I've been writing fanfics for almost a decade, and this is my first Modern AU. Wow. First time for everything, I guess. XD
Focus. She had to focus. But 'focusing' was the last thing her brain could do. Her 'focusing' was more 'multitasking' without completing anything in-full before moving on. But her extreme dedication (which border-lined on 'workaholism') made sure she completed all her daily tasks before the end of her shift.
She stared at the chart on the computer, her frown deepening before she pressed the 'print' button. Once she had a physical copy in her hands, she stared at it again, as if the results had magically changed en route from the hard drive to the printer.
All the tests she'd ordered for her the latest diagnostic team case had come back negative. They'd hit another dead end.
"Come on, Elphaba, think," she muttered, pacing around the conference room.
The floor code alarm sounded, and she sighed. She concentrated better in the quiet, but hospitals were rarely quiet, and when they were, it was usually the sign of the calm before the storm.
"I'll come back to you," she promised the file, before grabbing her pager and taking off.
All that rushing ended up being for nothing, since another team got there first, so she shuffled back to her office and returned to her file.
"Dr. Thropp?"
She ignored the voice in the doorway.
"Dr. Thropp?"
"Hmm?"
"It's time to go downstairs. The new interns have arrived."
She looked up. "That's today?"
The doctor in the doorway rolled her eyes. "Yes. Today's July first. It's been today for the past two months."
Elphaba grunted. "Alright. I'll be down in a few minutes."
The fellow doctor gave her a look of deadpanned disbelief, which was ignored, and left.
Fiyero looked up at the tall, somewhat daunting, brick exterior of St. Aelphaba Hospital. Located in Shiz, it was considered one of the top hospitals in all of Oz. He couldn't believe this would be his home for the next three years, hopefully longer. The last four years of medical school had been complete hell, and he was finally ready to do what he was trained to do.
Taking a deep breath, he opened the doors and was about to proudly march in and take in the cool, air-conditioned relief from the summer heat, but was promptly almost run over by a gurney.
"Watch out!" came the hurried voice of the nurse who almost made him a patient rather than a doctor.
He jumped out of the way, bumping into a doctor carrying multiple binders. The collision caused the binders to scatter, and said-doctor let out a loud, annoyed groan as unsecured papers floated across the waxed floor.
"Sorry!" Fiyero quickly apologized, rushing to retrieve the papers. He grabbed all of them and attempted to put them in order, but they were snatched from his hand.
"Let me guess, first day?"
He looked up at the annoyed doctor. Tall, dark-skinned, curvy, with full lips pressed in a thin line. Her dark brown eyes stared directly into his soul. Her black hair was tied in a loose, messy bun on the back of her neck. "Uh.. yeah." He nervously brushed himself off. "I mean, yes, I'm –"
"About to be late for your intern orientation. Go to the security desk and get your photo I.D." She vaguely pointed in the direction of the security desk, along with the turn style into the main lobby. She straightened her navy scrubs and lab coat before hurrying away.
Taking his photo ID was the easiest part of his day. He couldn't stop looking at the card with Dr. Fiyero Tigulaar, MD in bold writing, along with a photo of him giving his most optimistic grin. It was his first day as a real doctor. He'd been dreaming of this day since he learned first-aid in boy scouts.
He joined a group of interns walking through the waiting area, following the signs for 'Intern Orientation. He felt proud walking amongst everyone, wearing hip-length, white lab coats, and passing doctors in full-length lab coats. Once they reached the west atrium, they were met with a room full of twenty or so more interns, and an older woman standing behind an elevated podium.
"Welcome! Welcome, first-year residents. I am Dr. Morienne Morrible, Chief of Staff here at St. Aelphaba Hospital. Whether you're here to study Nephrology, Oncology, or Rheumatology, I know I speak for my fellow doctors when I say we have nothing but the highest hopes…" she scanned the crowd, "for some of you."
Fiyero's face dropped. Was this supposed to be an encouraging pep talk?
"I'm sure you all fully expect to make a difference. Well, that's not gonna happen. If I'm being completely honest, half of you won't make it. But the other half of you will thrive."
He strove to be a part of that 'other half'.
"I have your assigned senior residents. These doctors have been carefully matched based on specialties and – because I'm so nice – personalities. For the next year, these doctors will be your teachers and mentors. They are here for you to ask questions, bounce ideas off of, and offer guidance, but they are not going to take care of your patients. They are not going to do your job for you, and while they promised to be friendly, they are not your friends. Am I understood?"
A chorus of 'yeses' floated up, and the older doctor smiled in satisfaction. She pinned multiple copies of the assignment sheet to the bulletin board and hurried away as the eager interns rushed over.
