Disclaimer: I don't not own High School Musical. That lucky honor goes to Disney.
"Dr. Bolton, please come to the nurses' station. Dr. Bolton to the 3rd floor nurses' station."
Dr. Troy Bolton groaned as he heard his name being paged over the intercom at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, or CHOP as most of the staff called it. Being chief resident definitely had its perks. He was in charge of arranging the schedule for all the medical interns and residents. This allowed him the ability to schedule his shifts at the hospital to accommodate more time to visit his family and spend some time with his friends outside of the hospital. Being chief resident also offered him his pick of prestigious pediatric fellowships all over the country.
However, hearing complaints from the nursing staff about patients and the interns were just some of the cons of his position. Looking at his watch, he realized he had only made it 30 minutes at the hospital before the complaints were already beginning.
After taking a deep breath, he put the only smile he would muster at 6:00 AM and headed off to the nursing station knowing that the nurses usually responded a lot better when he smiled at them.
"Good morning ladies!" he said as he approached the nurses' station. However, his smile slightly faltered when the three nurses stopped their conversation to look up at him with tired eyes. "Oh, no… Please tell me that Tommy was able to sleep last night?"
"He practically terrorized us the whole night!" exclaimed Rebecca, the charge nurse for the night shift. "First, Terri had him, but when he spit his whole tub of pudding in her face, I had to switch her with Beth. Beth had her hands full with him last night." Troy turned to Terri and Beth who could only nod their heads in agreement.
"The way he was laughing and screaming last night, I thought he was going to wake up the whole floor!" explained Terri.
"I'm sorry for all the trouble he caused last night, but please try to understand. He's a 9 year old boy who can't go home because of chemotherapy. He's just a little bored--" Troy paused due to the exasperated looks the three women were giving him. Realizing that explaining the situation was not going to make them happy, he tried a different approach.
"I'll go in there and talk to him about trying to behave" conceded Troy as he turned and headed towards Tommy's room.
"Spitting pudding in her face?" Troy questioned nine year-old, Tommy Parker. Tommy had been diagnosed with leukemia 3 months ago, and he was now in and out of the CHOP to get his monthly chemotherapy. He had originally been Troy's patient during his oncology rotation. Even though Troy was now about two weeks into his infectious disease rotation, he still managed to visit the blonde haired boy every other day. It was their special relationship that they nurses believed could calm down the young patient.
"What?" said Tommy trying to give Troy his best innocent look. I just wanted chocolate pudding instead of that vanilla crap you try to pass off as dessert," returned Tommy.
"Spitting at people is probably not the best way to get your point across," reminded Troy grinning as he remembered his own father giving him and Chad a similar lecture so long ago. "I think you'll be surprised at how much you can charm your way to chocolate pudding if you just asked nicely."
"They hate me already Dr. Bolton, there's no way they'll be nice to me even if I'm nice to them back."
"They don't hate you. They're just a little… stressed, and you are testing their patience a lot. "
"I can't help it though; I'm so bored! It's summer time. It's practically illegal to keep a child locked up when I should be outside playing basketball with my boys or going on my family's annual camping trip," confessed Tommy. The tough boy exterior was quickly melting away and the vulnerability that he only revealed to Troy finally showing.
"Hey, Tommy, how about I make you a deal? Try to be nice to the nurses today, and I promise, during lunch tomorrow, I'll take you outside. I know something that we can do to burn a little energy."
"What are we gonna do?" asked Tommy, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"Well, because of my residency, I spend a lot of time here at the hospital-"
"But you choose to be here."
Troy laughed. "True, but it still doesn't mean I don't get sick of being here all the time either. After the first month of my first year, I went exploring around the hospital. At the back of the hospital, I found some of the custodians playing basketball. Apparently, they erected a basketball hoop to play during breaks and lunches. They let me play too as long as I promised to keep it a secret. Now that I just told you, you have to promise to keep it a secret too."
"But it would be so unfair! You're, like, bigger than me by 2 feet!"
"Height doesn't matter. Plus, I have a bad knee remember? I'll be lucky if I can even catch up with you."
"How about this thing?" questioned Tommy as he lifted his arm up to reveal his IV tube attached to his forearm.
"Don't worry. We'll play around in between your doses of medication."
Running out of excuses, a giant smile appeared on Tommy's face as he realized that a trip outside to play basketball could possibly happen. "Thank you so much Dr. Bolton! I'll be nicer to the nurses; I promise!"
Troy laughed. "Just don't spit at anyone and try to be quiet when others are trying to sleep. I think they'll be happy with just that." Looking down at his watch, he knew that he had to continue seeing other patients. "Alright Tommy, I have to go now, but you should get some rest. It sounds like you were up pretty late last night. You have enough time to sleep for another hour before breakfast."
