Chapter 2
Notes: This chapter is kinda Kalijah, yes, although we also have other characters we love! Grey's Anatomy fans (as I am myself), this is for you!
Prompt: Elijah is a surgeon and he meets Katherine when she enters his ER injured after an accident.
/
The Mikaelson family was known as the Medicinal family. Including hospitals and clinics, they had the Mikaelson Foundation that provided healthcare and bought hospitals around the globe.
Esther and Mikael started the Foundation when they got married, both very young, thought it could be a good investment. Esther had been a Psychiatrist and her husband a heathy businessman. In less than ten years, their foundation owned half of the hospitals over the West Coast.
Their first born, Finn never showed talent on biological subjects, although he was an expert when the matter was finances, being now the Foundation CEO, taking the position after his father died five years before.
The second eldest was Elijah Mikaelson. The noble brother has been interested in medicine from a young age, always telling his parents he wanted to be a Psychiatrist as his mother was. Unfortunately, Esther had died before he could finish med school, and the trauma of losing her had affected the family as a whole, as it should, changing the path Elijah was first intended to follow. He had chosen to become a Surgeon instead, specializing himself in both Trauma and Cardiothoracic fields. Nowadays he acted as Chief of both Trauma and Surgery in the hospital.
After Elijah, came Niklaus. Or Klaus as people usually called him. Following his closest brother' steps, the male blonde decided to become a Surgeon even before he finished college. Klaus could swear it was the only time Mikael had been proud of him, which didn't last long, for the patriarch had had a heart attack before he finished Med School. Niklaus was known as the artistic son, always having a knack for all kinds of arts. Maybe that was why he liked to build bones from scratch, turning himself into a respected Orthopedic surgeon.
Kol was next and had just become a resident. He hadn't informed his family of his preferences in the surgical field as yet, but Elijah swore the fourth sibling had a thing for Pediatrics, Kol had just the way with kids and their parents, still Kol crossed his heart and hoped to die he would be a Plastic surgeon, extracting groans from his older brothers.
Rebekah was the only girl in the family, which for her was a curse. Her brothers treated her as a baby, even though she had finished med school and was starting in the path to become a surgeon just as her brothers. She still wasn't sure about her specialty, but as an intern, she was always trying to lean from everyone and making everything possible to not be treated differently due to her heritage.
All of the siblings, excluding Finn, worked at the Seattle Hope hospital, the first one their family had purchased and a reference of modernity when it came from medical technology.
That night, Rebekah and Elijah were talking by the nurse station at the ER, when Cami yelled "Incoming!" from the far side of the room.
Elijah instinctively went for the trauma gowns, Rebekah perked up with the opportunity to treat someone, and was quick to follow her brother.
"Car overturned in the highway, BP is 130 over 80, patient never lost continence, TEMP 101,6, GCS 6, both legs broken with the impact, trauma to the chest and head!" exclaimed Marcel, a well-known paramedic, entering the ER.
Elijah ran to the gurney being rolled into the ER, already barking orders, with Rebekah right behind him.
"Trauma 1" he informed and the group gathered inside the room.
"On my count," Elijah informed again taking the sheets the patient was in "1, 2, 3" at that, they moved the lady to the hospital gurney and started working on her with a couple more nurses that entered the room. "X-Ray here now!" the brown-haired doctor exclaimed as he verified her airways.
"There's fluid to the chest!" Rebekah informed after a quick ultrasound.
"Damn it!" Elijah cursed and directed his eyes to the lady's chocolate ones. "Can you tell me your name, Miss?" he asked never averting his eyes from hers.
She looked around in the verge of panicking, she was in shock, she wasn't feeling any pain, or her limbs, for that matter, nothing. The doctor over her side asked something, although she couldn't pick up what it was.
"Miss, your name?" Elijah tried again, this time putting his hand on hers to ground her. She couldn't be more than 25 years old, poor girl was in shock.
"Kath-," she spited thick blood in the middle of her saying
"SATS are dropping!" Rebekah alerted the group and that was when chaos started
"V-FIB!" a nurse yelled
"Crash cart here NOW!" Elijah vociferated "Charge 200!" he barked in thick accent holding the paddles "Clear!" all staff moved from Katherine and Elijah shocked her, the female's body arching with the electric wave.
