This is just a wee little flashback chapter for your amusement…..since the last few were rather serious. The next few weeks are going to be hellishly busy so I have no idea if I will get anything done….but we will see. I'll be around ;) It will come about eventually, slowly but surely.
A FEW YEARS AGO…..
"Goodbye, college girls!" Joe blew a hugely exaggerated, sloppy kiss towards the main campus from the steps of the medical building "Parting is such sweet sorrow. First day of medical school begins."
Nelson snorted in amusement, shoving his hands in his pockets "Oh, but Joe, think of all the lovely med school ladies. I'm sure they're all going here specifically to drool over your manly physique in Anatomy lab."
"What lovely med school ladies? They're all here for careers and that...kind of thing, that stuff."
"Yes, those damnable women. They should be back popping out bundles of joy and scrubbing toilets and cooking pot roast where they belong."
"Not, funny, Wright. Augh...this is going to severely hamper my leisure time."
'Still going for quantity of ass over quality of ass, are we? What about Anne?"
Joe turned back to him as they continued up the steps. "Aw, come on, don't play that card. Of course I love her, I love her to death."
"Uh-huh."
"I just...you know how it is. We both have school ahead of us, we're going to be apart...just getting out some last kicks before settling down."
"I'll make sure to suggest a pre-nup."
"Harsh, man."
Nelson shoved the right side of the large swinging door open with his shoulder, hands still in his pockets. The waft of inside air hit him and he smiled to himself. The slight smell of formaldehyde, the constant, soft pitter-pattering murmur of people going over casework in the halls...thank goodness. No more of this useless undergraduate bullshit, being surrounding by people with the IQ of a beef cow.
They were there, they made it. Medical school. Pinnacle of education.
"What about that redhead of yours? Guess she's out of here now too, huh?"
"Rachel? Not mine"
"Rachel, yeah. She's a nice piece."
"Watch it."
"Thought you said she wasn't yours." Joe gave his friend a sideways glance and a wink. But Nelson didn't take the bait, keeping his voice calm and indifferent.
"She's not. We had classes together. But I'd appreciate it if you refrained from lapsing into dick-speak for just a few occasional minutes when you're with me."
He was planning to leave it at that, but the next sentence slipped out...as if by saying it he could make it a bit more real. "Last time I talked to her, she mentioned med school."
"Are you serious?" Joe waggled his eyebrows as they continued down the hall, heading for the 8:00 am Anatomy Lab. "Here? At Loyola?"
"Didn't say where."
Joe stopped a pulled a grin. "Wait, wait…this is Nelson, actually speaking at length to a member of the female sex?"
"Amazing, I know." Nelson rolled his eyes, edging his voice a tad in an attempt to change the subject.
"So, conversing, huh?"
"Nah. Not much. Way I figure it, the more you talk to them, the more they are probably going to convince you that they're idiots. I prefer the state of blessed ignorance."
"You mean worshipping from afar?"
Nelson made an ugly face, as if to show exactly how much stock he put in the phrase. "It means you never have your hopes dashed by finding our they're nothing but a hunk of plastic and makeup with heels underneath that attractive exterior."
"Cold, man."
"But I'm never disappointed."
"But you never get laid."
"Touche. But then again, I prefer my current state than yours. At least I don't have to go to bed worrying about what creepy crawlies I may find in my bed, left by a recent encounter with the type you tend to go for."
"Wright?"
"Yes?"
"You need to get laid."
"Joe?"
"Yeah?"
"You need to stop being an ass."
"No seriously. You're just going to explode one day from all this tension. Or turn gay. Or something."
"I don't need to have sex."
"And why is that?"
"Because.." he paused for dramatic effect and smirked "Med school is going to fuck me every day."
"Dude, that's the most disappointing joke I have heard out of you in a while."
"Only because its true."
They arrived at the lab and headed in. The scent of formaldehyde was even stronger. Sheet-covered bodies were arranged in a semicircle, two white-coated student standing nervously next to each one. It look like some kind of bizarre, cultish initiation ritual. Nelson lifted his head and saw Steckle to his left, and nodded goodbye to Joe, who immediately smiled as he saw his new lab partner...a petite, attractive brunette.
"Doctor Steckle"
"Doctor Wright. Isn't it a tad early for being called a doctor?"
"Not for me."
The class was called to attention and dissection kits were handed out. Nelson surveyed his classmates, his lip curling a bit in contempt. We'll see how long most of them last. Medical school was a classic Darwinian model - only the strong survive. Half of the class already looked shaky, nervous, overwhelmed. He was sure half of them got in barely by the seat of their pants. They were probably science majors who traipsed through college with a high GPA, and decided med school would be the "cool thing to do". And now, they looked terrified. He, on the other hand, was completely composed. He was meant to be here. He couldn't have been anywhere else. It was just supposed to be that way.
"Nelson? Hey Nelson, if you keep up that expression you're going to scare everyone off."
"My sparkling personality and engaging banter makes up for it."
"Ha-ha. Do you have an extra scalpel blade? They only gave me four."
Nelson expertly fitted a blade onto his scalpel and passed an extra, unopened one to Steckle. "Here. They left a second hemostat out of mine too."
"So much for being impressed with the administration the first day."
Professors and lab assistants were circulating, passing out syllabi and assignments. Nelson sniggered a tad to himself, watching the expression of his classmates go from nervous to utterly despairing as the casework papers, at least 200 sheets each, were handed out in huge piles. It was 8:09 when the door to the lab crashed open, and someone came in, amidst a flurry of papers, lab coat, and red hair. Steckle looked up first, Nelson languidly following. Surely, some other little scared student, late on the first day.
"Hey, isn't that Mannus from Genetics last semester?"
"Holy shit..." At the same time, Nelsons jaw dropped, his muscles tensed, and his hands lost whatever grip they had on the neatly laid out dissection kit in his hands. The crash of metal hitting floor and cry of pain didn't even register with him. It didn't even register after he and Steckle were hustled out of lab amidst curses and warnings from the lab staff. Finally, when they were both in the lab manager's office, in trouble on the very first class on the very first day of four years of medical school...did he realize. This was going to either be an agonizingly terrible, or possibly fantastic, four years
