Harper Emery

Harper Emery, a character in the Open Heart series, is one of the doctors and the former Chief at Edenbrook Hospital. She is also Aurora's aunt. She is first seen in Book 1, Chapter 1.

Appearance

Harper has brown hair, brown eyes, and dark skin. She wears an Edenbrook Hospital lab coat with her name tag underneath a black top and a pair of gold earrings. Her statuesque build has impressed interns.

Personality

"I don't 'discuss' politics, I win at them. I thought you knew that. And your strength is the medicine."

—Harper to Ethan

Harper is calm-mannered and confident. She maintains a strict, no-nonsense attitude that enables her to project an aura of dignity among the interns except her niece Aurora. She also abides by the rules and enforces them, such as giving your character an ethics hearing when you told them you gave Mrs. Martinez the vaccine that purportedly contributed to her death. This administrative approach is hard for her to forget when she steps down from Chief of Medicine.

However, this wasn't always the case during the youth. If you join her and Bryce to help with Rafael's surgery, she tells you that she was once an idealistic intern wanting to treat all patients. Years of experience have taught her the harsh truth that she can't save everyone, and there are grave consequences to actions.

Chapters

Open Heart

Book 1

Chapter 1: The Doctor Is In
Chapter 4: Dolores
Chapter 8: Make-Believe
Chapter 10: Risk and Reward
Chapter 12: Panacea
Chapter 13: Admission
Chapter 14: Triage
Chapter 15: Hearing Impaired
Chapter 16: The Curious Case of Dr. Banerji
Chapter 17: The Oath

Book 2

Chapter 1: Prognosis
Chapter 2: The Interns (Mentioned; Physical Appearance Determinant)
Chapter 3: What's Done Is Done (Mentioned)
Chapter 4: Blind Spot (Mentioned)
Chapter 10: The Senator (Mentioned)
Chapter 16: The Kindness of Strangers
Chapter 17: Hopeful Hearts
Chapter 18: Inevitable

Book 3

Chapter 1: Edenbrook 2.0
Chapter 2: More Than Meets The Eye
Chapter 3: Look on the Bright Side
Chapter 4: Power Struggles
Chapter 5: Too Late
Chapter 6: Checks and Balances
Chapter 7: Team Players
Chapter 8: The Die Is Cast
Chapter 9: Build Up
Chapter 10: Ceasefire
Chapter 11: Wedding Belles
Chapter 12: Steady Hand
Chapter 13: Building Up
Chapter 14: Against the Boards (Offscreen; Physical Appearance Determinant)
Chapter 15: Day in Court
Chapter 16: Moving On

With Every Heartbeat

Chapter 10: The Hereafter (Mentioned)
Chapter 15: Dancing in the Dark

Hearts on Fire

Open Hearts on Fire

Chapter 1: Code Red

Relationships

Aurora Emery

Aurora is her niece. Before Aurora can finish her first round of patients with you, she is paged to see her aunt. In Chapter 14, you overhear Harper that she is disappointed in Aurora and that the younger doctor has a lot to live up to. If you are nice to Aurora, she tells you the pressures that Harper puts on her, as if the Chief is trying to live through her niece since she hates being an administrator.

In Open Heart: Second Year, Aurora overhears Dr. Tobias Carrick offer Harper a job at Solomon Kenmore (previously known as Mass Kenmore) hospital. Harper declines the offer and tells him that stealing Aurora from Edenbrook didn't warm her up to him. He argues that he recruited Aurora to entice her to come, not to punish her. At the fundraising gala, you can help Aurora confront Harper about what she overheard.

Ethan Ramsey

In Chapter 4, she promotes Ethan Ramsey to the head of the diagnostics unit when Dr. Banerji retires suddenly. They decide that instead of hiring a new fellow to take his vacating spot, they will select one young doctor to train with the team as a junior fellow. The best performing intern at the end of your first year will be selected.

In the same chapter, if you choose to accompany him to retrieve Dolores's stuffed frog, he reveals that he and Harper had a fling before finally breaking up for good. In Book 3, Chapter 13's premium scene, it is stated that their romantic relationship occurred during Ethan's residency.

In Book 3, Ethan convinces Harper to join the Diagnostics Team. She says he sold her on the team's dynamic and collaboration, which is one of the unique aspects in its favor, as she feels surgery is more of the lead's show, big for egos and competition but not for mutual support.