"No change!" Rebekah informed, she as everyone else was looking at the monitors
"Charge again, clear!" Elijah repeated the process. Still nothing. "Push one of epi, charge again!" the Mikaelson doctor instructed "Clear!"
"We have a pulse!" informed a nurse.
"Okay, everybody, let's move this to the OR, let's go!" the trauma surgeon said while the group of healers gathered the monitors and started to move in the elevator's direction.
/
Rebekah was always amazed by how fast the OR staff could prepare the operating theatre. As she, Elijah and the others were scrubbing in, the OR nurses and anthologist were running against the clock to put the patient under and hook her up to the machines.
She snapped out of her daydream when Elijah passed by her, entering the OR. She didn't take long to follow him and the others inside.
The smell of sterile instruments always brought calm to Elijah's thoughts. As Chief of Surgery he was always surrounded by paperwork, sometimes being a Surgeon wasn't much different, except, when he entered the Operating Room.
This place was his kingdom come. His arena. The only place in the world he felt free, unapologetic, focused and utterly necessary.
Don't get him wrong, he loved being Chief. He was a talented one nonetheless, although this task at hand was what he was born to be doing. Elijah wasn't a religious man, so he thanked the destiny for without his craft he wouldn't be alive.
"Put her on Bypass", he asked as the scrub nurse helped him with his surgical gear. "10-blade," asked Elijah as soon as Katherine was prep.
"Should we call Nik- Doctor Mikaelson to assist?" Rebekah questioned as she watched her brother opening the lady up from the other side of the table.
Elijah didn't look up, but responded "Not as yet, she doesn't have a pelvic fracture, so her legs and shoulder can wait, although, page doctor Stefan Salvatore for her head' scans,"
"Right away, doctor." A nurse nodded and moved away from the table.
Rebekah smiled behind her mask at Stefan being mentioned.
Both Stefan and Damon Salvatore were Nik's and Elijah's age and were Surgeons at Seattle Hope as well.
Damon was a talented plastic surgeon, a manwhore, if you asked Rebekah, or anyone in the hospital for that matter, although he was the most talented surgeon on the West Coast.
His younger brother, Stefan was a well-known and bold neuro surgeon. Winner of the Esther Mikaelson Prize. A ceremony that recognized the best of the best on the surgical field. The ones that had been innovative, ground-breaking and well-spoken.
Secretly Rebekah had a crush on him since she could remember. Stefan and Nik had been friends since both were very young, which made Bekah live among the Salvatore's from a very young age, and nurse a platonic love towards the youngest Salvatore.
Although, Rebekah didn't know if it was so platonic anymore.
Unfortunately, Stefan was dating Elena Gilbert. Rebekah didn't hate her for it, she just didn't make much of an effort on being in the presence of little Gilbert.
"Good evening, everyone," greeted Stefan as he entered the OR.
People inside greeted him back as he made a beeline for the patient scans over the opposite wall form the operating table.
"She's gonna need a craniectomy, that's for sure,"
Elijah sighed. He already had his suspicions, he just wished he was wrong for once.
"Can she wait 'till 'I'm finished?" the brown-haired Mikaelson questioned the green-eyed surgeon.
"I wouldn't,"
"Alright, do as you might," came Elijah's comment a heartbeat after.
Stefan moved to the table and stared at the girl being operated.
Her face was a bit swollen, she had scratches all over her cheeks and forehead, blood on her mouth and a couple of ugly bruises over her chin. Still, he would recognize her anywhere.
She was his sister-in-law.
"This is Katherine,"
"Who?" came Rebekah's question as she applied suction around the surgical field her brother was working on.
"This is Elena' sister,"
"Katerina Petrova?" Rebekah asked again.
"Doesn't Elena have a brother?" Elijah asked as he was elbows deep inside her abdomen.
Stefan shook his head no and faced Elijah and Rebekah
"Elena's dad had a child with a fellow doctor a couple years before she was born. Katherine took her mother's last name. She's not even American,"
Rebekah knew tales of Elena's lost sister. The brown-haired female Gilbert told Niklaus about it a long time ago, and Rebekah never forgot about it. She never thought Stefan would actually know how she looked like.
