It's 'Doctor', Actually

Glencoe, Scottish Highlands

Summary: Life begins to return to normal, without Mei Lin. They discover what their new normal could look like now that everything is out in the open Jean tells Patrick some home truths.

Notes: Happy birthday pumpkinspicelove! I LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, it's been over a year🫣 Thanks for those who are still reading this. I've moved stores, gone back to my first love of community theatre, and finally had my foot surgery. I am currently in month 4 of my supposed 3 months off work... Surgery went well, the foot was more damaged than they could see on the MRI and it was a very big surgery to begin with, so its taking a long time to heal. I may even be out of the moon boot indefinitely by the end of the week🤞

If you need an update of where we're at, which, fair, I'd suggest re-reading the previous two chapters.

isn't jpg, jpeg, pdf, or png

Is a file extension you don't recognise (this one is a visual basic file, used for scripting, but others like exe or bat are used)

has a very low or unexpected file size (this one's is less than 1KB, or 0.001MB, a good reference should be at least 500KB)

When I said it was birdseed she just went “oh- can they actually eat that? Is that safe?”

I didnt know how to respond like, at all, so I just pointed at the duck and said “bird”

Bitch before enriched flour, neural tube defects like spina bifida were far more common. Even now, spina bifida clinicians and researchers are begging to have salt and maize fortified to reach groups that don’t use as much flour. Before iodized salt, the United States had a fucking GOITER BELT. Eleven years after the introduction of fluoridated water, a city in Michigan found the rate of dental caries among school children dropped a staggering 60%— in an era where tooth decay regularly fucking killed people

I’m literally not even going to start on vaccines, which are among the most successful and robustly studied public health measures in world history

I stared at them through the dawning realization that they lived in a world where that was remotely possible. “My phone is on do not disturb if I’m sleeping. Why would I let random texts wake me up? My sleep is important.”

Equally baffled they replied, “What if someone at work needs you?”

“I am not a manager. No one at work will ever need me badly enough to interrupt my sleep. If I’m not working then there’s no reason to be calling me.”

“Not even if you need to cover?”

I laughed, “I don’t need to cover. They could ask me to cover but good luck getting ahold of me if I’m sleeping.”

They looked distressed at this idea.

To console them I added, “I have important people like my mom and my wife set to override. If they call they get through no matter what.”

There was a small pause before they asked, “You can do that…?”