"I've heard your name here and there, Mr. Mastrosimone."  The doctor nodded.  "And I'm well aware of your means, so yes, it surprised me to get a call from the hospital.  Usually, they don't call me unless the parents might be inclined to try unconventional methods to help their children survive.  Most men of means figure their money and all the best doctors will be enough... or they give up without trying.  I commend you for not being in the latter group.  There's no reason your daughter shouldn't have as much a chance to survive as any other baby born in this hospital."

"Selling one of my incubators, though?"  He shook his head.  "It's my hope that these incubators are available to any parent, regardless of means.  They should be a feature in every hospital here in the United States and across the globe.  I've saved more than a thousand babies but it's a pittance compared to what I can do if the hospitals will put aside their arrogance and acknowledge a layman can be as effective at saving lives as they can."

The doctor shook his head, "If I sell one of these, the chances are incredibly good that a year later some doctor half a world away would suddenly 'invent' my life's work and history will forget that a simple man like me was the one who innovates this wonder.  I'm happy to help you Mr. Mastrosimone but not at the cost of everything I've worked all my life for.  These children mean worlds to me... but as a man, this all that I am and all that I will ever be.  I can't sell that away, not for any price.  Perhaps we can come to some arrangement that protects me and helps your daughter... I don't want her to suffer, of course, I didn't get into this just for the money... but you do understand my position, I hope?"

Billy ground his teeth, but nodded reluctantly.

"Nurse, will you please tell the Hospital Director I'd like to speak with him directly, and immediately."

He watched as Nurse Kenzi left and waited with doctor Couney, softly cooing his daughter between drinks of water.

"Tell me about your beds doctor. Tell me about how well they work, and if they actually save lives or if you're just bullshitting me. You're not  a doctor, so you had to bullshit a few people to be able to wear a nice three piece suit like that. I'm guessing some of your bullshit is directed toward the parents, especially of the kids you know aren't going to make it. You tell their parents that you can help them though, and you know you're just prolonging their life to make a buck. Sure it makes the parents some money too and that makes it easier to bury their own child. At least they don't have the financial burden right?"

Billy could feel himself getting angry.

"You better be a good fucking sign doc, cause if not, I swear to you you'll meet your maker without ever seeing a single one of your beds again."

With that he turned toward the door again.

"When a baby is born, like your daughter they call them weaklings."  Couney started.  "Typically if the parents are poor they take them from the room never having let the mother and father see them.  They tell them the babe is dead and then they put them on that counter just there."  He pointed to the cold surgical steel countertop.  "And they open the window.  Hypothermia sets in within minutes, the child falls into a deep sleep and is dead before the hour is out.  Effectively having frozen to death."

By his tone of voice this disgusted Couney in the extreme.  He wasn't bragging to Billy or trying to incite rage but sharing in the man's emotions about the mistreatment of the hospital's youngest patients and the poor.

"If the parents are rich, the hospital lets them see the baby.  Tells them not to expect a good outcome but let's them bond with it... that serves a purpose you see.  As much a conman you think me for working down on the boardwalk these fellows are just as bad.  They fill a water bottle that cost no more than a dime with warm water and they put it along side the child.  The water has to be hot to warm the babe but the temperature is too much for their delicate skin.  You should see what it can do to them... but to do otherwise?  The babies would die as quick as their poorer counterparts.  Water bottles and blankets.  Maybe a dollar, all told, and they charge the rich parents thousands for that treatment - knowing it's unlikely to work at any rate and burn the child beside."

He shakes his head.  "Years ago a colleague of mine was at a farm expo in France.  Saw how they warmed baby chicks.  The heat wasn't directly applied, as it is with the water bottle but instead the air around the baby is warmed to the temperature they'd be if they were still developing inside the mother.  The temperature must be carefully regulated and monitored.  Too hot they can burn.  Too cold, even a draft, and they can grow sick and die.  THAT is the truth of your daughter's condition.  God's grace and your body heat keeps her here now... but there are no promises.  Not without my incubator."

He stood up a bit taller, "I don't con parents.  I've never told a parent I can save their child if I didn't think it was a certainty.  I make money, yes but I'm no monster.  I've innovated the next best thing to a mother's womb and I want to share that with the world and be credited for it... being a showman is a means to an end.  It gets people talking.  Gets the public demanding what they've seen for their own children. Do you know how many of those women and men who've seen my exhibit have asked this hospital for those beds to be installed?  One day, maybe not today, but someday - enough will cry out for it to be a right for all children that the hospital will have to listen."

He shook his head, "Not every man and woman who comes in here is Billy Mastrosimone, judge me if you want to good Sir, but when I receive hundreds of gifts every father's day from grateful families I feel nothing but confidence in my life's work.  I promise you that and if your girl is nursing... my beds CAN save her life.  You have my word, word I wouldn't give lightly considering what I think it might cost me if I'm wrong."

Minutes had passed before Kenzi returned, "The director will be joining us shortly."

Billy nodded as he listened. He still did not trust the man, but from what he understood of doctors, the man wasn't entirely wrong. Billy though, heard what he said. Can, save her life. Can, not will. God would keep his Victoria, whether in his arms, or in God's grace.

