Episode 1:
Welcome
to Memorial – Part 1
Twenty-four-year-old
Nick Carter entered the lobby of
“Excuse me,
but could you point me in the right direction of the ER?” he asked the
receptionist at the counter on one side of the room.
“Go down
that hall, past the elevators. You’ll see a sign,” she replied curtly, without
even looking at him.
Friendly
place, Nick thought sarcastically, his nervousness
increasing. He noticed a sign across the
lobby that read “Elevators” and had an arrow pointing ahead. He strode across tiled floor and entered a
wide hallway. Just around the corner was
a bank of elevators, right across from a gift shop. After the elevators and gift shop, the
hallway branched out in three different directions. A sign hung overhead, pointing visitors in
the right direction. Emergency Room à, Nick read and immediately turned the corner into the hallway to the
right. He walked slowly down it, his anxiety
building with every step.
Today was
the day he had been looking forward to for six years now. It was not only the first day of his third
year of medical school, but also his first day actually working in a hospital. For the past six years, he had slowly made
his way through four years of college and two years of med school, learning
mainly from books and lectures. Now he
would finally be able to watch and perform procedures on his own, something he
had been waiting to do for years. He was
excited, but very scared. What if he
messed up? Made a mistake? Killed someone?
Nick stopped
when he reached a pair of double doors.
Looking up at the sign mounted over the doorway, he gulped. This was it, the Emergency Room, where he was
expected to be promptly at seven that morning.
Nick glanced down at his watch.
It read
He took a
deep breath, trying to calm the butterflies (which felt more like large birds)
in his stomach. He was so busy worrying
and trying to get up the courage to open those doors that he didn’t even notice
the soft footsteps of someone walking down the hall towards him. It was only when he heard the voice that he
realized someone had come up behind him.
“Let me
guess – med student?”
Nick whirled
around, surprised, to find a petite young woman standing behind him. “Uh… yeah,” he choked out, his heart
pounding. “How did you guess?”
She
smiled. “It was pretty obvious.” Laughing, she added, “You look terrified.”
For some
reason, Nick suddenly felt much more at ease.
Her smile and laugh were contagious, and he couldn’t help but sheepishly
smile himself. “Yeah, I’m pretty
nervous,” he admitted. “So, how about
you? Are you a med student too?”
She slid the
strap of the large bag she was carrying back onto her shoulder and nodded. “Yup.
Isabel Rivera. I’m a third year
too.” She held out a hand, and Nick
shook it. Now that he had relaxed a bit,
he had a chance to step back and take a good look at her. She was quite pretty, Hispanic, with bronze
skin, dark curly hair, and chocolate brown eyes.
“I’m Nick
Carter,” he introduced himself. “So, are
you working in the ER too?” He motioned
to the double doors that he still had not opened.
She
nodded. “Sure am. And I think we’re running late too, so you
wanna walk in there with me?”
“Sure,” Nick
said, quickly tugging one of the doors open and holding it for her to walk
through.
“Thank you,”
she said, beaming at him. He grinned
back and followed her through the doors.
“So, do you
know who you’re assigned to?” Isabel asked, as they walked down a hallway.
“Um, yeah…
Dr. Littrell. Pediatric resident,” said
Nick. “You?”
“Dr. Jack
Palmer, ER physician,” Isabel replied.
“Oh, there’s the receptionist’s desk.
Let’s go ask where we’re supposed to be.”
She led him over
to a circular counter area, where a man who looked to be in his late twenties
sat, typing something into a computer.
He had a solid build and hair that looked slightly out of place in a
hospital – spiky and dark brown, with streaks of bright red here and there.
Isabel
walked right up to the counter. “Excuse
me,” she said. The desk clerk looked up
in surprise at her. “I’m Isabel Rivera,”
Isabel continued, “and this is Nick Carter.
We’re third year med students and were wondering where we could find the
doctors we’ve been assigned to.”
“Oh, right,”
said the man. “What doctors are you
looking for?”
“Dr. Palmer
and Dr… what did you say his name was, Nick?”
“Littrell,”
Nick answered, speaking for the first time.
“Littrell’s
got a meeting first thing this morning, but Palmer just got here,” the
receptionist said. “Hey, Mel!”
A
dark-haired young woman dressed in purple scrubs came over. “Yeah, Joey?”
“These two
here are two of the new med students.
Could you take them to the lounge?” the receptionist, Joey, asked. “She’s looking for Jack,” he added, pointing
at Isabel.
“Sure,” the
woman replied, smiling at Nick and Isabel.
“Right this way, guys.” She led
them down a hall to the left. “So, are
you two nervous?” she asked with a smile, as they walked along.
“Yeah,” Nick
admitted, just as Isabel said, “Not really.
I can’t wait to get started!”
The woman
laughed. “I just hope you’re still as
enthusiastic by tomorrow. I’m Melissa
Ruffino, by the way. Mel for short. I’m an R.N.” (AN: R.N. = registered nurse)
Melissa hung
another left and led them down a shorter hallway, stopping at a doorway to the
right. “This is the lounge in here,” she
said, opening the door. Nick and Isabel
found themselves in a spacious, well-furnished room. Against the wall to their left was a row of
small lockers. The opposite side of the
room was like a small kitchen area, with a counter, cupboards, microwave, and
refrigerator. There was a large table
with chairs around it and two couches pushed up against the wall across from
them. The lounge was nearly deserted,
except for a man and woman, both dressed in scrubs, sitting at the table, a
Dunkin’ Donuts box between them. Both
turned around when the door opened.
