simon_doctor | (no subject)

(no subject)

Jordie,

I don't know whether I just did something spectacularly stupid or just avoided doing something spectacularly stupid. Possibly both.

How's your week been?

Simon

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"So why?"

Calm.

"Was it aimed at you? Did he know the patient?"

"No. -- Yes to the first, no to the second. He didn't know the patient."

Beat.

"I'm fairly sure it was aimed at me. For not having taken sufficient care of the patient's pain."

Jordie's brow furrows.

He doesn't say anything.

(Simon's into frontier medicine; standard protocols may not have been available.)

He glances up.

"It's a complicated situation." Quietly. "He came to us directly from his own treatment facility, and we didn't have access to his medical file, and I didn't recognize the drugs he'd been given already. I was worried about unexpected interactions."

Jordie's expression clears, and he nods.

"Still." Low. "Understandable. If that wasn't clear."

"Very much so. I'm sure he thought his actions were completely justified."

Jordie shrugs.

"Then unless the pain persists -- " Which hopefully won't be a problem, he thinks. " -- what makes you think he'll come back for you?"

"It shouldn't," he says, shaking his head. "The, ah, unauthorized experiment worked fairly well, so I've prescribed THC going forward."

Beat.

"... I don't know," he admits. "Maybe I'm getting rattled over nothing."

"If you thought he was going to get violent, that's not nothing." Jordie shrugs. "Next time tell him the experiment worked, that it was helpful, and that you're sure he doesn't want to kill anybody so he needs to run it by a physician first. And make sure someone else is there with you."

"Hao. I did intend to tell him all that." He sighs. "I started in the wrong order, I think."

Jordie's mouth quirks; it never quite resolves into a smile.

"Some things never change." Peaceable.

Simon makes a very brief and halfhearted face at that.

"It just didn't seem like 'well, your idea worked and I'm going to adopt it' would be an effective deterrent to doing it again."

"Probably not." Calm. "But whatever you did didn't work, either."

"Què shí," he agrees. "So ... if I see him again I'll try to explain. And in the meantime, signs in the infirmary."

"Any other problems I can help you with today, Dr. Tam?" A little wry.

"No, I think I've gotten into enough trouble for one day." Equally wry.

"What about you? How have you been?"

"Same old, same old." Jordie isn't smiling. "Nothing new. Give my best to Kaylee?"

"... I will." Quiet; trying to hide the faint pulse of worry. "And regards to your aunt."

Jordie nods. "Adiós."

The screen goes clear.

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