Disclaimer: I do not own the characters bla bla bla. If you gotta problem with them, sue NBC. That is not my job. I tried to make this a ER-ish as possible.


Ava Murphy reached into her back pocket and pulled out a scrap of paper ripped from a notepad. The address of Cook County General Hospital was scribbled on it. Once again making sure she was headed towards the right place. She stuffed the note back into her pocket as the elevated train slowed down. Zipping up her tan leather jacket, she stood just in time for the throwback.

At the bottom of the steps leading down from the train she paused. Her future lie ahead of her. She was begging herself to turn around. She didn't have to do this. All she had to do was turn back around and go to the airport. She didn't need to be here. And yet she was. She'd only do it for a little while, and then she could move on, she promised herself. And so she started walking again.

The ambulance bay (or what she assumed it was from the signs) was completely empty except for some guy shooting hoops by himself. He was wearing a lab coat and had a stethoscope around his neck, so she figured he worked there.

He shot the ball and missed by far. Then he saw her. "You can't go in this way. Staff only. The visitor's entrance is around the corner," he said, pointing her in the right direction.

She took off her sunglasses. "Oh no, I work here," She said confidently, and smiled.

"You do?" He looked at her quizzically. This is when she noticed he had a very interesting nose. It was very long and pointy. "Oh wait, I forgot, you must be the new resident. I'm Dr. Carter," he said extending a hand.

She shook it. "Nice to meet you. Yah, today's my first day. I'm Dr. Murphy."

"Nice to meet you too. You should come with me." He started walking through the sliding doors, as she stood still in the ambulance bay.

She wanted to leave so bad it hurt. She didn't even need a job. It was stupid.

"Come on, we're not going to steal your organs."

But somehow this place just radiated good vibes. She laughed nervously and followed him in.

Inside things looked pretty slow. Nobody was rushing about, nobody was being rolled through the halls, nobody was screaming in pain. If only things had been this easy when she was a med student...

"Randi, do you know where Dr. Weaver is?" Dr. Carter asked the girl at the desk. She was chewing gum and reading a magazine. Without looking up she pointed down the hall and muttered, "In exam 2."

Dr. Carter turned back to Ava. "I just need to tell Dr. Weaver that you're here and then you can get started. Just...wait over there," he said, pointing to the waiting area. Then he hurried off.

Instead, she walked up to the desk. "Sooo, Randi, right?"

She looked up from her magazine. "Mmhmm."

"I'm Ava. I'm supposed to be working here," she said.

Randi put down her magazine. "What are you supposed to be doing?" She said as if she suspected something.

"I'm a doctor..." Ava said, noticing how strange that sounded. She never thought she'd grow up and be a doctor, of all things.

A good-looking black guy in a lab coat walked into the desk area and pulled down a transparent dry-erase board. "Hey Randi, don't we get a new resident today?"

Randi started searching through a drawer for something. "Apparently. Dr. Pratt, meet Dr..."

"Murphy. Nice to meet you," she said, shaking Dr. Pratt's hand.

"The pleasure's all mine," he said with a wink, and left. Oh yah. He was just her kind of guy.

Randi pulled out a pack of gum. "Don't fall for that."

"If you say so..."

Just then Dr. Carter (or the doctor with the pointy nose) came back with a red-haired woman who walked with a crutch. Ava couldn't help but think this lady just had "bitch" written all over. "Dr. Murphy?" she asked.

"Yes?"

"Hi, I'm Dr. Weaver. Can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Sure."

Dr. Weaver and Dr. Carter took her aside. "Sorry. We had just had a little problem with your resume," she said. Dr. Carter handed a copy of it to Ava. "Right here, why does it say you're an African-American?" Dr. Weaver asked.

Whoops. "Oh, I'm sorry. I am an African-American. I'm an immigrant. From South Africa. But I am white. I didn't know that that would be a problem. I'm sorry. I still have a job, right?"

"Don't worry, it's not a problem at all. I was just curious. Of course you still have your job. Carter, will you give her the tour?" Dr. Weaver asked.

"Sure."

Dr. Weaver hobbled away and Carter looked at her resume one more time. "That's interesting. You're white but you're technically and African-American." He dropped the resume at the desk on top of a pile of papers. Randi mumbled "Thanks."

Just then a black nurse told Carter they had a trauma coming in. "Thanks Haleh," he said, and looked around, probably for someone to dump the tour on. Dr. Pratt and Dr. Weaver were nowhere in sight. He opened up the door to exam 3. There was a dark-haired doctor in there putting stitches in someone's leg. "Hey Luka, when you're done with that can you give Dr. Murphy here the tour?"

Luka looked up. He was quite good looking. "Sure."

"Thanks." And Carter rushed off to go save lives. Great. Where was she supposed to go now.

"There's a chair over there if you wanna watch." He said, as if he read her mind.

She snapped out of feeling bad for herself. "What?"

"Chair," he repeated, nodding over to the other side of the room.

"Danke," she said, bringing the chair next to him and sitting down. "Soooo, what have you got here?"

"Well, Mr. Semanco here fell off his skateboard. Pretty deep cut but it'll be fine as long as he keeps it clean-"

"Geez, you've told me that a million times. I'll keep it clean!" The teenager shouted.

"Isn't that what they all say?" Ava asked. The skater folded his arms and pouted in the way that angry teenagers do.

"Would you like to give it a try?" Luka asked about the sutures.

"Sure!" Luka rolled his chair out of the way and handed the needle to her. She had only poked the skin when Mr. Semanco started wailing in pain. Ava looked at Luka for some help, but he was giggling like a little boy.

"Okay, sir, you weren't doing that when he was stitching you up," Dr. Murphy said calmly.

"That's because I wasn't watching!"

The same nurse that had pulled away Dr. Carter burst into the room. "Luka, we need you in trauma 1. NOW." And she ran back to the trauma room.

"Are you going to finish up here or help in trauma?" he asked before he left. She looked back at Mr. Semanco. He was looking at his partially sutured leg. He was gonna blow. She handed him a barf bin. "Compose yourself. I'll be back."

Luka walked quickly to the trauma room, but for every step he took with his long legs, Sara had to take three little steps to keep up. She didn't want to get lost. When she finally got there, she saw that the patient was bleeding out all over the place, and she hadn't changed out of her nice clothes yet. Guess she'd have to pass on this one.

Making her way back to see the skater boy, she ran into a pretty Chinese doctor. "Are you looking for something?" she asked.

"Yah, where can I change?" Ava asked.

"Oh, I'll have a nurse bring you a gown-"

"No no no. I'm Dr. Ava Murphy. I'm the new resident."

"Oh, okay! I'm Jing-Mei Chen."

"That's a pretty name," Ava complimented as they shook hands.

"Thank you. Scrubs are in that room and the staff lounge is by the desk. You can get a nurse to give you a locker-" Jing-Mei was cut off by another bloody trauma coming in. "You better change before you get bled on."

The patient narrowly missed vomiting a liter of blood onto Ava's pants. "I better."

A/n: So what do ya think? Possibly the online substitute for our beloved show? No, it's not, no one will ever come up with that. Leave reviews! Please! I beg of you! REVIEWS!!!!