Chapter One: Welcome to Paradise
Author's Note: So this is going to be my first multi chapter fic! It's going to be a hospital fic, with our favorite New Directions members as doctors at a New York hospital. There will be multiple pairings, but the story will focus more on Finn and Rachel's relationship. As always, I do not own Glee. I just love the show and want to write about it. The chapter title comes from Green Day's "Welcome to Paradise."
I wasn't planning on posting this until I'd finished the story, but in light of recent events, I decided we all needed something to read with Finn and Rachel. RIP Cory, we all miss you and will love you forever.
"Are you excited? Nervous? Anxious?" Rachel heard as she waited in the lobby on the first day of her internship at McKinley Hospital in New York City. She turned around and saw a few more interns walk into the hospital.
"Interns, gather around," a firm yet caring voice said from the bottom of the stairwell. All of the interns gathered around the man who was about to talk to the group. "My name is Dr. William Schuester, and I'm the chief of surgery here at McKinley Hospital. You all were chosen to complete your internship here because you showed promise in schools. This is an extremely competitive program. Look around. By the end of your residency, it's possible that there could only be two of you left in the program." The Chief looked down at his clipboard. "Now, I'm going to assign you to your residents. Noah Puckerman, Kurt Hummel, Tina Cohen-Chang, Quinn Fabray, Finn Hudson, Blaine Anderson and…" The Chief gave a soft smile at one of the names on the list. "Rachel Berry. You all are with Dr. Sylvester."
"Rachel Berry is in the internship?" someone whispered from behind Rachel. More murmurs started swirling around the lobby of the hospital.
Rachel sighed, puffing out her bangs as she exhaled. Being the daughter of famed surgeons Dr. Hiram Berry and Dr. Leroy Berry sometimes had its perks. Then there were days like this, or her first day of med school, or even her premed graduation. People heard the name Berry and started freaking out.
"She like, has surgery in her blood, man."
Rachel looked up to the Chief, begging him to move on with the list. She couldn't handle being the center of attention like this.
Rachel and the rest of Dr. Sylvester's interns stepped off to the side to meet with their new resident.
"So, I guess you guys are the newbies I'm being forced to show how to do their job correctly. Well, let's get started, I'm Dr. Sylvester and I don't do hand holding or hugging. I'm tough as nails because it's a dog eat dog world in here. Not only are you competing with all the other interns, but you're competing with interns at all the other hospitals. Do you know what you're competing for?"
"To be the best hospital in the country." Rachel said quickly.
"Very good, Berry. Now come with me, we have a lot of things to get done today. First, we're going on rounds. With the rounds, we're meeting with a repeat patient of mine." Dr. Sylvester stopped outside one of the elevators and pushed a button. "None of you better be claustrophobic. Here at McKinley, you take the elevators. You take the stairs, and your patient dies. And believe me, if one of my patients dies on your watch, you will feel my wrath. Especially if Dr. Washington over at St. John's hears about it. If you must know one thing about me, it's never to have me lose anything to Dr. Washington." The elevator dinged and Dr. Sylvester and the interns stepped inside.
"You mentioned this patient was a repeat patient, Dr. Sylvester. What exactly is wrong with the patient?" one of Rachel's fellow interns asked. She assumed it was Tina Cohen-Chang.
"Well, Dr. Cohen-Chang, first off, you should pick one last name when working in medicine. The patients won't know what to call you and it'll get confusing. So pick a name and stick to it." The elevator doors opened and they stepped out onto the floor. "But the patient in question is a personal favorite of mine." Dr. Sylvester knocked on one of the doors then opened it. "Becky Jackson, you look stunning as always." Turning to the interns, she added, "This is Becky Jackson. She's like a daughter to me. Puckerman, present the case."
"Becky Jackson, twenty years old, Down syndrome. She was first brought to your care a few years ago with appendicitis, but then more conditions kept coming up."
"Right, Puckerman. And today, I have Becky scheduled to remove a small cyst on her pancreas. What would be a concern about doing this procedure?"
"She'd have a risk of developing diabetes. And if she did, she'd need a strong support system around her to make sure that she followed a proper diet and took all the medication that is required."
"Very good job, Hudson. Although since Becky has Downs, I'm sure she already has a strong support system. Anything else we need to be worried about?"
"Fistulas." Rachel said. "There's always the possibility. And if it's not caught in the drain, it can be deadly."
"Very good, Berry. You've certainly learned a lot from your fathers."
The interns' day progressed much like that. The most exciting thing that happened to them was seeing a world renowned brain surgery remove what others called an inoperable tumor.
"Thank God there's a bar right down the street from here." Puckerman said in the locker room. He pulled off his scrubs top and put on a tight fitting white tee shirt. "Who's coming with me for drinks? First round is on me." He smirked down a few rows at Quinn Fabray.
"You know, I would, but I have a date with my boyfriend. Sam Evans, you know, the quarterback for the Giants. Oh, Rachel, thanks for letting me stay in one of the rooms at your house."
"No problem, Quinn. Just make sure your portion of rent gets paid on time." Rachel smiled at the blonde as she left for the night.
Puckerman watched Quinn walk out of the room, then turned to Rachel. "Please tell me you have a spare room."
"Sorry, Noah. Quinn took the last one. I suppose you should have taken me up on my offer when I put it out for everyone."