"Okay," he replied as he moved into a more comfortable position. Before he closed his eyes, Tommy offered his fist up to Troy. Troy responded by bringing his fist to bump with Tommy's.
"Get some rest, buddy."
"EKG showed visible vegetation on the bicuspid valve. His blood cultures also show 3 out of 4 bottles of Staph aureus. This given his high temperature upon admission, I believe the patient has Staph aureus endocarditis," stated Troy as he, two interns, and Dr. Irene Pollack, head of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Troy's attending physician, walked out of their patient's room.
The white-haired women turned to Troy and smiled. "Good job, Troy. Now, Thomas," said Dr. Pollack turning to the blonde haired intern standing next to her. "Do you know how he got the endocarditis?"
Thomas looked slightly taken aback. "Umm… well endocarditis is an infection of the heart valve, and most of the time it comes from an infection of the blood… or rather septicemia…" the intern stammered.
Noticing his nervousness, Troy stepped in to rescue him. "Thomas, we talked about it back in the team room about how the patient's history puts him at high risk for developing septicemia," gently reminded Troy hoping it would help jog up Thomas' memory.
He knew that it indeed helped a look of recollection crossed Thomas' face. "Two weeks ago, the patient had heart surgery to correct his ductus arteriosus. It is most likely at this time that he had contracted an blood infection that later began to vegetate on the heart valve," stated Thomas this time with more confidence.
"Good Thomas!" said Dr. Pollack. "Now what is your treatment plan?"
Also remembering that he had talked this over with Troy earlier in the morning, Thomas responded "Previous blood cultures show that the Staph aureus is methicillin-susceptible so the patient should be started on nafcillin."
"Sounds good to me," replied Dr. Pollack. "Okay guys, good work today. I want you to have enough time to put in orders before noon conference today so let's break for today." Turning to Troy, she continued "Troy, did you want to meet later this afternoon to go over any new patients we get today?"
"I actually have clinic duty this afternoon. So, Dr. Paul Haggerty will be covering for me instead," replied Troy.
Every resident was required to spend one afternoon a week at a clinic in private practice. The program justified that it kept their skills working with the community, but most of Troy's co-residents moaned about treating ear infections and strep throat all day. However, he enjoyed his afternoons in the clinic as it was a nice change of pace compared to the constant life-or-death feeling at the hospital.
Now walking down the corridor of the hospital, the interns quickly rushed into the team room to finish up their work, while Dr. Pollack stopped Troy to continue speaking with him in the hallway.
"So I heard that you received another offer for a hematology/oncology fellowship from University of California- San Francisco. Congratulations Troy!" beamed Dr. Pollack. She, like the other attending physicians at the hospital, had a soft-spot for the blue-eyed doctor. He was brilliant as well as charming. He was easy to work with and every one of this co-residents and interns had only good things to say about him. It was an easy decision for the staff to name his chief resident.
But the one thing that impressed Dr. Pollack the most was that despite all the accolades and compliments Dr. Troy Bolton received, he refused to be arrogant about it. This was in contrast to many other brilliant doctors she had witnessed pass through the hospital.
"That's your 4th offer now, right Troy?"
Troy flushed as he was slightly embarrassed at her compliments. "Yeah, I just heard about it the other day," replied Troy moving his hand to the back of his neck, a nervous habit he picked up in high school.
"Have you decided where to go?" asked Dr. Pollack.
"No, not yet. I mean, it would be wonderful to stay here," started Troy. The hospital staff at the CHOP had readily offered Troy a position in their fellowship program. "However, Stanford and UCSF would be great as it will put me closer to New Mexico and my family. Then there's the program at Duke. Not only is it a great program too, but their basketball team is expected to be awesome next year."
A laugh arose from Dr. Pollack. "Troy, I cannot believe you're going to base such an important decision on a basketball team."
Troy smiled. "Yeah, well, you can take the boy away from basketball, but you can't take basketball away from the boy," joked Troy.
"I don't quite believe the saying goes like that. But, in seriousness Troy, I'm sure I speak for the rest of the staff when I say that we would all be delighted and honored if you decided to stay here. And if you did, is there any way I can convince you to join the Infectious Disease program instead? You've got quite a talent for it."
The flushing returned to Troy's face again. "Thanks Dr. Pollack. I think you're just flattering me. But, I know I have a lot of tough decisions to make soon, and I only have a few more days."
Knowing the stress that came with such a big decision, Dr. Pollack patted her left hand on Troy's shoulder. "Well, no matter what you decide, any hospital will be lucky to have you," she assured Troy.
After grabbing a quick lunch, Troy decided to make a detour on his way to the clinic. Stopping by the 3rd-floor nursing station, Troy saw that Sheila, the day-shift charge nurse was looking at a chart.
"How's Tommy doing today?" asked Troy.
"He's been… well, wonderful," she replied with a slightly awe-struck look on her face.
