I know there are some people who are doctor shy.
Who: Yuna and Shepard What: Discussing medic plans When: Friday Where: Urdnot Ranch Rating: PG Triggers: none really, but mentions of Faiza and the mall thing
It wasn’t very often that Yuna had to speak to Shepard, and she wasn’t sure what to expect. Faiza had respected her and Dani was dating her, the students she’d dealt with or spoken to tended to either respect the Commander or fear her. There was very little middle ground. But Tyra seemed nice enough, and Yuna thought that she was also reasonable. There had been plenty of injured mutants and other dreamers running in and out of the clinic. Keeping a healer around was for everyone’s benefit.
She took a deep breath and hugged her file folder against her, then let it out and knocked on the office door.
“Come in.”
Shepard was sitting at her desk, planning something not entirely work related. She had her hair back in a severe pony tail, and looked very much the stern commander. She looked up at Yuna, and the expression on her face melted into something a lot less severe. “Good morning.”
The stern appearance had only made Yuna even more nervous, and she nearly tip-toed into the office. It looked like Tyra was busy with something, and she didn't want to disturb the other woman. But when Shepard looked up at her and smiled, the nerves melted away, and Yuna grinned back at her, "Good morning, Commander."
She finished walking up to the desk, and set her file down on top of it, "I... don't want to take up too much of your time, but I think this is very important."
“Have a seat, I’m finished here.” She gestured to the seat in front of the desk and gave Yuna a reassuring smile. “What do you want to talk about?”
"Well..." Yuna tucked some hair behind her ear and took a seat, clasping her hands in her lap. The summoner in her made her a bit more confident about public speaking, at least, and she drew on that as she began to speak, "You might be aware that I'd been working here with Dr. Hussain to complete my internship, and then the required hours for my residency. I recently tested out of the internship phase, actually. Without her presence here, I can't... actually become a doctor."
She frowned. It hurt to have to talk about this subject like this, but they all had to move on and forge new paths in Faiza's wake. She thought the doctor would have wanted that, "I've been doing some research, and I think I can still complete my residency here if we officially create a clinic here at the ranch. We're operating the nurses office like one anyway, and when Dr. Hussain was here, she often treated her offices like they were one. We would have to get a new doctor in to oversee my work and supervise any calls that I made, but I could still work with the dreamers nearly directly, I think."
Tyra clasped her hands in front of her on the table, assuming a listening intently pose. She wanted Yuna to be comfortable and willing to share whatever she needed to share. Her heart panged, and she nodded at Yuna. “It’s okay, if you need a moment you can take it. We all miss Faiza.”
There was merit to Yuna’s suggestion, and Shepard leaned back as she considered it. “I think we can do that. It would be better for the ranch as a whole, anyway. We just need someone who can supervise and make general calls as needed.”
Yuna did take a moment to collect herself, though the sad, slightly solemn look on her face soon washed away and was replaced by one of determination. She nodded her head at Tyra, placing her palms flat down on the desk in front of her, "I can handle almost anything that comes into the clinic, as part of a family medicine kind of practice. In more emergent situations - ones that might need surgery, for instance - I can use my... summoner's skills... to stabilize someone with healing spells until we can get them to an ER. If Clarice is willing to help with portals, we could even send patients nearly directly there."
“I really should hire that woman full time,” Shepard mulled. At the very least she could pay her to be on-call. Handsomely, in fact. She knew that Clarice liked to help, and she was more than willing to compensate her. “We’ve got enough weird shit going on, magical healing is never a bad thing.”
She missed Dr. Chakwas right now. That woman would be perfect to mentor Yuna. Just perfect.
"And I know there are some people who are doctor shy. Dr. Hussain... had their trust. I can be trustworthy, too, and it should feel like she just passed the torch to me... I know she didn't quite do that, but I feel like she'd want me to continue her work. I want to help the people she helped. I can continue working here and earn my residency, then when I pass the boards you could hire me on... I think at that point you'd want to keep both doctors on the payroll still. The clinic will likely get enough people in. And you can deduct things when you do the taxes because of it."
The younger woman motioned the folder she'd brought with her, then opened it up, "I have a list of doctors... I did some networking and found a few that have been working here long enough to have experienced some of the strangeness here. These three doctors are all good candidates, and they're all looking for new positions outside of Irvine General. There's another doctor who was working at the Sunrise Clinic, and she would also be a good candidate but I haven't approached her about changing places yet. And I have some documentation about... projected costs to get started and how much of that can be deducted."
A pause, and Yuna looked down at her hands for a moment, "Medical supplies are expensive, but you already have a good stock of them, at least."
“She talked you up,” Shepard admitted. “She liked your ethics and professionalism, and she really adored your compassion. She said you had an energy and a desire and a will to help the sick and injured, and that you understood it’s sometimes the mind that needs healing as much as the body.” She reached over for the folder and took it to rifle through it. "You've done your research."
"Thank you... But I'm just... trying to be a good doctor. So many of the younger ones - especially ones like me who get labels like 'genius' put on them because they started college earlier - seem to think that patients aren't... people. And especially the dreamers, the people we help every day. These students here need to know they're people, and so does everyone else. I just don't... want them to think they're only cases to me. And I tried very hard to find a supervising doctor who would agree with me." Yuna folded her hands in her lap again, blushing a bit and watching as Tyra flipped through the information she'd gathered.
She set down the files. “I already wanted to keep you on, Miss Lee. So anything to expedite that I’m willing to go through. Your ideas are sound, and I’ll get the ball rolling.”
It felt like some of the weight of the last few days had been lifted off of Yuna's shoulders. She grinned genuinely, and even let out a relieved giggle, "Oh that's so good to hear! I was so... worried that you wouldn't be able to keep me here or that I would have to go somewhere else just to finish."
“You’re welcome to stay out here, if you need a place to stay.” Shepard reached over to pat her hand. “And if you ever need to talk. About anything. Come and find me.”
"I stay with my cousin, Rikku, right now, but I might take that into consideration actually... It would be better if I were closer to the clinic in case of emergencies. I'll... think that over." Yuna nodded at Shepard, and smiled. Rikku would probably miss her if she moved out, unless she brought Rikku here with her.
Mako would have a lot more room to run around, it was worth considering.