Exactly one week later, Kaoru and Misao stood in front of the full-length mirror in their large bathroom, contemplating their appearance. It was the morning of their first hospital rotation, and both girls were extremely nervous about two things. First: working with their clinical instructors at the hospital. They knew that they would be expected to be well-versed in pathophysiology, pharmacology, nursing skills, and developing plans of care for the patients they would be working with, and neither one of them felt particularly confident, despite the massive amount of studying they had done to prepare for their work at the hospital. Second: their appearance, which could only be described as ridiculous. The nursing students at their university had to wear purple scrubs with white piping on the sleeves and collar, and sparkling white clogs. No matter how hard they had tried to accessorize with cute watches and the Hello Kitty barrettes Misao had splurged on, nothing really helped. Kaoru groaned. "We look like eggplants."
Misao put a hand on her hip jauntily, and stuck out her tongue at Kaoru in the mirror. "Speak for yourself. I'm a hot eggplant, at the very least."
Kaoru laughed. No matter what happened, Misao never seemed to run out of self-confidence. "We'll see how you feel if Dr. Shinomori sees you in this hideous getup." At that comment, Misao's eyes got wide. "Ughhhh, you're right! How am I going to get Dr. Aoshi to notice me if I don't look my absolute best?"
This time, Kaoru groaned. "Misao, we met him once. I don't think you should call him 'Dr. Aoshi' unless you become better acquainted, which will never happen, because he's just another jerk doctor who thinks we're too young and stupid to talk to." Thinking about Dr. Shinomori and their encounter with the other residents from last week still irritated Kaoru, and she silently hoped she wouldn't run into Dr. Takani again.
*****
"Welcome to your first day at the hospital, students!" Ms. Tae exclaimed when the new class had gathered in the atrium promptly at 0630. Your evaluations begin today, so I expect all of you to be in top form. Remember what you've been learning in class, and remember that it's okay to ask questions. I'm going to assign groups of you to different floors, and over the next few weeks, you should become very familiar with the diagnoses and management of typical patients there. So, let's see…"
Ms. Tae began rattling off the groups, which she had arranged by alphabetical order. Misao and Kaoru had reason to hope that they would be together, as their last names were Makimachi and Kamiya, respectively. "Okay, Kamiya, Katsura, Leonard, Mason, and Makimachi? You five are on the third floor…that's cardiology." She winked at the group. "It's a busy unit, so be on your toes!"
Kaoru and Misao did a little dance of happiness and relief as they briskly walked to the elevators with the rest of their group. At least they would be together, even if they were working on a difficult unit! When they reached the third floor, the elevator doors slid open to reveal a tall, grim looking figure standing before them, one hand shoved casually into his pocket, the other holding a clipboard. The nursing students instinctively knew that this individual was to be respected…and maybe even feared.
The man cleared his throat. "My name is Professor Hajime Saito," he said dryly. "You may call me Professor, or Professor Saito. I will be your instructor for the semester, and I will assign you grades. You will be punctual, and you will be prepared, or I will send you home. Do you understand?"
The small group of nursing students nodded their heads meekly and replied, "Yes, sir" in unison. Kaoru swallowed thickly. What had she and Misao gotten into?
"Very well," said Professor Saito. "I'm going to assign each of you to work with an R.N. on the unit, and you'll work closely with him or her to take care of their patients. As the semester goes on, I will allow you to become increasingly dependent, provided you demonstrate that you can give competent, efficient care. Until then, I'm going to be on the floor, working with each of you, and making sure that you have some inkling as to what you're doing." Saito glanced down at his clipboard, already looking a little bored at 0700. "Okay, Kamiya…you're working with Tiffany. Katsura, you have Toni, Leonard, you're with Kathy, Mason, you have Patsy, and Makimachi, you'll be with Glenda." Saito gave a little smirk. "Good luck, ladies."
Kaoru and Misao bid each other farewell and good luck with a silent hand squeeze, and then they were off, each in search of the staff nurse they were supposed to work with. Kaoru found Tiffany quickly, and was extremely relieved to find that she was a very good nurse, a patient teacher, and a kind person. She gave Kaoru a detailed report of each of their four patients so that she would know their history and presenting complaints, and gave her handy tips for how to use the computer documentation system, which was extremely confusing. Meanwhile, Misao had been less lucky with her nurse, who was competent but hated having to work with students, and basically ignored her throughout the morning. "Honestly," Misao huffed as she passed Kaoru in the hall a short while later. "Why did this woman decide to work here? This is a teaching hospital, and she knew having student nurses was part of the gig. How am I supposed to learn anything if she won't talk to me? Ugh!" Misao could be a little dramatic, but this time, Kaoru had to agree, and she sympathized with her friend.
