CEO Of My Heart 193 193

It was a good kind of a relief to Nolan that Janna Wu didn't need to work to pay her bills.  She was extraordinarily privileged because of the state income that she got from being a member of a royal family.  Nolan knew that she did occasionally leave to represent the family at functions a couple times a months, but he liked that she kept the affair as low as possible.  No one knew that she was anything more than a eccentric d.a.m.n good surgeon. The mysterious reason why her lights never went out was just glossed over. It was obviously due to this income as to why she had kept taking on patients who didn't have insurance or straight couldn't afford a doctor at all.  

The business ac.u.men was irrelevant when she didn't need it.  It did make him question for a bit whether to abandon his quest for her heart or keep going, but he had come too far to turn back now.  Nolan had to soldier on.

Henry had sent the clinic over a dozen emails about inconsistencies in finances.  They were both bolded and in red as Nolan imagined Henry had the same aghast feeling that he did.  Nolan had gone through the clinic's spreadsheet to reply to each question. It took quite a long time as the the spreadsheet was so long that it took minutes to load as Nolan tried to triangulate where the problem was in the giant sea of numbers.  

It was a bit counterintuitive that such a organized surgeon who would wax on and on about precision could leave her own finances in such a dismal mess.  To consider that she trusted him with her Achilles heel did make him feel a sense of glee. He was make an inchworm's progress to his goal.

Nolan heard a loud crash and he turned his head in that direction,  He considered for a moment whether there was anyone else with him in the clinic, but then remembered that no one else was in the parking lot.  Nolan wondered what the sound was, when he heard the smashing sound again and realized it was gla.s.s breaking. He gritted his teeth as he wondered what to do.  Wu hadn't exactly schooled him on biohazard management.

A slow perusal to the crash site told him that everything was fine.  A cabinet hadn't been properly secured and there were several vials of clear fluid that were spilled on the floor.  There was a dishrag on the weighing station that Nolan took off before sheathing on gloves. He reached down to turn the label over and recoiled.

 It was morphine.

True as it may be that the anesthetic had saved many lives, to have it still used as an anesthetic made Nolan uncomfortable.  It made him hope that the drug wouldn't affect others the same way that it had affected his sister. Nolan saw a broom and dustpan labeled with hazardous stickers.  He used these to slowly clean up the gla.s.s and drug. In that situation, he wondered if he should also be wearing a mask. 

"Janna?  Is that you?" Nolan yelled from the backroom as he heard the front door unlock.  "Some chemicals dropped from a shelf so I have been cleaning them up."

She ran over to him immediately, dropping her bag next to his at the receptionist desk.  There was a look of horror on her face as she saw him with the broom. "I don't pay you enough to do all the work that I am supposed to do.  This is so irresponsible for someone to leave this cabinet unsecured, if we had a patient break in, this is usually what they are after. It's horrible that this isn't locked.  The lock isn't even broken, it's just sitting on the counter after someone took this out."

Nolan couldn't believe that she was this concerned over a ma.s.s of broken gla.s.s.  He turned to lean on the broom and posed a little bit unconsciously so she could see the maroon sweater he sported as a new look. Her eyes changed from concern to a strange blank look as she bit her lip.  Her expression was as if Nolan had just struck her on the head with an iron rod and she was trying not to scream at him.

It wasn't the reaction that he had been hoping for.  It was the complete opposite from what he had thought would happen with her.  He leaned the dustpan against the wall as he felt scared. "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing is wrong." Her eyes looked so far away.  It was almost as if she was haunted.  "You know a college student shouldn't be here unsupervised.  I would probably be in violation of HIPPA based on all the patient information that I have left around you.  I keep slipping from my professionalism. I know this clinic is far from it's glory days, but I do need to do the bare minimum so I don't lose my license."

"I don't understand.  I'm just cleaning up broken gla.s.s here.  I am just cleaning up your bills. Nothing I've done so far for you would be considered losing your license for." Nolan tried to keep his voice casual as he went over all the procedures he had completed at the clinic in his head.  He wasn't sure of it himself, but he wanted her to not worry about those things.

"You're not even a premed student or someone qualified to be doing half of the things that you've been doing.  You're a cute college age student who should be out having fun. Spending your weekends in a dusty clinic is a waste of your time.  Your professors would want you out doing work at a non-profit or a reputable laboratory. Your CV is going to suffer if you keep coming here.  I don't want to jeopardize what more you could do with your life."

"Getting into NYU itself is an achievement.  The school name itself can open doors for me.  I also think that any admissions officer with any sense will be able to see past my stats and experiences or lack thereof.  I am confident that I'll find my own path if I don't follow the premed one. I trust the process that premed was never something that I wanted.  It's just not my avenue. I have other options now." Nolan shrugged his shoulders. "This will probably be my last semester of NYU anyways. With the money that Henry had given me, I'll probably try my own business.  I don't need to become a professor anymore. Maybe I'll study abroad for a while."