CATEGORY: AU, DJR
RATING: PG
STATUS: WIP
SUMMARY: In a world without the 'Gate, lives are fated to be together.
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters and places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret productions. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment not monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognised characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the authors. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
AUTHOR NOTES: I would like to thank Bryn for her lovely incentive to write: stealing my Dannyclones. Thankfully, all Danny clones are present and accounted for.
Also, all the information about the ancient languages came from the following website: http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/AKKAD.HTM
. As much as I love the subject, I know nothing about it :)
Daniel was rushing through the first floor of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, not paying attention to anything going on around him. His mind was on the artifact he�d been brought down from Chicago to see, and thus, he didn�t notice the woman coming towards him until they collided. The woman fell backwards, losing hold on her binder and purse as she hit the ground. Daniel immediately started apologizing and helped her stand again. He gathered her things off of the floor and handed them to her, and it wasn�t until she had already left his sight that he realized that she had forgotten her organizer. He grabbed it off the tile floor and ran after her, but he didn�t see her anywhere.
He opened the small notebook and looked for her name written anywhere. As luck would have it, her drivers license was in the front, with her name in plain view. Janet Frasier. He smiled to himself, and continued on to his temporary office. He did make a quick stop, however, at security and asked them to bring Janet Frasier up to his office if she stopped by looking for her organizer. Although it wasn�t standard procedure, they agreed. With all the events going on at the museum that day(there were fourteen different meetings, and five school tours, not to mention the regular visitors), they appreciated the help.
When he reached his office behind the dinosaur exhibit, he set the organizer in his briefcase, and then forgot about it. He spent the next five hours translating the writing on the artifact from Syria. It was an interesting artifact just because it was written in Babylonian-Akkadian Cuneiform, but it had been found in Mauritania, Africa. This was an oddity because the farthest west any artifact in that language had been found in was present day Lebanon. He broke for lunch, eating it while staring at a section of text that he was having trouble deciphering, then got back to work. It was nearly 5pm when a knock on the door shattered his concentration. Blinking rapidly and pulling his brain out of the ancient language, he called out, "Come in."
The door opened and one of the security officers poked his head into the office. "That lady is here looking for her notebook. I brought her up. Hope I wasn�t interrupting anything."
Daniel shook his head. "No, that�s fine, God knows I need a break... Send her in."
The guard backed out, and the woman from that morning came in. She murmured a "thank you" to the guard, then looked at Daniel.
He stood, ran one hand through his mussed up hair, and held out his other hand to her. "I�m Dr. Daniel Jackson."
"Dr. Janet Frasier. They said you have my planner?" She shook his hand, looked quickly around the small office as she asked the question, then focused back on him.
"Uhh... Yeah." He turned and opened his desk drawer. "I am sorry about running into you this morning. I should have been paying more attention to where I was going, but I was caught up in this new artifact and..." He paused, taking in the look on her face, and blushed. "And... You probably don�t want to hear about that." He closed the drawer, then after a moment opened his briefcase and took out the planner. "I would have left it with Security, but I don�t really trust those guys."
She smiled faintly at him and took back her book. "Thank you." She looked again at his desk. "What are you working on?"
He looked up at her, shock on his face. "You really want to know?"
"Sure."
"Uhhh... Ok." He was interrupted by his stomach growling, and he looked embarrassed at her. "Sorry, I just had half a sandwich for lunch."
It was all Janet could do to concentrate during the conference. Her mind kept wandering to the guy she�d run into in the hall. She had never seen him before, but there was SOMETHING about him that would not allow her to focus on the topic at hand. When it was her turn to present, she had to force herself to speak and not stand there daydreaming. When the conference was over for the day, around 4pm, she headed for the parking lot, looking at everyone she passed to see if it was the man from that morning.
She was almost to her hotel when she realized that she did not have her day planner. Figuring that she must have lost it that morning, she turned the car around at the next exit off I-70 and headed back for the museum. Traffic on the highway heading west was horrible, and she returned to the museum about ten minutes before it closed. She went to security, and within minutes found herself being led to a tiny office next to the dinosaurs.
It was the same man from that morning who had her planner. They introduced themselves, and he started saying something about what he�d been working on. All of her attention was focused on his mouth, and the next thing she knew he�d stopped talking and his face was turning red. She took back the book that he was holding out to her and looked again at the tablet that was on his desk, and asked, "What are you working on?"
She smiled inwardly at the flustered look on his face as he answered, "You really want to know?"