Your Character

Although you see Harper during orientation and a few times in passing as she talks with Aurora, you do not interact with her until Chapter 8, when you find a loophole for your patient to receive the medications she needs to treat Hepatitis C. Harper admires your moxie, as it reminds her of Ethan. However, she looks surprised at your closeness to Ethan. At the end of Chapter 12, she calls you to her office to discuss Mrs. Martinez and the circumstances surrounding her death.

Harper pages your friends to her office to interrogate them about you and Mrs. Martinez. Although she has no proof, she tells you in Chapter 14, that it is only a matter of time. If you decide to help with Rafael's surgery, she tells you that she is impressed with you. However, she won't help you in her investigation. She is surprised when you come to her office in the end and admit to it. She agrees to give you an ethics hearing but doesn't think it will help save you or your career. When you survive the ethics hearing, she tells you that she was rooting for you although she had to remain unbiased.

In Book 2, you can help her repair her relationship with Aurora.

In Book 3, she joins the Diagnostics Team, replacing Dr. June Hirata. She confesses that although it may not have looked like it, she was glad that you made it through the hearing during your first year there. If you admit to her about your nervousness with socializing with Leland Bloom's colleagues and other tech industry members, she reassures you that the feeling will fade the more often you socialize. When the team is put at odds against Leland Bloom, you can choose to be side with Ethan, side with Leland, or stay as neutral as possible like Harper. She tells you that you don't need to be modest in front of her, as she is long past the point of feeling threatened by her colleagues' successes.

In Chapter 8, she accuses you of sneaking Michael into the hospital's drug trial for muscular and neurological regeneration, and placing him into the active drug group. She feels hurt and betrayed by you, and angry at herself for trusting you. When you defend yourself and/or try to leave Ethan's name out of it, she brings up your history of skirting around protocol to help your patients, such as Willow and Teresa. Harper doesn't believe Ethan or Tobias would do it, leaving her to suspect only you. When Ethan tells her that he was the one who did it, she is shocked.

With Ethan on suspension due to this infraction, Leland Bloom announces that Tobias will be the temporary lead to the team. If you decide to point out that she would make a better lead than Tobias, she appreciates your support but states that her surgical duties would make it impossible to lead the team. Later, she apologizes to you for ripping into you and reporting you to Leland Bloom and the hospital board without speaking to you first. She says that you were right, that she wasn't treating you like a full team member, and should have given you a chance to explain or defend yourself. She reflects on herself, realizing that she wanted to be more open and honest but wasn't able to. She assumed the worst and hurt you and the team in the process. The whole situation caused her to come to terms with the fact that she was thinking like an administrator and not a teammate and she needs to find a way to let go of that mindset.

Leland Bloom

Because she does not appear to butt heads with Leland Bloom, she is usually neutral and cautious about choices or votes cast within the Diagnostics Team.

When the hospital board releases Ethan from his suspension and does not fire him, Harper tries to smooth relations with Leland, hoping he won't come after the team in an act of revenge. When the team takes a pro bono case to help Greg Mariano, she believes Bloom may see it as a deliberate gesture to provoke him.

Gallery

Other Looks

Miscellaneous

Trivia

The interns believe she is "the greatest surgeon of her generation".
She shares the same forename as Your Character (It Lives Beneath)'s default name in It Lives Beneath.
As of Chapter 8, she does not know about Doctor Banerji's medical condition and that he is staying at the hospital.
- This changes in Chapter 13, depending on your actions. If you tell Ethan that he "still has a chance if we keep him here", Ethan will text Harper and she and orderlies will come to take Naveen to a different hospital room. If you tell Ethan that Naveen "should enjoy the time he has left", Ethan will allow him to leave and Harper will not discover that he had been in the hospital the whole time.
The surname Emery is of German and English origin, which means: Brave, home, whole, universal, work, labor, powerful, industrious ruler. It's derived from the name Emmerich, other variants are Amery, Amory, and Emory.
In Book 1, Chapter 12, it was revealed that Declan Nash had been wanting to ask her out for dinner.
As of Chapter 17, Harper decides to step down as Chief of Medicine and assumes the role of Head of Neurosurgery, as she realizes that she wants to get back to the profession she loves.
In Book 3, she joins the diagnostic team to replace June Hirata.
In Book 3, Chapter 3, Harper expresses her philosophy regarding surgery when discussing Your Character. She explains that surgeons require detachment from their patients because they need to focus solely on the problem they are treating, whereas the diagnostic team cares more for their patients as individuals.
In Book 3, Chapter 16, you can suggest she becomes the new Head of the Diagnostics Team if you reject the proposal.