Paralyzed with fear---I haven't shared fanfiction in AGES. I'll be honest. But enough people (yes, 2) have liked this and convinced me to share it.

Anyway, I know the comment says this takes place at Shibusen, but that stuff starts happening a fair bit later. Okay, a few chapters later. I hope you'll stick with me.

And to anyone who catches on, YES this is a total Trauma Center (Video Game) play on. I was at work when it hit me how much fun it would be to have Stein in that game...among other things.

I hope you enjoy!

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Trauma Center

Chapter One: Beginnings

Operation 1: Breaking the Glass

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" a worried woman repeated over and over, bowing her head slightly. Her one hand rested on the head of her small daughter and with the other she shook the hand of the man she was thanking. "It's certainly nice that you continue to work in this small town. Someone with your ability could probably be suited for something far bigger…"

The man cut her off dryly, "It was nothing really. Just be sure she takes the medication and she should be fine. Ahh…maybe you should both come back next week and we'll do a check up." He did his best to smile when he looked at the young girl.

"Anyway," he rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand, obviously uncomfortable with the situation, "maybe you should get Rachel home."

The woman let go of his hand, perhaps catching on? He doubted it. "Ah, I should thank your nurse too. Where is she?"

The doctor rolled his head lazily towards the exam room. "Mira? She's probably cleaning up." Maybe he should have offered to clean the exam room and left her to deal with this mother…

"What a pity," she said with a frown. "I'd love to shake her hand too. I'm very happy that you both were able to save my little Rachel." The doctor only nodded. The girl wasn't even that sick and she wasn't cured yet. All he had done was fill out a subscription for some penicillin.

"Anyway, about getting Rachel home…" he began, without any intention of finishing the sentence. He only hoped it would remind her to leave.

"Ah! That's right!! Rachel, don't you want to go home with mommy?" She turned all her attention to her daughter, who smiled back in return. "Dadddy is waiting for us."

The daughter grabbed her mom's hand. "Mommy, don't you find this doctor a little creepy."

"Rachel!" She gave her daughter a light tap on the head. She sent one nervous look back at the doctor hoping he hadn't heard. Lowering her voice, she added, "That screw in his head is a little frightening though."

Once the two had left, the doctor sighed with relief. People like that bugged him. People who felt that it was their duty to force their enthusiasm on everyone around them. He sat down at the reception desk and stared at his own sign.

Doctor Franken Stein. He hadn't been in this town long; only three years. The clinic had been in a sorry state when he had first got there. Mira Nygus was the only staff member left after the others had left for larger hospitals in larger cities. Remembering him from high school, and that he had gone away to medical school, she had asked him to help run the clinic. He had agreed to take on the position of doctor there.

Maybe that woman was right; maybe he could amount for more. But for some reason working in his own clinic felt nice, even if it was slow more often than not and even if there wasn't anything truly worth his calibre. Ah…he was back to wondering if that woman was right that he should leave. Had that been what she said?

Placing a hand on his chin, he closed his green-gold eyes and started to nod off. The sun felt nice creeping through the window and settling on his silver hair. Just as it seemed he might have been able to catch a nap, the phone rang. He reached a hand towards it, but it stopped ringing before he got there.

"Mira must have answered it," he told himself and closed his eyes again and cupped his face in his hand. Before he could even begin to drift off, the hallway door that led to the exam rooms crashed open. He snapped his hand down suddenly and looked over to see the nurse standing there.

"That was Sid," she said. "There was a terrible accident a few blocks away. A motorcycle collided with a truck. The young boy who was driving the motorcycle is hurt rather badly. They're bringing him here now!"

"A truck…this does sound bad," he gingerly pushed his glasses up as he stood from the desk. "Did he say anything about his condition?"

Nygus let out a tiny chuckle. "You know Sid, he wouldn't know the difference between a broken toe and a broken leg. All he said was, 'it's bad.' Actually he said that quite a bit." She made a more serious face. "Still, a truck and a motorcycle…I'm sure his condition isn't that good."

"Is the operation room ready?" Nygus nodded in reply. "I guess we'd better get set up then, so we'll be ready the second he gets here." It wasn't everyday that they had something bigger than a common illness. He knew it was wrong, but he felt a little excited. This was the kind of stuff he had become a doctor for.

Was it really? Or maybe he wanted something even bigger?

'Ah, I wish that woman had never said those things.'

The two quickly went about getting themselves ready for the operation. It wasn't too long after the call that the clinic's main door was flung open, causing the tiny bells hanging above to make quite the clamour. Nygus was the one waiting in the reception room for the two to arrive.

"Nygus!" a large man called out to her from the doorway. It was Sid Barett, a cop in the town and close friend of Nygus. He was holding a boy's body in his arms. "This is bad. Really bad. Ahh…" he looked down at the boy. "It's bad."

"Just place him on here. Don't worry, I'm sure Doctor Stein can fix him up," she said as she helped him place the boy on one of the stretchers. "Do you have to go back to the scene or are you going to wait here?" While she spoke she took a closer look at the boy. She recognized him from the town.

"I have to go back to the scene," he replied. "Those truck drivers, they never learn." His hand curled into a fist. "But I can't place blame quite yet, I suppose."

"Soul Eater Evans," Nygus muttered to herself as she dug through the filing cabinet.

Feeling a little ignored, Sid added, "Well I'll be going now," and turned to leave.

