SM owns all characters...
Thank you for all the reviews from last chapter. I just want to remind everyone that not every chapter will be funny, I now give you Dr Edward Cullen...Reviews are appreciated. This is Bon Secours...meets Grey's Anatomy... I thought this would be fun. Shondra Rhimes and the good people at ABC own Grey's Anatomy...
~~~Edward~~~
"A hard days night"
I watched as my father walked aimlessly around the conference room. We were all assembled here to welcome the new interns. Yay! Yeah right.
A few glanced at each other wide eyed and a few others watched my father as he walked around the room. They were young, just out of med school. Scared shitless and screwed, just like I was five years ago. My father just gave a speech about...? Oh hell I wasn't listening.
Mentally, I was in my bedroom, worshiping my wife's sexy bod. Her body is damn near back to normal. She has a little baby fat and it drives me crazy. She's curvier, softer, and maddeningly sexy. Okay, so my brilliant plan didn't work Thursday night, but we had sex, normal sex on Saturday. It was incredible. My father was right, it does go back to normal. We did it once and that was all I was going to get, until I buy condoms. Stupid condoms! We're married, what does it matter? I asked myself that and Bella too. I also asked if I could just pull out, it sounded like a great compromise.
My father must have noticed my la la land stare. He walked past me and flicked my ear. I rolled my eyes at him and paid attention.
"Like I said before, I welcome you all here happily. However, those of you that are not here for the surgical rotation at this time, and are doing hospitalist training, please meet with your attending physicians in the second floor conference room, I look forward to working with you all in the future" I watched as damn near half the room got up and left.
And then there were six. Wow, I couldn't believe that there were only six of them. I knew it would be a small group, but damn. There were five of us that were assigned to a senior resident when I was an intern, Mount Sinai had hundreds of interns and residents.
I knew what my father was trying to accomplish with the interns. This was all his idea. He wanted Bon Secours to transform, from the small town hospital, into a regional medical center. Bon Secours is a level three trauma center, he wanted to make it a level two. I cringed when he told me that. If we do in fact become a level two, I will never be able to leave while on-call. That shit would suck. Then again, they would probably cut back a lot of the call hours, being on-call one day at a time, instead of three.
Looking at them all closely, I wondered who would be my assigned nightmare. With my luck, I would get stuck with the blond kid sweating bullets, sitting opposite from me. He keeps looking at me funny too. Weirdo!
"Sorry I am late, had an emergent procedure" Garrett shouted as he speedily walked in and took a seat.
"No worries" My father smiled. "Now we can begin" My father walked to the front of the room.
"A month ago you were in med school, being taught by Doctors, today you are the doctors. The time you spend here as a surgical resident, will be the best and worst of your life, you will make mistakes, save lives" He shrugged.
"And please do not underestimate the fact that we are a small hospital, we all have our hands full and soon you will too. This is your starting point, your arena, how well you play, is up to you" My father sighed and took a seat. He was so right. The game, they say a person either has what it takes to play or they don't. Only time will tell if these poor souls can hack it.
"Also, I would like you to remember that for the first year, you're interns, the bottom of the surgical food chain. You run labs, you write orders, you answer to the floor nurses if your attending is not around. When your attending is not around, you will do rounds, you will do charting, you work every second night and day until you drop and don't complain. You will also respect the nurses and allied health staff, they probably know a hellova lot more than you do at this point. Are we clear?"
Oh shit, Pop isn't kidding around. The six of them bobbed their heads up and down. The one and only female of the group was actually taking notes.
"Alright, I will now introduce you to your new colleagues. These fine surgeons in front of you will be your mentors. You follow their lead and listen to everything they have to say"
My father informed me that my intern will only be my shadow for a few months, then another one will be, it was unconventional, nothing like my own internship. I never followed an attending to their office, us interns often fought over patients in the busy inner city emergency room, if we weren't in the O.R. He also said that since there are three general surgeons, I will have a break in between. That is until my father seals the current contract he has going with another school. Like I said, he is looking to expand. I wonder how many more there will be?
I had an extra pager, phone lists, and trauma protocol procedure packet in front of me for my intern.