A little before noon, Professor Saito summoned the group to meet at the telemetry station to begin teaching the nursing students about reading EKGs. He explained that every patient on the cardiology floor was connected to a heart monitor, and a nurse was always assigned to watch their heart rhythms in order to make sure everything stayed normal. If something went wrong, an alarm would sound, and the medical team would rush to the patient's room to resuscitate them if necessary. By the end of the mini-lecture, Kaoru and Misao felt like their heads were going to explode. They had tried to write down everything Saito discussed, including concepts like atrial fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree AV blocks, and all the drugs and procedures used to correct these problems. Just as they thought the lecture was coming to a blessed end, however, Professor Saito looked up and cleared his throat.
"Ah, Dr. Himura; Dr. Shinomori. Let me introduce you both to the graduate students who will be working with you both this semester. Ladies, these are two of our cardiology residents. They have a few more years of training, but you can learn a lot from them in the meantime by watching them examine patients and formulate their treatment plans."
Misao and Kaoru spun around at the familiar sounding names, and found themselves standing nearly face-to-face with Aoshi Shinomori and Kenshin Himura. Misao gasped delightedly, Aoshi cleared his throat rather nervously, Kaoru stood, tight-lipped and annoyed, and Kenshin gazed at Kaoru calmly. She didn't realize that Dr. Himura's eyes had nearly caught fire when he saw the raven-haired beauty standing before him again, and that he was working very hard to keep his expression neutral and passive. What is it about this girl? Kenshin wondered to himself. He wasn't a serial dater, but he knew plenty of beautiful women, mostly thanks to Sano. Certainly Kaoru was attractive, but there was something…different about her. Kenshin smiled ruefully to himself. Maybe it's the fact that she's always frowning, since we were total jerks to her last week and now she hates us. Knowing full well that Shinomori wouldn't be the one to speak up, Kenshin took the initiative. "Hello, Miss…Misao, isn't it? And Miss Kaoru. It's nice to see you both again. Shinomori and I just finished our morning rounds. Are you enjoying the hospital so far?"
Misao piped up, eager to make Kenshin feel more comfortable in what was obviously an awkward situation. "Hi, Dr. Himura and Dr. Shinomori! I can't believe you both work on this floor, what a coincidence! Kaoru, isn't this awesome? Now we can all be friends! Oh yes, we love cardiology" Misao said emphatically. She flashed her beautiful, million megawatt smile at Aoshi, but he merely stated, "Good morning," and then shifted his gaze to the ceiling.
Kaoru couldn't believe it. Her best friend was putting herself on the line yet again to be nice to these people, and once again, the tall one was completely blowing her off. Kaoru had to admit that Dr. Himura hadn't really said anything wrong, but the fact that he associated with such an arrogant, silent-type jerk like Dr. Shinomori made her dislike him.
"Excuse us, but I think our lecture is over, and it's time for us to get lunch," Kaoru gritted out through her teeth. "Misao, are you ready?"
Normally, Kenshin wasn't a forward man. In fact, even at age 28, his friends knew him to be a rather introverted person who hated approaching women. But something told him that if he didn't act now, he might never have another chance with the intriguing, spunky girl standing before him. "We're going to lunch too," he managed to say evenly. "Didn't you promise that you'd sit with us next time? I mean," he glanced at Misao with a smile, "If we're all going to be friends."
Misao let out a happy little squeal. Kaoru opened her mouth to make an angry retort. They had promised no such thing! Was this doctor trying to make fools out of them? When she saw how excited Misao was, however, she stopped herself. Kaoru knew that she had a tendency to assume the worst about people, and she also didn't want to ruin any chance her best friend might have with Dr. Shinomori, however pathetically small. So, she sighed resignedly. "Fine. Let's all go to lunch."
Kenshin smiled, his first real smile that Kaoru had seen. Her subconscious noted that it made his features soften, and his amethyst-colored eyes twinkle at her gratefully. At the moment, however, all Kaoru could feel was annoyance and dread. Lunch with Dr. Himura and Dr. Shinomori? What were they going to talk about? Heart attacks? Atrial fibrillation? As the group of nursing students dispersed, Misao and Kaoru began to follow Kenshin and Aoshi down the hall, back towards the elevators.
"By the way," Kenshin added with a grin, "I really like your uniforms."