Working at a clinic compared to a psych ward was very different, Dahlia concluded. Even if she would be verbally attacked by her patients at the psych unit, she knew not to take it to heart as the patients had several psychological problems. Not everyone was mentally there.

The clinic, however, was proving to be a little difficult to handle mentally, considering most of the patients that came in were very with it, and if they called you horrible names, they meant it.

Dahlia leaned back against her chair and sighed.

“Dahlia, can you please come help me with Dr. Dale?”

Dahlia opened her eyes to find blonde Rosalind standing in her doorway. She was new nurse, recently graduated, and very scared of Dr. Dale. He had the tendency of being extra obnoxious to her, the poor thing, and it was probably because she was trying so hard to please him. Already, she'd had the nurse in her office crying because he had almost given her a panic attack with the fifty different things he wanted completed at the same time.

Day after day she told herself that it was going to be okay. She hoped that it would be different, that perhaps he would be in a better mood and it wouldn't be too bad, but he seemed to be in one of his worst moods lately... for the last two weeks to be exact. It has been a reign of terror, Dahlia told herself with a groan.

The only thing that she was happy about was that she had been off for various trainings in corporate the day that his mother had apparently shown up in the place. What the hell? Part of her was surprised how people just tended to appear int the facility. They needed better security staff... She had heard the nurses talking about how his mother had wandered in to his office and started moving things around. "Fixing up the place" was what she said because apparently he had no sense of office decor.

Clara had not been joking when she’d told Dahlia to tread lightly. Four months into the job and she already wanted to strangle the man. He was loud and obnoxious—extremely smart, and he knew it—which made him extra rude and bossy. She knew how his brain worked, had seen it in her brother who was the same way. Her brother was super smart, but super impatient and a little obnoxious to people that he didn’t feel were smart enough for him. She’d finally gotten him to stop being such a jerk with a good talking to.

Maybe that’s what Dr. Dale needed. Ugh.

“What did he do now?”

“He is being ridiculously impatient. He asked me for some records, but they haven’t been scanned yet. They’re not even on the hospital medical records site! So, then he wanted me to call the hospital, which I did, but they’re not releasing the records because they haven’t been completed by the ER doctor. I don’t know what else to do! He’s just being... being a jerk!" Rosalind looked ready to cry, if she clenched her clipboard any harder she would end up breaking it in half.

Dahlia sighed. “Okay. First of all, let’s not let him hear you say that. We’re not stooping down to his level. Second of all, good job. Thank you for doing your work. Now, let’s go see what the hell he wants.” It was proving to be extremely difficulty staying professional, being the proper example in front of the other nurses, when all she wanted was to scream at the man.

Dahlia followed behind the blonde who was still fuming. If hair could talk, you could say that her hair was the way to see her moods, it almost seemed like it crackled in anger. 

He was on the phone with a pharmacy at one of the other nurse’s desk when they got down to the nursing station. He sounded pretty riled up. Finally, when he saw them coming his way, he hung up, turning to the women.

“Did you get the papers?”

“No. ER won’t release them.”

“That’s BS, they shouldn’t be withholding information.”

“The doctor hasn’t completed them,” Dahlia cut in, placing a re-assuring hand on Rosalind’s shoulder who looked ready to snap. “Medical Records cannot release unsigned, incomplete documentation just the very same way that we can’t and don’t. It's all part of the way things work. We do the same."

“Well, then I cannot see the patient without actual knowledge of what the hell is going with them," he concluded with a huff as he threw his hands to his waist. "How am I supposed to treat someone if I don't know where to start?"

“We can call the hospital, see if I can speak to the charge nurse directly,” Dahlia offered, trying as hard as she could to remain calm. He was being a total dick. Turning to Rosalind, she told her, “Go ahead and go check on the next patient. I’ll take care of it.” Nodding, the blonde quickly left, without giving the tall doctor a second glance.

Hands still on his hips, he eyed the young nurse in front of him. “Well?”

“Well, I’ll call the hospital and ask.” She said simply, without much emotion in her voice. She noticed out of the corner of her eye, the other nurses trying to not pay attention, but listening intently.

“Make it quick then. I don’t have all day.” Jared replied with a quick snap snap of his fingers. Dahlia turned to him.

“Excuse me?”

“What?”

“Did you just snap your fingers at me?”