“Hey,” said
the man, immediately standing up. The
first thing Nick noticed about him was that he was very tall, even taller than
Nick himself. Nick figured he had to be
at least 6’3” or 6’4”. He wasn’t much
older than Nick either, probably in his late twenties. With his gelled brown hair and round blue
eyes, he had a boyish look to him. “New
med students, Mel?” he asked Melissa, looking from her to Nick and Isabel.
“That’s
right,” said Melissa. “This one’s
yours.” She gave Isabel a little push
forward.
“Are you Dr.
Palmer?” Isabel asked, walking up to the man, her hand out.
“The one and
only,” Dr. Palmer said with a grin. “And
you must be Miss Rivera then, right?”
“Yes,” said
Isabel, and they shook hands.
“And how
about you? What’s your name?” Dr. Palmer
asked Nick.
“Nick Carter,”
Nick replied.
“What doc
are you with?”
“Dr.
Littrell.”
“Ah,
pediatrics, huh? You’ll like Littrell,
he’s awesome,” said the doctor.
“Yeah, he’s
a wonderful doctor and great with kids,” added the woman who had been sitting
at the table with him. “I’m Addie Burke,
by the way. I’m a nurse here.” She shook hands with both Nick and Isabel.
“Hey, you
guys want a donut?” Dr. Palmer offered, holding out the box to first Isabel,
then Nick, and finally Melissa. Isabel
politely declined. Now that his stomach
had settled down a bit, Nick was hungry, and those powdered sugar donuts did
look heavenly, but he figured it would look unprofessional to meet Dr. Littrell
with powered sugar all over his face, so he refused as well. Melissa just glanced at the two med students,
shrugged, and helped herself to a glazed cake donut.
Dr. Palmer
set the box back down on the table and smiled at Isabel. “Well, I’m sure there are some patients
around here to see. You ready to get
started, Isabel?”
“Sure!”
Isabel said, her dark eyes lighting up.
Dr. Palmer
chuckled. “Okay then,” he said. “Let’s roll.”
He turned long enough to give Addie a quick peck on the cheek – Nick
blinked in surprise, then realized they must be a couple – and led Isabel to
the door. He held it open as she walked
out and started to follow her, then stopped and turned back. “Oh, hey, Carter,” he said, catching Nick by
surprise again. “Welcome to Memorial.”
+++
Meghan
Lambert turned on the lights to the
“Good
morning,” Kayla greeted.
“Morning!”
replied Meghan, raising an eyebrow at the shopping bags now resting on a vacant
table.
Kayla
followed Meghan’s gaze and smiled. “For
the kids,” she said simply.
Fifteen
minutes later, a knock was heard at the door, and paramedic Howie Dorough
entered the room, holding the hand of a very sleepy Danielle Dorough, his
six-year-old daughter.
Howie
bent down and talked to his daughter softly for a few moments then placed a
kiss on Danielle’s head before standing up, directing his attention to the two
young women in the room.
“I
can’t thank you guys enough for being here this early. If it wouldn’t have been for you guys, I
would have had to take her with me to the meeting.” Howie then sighed. “Can you imagine Brunson’s reaction?”
Meghan
and Kayla laughed politely and watched moments later as Howie walked out of the
room on his way to the staff meeting.
“So
Danielle, you excited about your first day of school tomorrow?”
+++
Jaela
Miller ran around her bedroom, searching frantically for her white work
shoes. She remembered she had come home
around eight the night before and had kicked off her shoes somewhere in the
bedroom. She glanced nervously at the
clock, realizing she had twenty-five minutes to get to the staff meeting; she
hoped for the sake of her perfect driving records that there would be no speed
traps set up - knowing her luck, she would get busted for speeding, and that
would make her even later. She located
her shoes under the bed and quickly put them on, lacing them tightly and
looking over at the sleeping figure in the bed one last time. It was her husband Paul. Jaela loved him dearly, but recently she
noticed that Paul had changed from the once loving husband to a man who only
spoke to her when needed and rarely interacted with her children. But now wasn’t the time to worry about
that.
Jaela
picked up her purse off of the back of the vanity chair and ran down the stairs
to the living room where she left her three children, Rayna, Joshua, and
Alexandra, to watch the Cartoon Network to keep them occupied. Within minutes the children were loaded up
into Jaela’s SUV and they were on their way to the hospital; exceeding the
speed limit only by twenty miles per hour.
Dropping
the three children off at the day care center, Jaela quickly ran to the
elevator bank. Figuring it would take
more time to wait for the elevator, she decided to take the stairs. Looking at her watch, she noticed she only
had six minutes left to make it to the nurse’s station to drop her things off
and make it to the conference room on the fifth floor. The countdown was now on.
