.:SUBJECT 13'S BUTLER:.

-His Doctor, Recruiting-

PART 2:

Finnian McCinnes, Intern.


Finnian wouldn't have said life was a breeze. Wind blew through life, definitely, but nothing was as simple, as wonderful, and as pure as a breeze when he considered life on the whole.

School? He'd flown through it, stepping straight into university the year after graduating from high school at the astounding age of fifteen. Being a child genius, he'd whipped through his high school years far quicker than his peers, and had graduated alongside students three years older than himself. Top of his class in every subject, his intellect was beyond anything any of his teachers had ever known. It made him hard to approach; he knew that, even though he did his best to be as friendly as possible. The other students thought he was just mocking them.

But all Finnian had ever wanted was friends.

His childhood had been horrible; adopted from a very young age, Finnian had grown up in an orphanage in Northern Ireland until he was eight. Even then he'd been too smart for the other kids, the caretakers at the orphanage would say. Too clever and no one wanted to play with him because of it, no matter how hard he tried to join in. He'd been signed off to a foster home when he turned nine, but none of the families that had taken him had kept him for very long. There had always been something not quite…right to him. From then on, he'd gone from one home to another like a badly addressed parcel. It wasn't as if he didn't try to be good – he did his utmost but there were things about each family that spooked him. All it took, in the end, was one call to his caretakers at the orphanage and they'd take him back, with a sigh and a shake of the head, before letting him stay for a few weeks. Then it would be off to yet another foster home.

The cycle continued until he had turned fourteen, which was when he'd graduated high school (he insisted on as much 'normalcy' as possible – regardless of being an orphan he attended a public school with normal students and normal teachers and normal classes, not the close-knit group of other orphans who had lessons with the caretakers in the dining hall). Once high school was over, he'd moved straight off to a university in England, settling into his little on-campus room with three housemates on the floor and hoping for a brand new fresh start. But even then, making friends had seemed impossible. They brushed him off with excuses of homework and study that needed doing. In the end, Finnian had resigned himself to believing that he'd never connect with anyone. He hand-fed a few of the birds that came and sat in the tree outside his room's window, and while they were the closest thing he had to anything remotely resembling friends, they couldn't talk back; they couldn't ask him how he was doing, they couldn't offer him any advice.

He made his way through his six years of university completing his medical degree very, very alone. Once again, his incredible intelligence had earned him great grades and marks, and he was the best student any of his lecturers and tutors had ever taught according to some, but in the end his achievements were only recorded on papers. Papers that were so easily lost, or crumpled, or ruined or burnt. Nothing concrete that anyone really remembered about him other than he had no friends.

His medical degree had scored him an internship – but by then, hope of a fresh start was really starting to wear thin. He found himself not looking forward to his first day on the job, with the other interns who had also been accepted. The Karnstein Children's Hospital was an incredible facility with only the very best of doctors and staff; competition to get anywhere would be extremely high, and Finnian felt perhaps vaguely half-heartedly about even trying.

Three weeks, he spent, watching and even sometimes working alongside registered doctors and nurses. An intern's job was to watch and learn, and to put that learning into practice. He heard many things from many people, and quickly came to see a hierarchy among the one-site doctors. There were those who took orders from the older, more experienced, and there were those who were more respected than even the more experienced. And the most appraised man was the man everyone seemed to treat like some sort of deity – Finnian had only seen him, briefly, once or twice, and he'd never been close enough to get a good look at the man, and even though most of the staff and even the patients adored him, there were other doctors who reviled him. He didn't know the doctor's name, but he'd heard him called the 'Devil Doctor' often enough.

Needless to say, every intern in the same program as Finnian all wanted to get some sort of contact with this man. Anyone who did was bound to go far just by mentioning to a future employer that they'd had him look their way. Finnian himself, on the other hand, was always far more interested in the actual work – he'd long ago given up on trying to associate with the others.

Imagine his surprise, then, when the Devil Doctor had breezed into the ward one morning where Finnian had been tending to the children occupying each hospital bed, doing his best to offer them each a smile while he gave them a quick examination. Finnian didn't see the man walk in – but the children did. Suddenly, they were all sitting upright in bed, beaming and singing out a good morning cheer, and Finnian whipped around to see the tall, pale-skinned doctor smiling cheerfully and replying with a gentle, almost sing-song laugh. And then, the Devil Doctor had turned that smile, that soft, kind smile, to Finnian.

"Good morning, Intern McInnes; may I call you Finnian?" he inquired, presenting a lollipop to each of the children before returning his attention to the stunned blonde in the traditional green intern scrubs.

"O-oh, uh, sure!" Finnian couldn't find the strength to pull his saucer-wide eyes back to their normal size. "I-is there something you need, sir?"

