Who: Remy "Thirteen" Hadley doctor13 & Pepper Potts 12percentpotts What: Passing along general directions When: Wednesday, August 5, midday Where: UC Irvine Hospital Rating: General Audiences Warnings: None Status: Closed/Completed GDoc
~*~
Foot traffic was its own hazard in UC Irvine Hospital. Their status as a Level 1 Trauma Center for adult patients and a Level 2 Trauma Center for pediatric patients meant they got more people than any other hospital in the OC. It kept their staff busy. They made plenty of money which meant they kept getting grants for more research and they remained competitive in the market for potential interns. It was important to get good interns because those interns could be trained to be very good residents and later, potentially, extremely good doctors.
People were assets when it came to the medical field. There was never enough of them to go around. No matter how many nurses graduated every year, there would always be a shortage because, quite frankly, not everyone who got their license to practice as a nurse was cut out to be a nurse. The same could be said of MDs. Medical school was a far cry from a Level 1 Trauma Center ER where people could be bleeding to death in three bays at the same time and it was your call which of them you chose to give a chance to live.
Thirteen didn't mind any of it. She relished living in the hospital as often as possible which was why she was hurrying down from Internal Medicine where she saw regular patients to the ER. It didn't occur to her she'd run into someone on the catwalk going completely the wrong way, but she rebounded quickly, tablet still firmly clasped in her stronger right hand. She eyed the woman as her mouth was about to open, assessing quickly: healthy flush, great skin, exquisitely applied cosmetics, expensive clothes, not a patient.
"Lost. Yeah. Where are you supposed to be?"
She was confident in her assessment of the woman. Thirteen didn't need to waste either of their time with chit-chat. The woman wasn't hurt from a little jostle. They were both going to live through the encounter. No matter how expensive she looked, she didn't have the authority to fire Thirteen for being in her way while she was heading to the ER to save lives. No way would the board pass that decision down even if she wasn't the dying doctor with the desire to save as many people as she could before she checked out of medicine forever.
~*~
Pepper was used to being busy, she thrived on it herself but her kind of busy and hospital busy were two different things. Her busy wasn’t life and death, so she always tried to stay out of the way as much as possible. Meetings at the hospital weren’t regular, in fact they mostly tried to keep them away since there were more important things happening but with plans finally going ahead for expansion the board had wanted to meet on the premises to go through the architectural drawings.
She had hoped to locate the boardroom herself but had received a message at the last minute to say they had moved to the staff meeting room due to a mix up, so Pepper was now trying to locate that room instead. Sadly it didn’t appear to be near the boardroom.
When she collided with a woman in a hurry she apologised, “Staff meeting room, I’m afraid I’ve never been there before and it wasn’t on the map” which made sense since you didn’t want everybody being able to bother staff on their rare breaks but made it hard when trying to be independent and not bother anybody.
Even if she had the authority Pepper wasn’t the sort to have someone fired for bumping into her, especially not someone good at their job. She was a business woman but she wasn’t petty or vindictive.
~*~
"All the staff only rest areas or locations where a large gathering of staff could be located are kept off the public map to avoid the possibility of a terrorist attack on staff. It happens."
Thirteen thought through which room they could be meaning before deciding they had to mean the staff consultation room where dressings down happened. It was designed to function as a meeting room for teams during the intern cuts and later resident cuts. Not everyone would make it through their program at UC Irvine even if they did come to work every day to try their hardest.
Sometimes a person's hardest still wasn't good enough.
She was about to be rowing that boat swiftly off the edge of a waterfall herself.
Pointing to the opposite direction from which she came, she started talking, "It's the staff consultation room. Cut room basically. Back across the catwalk here, take the blue elevators down to the second floor, turn left, pass Radiology, and then it's two rights before you should see it on the left. It's not marked and the door has a keycard reader to let people in. Did they give you a day pass?"
