Only A Pretty Face

It has already been a month since she started her internship. Work went by as usual until that afternoon when Hopton Hospital suddenly got flooded by patients that needed their labs taken urgently.

Two groups of people were in a car accident. Most of them needed blood transfusions and several of them needing immediate surgeries. The laboratory technicians were swamped with the heavy workload.

Diana tried to keep calm amidst the stressful environment. Her shift was almost at an end when suddenly Bryan came to the Laboratory and looked for her. He had a serious look on his face and one could even detect anger.

Diana was confused as to why he looked that way and even looked for her.

"Sit down," Bryan ordered harshly as soon as she entered his office, throwing a chart on the table towards her.

Diana looked confused with his behavior and just calmly scanned the sheet showing a laboratory result.

"Tell me. How do you explain this? How come a male patient has elevated hCG? And don't tell me he possibly has some underlying disease that caused the increase of hCG level. I already had somebody else obtain a urine sample and rechecked it. It didn't show the same result. So tell me, what happened to your specimen?" Bryan gritted his teeth.

He doesn't know why he even felt attracted to somebody as careless as this person. He was humiliated when the doctor of the patient brought it to his attention.

Diana was frozen in place. She didn't know how to explain the situation.

"Not only that, the same happened to this patient's lab result." Bryan showed another male patient's chart. "And this." He showed a geriatric female's chart. "Elevated hCG."

Diana gasped in shock.

"I only tested the specimens that I got from those patients. From what I can remember, I followed all of the procedures." Diana said exasperatedly. She didn't know how to prove that she didn't make a mistake.

"Are you really not going to admit your mistake? I can't believe this. I've misjudged you. I thought you are a professional in our line of work." Bryan sneered. "It turns out you're only a pretty face."

Diana was shocked by his words. Only a week ago, this man kept on finding her, trying to ask her out on a date. Each time, she declined. And now he accuses her of being unprofessional, even insulting her abilities as if her appearance is a ticket to her earning her achievements.

She clenched her fist and gritted her teeth in anger.

Right at that moment, somebody knocked on the door.

"Come in," Bryan said. The person opened the door. Clara came in, carrying a few charts.

"Hey, Bryan. Oh Diana you're here." Clara smiled, seemingly oblivious to the tension in the office. "I got the charts and have the results of the specimens I took. Will you look at it so I can send this out to the doctors?"

"Okay. Thanks a lot, Clara. You've been such a big help." Bryan flashed a big smile to Clara. He scanned the charts, not finding any errors. "I'll treat you to a meal later, as thanks, okay?"

"Aww~no problem Bryan. Anything to help you. I'll see you after work then." Clara gathered the charts, her fingers brushed against Bryan's hand in the process. She flashed him a wink and left the office.

Diana felt her neck become hot. She can tell her blood pressure going up in anger. Those charts were the same ones she received earlier. She could surmise now that Bryan asked Clara to recheck the specimens because of her mistake.

She couldn't understand why the results were different when they took the specimen from the same patients.

"Look, Diana. I think you've been too stressed out lately. Why don't you take a leave from work for a few days to rest up? You were good when you just started. Maybe the workload is too heavy for you." Bryan was calmer than earlier. Getting up, he went around his table and approached Diana. Placing his hands on her shoulders, squeezing tenderly as if comforting her, he said "Are you having problems lately? Maybe I can help. You can always come to me. As your Supervisor, I can help you."

'Why is it that it sounded like he had a different meaning with his words?'

Diana's whole body froze. She felt disgusted.

"Alright. I'll take a day off then. Thank you." Diana got up to leave, Bryan's hands fell to his sides.

Disappointed that she didn't try to ask for his help, "Okay. I need you to write an Incident Report before you clock out. I'll do a write-up on you because of what happened. Rest up." Smiling although his eyes look cold, Bryan led her out of his office.

Diana didn't waste any time and went to the computer to make the Incident Report.

The other lab technicians were looking at her awkwardly.

"How could she make such a rookie mistake?"

"Yeah.. it would be bad if a patient's condition worsened if they're given medication after a misdiagnosis."

"Yikes! That would be terrible!"

"Worse if somebody died because of it!"

"So unlucky! Tsk! Tsk!"

"Seems like she's not that amazing after all." Michelle snickered.

"Looks like the boys have already snapped out from their dream. Reality is she's only a pretty face." Alicia chuckled.

Diana finished her Incident Report and gathered her things, heading to Bryan's office to submit it.

Behind her, Clara made a noise as she got up from her chair, "I won't be leaving with you girls later. Bryan is taking me to dinner."

"Ehh? Since when did you become closer to him?" Michelle was incredulous.

"Hmm? What do you mean? Don't I have always gotten along with him?" She shrugged, acting as if it was not a big deal.

"But dinner outside? Is that a date?" Alicia poked her side, making her giggle.

"Who knows? Hehe.. you'll just have to wait and see.." She said as she raised her chin arrogantly.

The men in the laboratory looked her way and then glanced at Diana.

They were not blind. They saw how Bryan tried to take her to dinner every chance he could.

After Diana submitted the Incident Report, she went home.