Disclaimer: I do not own Trauma Center/Team, it belongs to Atlus. Since I don't, I just have to resort to the next best thing...writing fanfiction. However, the character Elisabeth "Lisbeth" O'Mara belongs to me.

Author's Note: Hello, I am risefromgrace16. While I'm not a novice fanfiction writer, this is my first time writing in this category. As of now, I currently own the first two Trauma Center games for the DS and Trauma Team. So far, I'm LOVIN' IT!...*sigh* But enough of my rambling, go on doing what you were supposed to be doing in the first place and start reading the story.

9/1/10 Update: Scene breaks have returned, so some editing is in order.

Red...

Red is such a neutral color. It decorates a wide variety of objects. Ribbons, flowers, paintings...blood. Some people love the very sight, but most want nothing to do with it. To me, it is my most loved color and most hated color. This would probably occur because of my past experiences with it. They enriched me and traumatized me.

Red is most likely the whole reason why I'm here now, in America, becoming more prominent in my profession: surgery.

Yes, I'm a surgeon, which means I deal with red a lot most of the time. On some days, I'm excited to continue doing what I love most, but at times, I just want to die right there on the spot just from seeing it so much. But either way, I finish up operations just fine, doing what I have to do.

But most importantly, red...is what caused me to do the unthinkable...

"Mother? Why are you up there?...Mother?...MOTHER!"

"Don't worry, you and your brother can stay here with the rest of us. They are just like you, alone, afraid, looking for a new home..."

"I...I don't want you to just up and try to be the best now...I like you just the way you are right now."

"Will you all SHUT UP? We're too far from the mainland for the ambulance to get here in time! Marcus, take care of the outside lacerations and get some papier mache for the splint. Everyone, get some water, rubbing alcohol, a cloth, a sewing needle, the kitchen knife, and the tongs. It's gonna take some time before we see her get up, smile and do something dumb again..."

"Don't worry Lisbeth, keep working on our promise. When the time comes, I'll be sure to see you again."

"Amazing! It's another seamless operation! Only the best from..."

"Such lovely flowers...what species are they though?"

"Dr. O'Mara? Are you daydreaming again?"

"Mm? Oh, it's nothing, just thinking back on some things..."

The addressed Elisabeth O'Mara was currently on board an FBI chopper. After landing in Stanton from Cambrige with her mentor, they had escorted them out to an isolated helipad in order to arrive at their destination undeterred. The location? Resurgam First Care located within the small town of Portland, Maryland. Having been in flight only a few times in her life, she didn't really mind the depth of heights, she actually enjoyed the rush of flying through the air in a metal shell. Flying at low altitude with 3 to 4 foreign agents and a partial convict? Not so much.

As a famous surgeon back in the United Kingdom, Dr. O'Mara had been called "The Pinnacle of Accuracy" and "The Dutchess of Dexterity" due to her quick and exact actions on and off protocol. If something in the operation was hindered, she would be able to think up a new way to approach the problem. Amongst the panic in the OR, she would be the only one calm enough to focus on the core of the operation.

Her rise to fame was at the same time that the dreaded epidemic of the Rosalia Virus had ended. One of the top surgeons at Resurgam was an on/off man, so they were looking for a replacement. Luckily, they had heard of Dr. O'Mara and her successful cases and decided to recruit her after a few tests were run.

Enter CR-SO1, Resurgam's previous top surgeon. In order to begin working there, Elisabeth had to get a solid recommendation from him. To do that, she had to perform a few operations under his watchful eye. At times, she admitted to herself that she was nervous after hearing about this, but then she reminded herself that this was a wonderful opportunity to become more prominent in the world of medicine, and as such, should be more confident in order to land the position without a hitch.

And she did.

However, after learning that he was actually a prisoner working off a 250 year sentence from the FBI, she became a little more skittish around him, aside from the fact that he must be about...4, 5 years her junior. The fact that his officers were watching them from an old security post outside of Elisabeth's workplace only reinforced her fears. Because he didn't exactly have a name and was considered her superior and occasional teacher, she referred to him as either "Sir" or "Teacher".

Moving back to the present, the 31 year old surgeon became aware of a dove that had made it's way into the chopper, frightening some of the occupants. Elisabeth, though, smiled and held out two of her fingers towards the equally scared dove.

"Doctor, what are you doing?" one of the agents asked.

Continuing to coax the bird onto her fingers, it soon calmed down and allowed her to put both hands around it. The panicked agents then gaped at her. "Do you see the difference in interaction?" she asked them. "Whilst you spent your time panicking, exaggerating and trying to flashily plan ahead, I happened to take it lightly and and took care of it a little at a time. That is one of the secrets of surgery and of life, to take in account how urgently you have to solve a problem and use that to your advantage. If you keep fidgiting about like that, you're going to make a mockery of your country someday."

After hearing that, most of the agents dropped their heads in shame, beginning to contemplate her words. Sighing, Elisabeth then turned to her temporary superior. "Agent Holden, is America usually like this? Having to...how you say...'make a mountain of molehills' both big and small?"

