Chapter 7: Rotating Rotations

The weeks flew by, my head nearly spun as I floated from Surgery, NICU, Psyche, and thru the other rotations in the hospital. My status changed from that of a third year to a fourth year. My nerves were at an all time high now as I took the boards and now found myself doing yet another ER rotation. I smiled now as I stood outside the door again, the entrance to the ER. It seemed like forever since I had worked in there on my last rotation, but there was something about the ER. It and now here I was thinking that I had found my calling. The ER had been the one place that I had put some serious consideration into doing my intern year and my residency.

Without hesitation this time, I walked in smiling again as I threw my things into a locker in the lounge. This place almost felt like home and that I had been away from it too long. I put on my lab coat, over a pair of scrubs. I would have actually worn clothes, but the thought of having to change yet again after being there fifteen minutes; it just made more sense for me to wear scrubs. I had gotten used to wearing them from the other rotations.

With a cup of coffee in each hand I headed for the admit desk. Setting one of the down in front of Jerry, "hey there did you miss me?" I asked him smiling.

"Erica!" I hear the teddy bear looking desk clerk say as he looks down at me. Jerry was a great deal taller than I was. His arm went around my shoulder, "back to join us?"

"You bet I am." I say beaming now, "6 weeks and then it will be Dr. Erica."

"I'm looking forward to that." He says to me. "Although you don't expect me to call you Dr. Ross do you?"

"Oh you know I do." I say to him teasingly, "of course not Jerry. Dr. Erica will work just as fine, or doc." I playfully punch at his arm as I look at the rack, "whose on this fine Chicago Monday?"

"Dr. Lewis, Dr. Carter, and I think Dr. Ross is due in here soon."

I smile as I take a drink from the coffee cup. "I see. Well then I guess that I should get busy here." I put the coffee cup down and pick up a chart. "Don't want them to think that they have some slacker down here again." I now look at the chart in my hands, "oh man what a way to come back, you think that you could have warned me."

I hear Jerry laugh, "now where would have been the fun in that."

"You know Jerry," I say giving him this halfhearted upset look in his face, "I thought you would have treated me better."

"First come first serve." He says with his smile, "you know I love you but there's that no picking thru the rack rule."

"Well it could be worse," I say walking down the hall, nothing like starting my day off with a foreign body removal. I head into the room to begin my day.

Twenty minutes later, I manage to pull myself from the room. There was no short story behind this one, and the patient had felt some deep-seated need to tell me the entire story. This story of his was way more than I had ever wanted to know. Once he started though, I could find no way to get him to stop. I find my coffee back at admit, now somewhat colder, almost to the point of not being drinkable.

"Jerry you stick me with another one of those and I am never going to bring you another donut or cup of coffee as long as I live." I say half joking, half meaning it.

I see Doug now standing there with a very smug look on his face. "Ahh, you get the short end of the stick there Erica?"

"I'll short end of the stick you." I half joke with him now, "if you only knew how bad the stick reference was." I say signing the chart and holding it out to him, "here sign off on this would you so I can get him out of the ER before he finds something else."

I watched Doug look at the chart and make a face, "oh yeah," he said looking up at me, "go right ahead a dispo this one."

I roll my eyes at him now, "that was the plan." I say. I had become more confidant in my abilities as a doctor now, "wasn't looking for your approval there doc, just a signature."

"Gotten cocky there my little medical student." He said reaching over and poking at me.

"Nope, I've just hung around you too long," I say poking back at him, "I'm aiming for ER cowgirl rather than ER cowboy."

"Hey now," Doug said looking at me over his chart, "there will be none of that, one ER rebel is all that county can handle. They broke the mold when they made me."

"Oh no, they didn't," I spat back at him, "they broke it when they made me. You were just a prototype."

"Prototype, you girl are cruel." He said to me.

"Well at least I'm not ancient like you." I said still smiling at him, "what's that saying, you can't teach old dog's new tricks."

"Watch it." He said smiling at me as we jested back at forth.

Even I had to admit that the relationship that I had with Doug was different than I thought it ever could be. I had managed to get past the awkwardness of being his daughter-in-law and see him for the true person that he was not the person that had been painted by my mother-in-law.

I picked up another chart while I was standing there so that if anyone passed by it looked like I was working hard. "Coffee when you go on break?"

"You got it." He said to me. "How about we do that in an hour?"

"Sure, I think I can manage." I say smiling at him as I headed down the hall with another chart in my hands.

Well I would have had coffee with him in an hour if we hadn't been hit hard with patients and trauma's there for a good sold four hours. I finally managed to find my way back to the admit desk with out having another chart throw at me, or being called into another room. I sighed now as I looked at the board, there seemed to be a soft lull in the action. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Doug making his way back towards the admit desk as well.

"Okay we are definitely going for coffee now." He said as he reached for my arm.

"You don't have to say coffee twice." I smile softly at him now, "I sure could use it, I think I'm running on empty right now."

"You and me both," he said as we walked out the ambulance bay doors and over towards Ivan's.

Nothing is said between the two of us and Doug buys the coffee this trip. I would get it the next time that we went, if given the chance. I think that he knew that as a med student I was strapped for cash. He smiled at me as he handed it to me and we walked back over sitting on the bench outside the ER. I reached down into my lab coat pulling out smokes. It was a habit that I had long been trying to get rid of but never had managed to kick.

"You know if that doesn't kill you I will for doing it." I hear him say to me.

"I think I'll take my chances with it killing me." I say back. "I'm working on stopping really I am, but you know we all have our vices."

"Excuses, that's all that is." He said looking at me.

"Yeah I know but," my voice trailed off a little now my eyes panning the parking lot, "you're right no more excuses." I don't light it but rather put it back in my lab coat for now. I would refrain from doing that in his presence.

"That's better." He said to me, "besides I want you around for a long time that will shorten your life span."

"I'll still outlive you." I joked now not wanting there to be any tension between us. We had started with a lot of tension between us and I had grown accustomed to the joking that went on now that we were used to each other and were getting a friendship thing going.

"So," I hear him say as I see the coffee cup go up to his mouth, there was a pause there shortly, "no word from David?"

"No," I say looking over at him, "I don't know if he was waiting to hear from me or if there's something more to it. Maybe he's gotten the hint that I'm not giving in to his pleas."

"Maybe, you haven't called him then?"

"Nope," I reply sipping now from my cup. "I don't think I will anytime soon either. As much as I want to believe that he's changed something inside me doesn't want to believe it, to be pulled in again to have the hurt. It took me a long time to get to where I am now, and that's where I want to stay for now. I'm happy Doug."

I feel him patting my leg before I hear him say anything else. "That's all you can ask for right now. You've worked hard Erica; you deserve to be happy right now. In a few weeks all your hard work will pay off and you will graduate."

"I know and I am really looking forward to the last eight years of my life accumulating to something." I say, "I have worked hard for this, fought an uphill battle all the way and you know what I'm a good doctor, or have the ability to be a good one."

"You're good at it." He said to me know as he stood up, "speaking of being a doctor, we have patients to see. Coffee break is over."

I got up and followed him inside to finish the rest of the shift, this feeling in the back of my mind now that something was going to happen and it was going to happen so. I didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing, but something definitely felt like it was going to happen.