AMY: Please?
[Amy sets up the composition and Ephram plays what he's composed so far.]
NARRATOR: The thing about your touchstone, you come to depend on it. No matter whether you set out to or not. But not even your own personal rock of Gibraltar is permanent. The rock has her own needs to think of. And just because you want someone to stick around, it doesn't mean she will.
[Dr. Trott is packing up her clinic. Dr. Brown approaches her.]
NARRATOR: Dr. Brown knew something about that.
DR. BROWN: You got time for one more hopeless case, Doc?
[She turns the sign over so that it reads "The Doctor is In"]
DR. BROWN: [inside] I had a medical consultation last week. Parents wouldn't consent. They wouldn't put their faith in me.
DR. TROTT: Why do you think *that* is?
DR. BROWN: They didn't believe that I could heal their son.
DR. TROTT: Did *you*?
DR. BROWN: What?
DR. TROTT: Did *you* believe that you could heal him?
DR. BROWN: Well I was advocating the procedure. I believed it to be the proper course of action, with the best chance of a positive outcome.
DR. TROTT: Not the surgery, the surgeon. You.
DR. BROWN: I wasn't thinking about me or my abilities, I was thinking about these people. Someone's parents, someone's son. This kid is the boyfriend of a girl that my kid goes to school with. I was thinking that if something goes wrong, if we can't bring him out... I was thinking about the outcome. You never think about the outcome. [after a beat] I just lied to you. The truth is, in the end, it was me. I told them I wouldn't do it.
DR. TROTT: You were scared.
DR. BROWN: My son said something like that to me.
DR. TROTT: And?...
DR. BROWN: It was easier before when I didn't know so much about my patients. When I didn't care. I used to be able to fix things.
DR. TROTT: You told me that you moved here to be a father and a doctor. Now you are.
DR. BROWN: Yeah. I just didn't know it would be so hard.
DR. TROTT: Welcome to the human race, Dr. Brown.
[Dr. Brown walks out as the motor home drives off into the sunset. "Greetings from the side" by Gary Jules is playing.]
THE END
