The bus ride was uneventful given that all the bus drivers in Glen Oak were
rule mongering safety freaks. Not that it mattered to them, if you rode his
bus, just sit down and stay down was the rule of the schoolbus. Nevermind
that sometimes bullies often frequented this bus and threatened students
physically. All that mattered was that you sit down and stay seated.
Ruthie and Peter were sitting side by side near the front while as usual the big boys and the populars were at the back, including Sean Colton, the boy who beat up Peter over making fun of Ruthie. Sean looked over at Ruthie and Peter and wondered what Linda was talking about. A twin? And one who was more gutsier and actually stood up to Linda. Linda had told him about the incident with one of the patients as well as the fact that she looked exactly like Ruthie. Not too many people stood up to Linda but this nerd did and even used physical force. Maybe not all preacher's kids were losers after all.
When the bus stopped in front of Los Angeles County General ER, earning some rather choice words from the paramedics and doctors who thought that a big bus should be parked in front of the administration building where it would not get in the way of other ambulances delivering critical patients. Nonetheless the bus driver ignored them and started unloading students. Reverend Chandler Hampton was there himself, chaperroning this time with Cecillia who had taken an interest in this 'Doogie Howser'.
Lisa, just coming back from rounds, saw from where she was standing at the triage desk the big bus blocking the view from the Emergency Room doors. Sighing she saw the students entering through the entrance and then her eyes widened when she saw who was at the front. The students stopped dead in their tracks and all eyes turned from Lisa and Ruthie simultaneously. Chandler also stared in shock at the remarkable resemblance between the two.
"Holy shit Linda was right!", Sean said looking from Lisa to Ruthie.
Lisa then came to her senses and walked over to Ruthie, a genuine friendly smile coming to her face as she offered her hand in friendship, "Hi you must be Ruthie Camden. I'm Dr. Lisa Chandler."
"Ruthie Camden.", Ruthie replied, shaking her twin's hand out of courtesy.
"Well this is unexpected.", Chandler said, "I'm Reverend Chandler Hampton. You two could be twins."
Lisa shrugged at that and then remembered the bus, "Well anyways next time I would appreciate it if you guys remind the bus driver to park in front of the administration office instead of the ER when he comes to pick you guys up? That area is for ambulances only."
"Actually it was not his idea.", Chandler said, somewhat embarrassed.
"Well which bozo decided it was a good idea to park there?"
"Um Cecillia's?", he said motioning his head to the woman who was now approaching them and who too was struck speechless by Lisa's remarkable resemblance to Ruthie.
Lisa gave Cecillia an exasperated stare and said, "Why the hell did you decide to have that schoolbus parked there?"
"Well...because we are supposed to be here. We are here for career day Doctor.",Cecillia looked at the name tag bobbing her head slightly that made Lisa think there was something wrong with her neck, "Chandler. I just thought we get here earlier because we want to get back to Glen Oak as soon as possible and I do not want to have us walk all over the entire hospital later on."
"Well it can't be kept there. It is blocking any ambulances that may be carrying critical patients. So will you please tell the driver to move the bus to the front of the administration building. Otherwise I will have to have security order it moved there."
Chandler could not help but grin at Lisa's attitude and Cecillia just glared at the small girl who looked like Ruthie. But rather than delay career day, she went outside to do as Lisa told. As soon as the bus moved, career day was now in session.
++++++++++
Chandler and Cecillia had decided to tour Los Angeles while Lisa again did her daily ritual of seeing and treating patients. Again nothing major except food poisoning and suturing. The teens that were with her were again tentative and pretty well behaved. Ruthie just watched her without saying a word.
This time Lisa was checking out a man with chest pains. She listened to his heart, though when she asked him to remove his shirt, Ruthie gave her a strange look, took his blood pressure and pulse rate and ordered some cardiac tests. The man, a Gary Toller, businessman for some electronic company, was the busybody type, although admittedly friendly and pretty accepting once the nurse confirmed that she was indeed a doctor.