When it was finally his turn, Fiyero scanned the list for his name. "Dr. Elphaba Thropp."
"We're also with Dr. Thropp!"
He looked over and approached the group of four waving interns. He looked around at all the other doctors getting to know their groups, but they were still alone. "Where's Dr. Thropp?"
"We don't know. But we were told to wait here for her. I'm Shem Ottokos."
"Fiyero Tigulaar."
He got to know the other interns; Pfannee Norral, ShenShen Minkos, and Milla Vonnt, and they just stood by the board, talking, waiting for their mentor.
"What made you choose St. Aelphaba's?" Milla asked, trying to start a conversation while they waited.
"The hot nurses," Fiyero smirked, jerking his head to the nurses' station.
Pfannee rolled her eyes, ShenShen scoffed, and Milla bowed her head to hide her giggle.
"Atta boy!" Shem smiled, clapping Fiyero on the shoulder.
"And where are you five supposed to be?"
The group turned to see a woman in dark blue scrubs, her blonde hair in a messy bun, with 'Glinda A. Upland-Chuffrey, RN' embroidered in thick, pink thread on the left side of her lab coat, clutching a clipboard covered in pink happy-faced flowers to her large baby bump, and wearing the biggest frown they'd ever seen.
"We were told to wait here for Dr. Thropp," Fiyero said, his gaze resting a bit too long on her rounded belly.
"I paged her to be down here twenty minutes ago. She knew today is 'New Interns Day'. I marked it on her calendar. Oz, that woman… Greyling, where's Dr. Thropp?"
"She was called in to assist Dr. Thworn's appendectomy at the last minute," the other nurse supplied.
"Oh, she was?" She sounded like she didn't believe a single word.
"They should be finishing soon. You know how she gets wrapped up in her work, Glinda."
"Oh, I believe she was in surgery," she sighed, pulling out her phone from her back pocket.
"Wait, these interns are with Dr. Thropp?" Greyling gasped, then let out a loud cackle. "They're trusting her with the newest group of doctors? I'm so sorry."
"Greyling, don't do that. You'll scare them." She pocketed her phone. "Well, you five can't just stand around like this. You're on the clock. You have patients to see, but can't see them without your assignments from Dr. Thropp. Go wait for her in the South Ward. It's that-a-way," she added when she was met with blank stares from the interns.
The group hurried away, finding the nurses' station in the South Ward after only a few wrong turns, and waited for the doctor.
"You're Dr. Thropp's interns? She didn't mention she was on the list of teachers," the nurse said, typing something into the computer.
"She's a third-year resident. It's her turn to teach," a nurse leaning against the desk and drinking coffee said.
"They're letting The Witch have interns?"
"But this group looks so young and happy. She'll make them jaded too quickly."
The interns looked at each other. Their resident was nicknamed 'The Witch'?
The group of nurses snickered, but quickly stopped when the door to the changing room flew open and a green woman in a white lab coat stepped out. She stopped right in front of the group, looking expectantly at the nurse sitting at the computer.
"Here are your new charts, Dr. Thropp," he said, handing her a clipboard. "Mrs. Munt in Room 231 is no longer hypertensive; Mr. Ylyle in 8273 is recovering well, and Miss Thaun in 248 is refusing to take her medication."
The green woman groaned. "Great. I'll talk to her again. Thanks." She left without a single glance at the group.
"Dr. Thropp!"
She turned. "Yes?"
"Your interns."
She rolled her eyes. "What about them? I'm far too busy to –"
"These are your interns."
"She'd lose her head if it wasn't attached," the coffee-drinking nurse groaned, throwing out his cup.
Pfannee frowned, ShenShen tried to hide her fear behind a smile, and Milla offered her a small wave. Fiyero stared at her, mouth slightly agape, but quickly shut it. Were they calling her 'The Witch' because of her skin? Shem was the only one who didn't physically react.
"Hi. I'm Milla Vonnt. It's an honor to work with you, Dr. Thropp," the redhead said, extending her hand.
The doctor just stared at her hand with pursed lips before slowly lifting an incredulous eyebrow. Milla slowly lowered her hand and rocked on the balls of her feet, looking everywhere except at her.
"They look far too happy," Elphaba frowned, looking at them over her thin-rimmed, black glasses.
"Nurse Upland-Chuffrey told me to let her know if you refused to play nice," the computer nurse warned in a sing-song.
