Part 5
The patient sat in the doctor's office with a very worried expression on her face. She was in her early forties but looked a lot younger and was in excellent shape. She was dressed casually but her posture in the comfortable visitor's chair revealed that she was a very sophisticated businesswoman. Her focus at the moment was on a beautiful painting of a mother and child. The mother was an older woman cuddling a newborn baby tenderly in her arms. She was kissing the babies cheek with an overwhelming loving expression on her angelic face.
There were tears rolling down her cheeks as she prayed quietly, "Please God, Give me that. That's all I want a healthy baby to love."
The door opened and the tall doctor slipped into the room with a radiant smile on her face. When Sandy saw her patient's expression the smile disappeared and she rushed to her side.
Kneeling by her chair she asked anxiously, "Are you all right Jane? Are you in pain?"
Jane looked up into the concerned blue eyes and smiled through the tears. "No I'm fine thank you Doctor. I've just been such an emotional wreck lately. I'm…"
"Shh, Its okay. Do you have any pain anywhere? Do you feel any discomfort?"
"No, really I was just…Um, I couldn't help but look at that beautiful picture and I…well…I…"
Sandy turned and looked at the portrait. She got up and sat on the edge of her desk nodding her head toward the painting with a sweet smile on her face she said, "That painting was done by one my patients after she had her baby. She did that as self-portrait with her baby. She was forty-eight when she had that beautiful boy. She is now 53 and he is happily driving his mother crazy."
Jane smiled at her doctor and asked, "Is that why its up there?"
Sandy nodded and replied, "Yep. I love it and to me it gives my mother a clear glimpse of the happy possibilities."
Jane swallowed and dried her tears. Then she looked into the compassionate blue eyes and said very quietly, "Thank you Doctor."
"Please call me Sandy, like I asked earlier. I'm only Doctor to my staff," She said to the now calm woman with a huge smile.
That made Jane laugh like she wanted her patient to. "Thank you Sandy."
"Your very welcome. I have some interesting news for you…"
"Oh?"
Sandy nodded with a hidden smile, "Yep, you will have twice as much zanyness as you were expecting. You're going to have twins."
"Twins?" Whispered Jane overwhelmed.
"Yep," said Sandy now smiling brightly again.
"Wow!" She yelled her face breaking out into a smile full of sunshine.
"Yep."
Mandy was pacing in her office yelling at the person on the other end of the phone.
"We can't operate on that!!!" She yelled at the caller shaking her head and kicking the visitor chair beside her. "Don't give me that! Your board just voted yourselves a raise. They can take the money for staff salaries out of that! No! How dare you. I will not lay any one off!"
Unheard by the angry blonde Sandy came into the office and leaned against the door as she watched and listened to the angry one-sided conversation.
"No…No! Tell them to take it from some where else. Not us damn it! These people work too hard to be treated like this. Your board presides over five institutions of health and they are not taking a cent out of our tiny clinic for such a superficial purpose. Yeah you bet you can quote me!" She said hanging up the phone and throwing it across the room in pure rage. She was surprised when she didn't hear a satisfying crash from it.
She looked up into a pair of compassionate light blue eyes and smiled at the phone that Sandy was holding up in her hand.
"It is the property of the clinic after all."
Mandy's face broke into a grim smile. "Yeah, Like the powers that be give a damn. Those manipulative jerks voted a raise for themselves for a new building. A building! Can you believe that? We are helping to better peoples lives and they want to take the food from our mouths so can they have bigger offices!!!"
Sandy put the phone down on a side table and briskly crossed the room to engulf the smaller woman in a warm embrace.
"Shh, I'll take care of them…"
Mandy pulled back and looked into loving eyes as she argued, "No, I'm…"
"Mandy my Dad is a founder of that board. I know all their skeletons. I've know each one of those stiff-necked, neck ties personally since I was kid. I'll go and talk to them. Don't you worry anymore."
Mandy looked at the determined look and said with a sudden smile, "Oh boy, I actually feel sorry for them now."
"Don't they deserve the broken ear drums that they are about to get."
Sandra's red convertible sped up to the imposing building that housed the board of directors that ran her clinic. She shook her head at the large edifice at the thought they wanted a bigger office then the monstrosity before her. She dressed carefully when she and Mandy came home from work, which caused her beloved to laugh. She smiled back as she modeled her battle clothes for the small blonde. She was dressed from head to toe in black leather. It clung to her, showing every curve of her body making her look very dangerous.
"Wow!" Mandy exclaimed from the couch. "I can't wait to undress you tonight."
"It will be a pleasure for me as well," Sandy said with a wink as she left for her appointment.
She strode into the office with feral look on her face and said with out any formality.
"I want to speak to Chris Clarke. Now!"
The receptionist looked at the intimidating woman and decided she must be some biker chick. "Mr. Clarke doesn't speak to anyone with out an appointment."
"Oh he will see me." She pulled her card from her pocket and said, "Give this to him and tell him I'm out here." The woman looked dubious but took the card and went into the inner sanctum."
Sandy had to bite her cheeks to keep from laughing. I'm Dad's kid all right. Soft on the inside tough as nails out side. Once Chris sees that card he will split a gullet to get to me. She thought to herself in amusement as she watched the suddenly red cheeked receptionist hurry out of Chris's office. Breathlessly she said, "Ma'am if you follow me."
Sandy followed her into the inner sanctum with an expression of complete disdain and displeasure. Her eyes were pure ice as they met the older man's behind the desk.
Chris Clarke was in his sixties and knew her since she was a child. Her father sat in his position and he was merely the board secretary at the time. When he looked at Sandra he couldn't help but see her father and that still intimated the hell out of him. Especially dressed like that with that expression on her face.
"Sandra, What an unexpected…"
"It's unexpected but believe me Chris this won't be a pleasure." She sat down in the large comfortable chair in front of his desk putting her long legs in front of her with her booted feet landing on his antique desk.
Chris sat down again and crossed his arms across his chest asking, "Oh, and why is that?"
"I'm not very thrilled with you at the moment."
"Your administrator works very fast. How did she get you to do this? You don't usually get involved in this kind of thing."
"That's true. Amanda is my friend and I am the chief surgeon. I also don't like the fact that you want to sack half my staff. You add two plus two and what do you get?"
"We need that money…"
"For a God Damn building!!! This place is the size of Buckingham Palace! I save lives and bring new life in this bad old world. You top that, old boy."
You're not showing any profit. I can…"
"You can't do a damn thing and you know it. I'm the one that's a draw to this clinic. I am the one with the reputation. I give this board the only good publicity that it will ever get. You know it and I know it. Don't you ever try to get one over on me? You should know better, I'm my father's daughter. Where I go my patients go and your health empire will crumble. I could leave to say, set up a rival office and you will get no more publicity except the kind saying that you lost one of the best surgeons in the country. I would say that is a bargaining chip don't you?"
Chris's mouth was a grim line as he replied quietly, "What do you want?"
"Its very simple. You leave my clinic the fuck alone!"
"Deal"
Like a beautiful panther Sandy gracefully got up from her position and like calm royalty crossed to the door. She stopped by the door leaning against it and said looking him straight in the eye, "It's been a pleasure doing business with you." She then gives him an amused wink and left the stunned man breathing heavily in his huge empty office.
Sandy gave the receptionist a jaunty waive and left the building with a huge wicked grin on her face.
After Sandy left Chris grabbed the phone and dialed a number by heart and in an angry voice said, "We have to talk. No Tonight! Yes as soon as possible."