This lady clearly was someone's plus one for a meeting. She had been shafted if they had come in a group. No one who was considered a civilian by Irvine standards would be able to locate an unmarked room on their own much less access it without a keycard. Given she wasn't wearing a visitor's badge, Thirteen put her bet on the woman being someone from corporate. Investor was a possibility, high-dollar donor wasn't off the table, but it was rare they'd leave someone of that nature alone to find their own way, and she was crossing off 'fuck toy' immediately because of the woman's tone alone.
Women who were paid for their companionship sounded paid.
This woman sounded as if she did the paying.
~*~
“Of course” Pepper nodded, “That makes perfect sense” She had suspected as much but it was reassuring to know it wasn’t her own stupidity that was stopping her from locating the room.
Listening to the directions she smiled, “I have a pass” she told her saviour, “As far as I am aware it should let me in any door in the building. I was running late for the meeting and told them to go on ahead, when I arrived I was told the meeting room had changed and then you found me” she explained, “Which I am very grateful for”
Pepper was very much not anything other than a woman in charge of a very successful company who was on a board of directors to ensure the hospital could and would do all it could for its patients.
~*~
A pass for any door in the building elevated the woman's position with the hospital considerably and Thirteen was glad she'd saved the worst of her attitude for someone else. She didn't sense any animosity or disdain from the woman. That was a nice change from the other corporate types. It could be she was a charity case. Rich people tended to donate money to hospitals to get better PR for their companies or for the tax shelter; Thirteen was happy to deal with either one as long as some of the money they were funneling in wound up in the ER.
They couldn't maintain a Level 1 Trauma Center certification or reach for the Level 1 Pedes Trauma Center goal without the best equipment medicine had to offer for immediate diagnostics. It took money, effort, and drive to run an ER the likes of which UC Irvine ran. Thirteen was proud to be a part of the staff who threw everything they had into saving as many lives as possible. Her loss rate wasn't the lowest in the hospital, but her staff hours were the highest. No one was more dedicated than her.
No one had even half the reason to be either.
Thirteen was living on borrowed time and she fully intended to pay her lender back in full before she checked out for good.
Turning abruptly, she asked, "Would it be alright with you if I walked you there? I'm Doctor Remy Hadley or Doctor Thirteen. No one really calls me anything else. It feels weird to offer up a name, but I figure you deserve it if they've given you a free pass through our facility."
~*~
If she ever got to know Pepper the young doctor would soon learn that she was unlike most investors. Stark Industries made more than enough money and had good PR without the need to get it from exploiting good connections with a hospital. And they had never tried to find tax loopholes in their entire history, Pepper was a good businesswoman but she was also a fair one.
Pepper was incredibly proud of the hospital too, the way the staff pulled together when the crap hit the county was inspiring. Especially since it tended to happen with such regularity. She wouldn’t blame them for getting sick of it but they had a low turnover of staff considering all factors.
“Of course. You are more than welcome Doctor, this is your hospital more than it is mine” she smiled, holding out her hand, “Pepper Potts, pleased to meet you”
~*~
"Pepper," Thirteen accepted, shaking her hand briefly before releasing it, "I like it. This way. We'll have more luck keeping people away from you with me in tow. Not a lot of the staff wants to get in my way when I'm working."
It went without saying Thirteen was always working. Her social life was outside the hospital. She never brought it inside. There had to be clearly defined lines in the sand as to where one part of her existence started and one part stopped. Thirteen was a lucky woman in her own way. She didn't have the confusion or stress a lot of women had in the workplace when it came to flirtations or being disrespected for her gender. People were so used to her acid tongue, they stayed the Hell out of her way to avoid getting dissolved in response.
She led the way to the Blue Elevator bank, pressing the button for the main elevators to know they were there waiting. The ones in the center of the hospital moved the fastest, but they were also the busiest which meant they could be waiting for a few minutes even if they were standing in front of express elevators. Thirteen didn't mind. Fast movements tended to aggravate her Huntington's symptoms leading to embarrassing side effects. Pepper seemed as if she had likely never been embarrassed in her life which was something Thirteen appreciated in a woman.
