Okay, so, time-skip forward to the original chapter which works out to be set in 2017. I'd like to apologise for any inconsistencies due to this earlier stupidity and lack of research. After going through an obsessive phase of American medical shows and American colleges (and many thanks to my pal Savannah who lives in the land of Freedoms for helping me out too), I realised just how much I was basing this off Australian tertiary education and how idiotic it sounded mixing the two together. Also, I kind of wanted to explore where everyone is now in the world of Dr. Sydney as seen in chapter 1. So, without further ado, onwards! (We meet some extra side characters this chapter so get keen!)
Fabulousness of the characters and all attributes go to Richelle Mead: Queen.
October 2017 (PRESENT TIME)
"Get out; is that a smile Dr. Sage?"
I lifted my head from the chart I was writing patient notes in, finding the raised brow of the resident troublemaker, her dark eyes staring at me in humour. Actually I couldn't blame the entire mischief that went down in this hospital on her and, despite her also being my senior, she'd taken me under her wing since my first day here so I felt like I owed her somewhat. A debt that would be paid by not ratting her out on her casual sexcapades, most likely.
"Where's your partner in crime?" I shot back, crossing my arms over the file after snapping it shut.
She made a brushing motion with her hand. "Not relevant. I want to know what's got the gloomy intern suddenly perked up after a month of misery. I'm beginning to think my antics may have cheered you up after all."
"Your antics would have continued whether I was here or not," I said. Sure I had been a little down after moving, but hardly enough to be labelled as miserable.
"She's right you know," a male voice said, stopping her reply.
Ah. Enter from side stage elevator, Troublemaker #2.
Troublemaker #1 shot him a glance. "Shut your mouth, Finch."
"Can't do that, dollface. Besides, Clark, if I did, where would you get your gossip from?" He leaned across the desk and tapped her on the head with the files in his hand before dropping it on the nurse's station inbox, barely missing a retaliation pen to the forehead as he did. I sighed and then chuckled. Dr's Marcus Finch and Rowena Clark, besides being the two most known to cause mischief around the hospital, were best friends of sorts. It wasn't a common occurrence to find them apart for long, even if it was pretending to consult on each other's cases… Or throwing stationary at each other.
Like I said, common occurrence.
Marcus ruffled my hair as he moved around the desk. "So, what's cookin', good-lookin'?"
Rowena looked over at him and rolled her eyes. "You know, for a doctor, you're so unobservant. She's smiling, you idiot. Clearly my doing."
Marcus raised his eyebrow and then looked at me and then back to Rowena. "She's always been smiling…?"
"Oh, maybe if you hadn't been off making out with one of the nurses in my department, you would have been here earlier to see that she was doing one of those 'my life is actually going well outside of work' smiles."
"I was not-"
"You were too. I know everything that goes down in OB/GYN and if I hear one more of the nurses swooning over you on the ward, I swear-" She broke off and shook her head before turning back to me. "Spill, woman. What's so good outside these concrete walls?"
Marcus looked up expectantly at me and I couldn't hold it in any longer. I'd been dying to tell someone and unfortunately, I hadn't made a lot of friends here in Sacramento and these two were the closest I had to any sort of friendship. "My boyfriend moved to Sacramento on the weekend!" I blurted out.
Rowena grinned and nudged Marcus. "Well, that's one less intern you can be chasing around then." He scoffed, a pen dropping from his front pocket of his shirt to the desk as he leaned over. "As if," he muttered, chuckling. He looked back up and smiled at me.
"That's great news, Sydney. I'm glad everything's working out for one of us. What's he do?"
I swiped the file under my arm and put it in the pile to my right. "He's in his last year of grad school. Fine arts."
Rowena grinned. "That's so good! I did some art subjects in college-" Her sentence was cut early by Marcus's hand covering her mouth, her muffled protests hinting at low-grade profanities at the doctor.
"Instead of hearing Ro's sob story, I thought you said he wasn't moving until after you finished your two years here?"
