[Jaykobell]

“What?” Martin asked, feigning ignorance. “You two are just such a good match,” he said, and he started counting things as he listed them. “You two have anger problems, low self-esteem, pessimism…” he went on; and at first, both Neil and Cybele had expected Martin to list different traits. After hearing a few of those, they both wished he’d gone with their prediction instead.

“D-doctor!” Cybele said again, almost looked insulted. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Martin laughed at how irked Cybele was, and how exasperated Neil looked. “I’m just kidding, I’m just kidding,” he assured the two of them. “You can’t deny you are alike in that fashion, though.”

“And you can’t deny that maybe it’s time for you to go,” Neil said in a flat voice as he turned his attention to Martin. “If you’re gonna be like that.”

[Jaykobell]

Martin chuckled, but he shook his head. “Not yet, it’s not,” he pointed out, and when Neil didn’t seem to catch on, he added, “We still need to give you your treatment.”

Neil’s face turned grim the moment that was brought up. He sighed and sank into the couch.

Cybele didn’t say anything, but she turned towards Martin when she felt the older doctor looking at her. “How about,” Martin started saying, turning his attention back to Neil, “I administer it tonight?” he offered. “Just like old times.” Neil didn’t look back at him, nor did he react in any way.

“You know I want this whole thing to work out just as much as you two do,” he assured Neil, and he gave him a small smile. “Come on; I’ll even read you a fairy tale while I do it, just like back then.”

Through it all, what made Neil react was Martin treating him like a child. “Oh come on.”

[Jaykobell]

Martin laughed, and he pulled out his phone. “Now wait, wait; hold on,” he said as he started messing with the phone. “I’m gonna find a good one while Cybele pulls out everything and preps you up.”

“Martin,” Neil snapped, but the older doctor was undeterred. To make things worse, Cybele was listening to Martin and getting the treatment ready. “Don’t tell me you’re humoring him.”

Cybele blinked and looked back at Neil as she pulled the treatment out of her bag. “Well,” she started saying, and she glanced at Martin for a second, “he technically is my superior.”

“No, he’s not,” Neil argued. “He’s a hematologist; he’s not a doctor.”

“Excuse me,” Martin said as he looked up from his phone to look back at Neil. “I did go to medical school, my boy!” He turned his attention back to the screen. “I know a lot of things,” he pointed out, and as Neil rolled his eyes, Martin added, “like the fundamental differences between boys and girls.”

[Jaykobell]

Neil was on a whole new level of exasperation; meanwhile, Cybele couldn’t help but to grin, trying to keep herself from laughing.

“Okay, so how about…” Martin started asking as he scrolled down his screen, “... the Little Red Riding Hood?”

“No,” Neil snapped, and he gave Martin a look, clearly asking him to stop.

Cybele bit her lip, and as she was mixing the two bottles together, she couldn’t help herself from saying, “I’d like to hear that one.”

Neil looked at her with a mortified look on his face, and then he heard Martin say, “Oh, and I don’t remember this one, since I’m old now. So that’s two to one in favor!”

“Oh my God,” Neil groaned, wishing he could kick both of these clowns out of his house. “Stop with this!” Martin still had a straight face, but Cybele had started laughing. “Both of you!”

[Jaykobell]

Under normal circumstances, she would’ve done as asked, and she would’ve stopped; but at this point, Neil getting upset was making her laugh more so than making her nervous. “How about I do the treatment while you read the story, then, doctor?” she offered, about ready to administer the prophylaxis.

“I like the way you think, lassie,” Martin said, and he leaned against the couch casually, leaning against one arm and holding his phone with the other. He coughed and cleared his throat, and then he started: “Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived near the forest…”

Neil just sank a bit further into the couch, arms laid out to his sides, and he looked up at the ceiling as he grunted out a long, loud, and drawn out “ugh”. Cybele approached him, holding the tourniquet in her hand. This time, she made sure they were on the same page. “Can I?”

