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"What the hell do you think you're playing at, Novitiate?" Harding demanded. They'd been separated, but neither had been sent to their rooms. Obviously, that was reserved for recalcitrant Surgeons and their Dispatcher sidekicks.
"Getting a coffee," I said, grabbing a clean mug from the tray to the right of the urn. "Ooh, doughnuts," I added, spying the little delicious devils under a tea towel off to the side. After I poured my coffee, I was so going to grab half a dozen of those babies.
"Answer me, Novitiate!" Jess snapped.
I spun to face her with my now poured coffee, and then slowly took a sip. Leaning back against the bench — no way was I leaving that location before I had my stash of doughnuts in hand — I looked at Jessica Harding over the rim of the mug, and said, "Coffee."
"That is not what I meant and you know it! Your disrespect toward our new security section is unacceptable."
"Kissing their boots already, Harding?" I asked.
"That's Dr Harding to you," Pratt snarled.
I smirked into my coffee.
"Leave her be," Dean said. "She's just gettin' a coffee. Can't we drink our coffees in peace no more?"
"You stay out of this, monkey," Harding snapped. Her beady eyes returned to me. "Andyouare getting written up."
"Wouldn't be the first time," I muttered.
Jessica took the necessary steps to reach me. I shot a nervous glance toward the doughnuts. Would I have to battle for them? Defend them? Sacrifice my coffee?
A well-manicured finger poked me in the chest, drawing my attention back to the she-devil before me.
"Dr Harding?" I enquired pleasantly.
"I don't know what game you're playing, Wylde, but in case you hadn't noticed, there's new management in town."
"Dr Crawford is still the Chief Surgeon as far as I'm aware, Dr Harding," I said, gripping my mug a little too tightly, in case I needed it for something other than the elixir of life it contained.
"Not for long, Novitiate."
I snorted into the mug for effect. "They can't get rid of him," I said with as much indignation as I could muster right then.
Harding smirked at me. The I-know-something-you-don't-know smirk she sometimes favoured.
I held her stare as she revelled in being superior to me, and then she leaned forward and said, "Before the end of the day, he'll be out. You mark my words."
Having delivered her superior knowledge and rubbed it in my face, she looked back at the rest of the mess hall occupants with obvious disdain and then flicked her hair over her shoulders à laMiss Piggy and, with her cronies in tow, marched out the door.
I stared after her and then finished my coffee.
Jessica Harding was a bully and a self-righteous twit, but that didn't mean her intel wasn't legit. And if I knew Harding, she'd be kissing up to the new powers that be in the hopes of getting bumped up to Surgeon well before her time as an Intern was completed. Heck, I wouldn't even put it past her to be doing Anderson's laundry for him and spit polishing his shoes, all in the mistaken belief that he'd reward her for good behaviour.
Or, at least, she'd be ordering around a Novitiate to do it and taking the credit.
I returned my empty mug to the dirty tray and started adding doughnuts into a paper bag for ease of carrying when Dean approached my side on silent feet.
"That was risky, Mouse," he murmured, shuffling mugs around on the tray to look like he was actually doing something.
"Sometimes acting like a mouse makes you more memorable, Dean," I offered.
"So, you're goin' for defiance instead?"
"I'm going for unaffected. Their presence hasn't affected nor changed me in the slightest, therefore I am not a threat."
"It's risky," he insisted.
