5. His Drama Queen

When I woke up, I instantly made the decision to start the process of my resignation.

I’d rather go back home and put up with my father's stringent conditions than allow them to continuously treat me this way.

Opening my eyes to the morning light has me wincing from the effect of the excess brightness.

Someone is sitting in the corner chair, one hand resting on her knee, the other scrolling through a tablet.

“Dorothy?” I croak.

She looks up immediately. “You’re awake,” she says and brings the thermometer close to check my temperature. “Your fever has broken.”

“I thought your shift was just for ten hours. How come you're still here?” I ask quietly.

“I wasn’t going to leave you here all by yourself, after seeing what happened between you and the Alpha last night. I also saw the Rosie girl leave your room last night, and I was worried,” she replies simply, handing me a cup of water. “Besides, my annual leave starts tomorrow. It’s not like I have anywhere I need to be."

I sip the water, trying to calm myself. “I'm tendering my resignation today.”

Dorothy leans against the windowsill. “What? You want to leave?”

“Yes. I'm going back to my own pack.”

She looks at me for a long moment and sighs, "I'm going to miss you, Jess. Promise me you'll find time to come back and visit me?"

I manage a weak smile. "Of course, Dorothy."

I stand and prepare to head to my head of department's “HOD” office to start my resignation process.

If things go well, I should be able to get to the final stage of the process in a couple of days, and maybe get summoned by the Medical director for the last phase of the process and official documentation, and signing.

Quickly, I smooth my clothes, clean my mouth as much as I can manage, tie my hair back, and head out to the HOD’s office at the administrative wing.

My body isn’t fully recovered, as I still feel a bit tired, but my voice is steady when I tell him, “I’d like to start the process of my resignation.”

The departmental head, Lucas Milton, looks up, startled. “Doctor White, are you certain about this? You’ve been nothing but an amazing staff, and your evaluations have been excellent.”

“I’m very certain, sir.”

“Did something happen? Is there a problem?”

I shake my head, “No, just personal stuff.”

He sighs, then nods reluctantly. “I’ll start the paperwork. Someone else will take over your cases. She’ll start on Monday. Can you put her through and help her get settled in?”

I give a small, tired smile. “I can do that, sir.”

He hands me the intern list so I can sign off on my name. I glance down and pause momentarily.

Newly employed: Rosie Aster.

My fingers instantly go still.

For a second, I want to laugh at the irony: the girl who took my mate will now take my job too.

I set the file down, sign my name, thank Mr. Milton, and leave his office.

I come to the hospital today with the intention of avoiding drama.

As the rules state, I have to make sure my replacement can handle the job I am leaving behind to a certain level before leaving. And that will take about three weeks or less.

So, in conclusion, I just need to avoid drama and survive a couple of weeks more before all of this is over.

But of course, the Moon Goddess must hate me, because the moment the elevator doors slide open, I run straight into the people I least want to see: Dominic and Rosie.

“Oh, Jess, you're here. Do you feel better now?” Rosie asks, but I ignore her.

I can feel Dominic’s eyes follow me as I go, but I pretend I don’t notice and head straight to my first task for the day.

I start my rounds, flipping through patients’ folders, checking vitals, and discussing the possibility of moving some of the patients at the emergency unit to the General patient wards for space and more personalized patient-based care.

While also exploring making much-needed changes to the medication prescription of certain patients.

I have just finished with the folder of my third patient for the day when footsteps stop behind me.

I glance up and find Dominic watching me. His expression softens with guilt for a moment, and I don’t know why that hurts.

He clears his throat and points to Rosie, who is now approaching. “You work so hard, Jess. Well done,” he tells me.

“Rosie will soon start interning at the hospital.” He continues, “You might want to show her around.”

“Alpha Dominic,” Rosie coos. “Jess is just an Omega. You don't expect her to be the one to show me around.” She pouts at him.

“It's already bad that I have to work on the same level with her. I mean… don’t get me wrong, but I am a Beta’s daughter and I attended one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Being asked to work at the same level as an Omega is a little too belittling if I do say so. I still can't believe my father is forcing me to do this.” She grumbles.

Since I have decided not to involve myself in any drama, I quickly stand, excuse myself, and move to check on a patient in one of the private rooms.

Anything to avoid Alpha Dominic and his drama Queen. This is my workplace, and drama is the last thing on my mind.

I stare at the monitor as my patient’s blood pressure appears on the screen and chart his vital signs in his folder. The doctor from the previous shift documented that the patient has been unable to take in fluid and has been vomiting, hence one of the reasons for his low blood pressure.

