Free Side Effects by Michael Palmer

photo of her parents, carefully placed to one side of her desk. Then her expression softened. It wasn't their fault, being poor. Just their fate. They didn't want the stroke or the cancer that had forced their daughter to shelve her dreams and begin a life of taking orders from privileged brats who, more often than not, couldn't come close to her intellectual capacity. One hundred and fifty. What was Kate Bennett? One-ten?
    One-twenty tops. Yet there she was with the degree and the power and the future. Listen, Sheila, you're terrific at your job. I don't see that there's anything to gain by bringing this up to Dr. Willoughby, or even by making you reimburse the department.
    But never again, okay?
    "Patronizing bitch."
    "Who's a bitch?"
    Startled, Sheila whirled. Norton Reese stood propped against the doorjamb, eyeing her curiously.
    "Jesus, you scared me."
    Page 26
    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    "Who's a bitch?" Reese checked the corridor in both directions then stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
    "Bennett, that's who."
    "Ah, yes. What's our little Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm up to now?"
    -Wi-x
    %
    "Oh, nothing new. It's that damn American Society meeting."
    "Miami?"
    "Yes. The time you assured me there was no way anyone would ever find out I didn't go."
    "She is a resourceful cunt," Reese mumbled. "I'll say that for her."
    "What?"
    "Didn't she say she was going to do her Girl Scout good deed for the month and let the whole matter drop?"
    "That's what she said, but she and Dr. Willoughby are like that." Sheila held up crossed fingers. "Either she's already told him or she's going to hold the thing over my head forever. Either way ..." She shook her head angrily.
    "Easy, baby, easy," Reese said, crossing to her and slipping his hands beneath her lab coat. Sheila grimaced, but allowed herself to be embraced.
    Balding, moderately overweight, and wedded to three piece suits, Reese had never held sex appeal for her in any visceral sense. Still, he was the administrator of the entire hospital complex, and time and experience had taught her that true sex appeal was based not so much on what a man could do to her as for her.
    "You have the most beautiful tits of any woman I've ever known," Reese whispered. "Baby, do you know how long it's been?"
    She blocked his move toward her breasts with an outstretched hand. "It's not my fault, Norty. I'm divorced. You're the one with all the family commitments. Remember?" Reese gauged the determination in her eyes and decided against another advance. "So," he said, settling into the chair by her desk, "Wonder Woman has been at it again, huh? Well, believe it or not, she's the reason--one of the reasons--I came down here."
    "Oh?"
    "Maybe you'd better sit down." Reese motioned her to her chair and then waited until she had complied.
    "Did you know that old Willoughby has decided to resign?"
    "No. No, I didn't, actually." She felt some hurt that Reese had been told of the decision before she was.
    "He's giving health as a reason, but I think the old goat just can't cut it anymore. Never could, really." Sheila shot him a look warning against any further deprecation of the m an she had worked under for fifteen years. "That's too bad," she murmured.
    "Yeah? Well, baby, hang onto your seat. You don't know what bad is. For his successor, your Willoughby wants to recommend one K. Bennett, MD."
    Sheila fought a sudden urge to be sick. For years she had, in effect, run the pathology department, using Willoughby for little more than his signature on purchase orders and personnel decisions. With Bennett as chief, she would be lucky to keep her job, much less her power and influence. "You said wants to recommend," she managed.
    "Bennett refuses to give him the go-ahead until she's talked it over with her husband." She picked a tiny Smurf doctor doll off her desk and absently twisted its arm. "How do you feel about it?" she asked.
    "After what she did