"Alistair you will be working with Edward" I fucking knew it, the blond kid literally just gulped and wiped the white sleeve of his jacket across his sweaty forehead.
"Makenna you will be working with Garrett" Garrett nodded curtly to the happy go lucky looking brunette. She was in for a rude awakening. Alistair would think of me as a saint, compared to Garrett, he was total hard ass and had a God complex. And, if I know Garrett, he will probably be sleeping with her by the end of the week. It wouldn't necessarily be gossip worthy, if it weren't for the fact that he is married and has slept with most the nurses.
"Benjamin, I am sorry to inform you this, however you will be working with me" My father chuckled. This kid looked like he was about to have a stroke. Way to go Benji, you get to be the Chief's lap dog!
"Liam you will be working with Tia" Tia was an orthopedic surgeon, she was so tiny, it was hard to believe she reset bones for a living. Liam looked happy enough, if he only knew Tia was tough as nails and took shit from no one.
"Quil you will be working with Colin" Colin was a plastic surgeon and thought he was quite the artist, he was a nice guy and we often did procedures together. Quil looked like a football player and had a sinister glint in his eyes, this guy was going to be trouble. I knew the type a mile away. During my residency, I worked with a few like him, cocky, arrogant, know it all's. Just you wait my friend.
"Charles, you will be working with Mike in the endoscopy suites" Mike smiled deviously at me, before he turned to Charles, he looked like a scared little boy, his white jacket a few sizes too big. Enjoy doing rectal exams!
Vaguely, I wondered why the rest of our surgical colleagues were not around. Bon Secours didn't have many, but we had at least one surgeon for each specialty. My only guess was that my father wanted to start out slowly, without over crowding the operating rooms. Unless, the other surgeons hadn't agreed. Why was I stuck with a grunt, a nobody, I didn't like the idea. If you think about it, I myself am just a year out of my residency. I would have to step up my game and work harder, have more confidence.
At least during the next three days while I am on call, I will have a physician looking closely over my patients, when I am not around. I went home during my call and came in when the nurses called. It was an advantage of living so closely to the hospital. During my time as an intern, call meant never leaving the hospital, I would have to ask for the specifics.
"Dr Cullen?" I raised my hand, to get my father's attention. "I am on-call for the next three days, how will Alistair fair?" I asked.
He turned and looked to Alistair. "Alistair, your first shift starts now and lasts seventy two hours, sleep when you can. You will follow Edward and when he is called, you will be too. Edward has the advantage of living close by, so he will be going home in the evenings, however, we have call rooms, where you can sleep if you do not live close by" Alistair nodded.
"I am staying with my cousin Sir, he lives right down the street" Alistair babbled. My father chuckled.
"Edward, the first thing I would like you to teach this one, is that during a conference, you will raise your hand before speaking" Alistair looked shaken and raised his shaking palm.
"Dr Cullen, I – I apologize, I thought you were speaking to me" Oh shut your mouth, you're only digging yourself a deeper grave. My father didn't respond, but I stared at this kid to get his attention. It worked and I minutely shook my head, mentally willing him to be quiet. He sat back, while it looked as though the rest of the room wore shit eating grins.
"I would like to say one last thing- if any of you have any problems, I would just like you to know that there is an open door policy. Any problems, even if they seem small, please don't hesitate to come to me. Good luck to you all, you'll need it" My father chuckled. I pushed all the things I had for Alistair towards him. He anxiously held them all to his chest. I stood up and walked out of the room, I knew he was following me, or trying to keep up. I slowed down a little.
"Hi, I am Alistair Scott, but everyone calls me Al" I smirked to myself.
"Al is it? Don't bother sucking up. I already hate you and that isn't going to change" I continued to walk ahead of him. This was a nice kid, I could tell that just by looking at him. However, the kid needed a thicker skin. In the O.R we eat our young, not literally, but figuratively, he'll never make it, if he doesn't toughen up.
"D-Dr Cullen?" He asked. I abruptly stopped and turned around, this kid damn near bumped into me.
"Yes?" I asked.
"What is all this stuff you gave me?" I rolled my eyes. He could easily have just read them.
