Harvest

Her beeper chirped. It was the residency office again. She silenced it. When she looked up, Katzka was nowhere in sight. The magical disappearing cop. Still puzzling over his questions, she returned to the lobby and picked up the house phone. A secretary answered her call. 'Residency Office.'

'This is Abby DiMatteo. You paged me?'

'Oh, yes. Two things. You had an outside call from Helen Lewis at New England Organ Bank. She wanted to know if you ever got an answer to your question about that transplant.You didn't answer your page, so she hung up.'

'If she calls again, let her know my question's already been answered. What was the second thing?'

'You have a registered letter up here. I signed for it. I hope that's OK.'

'Registered?'

'It was delivered a few minutes ago. I thought you'd want to know.'

'Who sent it?'

There was a sound of shuffling papers. Then, 'It's from Hawkes, Craig, and Sussman. Attorneys at law.'

Abby's stomach went into free fall. 'I'll be right there,' she said, and hung up. TheTerrio lawsuit again. The wheels of justice would surely grind her to dust. Her hands were sweating as she rode the elevator to the administrative floor. Dr. DiMatteo, known for her calmness in the OR, is a nervous wreck.

The residency of face secretary was on the telephone. She saw Abby and pointed at the mail cubicles.

There was one envelope in Abby's slot. Hawkes, Craig, and Sussman was printed in the upper left-hand corner. She ripped it open.

At first she didn't understand what she was reading. Then she focused on the plaintiff's name, and the meaning at last sank in. Her stomach had ended its free fall. It had crashed. This letter wasn't about Karen Terrio at all. It was about another patient, a Michael Freeman. An alcoholic, he had unexpectedly ruptured a swollen blood vessel in his oesophagus and bled to death in his hospital room. Abby had been the intern on his case. She remembered it as a shockingly gruesome end. Now Michael Freeman's wife was suing, and she had retained Craig, Hawkes, and Sussman to represent her. Abby was the defendant. The only defendant named in the lawsuit.

'Dr. DiMatteo? Are you all right?'

Abby suddenly realized that she was leaning against the mail cubicles and that the room wasn't quite steady. The secretary was frowning at her.

'I'm… pounds e,' said Abby. 'I'm OK.'

By the time Abby made it out of the room, she was in full retreat. She fled straight to the on-call room, locked herself inside, and sat down on the bed. Then she unfolded the letter and read it again. And again.

Two lawsuits in two weeks. Vivian was right. Abby would be in court for the rest of her natural life.

She knew she should call her attorney, but she couldn't bring herself to deal with that right now. So she remained sitting on the bed, staring at that letter on her lap. Thinking about all the years, all the work it had taken, just to get to this point in her career. She thought about the nights she'd fallen asleep on her books while everyone else in the dorm was out on dates. The weekends she'd worked double shifts as a hospital phlebotomist, drawing tubes and tubes of blood to earn her tuition. She thought about the hundred and twenty thousand dollars in student loans she still had to pay off. The dinners of peanut butter sandwiches. The movies and concerts and plays she had never seen.

And she thought about Pete, who'd been the reason for it all. The brother she'd wanted to save, and hadn't been able to. Most of all, she thought of Pete, eternally ten years old.

Victor Voss was winning. He'd said he would destroy her and that was exactly what he was going to do.

Fight back. It was time to fight back. Only she couldn't think of any way to do it. She wasn't clever enough. The letter burned like acid in her hands. She thought and thought about how to stop him, but she had nothing with which to fight back except that shove he'd given her in the SICU. A charge of assault and battery.

It was not enough, not nearly enough to stop him.

Fight back. You have to think of a way.

The beeper went off. It was a page from the surgical ward. She was in no mood to take any goddamn calls. She reached for the phone and stabbed in the numbers. 'DiMatteo,' she snapped.

'Doctor, we're having a problem here with Mary Allen's niece.'

'What is it?'

'We're trying to give the four o'clock morphine dose, but Brenda won't let us. Maybe you could-'

'I'm on my way.' Abby slammed the receiver down. Fuck Brenda, she thought, shoving the attorney's letter in her pocket. She used the stairwell, running the two flights down. By the time she emerged on the ward she was breathing hard, not from exertion, but from rage. She stalked straight into Mary Allen's room.

Two nurses were inside, talking with Brenda. Mary Allen was awake in bed, but she looked too weak and in pain to contribute a word.

'She's doped up enough as it is,' Brenda was saying. 'Look at her. She can't even talk to me.'

'Maybe she doesn't want to talk to you,' said Abby.

The nurses turned to Abby with expressions of relief. The voice of authority had arrived.

'Please leave the room, Miss Hainey,' said Abby.

'The morphine isn't necessary.'

'I'll determine that. Now leave the room.'

'She hasn't got much time left. She needs all her faculties.'

'For what?'

'To fully accept the Lord. If she dies before accepting Him-'

Abby held her hand out to the nurse. 'Give me the morphine. I'll administer it.'

At once the syringe was handed to her. Abby stepped over to the IV line. As she uncapped the needle, she saw Mary Allen's weak nod of gratitude.

'You give her that dope and I'll call an attorney,' said Brenda. 'Do that,' said Abby. She slipped the needle into the IV injection port. She was just pushing the plunger when Brenda surged forward and pulled the catheter out of her aunt's arm. Blood dribbled from the puncture site onto the floor. Those bright red drops spattering the linoleum was the final outrage.

A nurse clapped gauze to Mary Allen's arm. Abby turned to Brenda and said: 'Get out of this room.'

'You left me no choice, Doctor.' ' Get out?

Brenda's eyes widened. She took a step backwards.

'Do you want me to call Security to throw you out?' Abby was yelling now, moving towards Brenda, who continued to back away into the hall. 'I don't want you anywhere near my patient! I don't want you harassing her with your Bible bullshit!'

'I'm her relative!'

'I don't give a fuck who you are?

Brenda's jaw dropped open. Without another word she spun around and walked away.

'Dr. DiMatteo, can I speak to you?'

Abby turned and saw the nursing supervisor, Georgina Speer.

'That was very inappropriate, Doctor. We don't speak to the public that way.'

'She just pulled the IV out of my patient's arm!'

'There are better ways to handle it. Call Security. Call for any assistance. But profanity is definitely not the way we do it in this hospital. Do you understand?'

Abby took a deep breath. 'I understand,' she said. And added, in a whisper, 'I'm sorry.'

After she'd restarted Mary Allen's IV, Abby retreated to the on-call room and lay listlessly on the bed. Staring up at the ceiling, she wondered: What the hell is wrong with me? She'd never lost control like that before, never even come close to cursing at a patient or relative. I'm going crazy, she thought. The stress is finally breaking me. Maybe I'm not fit to be a doctor.

Her beeper went off. God, would they never leave her alone? What she'd give to go a whole day, a whole week, without being beeped or phoned or harassed. It was the hospital operator paging her. She picked up the phone and dialled 'O'.