Chapter 24: Hello to you too!

November 12, 1991, Chicago, Illinois

“Then what happened?” Jessica asked with a smirk as our trio walked to Doctor Green’s office from the ER.

“Nothing, really! I told you I’m just messing with her. I told her I was in the middle of a project and couldn’t really leave the office. I couldn’t really tease her in front of Keri.”

“No, you don’t want to advertise to her what’s going on now that you and Kimmy aren’t seeing each other.”

“Correct. Anyway, she asked me to have coffee with her again. I put her off until next Tuesday.”

“That poor girl doesn’t know which end is up!” Kara giggled.

“And you honestly have no intention of sleeping with her?” Jessica asked.

“Is she someone I’d consider as a dalliance? Maybe. But I’m enjoying the pursuit, even if it leads nowhere. I haven’t told her the conditions, even. And I have no idea if she’d be up for a one-and-done situation.”

“It’s NEVER one-and-done with you, Tiger!” Jessica laughed.

“You know what I meant! How was your shift today?”

“Happily, quite boring. I spent most of the day in the lounge, reading about new techniques and ideas for improving trauma treatments.”

“That doesn’t happen very often!”

“No, it doesn’t. So long as we don’t have another day like yesterday anytime soon.”

There had been a construction accident, and in addition to two fatalities amongst the workers, a fireman had died when some beams had collapsed on him. There had also been two shooting victims, both of whom died, as well as a major traffic accident, though all of those victims survived. And that was just during Jessica’s twelve-hour shift. There had been nearly a dozen patients waiting for admission or discharge when she’d arrived at work.

“Do we tell Doctor Green about Jess reading your journals?” Kara asked.

“I’m not sure,” I said. “Maybe just say we’re talking through my complete history and leave it at that. I’m not sure I want to put into Doctor Green’s mind that HE might want to read them.”

“What about you seeing Doctor Mercer?”

“I have to tell him that. But I’ll simply say I felt more comfortable with her than Doctor Bradford, and she’s agreed to treat me at a distance because of our fifteen-year relationship.”

“Tiger, can I ask you something about Sweden?”

“Sure, Babe. What?”

“I don’t understand why you beat yourself up so much over Annie. You didn’t rape her or force her to do anything. I mean, I get it that she regretted it, but she could have stopped at any point. I know you well enough to know you would have stopped the second she said ‘no’ or even indicated she didn’t want to do something or go further.”

“I didn’t have actual consent,” I said. “Bethany made that clear. Acquiescence isn’t consent.”

“Give me a break!” Jessica exclaimed. “She had at least a dozen orgasms, and several of them before you even got her clothes off! She was a willing participant who changed her mind after the fact! You were WAY too hard on yourself.”

“I don’t think so,” I said.

“Kara? What do you think?”

“I think I’m in no position to judge what Steve did or how Annie reacted. But, I will say that if she helped him undress, that’s actual consent. Now, if she’d said ‘no’ at any point, or ‘stop’, or held her legs closed, or anything like that, then I’d agree there was no consent.”

“I still say Bethany has a point,” I argued. “It’s why I am the way I am now.”

Jessica laughed, “Frustrating? Annoying? Difficult?”

“Doing it Bethany’s way, there is no possibility of error. And your rule about STD tests is a pretty big indication of consent on their part. Keisha and Jill getting tested and showing me the results is not mere acquiescence. So even if I don’t follow Bethany’s rule and ask directly, I end up in the same place.”

“True, but we’re not talking about now. We’re talking about then. Would you be willing to prosecute a guy in that situation? If Annie had claimed it was rape because she didn’t want to do it but never tried to stop you and never said ‘no’? And helped you undress?”

“No, of course not. And despite my own personal rules, if the law ever gets to the point where what I did with Annie would be classified as rape, nobody would be safe having sex without getting written, notarized consent, with the notary present to swear consent was never withdrawn at any point during sex!”

“So why beat yourself up over it! The girl had an amazing first time! Yes, she regretted it afterwards. She’s not the first girl in that situation, I’m sure! Have YOU run into that with other girls?”

“I suppose it depends on how you mean it, but in Volume 4 you’ll see another instance where there was a question of consent. It’s very different, but in my mind, even though consent was given, it really wasn’t.”

“What are you talking about?” Jessica asked.