She didn�t know if she really did or not, but she nodded and said, "Sure," anyway.
He started to answer when his stomach growled and he mumbled, embarrassed, something about only having had a sandwich for lunch.
Before she could really think about it, she asked, "Do you want to go get something to eat? You can tell me about what you are doing over dinner."
The look of shock on his faced probably mirrored the one she was sure she was wearing herself. It took him a few seconds to respond, "All right."
It was now her turn to be embarrassed. "I uhh... I�ve never been to Denver before. Do you know anywhere where we can eat?"
He nodded. "I�ve been here twice before now. There are a couple places a few miles down on Colorado, or we could head back out to Aurora. What would you like to eat?"
She shrugged slightly, "I�m up for anything. What are the places near here?"
Daniel paused to think. "There�s a Rainforest Cafe in the Cherry Creek Mall, and there is a sushi place, Noodles, and an Italian restaurant not far from the mall. I�ve been to the last three, they�re pretty good."
"Sushi is fine with me. I�ll follow you, since you know where it is."
Daniel flushed red again. "Oh... I forgot. My rental broke down this morning, I took a cab to the museum. I was planning on calling one to go back to the hotel as well."
She smiled at him, as her subconscious started jumping for joy. "I can give you a ride then. My rental car is working just fine. What hotel are you staying at?"
"The Holiday Inn at DIA. It�s just off I-70..."
"I know. I�m staying there as well. A ride back there won�t be a problem, since we�re both there."
"Are you sure? �Cause I can call a cab."
She smiled at him again, "It�s fine. Really." She glanced around his office, then asked, "You ready to go?"
"Yeah, let me pack up." He turned to his desk and carefully picked up the stone tablet, placing it gently back into the padded container. He took a few minutes to quickly organize his notes, he would have time to do a better job later, and stuffed them into his briefcase. Making sure he had his keys, he followed her out the door, shutting off the lights and locking the door in the process. The lone security guard let them out into the warm Colorado evening.
*********
It took a half an hour to reach Sushi Tazo due to the traffic on Colorado Blvd. In five miles, they saw 3 multi-car accidents. Sadly, as Daniel told her, they were the norm in Denver, and she would probably see more before she left. They spent the time getting to know more about each other beyond their names.
With the radio on in the background, they talked more about what had brought each of them to Denver in the first place. Janet was a specialist in exotic diseases, and was in Denver for the annual conference on the treatment of malaria and yellow fever. She was a keynote speaker, having spent three years in the Amazon studying the various methods the tribes used to cure yellow fever. She was also interviewing with the University of Colorado Medical Center for a position as the head of their Virology unit. They had called her, along with four other universities around the country, after her paper on tribal medicine versus modern medicine demonstrated how some of the tribal medications worked better then modern treatments. The other universities included Johns Hopkins (ironic, she said, because they had turned her down twice for medical school), UCLA, University of Pittsburgh, and Northwestern.
Daniel, on the other hand, was in Denver to study the artifact. All he said initially was that he was an archaeologist from Chicago. It took five minutes of prodding from Janet for him to tell her that he was fluent in several languages. And a few more to tell her that it was twenty-eight languages, fourteen of them ancient and unspoken in the modern world. He was one of only ten people in the entire archaeological community who could read and translate Babylonian-Akkadian Cuneiform with out having to translate it into Latin or ancient Egyptian first. He could read it just as easily as he could English.
Janet was impressed, to say the least. She didn't think she could NAME twenty-eight different languages, much less speak them. She spoke passable Spanish, and bits and pieces of French, but that was it. Much of the rest of the drive was spent in silence, as they digested what they had been told. Thankfully, they reached the restaurant a few minutes later. They ended up parking at the Cherry Creek Mall and walking there, since there wasn't any parking closer. It wasn't a long walk, and it was a fairly pleasant evening.
Once they arrived there, they had a ten-minute wait for a table, since it was quite crowded. When they finally got a table, it was a decent one, near the front entrance without them being swarmed by people like the closer ones were. Dinner went smoothly after that, despite Janet's limited experience with sushi causing her to order, without realizing it, seaweed wrapped around rice, squid, and salmon eggs. Daniel ended up trading his Alaskan Rolls (crab and shrimp sushi) with her, although she had no idea how he could eat the fish eggs. He shrugged it off, saying that, while on digs with his parents, he'd learned to eat what was put in front of him, no matter what it was. "'You never know when refusing to eat the host's cooking might lead to an international incident,' is what my father always said. Besides, a lot of weird food tastes like chicken," he added with a small grin, before biting into yet another piece of sushi.