+++
The
air in the conference room was still, mixed in with anxiousness and
nervousness. The people in the room sat
in stiff-backed chairs surrounding a huge oak table, pens poised above pads of
paper in preparation for the so-called leader of the meeting, Holli Brunson, to
walk into the door. Starting at the left
corner of the table sat the heads of departments within a section of the
hospital and one affiliated with the hospital.
ER physicians sat beside surgeons, who sat beside nurses, who had
paramedics by their side. They were all
here for one purpose, for the staff meeting to go over procedures for receiving
new med students. They had this same
meeting every year; they all knew the rules by heart, but it was policy that
each time they conduct a meeting, just in case they forgot anything they
supposed.
The
door opened quietly and everyone turned to see who entered, some sighing in relief
when Jaela Miller walked in, others slightly annoyed. Jaela slipped into her
seat between fellow nurse Chris Kirkpatrick and paramedic Harry Littrell. It seemed as if at the exact same moment she
got comfortable in her seat, the conference room doors swung open, and in
stepped Holli Brunson, the chief-of-staff of the hospital and the head of the
surgery department.
“So
nice of you to join us, Nurse Miller,” Holli said with a sneer, a permanent
expression on her cold face.
Jaela
blushed and looked down at the notepad in front of her, cursing Holli’s very
existence under her breath.
“So
now that everyone is here,” Holli said, looking around the room with one glance
of her sharp eyes, “let’s get started.”
Twenty-five
minutes later, the meeting was adjourned, and everyone filed out of the room,
ready to get a head start on their designated tasks.
“Brian!”
ER
pediatrician Brian Littrell spun around as the voice of his brother reached his
ears.
“You
want to grab a cup of coffee before we have to get back to work?”
Brian
glanced down at the watch on his left wrist and shook his head. “I can’t, Harry, my med student is probably
already here waiting for me. Thanks
though.”
Before
Harry could respond, Brian was gone.
+++
Bianca
Parker whipped her silver Dodge Neon into a space in the staff parking lot of
the hospital, shut off the ignition, and practically leapt out of the car. Of course the one day she overslept
was the day they were getting new third-year med students. She imagined some poor, lost, young man
waiting for her to arrive to show him the ropes. She knew most doctors dreaded getting new med
students to teach, but she was actually looking forward to it. Since she was only twenty-seven and had just
completed med school a few years earlier
herself, this would be her first time mentoring a med student. She remembered how terrified she had been her
first day working in at this hospital and hoped her poor student hadn’t been
waiting on her too long.
“Morning,
Joey!” she greeted the on-duty receptionist in the ER, Joey Fatone.
“Hey, Dr.
Parker,” he replied.
“Hey, has my
new med student gotten here yet?” Bianca asked.
“His name’s Justin Timberlake.”
“Uh... I saw
two of ‘em earlier, and one was a guy. Don’t
remember what his name was, but I guess that was him,” said Joey with a shrug.
“Okay. Do you know where he went?”
“Yeah,
Melissa took them both to the lounge a little while ago,” Joey replied.
“Great,
thanks,” said Bianca, breezing past the main desk on her way to the staff
lounge. Opening the door to the lounge,
she saw that the room was practically abandoned, with the exception of a tall,
broad, blonde young man slouched back on one of the couches. He quickly straightened up when she came in.
“Hi,” said
Bianca, smiling at him. “You must be
Justin Timberlake.”
The man
looked at her in surprise. “Uh… no, I’m
not,” he said, his cheeks flushing with embarrassment. “My name’s Nick Carter. I-I’m a med student here; it’s my first day.”
“Ohh! I’m sorry!” apologized Bianca, feeling
extremely stupid. “I’m looking for a
different med student, Justin. Joey told
me the students came in here, and I assumed you were him.”
“That’s
okay,” said Nick.
“Do you know
Justin? Have you seen him yet today?”
Bianca asked, wondering where her student could be.
“Oh, no,
I’ve only met one other med student, Isabel,” Nick replied.
“Okay...
well, maybe he’s running later than me this morning,” Bianca said with a laugh,
going to her locker. “So, Nick, what
doctor have you been assigned to?” she asked, as she spun the combination lock.
“Dr.
Littrell,” answered Nick. “I haven’t met
him though; the guy at the desk said he’s at a meeting.”
“Oh, yeah,
he’s the assistant head of the ER. They
had some meeting this morning for the heads of all the departments this
morning, so he and Dr. O’Brien – she’s the head of the ER – both had to be
there. I’m sure it’ll be over soon
though,” Bianca told him.
“Okay. So you’re an ER physician too?” Nick asked, watching
as Bianca draped her stethoscope around her neck.
“Yeah,” said
Bianca. “Oh, my name’s Bianca Parker, by
the way. Sorry for not introducing
myself earlier. I’m a little frazzled
this morning, if you can’t already tell.
Overslept.”
Nick chuckled. “That’s okay,” he said. “I was really nervous when I first got
here. Still sort of am, actually.”
Bianca
smiled at him. She could tell he was
nervous just by looking at him, the way he kept fidgeting and shifting around
on the couch. He was cute in a
little-boy sort of way, blonde and blue-eyed with an uncertain sort of half
smile that was just endearing. I hope
my own med student is just as cute, Bianca thought, turning to hide her
smile.