“Please,” he said, almost begging her. “So he can shut up already!”

[Jaykobell]

Neil’s attitude went right over Martin’s head. “Whenever she went out, the little girl wore a red riding cloak, so everyone in the village called her Little Red Riding Hood…”

Cybele couldn’t help but to laugh again as she slipped the tourniquet on and tightened it. “So her cloak is red,” she mused as she went to get the catheter and the syringe. “She’d fit right into your department, doctor Donato.”

Neil couldn’t even believe that Cybele was teaming with Martin on this. “Red-cloaked hematologists,” Martin mused, putting his phone to his mouth, looking thoughtful. “I need to bring this idea up with Murray. And just think: we could have color-coded departments!”

Through it all, Murray was the only saving grace. “Yeah, you tell me how that goes for you, Martin,” Neil said, knowing full well that Murray would never give the go-ahead to such a ridiculous idea.

[Jaykobell]

“Hey now,” Martin said as he looked up from the phone, “this hospital is co-owned, you know! I have a say in these matters,” he pointed out, and his saying that froze the two youngsters in place. “What?”

“What do you mean, St. Lazare is co-owned?” Neil asked, and his look of shock was a perfect to Cybele’s surprised expression.

Martin stared at the two for a moment, expecting the two to laugh and tell him how they were just pulling his leg. “What?” he said again, and the two looked at each other; and then back to him. Only then did Martin realize the two of them were serious. “Oh my God,” he whispered. “Did you two think Murray was the sole owner of the hospital?”

[Jaykobell]

Neil and Cybele looked at each other again, and then back to Martin. Cybele still looked surprised, but Neil was gradually becoming embarrassed; Martin’s reaction made him feel like it was something he should know. “Well,” he started, “we report everything to him, and he’s the one making the decisions.”

Cybele nodded in agreement, and Martin shook his head. “Oh, well.” He shrugged. “I guess it’s understandable why it’d come off that way. But no, no; St. Lazare is, indeed, co-owned!” He nodded knowingly. “And now you know!”

The treatment was interrupted for the duration of this new revelation. “Well?” Neil pressed, much preferring to keep to this subject than the stupidity Martin had been pulling so far. “Who owns it besides Murray, then?”

[Jaykobell]

“I do,” Martin said. “St. Lazare is co-owned between Murray, myself, and Elliott,” he answered, and he looked back down at his phone. “That said—”

“Whoa, whoa,” Neil said as he interrupted Martin again, “hold on. Elliott?” he repeated, and he frowned a little. “Elliott Colchester?”

Cybele had nothing to add to the conversation, but the curiosity was too much. She put the treatment on hold to listen to what Martin and Neil were saying. “Yes?” Martin replied to Neil’s question matter-of-factly. “I don’t know any other Elliott working at our hospital. But enough of that now.” If they dwelled on that topic, it would take all night for Neil to get his prophylaxis administered. “Cybele, please?” he asked as he turned back to his phone once again and motioned for her to move on with his free hand.

“Oh, of course,” she said sheepishly. “Sorry, doctor,” she said as she turned back to Neil, catheter in hand. “May I?”

[Jaykobell]

Neil was still dwelling on their conversation, but Cybele’s question snapped him out of it. “Uh,” he mumbled as he turned to look at her, and as he remembered what was happening. “Yeah, sure,” he said as he placed his arm so she could do what she had to do. “But, Martin—”

“Where were we now?” Martin said, interrupting Neil and keeping his attention focused on his phone. “Oh, yes. So, one morning, Little Red Riding Hood asked her mother if she could go see her grandmother, since it had been some time…”

That one detail had been his getaway from this hell, but Martin wasn’t interested in letting it go. “Please, just.” He turned to Cybele with an exasperated look on his face. “Just stab it in and be done with it,” he begged. “So he can shut up.”