"Trauma protocol, phone list" I pointed to the small booklets. "This is your pager, nurses will page you, you will answer every page" I turned back around and kept on walking.
"Where are we going?" I sighed. "I have to give you the grand tour now don't I, we are on our way to the emergency room" I said as I hit the elevator button.
"What are your rules? Anything I should know?" He asked. I chuckled.
"Look, our shift starts now and lasts seventy two hours, it can be slow or treacherous. Sleep when you can and where you can. If nothing is cooking in the ER we can leave, but we have to be back here within a moments notice. I usually stay here if it's late. If I am sleeping, don't wake me, unless the patient is actually dying. The patient better not be dead when I get there, not only will you have killed someone, but you would've woken me up for no good reason" He gulped.
"When we are on-call and are in the office, we drop everything and come back here, if we are needed. We get called for everything besides surgeries, Consults, Picc lines, Central lines, Hickmans, and we do the occasional greenfield vena cava filter. Can you tell me why someone would need a greenfield?" I asked. He frantically grabbed a book out of his pocket.
"I- uh" He stammered, fingering through the pages. I shook my head.
"Forget it, next time I ask you a question, I expect you to know it, from your brain and not from a book" I pressed the elevator button again, uselessly. This damn thing is so slow.
"We come here every morning and do rounds, we come back in the evening to do rounds, Monday through Friday. Sometimes, during the weekend, we will be here too, just because we are not on-call, doesn't mean we neglect our in house patients. My general surgery days are Monday and Thursday. Wednesday mornings, I do my bariatric surgeries, with me you will get a lot of O.R time" He smiled.
"Tuesday, Friday, and Wednesday afternoons, we will be in the office, after office hours you will come back here do rounds and work in the emergency room. Don't forget that this is a small hospital and even as a general surgeon, I often see patients that do not need surgical services, you will too. I have my patients and soon you will have yours. Fuck this, lets just take the stairs" I sighed and ran to the stairway.
The grand tour consisted of the Emergency room, Med-surg unit, Telemetry, ICU and finally the operating room. He introduced himself to everyone as Al. Pathetic. I chastised him and told him to introduce himself as Dr Scott. He isn't here to be friendly, he's here to learn. Today, I only booked three procedures, I wanted it to be light, so that my intern can hang out in the emergency room for a while.
He scrubbed in with me, I didn't let him do much, besides hold a retractor. I made him vocalize, everything that I did and had him explain in detail the surgical procedures. As far as surgical procedures went, he talked a good game, he knew what he was talking about.
"Can you do a plastic closure?" I asked as I handed him the 4-0 monocryl suture.
"Yeah, but why not just use staples. I mean they are faster" I sighed.
"You never and I mean never use staples on a breast. You want to leave as little scar tissue as possible" We had just finished my last procedure, which was a breast lumpectomy.
"Maggie, here knows which bandages I use. Cut the steri stripes in thirds, then telfa, and tegaderm" I instructed as I stepped away from the sterile field and took off my gown and gloves, leaving the O.R.
I went down to the cafeteria to grab something to eat. It was about five pm and I would be going home in a few hours, hopefully. But I was starving.
"Hey son, how is Alistair doing?" My father asked me. I grabbed a cheeseburger and some fries. Before I answered him.
"Dad, what is this all about? I mean, it makes no sense. It's not conventional. When I was an intern, we were assigned to senior residents, not attendings. And what is this shit about him following me through office hours?" I asked. My father was quiet while he fixed himself a salad from the salad bar. I waited until he was finished.
"Look around you, do you see any senior residents? They are our starting points and will be the residents, future interns will follow. Alistair will follow you through office hours to learn how to diagnose and do exams, and the main reason we now have the program is because a few hospitalists are no longer with us, so they will have their own patients, along with us. We will only get busier" He shrugged.
"He can learn that shit here, I want him in the pit as much as possible" I sighed.
"I am going to eat and then I will be going home, the general surgery interns are still running around somewhere, you are in charge of all of them tonight. Makenna and Benjamin are still here, they wanted to stay. Let them leave at let's say ten pm? I will leave Alistair up to you" He chuckled. Great! More babies to sit.