Since the patient is battling with Chronic Kidney Disease + fluid imbalance, I document that a catheter should be fixed to enable the opening of a fluid chart that can help us monitor his fluid intake and output.

I am just about to round off with the patient's physical examination when a warm, wet sensation spreads across the sheets. He has urinated on his body.

The patient’s eyes widen in panic. “I-I’m s-o-soo sorry. It just-”

“It’s okay,” I say quickly, squeezing his hand. “It happens. Let’s clean you up. No need to be embarrassed.”

But before I can help him, someone bursts into laughter behind me. I turn to see Rosie.

“Omigoddess,” she giggles, tapping on her raised phone screen. “This is priceless.” She says in between laughter and positions her phone.

She is filming my patient! My blood runs cold.

I snap at her and grab her wrist, “Rosie, stop. That violates medical ethics. Delete it. Now!”

She tries pulling back. “Get your rotten, wretched Omega hands off me-”

“Delete. It.”

My fingers tighten around her wrist until she hisses, and I force her to unlock her screen. Reluctantly, face twisted in annoyance, she deletes the video from her gallery.

“Are you happy now?” she snaps.

“No,” I say quietly. “But at least you didn’t disgrace my patient.”

Dominic steps between us instantly, protective. “Jess,” he calls. I didn’t even know he was still around and was watching the unfounded disrespect from his girlfriend. “You’re overreacting. The patient’s face wasn’t even shown. Rosie didn’t mean-”

“It doesn’t matter,” I cut in sharply. “It’s still a violation. This is a hospital, for goddess’ sake.” I hiss.

Dominic is taken aback by my tone, and Rosie looks delighted that he is defending her.

I hate that it still manages to hurt me.

After they leave, the patient taps me gently. “Miss… I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologize for,” I whisper. “I’m sorry on behalf of the hospital.”

His eyes well with gratitude as I clean him up gently, change the sheets, and flash him a warm smile to cheer him up before leaving.

I have just finished attending to a patient with a road traffic injury, RTI, and am about to head out for a break when Mr. Milton, my departmental head, texts me.

“CHECK THE SOCIAL MEDIA POST BY JES112 IMMEDIATELY. A PATIENT'S VIDEO WAS POSTED ONLINE WHEN HE WAS IN A VULNERABLE STATE. THE PATIENT'S FAMILY IS THREATENING TO SUE THE HOSPITAL.”

This better not be what I think, please. Dear moon goddess, please, please, please.

I pull open the app, typing the username. It is a private account that has only one post, belonging to my patient who bed-wet on his body earlier.

There is only one person who filmed my patient, and it is Rosie. I check the profile picture of the account, and it is grainy and blurry.

But there is a shiny necklace, the exact one Rosie flaunted at Alexa’s party nights ago.

My suspicion is confirmed. She posted it. She thinks that a burner account with my name will keep her safe.

Anger shoots through my body in waves as I go in search of her.

Why?

Why did she have to drag me into this?

I find Rosie in the hospital hallway. She sees the fury in my eyes and stiffens.

“I told you to delete that video, Rosie. I warned you. Repeatedly.” I snap at her, louder than intended.

She flinches, and sensing how mad I am, she quickly pulls out her phone and dramatically deletes the post in front of me.

“There! It’s gone! Happy?” she says with nonchalance. “You are blaming me because you can’t handle being responsible for your own patient. It was your shift, your patient, your mistake.”

I am about to give her a taste of her own medicine when Dominic arrives. As an Alpha, it is sort of mandatory that he must come when his pack’s reputation is at stake, which in this case is his Pack’s hospital.

Once Rosie sees him, she immediately rushes into his arms.

“Alpha… I already spoke to the patient’s family,” she says in a fake small voice. “They agreed to forgive everything… but only if Jess apologizes publicly. And offers some financial compensation…”

She has already spoken to my patient's family? She intentionally went ahead of me to act like a good person, so that it would be easy to paint me as bad? What sort of being is this?

Dominic looks at her appreciatingly and nods with approval. He then turns to me.

“Jess, you should have spoken to me about this instead of coming at her this way. You could have called and explained everything to me. I had no idea it was this serious.”

“I told her to delete the video several times, and she pretended like she did.”

“You know what?” Dominic starts as if he is in deep thought. “Why don’t you do as Rosie suggested? The profile bears a name almost similar to yours, and it's only a matter of time before-”

“Wait.” I cut him off, distaste crowding me.

I lift my chin and stare straight into his eyes.

“Alpha Dominic… what exactly do you want to say?” My tone is dead calm. “You want me to apologize?” I step closer and point to Rosie, “You want me to take the blame for her?”