"So what's the verdict doc.", he said weakly while she was examining his test results.
"Well I hate to tell you this but you did suffer a heart attack, a minor one but you did have one. We've already gave you anti coagulants to try to free up your arteries but I think the best course of action is to admit you for observation."
Gary nodded and lay back, "Thank you doctor."
"You might want to stop smoking as well. Believe me it will make it worse."
"It's a bad habit I know. Been trying to quit for years. Even tried these nicoderms. I guess I was too late."
Ruthie rolled her eyes and Peter simply smirked.
"Oh you'll be fine. The damage to your heart was minimal. You just have to make sure you take better care of it from now on.", Lisa said giving him an affectionate pat on the shoulder.
Lisa escorted the patient to the Cardiology Ward and handed the chart to the intern in charge, Dr. Tom Hammons, who happened to be Lisa's friend from medical school.
"Hey Lisa. So how's your tour going?"
"Fine Tom. Um here's the chart and everything is on it with the xrays and cardiac enzymes."
"Okey dokey. Who's the twin?", Tom said looking at Ruthie for the first time.
"Oh just some girl who lives in Glen Oak."
"You guys enjoying the tour?"
All of the students nodded, "Okay then I'll catch you later.", Tom said and he left to see that Mr. Toller was admitted to the Ward.
"Okay guys back to the ER guys."
"Wait.", Peter asked, "Isn't he a little old for you?"
Lisa gave Peter an odd look, "What do you mean?"
Peter gestured towards Tom.
"He's just an old classmate from medical school. Why?"
"Well he is too old to be a boyfriend."
"What?!", Lisa asked exasperated, "What makes you think he is my boyfriend?"
"Well the way you two like each other. He is male and you are female.", Ruthie added.
"So?"
"Well you do work with him."
"As a coworker yes. Not as a date."
"Okay whatever. Just think you could be more selective honey."
Lisa was about to start heading to the ER when she stopped and gave Peter a serious 'what did you just call me' stare. Then continued on to the ER.
++++++++++
"I don't know there must be some reason why she wants to be a doctor. I mean she can't really be serious about this job can she?", Peter said, "She's our age."
"Well I don't think you're comment about her being that other doctor's girlfriend was weirder.", Liz Snyder, one of the other teens said.
"Well why not? She is handling an adult profession. Maybe she thinks that includes having adult relationships?"
"Peter you're ridiculous.", Liz responded, growing weary of Peter's constant theories about Lisa. He had been coming up with more ludicrous ideas as to how Lisa was able to be a doctor at age 13, as if he needed to somehow dispel the notion that she was successful at it. Ruthie too was wondering the same thing.
Meanwhile the children were now seeing something exciting. A teenager was brought in with multiple gunshot wounds. Many of the children were starting to feel the urge to throw up and Lisa wondered if it was a good idea to let them watch this. To her relief the nurse drew a curtain around the bed blocking the kid's view. Some of them started to whine.
"Hey why does she get to see this and we don't?", Peter said.
"Because she's a doctor.", Kerri replied.
It took only a few minutes and soon it was over. When the curtain was drawn, the gunshot victim had a blanket drawn over his head indicating he was dead.
"Nice try people. Time of death 11:30 am."
Lisa shook her head and didn't cry. She had gotten used to this over the past few months. So she helped prepare the body and prepare it for the morgue. Several of the students were upset about this as well.
"Wow. He was only 15.", Sean said, clearly upset about what had happened.
"He's a gang member. What would you expect?", Ruthie responded.
"So?", Sean said.
"Well all gang members are losers and drug addicts."
Lisa had just come back from helping deliver the body to the morgue when she heard Ruthie's comment. It did not matter to her at first since everyone had an opinion, but somehow Lisa seemed unsettled by this twin. The way she spoke to people and sometimes the way she acted towards certain patients, particularly towards drug addicts and smokers which seemed to be oddly enough the order of the day, just made Lisa feel the urge to throttle Ruthie for all the annoying eye rolling she did that was a distraction.
