised to fix everything."

Nick, rubbed his throbbing forehead asked, "Really? So, what's the plan?"

Joy squinted her eyes and put on a mischievous smile. "While Edan was fighting the two guys that hacked into our systems, the USB dropped out of one of their pockets. Since they were distracted, I picked it up while I escaped. We can get someone to analyze the coding from the USB to find our security flaws and fix them."

"Ah hah! I always knew you had it in you." said Nick as he cheerfully clapped.

Lily turned around and, once again, used her finger to push him back down. "Liar, you doubted her as soon as she came back." Lily turned back to Joy. "So, we got that problem solved. How are you planning to restore our data?"

Joy laughed nervously. "Well you see, about that."

Joy clenched her teeth with a nervous sweat. "We can technically recover the data, but-"

"But what?" both of them asked.

Joy sighed. "But they're all paper records, so we'll have to retype all of it. I guess we'll have to get used to working overtime."

"Seriously?" said Lily. "Can't we just get someone else to do it? Like maybe some of our friends or coworkers who aren't too busy?"

"But Lily," said Nick. "We're the only friends you have!"

"Can it, Nick." Lily said and Nick immediately returns to his "Sulking Corner". "Anyways, Joy, you seem pretty close with Edan. You should ask him." Lily winked.

"What? I can't ask him! He's not part of the medical staff. He has no reason to take on all this work, and I doubt he would even understand any of this."

"Suit yourself."

After working hours are over, Joy went to collect the paper records. On her way back to her lab, she turned around a corner and crashed into someone, sending all of the papers flying.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" exclaimed Joy.

She bent down and frantically tried to collect the fallen papers. At the same time, the person who bumped into her also bent down, and the two bump heads again.

"Ow!" Joy winced. She rubbed her head and looks up to apologize. "Sorry I-"

"Are you ok?" says Edan as he places his hand on her head.

"Ah, don't worry about me. Are you ok?"

"You couldn't hurt me." As he picked up the papers he asked, "What are all these for?"

"Oh, my team and I were going to sort these out."

"Ah."

Then, they both opened their mouths and said in unison. "Would you like-" Joy paused while Edan finished his sentence. "-help?"

"Really? I was going to ask you first, but then I remembered that you're probably going to be off of work soon and I didn't want you to have to-"

He turns around and starts walking.

Joy, nearly dropping her documents, reached out her arm towards him. "Wait, where are you going?"

"Did you forget which way your lab is? Are you coming?"

"Ah, yes!"

Joy showed him the same smile as she did when they first met. Edan immediately blushed and covered the lower half of his face with his hand. Then, he walked away, quickly, without her.

"Hey, wait for me!"

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