Trauma Team 2: Life And Death

An original sequel by: DrClaudiaVaughn

Chapter I - Aurora Kravitz: First Impressions

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

In Portland, it was pretty much a normal day in October. Summer had already come to a close, and winter was beginning to come once again to Maine. Outside of Resurgam First Care, the city's largest hospital, autumn's leaves littered the ground. It was a chilly afternoon, with temperatures dipping into the high 30s, so, naturally, no one was outside if they could help it. Except for, of course, the girl pacing in front of the doors leading into the hospital's surgery ward.

It was difficult to notice her if you weren't specifically looking. She blended in almost perfectly, looking just like one of the red-orange leaves at her feet. The girl wasn't very tall, but had a slender build, enhanced by her choice in clothing. Her jacket was made of faded black leather, while her jeans were a more vibrant vermillion. Her hair, pulled up into a neat ponytail, was the same bright color as her pants. With every step the girl took, a flurry of leaves flew at her feet. She seemed as if she had been pacing in front of the hospital for ages, occasionally stopping and looking up at the massive building, but then returning to pacing.

"I have to go in eventually," she murmured to herself, still walking back and forth, "They will be expecting me, won't they? If I fail to show up, they will not be thinking too highly of me... But, am I really that important to them? I have been here for quite a while. I am not really someone to worry about. I have most likely been forgotten about..."

The girl stopped for a moment, again looking at the hospital doors. She put a bony finger to her lips as she considered going inside.

"What if this is all just a joke, a prank on an innocent person? Yes, that would seem like a logical conclusion," the girl didn't move, but continued her muttering, "Then again, that woman who spoke to me on my cellular phone...she did not seem to be the joking type. Esha Patel was her name, I believe, or was it Patel Esha...?" The girl facepalmed. "Oh my! I cannot believe that I've already forgotten my possible colleague's name! It makes me wonder if the medical career was truly an appropiate choice for someone as feebleminded as myself..."

And with that, she returned to her pacing.

"Aurora, you do realize that you will have to go in there sooner rather than later, right?" the girl attempted to coach herself, "What if they need your assistance on a particularly difficult condition? ...No, one of the best surgeons in America works in this establishment. I will most likely not be needed..."

Meanwhile, one of Resurgam's doctors had just exited, and noticed the girl pacing in front of them. There had been nothing for them to do lately, so they had decided to get some fresh air. The last thing they had expected to see was this young woman walking back in front right in front of the hospital. "Um...hello?" they said cautiously, more out of surprise than fear.

The redhead didn't even notice them as she continued her ramblings, "But if I was not needed, then why was I specifically requested, all the way from Montana? Surely, there is an underlying reason behind this..."

"Excuse me? Are you here to visit someone?" the doctor asked, their voice louder this time. The question fell on deaf ears, since the girl was too busy talking to herself instead of paying attention to her surroundings.

"Perhaps, I should just go back home, but what kind of doctor would I be if I ignored my responsibilites and-"

"HEY YOU! WHY DON'T YOU JUST ANSWER ME ALREADY, HUH?"

The girl literally jumped at the sound of the voice. Her wide, frightened eyes darted around her, until they finally met the intense green ones of the doctor standing directly in front of her.

Emergency medical technician Maria Torres, and an angry one at that. Anyone who has picked up the Wii game Trauma Team knows that Maria is quick to respond, but also very quick to anger.

"You some kind of druggie?" Maria yelled at the girl, who had started to visibly shake, "Answer me!"

"Um...n-no. M-my n-name is Aurora K-kravitz, miss," the girl stuttered, clearly nervous, "I-i am...a d-doctor. A s-surgeon, if y-you would l-like to b-be e-exact..."

"A surgeon, huh..." Maria replied, "...Well, why didn't you say that earlier? Name's Maria! I work here!"

Aurora's face suddenly brightened, "O-oh, really? I a-apologize for s-startling you. Y-you see, I a-am s-schedueled to work here, too. T-today w-was suppossed to be my f-first d-day here, but..."

"Your first day? Today?" Maria looked incredulous, "But it's seven o'clock already! The Chief's gonna leave soon, y'know! Why didn't you get here earlier?"

"Um, yes, a-about that..." Aurora tried turning away to hide the blush starting to grow on her freckled cheeks, "I, er, well..."

"Don't tell me! Have you seriously been pacing here all day? You've got to be kidding me!"

"Since ten o'clock, yes," Aurora admitted, covering her face with both hands, "I-i...insecurity i-is a p-personality flaw of m-mine! I am s-sorry!"