Lisa looked at her watch and realized that it was lunchtime, "Oops it's time to eat guys. Why don't we head to the cafeteria downstairs and I'll treat all of you to pizza?"
After a long 4 hours of walking all over a big hospital the teens were more than happy to accept.
++++++++++
The pizza was delicious as usual and the teenagers gobbled up the entire order. Lisa was now talking to Ruthie, Peter and Sean about their lives. Peter and Ruthie did most of the talking though not really giving Sean much of a word edgewise. So Lisa decided to talk to him as well.
"So Sean are you by any chance related to Victor Colton?"
"He's my grandfather why?"
"He was my Anatomy professor at UofC."
"Cool! Must have been fun having to cut up all those dead people."
"Well it was kinda interesting. Although I ended up throwing up most of the time during the first month of classes."
Sean snickered at that and added, "Well at least you didn't faint! My older sister also went to UofC and she fainted the first day of Anatomy class! At least that's what grandpa told me!"
"Why would anyone cut up dead bodies? That's sick!", Peter said.
"That's how they learn about the human body dummy.", Sean responded, "And where they practice being surgeons. Would you rather have them practice on living people?"
"Well I think it's immoral.", Ruthie said, "But I guess that you can't help it because you're a child prodigy and therefore must have strange ideas as to what it means to be an adult."
Lisa again gave Ruthie a strange look and wondered exactly what she meant. Then she looked at her watch and realized that it was time to get moving again.
"Okay everyone! I think we should continue on with the tour."
Lisa waited for everyone to clean up then prepared to head to the ER when Peter said, "Okay honey! Where to next?"
Lisa this time gave Peter a murderous glare and said, "If you call me honey one more time I will knock you on your ass!"
And with that she started to head back to the ER. There were several snickers and looks of respect from the other teens and Sean was grinning from ear to ear.
"Linda's right! I like her!", and with that he roughly shoved a shocked Peter out of his way and gleefully followed Lisa.
TO BE CONTINUED
Ruthie and Peter were sitting side by side near the front while as usual the big boys and the populars were at the back, including Sean Colton, the boy who beat up Peter over making fun of Ruthie. Sean looked over at Ruthie and Peter and wondered what Linda was talking about. A twin? And one who was more gutsier and actually stood up to Linda. Linda had told him about the incident with one of the patients as well as the fact that she looked exactly like Ruthie. Not too many people stood up to Linda but this nerd did and even used physical force. Maybe not all preacher's kids were losers after all.
When the bus stopped in front of Los Angeles County General ER, earning some rather choice words from the paramedics and doctors who thought that a big bus should be parked in front of the administration building where it would not get in the way of other ambulances delivering critical patients. Nonetheless the bus driver ignored them and started unloading students. Reverend Chandler Hampton was there himself, chaperroning this time with Cecillia who had taken an interest in this 'Doogie Howser'.
Lisa, just coming back from rounds, saw from where she was standing at the triage desk the big bus blocking the view from the Emergency Room doors. Sighing she saw the students entering through the entrance and then her eyes widened when she saw who was at the front. The students stopped dead in their tracks and all eyes turned from Lisa and Ruthie simultaneously. Chandler also stared in shock at the remarkable resemblance between the two.
"Holy shit Linda was right!", Sean said looking from Lisa to Ruthie.
Lisa then came to her senses and walked over to Ruthie, a genuine friendly smile coming to her face as she offered her hand in friendship, "Hi you must be Ruthie Camden. I'm Dr. Lisa Chandler."
"Ruthie Camden.", Ruthie replied, shaking her twin's hand out of courtesy.
"Well this is unexpected.", Chandler said, "I'm Reverend Chandler Hampton. You two could be twins."
