“Am I boring you, Doctor Lephmann?”

David frowned at the mockery. “Not at all. I was considering your choice of subject. I don’t know about you gentleman,” he surveyed the others, “But talk of this nature… troubles me.”

Jan nodded her agreement, but it was already obvious that the others agreed with Hoberman. A cynical man might think to charge them with toadying—and be right. Doctor Hoberman was senior to them all and he was in tight with those that mattered. Jan was relatively new in her position, just as David himself was. Both of them were still on the outside looking in. He hadn’t been able to make friends with Hoberman’s little clique, and if he were honest with himself, he didn’t want to. He saw the wall growing ever higher between him and the others every time he opened his mouth, but it was not in him to keep silent when he heard such bigoted trash expressed by professional and well respected men. They should know better. Opinions voiced in private were one thing, though the smell of such hypocrisy turned his stomach, it was better than the alternative. Saying such things where others could hear and perhaps act upon them was irresponsible in the extreme.

“Troubles you in what way exactly?” Hoberman said, playing to his audience.

“To differentiate between patients for such petty reasons as his or her race is abominable. I became a doctor because I believe in helping people. It doesn’t matter to me whether the patient is human or something else, and it shouldn’t matter to you gentleman.” He tried to catch their eyes. “There is nothing in the oath we all swore that restricts our practice of medicine to humans.”

One or two of the others did have the decency to look abashed, but they didn’t have the moral courage to agree with him. They looked away trying not to meet his eyes.

Only Jan had the guts to speak up. “I agree. You must admit the situation has changed, if not, we are nothing but frightened peasants hiding from the bogeyman.”

Hoberman glared. “The times have indeed changed and not for the better. Your bogeyman is as real as you are. We knew how to deal with such creatures as they deserved back then, but now we cuddle up with them and pretend not see what we’ve taken into our beds. Your peasants may have been ignorant savages beset by superstition, but they knew the folly of trying to live with these animals!”

Jan hissed in shock. Even the clique was shocked to stillness. Hoberman had called them animals. They weren’t animals but people. Different from humans maybe, but they were sentient beings. They loved and hated like people, laughed and talked like people. They were people!

“I believe you misspoke, Doctor,” David said giving the man a graceful way to withdraw. “I hope you misspoke. I’m sure all here agree that it was people you meant, not animals.”

“I said what I said and meant every word. You may call them people if you wish. You may even believe it, though how anyone could is beyond me. That is beside the point.”

“What is the point?”

“The point is, I’m in need of someone with your peculiar outlook where non humans are concerned. Alex Brauer called me yesterday and asked me to recommend someone to help him over at Mercy. I thought you might like a change of scenery. Unless of course you’ve changed your opinion about working with the animals?”

He gritted his teeth to stop himself replying immediately and rashly. Doctor Brauer worked at Mercy Hospital, which was understaffed. A change of scenery would be good right now, but knowing Hoberman, his exile was likely to become permanent in a hurry. He had only recently come on staff here at Saint Bartholomew’s, and he had his future to consider. Making an enemy of Hoberman was not a good idea; his opinions had weight. If the man just happened to mention that a doctor of his acquaintance was a troublemaker, that doctor would find it very hard to find a worthwhile position anywhere.

“Ah,” Hoberman smirked. “He’s having second thoughts. It seems David’s convictions have been tested and found wanting. Perhaps you, Janice?”

Jan shook her head and looked down as if ashamed. She glanced once at David then away.

“My convictions remain the same. I have no problem working at Mercy for a time. The experience will be good for me.”

Hoberman raised an eyebrow. “Indeed? Well then, I shall tell Alex to expect you tomorrow. Shall we say ten?”

“By all means,” he said with a sinking feeling. What would Michelle say when she heard about this? Whatever she said, he knew he wouldn’t like it.

The rest of that day he couldn’t stop thinking about Hoberman. Why did the man dislike him so? He had done nothing to warrant it, and it wasn’t his opinions where non-humans were concerned either. Hoberman had spoken with Alex Brauer yesterday before their discussion about them, so the trigger couldn’t be their opposing view.

It was late when he arrived home. He showered and took the opportunity to change his clothes before leaving the house again to drive to Michelle’s place. He would rather drive almost anywhere else than explain to her how he had volunteered to work with non-human patients, but he couldn’t hide it forever. Michelle and he were supposed to go out tonight, but he was late. She would be in a bad mood. By the time he parked his car, he had summoned enough courage to tell her what had happened and where he would be working for the foreseeable future.

Michelle opened the door and waited for him. She must have been watching the street. He tried to kiss her but she was having none of it. She spun on her heel and stalked back inside the house leaving him at the door. David sighed. He really didn’t need this.

“I’m sorry,” he said closing the door quietly. Michelle didn’t like noise. “We can go another night.”

