Author's Note - I wanted to put this chapter up fairly quickly to start the actual plot I have planned. There's a teaser at the end so that's an incentive to keep reading!
Even though they are across the pond, a couple of familiar faces from the TV series may appear as their English counterparts as you will see in this chapter.
Thank you for reading, hope you enjoy and reviews are greatly appreciated!
A Better Woman
I opened my eyes and found myself staring at my alarm clock on the nightstand beside my bed. Shit - I was late. I scrambled out of bed and showered as fast as I could. I didn't have time to blowdry my hair so I roughly towel-dried it and descended to the kitchen for my morning coffee. Mark was already up of course, with a spoon in one hand and a newspaper in the other. He didn't have the decency to wake me up.
"Morning," Mark called from behind his paper at me as he shovelled another spoonful of cereal into his mouth, "sleep well?"
I didn't even justify that with an answer - he knew how nervous I was about today. I poured myself a coffee and sat down opposite him and started reading what was on the back cover of the paper.
"Aren't you going to eat anything?" Mark didn't even have to look over his paper to know that I hadn't a plate of food in front of me; I was never a breakfast person, "I think you should eat something."
"I'll be fine, jackass."
"That's what I was saying yesterday... And what's with the jackass?" Mark's face was still behind the paper and his tone of his voice was unchanged - I couldn't tell what his reaction had been to the insult.
"You didn't wake me up, that's what," I tried to calmly take a sip of coffee, "I overslept."
"I was going to wake you up..." he checked his watch, "now actually. I thought you could do with a bit more sleep. I heard you tossing and turning last night and you didn't settle till gone 2."
I immediately felt guilty at my rudeness. Mark was looking out for me.
"Sorry," I muttered.
Mark finally put down the paper.
"Relax! Have some food," he pushed his bowl towards me, encouraging me to eat and took my hand in his, before instantly retracting it and wiping his hand on his shirt, "Aren't you going to dry your hair?"
The Hospital
The hospital was definitely a lot smaller than Seattle Grace Mercy West, but I didn't really expect the reception area to be almost full - it was barely 9am and it was already getting crowded.
Butterflies were fluttering around in my stomach - what if I didn't like it here? What if they didn't like me? What if I didn't fit in?
"Are you ok?" Mark protectively put his arm over my shoulders as we approached the reception station, sensing my unease.
I nodded curtly - just man up Callie, I thought to myself as we waited patiently for the small, rather plump woman to finish her call.
"Hi," Mark placed his arm on the desk and leaned in, adopting his gruff assertive voice. It was his way of exerting his authority to strangers, "I'm Doctor Sloan and this -"
"And this must be Doctor Torres."
Mark frowned, he wasn't used to getting cut off mid sentence. I knew from that minute that I liked this receptionist. She had balls; not many people could interrupt Mark Sloan mid-assertion. "They've been expecting you. I think Doctor Altman is up in room 2-10." She used her pen to point us in the direction of the elevator, "Second floor."
We thanked her for her help and made our way to the second floor.
"I bet this Doctor Altman is the head here." Mark's annoyance was clearly, but not necessarily intentionally, expressed in the tone of his voice. I didn't want to add fuel to the fire so I didn't say anything until the elevator pinged and its doors opened.
The first floor was busy, so we didn't bother asking for directions. Instead we spent a few minutes walking around in silence trying to find room 2-10. Eventually, we found the room, but it was empty.
"Let's just wait here Mark. MARK -"
Mark had already left the room, power walking along the corridors calling out "Doctor Altman, where's Doctor Altman?" in that bellowing husky voice of his. He was such a child; he had no concept of patience.
Great, I thought to myself, everyone's going to hate us. Mark returned alone.
"People are so rude in here, they kept staring at me like I was mad," he sat himself down on the chair by the window.
"Oh really? I wonder why." I muttered sarcastically to myself as a gurney wheeled in.
A couple of nurses began setting up the machinery and the room was filled with a whirring. A few moments later, a woman appeared staring fixedly at a chart.
Mark, as impatient as he was, stood up and cleared his voice in an attempt to catch the doctor's attention. She didn't even bat an eyelid to Mark's cough and continued to look intently at the file. A minute or so later, she looked up and smiled.
"Doctor Sloan and Doctor Torres?" We both nodded and Mark lunged in for a handshake, but the woman turned towards the door, leaving Mark hanging and called over her shoulder, "Come with me."
We obediently obliged, following her along the corridors before turning into what appeared to be her office.
"Take a seat," she gestured to the seat in front of her desk and took her seat opposite us, "I am Doctor Altman, but please, call me Teddy."
Mark stifled a laugh. It was as if I could read his mind - who would call their child Teddy?
"So you're the head here?"
I sighed, when would he let that go?
She smiled at him, "No... well yes. Temporary head here, Doctor Lewis is on leave at the moment, he's working in Nepal. Anyway," Teddy opened a desk drawer and flicked through some paperwork, "Since Doctor Lewis was supposed to do all of this, I don't really know what I'm doing. I guess you could just get started straight away. Pick up some scrubs in the storeroom at the end of the corridor and change in the changing room opposite and meet me back here."
It was almost robotic, the way we both left the room and changed into our scrubs.