I shrugged. "That's what I thought too, but I'm not complaining. Everyone else is growing up and moving away from Palm Springs, so why shouldn't we?"
Rowena, managing to pry Marcus's hand from her face, laughed. "The couple plural; isn't it adorable Marcus? So what are your other friend's doing then?"
That was the thing about these two. No matter their brash attitudes and sly flirting remarks, they always took the time to get to know you beyond your life at the hospital. I smiled as I thought back to my friends I'd left in Palm Springs. "Well, my old roommate Jill has finally moved into her own apartment with her fiancée Eddie, who was also a friend in our small circle. She finished grad school last year, doing something in design alongside her modelling-"
"Too bad she already has a boyfriend," Marcus muttered to Rowena under his breath, but she quietened him with an elbow to the ribs. She motioned for me to go on.
"…And Eddie's teaching P.E. at one of the local schools. Uh, my friend Angeline's pregnant and is getting married in a couple months to the barista at my old coffee shop. Although, Trey is an engineer and works for some airline company now so I assume he doesn't need that job anymore."
Marcus grinned. "Well, at least she gets good coffee… when she's not pregnant, that is."
"Hah, yeah, watch your mouth around the obstetrician. You better find me someone with a top-paying job Marcus. I don't want to be working here with you for the rest of my life. Either that or you fail as wingman, and Sydney introduces me to her well-paid friends," Rowena proclaimed.
Marcus snorted. "I'm not taking responsibility for the inability to locate you a female engineer or electrician, love. And don't start hitting on Sydney otherwise her boyfriend's not going to be happy."
She smirked and then turned back to me. "Drinks after work tomorrow. Bring your beau, Sage. I want to see if he's worth the competition."
My mouth slightly fell open. Was she serious? I knew she wasn't actually going to hit on me but, bringing Adrian to meet my, loosely termed, friends? Was that a bridge I really wanted to make? I liked having my private life separate from my work, but it couldn't hurt to let these two in on that space, could it? Both of them had dotted on me since day one and had seemingly treated me better than the other interns, always requesting me for surgeries or following up their patients. They had both made my life somewhat better so maybe it wasn't a bad idea to get to know them outside work.
"I'll talk to Adrian and see if he's busy, but I'll be there," I said, picking up my pile of charts and paperwork. No doubt he probably wasn't busy at all, but it was worth asking him first before I confirmed his appearance. A pager's insistent beeping began to ring and Marcus looked down at his hip.
"I gotta go. But someone text me the details and I'll be there, sans nurse on my arm," he said with a smirk, walking back towards the elevator and calling it to the floor.
"You better stick with that decision or I'll bring someone hotter," Rowena called out as he jumped into the mirrored elevator. He gave her the thumbs up as the doors closed and she chuckled, shaking her head and looking down at her own pile of paperwork. I picked up one last chart and began to head off down the hall. "I'll see you tomorrow, Rowena."
"Nope, you'll be seeing me in an hour. Feel like coming up and helping me on a c-section? Premmie, only 30 weeks with lung complications. I could use an extra pair of hands," she said, not looking up as she scribbled something down.
"Sure, thanks," I said, smiling. She looked up, strands of long dark hair falling into her eyes, returning the smile.
"I can always count on you, Sydney."
"Stop stealing all my chicken, Adrian."
"But my pork isn't nearly as good as your teriyaki chicken, Sage."
"Well maybe you should have ordered that then."
I shot him another annoyed look, pulling my takeout container further from his reach. Adrian and I had decided on a lazy night, both sitting on the couch indulging in the Chinese takeout I had brought home after finishing work later than usual, the noises from the tv softly filling the silence as we ate. However, currently I was fending off his prying chopsticks with my own and despite the dwindling amount of chicken to rice ratio, I was enjoying the banter. It'd been a long time since we'd had a night to ourselves with the added bonus of both of us scheduled for time off the following day.
"I would have if I knew it tasted as good as it does. Besides you did recommend the pork, so really this is your own fault," he teased, stealing another piece of the sacred meat from my container and slipping it into his mouth before I could protest.