“Well, I’m
going to go see if I can track down Mr. Timberlake,” she said to Nick. “See you later. Good luck on your first day!”
“Thanks,”
said Nick, smiling at her. She returned
the smile and left the lounge, hoping to find the yet unknown Justin
Timberlake.
+++
At that very
moment, the unknown Justin Timberlake was slowly awakening. He blinked, the sunlight streaming through
his bedroom window stinging his eyes.
Groggily, half-consciously, he rolled over and found himself face to
face with his girlfriend, Britney Spears.
He had known Britney since they were both twelve, and they had dated in
high school, then drifted apart in college (well, while he was in
college anyway – she had amounted to nothing but a waitress at the local
Hooters), and hooked up again the year before.
They had been dating for almost a whole year now and had recently rented
an apartment in
Today was
Justin’s first day on the job, but at the moment, that realization that it was
going on eight in the morning and he was almost an hour late for work already
had not yet hit him. Instead, he gazed
through half-closed eyes at Britney’s sleeping face and slowly began to
remember the night before, a night full of passion and pleasure, a night so
late it caused him to oversleep more than two hours.
Justin
suddenly jolted upright and looked past Britney to the clock on the
nightstand. Its red digits glared
accusingly at him –
“Ohh, shit!”
Justin cried. “Shit, shit, shit,
shit…” He continued to chant this as he
launched himself out of bed and stumbled across the small bedroom to the chat
under the narrow window, where he had laid out his clothes for that
morning. He hurried to pull them on,
stubbing his toe on the leg of his dresser in the process and causing another
chain of obscenities to fly out of his mouth.
It was this
that finally awoke Britney. “Justy?” she
moaned, half asleep, pulling herself with effort into a sitting position. She squinted at him, her bleached-blonde hair
falling in tangles over her face.
“My alarm!”
Justin cried, still in a panic. “It
didn’t go off! It’s almost eight; I’m
late!”
Britney
giggled. “That rhymed,” she said,
smiling bemusedly.
“I’m so
dead!” Justin moaned, raking a hand through his tousled curls, which were an
odd blondish-brown mix, the result of one too many dye jobs.
“Just tell them
the truth – your alarm clock didn’t go off,” Britney said with a flippant
shrug.
“Brit, this
ain’t high school; I’m supposed to be an adult now. The alarm clock excuse ain’t gonna work no
more!”
“But it’s
not just an excuse; it’s true!”
“Nobody’s gonna
buy it,” Justin said despondently, sitting on the edge of the bed long enough
to tug on his shoes. “Look, I’m sorry to
run off on you like this, Brit, but I gotta go.
See you tonight.”
He grabbed
his keys and wallet, shoved them in his pocket, and left the apartment. In a matter of seconds, he was back, having
forgotten all about personal hygiene. He
disappeared into the bathroom, put on his deodorant and cologne, gave his hair
and teeth a quick brushing, and was out the door again without so much as
kissing Britney goodbye.
+++
The
atmosphere at the rescue squad station was one of nervousness and
excitement. Kylie McCartney sat on the
couch in the lounge beside of the newest addition to the squad, Amelia Caston,
whose first day was actually set to start as soon as Harry Littrell and Howie
Dorough came back from a meeting at the hospital.
The
other occupants of the room were in a total state of relaxation while there
wasn’t a call. Josh McCartney and AJ
McLean sat at the small table in the corner of the room playing poker as
Allison Brooks sat Indian-style on the floor, listening to her portable CD
player.
“They’re
here,” AJ spoke up, not once looking up from the cards in his hands.
Amelia
felt her heart rate increase when she heard those words. What if they don’t like me? What if they don’t think I’m good enough for
the job?
Amelia
looked up as two young men entered the room.
Both were of average height and build, but one had brown hair and stormy
blue eyes, the other with dark hair and friendly brown eyes.
Amelia
took a deep breath and rose out of her seat on the couch, walking over to the
young men and sticking out her hand.
“I’m Amelia Caston, and you are?” she inquired.
She
almost laughed out loud as the two looked at her in astonishment, which only
lasted for a few moments.
“Harry
Littrell,” the one with the brown hair and blue eyes introduced before shaking
her hand.
“Howie
Dorough, nice to meet you,” the other man said with a bright smile and a firm
handshake.
Without
warning, the silence was shattered by a radio going off, asking for squad
137. Harry unlatched the radio from his
belt and confirmed the squad was available and listened as the dispatched
described a minor traffic accident at the intersection of Bob White and
Altavista Boulevards.
Amelia
was immediately sectioned off with the people who would be responding to the
call, which included Josh, Howie, and Allison.
Then, even before she gave it a second thought, they were on their way
to the accident scene. This was about as
real as it gets.
+++
Brian had no
sooner gotten out of his meeting and made it to the ER when he was approached
by Dr. Ivory Harnett, who was not only one of his colleagues, but his
girlfriend as well.
“Morning,
Bri,” she chirped, then, before he could get a word in, rushed on, “There’s a
pedes case in Exam 3; could you take it?
I’m swamped.”