"You want to make it more like your own internship, I give you the privilege to do so tonight. Show them a good time" He laughed again.
"Whatever" I grumbled, paying for my food and going back up to the O.R lounge. I paused outside the lounge when I heard my name.
"You are so lucky to be working with Edward Cullen, he is so cute" A female squealed. I smirked to myself, must be that Makenna chick.
"I wouldn't know, but he sure is an asshole" I smiled widely. That was my plan, my dear Alistair.
"His dad isn't so bad, Carlisle is a brilliant man" Ha, must be Benjamin. The way he was running around after my father all day, I imagined him with a tail. Woof! Woof!
"Hey, you know what I heard today from one of the floor nurses?" Makenna asked. She had such an annoying nasally voice. "What?" Both Benjamin and Alistair asked in unison.
"Well, I was asking about Edward Cullen, just wondering if he was single, anyway he's not. Apparently, one of the scrub nurses used to stalk him after they slept together like once. She wound up getting fired and pregnant. He married her because it was the right thing to do and I hear she was like nineteen" Makenna rambled.
"I highly doubt that. I mean, Dr Cullen is hardcore, I don't think he'd marry a teenager" Alistair sighed. My blood was boiling now, so that is the rumor amongst the floors? Or maybe it was a new nurse? A lot of people knew Bella around here and asked about her weekly, mostly the O.R staff. No one ever spoke badly about her and this shocked me. I cleared my throat and entered the lounge, plopping down onto the couch. The three of them were instantly silent. Good... I hope they fear me.
"Umm, Dr Cullen?" Alistair asked. "What?" I grumbled, my mouth full of cheeseburger.
"What are we supposed to do now?" He asked. I swallowed my food, while I thought about a few things.
"Well-" I paused. "I am going to finish eating and go home to my hot young wife and newborn son" They all stared wide eyed at each other and turned back to me. Yes, I heard you, you idiots. Let them make of that what they will.
"Alistair you will do my evening rounds, take Benjamin with you" I then took a hand full of french fries and scarfed them down, I was starving.
"How will we know which patients are yours?" Benjamin asked. You can't be serious! Fucking idiots. "Speak to the unit clerk. She will give you the charts that you will need" I said with a moutful, once again.
"What about me?" Makenna whined. I smirked and finished chewing my food.
"First I want you to deliver labs, then go to the med-surg unit, I want you to learn how things work down there. You will help the nurses. They're short staffed and can use the help. I want you to do consults, patient work-ups, charts, start I.V's, change dressings, empty bedpans" She grimaced.
"Don't worry, you might have a good time, most nurses like to gossip, but I wouldn't believe everything you hear" I chuckled.
"But what about surgery, can we be on-call with you?" She asked, gesturing to Benjamin and herself. I shrugged.
"I will not go out of my way to find you, you have to be around for that to happen, if you are and there is a surgical procedure sure, maybe I will let you hold a clamp" I deadpanned and stuffed a few more fries in my mouth.
"What do you want me to do after rounds?" Alistair asked.
"After rounds, I want the both of you in the emergency room. Benjamin, you can do sutures and help assess in triage. Alistair, you can see patients, do whatever is needed of you. I would also like for you to meet up with the nursing supervisor, I want you on the code team, so get comfortable, you are not going anywhere tonight, as for the both of you-" I pointed to Makenna and Benjamin. "You may leave at midnight, unless you are other wise needed, or want to stay around. I don't care what you do, just don't kill anyone"
"Code team?" Alistair asked. "You will spend your entire night in the ER, if there is a rapid response or code blue, you run to where it is, which can be anywhere in the hospital" He smiled.
"I get to save lives tonight" He fist pumped the air. Holy Hell, was he in for a rude awakening. I chuckled to myself and threw away my garbage. I think I am growing to like the idea of having my own intern, I turned back to Alistair.
