Richard Mabry: Medical Error

Anna turned to Nick. "And you heard my conversation, called the detective, then came to my rescue-gun and all."

Ross lifted his hand like a student asking permission to speak. "And while you all were playing cops and robbers, I got a call from the mother of Glenn Wilcox, who wanted to see me. Anna knows that Glenn told me some anonymous man pressured him to plant that false prescription. Well, he lied. Turns out, Glenn was part of the ring. The person who told him to fake that prescription bottle was the head of the ring, our old friend Detective Dowling."

"How do you know all this?" Nick asked.

"That's what Glenn's mother called me about. Before Glenn met with me, he put down all the details in a letter and mailed them to his mother, asking her to turn it over me if anything happened to him." Ross opened his middle desk drawer, pulled out a thick envelope, and handed it to Detective Green.

The detective put the envelope in his coat pocket. "This is icing on the cake. Our mailman was asking for a chance to roll on his partner as soon as he hit the recovery room after his surgery. After I leave here, I'm going over there with an Assistant DA to take his statement." He nodded toward Anna."Nice work, by the way, keeping that man alive after Dowling shot him."

"All I did was apply a pressure dressing to his wound. The EMTs did the rest."

Green reached into his pocket and brought out a notebook. He flipped pages until he found what he wanted. "By the way, this guy you've been calling 'the mailman' is named Brevard."

"Okay," Anna continued. "When we got Brevard to the hospital, Dr. Nguyn did the surgery. I just helped."

"Hang on," Nick said. "You and Luc Nguyn did the laparotomy?"

"Yeah, I know what you're thinking," Anna said. "Just like Eric Hatley's case. Gunshot wound of the abdomen. No vital structures hit, a number of smaller vessels injured, several perforations of the intestine."

"Did you give him Omnilex?" Nick asked.

"Nope," Anna said. "When Brevard hit the ER, he was awake enough to tell us. He's allergic to it." She shook her head. "Talk about irony."

Green rose. "Well, I need to get back to the station." He turned to look directly at Anna. "Dr. McIntyre, I'll be in touch through Mr. Donovan here, but I don't think there's any question that you're in the clear with us. I'm sorry you had to go through all this."

Anna had a stinging reply on her lips but bit it back. "Sorry" didn't begin to make up for what she'd been through. Then again, the police weren't responsible for her problems. Dowling was the culprit there, and now he was in custody and looking at a jail term. Ross had told her that police officers didn't fare well as prisoners. She wished she could feel sorry for him. She couldn't.

As the door closed behind Green, Anna turned to Ross."What about the malpractice suit Eric Hatley's mother filed?"

Ross tented his fingers and leaned back. "I can't predict what will happen, but I can tell you what I'd advise, and I suspect her attorney will do the same. That's to drop the action against you and bring a civil suit against Dowling. Unless I miss my guess he's stashed away a tidy sum from his activities. After Brevard brought him into the picture, he expanded the operation to include false credit cards, false insurance information, bogus narcotics prescriptions, drivers' licenses, and probably a few other things we haven't even discovered yet."

"And his associates?" Nick asked.

"Little fish. Brevard gave us names. Dowling will probably give us more, hoping to get a lighter sentence. We'll round them all up. So far as this little enterprise is concerned, it's all over."

Anna clenched her jaw until her teeth ached. Over? No, it wasn't over. The aftereffects would linger for a long, long time. She had to rebuild her credit, complete the process of getting her DEA privileges restored, expunge the false medical information from her records, probably more things that she hadn't yet considered. There was still a lot for her to do. And there was no way of knowing how many others had been similarly affected. And for at least one person-Eric Hatley-it was too late to repair the damage. Much too late.

The meeting broke up, with Green leaving first. When Anna and Nick stood and turned toward the door, Ross decided it was now or never. "Anna, would you stay for a few minutes? There are a few legal technicalities I need to discuss with you."

Nick Valentine frowned and opened his mouth, but Anna put a hand on his arm and said, "That's okay. Go on home. We'll talk later."

Nick nodded once and turned to go, but not before giving Ross a glance that would have peeled paint.

Ross closed the door and gestured Anna to one of the client chairs. He took the other one, turning it so they were facing each other, their knees almost touching.

"What do we have left to settle?" Anna asked.

"We'll eventually need to talk about straightening out your identity theft, but that's not why I asked you to stay." Ross's throat suddenly went dry. "It's personal."

He looked at Anna and remembered the empty feeling in the pit of his stomach when he heard she'd been held at gunpoint, imagining how terrible it would be to see her hurt… or worse. That was when he realized that she'd become more than a client to him. That was when he made up his mind to tell her how he felt.

Ross cleared his throat. "Anna, I've come to think a great deal of you. Almost from the start, I've thought of our relationship as more than just lawyer-client. And I was hoping that you might feel that way about me as well."

Those cool green eyes never wavered. Anna nodded almost imperceptibly. "Ross, I'm flattered. I'll admit that I've found myself attracted to you as I've gotten to know you better. But-"

"Yeah, there's always a 'but,' isn't there?" He felt the pain in his heart as surely as if this surgeon had slipped a scalpel in him.

"Yes, there's a 'but,' " Anna said. "I guess I looked at you as sort of a white knight, galloping to my rescue. But when I thought I was about to die, it wasn't you I was thinking about. You weren't the one I wished I could see one more time." She shook her head. "I'm sorry, Ross."

What was there to say? In his heart, he knew she was right. There'd been physical attraction on both sides. More than that, just as she'd been attracted to him as a champion who could save her from her troubles, he'd been delighted to find an attractive woman who needed him for his legal expertise, skills he'd been afraid he'd drowned in an excess of alcohol.

"So there's nothing there for us?" he asked.

"No, but then again, I don't think it was me you had feelings for. I was just a substitute."

He thought about that for a minute. Maybe Anna was right. Maybe he'd transferred to Anna what he still felt for his ex-wife.

As though reading his thoughts, Anna said, "Ross, you're a great guy. You'll be a wonderful husband for someone. Matter of fact, I'll bet you were a pretty good husband to Laura until you let your life get out of control. Why don't you call her and see if she's ready to give it another try?" She grinned. "You can tell her I said the liar and cheat she told me about has been replaced by a caring, considerate, sober man. I'll even give you a note from your doctor if she wants to see it."

Anna frowned as light filtered through the drapes in her bedroom. She felt as though she'd run a marathon-tired, aching in every muscle, unable to muster the energy to lift a finger. Did she have to get up? Was she due at work?

She dragged her watch from the bedside table and squinted at the tiny window that indicated the day. "SU." Sunday. She could roll over and go back to sleep. No, today she wanted to go to church. It just felt right. Anna swung her feet over the side of the bed and into slippers. She sat that way for a moment, yawning and stretching, before she shrugged into her robe. Half an hour later she was dressed, with her hair and makeup carefully done. She poured her second cup of coffee and took it to the kitchen table, where she picked up the Sunday paper and turned to the comics. The ringing of the doorbell interrupted her amusement at Garfield's latest antics.