“Well, I
need to find my new med student, so I can’t really-“
“Sure you
can. You can put him to work right
away,” Ivory insisted, grinning at Brian as she pushed the chart into his
hands.
He rolled
his eyes and smacked her playfully in the arm as she hustled off down the
hall. He started to look down at the new
chart, when he was interrupted again.
“Hey, Brian,
just letting you know your student’s waiting for you in the lounge,” said nurse
Melissa Ruffino as she passed Brian in the hall.
“Thanks,
Mel!” he called over his shoulder as she walked on, slipping the chart under
one arm and heading straight to the staff lounge. A young blonde man sat in the otherwise empty
room. When Brian walked in, he stood up.
“Dr.
Littrell?” he asked, his tone hopeful.
“Yeah. Nick Carter?” Brian asked.
Nick nodded
and hurried over to shake Brian’s hand.
“Nice to meet you, Dr. Littrell,” he said politely.
“You too,”
replied Brian. “Well, it looks like
you’ve been hanging out here for long enough.
I just got a new patient here.”
He flashed Nick the chart. “You
want to get started now?”
Nick grinned
nervously. “Sure,” he said.
Brian
smiled. “Well, okay then. Follow me,” he said, and led Nick to Exam
3. He stopped outside the closed door
and turned to him. Glancing at the chart
in his hands, Brian said, “Okay, this is an eleven-year-old girl, Bailey
Cole. Her complaint is flu-like symptoms
that she can’t shake - headache, nausea, fatigue, the works. Got it?”
Nick, who
had been listening attentively, nodded.
“Got it.”
“Okay
then. Let’s go in,” Brian said, and
opened the door.
Nick
followed Dr. Littrell into the patient’s room, a flutter of excitement rushing
through his veins as the thought of seeing the very first patient of his
medical career.
Propped up
in the bed in the center of the room was a pre-teenage girl, quite thin and
pale, with straight brown hair that fell to her shoulders and serious brown
eyes.
“Good
morning, Bailey,” Dr. Littrell greeted, flashing her a friendly smile. “My name is Dr. Littrell, and this,” he
motioned to Nick, “is one of my colleagues, Nick.”
Nick’s heart
swelled with pride at being referred to as a “colleague” and not just a lowly
student. “Hi, Bailey,” he said, smiling
at the girl in the bed.
“Hi,” Bailey
replied sullenly.
“So, how are
we doing today, Bailey?” Dr. Littrell asked.
“We’re
doing just fine,” Bailey replied, her voice laden with sarcasm.
Nick’s
eyebrows raised in surprise; this girl sure didn’t talk like he would expect an
eleven year old to.
Dr. Littrell
didn’t seem phased. Nick figured he was
used to dealing with kids like that.
“That’s
good,” he said, ignoring her tone. “Are your
parents around here, Bailey?”
“I don’t
have any parents.” Her reply was not at
all melancholic, but toneless and matter-of-fact.
“Your
guardians?” Dr. Littrell reiterated.
“My foster
parents aren’t here; they’re coming later,” Bailey told him.
“Okay
then. Well, Nick and I just need to ask
you some questions, alright?” Bailey
just nodded. “Alright. Well, I hear you haven’t been feeling too
well lately. You’ve been tired a
lot? Had a lot of headaches and things?”
Dr. Littrell reported. Bailey nodded
again. “How long have you been feeling
sick?”
“A few
weeks,” Bailey said.
Dr. Littrell
nodded. “Okay. I’m going to examine you now, okay? Just like your regular doctor does.”
Bailey
nodded for a third time, and Dr. Littrell put his stethoscope in his ears and
slide the other end under Bailey’s hospital gown. “Take a deep breath,” he said, and Bailey did
so. He moved the end of the stethoscope
to her back and listened some more.
Then,
pulling the stethoscope out of his ears, he motioned to Nick. “Come and have a listen,” he said. He stood up from the stool he was sitting on
to let Nick sit down and handed him his stethoscope. “We’ll get you one of your own later, but for
now, use mine.”
“Okay,” Nick
said, taking the stethoscope and putting it to his own ears. “Alright, sweetie, can I have you breathe in
for me again?” he asked Bailey, gently sliding the stethoscope down the front
of her gown again.
Bailey
obeyed, then asked, “Are you a medical student?”
“Yes, I am,”
Nick replied, hoping it wasn’t too obvious that he was inexperienced.
Bailey
rolled her eyes. “Great. Excuse me, Doctor, but I’d feel much more
comfortable with someone that actually knew what they were doing.” She glared at Nick.
Nick whirled
around to look at Dr. Littrell with wide eyes.
He’d barely even done anything yet; how could Bailey accuse him of not
knowing what he was doing?
“I’m sorry,
but this is a teaching hospital, and doctors like me are here to teach students
like Nick how to take care of people so they will know what they’re doing,” Dr.
Littrell explained patiently. “And he’s
doing a fine job so far.” He flashed
Nick a smile of assurance, and he relaxed and continued listening to Bailey’s
heart and lungs.
“Well?” Dr.
Littrell asked when Nick was done.
“Everything
sounds fine,” Nick replied, hoping he hadn’t missed anything. “Lungs are clear, heartbeat sounds normal.”
