It was tradition that an intern's first shift lasted 48 hours. Right now, marked hour 24 out of 48 hours. Needless to say, all of the interns were exhausted.
"I'd sell my soul for a cup coffee." Kurt mumbled to Rachel whose head was resting on the table
"She's asleep." Santana mumbled from the seat she was sitting in, in the cafeteria. Dr. Anderson had given them a half and hour to go and eat breakfast, so they decided to make the best of that time. However, there wasn't really much eating being done. It was just a lot of napping. "You know, I heard that the chief is going to pick an intern to do the first surgery of our class today." Santana said.
"Where did you hear that?" Sam asked.
"My sister went through the program a few years ago and she told me." Santana replied. "I would kill for the chance to cut."
"Wouldn't we all?" Kurt said. Honestly, Kurt wasn't very fond of his new "friends". He didn't trust them. Rachel was a know it all. Kurt got the feeling that Sam wasn't the brightest, so he didn't want to jeopardize his own medical status by working with him and he had a feeling that Santana would stab him in the back with a scalpel and then proceed to cut open the patient if she had the chance. Then, there was Blaine. Kurt didn't know about him anymore. It was still bugging him that Blaine hadn't jumped in and helped Steven last night. But, as he looked at Blaine across the cafeteria by himself, once again, he couldn't help but feel bad. It had to be pretty hard being the chiefs son.
As all four of them were sitting their, Chief Anderson, came into the cafeteria. "Holy crap! Here he comes!" Kurt said before tapping Rachel on the back. "Wake up!" he said. She jumped up quickly.
"What'd I miss?" She asked.
"Chief Anderson is coming to pick the intern to do the first solo surgery." Sam told her.
"Oh, why did you wake me up?" She moaned. "We all know he's going to pick his son. I could be sleeping right now." Suddenly, they heard a loud noise of a throat being cleared behind them.
"I can already tell that you all know what I'm doing here, so I'll just get to it." Chief. Anderson said. "The patient had an appendicitis that Dr. Rachel Berry will operate on."" Rachel mouth gaped open. "I hope that you've gotten enough sleep now, Dr. Berry."
'Yes sir." Rachel replied. "I'm wide awake."
"Good. I'll see you in the OR in ten minutes." Chief Anderson replied before walking away.
"You lucky bitch…" Santana muttered.
"Are you nervous?" Sam asked.
"No!" Rachel said confidently. "I've been practicing appendectomies on cadavers like forever."
"Yeah, but cadavers are already dead." Santana retorted. "This is a living patient."
"I'm aware of that." Rachel shot back. "Now, if you excuse me, I need to go and scrub in for my surgery." she told them before walking off.
"10 bucks, she chokes before the appendix is even out." Santana said.
"$20 says she never even identifies the appendix." Sam laughed.
"Guys come on, she's the first one of us to do this. Give her a break." Kurt said, jumping in. But, Sam and Santana just rolled their eyes. It was clear that they weren't very fond of Rachel either. The three of them began walking towards the observatory, so they could watch Rachel's surgery. Kurt saw Blaine on the way there.
"Hey, are you coming to watch Rachel do the surgery?" Kurt asked.
"No, I-I'm just going to go to the pit or something." Blaine replied.
"Oh, okay." Kurt said before moving on. Now Blaine wasn't even going to support one of his fellow interns. Boy had he been wrong about Blaine.
All of the interns crowded into the observatory and watched as Rachel came into the room. Even though Rachel had said she wasn't nervous, Kurt could practically see her hands shaking
"Alright, Miss Berry, let's get started." came Chief Anderson from the speaker that filtered into the observatory. Rachel walked towards the table and took a deep breath.
"Scalpel." She to the nurse who handed her the sharp, metal, instrument. She brought the blade up to the patient's skin and then sliced through. Next, she took the retractors and opened up the incision. Then, she took a clamp and put it on the appendix.
"Evans you owe me $20." Santana called to Sam. Sam groaned and pulled a twenty out of his pocket and place it in Santana's hand. Once they looked back down, Santana and Sam looked back down, Rachel had already taken the appendix out.