I was talking about Dona Bingham. She’d initiated everything, but based on a false premise. I hadn’t been clear enough with her about my situation, so it wasn’t informed consent. Something else I more or less insisted on at this point.

“I’d rather you read it. You’ll recognize it if I say it was a matter of ‘informed consent’.”

“One other thing,” Jessica said.

“Yes?”

“You and Karin? What was really going on there? I mean, I just read your ‘dream sequence’, and I’m confused.”

“The answer to THAT will come in the next six volumes,” I chuckled. “When you read about our week at Nilssons Gård, you’ll have the full picture of me and Karin. And then when Bethany has her accident, you’ll understand more. No shortcuts on this one. You need to see exactly what both of us were thinking the whole way. And how Birgit truly impacted both of us.”

“Did you talk to her about it right away? Or later?”

“Keep reading, Babe. That’s all I can say at this point.”

November 15, 1991, Chicago, Illinois

“BLS agreed to settle with us for $315,000,” Jamie said.

“That sucks,” I said.

“And,” he took a deep breath, “the settlement requires us to drop our lawsuit against them.”

“No way, Jamie. I’m not agreeing to that!”

“I was pretty sure that was going to be your response. You’re going to have to take this to the Board.”

“I know,” I sighed. “Wait; can the insurance carrier refuse to cover the suit by BLS if I refuse to drop an unrelated lawsuit?”

“That’s a good question. They’ll probably try. Which means you might have to litigate against them as well.”

“Tell the insurance carrier I won’t settle on those conditions. Either BLS dismisses their suit, or we keep ours in place. See what they say about that. Then we can take it to the Board.”

“Given that I knew what your position would most likely be, I already felt them out about that. I got the strong impression that they are ready to write a check and won’t even consider reopening the negotiations.”

“Then I’ll call an emergency Board meeting for this afternoon. I think we can get everyone, though I’m not sure about Beth’s class schedule. Are you free?”

“All afternoon. I try not to have meetings booked after 1:00pm on Fridays. That lets me catch up with stuff I didn’t get to earlier in the week.”

“OK. I’ll have Kimmy set it up.”

I went to Kimmy’s office that she shared with Chris Gibson and explained what I needed. She promised to set it up right away. I went back to my desk and twenty minutes later, Kimmy was there with everything arranged.

“How?” I chuckled.

“I called Beth first, and got her schedule, then Karl. I knew everyone else was totally flexible. It’s at 4:00pm our time. I’ll have the call set up in the conference room. Who do we need from here?”

“You and Elyse,” I said.

She smiled and turned away. As I usually did, I watched her very cute butt sway as she walked away.

“She would, you know!” Penny giggled. “In a heartbeat!”

“And you know the rules, Penelope!” I chuckled.

“Uh-huh!” Penny smirked.

She knew I’d been with Tasha after Tasha started working for NIKA. Fortunately, she didn’t know about Jeri or Kimmy. I’d have had no end of grief over THAT, and it would have made fending off Penny’s advances even more difficult before she’d married Terry.

As planned, I joined Elyse and Kimmy in the conference room. All of the board members were on the call, as was Jamie. He explained the terms of the settlement offer. There was some discussion, and the board was pretty much divided over how to respond.

“If I may,” my dad said after listening silently to the discussion. “I believe we should approach BLS directly. Tell them we’ll settle our suit for $730,000, but we won’t drop it.”

I started laughing, “Twice their settlement offer because we sued them for twice as much.”

“Yes, you’re starting to get the picture,” my dad said. “Jamie, this has to be a direct offer to them, outside the communication with the insurance company. Make it clear we won’t agree to drop our suit to get a settlement.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea, Ray?” Karl asked.

“Commander, the fact that they settled so quickly, and for less than 10%, tells me they think either they have a weak case, OR they think we have a strong one. Yes, I know Nelson, Reed, and Pulver were the main target, but BLS didn’t offer to settle with them, did they?”

“Jamie?” Karl asked.

“Nelson has tried and BLS has rejected all settlement attempts.”

“See, Commander?” my dad said. “I think we have the upper hand.”

“Doesn’t that put us at risk for the entire $5,000,000 if the insurance company drops out?” Doctor Barton asked.

“No. We can always go back and revive the settlement offer,” my dad said. “We don’t outright refuse it, we simply negotiate. If we think it’s going to trial, and we think we’ll lose, and not win our suit, we simply invoke the settlement offer. Jamie, am I correct in my thinking on this?”