"Also, I would like you to do pre-rounds at let's say seven am? I will be here at eight for rounds and you will present me with each patient, before hand. Be courteous and show you care. You are going to be the first person they see in the morning, you say please, you say thank you, you apologize for waking them up. You make them feel good about you, they will talk to you and tell you what's wrong. Why is that important? Because then you can tell me, your attending what I need to know before rounds. Why is that important? Because if you make your attending look bad, I'll torture you" I smiled and walked away from them, going towards the locker room, I didn't see or hear them moving.
"What are you waiting for...move" I shouted. They jumped and scurried away. I laughed to myself all the way to the locker room.
When I was finished changing, my cell rang. It was Jared, informing me that he and his family would be coming up for a visit this weekend. They have not seen EJ yet and would like to do so. Irina will also be joining them, along with Heidi and her new boyfriend. My family is having a Christmas celebration on Monday, I asked if they would like to come for Christmas, instead of the Saturday before, he declined. Of course they already had plans. It was worth a shot though. I know Bella has her hands full and will not be thrilled about the idea of people, especially my snooty extended family, being at our house. She will panic and fuss, cleaning the house from top to bottom.
Sadly, I had just pulled into our drive-way, when my cell phone rang again. Of course it was the hospital.
"Dr Cullen" I answered.
"Dr Cullen...um...this is Al, I mean Dr Scott" I rolled my eyes.
"What can I do for you?" I sighed.
"There's a patient in the emergency room, CT showed pancreatitis"
"And?" I asked irritated.
"I can't start an I.V, sticking the guy like six times. He needs a central line"
"Did you ask a nurse to try and start the I.V?" I was met with silence on the other end. "Ask a nurse, if they can't get it, put in the central line, if you can't do one, call me back and I will be there. Why exactly does this patient have pancreatitis?" I sighed.
"Gall stones Sir"
"Besides the I.V, what are you going to do now?" I asked.
"Umm... give him some morphine, he's like screaming" Lord give me strength...
"Wrong!- You are going to call Dr Newton for a consult, he may need an ERCP" I shouted.
"I bet you missed a lot when you were first starting too" He chuckled. I didn't respond and hung up on him.
Butch happily greeted me at the door, I petted his head until he calmed down. When I walked into the house, I was surprised to find both Bella and EJ asleep, in the living room. EJ was in the small bassinet, Bella on the couch. A nap sounded like a good idea. I ripped off my tie and curled up next to Bella on the couch. She sighed and nestled herself into my side, I fell fast asleep next to her.
I woke up panicked, Bella leaped over me, because EJ was crying. Bella mumbling something about him missing his evening bottle because she fell asleep and my cell was ringing.
"Hello" I rasped, covering my other ear, EJ was really carrying on, while Bella fixed his bottle, I held my phone to my ear with my shoulder and picked him up.
"Dr Cullen, this is the nursing supervisor" I couldn't hear what she said.
"What?" I asked again.
"Dr Cullen , it's Joan. There is a positive appendix in the ED" I glanced at the clock and saw that it was a little after nine, any later and I would have admitted the patient, doing it in the morning.
"Who's diagnosis?" I asked.
"One of the new interns" She laughed. "They begged me to call you myself, you sure as hell put the fear of God into them" Of course I did. I fought the urge to laugh out loud.
"Get the call team in and I will be there shortly, give me report now, while you are on the phone" I listened to her while I rocked EJ. The patient has many diverticuli and has had many abdominal surgeries, I winced thinking about all the adhesion's that I would have to take care of and the extra time it would take to do it laparoscopic. The patient also has a cardiac condition, which will not fair well with pnuemoperitoneum.
"This patient is not a candidate for laparoscopic, book it as an open appendectomy, thanks" I sighed and hung up.
"Duty calls?" Bella smirked, coming in with EJ's bottle.
"It does, have I ever told you, how much I love that you understand such things" I chuckled and handed EJ over.
"Please" Bella smiled. "If I didn't enjoy what I am doing now so much, I would be jealous. Surgery is such a rush" She sighed. "Speaking of, how is your intern?" she asked.
"Oh you mean Bambi? Fucking clueless and sensitive. I want to toughen him up, before the surgical world chews him up and spits him out. Clinically, he's okay I guess, but only in the O.R" I chuckled.
"What are you going in for now?" She asked. "Appy, nothing exciting" Bella squealed.
