"CLEAR!"

Another flatline.

"CLEAR!" I yelled again.

I knew that he was seconds away from a permanent flatline if we didn't do something.

One of my prominent faults is that I often act before I think. This was one of those times. After a second of thinking, I turned the voltage up several notches, and slammed the paddles onto Mr Crowley's chest.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beeeeeeep.

We were too late.

"Damn." I murmured. It always got to me when a patient died. I knew I should have been used to it, but it still managed to render me speechless. What a way to celebrate my third year at the hospital.

By this time, I had been working as an intern at St. Masens hospital in Seattle for two years, and a nurse practitioner for the last year.

So far, I had locked myself out of my apartment, spilled coffee over myself and some of the new interns, and now my team and I had this man's death on our minds. I knew there was nothing we could have done to save him; he was too far gone to recover, but it still put a damper on things.

Apart from locking myself out and seeing a man die, my day was turning out to be pretty normal. Until I saw Alice.

"Bella!" Alice practically shrieked with excitement.

"Hey Alice." I replied glumly.

Alice was a physician assistant, and also my best friend. I had known her for the best part of five years, so she knew when something was wrong with me.

"Hey, what's up buttercup?" she asked.

Alice was one of those people who instantly put a smile on your face, which was probably why she was very popular with all of her patients. The fact that she was beautiful probably helped too.

"Oh, the usual. My constant bad luck coming back to haunt me again."

"Well, whatever it is, I know it's nothing that our friends Ben and Jerry can't fix. But anyway, I came over to remind you of the 'urgent meeting' that we have to go to." her words dripping with sarcasm.

It took a few seconds for me to remember what she meant. Miss Mallory, the Dean of Medicine was having a leaving party to celebrate her success in her newfound job. In my case, I was celebrating the fact that she was leaving. Miss Lauren Mallory was the rudest, most insensitive person I ever had the displeasure of meeting, and whoever took over from her could not possibly be as bad.

"Bella, there's something I need to tell you. I kinda know who the new Dean of Medicine is: he-"

"Come on guys, we're going to be late!"

Angela had such great timing. Angela Webber was a nice girl, but had the balance and grace of Bambi on ice. If there was something to trip or fall over, she would find it.

As she carefully made her way over to where Alice and I were standing, I was reminded that I had to fill in some urgent file for Mr Crowley's death. It was either go to the party and get my head chewed off for not doing my job, or not go to the party and get my head chewed off for not going. It was a bit of a no-brainer.

"I'll meet you guys up there in a bit: I have to go do some important paperwork."

Alice, who was always trying to get me to loosen up and have fun, immediately protested.

"Aw, but Bella, it's a party! You have to go."

"I'm sorry Alice, but paperwork doesn't write itself."

"It does if you ask it nicely. But anyway, what happened to the days of going to parties and having fun? You never know, you might find a nice guy there…" she said, raising her eyebrows up and down.

Alice was constantly trying to be the perfect matchmaker and set me up. It had been a year since my last serious relationship. James was my high school sweetheart. Everyone who knew us was convinced that we would get married and settle down. I was too. The trouble started when I took up my new position of nurse practitioner and had to work more hours at the hospital. It was the day of our anniversary, so I called in a few favours and went home early to surprise him, little did I know that I was the one in for a surprise. I went home and went to wait in the bedroom and found James already there. With someone else.

His excuse was that I was never home often enough and that he was lonely. It turned out that this Victoria woman was his secretary and had been seeing him for the best part of a year right under my nose.

I was heartbroken of course. My hopes and expectations were shattered in that one second. The next day, I moved into Alice's apartment and spent the whole day crying until I was sick.

Whenever I thought of James, I felt a string of tears threatening to break free. A year later, and I was no better.

I sighed as I fought back the tears. "No thanks, Alice. I'm really not in the mood for a party, especially seeing as it's for Lauren's benefit."

Seeing my obvious distaste for a social event, Alice finally caved and left to go to the party with Angela.

Grateful for the swift escape, I hurried to my station to finish my work for the day.

As I made my way back, I was starting to question Alice's reasons for letting me off so easily; she never let me get out of social events without a fight.

I went over possibilities in my head, when suddenly I found myself on the floor.

"For God's sake, watch where you're going!" said the mysterious man above me.

"I-I'm so sorry. I was just-"

"Just what? Just walking around like an idiot paying no attention to where you're going and utter disregard to the people around you?"

I was dumbfounded by the man's rudeness, and had no idea what to say to him, so I just stared at him with my mouth wide open. Whilst I was still on the floor

Despite the cruel words that left his mouth, he was rather striking in appearance. I didn't know what it was about him that caught my eye: His ruffled brownish bronze hair? His deep, sea green eyes? Or was it his perfectly shaped jawline?

Whilst in my little daydream, I realised that I should be defending myself, instead of just sitting on the floor like a child, but I just had no idea what to say. However, I found myself getting angrier by the minute and disliking him more and more.

"Well? Get up then! Honestly…"

And more.

"What's your name?" he asked in that awful manner of his.

I tried to speak, but as I tried to force the words out, nothing came.

"Clumsy and mute. Looks like I'm going to enjoy working with you." His voice clearly showing his displeasure.

As the words sunk in, I realised he had said 'working with you', and everything clicked into place.

"Wait, y-you're-"

"I'm Mr Cullen. St. Masens new Dean of Medicine. "

With that final note, he walked away with a sour look on his face.

I had just run into my new boss. Literally.

One of the things that bothered me, was that he had the same last name as Alice. But there was no way someone as kind-hearted as Alice could be related to someone as cold and bitter as him.

Could there?

This is my first ever attempt at writing a fanfic, so please let me know your thoughts and let me know if I should carry on or not.

Thanks so much!