"Give me my $20 back." Sam said. "You lost too."
"Not a chance." Santana smirked.
"What do you do next?" they heard Chief Anderson say over the speaker. When they looked down, Rachel was just frozen.
"I-I…" She stuttered.
"Oh shit, now she's choking!" Santana growled.
"You're patient is bleeding out." Chief Anderson said.
"Stats are dropping." the nurse said jumping in. Chief Anderson gave Rachel another second before pushing her out of his way.
"Move!" he yelled. "And get out of my OR." Rachel nodded and ran out of the OR. Kurt couldn't help, but feel bad for her. All around him people were laughing at her. Kurt didn't like being bullied or other people being bullied, so he left the observatory and looked for Rachel. He found her in the hallway outside of the OR. She was sitting on the ground with knees up to her chest and her face buried in them. Kurt took a seat next to her and place a comforting hand on her back.
"Hey, come on. Don't cry." Kurt said.
"I'm a joke." Rachel cried. "I'm the failure of the program."
"No you're not." Kurt told her. "It was the first surgery. It's basically designed for us to fail. We've never even really observed real surgerys and then we have to do one. It's not fair."
"Even if it is, no one is going to respect me anymore." Rachel cried. "I'll be isolated from everyone."
"I'll be your friend, just don't cry." Kurt said.
"Really?" Rachel asked.
"Sure, why don't you go to the bathroom and clean up. Then we can troll the pit for cases." Kurt said. "You can meet me there."
"Okay." Rachel replied. "And Kurt...thanks."
"Anytime." Kurt replied before walking off to the pit. Once he got there, he saw Blaine was just finishing stitching up a little boy's cut on his hand. The little boy was smiling as Blaine talked to him. How could this be the same guy? Suddenly there was a team of paramedics in the ER with a woman on a stretcher. Kurt watched a blonde woman in a white coat go rushing over.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Laura Owens, 29, head on collision with another car, possible internal injuries and she's almost full term." It was then that Kurt noticed the large bump protruding from the young woman's stomach.
"Shit…" The blonde woman mumbled. "You and you...with me!" She yelled pointing at Blaine and Kurt. She had to be kidding. The one person that Kurt didn't want to work with was the one he was stuck with. They wheeled the woman into a trauma room and placed her on the bed. "You?" The blonde doctor said pointing to Kurt.
"Dr. Hummel." Kurt told her.
"Whatever...get me a ultrasound machine now." she said. Kurt nodded and went out into the hallway and looked around completely lost. It was his second day! He didn't know where the ultrasound machines were. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his back. It was Blaine.
"The machines are in the closet." He said. "That's Dr. Hart. I've known her since I was little and she's a hardass. Plus, she hates my dad, so hates me. You're in a good position in this case, so don't worry.' He said.
"Thanks." Kurt said as he grabbed a machine from the closet and hurried back into the trauma room.
"Finally." Dr. Hart said as she began to set up the machine. As Dr. Hart began to examine the mother, another paramedic came into the trauma room with a little girl in his arms. She had a bad cut on her forehead, but she was okay.
"What are you doing in my trauma room?" Dr. Hart asked harshly.
"This is the patient's daughter, Kayla Owens." the paramedic replied.
"Well, get her out of here." Dr. Hart yelled. "Her mom needs surgery. Hummel you're with me. Anderson watch the little girl." Blaine nodded and walked over to the paramedic and took the little girl from his arms, while Kurt and Dr. Hart rushed her mother out of the trauma room and up to the OR.
"I want my mommy." The little girl whined and then began to cry.
"No, hey, shh shh." Blaine cooed. "It's okay. I'll take you to see your mommy really soon. How about we make that cut on your forehead better?" he asked. The little girl nodded. He walked over to an open ER bed and placed her down before going and grabbing a suture kit. "Okay, I just going to give you a little shot before we do your stitches so it doesn't hurt."
"No! I don't want a shot!" Kayla cried.
