Dr. Heartless, a short short story

This short story is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead is coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by Mallory Kane. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit into any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact Mallory Kane.

Cover design Copyright © 2012 by Mallory Kane

DR. HEARTLESS

“Dr. Mason, would it trouble you too much to keep up with the rest of the group?”

Cringing at Dr. James Hartford’s sarcastic tone, Caroline Mason took another few seconds to pat the patient’s wrinkled, blue-veined hand and smile reassuringly at her.  She furtively wiped a tear from her cheek as she stepped out of the room and directly into the path of the senior staff physician’s glowering frown.

The other second year residents stared at her in guarded sympathy.  Heat crept up her face.  “I was just reassuring her, Dr. Hartford.  She’s all alone, and she’s dying.”  Her voice broke.  Swallowing tears of sympathy for the elderly woman, Caroline steeled herself for his diatribe.

“This is a hospital Dr. Mason.  Patients die.  If you don’t have the stomach for it, you need to be in a different line of work.”  He whirled and started down the hall, the group of residents scurrying to keep up with his long-legged stride.

“Yes, sir, Dr. Heartless,” Caroline whispered to his retreating back.

“I heard that.”

Caroline jumped, even though she immediately recognized the voice.  Her friend Marlene, the head nurse on Ward Four South, came around the nurse’s desk.  “Are you okay?”“

Caroline shrugged.  “As okay as I’m going to be I guess.  What did I do to deserve Dr. Heartless as my senior staff physician?”

“Look at him.”  Marlene nodded toward the end of the hall, where he stood in the middle of the group of residents, tall authoritative, supremely self-confident.  “He’s one of the best looking men I’ve ever seen . . . .”

“
The
best looking,” Caroline interjected.
 

“And one of the coldest.”

“
The
coldest.”  Caroline watched him gesturing with his elegant hands as he made a point, frowning and pushing his fingers through his hair when a resident said something that wasn’t exactly correct.  Caroline knew his every movement, his every facial expression.  He’d been her staff attending physician on Four South for three months, and during that time she’d never seen him smile, never heard him utter anything more encouraging than a reluctant “good.”
 

But sometimes, deep in his blue eyes . . . .  

“Marlene, are you sure you’ve never seen him smile?”  she asked, renewing a conversation she and her friend had had several times in the past three months.

“No, and you won’t either.  You’d better catch up.  You’ve already missed one patient.  He’ll have your hide.”

Caroline smiled.  “He could have it.”

Marlene rolled her eyes.  “It’s a good thing you’ll no longer be on Medicine Service.  You go to Neurology tomorrow, don’t you?”

“Yep.  I’ll tell the brain surgeons to remove my ridiculous notion that love could transform Dr. Heartless.”

“I don’t think that would be brain surgery.  At this point I think we’d better call in the heart specialist.”

Caroline blushed.  “Not a chance,” she lied.  “I’ve got better sense than that.  But still, I’ll bet there’s a pussycat under that caged lion exterior.”

Marlene raised her eyebrows.  “A wager?  How much?  Don’t forget, you’ve only known him for three months.  I’ve worked with him over a year.”

Caroline started down the hall, calling back to her friend.  “Dinner.”

“Dinner once a week for a month,” Marlene countered.

“Deal.”  She hurried to catch up with the group.

“And that’s the last patient,” James Hartford said as she walked up.  “Nice of you to join us, Dr. Mason.  If you are so determined --” he started just as a nurse came rushing down the hall.

“Dr. Hartford,” the nurse called anxiously.  “Amy Maxwell in four eighty-two is in respiratory arrest.”

He scowled and gestured to one of the residents, who handed him Mrs. Maxwell’s chart.  “Did you call a code?”

“Yes sir.”

“Is her family here?”

“Yes sir.”

“Get them out of the room and into the conference room,” he barked. A few steps down the hall, he turned back.  “Dr. Mason, don’t leave today until I’ve had a chance to talk to you.”

Caroline looked at the nurse.  Amy Maxwell was a young woman with small children and a husband who adored her.  “Is she going to make it?”

The nurse shook her head.  “This is it, I’m afraid.”

Trying to shake off her sadness at the information, Caroline wrote a few routine orders, then glanced at her watch and stepped up to the nurse’s station.  “Any word on Mrs. Maxwell?”

