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5:30 P.M., THURSDAY, Jan. 13, 2022, EWN newsroom — Ryan hung out a bit after the editor’s meeting. The newsroom seemed tense, not adrenaline rushed, but upset. He didn’t have to guess much to know it was about Will. And maybe Blair?
He went into his office to get some paperwork done, but he left the door open. It took less than 10 minutes before Ben was in the guest chair with the door shut. “I’m worried,” he said.
“About?”
“Blair, actually. Will is pissing me off, but I’m more worried about what Blair might be having to do to keep the peace. Such as it is,” he said.
Ryan looked at Ben thoughtfully. Ben Waters was the grandson of the Yakama Tribal Council president. During much of his childhood he had ridden along with his grandfather meeting the needs of the tribe. For a young man raised by a single father with the assistance of a single grandfather, he might have a wider perspective on caring for people than one would guess. It was easy to forget that.
“Bianca is worried too,” Ben added. “She had lunch with Blair. She said Blair was too quiet, too stressed. Unhappy, but faking it. But that’s what Blair does, isn’t it? She fakes it.”
Ryan chewed his lip. “Got any ideas on how to help?”
“Get Will back to the doctor?” Ben said. “And maybe you should talk to Blair? Because I have a question for you. If Blair crashes under the weight of placating Will, what happens to EWN? She carries this place on her shoulders. Will is the EIC, but day-to-day, it’s Blair who runs things.”
“And that’s how it was with me and Emily,” Ryan said. “How it works, actually. EIC faces outward and looks at big picture things. The news editor focuses on content.”
Ben nodded. He’d been Ryan’s first hire, practically, so he’d worked with Emily too. “But Will is basically a reporter at heart, and he understands coverage,” Ben countered. “The outreach? Bianca is still doing a lot of that. Big picture? We all work well together, and we’ve been through serious shit. So, Will can coast on all that. And he does. That’s not me being hard on him, it’s just what it is.”
Ryan gave a half-shrug of agreement. They’d lucked out this year. They had an inexperienced editor with a very young crew. But the staff had pulled together, and they functioned well as a team. And that wasn’t always the case in a newsroom — most certainly had not always been the case at EWN. He remembered a term when the EIC and the sports editor were feuding, and he winced. Everyone took sides. About the only thing they agreed on was getting news out on time. There had even been two end-of-term parties — sports supporters had one, the EIC had a separate one. Everyone went away on winter break, and when they came back it was as if nobody remembered what the fight had even been about. They all shrugged and went back to work.
“And more?” Ben added. “You need to talk to her about next year. Applications for EIC are due Feb. 1, and I know she’s not even thought about it.”
Ryan nodded. “That I can do,” he said. “I’ll talk to her about the EIC application. Because if she isn’t going to apply, we need to do some fast thinking. And maybe it will lead to other topics.”
Ben paused in the doorway. “Do you have reason to think she might not?” he asked slowly.
Ryan just looked at him steadily. Will’s comments were not for him to share. But Ben was good at reading people.
“Shit,” he said, and he stalked back to his domain in the television studio.
Ryan let out the breath he’d been holding. Maybe he should go home sooner than he thought. He got up and closed the door, and then he dialed the number for Dr. Clarke.
“Ryan, you know I can’t share someone else’s medical records with you,” she said before he even had a chance to say hello.
“I know that,” he assured her. “But let me ask you this. You know Will. If he was having angry outbursts, took a swing at me, and called his girlfriend a bitch in the middle of the newsroom, would you think those were alterations to his personality that might be troubling? Especially in light of his recent MRI?”
She snorted at his attempt to get around her ethics. “Yes, I would consider those grounds for concern,” she said. “Those are not behaviors I would normally associate with him. He hasn’t returned my calls, however. I have the results of his MRI, but he has to call me so we can discuss them. So far, I have not been successful in connecting with him.”
“I’ll see if I can work on that,” he said. “So next question. At what point can I stage an intervention and bring him to you?”
“Legally? If you think he’s a danger to himself or someone else. But taking a swing at you isn’t it. If his girlfriend shows up with a black eye? You’d have to call the police and have them intervene. The law isn’t particularly helpful in this regard.”
Ryan frowned. He didn’t even like to think about the potential violence in that scenario. “Any other ideas?”
“He needs to call me,” she reiterated. “Sooner the better.” She hesitated. “Do you know if he’s still taking the Tylenol with codeine that the Health Center gave him?”
He thought about that. “He’s still taking something,” he said at last. “I saw him take something for his headaches a couple of times today.”
“He needs to stop that,” she said firmly. “Immediately. Codeine is a blood thinner among other things, and that’s a dangerous thing right now. I’m very concerned, Ryan.”
He thanked her and ended the call. He didn’t know what much he could do, so he decided to go home and ask Teresa for her advice. Maybe the girl’s spa-day network could reach out?
Ryan got home in time to help with supper. Ruby was put in her swing and Rafael in his highchair; they talked about the reception. “Did you have fun?” he asked, a bit anxiously.
“I did,” she said. “I didn’t expect to. But all those people, dressed to the nines like that? It was fun!”
They cleaned up the kitchen together after dinner, and the Teresa said, “Are you going to tell me what’s on your mind?”
He laughed a bit. “Yes,” he said. “But once the kids are in bed?”
So later, he sat in the big overstuffed chair in the downstairs sitting room with Teresa on his lap and told her what was going on. Teresa listened to him intently. She was his best listener, he thought gratefully. She focused. He had to work at that; it seemed to come naturally to her. He finished, and she considered what he had said. He waited. He’d learned to let her think it through. As she said, she was a deep thinker, but not a fast thinker.
“After this week, we do need a spa day,” she said finally. “I’ll invite everyone up for Saturday morning. Make yourself scarce?”
“I’ll take Rafael for a playday,” he promised. “And Ruby too? Do you need me to take both?”
“If you don’t mind,” she said. “Take Cage with you, if he’s not working. And maybe the Castros? A day trip somewhere?”
In the rain? He thought about it. Sure, why not? They’d go to the zoo.
Ryan waited until after breakfast the next day to text Blair: Can you come by, today? We need to talk about next year.
Blair: Does noon work?
He sent her a thumbs up, and then set up a meeting with the three TAs of the Center, Jacob Lewis, Harmony and Tabitha to debrief on the symposium at 2 p.m. in Tabitha’s office. He would have childcare duty until noon — Maddie would be home by then.