[Jaykobell]

Part of her felt bad for Neil, but at the same time, she could only giggle at Martin’s determination to keep the charade going. “Well,” she said as she inserted the catheter, “I’m not one to interrupt an artist.”

She felt bad for being an enabler, but Neil’s face at hearing her answer was priceless. “Oh come on.”

“Cybele appreciates my many talents,” Martin said.

“What talents?!” Neil argued.

As the catheter set in and the two of them partook in banter, Cybele continued with the treatment, moving on to fill in the syringe with the prophylaxis. “You have to admit,” she said as she got ready to administer the prophylaxis, “he does have a nice voice for readings.”

Neil rolled his eyes and groaned. “If he read anything else.”

[Jaykobell]

“Hey, you loved it when I read you these stories back then,” Martin pointed out sadly, feigning a feeling of betrayal.

“Yeah, back then,” Neil repeated while putting the emphasis on the fact it was from times past. “When I was ten.”

“Oh,” Martin said as he looked up from his phone and stared into the distance. “I guess it’s true.” Neil rolled his eyes again. “They grow up so fast.”

Cybele chuckled at the two of them. “There you go,” she said as she finished administering the prophylaxis. “All done.”

“What?” Martin said as he legitimately looked up from his phone to look towards the two of them, and he saw Cybele loosening the tourniquet. “Already?”

“Thank God,” Neil said as he breathed a sigh of relief. Martin treating him like a kid had been worse than the actual treatment. The silver lining to all this was that the treatment really hadn’t been that bad tonight. As much as he hated to admit it, Martin’s stupidity had made the evening almost enjoyable.

[Jaykobell]

“But…” Martin said quietly as he looked at the two of them with a distraught look on his face, “I’m not done telling the story.”

Cybele giggled. “Sorry, doctor,” she said as she rid Neil of the tourniquet and the catheter.

Martin shook his head. “That just won’t do,” he said as he turned to his phone and started scrolling down quickly. “Hold on, hold on,” he told the two of them. “So she goes to the forest… etcetera…” he mumbled as he scrolled, and then he abruptly stopped. “Ah!” he exclaimed as he raised his scrolling finger. “And then the big bad wolf ate the grandmother and Little Red Riding Hood, and it was a sad ending for all,” he said, turning the phone off and looking back at the two of them. “The End.”

The whole thing had escalated very quickly in a matter of seconds. “Okay,” Neil said as he looked questioningly at Martin, “I know for a fact that’s not how that story ends.”

[Jaykobell]

“Hey.” Martin raised both hands in the air defensively. “The story’s changed since you were ten.” His answer left Neil unimpressed, but Martin smiled. “And it sure did help with the treatment, now didn’t it?”

Cybele turned to look at Neil, now that she’d put everything away; and with both Cybele and Martin focused on him, Neil looked away, embarrassed. “It was horrible in a whole other way,” he said as he crossed his arms.

“But didn’t it make getting your treatment a lot easier?” Martin asked, and his voice was dripping with that tone parents used with their children.

“Ugh, stop it with that,” Neil groaned as he looked to Martin just to give him a nasty glare.

[Jaykobell]

The more aggravated Neil got, the more Martin enjoyed it. “Okay, okay, I’ll stop,” he said as he chuckled, even if he knew he might not be able to uphold that promise. “But only if you stop giving Cybele a hard time with your treatment,” he added, and Neil’s face changed. He looked away, and he started fidgeting; and Martin knew he was hesitating to agree. “Neil?” he pressed, tilting his head.

Neil took a deep breath and then sighed. “I will, I will.” He put a hand behind his neck, and he made eye contact with Cybele for a split second. “I’ll… take it,” he added, hesitantly, but with genuine intention.

Martin looked between the two, and he noticed Cybele smiling when Neil promised to behave going forward. He could only assume that Cybele was happy with Neil’s answer, and so Martin clapped his hands. “Well,” he said as he straightened up, “my work here is done, then.” He got up from the couch and turned to Cybele. “Ready to go?”