Having to learn this later, Ian Holden was the one in charge of keeping CR-SO1 in line, a kind of superior in a way, so Elisabeth took this as silently saying that for now, he was the primary commandeer. Looking back at the oddly golden eyed woman, he replied "Unfortunately...most of the time, yes. But these men are still rookies, so take it easy on them, alright?"

Realizing how caustic she actually was, Elisabeth adjusted her glasses a bit and sat straighter in her seat. "Of course..." If there was one thing she didn't like, it was going too far without knowing.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to see her mentor with a somewhat sympathetic look. "Don't be too hard on yourself. You do well enough just operating, it's just working with your speech mannerisms a little better, especially with patients."

Knowing that she only had to work on that one little thing, Elisabeth's soft smile returned to her face. "Thank you, Teacher."

All of a sudden, upon looking at the dove again, naturally calm before, began to struggle in an attempt to hurt Elisabeth and succeded, deeply scratching her cheek.

"AGH! Bloody 'ell..."

Wincing in pain, she quickly let go of the dove, who flew out the chopper.

As soon as it flew out, the agents, Holden included, started to scramble to help her, but she immediately put her hand in the "stop" motion and told them "I don't need any help. All I need is some alcohol and a bandage, that's it...I'm fine, really!"

Almost immediately, the bandage and cotton, damp with rubbing alcohol, were presented to her. As she began to swab the scratch, the pilot yelled over his shoulder "We're about to land on Resurgam!"

Looking down at the helipad, Elisabeth and the others could see Resurgam's personal chopper along with two figures near the staircase leading into the building. One of them yelled out "About damn time you got here!"

Upon landing, Elisabeth could only identify one of the two individuals. She recognized the older woman with her dark magenta hair in a bun as Esha Patel, the chief manager at Resurgam. However, the younger woman in the yellow and green jacket with a bob cut didn't strike her as familiar.

"Hello, Chief." she began, sticking out her arm for an introductory handshake.

Chief Patel returned the handshake eagerly. "Likewise, Doctor O'Mara! I hope that you're able to work here as well as in England!"

"Thank you very much, but outside of operations, can you call me Lisbeth? I don't really like my given name, it sounds so...uptight."

"Alright then, Lisbeth...Huh, sounds catchy! By the way...what happened to your cheek?"

"Oh! Uhm...I fell. That's it."

"I see...well, I'm was bound to introduce you two sometime, but this is Maria Torres, one of the top members of the First Response team. You'll probably have to see each other often." Patel said, gesturing to the other woman, who was putting her arm out as well.

Letting her soft smile grace her face again, Lisbeth put her hand in Maria's, only to have it tightly squeezed and her own arm being pumped up and down rapidly. "Nice to meet you too! No worries about getting lost around here, I'll be sure to show you around when I get the time." Peeking over her shoulder to CR-SO1, she added "And let me know if this one's going too hard on you."

"Hey, now..." he murmured, partially dejected "It wasn't so bad when I was here...Aside from the population of America being nearly decimated."

"Aside from that? That was pretty much most of the time you were here!"

Re-adjusting her glasses, Lisbeth saw that Maria and CR-SO1 began talking closely amongst each other. It figures, they did work together, after all. Soon, everyone else except her started walking down Memory Lane. She quietly stated "I'll just look over here now..."

Turning to look at the skyline, she couldn't help but marvel at the sight of the small town, not that she wasn't familiar to the setting already, but at the possible candidates of people she might be responsible for. Unfolding and putting on her surgical coat, she thought to herself Okay, new nation, new setting, new people...I can't screw this up now...Can't let her get to me...It's just like Brother and I promised, to save people's lives no matter what, when, or where...

The sudden clamor amonst everyone else stopped almost as soon as Lisbeth made it to the edge of the building. From there, Maria quietly asked "Sorry, but I just wanna know...How old is she?"

"About 31 years, why?" Esha replied.

"Seriously? I thought...well, y'know...she just looks really young, what with her face and height...Doesn't really help that she's only a few years older than me."

"True, true...heck, add her sense of fashion and you'd think she was an intern!"

Lisbeth was able to overhear them and cursed herself on her choice of attire. Underneath her uniformal coat was a red collared halter blouse with a short black tie, clipped with two long red stripes. Along with that were a jet black knee length skirt with lace hemming and matching rose patterned pantyhose. Of course, wearing your "run of the mill" dress shoes didn't help her either. Neither did wearing her wavy, dirty blonde hair in a French braid, a few loose, thick strands framing her face. Hell, she didn't even ask for thin prescription glasses! She really did want to show her maturity more often, it was just that she was drawn to certain articles...

"Hey!"

Lisbeth's deep thoughts were interrupted by a smack to her backside, nothing too serious, but enough to snap her back to reality, and enough to make her lose her balance and fall forward.

"Oh!"

