Chapter Text
The hospital smelled of overheated coffee and antiseptic wafted through the halls. Dr. Mohan was rechecking a dosage on her computer, when she turned to find Dr. Robby behind her.
“Tell me you are not checking that for the third time?”
“I just want to make sure,” Dr. Mohan said, her voice sounded way too small to her.
“This isn’t a dissertation defense,” his voice started to rise. “We can lose patients by just waiting for you to write a dosage.”
Dr. Mohan bit her tongue. She really wanted to curse him out, but she knew better than to say something she would regret.
“I just don’t want to make a mistake,” she said, keeping an even tone level.
“The patient’s blood pressure is tanking and you are out here doing math,” Dr. Robby snapped. A few nurses glanced at what was going on and then pretended to go back to work when Dr. Robby looked at them.
“Look, this isn’t an exam!” Dr. Robby yelled.
“If I give him the wrong dose-” she said meekly.
“He could be dead right now. Hesitation kills,” Dr. Robby said with a sneer.
“And moving fast causes errors,” she said a little too quickly.
Dr. Abbot heard as Dr. Robby reprimanded Dr. Mohan. He tried focusing on his chart, but his friend’s voice carried and he noticed others around him stopping their work. He listened until there was a pause and they weren’t speaking anymore so he decided to walk over.
He saw the two of them staring at each other and the tension in the air was palpable.
“Robby,” he said calmly.
Robby didn’t turn around at the sound of his friend’s voice.
“I need to talk to you about something.”
“I”m busy,” Robby said, still looming over Mohan with a baleful glare.
“Now,” Abbot said, stopping beside Robby.
“Our patient is circling the drain as Mohan here takes her sweet time with a dosage calculation.”
Abbot looked at her screen. “Are you verifying the weight discrepancy?”
Mohan nodded. “Two entries sixty-eight and eighty-two kilos.”
Abbot pointed at the timestamp. “Pick the most recent one.Eighty-two’s from triage ten minutes ago.”
Mohan adjusted the dosage. “Thanks,” she muttered with a little bit of embarrassment.
“Thank you,” Robby whispered.
Abbot’s gaze shifted to Robby. “You want to review the call. Fine. You want to teach. Also fine. Humiliating her in the middle of the hallway isn’t medicine. This isn’t a play, Robby.”
Robby rubbed a hand over his face as he took in Abbot’s words. Mohan looked between them but stayed silent.
“You hired her to think and that is what she is doing,” Abbot said quietly. “Let’s go save the patient.”
Robby nodded as he exhaled.
Mohan knew he wasn’t going to apologize; he never did, but she was glad that Dr. Abbot came to her defense.
Mohan grabbed the syringe with the correct dosage and headed toward the trauma bay, leaving the two of them standing there.
“Why did you defend her anyway?” Robby asked Abbot.
Abbot shrugged. “I don’t know, but when you break her, you break me,” he said softly.