Okay here's the next chapter! Sorry it took awhile… I've gotten into this weird thing where I update my stories alternately, i.e. I update one and then the other, lol! Anyways I hope you all enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own HSM or any of the HSM characters featured in this fic.
CHAPTER 3: What are you doing here?
Putting her hand to the railing on the front door, Gabriella firmly pushed against the door, opening it and stepping inside slowly… she felt a surreal feeling inside her… as if she'd just stepped into a whole new world… indeed, as she would soon find out… she practically had.
Gabriella found herself standing in something like a waiting room… it looked very clinical, just like a hospital waiting room would be expected to look like… white walls, carpeted floor, a few couches and chairs, old magazines stacked neatly on side tables and a small children's play area, consisting of a child-sized table with a box of assorted toys inside.
Gabriella couldn't help but feel a little intimidated by it all. She remembered from when she was a child that she'd always been afraid of the doctor's office and the hospital waiting room… and now here she was, years later, a fully qualified doctor, about to start work in a hospital, where she would have her very own doctor's office… and things still hadn't changed… she was terrified. There were pleasant paintings hung on the walls, as well as a few portraits of kind looking doctors and there were also a few plants too… Gabriella supposed they were all put there to form a 'welcoming atmosphere'… however she'd never felt more nervous.
"Gabriella Montez?" The sound of the voice snapped Gabriella out of her 'panic attack' and she turned to see a short blonde haired woman, probably late thirties, whom Gabriella supposed to be some kind of hospital secretary.
"Erm… yeah…" replied Gabriella nervously.
"Hi, Dr. Montez we were expecting you… my name is Susan and I'm one of the secretaries here," said Susan, holding out her hand for Gabriella to shake, "I'm supposed to bring you down to Dr. Davenport, he's the head doctor of this area of the hospital, the medical clinic… I believe you've already met him?"
Gabriella nodded her head vaguely in response… she was still trying to get her head around the fact that Susan had called her… "Dr. Montez… it sounds so bizarre! I can't believe I'm actually a doctor!"
"Okay great! Well just follow me and I'll take you straight to him!" said Susan smiling, before turning around and walking down the hall.
Gabriella followed her down to the end of the hall, past several closed doors with various labels, signifying the name of the doctors occupying each room…
"That's the office of the doctor you're replacing so you will be using that one for the time being…" said Susan, pointing at a door without a label as they walked past it. Gabriella was too much in shock to say anything, so she just nodded.
They soon arrived at a door labeled 'Dr. Davenport' and Susan rapped the door firmly. Gabriella waited anxiously, feeling a mixture of nerves and excitement. Presently the door opened, revealing a rather tall looking man, probably early sixties, with glasses and a kindly face. He smiled down at her in a friendly manner and Gabriella smiled back, feeling herself relax slightly.
"Ah! Hello Susan… and Gabriella, it's nice to see you again," said Dr. Davenport, extending out his hand. Gabriella took it, shaking it as firmly as she could. He turned back to Susan saying, "Thank you Susan… I think I can take her from here."
Susan merely nodded, flashing Gabriella an encouraging smile, before turning to walk back down the hall. Dr. Davenport turned back to face Gabriella.
"Well Gabriella… I'd just like to be the first to welcome you to this hospital and I'm sure that you will make an outstanding contribution to this ward," said Dr. Davenport.
"Thank you Dr. Davenport… I'm happy to be part of the team," replied Gabriella, finally regaining her voice.
"Please feel free to call me Harvey… my mother gave me that name… I might as well use it!" cried Harvey, causing Gabriella to laugh, "Well anyway, enough with the pleasantries, lets get down to business… are you all ready to get started?"
Gabriella nodded and Harvey smiled, walking off down the hall…
"This will be your office, Susan probably pointed it out to you before?" Gabriella nodded as Harvey opened the door and walked in, "Good, well it's really just a standard office… we supply you with a desk, a few chairs, basic medical supplies and a check-up bed (A/N: sorry I don't know what it's actually called) and a few reference books. You can supply more of your own, as well as bring in photos, etc. to personalize the room however you like… but be sure to keep it fairly simply and appropriate though."
Gabriella looked around the room… awed by the fact that it was actually her room… her doctor's office.
