“When you’re in the room, I want you well out of the way.”

“I always am.”

“I don’t want to hear a peep out of you. No talking to the team unless you’re directly spoken to.”

“Fine.”

“If you distract any of us I’m going to have you hauled up in front of a review board so fast you won’t know what hit you.”

“I understand.”

“If you do anything I deem disruptive I’m going to have you thrown out of the room.”

“Helen,” Reeves began.

I help up a hand and looked at Reeves. “It’s all right.” I turned back to Chao. “Doctor, I get it. You don’t want me here and you don’t want me getting in your way. And I agree. I shouldn’t be getting in your way, or in the way of your team. You have my word that I am going to stay out of your hair. Like I said, I’ve been present at hundreds of operations. I’ve gotten very good at making like a hole in the air. It’s not my job to get in your way. You’ve said it yourself, you’ve never needed one of us to step in. In which case, you won’t even know I’m here. You can get in, do your job, and get out without acknowledging I’m even in the room. I don’t mind.”

She glowered at me some more. “What do you do while we work?”

“Sometimes I read a book off my cell phone.”

“I don’t allow cell phones in my operating rooms. They’re a distraction and they can introduce pathogens.”

“Then I’ll stand around quietly.”

Chao was now fully prepped for the operating room. She looked over again at Reeves, gave me the barest of nods, and then turned and went away to get gowned and gloved, starting what was obviously her plan to ignore me through the rest of the day.

Reeves looked over to me. “Sorry about that.”

I smiled. “I’m used to it.”

“I suppose you might be. I don’t imagine you’re very popular with surgeons.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Is it because you remind them of their failures?”

“It’s because I remind them they’re not God,” I said. “And that if there is one, I’m closer to Him than they are.”

In Hour Seven the operation went to hell.