I cocked my head to the side, giving him a purposeful look. "I highly doubt that this is my fault. Now leave with the rest of my measly scraps that you haven't taken."
He shrugged, grinning. "How was work today anyway? Is it nice to finally be paid for what you studied for so long?" he asked, changing the topic with ease.
I nodded, swallowing my mouthful. "Oh, so much better. It's nice to be able to afford things again out of my own pocket and still have money left over. I would ask you the same, but you've already started selling your own stuff. Did that client get back to you by the way?" I shovelled another heap of rice into my mouth as I listened to him talk about a commissioned artwork that someone had specifically requested he be the one to do it for them. He talked with such pride about his work and it made me feel happy to know that he was happy doing what he loved.
"So when are you going to let me paint you a new piece for the lounge? I doubt you want that horrid old lily painting hung up in the public view," he said, placing his empty container on the coffee table and taking a sip of his Coke.
I shrugged. "It's fit for public view, you just don't think of it that way. I love it regardless of what you think of it."
He gave me a fake pout. "Oh come on, you sure? We can just move it to another room, like the bedroom. Don't get me wrong, I love it but I think it's more symbolic to us personally," he said, leaning back against the couch, sliding one hand over my knee.
I shivered as the gooseflesh rose along my arm at his touch. "I suppose I can allow you that much, but it's got to be on a main wall at the very least," I said, finishing up my last few mouthfuls of the Chinese food, "Oh also, are you free tomorrow night? My friends at work may or may not have invited the both of us out for drinks after they knock off tomorrow."
Adrian raised his brow. "Since when did you even have friends?" I nudged him with my elbow after putting my box and chopsticks down, rolling my eyes. "Kidding, Sydney, but yeah, I'm free. Are they just the gossipy girl doctors though? Are you going to have to fend them off me, because you're adorable when you're jealous and you protecting my honour could be kind of hot."
"If anything, you're going to be fending them off me. Rowena doesn't bat for your team, hun," I said with a smile. He frowned and I shook my head, chuckling. "I'm kidding, we're just friends, but her and Marcus are good people no matter how kooky they can be. Well, not really kooky…more like, uh, I don't know, but somehow I ended up being befriended by the local mischief makers but they're genuinely good people."
He nodded, taking in my words with a smile. "Well, I'm glad you're fitting in nicely. And don't even try lying to yourself. You've always made friends with the troublemakers. You just tend to play referee from the sidelines for them instead of getting directly involved in the game; believe me, I should know."
"You're not that much of a troublemaker," I said in defence.
He smirked. "Au contraire, but we can both agree Angeline was always a handful. Do remember the time she paid off one of the chemistry kids to make her a stink bomb to get back Micah for breaking it off with Jill?"
I snorted. "I swear I could smell that whenever I walked past his dorm for weeks afterward."
Adrian wrapped an arm around me, pulling me closer into his side. "Those were the days, but anyway, I'm more than happy to go play nice with your new friends. Besides, it'll be nice to go out and explore Sacramento."
I looked up at him and grinned. It was true; ever since he'd moved here, we hadn't really had the time to go out on our own terms and just do something casual such as go out for dinner or go for drinks. A part of life I guess, but it felt good finally planning to do something together that didn't involve us picking up a new couch or takeout. "Play nice? I doubt it, but you'll get along like a house on fire with these two. Their wit and sarcasm knows no bounds, I can tell you that now. When I saw them together last, they were arguing about who was bringing the hotter date to drinks…that is while discussing some critical case currently being admitted from the ER at the same time. "
He gave me a sly smile and pressed a kiss to the top of my head. "Sounds like we'll get on like a house on fire then. Besides, we all know that you'll be bringing the hottest date."
I chuckled and settled my head under his chin, watching the colours of the colours of the tv lights dance before my eyes. It was moments like these I appreciated life more than ever, and I wouldn't change what I had now for the world.
Ciao!
Bowvs. x
