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Dr. Berger nodded. “That was smart,” he told her grudgingly. “No one else caught that. Good job, Dr. Swinton.”
Emily felt as if she had just been handed an Academy Award. She knew she had taken a risk by not following the rest of the interns when the patient had arrived, but she also felt sure she had done the right thing. It was icing on the cake to realize that Dr. Berger saw it that way too.
Maybe, just maybe, she had begun to make up for the mistake she had made on the first day.
She glanced over at Chad and saw that he was looking at her with something like disgust on his face. She wasn’t surprised. Of course he would hate to see her doing well, getting any sort of recognition.
She smiled at him.
He scoffed and turned away from her.
“Is there anything in particular you’d like me to do right now, Dr. Berger?” she asked. “Otherwise, I can go sit with Maggie, maybe help her reach out to her parents. She’s just a kid herself. I don’t think she should be alone right now.”
“That’s a good idea,” Dr. Berger agreed. “You go ahead and do that, at least until the next patient arrives.”
It occurred to Emily as she sat down next to Maggie again that Chad would probably think this was nurse work.
But that just showed how little he knew.
CHAPTER 5
DOMINIC
“Before we begin our rounds today, a quick announcement,” Dominic said. “The Midwestern Medical Summit is happening in Chicago this year, and the hospital is offering to send anyone who would like to attend, including interns. It’s a two-day affair that will be held in a hotel downtown. If you’re interested in attending, you should put your name on the signup sheet in the break room.”
Sara put her hand up. “Is there a limit to how many people are allowed to go?” she asked.
“If too many people try to sign up, we’ll have to cut it off, because we need to have coverage here at the hospital,” Dominic said. “But I don’t think that will be a problem.” He looked out at his interns. After a few weeks together, he had begun to remember their names, and even to think of them by their first names instead of their last. He felt as if he knew them well now. Sara was the one who always came to work with her makeup done, with painted nails, and he knew that she changed out of her scrubs and into a nice outfit every night before leaving. It had given him cause to wonder where she went and what she did,if she was going out clubbing after work or something. Just the idea of that made him feel as though she would probably be one of the interns to be cut at the end of the three-month period.
“Dr. Berger, is anyone really expecting us to have time for a conference?” Chad asked. He didn’t bother to put his hand up. “I’m already behind on all the paperwork I’ve been assigned.”
Chad was another one who should have been worried about his spot, but unlike the others, he never seemed to consider the idea that he might not make the cut. It was a confidence that Dominic would have liked if it had had any basis in reality at all.
“If you’re behind on your paperwork, I suggest you start staying late and get yourself caught up,” Dominic said curtly. “But no, you’re not expected to attend the conference. Nobody is. It will be good for your professional development if you do, but you’re not going to be punished if you opt out of it. The choice is entirely up to you.”
In truth, he didn’t expect to see any of the interns sign up for the conference. They were three weeks into their internship, and he knew from experience that this was the stage at which his interns started to buckle. They would all be in the process of realizing how difficult this was, and none of them would be in the mood to take on anything extra. That was the way things went.
At least, it always had been in the past.
So he was beyond surprised, later that day, to walk into the break room and see that therewasa name on the signup sheet. In fact, there were three.
He walked over to the sheet to see who the brave volunteers were.
The first one was Cassidy Cook. That came as no surprise. He knew her by reputation and had before she’d come to the hospital — she was here because of nepotism. Her father was the chief of medicine here. No doubt he’d pressured her into signing up for the conference. Dominic had yet to figure out whether Cassidy had any interest in or aptitude for medicine, but one thing he did know was that he wouldn’t be permitted to cut her at the end of the three-month trial period. It almost didn’t matter what she did.
The next name on the list belonged to Emily Swinton.
Dominic found himself staring at the list for several long moments, wondering if he had read it wrong.
The last three weeks had made it clear to him that there was more to Emily than her late arrival on day one. She’d proven to have a good bedside manner and to be excellent at putting patients at ease, and her basic skills were just fine — he felt comfortable sending her to handle simple procedures without feeling the need to supervise her all the time, the way he did some of the others.
Still, it was a surprise to see her sign up for this conference. She didn’t have a father working in hospital administration, so what was her reason?
The third name on the list was Sara Flaherty. There was no mystery there. Dominic had seen the way Sara and Emily had gravitated toward one another. He was sure that Sara had signed up for the conference at Emily’s request — that Emily had wanted to have a friend along with her. Honestly, that was smart of her. But he still didn’t understand what had caused her to put her name down in the first place.
“So you’ve seen it,” a voice said.
Dominic turned and saw Jonathan standing behind him. “Did you see this?”
