"Get up."
Sun opened his eyes as someone threw something on him - his coat. Wiping at the spit on his cheek from his death-like sleep on the couch, he pulled himself up groggily and yawned. Metallic clinks could be heard from the kitchen - Blake put some more bread into the toaster and closed the fridge firmly.
"You need to get another couch, this one kills my back." He says, stretching out his stiff joints. His footsteps were heavy on the wood floor as he slumped his way slowly to the bathroom; Sun already had a toothbrush in a cup next to Blake's on the sink.
"Or, you could actually live in your own apartment and not sleep on my couch every night like a slacker," Blake calls out from the kitchen - or rather, the living room. The apartment was small enough that you couldn't really differentiate anything from anything. "I swear Weiss is going to make you start pitching in on rent."
Sun peeked his head out of the bathroom with a toothbrush stuck in his mouth. "Oh yeah, where is Weiss?" He says through a full mouth. "I didn't see her come back with us, and she didn't carpool with you either."
The toaster popped open and Blake threw the slices onto a plate. "She basically lives at the hospital and never comes home. Best roommate ever." Rummaging through the fridge, she produced a small jar of jam. "Along with all the administrative and scheduling stuff she had to do for the intern stuff, she probably pulled an all-nighter, again . Makes me glad I didn't get chief resident."
She could hear Sun spit into the sink and brush his hair quickly before emerging into the kitchen. He pulled out a chair from the small table and took a bite of plain toast. "Oh, I completely forgot that that was today," he says between bites. "Should I bring them candy or something? The last bunch liked the sour ones."
Taking a seat as well, Blake spread some jam onto her toast and took a bite. She watched with disdain as Sun ate his in three bites and got up to toast some more. "You do realize they aren't children, right?" She says, gesturing to the loaf of bread when he couldn't find it on the counter. "Well, I guess they basically are, now that I think about it."
She got up after finishing the rest of her breakfast and pulled her coat and bag on. "Leave the toast," Blake says to Sun's dismay. "We have to get going if we want to make it to orientation and Weiss will kill us if we're late."
"Wait!" Sun says before dashing around, searching for something until he finally grabbed the dress they had set aside last night. "Can't forget your date tonight, better to bring it with you in case something runs long. Don't you have an angioplasty scheduled later?"
"Ugh, don't remind me again." Blake says, groaning at the thought. She walked back into the apartment to search for some heels. After disappearing for a few moments, she held up a pair of black cutouts; Sun gave a thumbs up at them. They finally made it out of the door with Blake's clothes and other necessities jammed into her bag.
Walking out of the building quickly, they got into their respective cars to drive the commute to the hospital. The familiar roar of Sun's truck engine filled the parking lot as they pulled out, music turned up high in a last attempt to pretend like the dreadful day wouldn't come.
"Are they here?" Neptune asks as he approaches Sun, who was hastily jamming the rest of his breakfast into his mouth. All the senior residents had gathered in the lobby for the arrival of the interns, some obviously more excited than others. He pushed past some plants that the hospital had set up in the lobby - looks like they had a bigger budget this year to woo the fresh arrivals.
"Not yet, but I think I saw a few in the lobby, they're so tiny." Sun says, speaking up over the buzz of chatter. "I heard that we're getting some from the med schools up in Atlas so that'll be fun. Maybe they'll recognize Weiss, her name is practically on every textbook and machine up there."
While Sun was enjoying the early morning buzz, Blake took another long sip of her coffee - she sighed, reaching the bottom of the cheap cardboard cup for the second time that morning. "Please tell me you gave me the good ones." She says weakly.
Weiss didn't look up from the clipboard in her hands, scratching out some names and replacing them with others. "I may choose their placements, but it really is just about random. I don't know their capabilities or personalities any more than any of you." She looked up over the papers at Blake's sullen face. "I'm sure you'll be fine. You'll probably just scare them into submission, again ."