"It also has a window, looking out to one of hospital gardens as you can see. You will have appointments with a few patients this afternoon… one of the secretaries will leave the details in your mail box attached to the door," continued Harvey walking over to the open door to indicate a thin open box attached to the front of the door, of which Gabriella somehow managed not to notice before.
"This afternoon…? What am I doing until then?" asked Gabriella curiously.
"Well as I told you during your interview, this medical centre also services the emergency ward and so all of my doctors, including you, have a commitment to do some time in that ward. In fact, because you are only a temporary replacement at the moment and also because you are new to the profession… I have organized for you to see fewer scheduled patients, but spend more time in the emergency ward, treating minor injuries and symptoms and the like… it'll be a great learning curve for you as you will get to have a lot of hands on action…" Harvey continued, walking out the door and motioning Gabriella to follow, "Now if you'll follow me, I'll show you to the emergency ward, where I'll give you a quick run through of our normal procedures… I assume you are pretty much up to speed with them anyway, since I sent you our procedure manuals?"
"Yes I studied all the manuals you sent me… I'm very familiar with the common procedure," replied Gabriella, keen to start on the right foot.
"Excellent! Well you will be staying in the emergency ward until around noon, then you may leave for lunch and when you return there will be ample time before you're first scheduled appointment for you to read over the details of your prospective patients."
Gabriella nodded again, a smile now on her face… she was excited to get started. She was eager to get into the action, to get into some hands on work.
It took Harvey about an hour to walk Gabriella through the emergency ward, briefly detailing various procedures that she must conform to, as well as introducing her to the various nurses for which she'd be working with and showing her the various apparatuses available for her usage. The morning went like a blur for Gabriella… actually the whole working day was like a blur… Gabriella was amazed at how much she learnt and experienced and she loved every minute of it.
Before she knew it, it was 5:15pm and her last patient was gone… she was just finishing some paperwork and was ready to go home.
Before going home however, Gabriella remembered that her mother had asked her to pick up some groceries for dinner, as she wanted to cook something special for Gabriella for finishing her first day of work. Gabriella smiled, privately rolling her eyes at herself as she thought about her mother's quirky celebration dinner plans… her mother had remarried before Gabriella had finished high school, his name was Robert Riley and he was the editor for the local newspaper.
Gabriella was getting hungry and tired, her first day had taken a lot out of her it seemed... and so Gabriella made an effort to try and get through the grocery shopping as quick as possible... inevitably because of her alternate agenda, Gabriella failed to adequately look where she was going and so, as she turned to go down another isle she collided with a motionless trolley, effectively pushing the trolley into its owner, who was knocked backwards into a stack of shelves. The shelves contained a number of tin cans, some of which fell on top of the person she had knocked over, possibly hurting him even more.
Gabriella's hands snapped up to cover her mouth as her eyes and mouth widened in horror at what she'd done. She ran over to her 'victim', kneeling down next to him, as he was now sitting against the shelves, holding his head.
"Oh my god…! I'm so-so sorry! Are you okay?" asked Gabriella, panicking.
"It… it's okay…" replied the man, groaning and still holding his head.
"Are you sure? I'm a doctor… let me at least check to see if you're okay…" insisted Gabriella, who proceeded to check his injuries.
"No… really it's oka-" started the man stopping mid-sentence as he raised his head and looked at her, his face echoing his surprise, "… Gabriella…?"
Gabriella looked up at the sound of her voice, "How did you kno- Troy!"
The two looked at each other, eyes wide with surprise.
"What are you doing here?" asked Gabriella confused.
"I was shopping… what else do you do in the supermarket?" replied Troy, shaking his head and standing up, "I live here in Albuquerque… what are you doing here?"
"I live here too… I moved back a couple of days ago…" said Gabriella, standing up as well… her heart was pounding… she hadn't seen or heard of Troy for five years… not since they'd broken up.
Troy's heart was pounding too… he couldn't believe he'd run into Gabriella of all people… the one person he couldn't get out of his mind… subconsciously, Troy smiled to himself, "Ha! To think you thought the mere memory of Gabriella was dangerous… turns out, her real life self is too!"
"Oh wow! Really? I can't believe I've run into you, of all people!" cried Troy, smiling at her… "She's hardly changed at all! She's still as gorgeous as ever… in fact I think she might be even more so…" Troy felt his breath quickening… even after five years, she still managed to take his breath away.
