New chapter! Did you like the last one? Say so with a review, I'd be ever so grateful.
Kayle looked around a bit as she reached the bottom of the stairs and then the ER itself. She was then snapped out of her moment by a woman in pink scrubs, her dark curly hair pulled back into a ponytail.
"Who are you?" The woman interrupted.
Kayle looked at the woman, eyebrow raised in partial amusement at the tone of voice she was being subjected to. "Kayle Brennan. New ER Attending."
The woman looked shocked, her eyes glanced up and down at Kayle. "But you can't be more than thirty."
"I'll be twenty-nine come March." Kayle replied casually, enjoying the nurse's obvious touchiness of having a younger superior.
The nurse seemed like she was at a loss for words, so Kayle interrupted. "Can you point me in the direction of Security? I need to get my ID badge."
"Um, yeah." The nurse said, turning towards where she came from and pointing. "Just back that way a bit past the family room." It was obvious that the nurse had since mellowed out after sensing Kayle's own attitude.
"Thanks." Kayle replied honestly.
A few minutes later Kayle headed into the break room as she clipped her new ID badge onto her labcoat. She spotted a locker without a tag and stuck the one Anspaugh gave her onto the door. With the door then reading Brennan she opened it and put her coat into it, then taking a lock out of the pocket she shut the door, slipped the lock on and snapped it shut just as a presence appeared behind her.
"Hey," came the voice of Maggie. Kayle turned to see a grin on her friend's face and a Christmas tree pin in her hand. Maggie reached and pinned it to Kayle's labcoat. She then stepped back, leaving a small smile on Kayle's face. "They called you in for your first day on Christmas?"
"Not like I have anything else to do." She replied, somewhat disappointedly. "My parents basically disowned me as much as they can for an adult child. Came to visit me one day at the hospital, and you can pretty much guess what happened..." Kayle trailed off and became a bit agitated. "But what's it matter?" She looked at Maggie. "I've tried to call. I've sent cards on birthdays, holidays. Everything."
Maggie put her hand on her friend's shoulder. "Well they suck." She smiled a bit, hoping to relieve Kayle's obvious stress over the situation.
Kayle smiled a bit back. "Pretty much."
Maggie smiled just as a man around their ages walked in.
"Hey Doyle." He greeted Maggie as he entered. His eyes were then averted as he noticed Kayle. "Who're you?"
"New attending. Kayle Brennan." She offered, extending her hand.
"John Carter. ER Resident." He offered back more professionally than he entered as he shook her hand. "So you liking it around here? I mean, so far anyway."
"Jefferson was much larger." Kayle replied, immersed in the question. "I had just finished a sub-specialty in Orthopedics right before I was offered the position transfer here. I heard about this hospital's reputation for Emergency care and I couldn't say no."
"Usually we're pretty busy. If I was still in the surgery elective, I'd probably be doing some sort of transplant so I'd still be busy. But today's just not busy; everyone's busy preparing for the holidays." Carter explained as he took a water bottle out of the fridge. "I'm going to see some clinic patients. See you later Doyle, Dr. Brennan."
The door then opened, and he was gone. Kayle smiled. "He doesn't know does he?"
Maggie shook her head. "Nope. He doesn't need to know."
"Speaking of which. We shouldn't disclose that we know each other previously either. I suppose you can trust that nurse from earlier, but the others might accuse me of favoritism or something if it ever comes to that."
Maggie put on an air of false ignorance, "Favoritism would be a bad thing...?"
Kayle tried not to smile, "It's wouldn't be if you bought me a burger from that diner across the street. I heard from some guy at the airport that it's pretty decent there."
"You still...?" Maggie questioned in somewhat disapproval.
"I like real pepperoni on my pizza if that what you're getting at. Tofu still wigs me." Kayle replied.
"Different opinions." Maggie assured.
"My dysfunctional family being a prime example." Kayle joked.
Suddenly the sound of hurriedly opened bay doors sounded through the walls, signaling a new trauma arrival. The two doctors looked at each other then exited the break room, full doctor mode on.
Kayle spoke with the paramedic as Maggie focused more on getting the patient safely there.
"Arthur Sales. White male. Early forties. Fell into the Christmas tree. Heart rate's bradycardic , blood pressure's down as well. Went unconscious as we entered. Blood type A positive."
Kayle glanced down at the patient who surely enough had a pine-tree branch, needles and all, sticking out of his abdomen.
Nurses joined them and helped them into protective gowns as they entered trauma room two and put on gloves, the nurse's already having started the IVs.
Kayle put on her stethoscope and listened to the man's breathing. "Someone get me an intubation tray!" She immediately grabbed the tubing and laryngoscope off the tray as a Hispanic nurse brought it all over to her. Kayle proceeded to put it in, then pulled the laryngoscope out and put it back down onto the tray. "Bag him!"
Maggie did so as Carter entered the room to help. He donned the protective gown and gloves then entered the hustle to take a look. "I'll call Surgery down."
"No time, it could lead to infection or a greater bleed if it tears more." Kayle responded. "Someone get me some tools."
Maggie looked over at Kayle. "I thought you were trained in Ortho, not trauma."
"I still know how to get a branch out of someone and stop bleeding." Kayle responded, grabbing a set of surgical pliers off a tray a larger African-American nurse had brought to her. She slowly pulled out the branch just as Dr. Weaver entered, hoping to take control.
"What do we have here?" Weaver
Kayle placed the branch and pliers on a separate tray. "I've got this one Doctor Weaver." She then grabbed some gauze and stuffed it in the wound after clamping off a larger vessel. "He'll make it to the OR fine. Take him up, Doctor Doyle will page them." She gestured to the Hispanic nurse. "You take over air flow."
The nurse nodded and took over the bag valve mask, while Maggie left to page the OR. Carter helped the nurses take up the patient and his IVs.
Weaver watched the door until Carter left, then waited for them not to sway, almost like she was about to give out some top secret information. She then turned back to Kayle after Maggie had left the hall, having finished paging the OR. "Why?"
Kayle looked at the shorter red-head in confusion. "What do you mean?" She took off her gown and gloves, disposing of them in the hazardous waste trashcan.
"Why did Anspaugh hire you without consulting me?" Weaver asked, looking for an answer to satisfy her need for closure.
Kayle wasn't about to let her new headstrong co-worker get what she wanted, it wouldn't be appropriate for her own self to allow it.
"Maybe it's because I was a top Attending at one of the largest Emergency rooms in the country." She said matter-of-factly, then waiting for an answer. "Or that I'm board-certified in both Emergency Medicine, and Orthopedics. I've also published more articles than you, so that could also be it." She then smiled and left the room, leaving an astonished Weaver in her wake.
Kayle was about to go directly to the break room to get a band to hold her hair back, when the male desk clerk she had spoken to earlier stopped her verbally.
"You stood up to Weaver." He commented, causing Kayle to stop and step over for a quick chat.
"That a bad thing?" Kayle inquired.
The man chuckled. "Not on my standards. I wouldn't do it though. But someone still needed to do that." He looked down at her labcoat and ID badge. "You were hired?"
"New Attending." She offered. "Kayle Brennan."
"I'm Jerry Markovic. It's nice to meet you." He offered himself, genuinely friendly. Jerry then stopped for a second, as if he was about to give out classified information. "You know she'll have a vendetta against you now, right?"
Kayle looked at him, then plainly replied, "Yeah, so?" They both laughed, then Kayle excused herself to her destination of the break room.