Fortunately, Blake's exhaustion was starting to wane as the caffeine worked its way into her bloodstream. She had to sprint up the stairs to the resident's lounge to make it in time, heels and dress stored safely in her locker. The boost in energy was just on time - Sun was approaching, fast .
Having finished his rounds of chatting up all the residents, Sun approached Blake and Weiss with a smile. "Hey, Weiss, we didn't catch you at home last night." He says with more energy than Blake could even comprehend. Where did he get it? Only god knew the answer at this point - there is no scientific explanation for it.
"You mean my home," she says annoyed before turning to Blake. "You let him in again? He's going to eat all the food, last time I went home there was nothing in the fridge but half a chicken gyro."
"Hey, mind you, that was my chicken gyro. I do provide for this household, despite popular belief." He says, proud of himself. Weiss just stared at him blankly, too busy that day to try and argue the point.
The hum of the elevator doors peaked their attention before Sun could continue into the logistics of greek fast food. All the residents in the lobby turned simultaneously as the elevator doors opened, revealing a tall man in navy scrubs. He smiled brightly and walked towards them.
Blake leaned over to Weiss. "Clover's doing orientation this year? I thought that it was Pyrrha's turn."
Weiss shrugged. "The board thought that he was the friendliest out of the department heads. I'd say orientation is better coming from the peds head than Pyrrha." She let out a quiet laugh, thinking of the scenario. "She'd probably just scare them all off unintentionally."
Their attentions were brought back to Clover; he stepped out of the way as the elevator doors opened, revealing a crowd of nervous-looking students. "Hello, everybody!" He says, beaming at them. "Residents, let's welcome the new interns."
There were some clapping from the crowd - some of the nicer attendings that were present, some nurses, technical staff. After the applause died down, Clover stepped back into everyone's attention. "I'll let the chief resident take it away, and try to stay on her good side. You'll regret it otherwise."
Weiss pushed her way to the front of the huddle of residents as soon as all the interns were in the lobby and Clover stepped away. They all stared at her in fear, reading the room in how all the residents quieted down once she appeared.
"Interns, I'm sure you know this, but you will be assigned a resident to follow for the first few months before rotations." She announced, voice carrying through the lobby with ease. "These placements will not be changed, and I will only say them once," Weiss looked up at the interns, hiding a smile at how they backed away from her instinctively. "Keep up."
She started quickly listing off names, followed by a senior resident. The interns were all immediately swept away by the pace, looking around amongst themselves, but everyone else took it in stride.
Sun was first, bouncing around and leading four of the interns away and down the hall. He chatted away animatedly with them, immediately putting the new recruits at ease. Sun was like this every year - he was always the most popular among the interns.
Ilia was next, leading another four that were named away. She didn't hesitate to start listing to them the rounds schedule while leading them away, not bothering to wait when a tall and lanky intern dropped his notepad.
The assignments continued on until Blake's name was finally called. She let out a groan before walking towards the front.
Four interns approached, timid and all-round dumb looking; one clutched onto a notepad as if he'd die if it parted with him, while another kept on awkwardly fussing with their white coat. Blake sighed again, something that she'd likely have to get used to doing, before leading them down the hallway at a brisk pace. Great, she got the duds.
"When I move, you move. And do everything I say, no questions," Blake says, navigating around the hospital quickly. They stopped in the east surgical wing where patients were being prepped for surgery in their respective rooms. Glancing into one, Blake turned back to the interns with a glare.
"Listen, due to some ungodly reason, I'm responsible for all of you." She says, looking them all over. She allowed herself to revel in their terror for a few moments, before continuing. "That means that if one of my patients dies on your watch, you die. Got it?"
They were all silent; Blake pointed to a boy in the back who looked like he was seconds from crying. "You, repeat what I said."
"They die, we die." He says quickly, stumbling over his words.
Satisfied, Blake continued on through the hospital, explaining various rooms and equipment. She briefly stopped at a room with a heavy door; a small window showed a large full-body machine in the centre of the room.