Dr. Littrell
nodded. “Good job.”
Nick
grinned. It hadn’t been much, but it was
his first step in becoming a doctor.
+++
Disheveled
and out of breath, Justin arrived in Memorial’s ER Department and found himself
surrounded by chaos. Staff members
bustled through the halls around him, pushing gurneys and wheelchairs and
carrying supplies. The waiting area he
passed on his way to the main desk was crowded with impatient people. Patients on gurneys lined the hall.
Looking
around, Justin couldn’t help but think, What have I gotten myself into?
“Hi there,” a female voice
whispered in his ear, causing Justin to jump in surprise. He turned and found him looking down at a
beautiful, busty, blonde young woman dressed in an extremely short, extremely
tight skirt and a clingy blouse that showed lots of cleavage.
“Hi,”
Justin said eagerly, trying to not make it obvious that he was sneaking a peak
at her chest.
“You
another newbie?” the woman asked, raising a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at him
in question.
“Uh…
yeah, I’m a med student. Do… do you work
here?” She certainly didn’t look like a
staff member in that outfit of hers, but the question had made her sound like
it…
“Sure
do,” the woman said, tapping a small gold nametag pinned to the front of her
blouse. It read, Mariah Johnson. Somehow, in his observation of that area of
her, he had missed it.
“Oh,”
Justin said, blushing. “Well, I’m, uh,
looking for a Dr. Parker. Is-“
“I
can page her for you,” said Mariah.
“Just come up to the counter area with me; that’s where I work. I’m a receptionist here,” she informed him, leading
him to an oblong-shaped counter area.
She led him behind the counter, picked up the phone, and punched in a
string of numbers. Then, replacing the
receiver, she said, “So, what’s your name, hon?”
“Justin
Timberlake,” he replied.
“Well,
it’s definitely a pleasure to meet you,” said Mariah, with another lift of her
right eyebrow.
“You
too,” Justin said automatically, then, remembering his manners, held out his
hand to shake. Mariah gently took it and
seemed to caress it more than shake it.
She smiled and gave him a quick wink, then turned and said, “Oh, look,
there’s Dr. Parker now. Good luck with
your first day.”
She
winked again, then pointed out an auburn-haired young woman making her way
through the crowded hallway towards the counter area. Justin, wondering whether Mariah had some
kind of eye twitch or just liked to wink a lot, nodded and awkwardly approached
Dr. Parker.
The
doctor almost brushed past him on her way to the counter, but, catching sight
of him, abruptly stopped. “Are you Justin
Timberlake?” she asked, looking up at him.
“Yeah,”
said Justin.
“Nice
of you to show up, Mr. Timberlake,” Dr. Parker replied. “You do realize you’re over an hour late,
don’t you?”
“I
know, I’m sorry,” Justin said quickly.
“I…” He struggled for words,
finally finishing lamely, “… overslept.”
The
doctor nodded. “Well, it’s your first
day, you’re not going to get penalized for it yet. Just try not to let it happen again, and we
won’t have any problems, ‘kay?”
“’Kay,”
Justin said, relieved.
“Great. Well, I’m Dr. Bianca Parker, and I’ll be
working with you for the next few months, helping you through your ER
rotation. I just finished up with the
patient I was seeing, so if you want, I can take you on a tour of the ER right
now.”
“Okay,
sure,” said Justin.
“Alrighty
then. This area, that you’ve already
seen, is admit. Then over here we have
Trauma 1, one of the rooms where the critical patients are taken. Trauma 2 is across the hall from that, and
down here we have Exam rooms 1-4. Come
on with me, and I’ll show you those…”
+++
“Hey,
Jaela!” Brian yelled, calling for the nurse at the end of the hall.
Jaela Miller
turned around and hurried up the hall to meet Brian. “Yeah?”
“This is my med
student, Nick Carter,” Brian introduced, nodding to the man at this side. “Nick, this is Jaela Miller, head nurse of
the ER.”
“Nice to
meet you,” Nick said, shaking Jaela’s hand.
“Jaela, I’ve
got a patient in 630 that needs some blood drawn. Can you do it?”
“Sure,”
Jaela said. “You want me to show Nick?”
“That would
be great,” Brian said. “Nick, go on with
Jaela, and she’ll teach you how to draw blood, so you’ll know how when it comes
time to practice, okay?”
“Okay,” Nick
said and followed Jaela back down the hall to Bailey’s room.
Brian
smiled. Nick was a nice kid and seemed
like he was going to be a great student, but Brian got sick of babysitting the
students and wanted to take some cases alone so he wouldn’t have to explain
everything to him and take twice as long on everything.
He wandered
up to the main desk to get a new patient and found his girlfriend Ivory there
as well.
Wrapping his
arms around her from behind, he whispered, “Hey, baby,” into her ear.
“Ah ah ah,
no PDA in the work place, mister,” she shot back, turning around to grin at
him.