She grinned back at him, laughing. They spent the rest of the meal talking casually, and by the time they arrived back at the hotel, they knew the basics about each other. They parted for the night in the elevator, shaking hands awkwardly as they said good-bye.
The next two days were spent in a similar fashion, driving in to the museum together in the morning, and having dinner at night on the way back. Janet left on Sunday evening, needing to be back in Florida for work the next morning. Before she left, however, they traded email addresses so that they could keep in touch.
*******
Five months later, Janet closed the door to her new office and sighed. She'd accepted the position as Chief of Staff of the Infectious Diseases department at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine a few months earlier, but they didn't want her to start until August, right before classes started. She'd moved to Maryland two weeks earlier, having bought a house in Columbia, MD, about 20 miles from the city. She had unpacked the week before, and spent the last week getting settled in at the University, going over her lesson plans for her two graduate seminars and meeting her new colleagues. She would be starting rounds two days before her classes started, so she was in a rush getting things ready before then, since she knew she would have no time whatsoever when she went on rounds. As the Chief of Staff, she also was required to go to board meetings and hold morning briefings, and pretty much do a whole lot of paperwork in addition to her duties as a doctor. She couldn't wait. She loved the administrative side of medicine as well, something she had made clear in her interview. She was probably the only one, she thought to herself as she headed home, the only one who didn't mind the paperwork.
Because it was the Friday before school started, the campus was busy with students registering and finding their classrooms. Janet carefully made her way out of the building towards the faculty lot, waving at a couple of her colleagues as she passed them. She was exhausted. She hadn't had much time to sleep since she'd returned to Florida after house hunting. It had been a hard decision to come to Maryland. Part of her wanted to turn down the offer with the same indifference as the school had turned her down, but the other part had argued about the salary and the position and the research grants. While she had gotten offers from the other schools as well, this one offered the most money in grants as well as wages, and the highest position as well. The most she was offered elsewhere was a fellowship, not a Department Chair.
So, she moved. It was rather depressing to realize that it took less then a day to pack up her condo in Miami. She didn't realize how little she actually had. She liked her new house, though. It wasn't in the city, which was nice. Columbia was a quiet suburb that seemed almost in the middle of nowhere, even though it was only about 20 miles each way between Baltimore and Washington. And the commute wasn't that bad. If all else failed, she could take the light rail into Baltimore and catch a bus.
As she headed out of the city, her cell phone rang. Digging blindly through her purse, she grabbed it on the third ring and turned it on. "Hello?"
"Dr. Frasier?"
"Yes?"
"It's Margeret Simmons, I was just wondering if you were going to stop by today?"
Janet winced; she was supposed to go by the breeders today and pick up the kitten she was adopting. "Yes, I'm sorry, I got held up in a meeting. Will you be there in thirty minutes?"
"Yeah."
"Alright. I'll see you then."
"Good-bye."
She hung up the phone and sighed heavily. It would take her at least a half hour just to get to Columbia, given the way traffic was slowing down, and another ten beyond that to Ellicott City where Margeret lived. After she picked up her new kitten, she would have to drop her off at the house, and then go to the store and buy food and litter and all the things that she'd forgotten to get during the week. Remembering belatedly that it was Friday, she decided to just get the bare minimum that night, and go out to Petsmart on Saturday. As her thoughts turned to her new pet, she grinned to herself. She'd wanted a new cat for over a year, ever since her fifteen year-old Persian died. The same week she unpacked, she saw an ad in the Baltimore Sun for homes for some pure-bred Maine Coon kittens that had been born two months earlier, and she couldn't resist.
Traffic picked up a bit on 265, and she found herself pulling up to Margeret's house pretty much when she said she would. Grabbing her purse, she got out of her car and made her way up to the front door. When she left twenty minutes later, Janet found herself the new mom to two kittens, not one. Apparently, there was a runt in the litter that no one wanted. This runt also happened to not want to leave his sister, and so, Janet adopted them both. The girl was Ephiny, and the boy would be Tigger, because his fur was an orange-ish brown with black stripes. Ephiny was in homage to her favorite recurring character on Xena, not that she admitted to actually watching the show.
Watching them climb around their carrier box, she drove home and dropped them off. She returned fifteen minutes later with kitten food, a litter box and trimmings, and a toy for each of them. She put the food and the litter box in the laundry room, as well as a couple towels for them to sleep on later. For now, she took them into the kitchen and let them loose. She checked her messages (there were none), then dug out a tv dinner from the freezer. Once that was made, she took it and the kittens down to the family room to watch the news.