"That's so easy a cave man can do it, well I could and I am just a tech, let your intern do it" She rambled excitedly. That wasn't a bad idea, see how he is under pressure.
"The first cut is always the deepest" I smiled and kissed Bella's cheek. "I think I will do that" I kissed her nose and EJ's hair. Going back up to peck at Bella's lips.
"Don't wait up, if I am not coming home, I will text you. Love you" I said as I walked to the door.
"Love you too" She shouted after me.
/=/=/=/
Alistair, quickly surprised me, he was calm. I had him explain the open appendectomy procedure step by step and he was dead on. I then handed him the scalpel.
"Ten bucks says he screws up the McBurney" Makenna snickered. "Ten bucks says he does a code brown, right in his pants" Benjamin jibbed back. I turned to face the both of them.
"Get out" I shouted and pointed to the door. They both rapidly scurried out of the room.
"Thanks" Alistair sighed. I nodded. He didn't need them snickering behind him. It would only make him more nervous.
"Incision" I called. I watched as Alistair went to make the incision. He lightly grazed the skin, not doing much.
"More pressure, abdominal flesh is a deep shell, dig in" I told him. He continued and was starting to do very well, I breathed a sigh of relief when he got the peritoneum open. I was even more surprised when he placed the purse string sutures, with little difficulty. And then the appendix was out. All of a sudden he paused. Come on, you got this. I internally hoped.
"Very good, now all you have to do is invert the stump into the cecum and simultaneously pull up on the purse strings-" I watched as he pulled too hard and broke them. "but be careful not to break them" I finished with a grumble. Alistair paused again staring wide eyed, into the abdomen.
"You ripped the cecum, the abdomen is filling up with blood and stool, what do you do?" I asked. He tore his eyes away from the abdomen and looked to me. "Think!" I shouted. I was disappointed, he was doing so well.
"Maggie, give him a clamp" I told the surgical tech, she placed it right in front of his face and he refused to take it.
"Clamp the bleeder; the patient is bleeding out. Start to suction and you start digging for those purse strings before she bleeds to death" I nearly shouted. He stood there frozen, still.
"Blood pressure is dropping" The anesthesiologist shouted.
"Today! pull your balls out your back pocket, lets go. What are you waiting for suction!" I shouted again.
"Getting too low folks- Dr Cullen" The anesthesiologist sighed. "Get out of the way and out of this O.R" I snapped.
"Suction- clamp" I cleaned up Alistair's mess and finished the surgery.
When I walked into the lounge, he wouldn't even look me in the eye.
"Why do you hate me?" He asked. "Code team" he scoffed. "I thought I would be saving lives. Did you know I called my first patient tonight, died right in the emergency room" Alistair grumbled.
"Look" I sighed pinching the bridge of my nose. "I am your teacher and you have to trust me, when I say that all of this is good for you, but your performance back there-" I pointed to the operating room. "Was unacceptable, you need to learn how to work under pressure, or you will never make it" I ranted.
"Even after I told you what to do, you froze. That is a big no no, but I must apologize to you. I should have never let you scrub this one, you obviously weren't ready" He nodded. Just then both of our pagers started to beep. I picked up the phone and called the emergency room. We had a gun shot victim that was too unstable to be airlifted to a trauma center.
Alistair and I ran down to the emergency room, there was an active code, while we worked over him, this guy had multiple shots to his abdomen. Great! Where's my dad when you need him. I could really use an extra pair of hands. I was once again, damned if I do and damned if I don't. If we don't take him into the O.R, he will die. And if we operate, he probably will still die. Fuck me.
We dressed the wounds and tried to stabilize him as well as possible. I instructed the nurses to prep the O.R. I didn't feel like putting Alistair through this again. So I turned to Benjamin, who was carefully over looking everything. Like an ambulance chasing lawyer. I knew the feeling.
"Alistair, you sit this one out, Benjamin get cleaned up and meet me in the O.R, you are scrubbing in" His dumb ass actually skipped towards the elevators. I turned back to Alistair.
"Talk to his family and get consent for us to treat him, we will be doing an exploratory lap, explain that too" He nodded and went on his way.