"Does Elena maintain contact with her?" came Elijah's question, his eyes locked in the wounds to be mended.
"Yeah, they're friends, only Elena doesn't talk about her to avoid creating a fuzz over her birthing circumstances," explained Stefan and looked again at Katherine. "How the hell did this happened?"
/
Everything hurt.
Her throat was harsh like sand paper, her eyes seemed glued together, her eyelids heavy and her limbs weighted tons.
She could taste the iron-blood in her mouth and her face felt bigger.
What was happening?
Katherine tried to move her arms, but one of them was stuck and the other was too heavy and also hurt.
What the fuck?!
"Miss. Pierce?" someone was calling her, but she couldn't answer. Her mouth refused to open itself and the voice was so far away she could've mistaken it for an illusion.
"Miss. Pierce?" it sounded again, stronger and clearer this time around.
"Katerina?"
What?! How does this person know her Bulgarian name?
She forced her eyes to stir open, they were fighting back to stay closed and she regretted her decision immediately when the harsh fluorescent light almost left her blind.
The person above seemed to notice, because the light dimmed, so she could open her eyes properly, or in that case, the best she could.
"What-" her voice sounded like a broken record and her throat actually hurt when she tried to speak again.
The person, she now saw was a tall, brown-haired man, adjusted her bed to a sitting position and offered her a straw for what she supposedly thought was water, and oh she was right!
The cold liquid descended her throat cleaning her chords and it felt like heaven. She had never been so glad in tasting water.
"Do you know who you are?" the man, she guessed was a doctor, had a silk, calm voice and an accent that made her feel so secure it was stupid.
"Yeah," she wasn't sure he'd heard what she said, for her voice was raspy and low, but he nodded in response, so she assumed he did.
"You are at the Seattle Hope Hospital," Elijah clarified to her, unwrapping his stethoscope from his neck and aiming it to her chest.
"My-sis-" how idiot could a person be? She couldn't even speak properly URGH!
"Elena, I know, I asked her to come," the doctor informed her.
Katherine seemed to relax after Elijah mentioned her sister. She and Elena weren't BFF material, although they were civil and could have fun together. They didn't talk about each other in their respective friend's circles, afraid people would misjudge their father, or something like that. Also, Elena and Katherine only started to have more contact a couple years prior, and have been getting closer now, since the curly brunette had moved from Bulgaria to Seattle with her mother, Isobel.
"I'm doctor Elijah Mikaelson," the man introduced himself after checking her vitals. "Elena tells me you're a resident back in Bulgaria?" he tried to make small talk to put her at ease. He could relate to how difficult must be to a doctor to be in this predicament.
"What's-" Katherine paused her say to take a deep breath, "my prognosis?"
Elijah offered her a heavy sigh, trying to mask the bad news, which didn't cause the effect he was hoping, for as a doctor herself, Katherine knew that he taking a seat beside her bed and aiming his sight to the tablet, probably containing her scans and labs, wasn't sign of the best news coming.
"You had minor trauma to the head, your scans showed the craniectomy was successful," Elijah started and let an amused smile grace his features when she extended her IV-clad hand silently asking to see the exams for herself.
He didn't let her take the device, although turned the screen to her sights, giving her a couple moments to check the results.
"Not awful," was her response.
He didn't utter a word, but nodded in agreement, continuing to let her know about the other matters.
"Your heart stopped on the table, so we're gonna have to wait to be sure of full motor functioning, for your brain lacked oxygen for a couple of-" he informed her and paused watching her roll her eyes.
"With all due respect, Dr. Mikaelson-"
"Usually, when someone initiates a sentence with 'all due respect' it means the opposite," Elijah put the tablet down to the nearby surface and clapped his hands together, silently challenging her into a response.
Katherine rolled her eyes once more and cleared her throat. This man needed to know she was a doctor as well, and a very goo one, nonetheless. Although she was overwhelmed with the situation, that didn't make her a dull.