*
A week later, Janet walked into her house and collapsed on the nearest sofa. It was four in the afternoon, and she was exhausted. She'd spent Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday pulling twelve hour shifts at the hospital, and Wednesday and Friday in meetings and leading her two three hour seminars. And she had once more day to go, since she had another 6 am to 6 pm shift on Saturday. Closing her eyes, she leaned back, sorely tempted to just fall asleep then and there. The feeling of something small landing on her stomach made her groan and open her eyes to see Ephiny peering up at her from her lap. She meowed softly, and then butted her head against Janet's hand that was scratching her ears.
"Where's your brother hiding, Eph?" she asked, as she reluctantly got up off the couch. Walking up the short flight of stairs towards the laundry room, she stopped off in the kitchen to get a glass of water to refill the bowl with. The previous Saturday, she had bought several cat toys, five bags of kitten food, two of those cat bed/tower climbing things, and water and food bowls. So far, Ephiny and Tigger still slept on the towels she had put down their first night there.
"There he is," she said, as she walked into the room. Tigger was in there alright, curled up asleep in a corner of the litter box. Setting Ephiny down, she poured the water into the bowls, then carefully picked up Tigger. Ignoring his indignant mewling, she brushed off the litter that was stuck to his fur and was relieved to see that he hadn't been sleeping in cat poop. She set him down next to his sister and refilled the food bowls. She had just filled them that morning, and yet they were both empty already. Leaving them to their meal, she went into the kitchen to prepare her own. Deciding to make spaghetti, she put the sauce on to simmer for a couple hours. She wasn't all that hungry.
After wandering around the house looking for something to do, she sat down at her kitchen table and started pawing through her briefcase. When she pulled out her planner, she got the feeling that there was something she needed to do. Unsure of what it was, she started flipping through the pages towards that calendar day. As she passed by March, a business card fell out of the pages onto the table. Putting the book down, she picked up the card and looked at it. It was the card that Dr. Jackson had given her with his email address on it while they were both in Denver. While she sat there looking at it, she remembered that they had emailed each other a couple times in April once they'd each returned from Colorado. But by May, the communication between them had dwindled as Janet made her decision and began making plans to move to Maryland.
Hearing tiny padded feet walking across the floor, she turned slightly to see Tigger walking towards her. Putting the card in her briefcase, she lifted it and the cat and headed upstairs to her room. Once there, she took out her laptop and hooked it up to her Ethernet cord. She ran her fingers through Tigger's fur while the computer started. "Do you think I should e-mail Daniel, Boo?" She'd started calling him 'Boo' not long after she brought him home, she wasn't sure why. It fit him, though.
By the time she opened her e-mail, her decision was made. She took the card out of her briefcase again and turned it over to where he had written his e-mail address five months earlier. Setting it down on the bed next to her, she began to type.
Hey, Daniel. It's been a long time, I know, sorry about that. Ever since May, I've been incredibly busy. Do you remember those job offers I was debating over? I decided on Johns Hopkins in May, and I spent most of the summer packing and house hunting and all those other annoying things you have to do when you move. I got up here three weeks ago, and I think I'm pretty well settled in. I just finished my first week (well, sort of, I have another shift tomorrow, but I have Sunday off at least) as the Department Chair. It was� interesting.
Well, anyway, I just wanted to stop in and say hello. I am sorry we lost touch there for a while. How is everything going for you?
Hope to hear from you soon,
Janet
Reading it over one more time before she sent it, she hoped she didn't sound to scatterbrained. Grinning to herself, she moved the cursor over to the send button and picked up Tigger's paw and used it to send the email. "Good boy, Boo! How long do you think it will take him to answer it?" She kissed the top of his head before setting him back down on the comforter.
********
Daniel was just finishing a paper for the next month's seminar on Women in Egyptian Versus Grecian Mythology when there was a knock on his door. "Come in," he called out, running spell-check on the document. It was the department secretary, Karen.
"Hi, Dr. Jackson. This just got delivered by FedEx for you," she said. "You coming to the party next week?" she asked, as he took the envelope from her.
"I don't know, maybe. I'm not that big on parties," he answered distractedly. The return address was from the Smithsonian Museum in D.C. The last time he'd heard anything from them was four years previously when he approached them for a research grant.