"Don't apologize! Just...ugh!" Maria threw her hands up in the air, "Morons like you really set me off some days!"

-.-

Meanwhile, inside Resurgam First Care...

"Gabe! Have you finished those reports yet?" Like always, Esha Patel was nagging the lazy diagnostician to do his work for once. Unfortunately for her, Gabriel Cunningham had no intention of doing paperwork today, or on any other day for that matter. If it were up to him, right now he would be either sleeping, stuffing his face with Taco Bell, or just sitting in his apartment smoking. As he himself once said before, he half-assed his way through work so that he could half-ass his way through the rest of life.

"Doctor Cunningham, I believe that Chief Patel is ordering you to complete an assingment that is past its due date," RONI, Gabriel's computer 'assistant', beeped, "Option to reject assignment unavailable. Option to extend deadline unavailable." Ah, yes, RONI. If there was anything Gabe hated more than the hospital chief, it was his computer sidekick RONI. Although, it was a pretty close call, with Esha Patel standing in the doorway of his office demanding a report.

On the Rosalia Virus.

Due six months ago.

That he hadn't started on yet.

Chief Patel put her her hands on her hips. "Well, Gabe?" she said, raising an eyebrow, "There's no getting out of this one, not again."

"Uh..." Gabe scratched his head and looked down at his ever-messy desk. It was littered with random papers, empty paper cups of coffee, and the occasional burnt-out cigarette. Come on, someone come bail me out, he prayed, though he was never one for religion.

Three...

Two...

One...

"No, Miss Maria! Really! I am not prepared to-!"

"I don't care whether or not you're prepared! You're going to talk to them, right now!"

"Ack! Miss Maria, is there any need to drag me around like that?"

Both Esha Patel's and Gabe's ears perked up at the sound of the voices. They recognized the second, of course, since it belonged to everybody's favorite hot-head paramedic, Maria Torres. But the first...high-pitched and reedy, neither of them had heard such a voice before.

"Not another patient," the so-called 'Master of Deduction' groaned, "I've already diagnosed two today!"

Maria managed to poke her head through the door, ending up right next to a clearly shocked Patel. Obviously, this was the chief's first time witnessing Maria's 'methods' of bringing people into Gabe's office. More often than not, the head diagnostician was stuck with the most difficult patients, including stubborn old politicians (*coughcough*JACOBTILLMAN*coughcough*), harried businesspeople, hypochondriac housewives, and, once, his own son.

"Wow, two patients. That's terrible," Maria said to Gabe sarcastically, rolling her eyes, "Sorry, moron, but this other moron here isn't one of your moronic patients. She's here to see less moronic people, like the Chief."

While Gabe was trying to count how many times Maria had said the word 'moron' in those two sentences, Chief Patel's eyes got even wider. "Here to see me? You don't mean..."

It was then that Gabriel noticed the girl. She was on the ground, and it seemed as if Maria had been dragging her by the sleeve of her leather jacket. With her left hand, the girl was attempting to hide the bright blush on her face. However, even Gabe could see that her face was becoming the same color as her bright hair.

"She's a surgeon," Maria said plainly, motioning to the girl, "From...where did you say you were from again?"

"I d-don't b-believe I-I m-mentioned that I-I w-was from K-kalispell, M-montana," the girl said timidly, her hands trembling.

"Yeah, whatever she said," Maria nodded, "And her name's, erm...Aurora Kravitz, right?"

The poor girl could do nothing but nod. Naturally, she was scared out of her very wits. Aurora didn't do well with strangers, or just people in general, for that matter.

"Maria!" Chief Patel scolded, "This woman is our new surgeon! She's suppossed to be starting today!"

"I know that! That's the only reason I brought her over here!" Maria argued.

Gabriel thought this might be a good oppurtunity to leave unnoticed. After all, he could always deal with Patel and that report tomorrow, right? Or he could just finish it overnight...Nah, Gabe would never do something like that. However, just as the doctor was about to get up and leave...

"Chief! Maria!" he heard Emma Wilson's, the young and sometimes clueless nurse, voice yell from down the hall, "There's been a car accident on the Interstate! Three people are injured, and one's in crictical condition! Hurry!"

"Great,"Dr. Cunningham groaned again, "Just what we needed..."

-.-

At the operating room...

"Doctor Kravitz, it's time for you to prove yourself," Esha Patel said, looking at the red-haired girl very seriously, "Your first operation here was suppossed to be tomorrow, but..."