“You could have at least let me know. Robert was free; he could have taken me.”

“Why Robert and not Jennifer?”

Michelle shrugged.

He let his anger at the idea of Robert taking his place go. He didn’t want to be angry with her and he certainly didn’t want her angry with him. He stepped up behind her and clasped her shoulders. “I’m sorry. We had an emergency; I couldn’t just leave.”

“There’s always an emergency with you. If it’s not one thing it’s another.”

“Hey,” he whispered. He tried to pull her into his arms but she resisted and shrugged him off. She stalked to the other side of the room. “What do you want me to say? I’m a doctor. I had to stay and save someone’s life. I’m sorry if that messes up your social schedule.” He winced as soon as that came out. He wished he could take it back, but it was too late and he knew it. He headed for the drinks cabinet knowing he would need one.

“I have a life too, David.”

“I know you—”

“My life doesn’t revolve around your work. If you think that I’m going to make an appointment every time I want to see you, you have another thing coming.”

“I don’t think that.”

“Well that’s what it feels like to me.”

He poured himself Glenlivet over ice and threw it down his throat in one gulp. “I have something to tell you and I don’t want you to interrupt.”

“What is—”

“Hoberman asked me to work over at Mercy and I said yes,” he said in a rush and winced waiting for the explosion. He turned to see her standing as before. “Well?”

“I’m waiting for the punchline.”

“It’s not a joke.”

“How could you? You know what this will mean.”

He rolled his shoulders trying to dispel the tension building there. “It means I’ll be out from under Hoberman.”

“He’s a friend of my father, a really good friend, and you knew that! Daddy will find out!”

“I don’t care if he finds out. In fact, I have a good mind to tell him right now. This is going to be good for me. I just know it.”

Michelle stared at him, appalled. “How could you let this happen? You have to tell him you changed your mind. Daddy will—”

“I want to marry you, not your father. You know my feelings. I won’t go back to Hoberman and beg for my old place back! I didn’t go through med school to toady to the likes of him.”

“Do it for us. Daddy says he can get you a place with him, but he won’t do that if he hears about this. Think what people will say!”

“You’re not listening to me. I don’t want to work for your father. Hoberman wants me out of his playground. I’m more than willing to give him what he wants.”

“Why are you so weak!” Michelle stormed. “You’re always so damn accommodating!”

He stilled. “Is that what you really think of me—that I’m weak? Well is it?” He roared the question, stiff with anger. Michelle remained silent. “I see,” he hissed and slammed his glass down. “I better go.”

“David?”

“Yes?” He looked back from the doorway.

“Please say you won’t do it. Daddy can fix this.”

“I really would be as weak as you think me if I allowed that.” He couldn’t help slamming the door on his way out. Petty, but he felt a little better for it.

Alex Brauer as it turned out was a harried looking man in his late thirties. David could see Hoberman had not lied about him needing help at least. Attracting good administrators and staff couldn’t be easy with the hospital’s reputation for treating non-humans. Everyone working here was holding down two jobs and sometimes three. Brauer officially headed up the emergency department, but in real terms, he was senior surgeon effectively running the entire hospital alongside its undermanned and underfunded administration department. It was a heavy burden for a team of experienced doctors, let alone one man and a couple of juniors. He wondered if Brauer knew that his newest addition was also lacking in experience. Probably not, he thought when he saw the smile of relieved welcome.

“Doctor Lephmann?” Brauer said shaking hands. “I’m so very glad to meet you. I must confess that when I heard the news, I thought they were just fobbing me off as they usually do.”

David retrieved his hand after it had been wrung a dozen times or so. “They?”

Brauer waved a hand at the ceiling. “They. You know they? Them. The powers that be—the almighty arseholes that cut my budget for the last four out of five years. Them.”

“Oh them.”

Brauer meant the mayor and the bureaucrats responsible for the health care of Mercy’s welfare cases. Mercy Hospital cared for people without medical cover or the means to pay for it. It left Saint Bartholomew’s free for cases that were more… lucrative. David was surprised at the depth of his own disgust for such a practice. Maybe there was hope for him yet.

He accompanied Brauer along busy corridors listening intently as he explained where everything was. The building was old and in need of renovation, but he could see that it remained functional. It lacked the ultra-modern sterility of Saint Bartholomew’s, but although it didn’t boast the convenience of the latest technology, it was solid where the basics were concerned.

Rumour had it that Mercy would be closed for good next year and the site cleared for the new stadium currently being planned. Goddess knew the area did need revitalising, but what of the people this place cared for? Saint Bartholomew’s was big—much bigger than Mercy, but it was hard to imagine Brauer and his patients fitting in there.

“The labs are down that corridor there, and along this one, we have more wards. Would you like to see?”

“Yes please.”