The nurse looked up from the chart she was reading.  “She expired about ten minutes ago.  Dr. Heartless is in the conference room with the family.  Can you imagine what he’s saying to them?”  She shook her head.  “‘This is a hospital,’” she mimicked in a deep, cold voice.  “‘People die.’”

A pang, half fear and half compassion, echoed through Caroline’s chest.  “He’s not like that with the patients.”  She defended him with more assurance than she felt.  “He couldn’t be.”

The nurse grinned crookedly.  “Why do you think they call him Dr. Heartless?”

“But the patients trust him.”

“Oh, he’s good at his job.  He just has no heart.”

Caroline shook her head.  “Everybody has a heart.  Some people are just more protective of it than others.”

Walking down the corridor, Caroline thought about her conversation with the nurse, and with Marlene earlier.  They’d known James Hartford much longer than she had.  Were they right?  Did the man have no heart?

She refused to believe that.  Sometimes there was a glow in his dark blue eyes that looked suspiciously like compassion when he talked about his patients.

She waited near the conference room door, not without a bit of trepidation.  She was in for a chewing out, she knew.  First she’d committed the unforgivable sin of crying over a patient, then she’d missed part of rounds.  She winced in anticipation as the door the room opened and the family came out.

Caroline smiled sadly at the young father and his two children, a little girl of about nine and a boy was no more than two.  Ovarian cancer was a horrible, greedy disease.

She waited a moment, but Dr. Hartford didn’t come out.  Had he left before the family?  Briefly she was tempted to just walk away.  This was her last day on Medicine Service.  Surely not even Dr. Heartless would follow her to Neurology tomorrow just to make his point.

But she actually wanted to thank him.  He was the best physician she had ever worked with.  No matter how he felt about her or any of the other residents, he had taught them a lot.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed open the door.  He was standing on the other side of the room with his back turned.  His shoulders were bowed slightly and he was rubbing his temple.

“Dr. Hartford?” she said tentatively.

He stiffened, but didn’t move.

“Are you all right?”

He wiped his face and pushed his fingers through his hair, then turned around.

Caroline stared.  Dr. Hartford . . . Dr. Heartless, had a suspicious brightness in his eyes, and his face was haggard and sad.  She’d never seen him like this.  She was pretty sure no one had, except maybe his patients or their families.

“I — I’m sorry,” she stammered, embarrassed.  “I can come back . . . .”

He smiled ruefully.  “Dr. Mason, our soft-hearted resident.  Surprised that Dr. Heartless actually has feelings?”

She stared at him openmouthed.  “You know what we — what they all call you?”

He shrugged and his smile widened.

For Caroline, it was like the sun appearing from behind a cloud.  If she’d thought before that he was the most handsome man she’d ever seen, oh baby, look at him now.  Her pulse raced and she longed for nothing more than to put her arms around him and tell him everything was going to be fine.

“Well?” he said, his smile fading into a frown.

“Well what?”

“Are you surprised?”

She considered his question, then shook her head.  “That you have feelings?  No, not at all.”  As she said the words, she realized just how true they were.  Now she knew she hadn’t imagined the glimmer of compassion she’d seen in his eyes.

His mouth quirked up again and his gaze traced her features like a caress.  Her heart melted and other parts of her woke to urgent, breathless life.

“Can I bribe you to keep my secret?” he asked.  “Maybe with -- wait.”  He caught himself. “You are rotating off my service today aren’t you?”

Caroline’s heart jumped into her throat.  “Yes I am.  Why?”  She hoped she knew the answer, but once again she found herself cringing inside as she waited to hear what he was going to say.

“Because it’s not a good idea for senior staff and residents to date.”

“Date?”  She felt a quiver of anticipation run through her.  “I thought you mentioned a bribe to keep your secret.”

“Ah yes,” he said, his eyes twinkling.  “What about dinner tonight.”

She laughed with sheer joy.  “What about dinner once a week for a month,” she countered mischievously.  “And then I’ll decide.”

His mouth widened into a grin.  “Now you sound like the heartless one.”

She shook her head, thinking of his earlier words.  “Nope, I’m not heartless.  Just determined.”

The End