“Okay, Miss Grazdani. Today is Thursday. Monday morning, first thing, I shall expect you to resume your responsibilities as a fourth-year medical student. I am also reminding you to stay away from Dr. Rothman’s laboratory. This is compassionate leave, not an opportunity for you to play epidemiologist again. We have real epidemiologists who are qualified to do the work. Do you understand?”

Pia nodded.

“Please say, ‘I understand,’ ” Dr. Bourse said. She wanted to be absolutely clear.

“I understand,” Pia said, almost inaudibly.

“Mr. Wilson. You’ll return to Radiology today—”

“Absolutely, Dean,” George said, cutting her off.

“And you will also cease enabling Miss Grazdani. Perhaps you might want to ask yourself why you, with a hitherto spotless record, are drawn into the kind of behavior we saw last night. Gnothi seauton—do you know what that means? It means ‘Know thyself,’ and it’s something that we as physicians need to remember always.

“I doubt that it was your idea, Mr. Wilson, to break into Dr. Rothman’s lab, and I hope that in the future you will let your actions be guided more by your intellect than by your id—by your cerebrum more than your hypothalamus.”

George eagerly nodded agreement.

“Everyone clear?” Dr. Bourse said. Pia and George nodded in unison.

“Well, thank you. You can go.”

Dr. Bourse watched George hold the door open for Pia, who left without acknowledging George. She acted as if George holding the door for her was a matter of right.

Dr. Bourse sat at her desk for a few minutes of contemplation. Since a large part of her job was to get to know her population of medical students at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, she thought about the strange relationship between Pia and George. Of course, fraternization between students was not necessarily encouraged, nor was it discouraged, provided it did not interfere with performance. In this romance, it was pretty obvious what he saw in her as she was the source of considerable gossip around the center as a particularly beautiful, intelligent, but enigmatic young woman. What wasn’t so clear was whether there was any reverse attraction.

Relations between staff and students, on the other hand, were officially frowned upon, but it was difficult to enforce a ban when the parties were all consenting adults and the students mostly in their late twenties. There had been persistent rumors concerning Pia Grazdani and Dr. Rothman. Again, Pia’s exotic beauty and obvious intelligence were lost on few people, but what she might possibly have seen in him was beyond most people’s comprehension. But nothing was ever substantiated and while there was every reason to believe that Dr. Rothman had given his student significant responsibilities and privileges, there was never any evidence that he had done so inappropriately. And now, Dr. Bourse thought, the conundrum of their relationship would just have to remain one of life’s little mysteries.

Chapter 31.

31.