"First off, Noah is a horrible name. You can call me Puckerman, or even better, Puck. And second of all, I thought you said you had like five other rooms. There's no way they're filled already."
"Sorry to bust your bubble, but they are all filled. Quinn has a room, Tina has a room, Finn has a room, Blaine has a room, and Kurt has a room. I guess you'll be looking for some other way to get into Quinn Fabray's pants." Rachel gave him a sympathetic look. "Although, I do have one more room open, but it's incredibly small."
"I'll take it. I'll do anything to take that room."
"Well, it's a real fixer-upper. And it gets burning up hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter."
"I really don't care. Please, Rachel, I'm begging you, let me have that room."
"Okay, okay. The attic is all yours."
"The attic? Really? That's what I get? I'm not staying in some attic."
"If you want to be in the same house as Quinn Fabray, then you'll have to stay in the attic." Rachel turned around and fished though her bag that was sitting on a bench. "Here's your house key. Rent is due on the first day of every month. I have a no tolerance policy for hate speech, so leave that at the door. Be respectful of the other roommates' things. Don't play music too loudly because we all need sleep and that is rude. Can you live by that?"
"Damn, Berry. That's a lot of rules for a house that we won't even be seeing a lot of since the hospital essentially owns us."
"Take it or leave it, Noah." Rachel said, dangling the key in front of his face. He reached out and grabbed the key. "I'll see you tonight, Noah." She gave him a small smile and walked out of the room.
"I told you, call me Puck!" he hollered after her.
"So, you all are the new interns." The bartender said as he mixed some of the drinks.
"How could you tell?" Blaine asked, eyeing Kurt across the bar.
"You just have the intern look about you. Well, welcome to Rolling Greens." He handed Rachel her cosmo and winked at her, causing Rachel to blush and start to giggle.
"Rachel," a voice rang out from behind her. She turned around and squealed, jumping off her bar stool into the arms of some random guy.
"Guys, this is my boyfriend, Jesse St. James. He works as a nurse over at St. John's."
"Isn't that our competition?" Finn asked, staring into his beer.
"Well, yes, but don't any of you worry, I plan on sticking with the better of the hospitals in the area. Plus my daddies would have a fit if I started working at St. John's. You know they worked at McKinley before they started the free clinic that's coupled up with the hospital?"
"Well aren't you just awesome," Finn muttered under his breath. "Hey, Rachel, did you let Puck move into the house?"
"Wait, you're moving into the house?" Jesse said, glaring at Finn.
"Jesse, you know interns don't make much money. I figured that my grandmother's house hasn't been put to good use in months, and if people need a place stay, I'm fine with it. I don't want anyone to stay in the locker rooms because Claudia told me she had to do that when she started working and it just sounds completely unpleasant. I assure you that nothing is going to happen."
Jesse took one last look around the table. "Well, I hope that anyone that moves in is able to handle me stopping by to see you every so often. Especially after long night shifts." He leaned down and kissed Rachel. "I'll see you tomorrow night."
"I'll see you then." Rachel watched her boyfriend walk out of the bar and turned back to the rest of her new coworkers. "So, that's Jesse. I know he seems a little…strong right now, but I can promise that he's a wonderful guy. We've been dating for two months now and it's just been the best thing I could have asked for in my life." Rachel smiled and sat down as she took a sip of her drink. "Really. The best thing I could have asked for."
Finn looked down at his beer again. It wasn't natural for him to have feelings for a girl he literally met twelve hours ago. And it definitely wasn't natural for him to have feelings for someone he worked with. He made that promise back in med school, after his mother made him watch episodes of that massive hospital show where one of interns fell in love with her patient only for him to die on her after they got engaged. Sure, a coworker wasn't the same thing as a patient because they are two totally different things, but he just can't go there. It was against his code of ethics.
"Hey, can I come in?" Rachel said, giving a slight knock on Finn's bedroom door.
Finn paused his computer (he didn't need to Rachel to see what he was watching anyway) and nodded at her.
Rachel paused at the doorway and took a few steps into his room. She stopped a few steps away from Finn's bed.
"I just…I wanted to apologize for the way Jesse acted in the bar. He's a competitive person, but then again, all of us are. I suppose that's why being a doctor is such a good thing for us. Anyway, um, welcome to the house. If you need anything, just let me know. I've been staying at this house for most of my life. Whenever my fathers had something with McKinley they had to do, they'd drive me over here—to my grandmother's—and I'd spend the night here. And when she died, she left me the house. During med school, I just left it here. But when I finally got my dream job here, I knew I needed to move back in. And it needed to be filled with people. That's how my grandmother would have wanted it. Anyway, I totally went off on a tangent. I just wanted you to welcome you to the house and to apologize for Jesse's behavior." Rachel gave a small nod and started walking out of the room.
"It's no problem, Rach," Finn said, the nickname rolling off his tongue easily. "Thanks for letting us stay here."
She turned around, a small smile gracing her features. "You know, I haven't been called Rach since my grandmother died. It's nice to hear the nickname again."
"Well, I'm glad that I could help. Thanks for letting us stay here. It's a lot better than some crappy apartment down in Brooklyn or something like that."
"Well, I'm glad you appreciate this. Anyway, I should get to bed since we have an early morning at the hospital. Goodnight, Finn."
Finn watched her walk out of the room, rolled onto his stomach, and groaned into his pillow. This was proving to more impossible than he thought.