Trials

1

"Why are you still here?" Miranda asked frustrated looking up at Ben as he came rushing in the room.

"You have to go back to them. You have too-- Hunt and this committee. You have to get them to reconsider." He expressed pleading with her.

"There's n- - They have nothing to reconsider. They made a recommendation. I made a call. It's very simple, and I'm done talking about this here. Church and state there's a reason why its separated." She voiced.

"Oh, to hell with church and state! You're really gonna come back at with me with no special treatment, six months--

"6 months is special treatment!"

"What?"

"If you had been anyone else, you wouldn't have been suspended. You would have been fired."

"They told you to fire me?" He questioned.

"No. I wanted to fire you. I was talked down."

"Do you have any idea what you are doing? Do you have any idea what you've done? I made a mistake, Miranda. People make mistakes. Surgeons make mistakes."

"I don't, not like that. You made an astonishing error in judgment... that I’m trying to accept and forgive. And its going to take me a lot longer than six months."

"Well, I am sorry I disappoint you." Ben said sadly with tears in his eyes.

"So am I." Miranda remarked, shaking her head, trying to stop her tears from falling. She was slightly glad for the knock on the door interrupting them.

"Chief." Edward's called out opening the door.

Miranda looked up and bit her lip trying not to look into her husband's eyes. She grabbed her white coat and followed Edward's out the door.

Ben left the hospital after seeing Omar up and talking. He was so glad that he didn't die. He didn't know how much more he could take. He didn't want his children to become orphans because of a mistake he made. But that was the thing he honestly didn’t know if it was a mistake. He was trying to save her baby's life. He knew in his heart that Gretchen was going to pass regardless whether it was in the hallway or the elevator ride up to the or floor. She was in distress, bradycardic, pulse low and weak. Before she flat lined she asked him to save her baby's life over her own. The moment she started bottoming out he knew he should do everything he could to save the baby.

He knew he only had a small window because as soon as her heart stopped fully the baby would be gone too.

Ben walked inside the dimly lit bar and found a seat. He looked around and for the most part everyone kept to themselves and more than a few people were bent over nursing their beers.

"What will it be?" Joe asked.

"A beer-- uh no make that a whiskey on the rocks."

Joe slid his drink across the counter and continued on to serve another customer. Ben reached for his drink and threw it back. He roughly scrubbed his palm across his face, feeling the day old stubble brush his hand. He had stared ahead looking at nothing in particular. The conversation with Miranda kept swarming in his mind over and over again. She wanted to fire him.

Miranda left work late. After telling Omar about his wife and baby, she just wanted to shut her brain off. She was glad it was late because then maybe her husband would be asleep when she arrived. She wasn't in the mood to argue anymore today. Pulling into the driveway she noted that his car was gone, it was now 12 am. She wondered where he would be. He left the hospital hours ago. She figured he would have came home.