"Hey Kayla, look over there." Blaine said to distract her. As she looked off, Blaine took the needle and gently pressed it into her skin. "There. All better." he smiled.
"That didn't even hurt." Kayla said with a smile. "How did you do that? When I get shots at the doctor they always hurt."
"Magic." Blaine replied. The little girl smiled and allowed Blaine to stitch up her head. After about ten stitches, Blaine was all finished. "You're all done." Blaine told her.
"Can I see my mommy now?" she asked.
"You're mommy is still getting better. You can see her soon. I promise." Blaine said. "I have to go fill out some paperwork, so you stay right there okay." Kayla nodded in response and went over to the counter to fill out Kayla's chart. It wasn't long before, Kurt came back downstairs after finishing Kayla's mom's surgery.
"Hey, you're finished already?" Blaine asked.
"The mom wasn't really hurt that bad. The baby got a little bumped around, so Dr. Hart did a C-Section. They're both fine now and in recovery. Where's the little girl?" Kurt asked as he looked around the ER.
"On the bed back there." Blaine replied as he finished filling out the paperwork.
"Where?" Kurt asked again.
"Right the-" Blaine stopped when he turned around. Kayla was gone. "She was right there a minute ago. Oh God, we have to find her." he panicked.
"Don't worry. We'll find her." Kurt reassured him. They began frantically looking through the ER for Kayla. Kurt could tell that Blaine was definitely panicking. When they went past the bathrooms, the door to the ladies room opened and out walked Kayla.
"Oh thank god." Blaine breathed out. "I told you to stay in the bed." he said rather loudly. Kayla shrank into herself, obviously scared.
"I had to go potty." She whimpered. "Can I see my mommy now?" she asked. Kurt was quick to jump in here.
"Sure sweetie." he said as he stretched his hand out to her. Kurt led her upstairs and into the room where her mom was holding her new baby sister. It was sweet to watch the family together. When Kurt turned around to go back to work, he noticed that Blaine wasn't there. He wondered where he had gone. Just down the hallway, Kurt noticed an open supply closet and walked down to it. He heard sobs and heavy breathing from inside of the closet. Kurt opened the door and walked in and found Blaine. He looked like he was having a panic attack. Kurt walked over to him and sat down. "Hey, it's okay. We found her." Kurt told him.
"I...I'm...not...cut...out...for...this." Blaine said as he hyperventilated. Kurt grabbed a bag off the shelf and gave it to him. He didn't stop hyperventilating, Blaine was going to pass out. Blaine took the bag and began breathing into it, until he was able to get himself under control.
"There. Now, tell me what's wrong." Kurt told him.
"I'm not cut out to be a doctor." Blaine cried. "I couldn't even keep track of a little girl or help that boy yesterday."
"Blaine, that's not true." Kurt told him. "Losing Kayla was an accident. She just needed to go to the bathroom. You did a great job stitching her up."
"That still doesn't excuse me from helping that boy yesterday." Blaine said.
"You helped him medically." Kurt said. "Helping him socially isn't required in the job description. You'll get better at that."
"Do you want to know why I couldn't help him?" Blaine said. "Because I'm too much of a coward to tell my own father that I'm gay. I'm too scared of disappointing him. Sometimes I wonder if the only reason I became a doctor was because he was one."
"You really never came out?" Kurt asked.
"Well...I guess I just did." Blaine confessed as he looked down.
"I won't tell anyone." Kurt reassured him. "Outing isn't something I ever want anyone to have to go through. Your secret is safe with me. And, hey, listen, you're a great doctor. I saw you with that little boy earlier. You were great with him. Just, don't give up."
"Thanks Kurt." Blaine replied. "For everything."
"Don't mention it." Kurt replied. "Now, come on. We better get back to work." he said as he extended his hands toward Blaine and helped him up. Then the two of them began to walk back to the pit to find new cases. Once again, Kurt's faith in Blaine was restored. He was human just like the rest of them and he was just trying to make it through the program like any other intern.