"Have you spoken to the director on this before doctor Couney?"

He watched as the bald man nodded, but cut him off before he could speak.

"And you've explained all of your things to him, all of your evidence?"

Couney lifted his briefcase then and opened it for Billy to see. "I've shown him everything here and explained in great detail. Even so, he has expressed his disdain for adding in a 'carnie sideshow from the boardwalk' to his hospital."

He said as much with the pain of a hundred tries. Billy knew that hurt. It was going to drain the man dry one day. Billy nodded.

"Then we will talk to the director. Instead of opening my checkbook to you, I'll open it to him. Maybe it changes his mind and we can all work on a solution together."

Couney flipped through photos, showing Billy some of his biggest successes.  One girl was little more than a single pound, a fourth of the size of the tiny girl in Billy's grip now, and her photo was positively mind-boggling.  "She was five pounds when I sent her home to her family.  She's nearly a year old now and by looking at her, you couldn't tell what she's been through.  She's truly a wonder to-..."

The door opened and three men in suits entered.  One of them, a white-haired gentleman avoided looking at Couney and turned to Billy with a winning smile - the sort that suggested he was very used to turning aggressive situations around to his benefit.  He wasn't a man who lost often.  He was a man used to power and respect and one who dealt with rich and powerful men on a daily basis.  

"Mr. Mastrosimone.  I'm Dr. Phillip Sandberg the Director of Medicine, this is Mr. Alexander Banthom, and Dr. Richard Kennedy who are on our board of directors - we were just headed out for a bite to eat when the good nurse caught us.  Congratulations on the birth of your daughter.  I've had people sending me updates on both her and your wife's situation.  I'm happy to report she continues to be stable with no sign of infection.  What can I do for you today?"

Billy raised a single eyebrow at the man in the suit and then turned to Couney nodding.

"I get it now."

He turned back to the white-haired man.

"I'm glad you're keeping tabs on my wife and daughter. Someone like you likely doesn't keep an eye on every patient to come or go. It's an honor Doctor. That being said, from what I understand, my daughter here wasn't supposed to last the night. In fact, she should have died, cold and alone. Wouldn't you say so sir?"

He looked at the doctor, but also pointedly looked to Mister Banthom. That man, without a question, was the hospital's lawyer. And that man, knew full well what Billy's legal team could do to him and his entire career in one lawsuit. Billy made sure he knew with one brief moment of eye contact.

Banthom said nothing.

"I assure you,"  Dr. Sanberg continued, "Our aim is always to offer the best possible care to our patients following medical science's most current and confirmed methods, Mr. Mastrosimone.  If our doctors or nurses gave you any indication that they were going to do less than that, I'd very much like their names so that I can address the issue straight away."

He smiled, but the smile suggested that shit would roll downhill later and every doctor and nurse who had been in contact with Billy and his family would be under his microscope.

Billy smiled his broad smile.

"I'm glad you and I are on the same page doctor. Tell me mister Banthom, is it true that this hospital, as a non-profit organization under the purview of the city and State of New York, must do as I say with any donation it receives, so long as what I say is in writing and properly notarized? Or, legally, could I just make a note in the margin of the check I write, as a thank you for saving my daughter and my wife's lives?"

He continued his smile and looked back to Sanberg.

"If you know me at all doctor, you know I am a generous man, especially when people have done right by me. Though if your lawyer is unsure about this matter, then I'll just have to delay and call my own lawyers and get them involved in the legal jargon I think."

He kissed his daughter atop her head again to emphasize how grateful he was to the man near the door.

"I'd get up and shake your hand of course sir once I write this check out, but as you well know your staff has informed me..." He wiggled his toes in his own shoe just to make sure he was right, and then beamed at the doctor... "I'll never walk again."

Banthom cleared his throat, "Well, it is true that your donations must be applied to what you earmark them for, however, there are still legalities involving what the hospital is allowed to purchase and use on patients.  For example, your money could be applied to an intensive care unit for infants but if you wanted the hospital to install an untested medical device and utilize an undocumented medical procedure then they would not be allowed to do that."

Couney cut in, "To be documented in a medical journal you need to have a medical institution behind your testings.  To get a medical institution to test my incubators requires a doctor to put them into a hospital!  How in God's name do you intend to ever progress the science of medicine with such madness as your system?  No doctor can bring in new implements because the damnable hospital won't bring in untested implements!"

"Mr. Couney," Kennedy began, "I wouldn't expect a man in your position to understand the basic concept behind this but this hospital is a non-profit institution as Mr. Mastrosimone has said.  We can not afford to be sued by a patient when inevitably your make-shift oven ends up killing someone's child.  Our insurance company will not cover us if we take in every carnival attraction that catches a wealthy man's eye and start putting it into the hospital and calling it medicine."

Sandberg clicked his tongue and gave an open glare at Kennedy, "Mr. Mastrosimone, we share your passion for helping children.  Especially in the wake of the miracle that you're holding now.  And please, understand that we doctors do not use that word lightly.  Our hospital would greatly benefit from a ward that is designed to focus on the care of prematurely born infants.  Tell me, what is your vision of such a thing?"