Brian
grinned back, thinking of how lucky he was to have someone like Ivory. She was such a beautiful person, both inside
and out. She was short, only 5’3”, and
slender and had shoulder-length, dark brown hair and expressive hazel eyes that
changed color with her mood. When she
was in a good mood, like she seemed to be now, they looked green. They usually were greenish because Ivory was
one of those people that was very hard to get mad. Brian always joked that when she did
get mad, her eyes turned red, for when Ivory got mad, she was mad. He’d seen her in arguments before, and it was
not pretty, to say the least. But
normally, Ivory was very sweet and sensitive, which made her the understanding
and compassionate kind of doctor that was sometimes hard to come by these days.
“What time
is it?” Ivory asked.
Brian
glanced at his watch. “Eleven,” he
replied. “I’m meeting the gang for lunch
at Sully’s at noon, okay?”
Ivory
nodded. “I’ll be there.”
“Okay,
great,” Brian said.
“Well, I’ve
got to go now,” Ivory said, looking down at the chart on the counter in front
of her. “Later.”
“Later,”
Brian echoed, grabbed a chart of his own, and went off to see his new patient.
+++
“Time
of death: 11:13,” said Dr. Kevin Richardson in defeat, jerking off his latex
gloves and the bloody gown that went over his scrubs and tossing them into the
waste bin. “Get him cleaned up. I’ll go talk to the parents,” he muttered
over his shoulder, banging through the double doors of the operating room.
Dr.
Amory Cannon, who had assisted Kevin on the surgery, quickly removed her gloves
and gown and hurried after him.
“Kevin,”
she called, stopping him in the hall.
He
turned to face her, his face angry and frustrated.
“You
tried your best, Kev,” Amory said softly, putting a hand on his shoulder. “There was nothing any of us could have done
to save him.”
“I
know,” Kevin said, sighing. “I just hate
having to tell the mother that.”
“We
all do,” Amory said knowingly. “If you
want, I’ll do it.”
“Nah,
that’s alright. He was my patient; I’ll
do it,” Kevin replied.
Amory
nodded. “Well, if you need to talk later
or something, I’ll be around,” she said, and went on her way.
Kevin
felt a little better; Amory always knew just what to say to comfort him. He knew the loss was upsetting to her too;
like him, she was a perfectionist and hated to lose a patient. But she was also able to forget her own
problems and help others with theirs when they needed it. And right then, Kevin had definitely needed
it.
Kevin
walked down the hall and stopped at the nurses station.
“Hey,
Hayley?”
Hayley
Aldworth, one of the surgical nurses and a good friend of Kevin’s, turned
around. “Oh, hey, Kev. What’s up?”
“Is
Mrs. Ferrell around here somewhere?” he asked, referring to the mother of his
patient.
”Oh, yeah. I think she’s in the room
across the hall,” Hayley said, pointing to the closed door of the small waiting
room.
“Thanks,
Hayley,” Kevin said and walked slowly across the hall. He took a deep breath and opened the door.
“Mrs.
Ferrell?” he addressed the middle-aged woman, who sat forlornly in a chair,
lines of worry creasing her forehead.
Mrs.
Ferrell sat up straight and looked at him with wide, concerned eyes. “Dr. Richardson. How’s Mark?”
Kevin
swallowed hard. “Ma’am, your son was
very critically injured in the crash. We
tried to repair his injuries, but they were just too serious and widespread. During the operation, Mark’s heart stopped
beating. We used all of our best efforts
to get him back, but nothing worked… and he died. I’m so very sorry.”
It
was basically the same speech every time.
Kevin could recite it in his sleep.
But it never got any easier, and Kevin knew it never would.
Now
came the hardest part of all, harder than any surgery Kevin would ever have to
do – the family’s reaction.
Mrs.
Ferrell’s grim face fell, and her shoulders began to shake with tears. Kevin rested a compassionate hand lightly on
her shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he said
again.
“C-could
I see him?” she asked through tears.
“Of
course,” Kevin replied. “Come with
me.” He offered her his hand and helped
her up from his chair. Then, with slow, solemn
footsteps, he led her to the room where her dead son lay.
+++
“And
that’s how you draw blood,” Jaela said, as she and Nick left Bailey’s
room. “Now I’ll just send this to the
lab, and the results will be back in about an hour or so.”
Nick
nodded. “When will I get to practice
drawing blood myself?” he asked.
“I’m
not sure. Whenever Bri-, I mean Dr.
Littrell, thinks you’re ready. He’ll
probably have a cadaver for you to work on within the next few days.”
Nick
grimaced; he had forgotten about having to practice his skills on dead bodies
before he got to work on live patients.
The thought was not exactly appealing, but it was something all med
students had to do.
Oh well, Nick thought, at least I can’t screw up and hurt them
when they’re already dead.
+++
Howie, Josh, Allison, and
Amelia slowly walked out of the emergency entrance of Memorial, finding
themselves in the ambulance bay, where their own ambulance was parked.
“Well, guys…” Howie glanced quickly down at his watch. “It’s about noon. How about a quick lunch before we get another
call?”
“Sounds good to me,” said
Allison. “Sully’s?”
“Naturally,” said Josh,
with a quick roll of his eyes and a smile.
“What’s Sully’s?” Amelia
asked, feeling out of place with the other three, all of whom had been on the
squad for at least a few years.
