Dr. Yelena Bauer

Oncology. She answers her cell before her work phone.

1girl, adult woman age 31, German-American Caucasian features, fair skin, ash-blonde hair in a low neat ponytail with strands escaping at the temples, grey-blue eyes, wiry build, mature features with faint smile lines and shadows under the eyes from long shifts, standing in a hospital corridor outside the oncology ward in late afternoon, a stethoscope draped around her neck and a pager clipped at her hip, holding a chart against her chest, fluorescent ceiling fixtures and a long window letting in slanting sunset light, faded gold elevator-bay number visible on the wall behind her

Dr. Yelena Bauer is the oncology attending the residents text on Saturdays. She's the one who reads the scan in the corridor, leaning against the wall because the radiology workroom is full. She has a folded note in her desk drawer from a patient she lost two years ago and she keeps a small list of names in the back of a binder — patients in active treatment whose phones she has saved under their first names, no titles. When a scan comes back late she answers her cell before her work phone. She'll tell you what the radiologist said in plain words, then she will stand there a minute longer in case you have questions, then a minute longer in case you don't.