"Oh." Karen was disappointed to hear that, she'd hoped to get a dance with him. But, she thought resignedly, he never showed much interest in public events, as he said, unless it was lecture on history. "Well, I'll see you later, Dr. Jackson," she said as she headed for the door.
"Bye, Karen."
He opened the envelope and pulled out the pile of papers that was inside. Why, he asked himself, would they send him something via FedEx? The top paper explained it, and he stared at it for a few minutes, not believing what he was reading. He was being offered a place in the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. His job would be to work with the other people in the department to document artifacts, and if the case may be, translate writings. He would also be given a research grant to spend an undisclosed amount of time in the Middle East on any dig of his choosing. It would be a huge step up from his current position, and he wouldn't have to teach, as he did at the University of Chicago. That was one big incentive; he wasn't a big fan of teaching, although he didn't mind giving lectures from time to time. The paperwork that went along with teaching, all the exams, the grading, the homework� He detested it.
The new position would begin January 5, 2003, which gave him, if he chose to accept it, about four months in which to get out to the D.C. area. He would have to talk to the department chair here in Chicago before he made any firm decisions. The man had been Daniel's mentor for as long as he had been at the school, and he didn't want to leave him hanging in the middle of the school year. But, the offer was incredibly tempting, especially the grant. Funny, he thought to himself, how he had lived most of his life suffering from a lack of funds and here he was, finally being given what he'd been asking for. It was a dream come true.
He reached for the phone and called Dr. Jordan to set up an appointment for the next week. He would use the weekend to decide what he would do. Anxious to get back to his apartment, he quickly packed up and left; failing to even check his e-mail, something he was obsessive about doing.
*
By the time he got back to his apartment it was dark out, and he remembered he didn't have any food in the refrigerator. Setting his stuff down next to his desk, he called his favorite Chinese take out restaurant and ordered his meal. In Mandarin. When that was done, he sat down at his computer and turned it on. In the few minutes it took to load up, he started a pot of coffee and turned on the news. He logged into his university mail and began the process of deleting all the junk mail. He was amazed at the fact that he subscribed to no mailing lists or anything and yet STILL received nearly thirty pieces of junk mail a day. As he was going through clicking them, there was one that he checked off, then after a moment he went back to it. The subject just read, "Hi, Dr. Jackson," which in and of it self wasn't unusual, but he thought he recognized the address, even if he didn't recognize the domain. JFrasier. Why would Janet be e-mailing him now, after five months of nothing? It appeared that that day would be full of surprises.
He read it twice, grinning to himself. Janet was in Maryland. Maybe he'd get a chance to see her again when he went out there. He had liked spending time with her in Denver, and had wished that he'd kept in touch with her, and it seemed that she felt the same. Hitting reply, he wrote:
Hi, Janet-
I was wondering what had happened to you. I e-mailed you a month or so ago, but it was returned. Congratulations on the job, Johns Hopkins is lucky to have you. It looks like I may be joining you out there in the next couple months. Earlier today I got a job offer from the Smithsonian to work there in D.C., as well as a research grant. I don't know yet if I'm gonna take it, I'm taking the weekend to think it over.
How bad was it finding a place to live? If I take the job, I'll probably be coming out sometime in November to look for an apartment. It's been a long time since I've lived out there, but I know that I don't want to live inside the Beltway.
Well, my food should be here soon, have a good weekend!
Daniel
As he hit send, he realized that he really did want to see her again. That was another incentive to move out east. He'd have to see how everything worked out, and talk to Dr. Jordan. Yes, he decided. Moving would not be so bad anymore.
******
The following weeks were busy, and awkward, for Janet. She and Daniel had been emailing back and forth for over a month. He'd accepted the position with the Smithsonian, and had made plans to come out to Maryland for the first week of November to look for an apartment. After much debate with herself, and later with Daniel, she'd offered him a place to stay in her house while he was there, so that he wouldn't have to worry about finding a hotel around D.C. While she had surprised herself with the offer, she didn't regret it, trusting her instincts above anything. And they told her that he would be nothing but a proper gentleman. So, all in all, her personal life, such as it was, was fine.
Her life at work, however, was a different story. She enjoyed what she was doing; her classes were fun to teach, and she had always liked working directly with patients. Working with her colleagues was not as much fun. She had figured out relatively quickly that the seven doctors on her staff resented her for getting the position of Chief of Staff. Apparently, everyone in the department had expected either Dr. Robert Lyman or Dr. Maria Frish, both who had worked there for over five years, to get the positions because of their seniority. No one had expected that an outsider would be chosen, even an outsider with the credentials and background that Janet had.