We did the exploratory laparotomy and had to resect many parts of the small bowel and remove his right kidney. This patient lost a lot of blood, we had to hang multiple bags of O neg and plasma. The patient then went into DIC, he was circling the drain and going down quickly. The beeping of the EKG monitor was serenading us.
"He's coding" The anesthesiologist shouted. He medicated him and his pressure dropped back down, we repeated the sequence stopping the surgery and just waiting.
"Get the crash cart in here" I shouted. I covered up his exposed abdomen with a sterile towel and dropped the drapes.
"Charge paddles to two hundred- clear" I shouted before I shocked him. Nothing. "Two fifty- clear" I shouted and shocked him again. Nothing. "Three hundred" I shocked again and nothing happened.
"Come on" I grumbled, starting chest compressions. "What do we do now?" I panted, talking to Benjamin.
"Uhh, umm. After sixty seconds you administer another drug" I nodded. "Very good" I continued the compressions.
"Two amps of Epi and nothing Dr Cullen, should we call it?" The anesthesiologist asked. I shook my head no.
"Charge paddles to three fifty- Clear" I shocked him again and nothing happened.
"Have you ever called one before?" I asked Benjamin. He shook his head no. "Well, you may do so now"
"Time of death, one twenty three" He nearly whispered. I took the towel off of the abdomen, proceeding to clean him up and close the surgical wound. I then sprinted into the lounge to relax a minute. No matter how many times I lose a patient, it's still a hardship.
"Wow that was pretty lengthy" Alistair shouted cheerily. "Yeah well he had a lot of damage" I sighed.
"So can I go tell Mrs Savino that her husband is in recovery?" he asked.
"He had too much damage, I had to let him go. In the operating room it happens, rarely. It's the worst part" Alistair looked shocked and sat next to me.
"But I – I told his wife that he would be fine, I promised her that-" I stood up abruptly.
"You what?" I asked incredulously. "They have three little girls-" I cut him off.
"Who the hell are you to promise anything, this is my case. Did you hear me promise? The only person that can keep a promise so big is God, and I haven't seen him pick up a scalpel lately. You never promise a family a good outcome" I shouted. This kid was unbelievable.
"I- I thought that-" I waved my hand, I didn't want to hear it. "You're important enough to make promises to Mrs Savino, you get to be the one to tell her she's a widow" I calmly said, before I left the lounge.
I was agitated and didn't feel like going home and rubbing it off on Bella, or listening to her get up and down with EJ. It would probably lift my spirits, being with my family, as it always does, but I wanted to be alone. I went into the on-call room and lay in one of the beds. I sent Bella a text, set my alarm early enough to wake up and get ready for the office and closed my eyes, trying desperately to get some sleep.
"Excuse me, Dr Cullen" I groaned and turned to Alistair, grabbing my cell phone. 4:53, at least I got a few hours sleep.
"What?" I asked.
"Mr Johnson, that pancreatitis patient I called you earlier about. He blew his I.V, the nurses and I can't get one back in, he needs a central line" I sighed, folding the pillow, turning to my side.
"So put one in" I said before I closed my eyes again. A few minutes passed and I could still feel his presence behind me. Then he cleared his throat.
"Let me guess, you don't know how?" I asked as I got up. He shook his head no.
"Well let's do this then. See one, do one, teach one. Always remember that and pay attention. I expect you to learn this- what room?" I asked as we walked down the hall.
"425 bed two" I nodded. We then went into the patients room and placed the central line.
"Next time you wake me up, your patient better be so close to death, there's a tag on his toe" I grumbled.
"Thank you Dr Cullen" Alistair said and still wouldn't look me in the eyes. I thought about Bella, all her compassion and felt my steel walls crumbling down. Geez, married life and a kid has softened me.
"Lets go get a cup of coffee" I said. Alistair nodded and followed me to the nurses station, where we sat and drank the coffee, silently.
"How- how do you do it? I feel like an idiot, I obviously don't know what I am doing. All those years in medical school were for nothing" Alistair grumbled. I sighed.