A sudden pull back from her braid righted her personal balance. Almost immediately, she turned around to see Maria with an apologetic look on her face. "Sorry, but we were supposed to give you this first." She then handed a clipboard to the still aching surgeon.

"What is this?..." Lisbeth skimmed the paper, her eyes widening a bit. "This is a chart...They want me to start right now?"

"Yeah, it's not exactly the most convenient thing for us, but the patient was too stubborn to have it planned for later. But you can handle it, right?"

Lisbeth's face twitched a little, but then calmed down. "Of course, it's not the first time being called into the OR first thing on a work day."

Maria was awed for a bit "Man, you really are experienced!"

"Damn straight!"

All of a sudden, a kind of melody could be heard in the air. Maria, looking at her cellphone, picked it up and answered. "Yeah?...A collision? I'll be there soon, hold on."

Right after that, she began running towards the reserve chopper. "There's been a traffic accident on the 374 Highway, so I'll meet with you later!"

Waving goodbye just as the chopper rose up, Maria yelled "I seriously meant what I said back there! Call me for help!"

Staring at the chopper as it headed northeast, Lisbeth murmured to herself "She's certainly...energetic...and somewhat infectious."

Hearing a sigh from her returning superior, he replied "Usually not that much..."

Walking down to the OR, Lisbeth, CR-SO1 [coming in as support], and Esha were going over the details of the operation.

"Alright...The name's Sasha Binder. Was complaining of abdominal pain when admitted, diagnosed with a stomach ulcer...Shouldn't that be taken care of with endoscopy?" Lisbeth inquired.

"That's what we thought at first." Esha explained "But when we got to the stomach, it had turned into a massive hole! Even worse was that some stomach acid was flowing out as well. To keep up with that, somehow, more acid was being produced. The camera got burned out as well, so we couldn't find out much anymore after that."

"I see...The stomach mucous must have weakened during this time. Was the patient sick? Taking any drugs?"

"Yeah, we found some nearly ingested pills in there. She said she was sick at the time and needed to take some antibiotics. However, when we analyzed them, they turned out to be under development. She was just some test subject."

"Ugh...Don't people remember using lab rats? Have biologists these days been trying to succeed God? I swear, if I find the person responsible for this, I'll just-OWWW!"

Unwittingly, Lisbeth had just bumped into someone and fell back from the impact. Trying to get back up on her feet, she noticed how seemingly intimidating he was. Standing approximately at 6'5, the man obviously dwarfed the poor 5'4 surgeon. With his black hair up in a sort of pompadour hairstyle, he reminded her of one of those old time gangsters back in England.

Starting to apologize, she also noticed a woman who seemed to have recently appeared on the spot. She looked to be of Asian origins and was wearing...a red furisode [?] with an extravagant embroidered pattern on the hemming of the bottom and sleeves, with a long, pleated dark red skirt. It would be considered graceful unless she was wearing the proper pair of zori instead of long, black boots. Oh, and if she wasn't wearing a surgical coat as well.

The foreign woman extended a hand to help Lisbeth up. Upon getting back on her feet, she couldn't help but notice that she had attracted quite a crowd. A few nurses and assistants sprinkled here and there, but the most noticeable of the new assembly was a man in a beige suit. His dark hair seemed to be in a bit of a mess, and he held tightly in his mouth a worn-out cigarette. Seeing his oddly misshapen shadow, she couldn't help but look at the surrounding ground. From there, she could see a tinier pair of legs behind him, a child maybe? Looking up at his face again, she noticed that he was looking right at her as well, smirking.

Right after seeing that, the regular blush she had on her cheeks soon expanded onto her entire face and neck. If it weren't for the OR being a few paces away, she would have just stood there, frozen on the spot. Clearing her throat, she began "A-as much as I-I'd like to talk to you all...I've got a life to save. I dunno about the rest of you, and I don't want to make assumptions, but I've never lost anyone during my career, so before we start the schoolyard routine, let me work."

Turning to the tall man and the kimono-clad woman she quietly stated "Sorry about that sir, I get too deep into work sometimes, and thank you for helping me up, ma'am." With that, she took long, quick strides into the room, CR-SO1 and Esha in tow.

First day here and I already look like a total klutz. Perfect. Just freakin' PERFECT.

Left hanging after that, the crowd started talking amongst themselves. "Wow...she's really focused isn't she?" A bespectacled intern asked.

"Indeed, she shares the same ideal the rest of us do, the passion to save lives. From what I have heard about her, she does an incredible job of keeping in mind what she has said. That is honorable in itself." Tomoe replied.

"She certainly seems to be passionate about it, but what do you think Gabe?" Hank asked his longtime friend.

The famed diagnostician took the cigarette out of his mouth, tossed it in the trash and said "I'll admit, she does seem to have the skill and drive...but her way of dealing with people is another story."

Once inside the OR, Lisbeth thought to herself ...Can't get any worse than this, right?

"Good evening, ma'am, I will be your surgeon for today."

Ending Notes: So...was it good? Bad? Idk, I was too into writing to really know for myself. Let me know in your reviews!