"I know! I can't believe it either!" she really couldn't… Gabriella always believed that she would never ever see Troy again, she thought he'd be off somewhere, living some great life and here he was back in Albuquerque… Gabriella frowned for a second… "I wonder why he's living here in Albuquerque…"
"This is so amazing! …Ho-how have you been?" asked Troy quietly, he hadn't seen or spoken to her in so long, "Yo-you became a doctor?"
"Um… yeah… I just graduated and now I have a job in the medical clinic of the hospital… it's only temporary but… it's a start…" replied Gabriella, "So how about you? What's the basketball superstar doing back here in Albuquerque?"
"Erm… I'm a school teacher now, at East High…" Gabriella raised her eyebrows at him, causing him to laugh, he continued sarcastically, "… yeah I know… I just loved it so much… I couldn't stay away! I missed Mrs. Darbus too much!"
Gabriella laughed at this, as did Troy… both were surprised at how easy it was to fall into a comfortable conversation… of course both were purposefully straying away from the topic of their relationship…
"Haha… um… so yeah, I coach the basketball team and I also teach math…" continued Troy.
"… and… oh yeah, did I forget to mention I also have a four year old daughter?" thought Troy… but for some reason, he didn't say this out loud.
"Oh wow… math, eh? That's a bit of a surprise…" commented Gabriella with raised eyebrows.
"Well what can I say? I had a great tutor back in high school," replied Troy, causing Gabriella to laugh again… he smiled too, not wanting the conversation to end, but also remembering that they couldn't just stand in the isle talking forever, "Um… you know as much as I'd love to keep talking to you… we should probably change locations, I've got ice-cream in my trolley and I can see you do too… and you know, you probably don't want melted icecream so…"
"He's trying to get rid of me!" thought Gabriella, feeling slightly hurt… "I was hoping we could be friends again… perhaps even mor- … NO! Just friends!"
"Yeah… I guess I better get going…" replied Gabriella quietly, walking back over to her trolley, "It was nice seeing you again Troy… I guess I'll see you around…"
She turned her trolley to leave the isle but Troy called after her…
"Wait! Gabriella!" Gabriella turned to look back at him, waiting for him to continue, "What are you doing later? Do you want to have dinner and we can catch up some more?"
"Oh… I'd love too Tro… Shit!" cried Gabriella smacking herself in the forehead with her palm, "I completely forgot! I'm having dinner with mum and Rob tonight… mum's cooking a special dinner to celebrate my first working day as a doctor… shit…"
"Oh… well that's… okay…" replied Troy, a little disappointed, "Maybe next time?"
"Um… yeah…" answered Gabriella slowly. Suddenly an idea came to Gabriella's mind… "Actually Troy, why don't you join us? You always used to get along well with my mum and Rob anyway… it'll be just like old times…"
"Erm… are you sure…? Well… okay then! I'd love too…. Shit!" cried Troy, smacking himself in the head, just like Gabriella had done… "I completely forgot about Ab… erm… I mean… erm… my dog… Abraham… I… erm… I have to feed him…"
Troy shoved his hands in his pockets, looking at the ground, "Stupid! Your dog! That's the best you can come up with! … why are you lying anyway? Why can't you just tell her the truth?"
Gabriella looked at him confused, "Um… okay… well why don't you just go home and feed him first? Dinner won't be cooked for awhile anyway, and plus you've got your own shopping to put away…"
"Erm… yeah, good idea!" replied Troy, laughing nervously, "Wh-why didn't I think of that?"
"No idea… perhaps you just care a lot about your dog…" said Gabriella, walking her trolley towards the checkout… she really didn't care if her shopping was done or not, she had other things on her mind…
"Heh… yeah maybe…" said Troy, following her and murmuring to himself, "You have no idea…"
Okay another chapter done… I'm kind of liking this story now… I know the first couple of chaps were a bit bland, but that was just an intro sort of thing, now the actual story is really going to start… so hopefully it'll pick up and I can make it interesting for you guys! Anyways, please read and review, tell me what you think! Lol, Gabriella still doesn't know about Abbey…! And there other things you won't find out until later either… :)