Earlier that day after she finished with her rounds, she had been changing in the locker to come home and she over heard two of the nurses on the other side of the lockers. They were comparing her to a rabid pit bull; no one liked her and yet everyone had to do what she said because she could make their lives miserable. She'd held it together for the rest of the night, only losing it when she went to bed. Ephiny and Tigger took turns licking her face as she lay in bed and cried. That night, all of the built up emotions just came out. The hurt that she felt every time she went to the cafeteria and saw the people she worked with unsubtly move so that she couldn't sit with them, or when they would stop talking when she walked into a room, or treat her like she barely existed at meetings or if she saw them in the hall. It was just too much, and she felt lonelier than she ever had before. She had never felt such outright animosity directed at her before, and she didn't realize how much pain it could cause.
As her tears slowed, she made up her mind. She would find a way to deal with the tension at work somehow, starting the following Monday. She didn't know how yet, but if she didn't do something, she was probably going to lose her mind.
******
That Monday, when she reached her office, Dr. Lyman was waiting for her. Steeling herself unconsciously, she set her shoulders and walked up to him and unlocked her door. "Dr. Lyman, I see you got my e-mail. Please, come in." She opened the door and turned on the lights. "Have a seat. I know you've got a busy day, I just wanted to speak briefly with you." She hung up her coat and sat down beside her desk. She waited until he had taken a seat to begin.
"How are your patients doing?"
He thought for a second, than answered. "Fairly well. My malaria patient is on the third round of medication, looks good for a recovery. I have one tuberculosis patient, came in yesterday. She's in the isolation room until we determine how serious it is. Two new H.I.V. patients confirmed last night, both will be in later today for evaluation. Hepatitis and pneumonia, all responding to treatments. A possible case of meningitis, lab results should be back this morning. I may have Maria take over the H.I.V. patients, depends on how some of her residents are doing."
Janet nodded. "Alright. Let me know if you do. Any problems with your two residents?"
He shook his head, "No, they are doing fairly well. Losing their nervousness and beginning to remember why they chose this rotation."
"How about the rest of they staff, how are they doing?"
Robert shrugged his shoulders. "They seem fine to me. No accidents, no mal-treatment of patients. Why?"
"Is there any tension? I know many people in this department were disappointed by my appointment as Chief of Staff, you included, I guess. I hope that I have done a good job so far, but I would like to know if there is anything that you think I should be doing, or not doing?"
He was caught by surprise by her statement. "Umm�"
"You do not need to respond immediately. I'll be asking the other doctors the same, so feel free to take all the time you need. I assure you, your six-month evaluations will not change because of your response. You may tell the others that as well." She paused for a moment, trying to remember what she was going to ask. "Oh, yeah. I have received everyone else's requests for time off over the holidays, and I noticed that you have yet to turn yours in yet."
"Oh, that. I usually work over the holidays, to let the others have time with their families."
"Surely, you would like some time off? You have a lot of time on the books from the past few years. Given your tenure here, your leave will be paid."
He looked sharply at her. "Are you telling me you want me to take an early retirement?"
Her eyes widened slightly. "No, no," she laughed softly to herself, shaking her head. "No, I'm not, you are an invaluable part of this department. I'm sorry if I gave you that impression. I was just curious, because most people would jump at the chance for the amount of paid leave you have available."
"Will you be taking any leave this year?" Suddenly, he found the need to be sociable with this woman who he hadn't really spoken to before, outside of a work context.
"I don't know, maybe a few days at the end of December. And a couple days at the end of October. That was part of the reason I asked you to come in. A friend of mine is moving to this area in January, and he'll be here the last few days of October. Would you be willing to take one or two of my patients for those few days? I'll be asking the others, as well, so as not to bog you down anymore then we already are. If you don't want to, that's fine. I don't need to take the time off."
He shook his head, "No, I don't mind taking them. Will you return the favor, if I choose to take some vacation time?" He half-grinned at her.
She smiled back at him, feeling some of the tension leave the room. "Definitely."
"Ok, well I'll see you at the briefing, then." He got up, and she stood up with him.
"Bye." As she watched him walk out the door, she smiled to herself. One hurdle passed.
The rest of the day would follow the same pattern as any other day, with two more exceptions. She met with Dr. Frish and Sarah Bergman, her resident, and had much the same conversation with them as she had had with Dr. Lyman. The nurses continued to act as they always did, but there was a noticeable lessening of tensions among the rest of her staff.