"Damnit!" Maria cursed, "Why's the moron always here when we don't need him?"

Aurora looked at the three doctors standing before her anxiously, then took a deep breath. "I am a doctor. I save lives," she said softly.

Suddenly, Gabriel clapped a hand on Aurora's back, which startled her. "That's the spirit!" he said.

"Maria, Gabe, you work on the other two patients until more doctors get here," Chief Patel ordered, "Doctor Kravitz, we don't have time to waste. Let's begin the operation!"

-.-

Starting the operation!

The patient's life is in your hands!

Aurora gasped as she saw the patient's condition. Several glass shards and open lacerations covered the patient's chest, and his right arm, also sporting cuts everywhere, was bent at a crooked angle.

"It looks like...a compound fracture," Aurora said worriedly, "I do not know how to treat this. Perhaps we should wait until a more skilled surgeon is available..."

"Don't stress about it. We'll have our orthopedic surgeon look at it tomorrow," Patel reasssured her, "Just focus on treating the glass shards and the cuts for now."

"...The vitals are low. Please hand me the syringe," Aurora held out her hand, and within seconds she was injecting the green stabilizer into the patient, "That sound be enough for now. I will need to keep an eye on the patient's vitals as I continue the operation..."

The young surgeon proceeded to extract the glass shards using the forceps, but was careful not to loosen her tight grip on them until she reached the steel tray. After that, she healed the minor wounds the shards left behind using the antibiotic gel. Aurora got the stitches ready to suture the remaining lacerations, but then...

"The patient's fibrillating! Halt the procedure!" Chief Patel ordered. The irregular heartbeat shown on the EKG confirmed this. Just as Aurora looked up, the EKG flatlined.

"Oh, no..." she murmured, as Esha handed her the two paddles used for the defribrillator.

"Charging at 100," the hospital chief said, "...Clear."

With a jolt of electricity, Aurora tried reviving the patient...but it was no use.

"Your timing needs to be better, Doctor! Charging at 200! ...Clear."

This time, the EKG returned to normal. Both Aurora and Patel breathed sighs of relief, but it wasn't over yet.

"For the patient to go into cardiac arrest..." Aurora mused, "...There has to be something else here. After I suture these lacerations, I will have to open him up for further examinations."

And that's exactly what she did. Stiching the wounds didn't take long, since there was only a small amount of blood to drain. Aurora disinfected the chest area first, then made an incision using her scalpel. What she saw next shocked her.

"So much glass, in his heart...I cannot believe this," her brown eyes widened as she registered the scene before her, "But...I must get them all out, or else...he will die." Aurora shuddered as she remembered the last time she lost a patient, years ago. The faces of her family as she told them the tragic truth...it was something that would be forever etched in her mind, a memory she would carry to her very grave.

Using the forceps, Aurora extracted every glass shard she could see, and treated the respective wounds with some antibiotic gel.

"Vitals are stable," Chief Patel breathed, "We can relax now. Doctor Kravitz, please close the incision."

With one last bit of suturing, Aurora Kravitz wrapped up her first operation at Resurgam.

Operation Sucessful!

You have saved this patient!

-.-

After the operation...

"You did great in there!" Maria said, amazed. She was sure that not even the moron could have finished that operation quicker than this newbie had. Maybe she wasn't such a moron after all.

"No, no. A-any other d-doctor w-would have p-performed j-just a-as I did, u-under the s-same c-conditions," Outside of the OR, Aurora's stutter was back, "I-it really w-was nothing..."

"Hmph, if you say so," Maria saw that it was useless arguing with her, "Hey...you coming in tomorrow?"

"M-most likely," the meek surgeon answered.

"Great! I'll introduce you to everyone else then! They're gonna love you!"

Oh, Gosh, not more people... Dr. Kravitz thought, as she watched her new 'friend' run down the hall. Running a hand through her vibrant hair, she walked away to speak to the Chief about the operation she had just performed.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

AN: Gah, I really dislike this chapter...the ending was a little bit rushed, sorry about that. :/ Well, anyways, the next chapter won't be about our crew at Resurgam, but about our crew at CIFM. Yes, that's right, Naomi and Little Guy will be appearing in the next chapter...with the addition of a new character! Yay! See you guys next chapter, and remember the three Rs...Read, Review, and...RONI!

Songs listened to while writing this chapter:

Rock'n'MARIA - Trauma Team Original Soundtrack

Conference B - Trauma Team Original Soundtrack

Struggle For Life - Trauma Team Original Soundtrack