"I know how some people are. They wouldn’t understand." Her eyes were cast down to the floor.
"I’m sure that anybody you operated on would rather know that in this day and age of devastating, deadly diseases, the surgeon with her hands inside of them is engaged in a monogamous relationship. No matter who that relationship was with."
Garrett’s mouth dropped open at the candor with which the man spoke.
"Hell, you’d have to be a fool to take chances on someone that wasn’t. Now, don’t think that I feel that every patient needs to know your private life, I don’t," he barked. "At least you could answer that question if it were ever an issue. You’d be able to assure them of your complete and undeniable dedication to your partner, putting their minds at ease."
Unsure, she answered. "I just never thought…"
Turning quickly, his gaze pinned her in place tighter than if he had used a hammer and nails to do the job. "Then you’d better think about letting the other person know what’s in your heart or you’ll lose her for sure, before you know it." He shook his head as he thought aloud. "I can’t understand how you can be such a damn good trauma surgeon and not be able to take control of your own life." A sigh of disgust could be heard as it left his mouth. "I would have thought that you could have learned more while you were here with us, Trivoli, but I guess I was wrong." The Ol’ Cutter shook his head in frustration. "I suggest that you would at least be woman enough to confront the other person and see where they stand before you throw it all away." He turned and walked over to the window again, his back remaining in her view. "Now, go and think about what I’ve said. You’ve got a lot of things to consider before you plot out the rest of your life."
She stood motionless, her eyes not being able to stay fixed to any one place. Her mind was a jumble of mixed emotions raging from fear to hatred of the man who had been able to crawl inside of her head without her realizing it. Was it so obvious to everyone around her? Was she in such denial of her own feelings for so long that she couldn’t even recognize them when they were pointed out to her? The once proud and defiant surgeon stood there, her shoulders rounded in self-doubt. Biting her lower lip she closed her eyelids to try to calm her turbulent soul. Shaking her head as she left the office of her mentor, she knew what she needed to do next, and it wasn’t going to be easy.
After a restless night, Garrett rose to her last day of work here in the ‘Burgh. She’d puttered through the silent house hoping to hear the sound of a lumbering Danni climbing out of her bed to start the day, but it never happened. The surgeon was there by herself with only memories to keep her company now.
The tall woman pulled on her Dockers, polo shirt and grabbed a freshly laundered white Lab coat for her final day in the clinic. There would be no surgeries for her today, instead it would be a day of checking up on patients that she had seen initially in the past and she thought of it as coming full circle in their care. It would be a short day for her. Even with making the several stops to say her good-byes, she knew that she would be home earlier than on most of her previous work days. She looked around her bedroom and made a mental note to bring a few boxes home with her tonight to pack her meager belongings in, then left to begin her last day.
She had seen several of her patients as the morning wore on into the afternoon. Each of the visits had shown a steadily improving patient recovering both from their injuries and from the trauma of the accident itself.
Take for instance the woman that the Trauma Team had simply known as "Sunshine." Her ability to come back after the devastating attack and rape was testament in itself. The surgeon knew how hard the rape trial had been for both her and the victim but luckily some good had come out of it for the both of them. Garrett realized that she did indeed have tendencies leaning toward being gay, and for "Sunshine," the woman was able to find some sort of justice in knowing that the man who had violated her would be locked up for quite a while.
Then, there was the young boy who by bad luck had gone from mock patient to patient all in the same day. It would take some time but his rehabilitation was going along nicely. His initial neurogenic shock was resolving as well as the head injury that he had sustained in that fall from the bleachers. It would be another month or so before the Cervical Spine fracture was healed completely, but his prognosis was looking better every day. He would not be a victim of paralysis.
She felt proud of the work that she had been a part of in all of her patients’ efforts to bring their lives back to near normalcy. Her skills had been well used and relied upon over the course of the last year, making her feel good that she had played an important role in their lives.
Garrett looked at the clock as she went to the desk for the last set of folders that were waiting to be seen. It was nearly 1630. With a little luck this would be the last ones for today. She opened the first folder and smiled. Then as she quickly opened the second folder her smile grew broader. ‘What a nice way to end this day,’ she thought and went to the examination room where the patients were waiting to be seen.
The surgeon opened the door slowly and smiled at the pair. "Marie, Chris, I’m glad that I get to have you two as my last patients to see."
The eyes of the women lit up as they recognized the tall surgeon. "Why now, if it isn’t Dr. Trivoli, what a surprise." Marie voiced in her calm and eloquent manner while Chris nodded in delight from the chair next to her.
"So what do you say we get the exams done first, then we can chat?" Garrett looked at them with a raised eyebrow. "Chris, how about you first?" The surgeon motioned to the examination table in the room. "Care to hop up and let me take a look at how well that incision of mine is doing?"
"Sure, Doc," she stated as she got up and tugged her shirt out of her pants. She walked over to the table as she unbuttoned the shirt and then laid down waiting to be examined. "Looking pretty good, I think."
The surgeon pulled on a pair of gloves and gently probed the site, checking it for how it had healed as well as signs that the scaring was fading. After inspecting the length of the incision and the areas around it, she straightened up and smiled as she pulled off the gloves, throwing them into the trash receptacle. "Looking very good, Chris. Are you experiencing any problems, any tightness of the skin as it’s healing?"
"Hell…I mean heck no, Doc." Chris corrected her language and looked over sheepishly at Marie. "I been trying not to use that as much since I almost landed up there." She giggled as her curly hair shook in response to it. "You did a good job of patching me up and I wanted to thank you for it." The older woman nodded. "Marie told me what all you did and I wanted you to know that I appreciated it."
"Yes," Marie chimed in. "She was on the road to recovery much faster since you let me stay with her. Thank you for doing what was best for her and not what somebody else stated as policy."
Garrett smiled and nodded. "I like to think that I do what is best for the patient, not just follow the rules."