Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Ethics

The phone in Serena‘s kitchen was ringing. She had just gotten back after her rounds at the hospital,

and Dana was already back with the kids. She had them in the bathtub. It was a relief to Serena that

she didn‘t have to immediately jump into “mother” mode. She did rush to the kitchen without even

taking her shoes off, picking it up while tossing her keys onto the counter. “Hello?” she asked. “Serena,

it is Adriana,” the familiar voice on the other line said. “Adriana, hi, how are you?” she asked. For a

moment, she had the desire to question Adriana about hiring Dana, but she heard the kids laughing

and splashing in the bathroom, Dana‘s soft voice murmuring to them. She really was quite good with

them! “I‘m well, thank you,” Adriana said. “I take it you are settling in well, seeing as you came in for an

unscheduled shift today.” Serena chuckled. “I hope that‘s alright,” she said. “I wanted to check on

Carson, and once was there, I figured I‘d make myself useful.” “Any time,” Adriana said. “We can

always use more hands. The reason I‘m calling is because I‘d like you to come to my office tomorrow

morning so we can touch base and talk about what‘s next for the hospital.” “Tomorrow morning?”

Serena asked, thinking quickly about whether or not she‘d planned anything. She couldn‘t think of

anything off the top of her head. Technically, she was still supposed to be settling in, but she had

already started work on her own, so it made sense that Adriana would be giving her more work. “Yes,

how about, ten o‘clock?” Adriana asked. “I‘ll be there,” Serena assured, nodding even though Adriana

couldn‘t see her.

“Great, see you then. Have a good night,” the other doctor said. “Good night,” Serena repeated before

hanging up. She sighed, her shoulders relaxing. Serena went back to her front door, sliding her shoes

1/5 off and hanging her keys on a nearby hook. When she got upstairs, Dana already had the kids in

their pajamas. “Mommy, you‘re home!” Olivia said, jumping off the edge of the tub and hugging Serena.

She smiled, bending down to kiss her daughter‘s head, and holding out her arms to invite Oliver in for a

hug: “Did you have fun at daycare?” she asked. “I beat everyone else on the monkey bars,” Olivia said,

beaming proudly. Serena kissed her cheek. “You‘re so strong,” she said. “How about you, Oliver?” “I

drew with chalk,” he said. “That sounds like a lot of fun,” Serena said. “They were both on their best

behavior” Dana assured. Serena looked up at her and smiled. “Thank you,” she said. “I can put them to

bed if you‘d like to relax yourself,” she offered. Dana grinned. “I‘ll be downstairs if you need anything,”

she said. Serena put the twins to bed, reading them a book that Olivia let Oliver pick. It was rare that

Olivia let Oliver take the lead. She was the more dominant of the two. Their conversation about books

with the Alpha must have had an impact on her. Serena was pleased to see how perceptive her

children were, and she loved that, even with how different they were, they would still be kind to each

other.

The next morning, Serena made sure her children were in the capable hands of Dana, and then she

left for the hospital. This time she had her stethoscope and lab coat, to look more official. Coffee in

hand, she headed to her first official day on the job. Adriana‘s office was on the first floor of the

hospital. Serena knocked on the glass paned door. Adriana looked up from the files on her desk and

waved her in. Serena took a seat across from Adriana‘s desk. “Good morning,” Adriana said. The two

piles of files on her desk were almost taller than Adriana when she was sitting in her desk chair. There

were another two piles on the floor next to the desk, just as tall, or taller.

“What‘s all this?” Serena asked, motioning to the piles of files. Adriana sighed and laughed. “This is

why I asked you to come in today,” she said. “Everyone in the pack gets a physical, annually. It

includes a full blood panel work and a physical exam. It takes several days to get through everyone,

even with all hands on déck.” Serena nodded. “I guess I chose a good time to come in,” Serena

muttered. Adriana laughed and nodded.

““We start with the Alpha, Beta, omegas, warriors, and their families,” Adriana said. She slid a stack of

file folders towards Serena. Serena took the files and held them on her lap. She opened the top folder

to see Logan‘s name printed at the top of the chart. She had been contemplating the likelihood that

Logan really was the father of her children. There were certain signs that pointed in that direction.

Though she hadn‘t slept with anyone between their one–night stand and when she found out she was

pregnant, it wasn‘t like she hadn‘t had some romantic encounters in her undergraduate program before

returning home.

With Logan‘s medical charts in hand, she had the opportunity to take a separate blood sample of his

and send it to a human lab for paternity testing against her twins. Ethically, and as a doctor, she knew it

was a bad decision. She was bound to do no harm. Lying to a patient, running a blood test based on

her own selfish needs…it wasn‘t ethical. It wasn‘t that selfish though. Her twins would need to know

who their father was, eventually. If it was Logan, he had the right to know too, and she didn‘t want to

make that confession without being absolutely sure. It wasn‘t the best idea, but it was the only way she

could be sure. If she didn‘t when she got around to telling Logan, he could demand a paternity test

anyway. She thought it would be a lot more horrific for her children to be subjected to paternity testing

by the male that was supposed to be their father. Especially if the results came back negative. They‘d

already grown fond of him. Serena had to know, for the sake of her kids. She made the decision to get

a sample of blood from Logan and run the test in a human lab.

“Ready to get started?” Adriana asked. Serena nodded. For the rest of the day, Serena shadowed

Adriana. The physicals and blood draws were done as available, and she didn‘t encounter anyone from

Logan‘s family on that first day. A few times, Adriana asked her to do some of the blood draws and

double check her findings on physical exams. It was good to get the hands–on practice, and annual

physicals seemed like the best way to go about getting her hands on as many patients as possible in a

short time! “You did great work today,” Adriana told her as they cleaned up for the day. “And we will do

it all again tomorrow,” Serena said with a chuckle. Adriana chuckled. “Great. I will see you tomorrow,”

she said. Serena waved and departed from the hospital. Dana had sent her a message saying that she

had brought Olivia and Oliver to daycare again. Serena headed to the daycare to pickup the kids. They

were happy to see her. Even Oliver seemed like he had really enjoyed his day at the daycare. Serena

was happy to see it. She‘d been worried Oliver would have trouble fitting in and making friends. He had

in the human world. Being around other werewolves seemed more natural to him though, and he was

already getting involved. It made Serena optimistic for when they would be starting school. When they

arrived home, Serena saw her mother standing on her front porch. “Grammy!” Olivia called, jumping

out of her car seat the moment Serena had unhooked her. Oliver was happy to run off and hug

Charlotte when he was free too. “It is good to see you, my little ones,” Charlotte said. Serena noticed

the pickup truck parked outside of her house, filled with boxes. “Mom, please tell me this isn’t your

truck, and all those boxes aren‘t for us,” she said, slowing walking up the porch steps. “It isn‘t my truck,”

Charlotte said, winking. “I rented it.” Serena groaned, shaking her head.

“Mom,” she said. “That is…a bit much.” Charlotte chuckled. “Besides, that stuff isn‘t for all of you. It is

just toys and new things for the kids,” she said. Again, Serena groaned, but she unlocked the door. “I

want my new toys!” Olivia insisted as she went inside. “Me too, me too,” Oliver said, following his sister.

Serena eyed her mother, but invited her inside. “Fine, but you can‘t do this all the time,” she said. “I‘m

just making up for the years I missed,” Charlotte said. Serena didn‘t think that was too unreasonable.