He blinked, probably trying to process her questions. Slightly, taken aback, he tried to play it off coolly. Part of him knew that he had messed up, that he shouldn't have done that, but it was done and he just had to pretend he was fine.

“I did...Uh. Just hurry.”

She glared at him, feeling her face flush with heat. “I don’t ever want to see you snap your fingers at me. Ever again.” She said heatedly, and his mouth set on a grim line. She snapped her fingers back at him. “Isn’t it annoying? It is, isn’t it?” She continued snapping her fingers at him, until he flushed crimson. “Never do that to me again. Or to any of the nurses." She glared at him. " Or I swear I will snap your damn fingers off,” she added the last part in an angry mutter more to herself than to him. “I’ll go call the hospital now. Just give me five minutes.” Giving him another glare, she turned and walked away to one of the nursing stations furthest away from him.

The other nurses were trying not to stare at the confused looking doctor who stood staring at Dahlia’s back. He wasn’t usually this docile with the nurses, mostly trying to run them in circles when it came to paperwork and patients, but he now stood very still.

They stared wide eyed as they listened to their supervisor mutter that she'd break his fingers off next time. They didn't know whether they wanted to cheer or pray for her considering his personality.

Running a hand through his hair, he turned to leave, noticing the nurses quickly lowering their eyes, or pretending to be on the phones.

He said nothing, turning and walking off to his office. 

Rosalind came back to her desk and found the other nurses whispering among themselves. 

"What's up?" she asked as she put her laptop on the counter.

"Oh, my god, Rosa!" Mary Anne said as she leaned over from her desk. She looked down the hallway to make sure that the doctor or Dahlia was around before speaking. "Dahlia said that she would break Dr. Dale's fingers if he snapped at her or any of us!"

Alicia nodded and leaned back on her chair. "I thought he would snap. But he didn't say anything! I am very surprised!"

Dennis peaked over the top of his laptop. He was one of the few male nurses there. "Well, I think the only reason that he's not saying anything is because it's actually quite hot." He wiggled his eyebrow at them when they gave him a questioning look. "Dahlia. I think he enjoys being bossed around by her." He gave the women a shrug when they didn't look too convinced. "Maybe he's into BDSM?"

"Okay, that's too much to think about, and I don't want to think about the doctor being into that stuff," Rosalind said with a frown. 

"He'd be the submissive then?" Mary Anne commented as she cocked her head to the side. "Since she's the dominant one."

"How the heck do you guys know these things?" Alicia asked with a scowl. "That's scary to think about. How do you guys know these things?"

"Internet." Dennis said with a chuckle. He saw Dahlia stalking up the hallway with a stack of papers in her hand. She had a hard set look on her face, and they all dispersed back to what they were doing.

"I'm still curious about how the hell you all know about BDSM." Alicia commented as she took her laptop to go call back another patient. Dahlia blinked, staring at the nurses.

"BDSM?" She wondered what they had been talking about before she'd come down the hallway. She could just imagine whatever they had been talking about and started chuckling to herself.

They all watched her walk away down the hall and regrouped as soon as she was out of earshot.

"I want to know how you know that she would be the dominant one. Have you seen Dr. Dale! That's not submissive at all!" Rosalind exclaimed and Alicia agreed. 

Dennis shrugged. "Well, just saying, Dahlia is not ugly, and she's sassy. Give me sassy and hot any day of the week, even I would offer to be submissive!"

"You're disgusting." Mary Anne said with a look at Dennis. "Should I be sitting here next to you?"

"You know you like it. It would be boring as fuck if I wasn't sitting here among you guys. Don't deny it." Dennis concluded and the girls looked at each other, rolling their eyes at him.

"You think too high of yourself, boy."

"I still think that Dr. Dale would be very dominant." Mary Anna said. 

"Would that make all of us submissive."

"This conversation is over now." Alicia concluded with a shake of her head. "I don't want to think about it."

"Well, apparently, Rosalind wants to keep talking about it," Dennis laughed. "Who's disgusting now?"

"I'm not saying we will be doing that, Dennis. I'm curious as to what that would make us." Rosalind said with a blush.

"Y'all like it when he screams at you?"

"Hell, no."

"No."

"I wanna punch him in the face." Alicia said firmly.

Mary Anne grinned. "Let Dahlia break his fingers. I, quite honestly, am loving all the dram and the tension. I hope he doesn't wear her out though."

"Yeah..."

"Yeah."

They all thought about it for a moment before shaking their heads and going back to their own assignments.

....