Lisa shrugged at that and then remembered the bus, "Well anyways next time I would appreciate it if you guys remind the bus driver to park in front of the administration office instead of the ER when he comes to pick you guys up? That area is for ambulances only."
"Actually it was not his idea.", Chandler said, somewhat embarrassed.
"Well which bozo decided it was a good idea to park there?"
"Um Cecillia's?", he said motioning his head to the woman who was now approaching them and who too was struck speechless by Lisa's remarkable resemblance to Ruthie.
Lisa gave Cecillia an exasperated stare and said, "Why the hell did you decide to have that schoolbus parked there?"
"Well...because we are supposed to be here. We are here for career day Doctor.",Cecillia looked at the name tag bobbing her head slightly that made Lisa think there was something wrong with her neck, "Chandler. I just thought we get here earlier because we want to get back to Glen Oak as soon as possible and I do not want to have us walk all over the entire hospital later on."
"Well it can't be kept there. It is blocking any ambulances that may be carrying critical patients. So will you please tell the driver to move the bus to the front of the administration building. Otherwise I will have to have security order it moved there."
Chandler could not help but grin at Lisa's attitude and Cecillia just glared at the small girl who looked like Ruthie. But rather than delay career day, she went outside to do as Lisa told. As soon as the bus moved, career day was now in session.
++++++++++
Chandler and Cecillia had decided to tour Los Angeles while Lisa again did her daily ritual of seeing and treating patients. Again nothing major except food poisoning and suturing. The teens that were with her were again tentative and pretty well behaved. Ruthie just watched her without saying a word.
This time Lisa was checking out a man with chest pains. She listened to his heart, though when she asked him to remove his shirt, Ruthie gave her a strange look, took his blood pressure and pulse rate and ordered some cardiac tests. The man, a Gary Toller, businessman for some electronic company, was the busybody type, although admittedly friendly and pretty accepting once the nurse confirmed that she was indeed a doctor.
"So what's the verdict doc.", he said weakly while she was examining his test results.
"Well I hate to tell you this but you did suffer a heart attack, a minor one but you did have one. We've already gave you anti coagulants to try to free up your arteries but I think the best course of action is to admit you for observation."
Gary nodded and lay back, "Thank you doctor."
"You might want to stop smoking as well. Believe me it will make it worse."
"It's a bad habit I know. Been trying to quit for years. Even tried these nicoderms. I guess I was too late."
Ruthie rolled her eyes and Peter simply smirked.
"Oh you'll be fine. The damage to your heart was minimal. You just have to make sure you take better care of it from now on.", Lisa said giving him an affectionate pat on the shoulder.
Lisa escorted the patient to the Cardiology Ward and handed the chart to the intern in charge, Dr. Tom Hammons, who happened to be Lisa's friend from medical school.
"Hey Lisa. So how's your tour going?"
"Fine Tom. Um here's the chart and everything is on it with the xrays and cardiac enzymes."
"Okey dokey. Who's the twin?", Tom said looking at Ruthie for the first time.
"Oh just some girl who lives in Glen Oak."
"You guys enjoying the tour?"
All of the students nodded, "Okay then I'll catch you later.", Tom said and he left to see that Mr. Toller was admitted to the Ward.
"Okay guys back to the ER guys."
"Wait.", Peter asked, "Isn't he a little old for you?"
Lisa gave Peter an odd look, "What do you mean?"
Peter gestured towards Tom.
"He's just an old classmate from medical school. Why?"
"Well he is too old to be a boyfriend."
"What?!", Lisa asked exasperated, "What makes you think he is my boyfriend?"
"Well the way you two like each other. He is male and you are female.", Ruthie added.
"So?"
"Well you do work with him."
"As a coworker yes. Not as a date."
"Okay whatever. Just think you could be more selective honey."
Lisa was about to start heading to the ER when she stopped and gave Peter a serious 'what did you just call me' stare. Then continued on to the ER.
