Chapter One : Surgical Waltz
The flight was boring, and nothing in particular had happened. By the time we landed, it was already lunchtime. I planned to go to the dining tent to grab a bite and then give a hand to introduce the functioning of the camp to the new recruits, but this plan was destroyed halfway through.
"-We need surgeons in the OR tent right away!" I heard someone nearby yell. Someone asked which tent it was, and then three of the new recruits hurried off into the direction of the tent. I couldn't help but notice that the golden-haired woman was one of them.
I had more pressing matters at the moment, so I tried to find who was calling out for help. I was almost sure it was a soldier I know, and I quickly spotted him.
"- What do we have?" I asked him.
"- Oh, Hunt, you're back! Great! We got three gunshot wounds in here, but we had a lot more yesterday, so Lieutenant Mooney and the rest of the platoon brought them into the green zone, they'll be back tomorrow. I was on my way to get Sergeant Teller."
"- Okay, go get him," I answered before running inside the tent.
"- What do we have here?" I asked once more, looking at the three surgeons who were standing in the tent.
"- This one has a minor bullet wound to the shoulder, we just need to remove it," the first one answered.
"- This one needs a CABG," the second one continued.
"- And this one has a coronary artery dissection, I'm prepping him," the golden-haired woman finished.
I only thought about it for a second before giving my orders.
"Sergeant Teller's gonna come and take the coronary artery dissection, I'm gonna take the CABG, and you two, I'm counting on you for the bullet in the shoulder."
Unfortunately, not everyone was okay with those orders.
"- He's got a coronary artery dissection, he needs a cardiothoracic surgeon, and I'm one," the blonde argued.
"- Great, then you can get over here and lend me a hand with the CABG!" I said, and she was about to say something, but I cut her off as I spotted Teller entering the OR tent. "Teller, there's a coronary artery dissection in bed 3, you're taking it?"
He nodded and ran towards the third bed, and the woman was forced to leave it, as Teller took him to the OR.
"- What the hell is wrong with you? Do you think that I'm not good enough for him?" she asked angrily, standing in front of me, arms crossed.
"- I'm just saying that I don't know what you are capable of or can do in an OR, that's all," I answered, as I tried to defend myself.
"- I get it, I get it!" she spit, throwing me a deadly glare. "So you know what? You're gonna scrub in with me on this CABG, so you'll see that I'm actually a good surgeon. A great surgeon! And that this man would've been lucky to have me! Now let's go, we've lost enough time!" she finished, starting to drag the patient towards the second OR, and leaving me speechless for the second time of the day.
She was now the polar opposite of what I saw in the plane, passionate, motivated, but still so fascinating. She appeared to be a complete pain in the ass, but I couldn't shake this craving to learn more about her, to talk to her, to get to know her.
Three hours later, we finally scrubbed out. She was amazing. She had been brilliant and flawless. Every move she made, every cut, every stitch, was certain, assured, and yet graceful. She was one of the best surgeons I've ever met. Getting to scrub in with her, I felt like we had a strange kind of connection, as if I could see everything she was going to do and act consequently. I knew that I wanted to do it again, and again, and again.
She took off her scrub cap, and her gorgeous hair fell down on her shoulders, capturing all the ambient light. I was once more captivated by how magnificent it was, and how beautiful she was. She even seemed more beautiful than before, because she had a small smile from the successful surgery.
"- Great work," I told her, smiling brightly. Just as I said that, her mood instantly darkened, and she threw me an angry glare. Apparently, she was still pissed off about the coronary artery dissection.
"- Thank you," she answered coldly, before leaving the scrub room and grabbing the patient chart to write some post-op notes.
I finally went to the dining tent to get a bite to eat. I wish I could use this time to talk with the mysterious golden-haired woman. I had learned from the chart that her name was Dr. Altman, but the rest was still a mystery. When I reached the tent, she was nowhere to be found, so I ate quickly before going back to the ICU tent, where the three patients from this afternoon were recovering. I crossed paths with Teller on my way back, and he asked me if I could watch his patient from earlier, because he wouldn't be here this afternoon.
Once I was in the ICU, I picked a chair and started reviewing and updating the charts for the three patients that came in earlier. It was going to be a long and boring afternoon, at least until my colleagues from last year came back. Teller told me that they should be back soon, so I could only hope it would be sooner than later.
A soldier came back to check on one of his friends, which gave me a little distraction. But as I was talking to him, one of my patients started to code. It was the coronary artery dissection, and I quickly figured out that the fix was broken, and that he needed another surgery right now.
"- Are the others surgeons back?" I asked the soldier. He answered negatively, and I tried to think quickly. But the answer came to me almost obviously. I knew exactly who I needed.
"- Get me Dr. Altman," I ordered him. "Now!" I added, seeing that he was frozen in place.
"- Who?" he asked, confused.
"- She's one of the new recruits, go get her! Fast!" I yelled at him.
He finally ran away, and I started moving the patient towards the OR, and then prepping him as fast as I could. I re-opened the wound and placed the retractor, then I tried to find the source of the bleeding.
I heard hurried footsteps, and when I raised my gaze, I saw her coming towards me. She probably recognized the guy – his tattoo of Jim Morrison made him especially easy to recognize – because without a word, she got herself ready and took the lead of the surgery.
This surgery lasted longer than the previous, and our patient gave us a scare a couple times, but he finally pulled through. And Dr. Altman, she had been perfect I was amazed. I only knew a handful of surgeons that could have handled this surgery the way she did.
"- Excellent job in here," I congratuled her while we were washing our hands on the scrub room. "He's only alive because of you, Dr. Altman."
"- Thank you," she answered me, like this morning. At least, I didn't get her aggressive glance, this time.
"- That's all, you're not gonna say it back?" I teased her, chuckling lightly.
"- What do you want me to say? You were a sufficient assistant," she shrugged as she dried her hands.
"- Sufficient?" I asked her, incredulous. A nice, teasing smile lightened her face for less than a second, and then she turned away, throwing the towel she used.
"- Sufficient?" I repeated, louder, as she walked away from the scrub room, ruffling her hair. I couldn't stop but smile widely. In only a few hours, she had shown me so many sides of her. I was only just starting to understand that she was infinitely more complex than I thought at first, and that made her even more fascinating. At this point, I was already completely bewitched by her.
Heyy! So they finally collided, huh? I hope that they weren't completely out of character here, and that it wasn't too… lame? I'm not really proud of the first part… well, I'm not really proud of it all.
Also I completely suck at medical terms so I tried to stay vague… I might steal some cases from the show in the future so I don't make any mistakes… anyways, my apologies if something isn't coherent.
And once more, the biggest thanks in the world for my beta reader, who is one of the kindest persons I've ever met. Like really, we spend like half an hour trying to fix a sentence in a way that I would like, and he wasn't mad at me. And that "argument" left me wondering if something was unnatural in my writing, like the rhythm, or the way the phrases are built? Because English isn't my first language, and I wondered how it showed on what I wrote. I'd love to hear your thoughts about it!
By the way, I don't know which pov to pick for my next chapter… so would you rather keep going with Owen's or see Teddy's one? I'm indecisive for the second chapter, but the third and the fourth are more likely going to be Teddy's pov. Or maybe I could switch povs? Let me know what you'd like to see!
Anyway, I hope that you'll stay tuned for the next chapter, I love you all! Thank you so much for reading!