"This is radiology, get to know this room well. You'll be on scut for the next few months, get used to it." She says curtly.
One of the interns raised their hand timidly, flinching as Blake moved her heavy gaze onto them. "What is scut?" He asks, clutching onto his notepad tightly.
Blake let out a laugh, having known the term for so long that it never brought a second thought at this point. "It means that you'll be running my labs, draining abscesses, prepping my patients for surgery, ER examinations. Whatever I don't want to do or can't be bothered to do, that's your job." She says, crossing her arms. "You're interns. You so much as look at one of my patients for too long and I will personally make sure you never hold a scalpel. Got it?"
The intern nodded his head quickly before darting back behind the other three. Before Blake could scare them anymore, Sun turned the corner nearby with his own interns in tow.
"Looks like you guys are at the same spot in the tour," he says, ignoring the deadpanned look Blake gave him. He turned back to his little crowd, noticeably less scared and traumatized than Blake's.
"Here's radiology, where they'll do X-rays and some scans." He says, gesturing through the window to the equipment and machines. "I'll go over it more once we get an actual case to follow."
With a recent budget boost, the hospital was able to purchase new state-of-the-art machines for the branch; machines that the techs were very possessive of. Sun knocked on the door and opened it, holding it open as his interns filed in to look around. Blake's interns looked back at her before quickly darting into the room when she shot them a glare and a quick flick of her hand.
"Don't scare them off so soon," Sun says with a laugh; he leaned back on the railing behind them as the door to radiology closed behind the small crowd. "It's gonna bite you in the ass some day."
They both watched as the interns poked around at the large machine in the centre of the room, asking some questions to the radiology tech behind the computer. The man seemed rather impatient today, watching the crowd bustle around his very expensive equipment.
Blake crossed her arms. "I'm not being that hard on them, I think it's more like you're too easy on them." She responds mildly. "I'm actually preparing them for this job, unlike you."
"Oh, lighten up." Sun says back, bringing his attention back up to keep an eye on them. "Cut them some slack, we were exactly the same when we were fresh out of med school." He narrowed his eyes, staring through the window - an intern started pressing some buttons on the machine against better judgement. Sun snapped his fingers a few times, scaring the boy away from the scanner as it let out a few beeps.
"I was not that stupid when I was an intern." Blake denies, finding some amusement at Sun's camp-counsellor-like behaviour. "Maybe you or Neptune, but not me."
Sun's retort was cut short as the door swung open loudly; the crowd of interns rushed out of the doorway quickly. The tech was shoving them out, locking the door shut behind them. Sun put on another blinding smile as he got up and started to lead them away again. "Good luck," He calls back to Blake as they leave. "And don't kill them before they even get to do anything!"
They were well into their tour of the emergency room when sirens started to wail from the ambulance bay. Being a level one trauma centre, Beacon Hospital got quite a substantial input of traumas daily. The ER and pit staff were so used to the piercing sound by now that they no longer even flinched as the sound flooded the floor.
A gurney crashed through the swinging doors from the bay, the patient having just been offloaded from the rig. Paramedics surrounded the gurney, one pumping an ambu-bag and another holding up a bag of fluids as they moved quickly into a trauma room.
"Out of my way!" Someone shouts from nearby - Robyn, the trauma attending, was following behind the patient quickly as she pulled on some gloves. Finding Blake in the traffic of the emergency room, she beckoned over to her. "Blake, get on this."
On Robyn's count, the patient was lifted by the spinal stabilization board he was strapped onto and moved onto the trauma table; the gurney was promptly wheeled away by a nearby nurse as soon as he was lifted.
Turning back to her pack of interns, Blake gave them a warning glare. "You may observe from inside the trauma room, but get in anyone's way and you're out, got it?" She didn't wait for a response before entering the room and putting on a gown held out for her by a nurse. "Give me a rundown, please." Blake says, pulling on a pair of gloves.