"Actually," the Devil Doctor replied. "There might be, yes."

-: -

"W-where are we going, sir?"

"I'd like to introduce you to someone," The Devil Doctor, who had introduced himself as Doctor Sebastian Michaelis, said simply as he strode down the whitewashed hallway, Finnian in tow. "I feel you might find a special connection with them."

Finnian gazed up at this man. This tall, lanky man who couldn't have been much older than twenty-four, maybe. This man had been a fully registered doctor since he was twenty! Finnian had only just finished his degree and he'd barely turned twenty-one! Just how high, he wondered, was Dr Michaelis' intellect, that he might have also flown through his school years faster than his peers? Did he also feel the unfair loneliness that accompanied being without anyone on his level to befriend and share an understanding with?

Gazing up in wonder at the doctor, Finni completely missed what was said by the man as they headed down the corridors. "Um-what? Sorry."

"I said; I'd like to know your goals. Aims in life. What you wish to accomplish and what you want out of life." Doctor Michaelis repeated, not even sounding a little miffed that Finnian hadn't being paying attention. Finnian paused momentarily, but it was long enough for the doctor to notice; he stopped and turned back to Finnian, whose mind was a roller coaster of jumbled thoughts. He hadn't thought about that before…not really, not after he'd more or less committed his life to his studies. He'd given up on having hopes and dreams.

"I…I don't know." He replied truthfully. "Um…I guess…I'd like to help kids that are sick…you know; that's why I'm aiming to be a doctor. So they can go home to their families and be happy."

Sebastian Michaelis raised a curious eyebrow. "Oh? Is that what would make you happy?"

Was Finnian happy? Had he worked so hard just because he had nothing else? What did he want?

"I…I guess so."

"Your file says you grew up without a proper family." Dr Michaelis said quietly, his voice gentle. "You're a very strong lad to be so eager to help other families without one to call your own."

Family.

Finnian blinked hard. He wanted, more than anything, to have someplace to call home. Somewhere he could spend time with people who actually gave a damn about him. Somewhere he could enjoy himself, care for others…how had he ever thought working with children who would only be in care for a certain period of time before leaving would satisfy that desire?

"I guess…I mean…" he mumbled, feeling heat build up around his eyes – oh no, he was going to cry. He didn't like crying – and he certainly didn't want to cry in front of this man. This man with so much power and influence. Scrunching his eyes shut, Finnian wished he could be anywhere but here – a million miles away.

There was a hand on his shoulder, and Finnian looked up – Doctor Michaelis offered him a kind smile.

"I know it's hard," he spoke softly. "But the person I'd like you to meet is in need of a good heart to care for him. Much like yourself, he needs a friendly face to greet him every morning. His spirits are low, and I cannot always give him my full attention. I've seen you in action, Mr McInnes – you're an outstanding intern. The internship program will soon be assigning interns to the wards; I'd like to offer you this chance to be assigned to my ward; the ward housing the child who needs someone like you."

"Me…?" Finnian breathed. "But why…?"

"I've seen how you handle the children in the other wards; you do your utmost yet receive nothing in return. Fussy children who won't take their medicine; won't co-operate with examinations. I promise you, my current charge is in need of someone who can pay him more than ten minutes of attention at a time. Your duties as an intern will extend to a certain point, but after that, you're free to do as you wish. I'd like to ask of you, if you wouldn't mind getting to know him, giving him something to look forward to. It's important for a child to have a family away from his own."

Have a family…

"W-will there be any others working in the ward?" Finnian asked, and Doctor Michaelis nodded.

"Yes. I've engaged a nurse and I'll be calling upon an old friend of mine who's returning from New York later this week – I went through medical school with him and with you in addition, I think we'll make a fine family for the boy in our care."

The smile on the doctors face was sincere, and his eyes watched Finnian carefully; in turn, Finnian wasn't sure how he felt. What was this feeling? Hope? A chance like no one had ever given him before? This was…

"…Of course, I can't expect you to say yes right away." Dr Michaelis was saying. "I understand it's important that you're comfortable with the working atmosphere and the patient; if you don't get along then there's no point in forcing you to do something you'll only come to be unhappy with – "

"I'll do it."

Doctor Michaelis paused, looking a little surprised.

"You will?"

Finnian gave him the biggest grin his could muster – there was no way, he believed, that he could pass this opportunity up. A family? Maybe not the closest, but people like him who he could work side-by-side with and get along with? He may never get another chance like this in his life.

"I'll be the best intern you could ever hope for!" he nodded, and the Devil Doctor broke into another smile, before clapping a hand on Finnian's shoulder and beginning to steer him down the hallway again.

"Excellent. Come then; I'd like to introduce you to your newest charge. His name is Ciel Phantomhive, and I have a feeling he's going to like you very, very much."