“Yes, you are. The courts want settlements because it makes their lives easier and saves time. There would be quite a bit of pressure on BLS to accept their own terms. But it’s not a guarantee.”

“How confident are you in this strategy, Ray?” Doctor Barton asked.

“Very. The whole point of my instruction to Steve was to get us to this point. It worked. Now we take the next step.”

“I move we follow Ray’s advice,” Beth said.

“Second,” Joyce said, surprising me. “Any further discussion?”

There wasn’t any, and the motion passed 5-0.

“Jamie,” Joyce said. “You’re instructed by the Board to make the settlement offer for our suit directly to BLS, at double what they asked from us. Kimmy will send you that in writing over Steve’s signature.”

“Just one additional point,” Jamie said. “We will still need to assist Nelson, Reed, and Pulver in their suit.”

“Damn straight,” I said. “We’re not abandoning them. We do everything we can. All we’re doing with BLS is mutually dismissing our suits. I can’t imagine that hurts Nelson, Reed, and Pulver.”

“No, it doesn’t. It’s not really much different from winning on our points in our motions to dismiss.”

“Then do it Jamie. I’ll have Kimmy type it up and it’ll be faxed to you by 5:00pm.”

“I hope you don’t mind if I make the call on Monday,” he chuckled. “I have a date with my wife tonight!”

“Where are your priorities, man?” I laughed.

“You’ve known my wife longer than I have. You know EXACTLY where my priorities are!”

“I do. Have a good time tonight!”

We hung up and Kimmy went right to her office. She had the instructions for Jamie to me by 4:40pm, I signed them, and she faxed them over, then called to confirm he’d received them. Now we had to wait.

November 16, 1991, Chicago, Illinois

“Still no Chris,” Alex observed.

“No. None of us have heard from him, so far as I’m aware,” Pete said. “He basically dropped out of sight.”

“What do you think would happen if I called him and asked him to come have a cup of coffee when the rest of you aren’t here?” Alex asked.

“I have no clue,” Pete said. “Steve? You’ve known him longer.”

“It can’t hurt. I’ll call you with his number when I get home.”

“Thanks. Can you believe that the Libyan government was behind the bombing of Pan Am 103?”

“Sadly, yes,” I sighed. “I could totally see Gaddafi doing something like that, especially after what happened back when Reagan was president.”

“You’re not indirectly blaming Reagan for the bombing, are you?” Howard asked.

“No, sorry,” I said. “That wasn’t what I meant to imply. I meant that Gaddafi was pissed enough about being bitch-slapped by Reagan a bunch of times that I could see this happening. It’s what happens when a guy who thinks he’s ‘Supreme Leader’ gets revealed to have a one-inch dick!”

The guys laughed.

“What is it with you men and size?” Pam said with a sly grin.

“The only guys who say size doesn’t matter are the guys who are small!” Clayton said with a hearty laugh.

“Is it twue?” Howard asked, in a faux-German falsetto, trying to sound like Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles.

“You would know, Howard! We’ve showered in the same BOQ before you ran off with Miss High Society!” he said smugly.

“I guess at this point, there’s nothing to do but whip them out onto the table,” Pam said. “I’ll get a sausage link so we can compare and see that none of you measure up!”

That caused the entire table to burst out in laughter and a few of us were laughing so hard we were crying.

“And with THAT, I think I need to assign a new waitress to this table,” Alex said, barely controlling his own laughter.

I was actually worried about the couple with two small children sitting not far from us. While I would have been OK with Jesse or Birgit hearing that kind of teasing, I knew a lot of parents weren’t. I motioned Alex over.

“We’re paying their check,” I said quietly, nodding toward the family.

He nodded, “Got it.”

When breakfast was over, Alex called me aside.

“They were pretty upset at the bawdy talk, but when I told them you covered their breakfast, they let it drop. I apologized to them on your behalf, as well as mine.”

“Thanks. I know you run a family place and that just got out of hand. I’ll have a quiet word with the guys next Saturday night about it. I’m sorry I started it.”

“Your comment might have bothered them, but it was what happened afterwards that really made them uncomfortable.”

“It won’t happen again,” I said.

“Thanks.”

We shook hands and I headed home. Jessica was finally ready to return to karate, so she went with Kara and me to the dojo, and afterwards, we had lunch with the kids. When most of them went down for naps, Jessica, Kara, and I took tea into the ‘Indian’ room.