Billy nodded.

"I think I'll keep that to myself for the moment. Tell me Director, if I were to put in an offer on this hospital, to purchase it. What do you think the State would assume it's value to be? I mean, let's be frank. The State certainly doesn't put a lot of funding into the hospital, as you and I both already know full well. You've done a fine job keeping the place afloat, but without certain high-value donors, would that still be the case I wonder."

It was not a question, not even in the slightest. Billy wondered though if the other man would falter here, or double down. After all, only Billy actually knew what kind of a checkbook he had, the man in front of him only had a glimpse.

"Mr. Mastrosimone, I assure you that I'm not trying to be unreasonable.  Our hospital provides a necessary service to the whole of this community and without it remaining an open and public institution many would suffer needlessly and die.  Private hospitals are notorious for providing their services only to those with the most means, seldom to the whole of the population.  I think you would find my job less desirable if you had to sit in my seat for more than a few months.  As a businessman, I know you realize that more of my job is about numbers and personal connections than it is about medicine.  In truth I haven't practiced medicine in some time... bureaucracy is my patient now and I cut away red tape in the same way I used to cut away disease and infection.  The body I treat is this hospital and my every waking moment is dedicated to its overall health."

He shook his head, "A man of your influence could take many donors from us.  You could make the government put it's funding elsewhere too I suppose and for that reason, I should do as you ask."

Kennedy bristled and coughed.  He clearly did not agree with what Sanberg was saying at all.  Banthom simply shifted from one foot to the other and remained as neutral as any poker player still at the table with chips in front of him.

"Though I suspect that within a month I'll be looking for a new hospital to administrate."  He sighed.  "Name your terms Mr. Mastrosimone and I'll name the dollar amount to make it happen - even if your ask is to put Couney's side-show attraction in its own bloody wing... I think I may have a way to make it happen for as long as I'm still employed here." 

Billy shook his head.

"You know, I was honestly going to just buy the hospital and fund the whole damned thing myself, but you might have given me an even better idea Doctor. What would you say to a research facility. Not part of the hospital itself. Not under your administration, just working closely with you and your people? I've got people I think could run it, and run it well. It would be just for babies, all babies. Cause you know what? Babies are not poor or rich, they only live or die because other people help them. No baby survives on it's own no matter how much money the parents might have."

He nodded then and wheeled himself over to the window to look outside.

"I think I'm going to buy the lot next door. I'll put up a small facility, and we can even build an enclosed pathway between the two buildings. The ground floor would be the lobby. The first three floors above that could be for care of children. I could put another seven floors above that, one for the offices and the administration and the other six would be just a hotel for the families of those who have babies being taken care of. The basement would be for all the other stuff. You know, cafeteria, storage, things like that."

He turned to the doctors again.

"I'll have my people get in touch with you mister Banthom, see what we can do about working together in the future. You certainly can't be held responsible if parents decide to take their children outside of your care, correct?"

He nodded to nurse Kenzi then.

"Miss DeLaurentis? I know it's not surgery, but do you think you could run something like that?" He turned his eyes to the younger doctor then, the one who bristled when Billy threw his weight around. If Billy made him bristle, he wanted to know exactly what the boy was about to do as he literally watched a woman take a job from what he thought should be him.

"I... I'd love that,"  she said brightly.

"It's... not the worst idea I've ever heard,"  Sanberg said.

"If a patient wants to accept the help of a private research facility then they'd simply have to sign consent forms and wave hospital liabilities, but such things really are a small matter to set up,"  Banthom said.  "We could work with your people to make sure that's handled."

"Wait are you saying that you're going to build a facility for my incubators to be tested and used?"  Couney asked in shock.

"It would seem so."  Kennedy said not seeming too happy about it.

Couney extended his hand to Billy, "I'll have an incubator delivered where-ever you like... here, your home, you'll need a nurse at home to help you with it of course but it's so simple anyone can learn how it works.  Oh thank you Mr. Mastrosimone!  And you Mr. Sanberg!"  He took Sanberg's hand and shook it vigorously seemingly without the older man realizing it was going to be taken.

Nurse Kenzi laughed.

Billy nodded.

"I'll get my company directly on building the facility. I won't be leaving my daughter with anyone until I know she can come home, and to be very clear, by the time one would be brought in and installed here we should be leaving." He smiled and shook Couney's hand. "Doctor Sandberg, not to poach your employees, but I feel that Nurse DeLaurentis here should be kept on until such a time as the new facility is finished. Now as her future employer, I would greatly appreciate if she were kept with the babies so she might do her most in her new position. I would be so grateful in fact that I would be willing to pay her entire salary from, the first of this year until such a time as she leaves her position."

He smiled to the nurse then and shrugged.

"It's the least I can do."

He looked toward the door then and sighed.

"Gentlemen, Miss DeLaurentis, if you don't mind I think I've done enough business for today, I've got two ailing women I'm praying for. Losing either of which would leave me aching, so if you please."