The Chicago snow fell relentlessly on to the ambulance bay while a young group of med students scurried into the reception area in the ER.

Deb smiled at the keen students while remembering her own days as a med student, stressing out over exams and asking unnecessary questions.

There were 3 med students in all. One, who would have passed for a high school student his baby face and blonde hair. The other guy seemed rather self assured with black hair freshly cut around his handsome face. Deb was sure that he was diagnosing patients in the waiting area with his eyes. The last med student was a young woman, smartly dressed with her brunette hair hanging loosely around her beautiful face.

"Excuse me, we are looking for Dr Carter… we're the new med students…do you know where he is?" 

"Yeah just give me second, I'll tell him you're here"

Deb ran in to the lounge where Carter was drinking a soda while completing some charts.

"John, looks like the celebrity of being chief resident is wearing thin… you got a fresh batch of naïve looking med students waiting for you in the seating area"

"Cheers Deb... tell them I'll jus be a sec"

*******

"I'm Doctor Carter and you must be Michael, Chris and Sara, this is the waiting area, the reception area….

Carter showed the med students around, talked about their responsibilities etc.

"If you do well at med school, you should survive. Any of you at the top of your class?"

"Yeah, Sara is"

"When I normally ask that question I don't get a positive reply. So what type of medicine do you wish to go into?"

Sara looked at the packed ER and replied "Well, I'm pretty sure I want to go into Emergency medicine, its looks challenging."

"Challenging an understatement but I got to admit its rewarding. What about you Chris?"

"Surgery."

"I started off in surgery but then I transferred into the ER. What about you Michael?"

"Paediatrics or geriatrics. I like working with kids and the old."

"You've got your starter packs, Chris you can go up to the OR, take the lift its the second floor and Michael you can go up to level 4. Sara, you can come with me"

Sara followed Carter around the ER, while Carter assessed patients, wrote out prescriptions etc.

"You can start handling patients tomorrow, just the minor cases. Any difficulties come and find me or ask a nurse to find me. So what made you go into medicine?"

"To be honest I was going to go into Law but I was offered a better scholarship in medicine so I took it. I don't regret it now though, but the late nights revising and trying to have a social life sort of clash"

"Don't expect it to be any different now. Weaver, who's our chief isn't going to let you slack off, trust me. But you must have worked really hard to get a scholarship"

"Basically I had really good grades and to get the scholarship I had to show interest in another aspect of school life. I chose sport and basically I got in"

"What do you like to play?"

"Anything really, but I love basketball"

"Same here. We have a hoop in the ambulance bay"

"Sounds good, we have to have a match one time"

"Yeah, sure"

Carter continued checking patients and talking to Sara. She seemed like a nice girl and not like the image of a nerd that he first thought if her as. Time went on and Sara had to get home and prepare for tomorrow.

"Be here bright and early tomorrow. Take care"

"Nice meeting you, and I'll see you tomorrow"

Carter walked over to the reception area to pick up his last chart for today. Pratt came over with a grin on his face.

"That new med student is fine. I'll be happy working closely with her for a few months"

Abby looked at Pratt disgusted "Is that all you think about? She's way out of your league Pratt" 

"She seems nice enough; just give her time before she develops the arrogance of a doctor" replied Haleh in an undertone

" What was that Haleh?"

" Oh nothing"

"All I can say is she's some much needed eye candy and I don't care if she's out of league, it's going to be a fun couple of weeks"

"She's actually really clever, she got a scholarship and gets high marks, and I bet she'll see right through you"

"Carter seems to have taken a shine to the new med student"

"Shut up Pratt"

Kerry walked over and the staff quickly dispersed and began making themselves look busy.