Three: The End of the Wait

"Salvatore," Freya barked the next morning as everyone stood around surrounding her for rounds. "You're with Dr. Rebekah Mikaelson in Peads today."

Stefan nodded, he was just glad that he wasn't with Damon. Then it would be non-stop bragging day and Stefan didn't think he had it in him to survive a whole day hearing about Damon's accomplishments. Besides plastics didn't interested him. Perhaps he would do Neuro. His mother Lily was a neurologist herself, but had stepped back to take part of the board and help run the hospital. She had been hoping that Damon would step up and help her take care of the hospital, but so far she had been heavily disappointed.

"Where is Peads-"

"Bother someone else with your questions," Freya barked, "Forbes you will be with Ortho, Pierce general. . ."

After asking one of the nurses and finding out that Peads floor was on the third floor of the hospital Stefan made his way their fixing his blue scrubs slightly. He had never really heard much about Rebekah from his brother and Damon seemed to have nicknames for everyone. Elijah was Mr. Stick up his ass, Bonnie was Judgy ortho witch, Enzo was Trauma Sherlock, Hayley was Mama Wolf (Stefan didn't even want to know why), and someone named Tyler Lockwood was nicknamed Grumpy. He had heard Damon refer to her as Sexy Bex, but then again his brother chased after everything with a skirt.

When he finally reached the Peads floor, Stefan saw a pretty young woman with long blond hair and ice blue eyes. She kind of reminded Stefan of Super girl, not that Stefan would tell her to her face that he was kind of a huge comic book nerd. The name Dr. Rebekah Mikaelson was labeled on her white coat as well as the picture of a teddy bear with its own name tag, Mr. Cuddles apparently.

"Yes?" Dr. Mikaelson looked up with irritation as she handed a chart to one of the nurses.

"Hi," he said. "I'm Stefan Salvatore, I'm your intern for today. The other Dr. Mikaelson told me that I'm assigned to your service today."

"Great," Rebekah snapped. "I'm going to have a member of the board breathing down my neck all day as if Damon Salvatore weren't enough to handle."

"Um, I'm not actually on the board," Stefan pointed out. "Neither Damon or I are. My mother handles all of the affairs." Rebekah scowled even deeper when Stefan mentioned Damon and Lily's names. Apparently Rebekah didn't have a good relationship with any of the Salvatore's.

Rebekah ignored his comment. "So pay close attention, intern. Peads is where the tiny humans reside, we keep the children happy, we keep the parents happy and we continue to do our job so do me a favor and don't screw this up."

Stefan looked at her awkwardly. "I'll try not to."

"Good, now follow me," Rebekah instructed as he took Stefan through the intensive care unit. There were dozens of babies hooked up to monitors and incubators, some of them were barely a few days old.

They stopped in front of an incubator which held a small baby that was so pale that it looked almost purple. Stefan got a sort of queasy look in his stomach when he saw the baby. Rebekah handed him a chart. "Salvatore. Brian Matthews, what do we have here?"

Stefan cleared his throat. "Brian Matthews, born two weeks premature on May 20 and with congenital diaphragmatic hernia?" Stefan looked perplexed as he looked at his X-rays. "Do you mean that his organs are literally in his chest cavity? How can he breathe?"

"He can't Einstein," Rebekah responded flatly. "He's having a hard time breathing, we have done surgery after surgery, but to no avail. His left lung is completely destroyed and the part of the brain which develops the thinking and compression portion did not develop at all."

Stefan felt sick to his stomach. "What does that mean?"

"It means that all hope is lost, no matter what we do this baby is going to die," Rebekah said. "It will be your job to monitor the baby until the parents arrive. They had to receive the news that their baby was going to die at six in the morning, so try not to mess this up."

"Dr. Forbes!"

Caroline turned around and saw that it was Dr. Saltzman that was approaching her. "Do you have a minute?" Caroline nodded, she wasn't exactly thrilled to be getting back to Ortho. Dr. Bennett was nice, but much too intense for her liking and she didn't really like looking at bones poking out of bodies all day. "How is your mother?" Dr. Saltzman asked. "I was only a fifth year resident when she was here at Salvatore Memorial Hospital for a few years, but I have been following her work and it's wonderful. How is she?"

"My mother is great Dr. Saltzman," Caroline said. She didn't think it would be appropriate to tell Dr. Saltzman that her mom was a borderline alcoholic who spent half of her time wishing that Caroline didn't exist at all.

"Is she living in Virginia?" Dr. Saltzman pressed.

"No," Caroline admitted. "She moves around a lot . . . she is spending her time traveling."

He nodded. "Good for her, she's earned it," he patted her shoulder. "I was so happy when I saw your application for this program you will be wonderful just like her. I'm sure of it."

Caroline's smile wobbled. Was it impossible not to be reminded of her mother for one second? "Thank you, Dr. Saltzman, I'll let her know." Her pager beat and Caroline excused herself.

It was a page from Bonnie, she didn't have anything else for her today so she was free to go home since the ER was unusually empty. Though Caroline should be glad that she was getting off early, she wasn't. She wasn't exactly thrilled to be going back to the big house all by herself.

"Dr. Mikaelson," Stefan said annoyed as he approached her. "Can we talk?"

Rebekah said something to one of the nurses and Rebekah quipped at Stefan. "If you're here to complain about not getting to do surgeries and instead taking care of a death sentence child, then I'm not interested in hearing about it, Salvatore. You Salvatore boys seemed to think that the only surgery that matters is plastics."

"It's not about that," Stefan interrupted annoyed. "And frankly, I do not like being compared to my brother. He and I are two different people." Rebekah raised an eyebrow waiting for him to continue. He sighed impatiently. "The baby today, you could have saved him. You could have tried to save the baby, not just give up-"

"Salvatore-"

"I'm serious," Stefan continued. "Do you know what it was like to tell the parents that their son was going to die? You could have done something to give the baby a fighting chance."

"Don't you think I tried that? Don't you think I tried endlessly to find a way?" Rebekah asked. "There wasn't any Stefan, the baby was dead from the start. But I like your spirit. We couldn't save him, but there are a lot more babies that we can save," she paused. "And no, I don't think that you're your brother."

The next morning, before rounds Caroline pulled up a bright cherry poster with a picture of a house in front. She was offering three empty guests rooms that she had left in her way too big for her house.

"You're accepting roommates?" Stefan asked as he peered over her shoulder. "Count me in, I don't think I can stand living with Damon anymore. I always find a different set on panties in my bed."

"Girls only," Caroline replied. "No boys sorry."

Stefan wrinkled his nose. "What are we, twelve?"

"Rules are rules," Caroline said firmly. "Get used to it."

"I'm a girl," Elena spoked up as she went into the dressing room. "Is there a spot for me?"

Caroline hesitated, Elena was pretty nice and she suspected that she was the type of roommate that would clean up after herself, but in reality Caroline wanted to ask Katherine if she wanted the spot. If she said no, then she would give it to Elena. "Um, can I get back to you on that?"

Elena looked disappointed with her answer. "Uh, sure."

She saw Klaus coming inside chatting with Katherine, she turned slightly pretending she hadn't seen him.

-End of Chapter Three-

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