"My motor function is fine, except, apparently I have two broken legs and shoulder, that's going to take time to heal, and PT will be a must after that,"
The Chief of Surgery offered her a tight smile and gave in, offering her the tablet with her chart.
"I shouldn't be doing it, but then again, I'm the chief from both your case and the Hospital," the charming doctor pointed out and she immediately dropped the device to the bed and looked wide eyed at him.
"You're Elijah Mikaelson,"
"I thought I introduced myself, yes Miss. Pierce. I'm he,"
"Oh My God!"
Elijah offered her a confused look.
"You're my boss!" Katherine exclaimed alarmed, "my new boss, if we're being technical, I was driving here when this moron crashed my car!"
Isobel although painted as a bitch, was very considerate and always tried to make Katherine have contact with her siblings, or half-siblings, Jeremy and Elena.
Miranda, wife to Grayson, Katherine's dad, never wanted it to happen whatsoever, but Isobel was above all, determined. Her plans never worked too well though, for Katerina wanted to be a doctor 'just like father' from a very young age, and was very satisfied in her initiating career as a Cardio Resident at Sofia's National Hospital to move to the US, as her mother wanted her to.
That was until she met Elijah Mikaelson.
Katherine never met him in person, but she had watched his surgeries' tapes, watched his lectures. She admired him as a professional and in the field she was fascinated about no less!
So, imagine her surprise when her mom, after months insisting, she should move with her to the US, told her she got word of a cardio-Resident position at Seattle Hope.
The hospital he ran.
She knew he wasn't head of Cardio-thoracic wing, he was head of trauma and Chief of Surgery, but technicalities be dammed! She would work under his supervision!
Didn't need to tell you she had put out her application, and packed her bags on the spot, sure she would pass the interview.
That unfortunately wasn't with him.
As the spot was for a Cardio-Resident, Dr. Alaric Saltzman, head of Cardio at Seattle Hope, had her interviewed and approved less than an hour after they ended the FaceTime call.
She should've recognized Dr. Mikaelson when she first woke up, but she was so overwhelmed by her meds, that she couldn't take notes on everything around her properly.
That and he had dimmed the lights, when she showed she couldn't open her orbs with it blinding her.
Stupid Katherine!
Sloppy, careless!
Elijah wasn't following and the both of them stayed silent, 'till the ICU doors opened, taking the pair out of their thoughts.
"Dr. Mikaelson?"
Elijah turned around and came to face Miss Gilbert and Dr. Saltzman by the entrance.
"Dr. Gilbert, Dr. Saltzman," Elijah acknowledged the duo entering the room, his and Katerina's conversation interrupted.
"How're feeling Dr. Pierce?" Alaric questioned increasing the room's lights and taking the tablet from Kath's bed, checking her electronic chart.
"Miserable, although not dead, so I count that as a win," snark remarked the brown-haired beauty.
"I called your mom," Elena offered and also checked her SATS over the monitor nearby.
Katherine didn't thank her verbally, but Elijah caught the smile she offered her half-sister.
"Not the welcoming reception I was expecting to give you, Dr. Pierce," Alaric commented after reading her chart with an amused smile on his face.
Alaric was known as the easy-going surgeon. The most adored head-department attending there was. Elijah was pretty amazing as well, but people usually mistook his seriousness for high-horse syndrome, or screwed everything up by trying to be an ass-kisser toward him, or his family for that matter.
"But, would she still be able to work here, right?" Elena inquired, looking between the Chief and Head of Cardio. She had known Katherine was coming to work at SHH, she herself had told Elena. The Gilbert was happy in having her half-sister around. They weren't BFF's, although Kath could help the younger brunette with medicine, and they could even live together to straighten their sisterhood.
Elena loved Jeremy. He was her younger brother and she admired him in his future artist career, yet they couldn't bond over surgeries, or Hospital gossip. He did not understand her urge to cut, mend and heal, as she supposedly thought Katerina would.
"Certainly," came Elijah's response before Alaric could open his mouth. He looked straight at Katherine as he continued "Dr. Pierce will take her time to heal properly, then we'll welcome her to the team,"
Notes: it's up to you if I continue this or not!