"It was your first day, yes you made some erroneous errors, but it was still your first day. You did so well during the AP at first, what happened?" I asked.
"I don't know- I was scared and froze up- I can't do this" he whispered. I had to give this kid a pep talk, he can't quit after one day.
"Listen, they make it hard on purpose... there are lives in our hands. There comes a moment when it's more than just a job, you either take that step forward or turn around and walk away. Give yourself a break, I won't promise to go easy on you, because that is not the way I was taught. You and your buddies actually have it quite easy. So cheer up, you will make a million mistakes and you will learn from all of them"
"Why couldn't I just go into HVAC, fix people's air conditioning or their heaters, like my cousin. Did you know, my parents tell all their friends that I am a surgeon, they're so proud... it's such a joke" He laughed.
"Well" I sighed. "I always wanted to be a Jedi" I laughed and Alistair joined me.
"The force is strong with you, my young padawan" He looked to me blankly, obviously not a 'Star Wars' fan.
"You have great promise, you just need to toughen up a little" I sighed. He nodded, opening and closing his mouth a few times, like he wanted to ask me something.
"Spit it out" I coerced.
"You heard us before, didn't you? And that's why you sent Makenna to that God awful place" He smiled. The med-surg unit was a horrible floor, complete chaos, crazy patients walking in and out of their rooms naked, people shouting and fighting restraints. It is a general medical floor and contains the surgical unit. The place always smelled like shit too.
"Yup" I said popping the 'P', and taking a sip of my coffee. "Man and I thought you were an asshole, turns out, you're just plain evil" He laughed. I smiled at him, I knew I was going to like him.
"So is it true?" He asked.
"Is what true?" I shrugged. "Oh you know, what Makenna said" I shook my head no.
"My wife was a surgical tech, but she wasn't fired because she slept with me" I laughed. "There were lay-offs, she was unfortunately one of them. And no she is not a teenager"
"Yeah, I heard about that, my cousin told me, his friend was also a part of that. She is a great girl too, haven't seen her in years, but I hear she still lives in the area" He had a wistful gleam in his eyes, I nudged his shoulder.
"So this girl? You have a history with her or what?" I pried, I could honestly careless, but I wanted to look like I gave a shit. Plus, I would listen to anything right about now, to keep from falling asleep.
"No!" He shrieked. "I mean, when I used to come here in the summer, to stay with my aunt and uncle, I would hang out with my cousin, he would hang out with her. She was two years younger than us, but she would follow us around, like we were cool and shit. She had a little sidekick too, some blond chick. Anyway, she was gorgeous, even at fifteen. I am way too shy around woman and my cousin never lets me forget it, I swore to myself that if I ever came back here, I would make her mine" Bla bla bla, another tragic love story about the shy aloof guy and his love that got away.
"Then by all means, get your girl. Don't forget that you are a hot shot surgeon now" I laughed.
"Yeah right" He scoffed.
"She doesn't have to know that. You are a Doctor and you are training to be a surgeon, it's not that far off" Oh God, I need a pillow and a blanket. I yawned.
"Any tips, you know would help. You seem like a ladies man" He asked.
"Sorry, I can't help you with that" I shook my head.
"Oh come on, the way Makenna was throwing herself at you, how can I make women do that?" He asked. Makenna was throwing herself at me? Geez, I wish Bella still worked here. She could get fired for a worthy cause, knocking some tramp on her ass.
"I can't teach you how to be a ladies man, simply because I am not one, but I can teach you how to do your first breast exam, without looking like a pervert" I laughed.
Whole chapter was inspired by Grey's Anatomy...
Did you guys like it? Would you like to hear more about Edward and Alistair? Let me know.
Also, I would just like to say that I have no idea what it is like being an intern. I know what it was like just starting working in the O.R and let me tell you...it was pretty scary. Lmao
Some of the things in this chapter, I borrowed from Grey's Anatomy... Love that show and it was obviously the inspiration of this Chapter. Shout out to Shondra Rhimes.
Every procedure that I have ever written about, has been my first hand account. So please don't think that I ripped off all the medical stuff throughout this story. I am a Surgical Technologist by day and a fanfic-a-holic by night. Lmao.