A paramedic started going over the patient details as field bandages were being removed and assessed. "Jesse Sinclair. 24. Status post blunt trauma to the chest and abdomen, restrained passenger to a car crash pileup on the 401." He says quickly, stepping out of the way as Robyn re-orientated herself around the patient to assess some lacerations.
The paramedic continued. "Amputation to the right forearm below the elbow, likely from the accident. GCS of 10, follows commands but nonverbal."
Robyn passed a small light back and forth over the patient's eyes, watching for pupil response. "Okay, Hi there, Jesse," she says, shoving the flashlight into her front pocket. "You're at Beacon Hospital right now, you've been in a car accident. Do you have anyone we can call?"
The man moaned out in pain, unable to answer effectively.
"Alright, let's page neuro and push 10 miligrams of morphine. See if anyone at the scene found any ID or device to contact his family." Robyn says rapidly. She positioned her hands on both of his shoulders. "Flip on my count, Blake, get the other side. Watch that tourniquet on the amputation."
Holding his pelvis and legs, they both flipped him onto his side briefly before setting him back down and resuming their work again. Blake carefully pulled off a dressing on his chest to expose some shallow injuries while the paramedic continued going over whatever details were necessary.
"Pulse 120s in the field, stable pressure since being recovered on scene." He says, finishing up the report.
Robyn went to check on the injured arm, removing the bandages to inspect how extensive the wound was. "This is a clean cut," she says, turning towards the paramedic. "Have they recovered the arm yet?"
The paramedic ducked his head out of the door, confirming some details with some of his coworkers. "No, there aren't any signs or updates from those onsite yet."
"Okay, let's page plastics anyways just in case. This case is definitely salvageable." Robyn says, a nurse nodding and picking up the trauma room's landline.
Blake and Robyn were just starting an ultrasound on the patient's abdomen to check for fluid in Morrison's pouch when shouting started to rise outside of the trauma room. Grunting in frustration, Robyn gestured quickly to Blake. "Can you get them to settle down? Maybe remind them that people are trying to save lives over here?"
Nodding, Blake pulled off her gloves and pushed past the interns out the door. The commotion was coming from the ambulance bay, with several people shouting over the roar of an engine. With a bang, a figure suddenly pushed through the ER doors; they had a mane of golden hair covered in dirt and blood and riding boots just as dirty.
"I got it!" they yell loudly. All the ER staff recognized her voice instantly.
Blake's jaw dropped as everyone in the ER stared at Yang, breathing heavily and looking like she just went through hell and back. Like a scene straight out of a TV show - she held a severed arm with both hands, leather gloves dripping blood on the linoleum floor below her. Straight out of a horror movie - Yang looked like an absolute madman, and people reacted as expected. Several people in the ER started screaming, a patient a few beds away fainting back into their pillows.
"Holy shit, HOLY SHIT!" Blake exclaimed, rushing over to her at an utter loss for words. Grabbing a pair of gloves, she awkwardly took the limb from her. "How the hell did you get this? How are you here? What the hell, Yang!"
A nurse handed Yang a cloth to wipe her hands with which she accepted gratefully, wiping at the blood on her forehead. It only smudged it further, but she didn't seem to mind - the shit-eating grin she was wearing was telling an opposite tale. "I own a repair shop and garage just off the 401 where the crash was," she says, tossing the soiled cloth in a nearby waste bin. "I saw the smoke while working on a bike so I headed over to see if I could help."
Blake pushed through the gathering crowd that was staring at the two in awe, arriving back at Robyn's trauma room. Handing it over to the plastics attending, he immediately set to work trying to salvage the limb by debriding the wound.
Robyn looked at Yang warily, who had followed Blake up to the entrance of the room. "Hold on, she can't be here." She looked around before setting her eyes on Blake. "You, Blake, take her out of here."
Blake stared back at her. "What? Why me? I'll just have an intern do it, you need the assist." She whipped around to shoot Yang a pissed look, who just shrugged back at her innocently.
