Michael Palmer - Flashback

"Careful, Don, " Zack said. "That's Frank's mother you're talking about."

"Will you two please stop it?

There are nurses and patients all over this place. Now, Don, tell me, did you have Annie on a tranquilizer or not? And for God's sake, keep your voice down."

Donald Norman was losing what little control he had left. "First of all, Frank, " he said, "I'll thank you not to tell me what to do with my voice. Second of all, I'll thank you and your brother, here, not to go questioning the therapy I choose for my patients. You may be the administrator here, but i'm the chief of the medical staff."

Frank stepped forward until his face was less than a foot from Norman's.

His eyes were steely. "Donald, one call from me, one"-he held up a finger for emphasis — "and you'll be lucky to have a job scrubbing bedpans. You should know that. And if you don't think I have that kind of clout at Ultramed, just try me. Now take that chief of staff crap and stuff it. Then tell me what in the hell you were thinking when you put Annie Doucette on tranks."

"Yeah, Don, " Zack urged acidly, "tell him."

"Zack, will you please shut the fuck up for a minute and let me get to the bottom of this?"

Norman was visibly cowed. "Frank, " he pleaded, "I was just trying to follow policy. The woman's DRG payments are about to run out. I have a bed lined up for her at the nursing home. That's just what I'm supposed to do. When I told her what was planned, she went berserk. She demanded more time in the hospital. That was out of the question. You know the rules as well as I do."

"What rules?

" Zack asked. Frank ignored him. "So you sedated her, " he said. "Jesus, Don. She worked for my goddamn family. Couldn't you have just called me?" 91… I didn't think to,"

"What rules? " Zack asked again. "Yes, what rules? " The three men spun toward the voice. Clayton Iverson was just a few feet away, calmly appraising them all. His expression was nonthreatening, but Zack could see anger smoldering in his eyes. "Judge, " Frank said. "You said you were going to wait out there with Mom."

"I got impatient,"

"Well… well, good enough. I'm sure it's no great news to you that we can't always agree on everything in a hospital. Right?"

"Right."

Frank smiled cheerily, but Zack knew he was shaken. "Don, here, tells us Annie's still disoriented, but that her condition has stabilized. Isn't that so, Zack? Listen, Judge, why don't you get Mom and bring her in.

It's getting late, and I'm sure you both want to get on home."

The Judge confronted him in a brief eyeball-to-eyeball showdown, but Frank easily held his own. "All right, Frank, " Clayton said evenly. "As long as things are under control."

"Don's an excellent internist, Judge, and Annie's getting his best shot.

Right, Zack?"

"Right." Zack nearly choked on the word. "Don, come, " Frank said.

"Let's you and I go over some things before you call it a day."

Without waiting for an answer, Frank took Norman by the arm and led him from the unit. "How much of all that did you hear, Judge?"

Zack whispered. Clayton Iverson looked over at Annie, who was clumsily picking at the restraint that was holding her to the bed. "Enough, Zachary, " he said. "I heard quite enough. I'm going to have that letter in Leigh Baron's hands tomorrow. Are you going to try and talk me out of it?"

Once again, Zack rubbed at the burning in his eyes. Even faced with this new reality, it was painful to accept that the promise of Ultramed-Davis-the sparkling physical plant and progressive approach to medicine-was no more than a veneer. Beneath the sheen, beneath the new equipment, the new specialists, and the intense public relations effort, the hospital had no soul. "No, Judge, " he said finally. "Tomorrow I'm going to give you a look at the material Guy had put together against Ultramed. You go ahead and do whatever you feel you have to do. I'm not going to try and talk you out of anything."

Zack waited until the Judge had left, and then called Suzanne. "Zachary, do you know what time it is? " she said blearily. "Gee, no, " he said,

"but give me a minute, and I'll see if I can find someone who does."

"That's not funny."

"Sorry. You don't sound so hot."

"I'm not. I have a splitting headache, and sixty milligrams of Dalmane had me barely asleep when you called."

"Sorry again."

"I've just got to get some rest. Was there anything special you wanted? "

"No, " he lied. "Nothing special. I just wanted to see how you were."

"Oh… well, can you call me in the morning?"

"Sure."

"Thanks. I should go before this Dalmane wears off." 4"Good-" The dial tone cut him off. The atmosphere in the shingled ranch Zack had leased from Pine Bough Realty was kept musty and comfortable by the lingering aroma of decades of hardwood fires. It was after one in the morning.

Seated in a frayed easy chair by the dormant hearth, Zack sipped from a cup of Constant Comment tea, absently scratched Cheap dog in his favorite behind-the-ear spot, and waited. Frank had asked him to stay up to talk, and had promised to be right over. But Zack knew that his brother had never marched to anything other than Frank Iverson's time.

In truth, it made little difference how late Frank would be. Zack was too keyed up by the events of the evening to sleep. His feelings disappointment, anger, frustration-were strangely akin to those of the dreadful night when Connie had finally leveled with him about her decision to break off their engagement and not to accompany him to New Hampshire. "It wasn't supposed to be like this, Cheap, " be said. "It wasn't supposed to be like this at all."

So much of him wanted to just pack up and run-load the camper and go back to Muni. For all of its underfinanced, stretched-to-the — limit turmoil, the place at least had heart. The bottom line there was never anything but sick or hurting patients and a crew of nurses, technicians, and docs determined to help them get well. But even as he heard the crunch of his brother's Porsche on the gravel drive, Zack knew that he would stay. For Suzanne and the mountains, for Guy and Toby Nelms and all of the Stacy Millses yet to be in his life, he would see things through. Frank's visit did not last long. He was speaking even before the screen door had shut behind him. "You really stuck it to me tonight, Zack-o, " he said breathlessly. "You really stuck it to me."

"Have a seat, Frank. You want something to drink? Some tea? A beer?"

At that moment, Zack caught the odor of whiskey and noted the fine, red flush at the corner of Frank's eyes. "I don't want anything except a little goddamn loyalty and help from my brother, " Frank said, making no move to sit. "A good nurse has quit, my father, who also happens to be the chairman of the hospital board, is furious, and my chief of staff wants to shoot me, to say nothing of what he wants to do to you. That's great, Zachary. That's a hell of a night's work."

"Easy, Frank. Okay?"

"No, damnit! Not okay. Norman's right. From the minute you got back here there's been nothing but trouble. Playing Sir Lancelot all over the goddamn hospital, undermining my authority and Ultramed's policies, even flirting with my wife, for Chrissake."

"That's ridiculous. Frank, you've been drinking. Why don't we both just sit on this and we'll talk in the morning."

"I'll talk about it now, " Frank snapped. Having, perhaps, seen and heard enough, Cheap dog growled a soft warning and from somewhere beneath the shag of his face, bared his teeth. Zack glanced over at the animal, but made no attempt to quiet him down. With Frank less than totally rational already, Cheap dog was some insurance against a major blowup. That the dog was basically a coward would remain his secret.

"All right, " he said wearily, "so talk."