“It’s this café a few
blocks from the hospital. It’s not
exactly gourmet, but the food’s decent – better than the hospital cafeteria’s
anyway – and it’s close. Everyone goes
there for lunch and dinner,” explained Howie.
“Oh okay, cool,” said
Amelia. “Let’s go then.”
+++
The
small brass bell attached to the entrance of Sully’s rang loudly as Howie
Dorough and his crew walked inside. Immediately
spotting the large table in the back, Howie led the way towards it, following
the laughter and chatter from his friends.
“Hey
guys,” Howie said with a smile before taking a seat beside of surgeon Kevin Richardson,
noticing a new face at the table. “I
would like to introduce you to Amelia Caston, the new paramedic to our squad.”
“And
this is my med student, Nick Carter,” Brian said as he pointed cartoonishly at
a young man with floppy blonde hair sitting at the end of the table. “Nick, this is Howie, Josh, and Allison.”
Nick
looked up from his plate and smiled faintly, immediately turning his attention
back to his cheeseburger and fries. He
was happy to be there, having been invited to lunch with “the gang” by Brian,
his supervisor. Looking around the table
at all the others, he knew he was the only med student to have received this
honor so far.
Brian’s
lunch group consisted of his girlfriend, Dr. Ivory Harnett, an ER Physician at
Memorial, and his cousin, Dr. Kevin Richardson, a surgeon. Next to Kevin was his girlfriend, Elizabeth
O’Brien, whom Nick had already met when interviewing for this position. She was not only an ER physician, but head of
the whole ER.
But
that was not all. The bell on the door
to Sully’s soon jingled again, and another small group of people arrived and
pulled a table up next to the one Nick sat at.
From beside him, Brian introduced them all to Nick.
“Nick,
meet Kylie McCartney. She’s a paramedic
and Josh’s wife.” He motioned quickly to
one of the men who had come in with the previous group of paramedics. “Then this is my friend AJ McLean – a
paramedic as well – and his girlfriend Bianca Parker. She-“
“We’ve
already met,” said Nick, smiling at the auburn-haired doctor he had met in the
lounge that morning.
Brian
smiled. “Great,” he said. “Well, this guy here-“ He pointed to a man with brown hair and blue
eyes dressed in a paramedic uniform.
“-is my older brother, Harry. And
those two are Addie Burke and Jack Palmer.
She’s a nurse, he’s an ER physician; they’re a couple.”
Nick
nodded; those were the two he had met in the lounge that morning.
Brian
then turned to the girl who had sat down on the other side of Jack. “And that’s…”
“Isabel!”
said Nick, suddenly recognizing her as the pretty med student he had met that
morning.
Isabel
looked over his way, and her face brightened.
“Hey, Nick! How’s it going?”
Nick
dragged his chair over towards her so they could talk. “Pretty good,” he said. “How’s your day
been so far?”
“Okay,”
Isabel replied. “I haven’t gotten to do
much yet, have you?”
“Nah,
I haven’t actually done anything either, except listen to a girl’s
heartbeat. I did get to learn how to
draw blood, but I haven’t practiced yet,” Nick explained.
“Maybe
tomorrow they’ll actually let us do something,” Isabel said hopefully.
Nick
raised his eyebrows. He wasn’t sure he
felt ready to actually do something. He
had only been there half a day and didn’t feel qualified to be turned loose on
a patient yet. But he didn’t want to
admit that. Isabel seemed confident and
fired up to get to work, not a bit nervous like he was.
Around
them, the doctors, nurses, and paramedics were already deep in conversation.
“So,
how has everyone’s day been going?” Kylie asked, looking around the table at
her group of friends.
“Pretty
easy so far,” Jack answered. “My med
student’s been great.” He saw Isabel’s
head jerk in his direction, and he flashed her a grin.
“Well,
so has mine,” Brian bragged, winking at Nick.
“Well,
mine hasn’t,” Bianca said flatly.
AJ laughed. “Why, what happened?”
Bianca
rolled her eyes. “Well, he was like an
hour late this morning. More than that,
actually. He ‘overslept’ on his first
day; can you believe that? Other than
that, I guess I can’t complain. I
haven’t really had him do anything yet though, so I have no idea what he’s like
in that area. Notice he’s not with me
though – he hasn’t given me anything to brag to y’all about yet.”
They
all laughed.
“Kylie,
how’s the new paramedic?” Addie asked.
Kylie
shrugged. “I think she’s going to be
okay,” she said. “She seems pretty
nice.”
“That’s
good,” Addie replied, nodding. “Kev, do
you have a student this year?”
“No,”
Kevin said solemnly.
“What’s wrong?”
He
glanced at her. “Lost a patient,” he
said. “Teenage boy in a motorcycle
crash.”
“Aww,
I’m sorry, hon,”
Kevin
offered her a small smile, grateful to have someone like her to comfort
him. He had lots of friends in the
hospital, specifically in the OR, but none that understood him like
From
his own seat near Isabel, Nick looked around him happily. He recalled how nervous he had been that
morning, coming into a new place, with new people he didn’t know. Now, in just a few short hours, he felt like
he was becoming part of a group, a special family that worked together to save
lives. One day, he hoped, he would be a
doctor and save lives with them. One
day, he would be part of that special family.
+++