++++++++++
"I don't know there must be some reason why she wants to be a doctor. I mean she can't really be serious about this job can she?", Peter said, "She's our age."
"Well I don't think you're comment about her being that other doctor's girlfriend was weirder.", Liz Snyder, one of the other teens said.
"Well why not? She is handling an adult profession. Maybe she thinks that includes having adult relationships?"
"Peter you're ridiculous.", Liz responded, growing weary of Peter's constant theories about Lisa. He had been coming up with more ludicrous ideas as to how Lisa was able to be a doctor at age 13, as if he needed to somehow dispel the notion that she was successful at it. Ruthie too was wondering the same thing.
Meanwhile the children were now seeing something exciting. A teenager was brought in with multiple gunshot wounds. Many of the children were starting to feel the urge to throw up and Lisa wondered if it was a good idea to let them watch this. To her relief the nurse drew a curtain around the bed blocking the kid's view. Some of them started to whine.
"Hey why does she get to see this and we don't?", Peter said.
"Because she's a doctor.", Kerri replied.
It took only a few minutes and soon it was over. When the curtain was drawn, the gunshot victim had a blanket drawn over his head indicating he was dead.
"Nice try people. Time of death 11:30 am."
Lisa shook her head and didn't cry. She had gotten used to this over the past few months. So she helped prepare the body and prepare it for the morgue. Several of the students were upset about this as well.
"Wow. He was only 15.", Sean said, clearly upset about what had happened.
"He's a gang member. What would you expect?", Ruthie responded.
"So?", Sean said.
"Well all gang members are losers and drug addicts."
Lisa had just come back from helping deliver the body to the morgue when she heard Ruthie's comment. It did not matter to her at first since everyone had an opinion, but somehow Lisa seemed unsettled by this twin. The way she spoke to people and sometimes the way she acted towards certain patients, particularly towards drug addicts and smokers which seemed to be oddly enough the order of the day, just made Lisa feel the urge to throttle Ruthie for all the annoying eye rolling she did that was a distraction.
Lisa looked at her watch and realized that it was lunchtime, "Oops it's time to eat guys. Why don't we head to the cafeteria downstairs and I'll treat all of you to pizza?"
After a long 4 hours of walking all over a big hospital the teens were more than happy to accept.
++++++++++
The pizza was delicious as usual and the teenagers gobbled up the entire order. Lisa was now talking to Ruthie, Peter and Sean about their lives. Peter and Ruthie did most of the talking though not really giving Sean much of a word edgewise. So Lisa decided to talk to him as well.
"So Sean are you by any chance related to Victor Colton?"
"He's my grandfather why?"
"He was my Anatomy professor at UofC."
"Cool! Must have been fun having to cut up all those dead people."
"Well it was kinda interesting. Although I ended up throwing up most of the time during the first month of classes."
Sean snickered at that and added, "Well at least you didn't faint! My older sister also went to UofC and she fainted the first day of Anatomy class! At least that's what grandpa told me!"
"Why would anyone cut up dead bodies? That's sick!", Peter said.
"That's how they learn about the human body dummy.", Sean responded, "And where they practice being surgeons. Would you rather have them practice on living people?"
"Well I think it's immoral.", Ruthie said, "But I guess that you can't help it because you're a child prodigy and therefore must have strange ideas as to what it means to be an adult."
Lisa again gave Ruthie a strange look and wondered exactly what she meant. Then she looked at her watch and realized that it was time to get moving again.
"Okay everyone! I think we should continue on with the tour."
Lisa waited for everyone to clean up then prepared to head to the ER when Peter said, "Okay honey! Where to next?"
Lisa this time gave Peter a murderous glare and said, "If you call me honey one more time I will knock you on your ass!"
And with that she started to head back to the ER. There were several snickers and looks of respect from the other teens and Sean was grinning from ear to ear.
"Linda's right! I like her!", and with that he roughly shoved a shocked Peter out of his way and gleefully followed Lisa.
TO BE CONTINUED