"What do you think of her?" Before I had time to answer, Mark carried on, "I reckon she's going to be a tough safe to crack."
Laughing at the weird metaphor, I knew exactly what he meant.
"Mark, you just met her and already you're assessing how hard it's going to be to get in her pants. She seems nice though."
Mark smiled cheekily, "I don't know, the crazy ones always have the weirdest names."
We turned into Teddy's office and were immediately handed a patient's file each.
"I'm really sorry, I would stay and show you around but I must dash." She moved towards the door, "Oh! Your ID," Teddy gestured to the little plastic name tags on the desk. Checking her pager and grabbing her stethoscope, she marched out the door before calling out, "Nice to meet you!"
We stood in her office for a minute, taking in what had just happened. Mark picked up a tag and turned to show it to me.
"What?! We only get these silly little plastic thingys? Where are our personalised coats?"
I grabbed my tag and attached it to my scrubs, before helping Mark with his. If I didn't do it for him, he would undoubtedly have gone without it.
"She's pretty scatty right?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure she's going to be crazy too."
I punched Mark playfully in the arm.
"Meet you later for lunch?"
"Sure, I'll come and find you."
We both parted. I walked around the hospital for what felt like a good half hour trying to find room 2-34 - this hospital seemed to have no logically layout. I was going to be treating a Mr. Daniel Robbins, if I could ever find him.
Eventually I did and before I entered the room, I did a quick flick over his charts. That's weird, I thought to myself, he doesn't have a single broken bone. Rather, he had been admitted complaining of heart problems.
"Where's Doctor Altman?" A voice called to me as I walked in, it came from the greying blonde standing at the man's bedside and I assumed she was his wife. I looked at her for a second, but paid her no more attention as I turned to face the patient.
"Doctor Altman assigned me to your case Mr. Robbins, I'm Doctor Torres."
They must have noticed that American twang in my voice.
"American are you?" The man's gruff voice, not dissimilar to Mark's, caught me off guard.
"Yes, Sir. I just moved here."
"Daniel, I think we should get Doctor Altman, she's the one who did your surgery."
"It's fine, it doesn't matter."
"I think it's for the best. Doctor Altman's really good, you know that." She tugged at the bedding impatiently, her eyes now staring deeply at her husband.
"I'm sure Doctor Torres is just as good." Mr. Robbins averted his gaze from his wife and focused on me. I faltered for a second and cleared my throat hesitantly.
"Doctor Altman's unavailable at the minute. I'll be your doctor for the time being." I was trying to assert my authority by changing the tone of my voice, à la Mark Sloan, but it didn't work. It was clear that his wife was getting worked up over Altman's absence. I knew I was going to have my work cut out that morning.
The Cafeteria
"That bitch sent us to do her work for her. Apparently Teddy is a cardio specialist..." Mark angrily stabbed at his lunch with his fork, "I went to see Mrs. Dalton thinking it was plastics related, but oh noooo, she had a pacemaker fitted the other day and I was doing her post op care!"
I nodded, "Same thing happened to me. The wife kept asking for Altman."
"I knew she was a crazy bitch."
"Mark, seriously, give her a chance. I'm sure she's just busy..." My voice trailed off as I noticed Mr. Robbins' wife join the lunch queue in the cafeteria. In a low whisper I hissed, "That's her, the one wanted me to get Altman."
Mark was silent for a second and let out a long hmmm, it was all the time he needed to make up his mind. I knew exactly what he was thinking.
"She's hot."
"Oh come on Mark, isn't she a bit more mature than the women you usually hook up with?" I rolled my eyes.
"Wait what? Ohhhh you mean her? I thought you meant the cute blondie next to her."
I looked back over at the queue, I hadn't noticed that Mrs. Robbins had company.
"Urgh Mark, won't you ever change?"
Mark smiled goofily at me, "Come on Callie, it's part of the Sloan charm. Managed to get your panties off didn't I?"
I scowled at Mark. It's true, we were very, very close and often that blurred line between lovers and friends was crossed. And even though he did somehow convince me to move here, I still loved Mark - he was my best friend in the entire world, flaws aside.
Mark sighed exaggeratedly.
"So what do you think of this place?"
"Well, it's not quite like back home... Though the nurses are prettier."
"Mark, seriously?!"
"I can't help it, it's in my nature." He winked shamelessly at me.
"In your nature to be a man-whore is it?"
Mark screwed up his nose, getting up and holding his now empty tray, he looked down on me as I flashed him a smile.
"I can't help it if I'm in such high demand!"
I watched him leave the cafeteria and carried on devouring my lunch. I was so hungry. He was right, I should have eaten something a bit more substantial this morning. God! I hate it when Mark's right.
"I'm sorry," a voice came from above me. She took the seat where Mark had been sitting a few moments ago, "I didn't mean to be rude to you earlier. We've known Doctor Altman for a while, we're just so used to her..."
"It's fine. Don't worry about it, it's hard seeing someone you love in pain."
I made my eyes meet Mrs. Robbins' and she smiled. It was then I noticed another person stood by her - the blondie from the queue.
Must be her daughter, I thought to myself. We exchanged goodbyes and as they turned to leave, I found my eyes following the younger woman out the room until she was no longer visible.
As much as I hate it when Mark Sloan's right, I had to admit she was pretty hot.