She shot him a look, but gave in. "Alright. We have lots of work to do. A few rules I need you to memorize; number one, your pagers –" She took the bag from the clip and handed out five pagers. "When you're paged, you answer immediately. Lives are at stake, and we can't have someone die because you're too slow. Your first shift is twenty hours and starts now."
She turned and walked away, only stopping when she didn't hear footsteps behind her. She didn't bother to hide her annoyance when the interns scrambled after her.
"As interns, you're at the bottom of the hospital food chain, and you'll have to claw your way up. That doesn't mean lie and cheat –" She glanced over her shoulder at Pfannee. "It means you'll have to work until your legs fall off your torso, then we'll have to call our surgical teams to put you back together." She opened a door with a few plain bunk beds and lots of cots. "This is the on-call room. They don't take reservations, so you won't get served if you don't come first. This brings me to rule number two: if I'm sleeping, do not wake me -"
Everything told Fiyero she was the last person he'd want to wake.
"- Unless your patient is dying. Rule number three, if the dying patient is dead when I get there, you'll be next. I don't appreciate being woken for no good reason. Any questions?"
ShenShen meekly raised her hand. "Dr. Thropp? If you're an internal medicine resident, why were you in surgery? I thought internal medicine doctors don't perform surgeries."
"That is normally true. But depending on how much training a doctor has, they can be certified to assist in minor, routine procedures. I am one of those doctors, but I will not be performing open-heart surgery on my own anytime soon. Observing is a wonderful way to learn. And that's the only question I will answer about myself."
"Will we have to perform surgeries?" Pfannee asked, raising her hand like she was still in school.
"It's highly unlikely, especially as interns, but you must be prepared for all emergencies. You shouldn't be doing anything more complicated than the procedures you learned in med-school." She looked at the clipboard the nurse gave her. "Here are your assignments. In three hours, report back to the nurses' desk, and be ready to report during rounds." She handed out the papers and left with a swift nod.
"She's… something," Milla blinked once she was out of earshot.
"She doesn't seem so bad. It could be worse," Fiyero shrugged. "I didn't expect her to –"
"Pretend we won't exist?"
"Be green."
"Eh, they showed us weirder stuff in med school. It's probably some type of rare skin condition," Shem shrugged.
"Why do they call her 'The Witch'?" Pfannee asked.
"While I don't want to find out the hard way, I think that's how we're gonna learn that answer." ShenShen stretched his arms over his head with a loud groan. "While she didn't leave us optimistic, I'm ready to go save some lives."
The interns bid farewell to each other and went their separate ways. Fiyero looked at his chart and went to visit his first patient.
"Come in," a soft voice called to his knock.
He opened the door and put on his best smile. The patient was a middle-aged woman sitting in bed with a book. "Mrs. Lunkui? I'm Dr. Tigulaar." Oz, it felt good to say that.
She looked up at him. "You're my doctor?"
"Yes, ma'am." He grabbed her chart. Fifty-three years old, admitted for severe headache, occasional double vision, insomnia, and nausea.
"You're very young."
It didn't sound like a condescending insult, so he kept the smile. "I am."
"How old are you?"
That sounded more condescending. "Twenty-seven."
The woman's face melted into a smile. "I like the young ones. They're so bright-eyed and eager, and don't pretend they know everything." She eyed him. "You're fresh outta school?"
"Did my bright eyes and eagerness give that away?" He began taking her vitals and general assessments.
"You did well in school?"
"Didn't fail a single class." Which was true. There were many he didn't ace with flying colors, but none had to be repeated.
"Satisfactory."
He finished his exam and asked a few questions about her medical history, but paused when he saw a rash on her elbow. "How long have you had that rash?"
"Oh, this? Um… a few weeks, I think. I was on vacation in Ugabu. It's really beautiful up there, you know. Lots of rivers, ponds, roaming flower fields."
"You walked around a lot?"
"Yeah. My friend took me on a tour of the natural sights."
Fiyero nodded and scribbled notes onto her chart. "I have an idea of what this could be, but I'm gonna order some tests to make sure. The nurse will be back in a moment for the blood work."
"What's your idea?"
He wondered if he should share so much of his hunch without any definite information, but decided it was for the patient's ease. "I think you might have picked up a strand of bacteria your body's not used to. If that's the case, some antibiotics should clear it up. But I still want to run those tests to make sure."
The woman gave him a soft smile. "The young doctors have better trust in their intuition. Let's run those tests!"
He chuckled and closed the door behind him. His first patient of the day was a success. He looked at his chart. Only ten more to go.
I'm currently writing Chapter 15 and updates will be every other day!
This disclaimer goes without saying, but I'm not a medical professional. I'm just a wee fanfic writer who did A LOT of Googling.