Confidence was sexy.
"I pretty much live in the ER here. I work with an almost universally adult population and am proud we're holding strong on our Level 1 Trauma Center certification, but I know we want that Pedes Level 1 certification, too. They're bitching right now about needing more pediatric equipment to get better outcomes. I hate when they say outcomes, too. It's like the results of our efforts mean more than saving lives when saving lives is the result of our efforts."
~*~
“Ah you are a doctor with a reputation then” Pepper said smiling and her tone conveying nothing but amusement and friendliness, she didn’t want to upset the doctor who was helping her.
Pepper had tried to keep her personal and professional life separate and for the most part succeeded. Until it came to Tony. Being engaged to the man who started the company she now ran meant there would always be some overlap but she managed it well.
She was highly respected as being professional but not to the extent that her employees didn’t feel they could come to her if they needed to. She had an open door policy and made sure she knew all their names and the names of their families and current situation when it came to her heads of departments. Stark Industries had an extremely low turnover of staff and that was partly down to the environment she encouraged.
“There is always a danger of losing sight of the reality of a situation when you have too many business heads involved and not enough heart to go along with it” Pepper said, “As you say the Pedes certification is important but the reason for it is so we can save more lives and that cannot be forgotten or ignored”
~*~
There was no nice way to say 'I'm a bitch' so Thirteen let it go with nothing more than one of her secretive smiles. The staff tended to whisper about how they wouldn't doubt she was some kind of secret killer from the way she smiled. It was a point of pride for her she hadn't let her health situation slip with too many of the lower staffers. Management knew, but Thirteen liked the buck to stop there on the issue of her Huntington's Disease. No one else needed to know at this stage of her progression.
Moving from the elevator to the walk past Radiology, Thirteen offered, "I try to remember every day why I'm here. It helps to keep me focused. I feel---better about working when I know it's genuinely for a good cause. I'm glad you're heading to one of these board things. It's nice to know someone with sense is sitting at the table."
Often, Thirteen wondered if there was any point in her work with the way the hospital was being run.
She wasn't saving lives to fatten someone's wallet. She wasn't doing it to earn awards or honors or recognition for the university. She was doing it to save lives so her own had meaning.
Purpose.
Thirteen couldn't imagine leading a life without some purpose to it. She might as well get loaded on smack and fuck her way through a club filled with pretty strangers.
~*~
Pepper would never have guessed there was anything wrong with the young doctor at all, she carried herself well and was extremely capable from what Pepper had witnessed so far. In fact she believed more people like her on staff would be a good thing.
“Well, I try to be. After all making money should never be more important than people’s lives” Pepper said, “I will endeavour to be the voice of those working here though” She didn’t want the staff to lose hope while working there and she wanted their hard work to be recognised.
She too understood the need for purpose even if it wasn’t as keenly as Thirteen.
~*~
"Thank you for that. I do appreciate it. You'll be in that room there. Your fancy guest pass should get you in," Thirteen pointed to the unmarked door with the keycard reader beside it.
She refrained from pointing out her thanks and her appreciation were both rarely given so it would be in Pepper's best interest to enjoy them while she had them. It wasn't in her to be nasty to someone who seemed earnestly trying to help. There was a strange sense of relief in having met the woman, too. Thirteen believed if they asked for more money for equipment for Pedes? They might get it if Pepper Potts had anything to say about it. The businesswoman hadn't seemed to be disingenuine when she'd stated she believed in keeping thoughts of the patients first.
Thirteen liked to know there was someone who could at least offer up a decent spiel about helping without it sounding rehearsed.
"Maybe I'll see you around again sometime, Pepper. Enjoy the meeting and do me a favor? Don't tell them Thirteen was nice to you. It'll ruin my reputation."
Winking, she headed back toward the main elevators to head on down to the ER to start some more OT.