Troy laughed. "Why do you sound so surprised?"
"Well, before today, he's just been a little… difficult. But today, it's like he's a completely different boy! Will you be having your lunch with him today?"
"No, I can't today. It's my afternoon at the clinic today" said Troy. "I just wanted to check in with Tommy. But I better go, I think I'm going to be late."
Turning to leave down the stairs, Troy didn't notice the group of three female nursing students who watched his every move.
"He is the most beautiful man I have ever seen!" exclaimed a brunette student named Haley.
"I know! He once asked me to draw up blood for one of his patients. He was so nice. Not at all cocky like some other residents," gushed Jillian. "I wonder if he would consider dating someone at work," she thought out loud.
"You know what I heard?" started Kelsey, the third student. Both girls turned to her to encourage her to continue. "I was talking to one of the night-shift nurses. She said that Dr. Troy Bolton doesn't date. Something about how he's too busy at the hospital to maintain a steady relationship."
"Maybe he just hasn't met the right girl yet," smiled Jillian thinking that she could be the right girl for him.
"Nah, I don't think so," disagreed Kelsey. "You know the 2nd year resident, Blair Woodrow?"
"The resident that should be supermodel instead of a doctor?" replied Haley.
"Yeah. Well Terri was telling me that she's been trying to get Troy to go out with her since she came here as an intern. But Troy just keeps coming up with lame excuses not to take her out. Plus, have you noticed that he keeps arranging the schedule so she's on-call on his days off," explained Kelsey.
"Maybe he's suffering from a broken heart," supplied Haley. The two other girls looked at her as if she had grown a third arm.
"You are such a romantic Haley," laughed Jillian.
"What? No, seriously. Paul told me that-"
"Oh you got it from Paul!" exclaimed Jillian. "Then it must be true!"
"Well, Dr. Paul Haggerty is his best friend," said Kelsey. "I'm so glad you're dating him Haley. This way you can give us the inside scoop!"
Shaking her head, Haley continued like she didn't hear the two other girls, "Paul told me that Troy had a serious girlfriend in college. They were high school sweethearts, but they broke up sometime during college. Ever since then and all through med school and residency, Troy hasn't really wanted a relationship. He doesn't really date much either."
"Well, that's a shame," said Jillian. "He's such a cutie!"
"GIRLS!" exclaimed Sheila as she finally noticed the group of students standing around. "Stop gossiping! There are patients who need your help!"
"Dr. Bolton, you have one more patient in room 3," said Greta, the receptionist at Dr. Harry Wilkins' office, handing him a blue chart.
Philly Pediatrics was the private practice of Dr. Wilkins, an aging man in his late fifties. However, while many of his colleagues were retiring to spend more time playing golf, he continued to not only continue seeing his patients, but also persisted taking on residents from CHOP. Troy felt very blessed to be assigned to Dr. Wilkins. Ever since the start of his first year, Troy had spent one afternoon per week learning from the pediatrician. The young doctor looked up to Dr. Wilkins, and while private practice was something that never crossed his mind, he couldn't help but admire Dr. Wilkins' commitment to his patients.
"Thank you, Greta," he replied as he took the chart from her. "Can you make sure to give Caleb a Transformers sticker when he and his mom get out? I had to give him 3 shots today, and I don't think he was too happy with me."
"Of course I will Dr. Bolton," she replied smiling at him as she got up to the shelf where the gift bags for patients were stored.
Walking down the hall toward room 3, Troy briefly looked through the chart. "Ethan Bates, 4 years old. Mom states fever and complaining of a sore throat and runny nose…" whispered Troy, more to himself than anyone else.
Stopping in front of room 3, Troy slowly opened the door to walk into the room. His eyes immediately landed on a blonde, blue-eyed four-year old boy. He had been neatly dressed in a blue polo and denim shorts. However, his hair was messy and his nose from visibly red most likely from constant wiping from a Kleenex. Troy moved forward to the boy and started to introduce himself. "Hey Ethan, my name is-"
"Troy?" said a voice of a woman that Troy hadn't heard in years. Feeling his heart skip a beat, Troy moved his eyes up to the woman who had her arm around the young patient.
"Gabriella?" whispered Troy as blue crashed into brown as his eyes finally met hers. Both adults were stunned into silence as the only noise in the room was Ethan's constant sniffing of his nose.
Realizing that the attention was no longer on him, Ethan tugged on Gabriella's arm. "Mommy, who is he? Do you know him?" asked the young boy when Gabriella finally broke eye contact with Troy to look down at him.
"He's an old friend of mine," explained Gabriella as she looked back at Troy. "Ethan, this is Troy. Troy, this is Ethan, my son."
AN: There you have it. My first shot at HSM fanfiction. Hope you like it! I have parts of the story written out so updates should be coming out relatively close together.