Brauer smiled. He had wanted to go in and see someone, and David had realised that. Besides, he would be working alongside the man and needed to learn all he could.

“There are very few private rooms here,” Brauer said upon entering the ward. “Most of the wards are like this. We have ten beds in each usually, but we sometimes have to slip an extra one in where we can.”

“Your patients are all non-humans?”

“Why do you ask?”

“No reason. I’ve never worked with non-humans before.”

“Never?”

“No.”

Brauer looked stunned. “But Hoberman assured me! He promised me someone that would…”

“That would?”

Brauer’s face hardened, his posture now stiff. “Someone who would not find working here objectionable.”

“Well then, he told you the truth. I volunteered for this, Doctor Brauer—”

“Alex, please.”

“Hoberman didn’t lie to you, Alex. I do want to work here. I hope you don’t find my lack of experience in the area a serious problem. I assure you that I’ll hit the books and make up for any lack.”

Brauer waved that away impatiently. “Not all of my patients are non-human, about half are simply people without the means to pay for good care, but I was hoping for someone with experience of non-human physiology. I’m currently the only one with any kind of real experience in the area and I’m swamped. Well, no matter. After a few months here, you’ll be an old hand. I can still use you, no question about it. I’m understaffed and underfunded. Any help is appreciated.”

“How do you cover your costs, if I might ask?”

Brauer looked at him as if evaluating him. “Some of it comes by way of government grants—not nearly enough, not by a long way. The rest,” he shrugged his shoulders uncomfortably. “There are a few people—private contributors—that help with funding. They like to remain anonymous. Without them I couldn’t keep this place going for longer than a month or two.”

David nodded and glanced around. There were twelve beds in the ward, but only half of them were occupied. The mystery of the missing patients was solved when he noticed the gathering at the far end of the room.

Brauer sighed and shook his head ruefully. “Poker game I suspect.”

David wandered over to watch while Brauer spoke with the duty nurse about something—a patient most likely, but he didn’t find a poker game. There were two men sitting at a table opposite each other staring. Neither man was doing anything interesting yet the audience was spellbound. The two men were almost vibrating with something—their need to move perhaps, yet both continued to glare hard at each other in silence.

He watched as the nearer of the two men clenched his jaw and started shaking harder. He was sweating and his fists were clenched now. David thought that perhaps he should intervene, but neither man was really doing anything. He looked around in puzzlement and shivered at the audience’s intensity. His short hairs lifted. Something was happening here, but what?

“What are they doing?” he said.

“Hmmm?” an unshaven man in the audience said.

“What are they doing?”

The man eyed him up and down. “Are you new?”

“Doctor Lephmann—David.”

“Nice to meet you. The name’s Howard—gallstones you know.”

“Gallstones?”

“Yeah, it hurt like a sonofabitch, but the Doc fixed me up. I’m outa here tomorrow.”

“What are they doing?” David said nodding back to the centre of everyone’s attention.

“They’re only playing.”

“I don’t I understand.”

“Shifters are always doing this kind of thing. You know anything about shifters?”

David looked again. The men were shifters? He was fascinated by the thought. He had only been here an hour and already he had met non-humans—his first as far as he knew. They were still sitting as before, but as he had noticed earlier, the man closest was sweating heavily. His opponent seemed to be sitting at his ease now. He must be winning.

“Are you one as well?”

“Me?” Howard snorted. “Nah, but I know a couple.”

“Really? I thought they kept to themselves.”

“They do, but a friend of mine got himself bitten and we kind of stayed in touch. He introduced me.”

“I see, and by playing you mean what exactly?”

Howard waved a hand at the sitting men. “See, what you got to understand about shifters is that they ain’t human. They look human, but they aren’t. You know how wolves run in packs?”

He nodded still watching the show.

“It’s the same with shifters. They stick together mostly—look out for each other, but the strongest always leads. The strongest has to prove it over the others. They call that one the Alpha. Shifters are always fighting for status, but there’s more than one way to fight. They have their own magic you know.”

“Magic? I didn’t know that.”

Howard shrugged. “Not magic like you mean, Doc, but they do have power. Shifters always recognise it and will submit if he’s weaker, but if they’re closely matched…” he gestured at the pair sitting at the table.

“They fight?”

Howard nodded. “To the death sometimes, but mostly it’s like this. They push at each other until one submits.”

“I can’t let them hurt each other. Not here.”

Howard eyed him sideways. “Never get between two shifters Doc—never, but you don’t have to worry. Like I said, they’re just playing.” Just then, the sweating man slumped back gasping. “See what I mean?”

The two men grinned at each other and the audience began to disperse.

“Is the game over?” Alex said as he arrived. “I’ve told them there’s a time and place for that kind of thing. A hospital is definitely not it.”

David smiled. “It’s over.”

“Shall we continue the tour then?”

“By all means.”

Brauer led the way out.