"Side rails up, and we're moving." Robyn says, pushing the gurney past her and through the pit towards the elevators. "He's stable now so I'm taking him up to surgery. You escort this arm taxi out of here, seeing how you seem to already know her."
The patient and doctor disappeared behind the elevator doors before she could say anything else, leaving Blake, Yang, and the interns to stand in silence. Sighing, Blake turned back to the interns. "You guys, just, disperse. Go help around the pit, do whatever anyone says."
They walked away doubtfully, leaving just Yang for her to deal with last. Taking her hand, Blake led her quickly out of the room, through the floor filled with staring eyes, to the furthest station of the pit. She shoved Yang onto the bed with protest and pulled the curtain shut around them.
Yang tried to get up, only to be pushed back down immediately. "Hey, what gives?" Yang says, propping herself up on her elbows as Blake looked like she was seconds away from stabbing her.
"What the fuck were you thinking!?" Blake hisses out. "Why didn't you just give it to a paramedic or a police officer?" She fumed, walking in a circle before returning. "God, are you hurt? Is that your blood, did you get caught in the explosion or something?!"
Yang brushed Blake's hands away from the blood stains on her skin. "No, it's not mine. I'm fine. And I took the arm because my motorcycle's faster than any ambulance or police car there." She says, trying to rub away some of the red on her sleeve. "They can't weave through traffic like a bike can." Pushing herself up so she could sit properly, Yang smiled lightly before catching Blake's eye. "Anyways, it also looked like a good excuse to see you again."
"Are you kidding me?" Blake says, at the limit of her hysteria for the day. "You got me kicked off an arm reattachment and an ex-lap just so you could say hi?!"
"Well, when you put it like that," Yang admitted sheepishly, "Sorry, I should have thought it through." She looked genuinely sorry, scratching at the back of her head awkwardly.
Sighing, Blake raised a hand to her temples and turned away - her anger dissipated annoyingly fast at Yang's puppy eyes. "No, it's okay," she says, pacing around a few steps. Yang had her moments , but in the end, she still meant well - no use punishing her for it. "I'm just glad you're alright."
Taken aback by Blake's sudden drop of bloodthirst, her usual unabashed self started to falter. "Oh uh- yeah, I'm-I'm fine," Yang stumbles, swiftly losing her ability to form coherent sentences. "I should go, I think I've caused enough trouble already."
"Wait, you can't," Blake cuts in before Yang can get up. "Not looking like that at least, you look like a serial killer on the loose. The news will have a hayday with you." She says, Yang looking down at the blood covering her. "Look, we have showers that you can use on the third floor. It's for the hospital staff, but I don't think anyone would mind."
"Thanks, really." Yang says, cheeks taking on an uncharacteristic flush. She recovered in a heartbeat, moving back to her usual behaviour. "Are we still on for later?" she asks as she gets up from the bed, boots stepping onto the floor with a dull thud.
"I'm not one to cancel plans" Blake responds, opening the curtain around them. "But don't mistake my kindness for anything else. A bold move you pulled today, Yang, and I'll really kill you if you try to pull it again."
They had hid out for long enough - the crowd that had gathered earlier had dissipated well enough that they could leave the pit largely unnoticed. Slipping through the halls and into an empty elevator, they collectively let out a breath in relief as soon as the doors closed.
"It won't happen again," Yang assures her, to the other girl's relief. "But I won't make any promises." And there goes Blake's peace of mind. "What can I say, the heart works in mysterious ways." Yang says sarcastically, a smile on her lips as she looks down to Blake beside her.
The elevator shakes slightly as they start the rise, a mechanical whirling sounding quietly from around them. "Well, the morgue will also work in mysterious ways once I murder you myself." Blake says, rolling her eyes and looking up to meet Yang's.
Yang laughs, taking the banter in stride - a routine they have gotten more and more used to. "Oh come on, can that wait until after dinner tonight?" Yang says, and she earns herself a small smile. "I already made reservations, and I'd hate to pass up on them."