Having found the boy's file in the cabinet, the nurse pushed the stretcher into the operation room where Stein was waiting.

*****

"Soul Eater Evans, age 18. He has major cuts to his arms and legs. One leg appears to be broken."

"So…we'll be cutting him open."

"His leg."

"His Leg." Stein repeated with a nod. "There are bits of glass lodged in a few places. We'll need to open him up in those areas as well, and make sure there aren't some hidden inside."

"Just don't overdo it," Nygus said sternly.

Stein snapped his glove in place as his only reply to her comment.

"Start with the arms," his nurse instructed, handing him the forceps. "We have to stop the bleeding."

He sighed. Once he started to work, he worked with speed. The glass was quickly removed and the wounds treated. Before long, all that was left was the broken leg.

"Everything is going smoothly," Nygus said with a smile. "I told Sid you could handle this. Are we ready to open up his leg?"

He nodded and took the scalpel. "Mira…that woman that was here earlier with her little girl…"

"Rachel and her mother? What about her? Besides her uncanny ability to get under your skin." She passed him the forceps.

He took them from her. "Ah, it's really nothing," he lied. "Even this break isn't that bad. He got off rather lucky considering he messed with a truck."

"Well it's not like Sid really told us much about what happened. He has a habit of making it sound worse than it actually is."

"Something like this, even a child could do it…"

She frowned. "I wouldn't go that far."

"Mira, I've been thinking a lot about this job lately. It's really rather dull."

Ah, he had said it out loud.

"Never mind that."

Like she could.

"There, all that's left is to stitch him up."

*****

Soul sat in one of the hospital beds. He stared at the nurse in disbelieve. "Wait so…I hit a truck.? Man, that's just not cool." He pulled the sleeve on his hospital gown up to look at his arms. "Huh, not the first time I got stitches here."

"You've broken a leg too," she told him.

Stein was sitting in a chair in the room glancing at Soul's file. "That's right, Soul, last year you had that nasty cut on your chest."

"Don't remind me. I must have some sort of infatuation with getting stitches or something. Not like you though," he said to the doctor, obviously referring to the stitched pattern covering his clothes.

"A truck, huh? I really don't remember a thing. Do you think…I could have died."

"But you didn't." Nygus said quickly. "Don't forget that."

"Because you're lucky," Stein said with a sigh. "Maybe it's about time you stop driving around so recklessly. What was it that happened last time? Didn't you hit the curb wrong and fly off your bike?"

Soul laughed. "Yeah, and I sliced my gut open good on that crazy old lady's fence. Huh…I could've died then too. It's a good thing you doctors are around for idiots like me." He grinned.

Nygus turned away from the patient and rolled her eyes. It was obvious he'd end up here again.

It seemed Stein was thinking the same thing. He slapped the papers in his hands down on the desk and spun his chair around to face Soul. "Maybe it's about time you stop driving around so recklessly," he repeated himself.

"You already said that. You going senile?"

Before any tension could start to fester, Nygus quickly turned back to Soul and said, "Anyway, you should rest here for a while. We'll leave you be so maybe you can get some sleep." She grabbed the back of Stein's chair and gave it a good shove, hurling it, Stein and all, out of the room. She cringed when she heard the loud thud further down the hallway and a groan.

"Maybe it's about time HE stopped driving around so recklessly," Soul said with a laugh. "Huh, well I guess I'd better think about that resting you told me about." Soul flopped over onto his side, still laughing to himself.

Nygus rolled her eyes one more time as she walked out of the room leaving Soul to laugh to himself. She saw Stein sitting on his chair again in the reception room watching the television. "It's the report about the crash," he said very suddenly. "It seems it was just a pickup truck…I was seeing a semi for some reason. But he'd probably be dead for sure if that was the case.

"He's still lucky."

"So the truck hit him?" she asked, going to the filing cabinet behind the reception desk again to put away Soul's file.

Stein leaned back. "They said that the kid ran the red light and the truck hit him square in the side. He flung forward through his own windshield and landed on the road. At least he was wearing a helmet. I guess."

"That's a step forward for him. I'll watch the hospital tonight. You should go home." The nurse spammed the door shut. She was a little worried about Stein's comment during Soul's operation. Rather dull? She never found it dull.

Stein stood up from the chair. "Maybe that's a good idea. Well, call me if you need me." He grabbed his jacket from the closet by the main door. He hung his lab coat in its place, not that they looked particularly different. "Have a good night."

*****

The sun was beginning to set, something that was hard to tell when you were inside the clinic. The town was very quiet at this time of the day. Stein didn't live far from the clinic, so he always walked to and from work. His house was a little frightening when someone saw it for the first time, but then, one could say he was too. The house was decorated with stitches, as was he. Perhaps the house was a little less frightening than him--he did have a screw through his head.

He placed a hand on the handle to the front door. It had been a long day, even though not much had happened. He unlocked and opened the door, throwing his keys onto a small table as he entered. He lit a cigarette and dropped his jacket on a chair as he walked through the living room. He slumped down in front of his computer and typed a few words into a Bobble search and scrolled down scanning the results.

Frustrated, he closed the web page and leaned back in the chair. "Just who does that woman think she is saying that to me anyway?" He leaned back further and stared up at the ceiling, watching the smoke from his cigarette spread across it. "I haven't felt like cutting something open for a while now…"