Columbia Mercy Hospital

Jeremy Raynor
I watched her glance around, looking for help. Damnit. I felt like some addict trying to cheat drugs out of the doctor, like I'd had to deal with myself enough times in my ER days. I was a doctor asking another doctor a favour, not such a big deal. Not a big deal at all. Yeah.

"Jer, why don't you just go see Gerty?"

"Yeah, the thing is," I managed, "I don't wanna make a big deal out of this."

Damn. I couldn't go see Gerty. See, the thing about sleeping pills is, you gotta meet certain criteria to get your hands on them. Like, history. And I have a history that would disqualify me in about twenty different ways. I couldn't let Sydney figure that though, because that'd screw me totally. Gerty had all my files, all that lovely information about the years before I came here and straightened myself out (well, a bit). And it wasn't like Sydney would get into trouble over this, not if she didn't know. And, like I said already, it wasn't like I was gonna make a habit. I just needed to gix my body clock. Yeah.

"I mean, you know that's all confidential. She could really help you, and get you what you need."

"I don't wanna have to go through some big.. therapy session. You know how these psych guys are, they wanna know your lifestory before they hand anything over. I just want a good night's sleep so I can .. get into work on time."

She still looked unsure, and I felt irrationally a surge of irritation.

"Just forget it, it doesn't matter. I'll deal with it myself."

Lily West
Two o clock is a pretty civilised time. Not like a dinner time thing, not like a date. Perfectly reasonable.

"I have a flat, it's about a half hour on the train." I answered his question. "It's actually not bad. You ever see ER? All the houses are so dark in that, like they have no lights. I thought it'd be like that, but it's kind of pretty. Big windows. The buildings over here are so different from back home. Taller, much taller."

I realised I was blathering and stopped myself, blah blah blah Lily, just shut up now. I glanced over at the other diners again, not to check on that skinny blonde girl at all honestly, and saw her by the tray stand actually looking at me. She smiled a little, and I smiled back just on reflex. She turned away then, pulling her phone from her pocket and answering, her head down as if embarrassed at her height. She was pretty tall, like a model. I'd wanted to be tall like that forever. Even another inch would have been alright.

Tyson was finishing of his sandwich, making me feel hungry again. I felt suddenly, strangely uplifted, as though that smile from a girl I hardly knew had reached right into my head, telling me I wasn't alone. I can't have been hurt by the guy opposite me either, it wasn't that often I got chatted up by a nice guy. Maybe American guys are more forward than British guys. Or maybe just this guy.

"What's on for you this afternoon?" I asked him, and I guess my voice came out a bit brighter than normal because he raised his eyebrows a bit.

Sydney Parker

She huffed and leaned back up, kind of smacking the table with the hand her head had been resting on a bit. Sydney's voice came back to normal, maybe slightly louder even, tone as she spoke.

"Look, Jeremy, I'm worried about you, alright? This isn't healthy, and doing this is not really going to help you in the long run. Sure, you'll sleep. Great. But it's not going to help you get through whatever it is you are going through."

Jeremy shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest as if he was angered at her for not doing exactly as he asked.

She leaned forward again, sighing as they sat in silence for just a moment--Sydney looking at him and Jeremy avoiding all eye contact with her by all means possible.

Another sigh escaped her lips, lowering her voice a bit, "Okay look, I'll write you one for six pills. You take one for three nights, and then the fourth and fifth do not take them. If you still can't sleep after that, do the same thing with three more and we'll talk...okay?"

Sydney raised a brow. She really was worried about him, and her face showed it. A feeling of helplessness. You could tell she was doing something she really didn't believe in or want to do, but as a friend she did it anyway.


Tyson Cromwell

He smiled, yet again, in Lily's direction. He was happy he had raised her mood. To be honest, though, it was hard to be in a bad mood around Tyson. He was just one of those people who always seemed to be happy and make everyone feel comfortable.

"We have that meeting with the Chief at 1, other than that I suppose I'm just following one of residents around. You?"

Tyson wrapped up his garbage and placed on his tray, taking hers and stacking it on his as well as she answered, "Oh, same."

He glanced around the room, spotting Isabella Milan across the way, "I'm really hoping to weasle my way into a brain surgery with Isabella, though." He quickly assessed her lunch partner. His hospital gown gave him away easily as a patient, rather than a doctor, and Tyson didn't waste one second considering him for competition for "favorite-neurosurgical-intern"...of course, unless he was interested in Isabella and she couldn't be distracted long enough to pay Ty some attention. That, however, could be a problem. But, he shrugged it off like he usually did--he'd do his best, and wherever that landed him he'd be happy with it.

He smiled in Isabella's direction, hoping she'd glance over, but he continued to speak to Lily, "What's your specialty?"

Seeing as Evan is on his way down here, I hope it's alright that I kind of throw him in - Bella is that ok?

Jeremy Raynor
So she gave in, and I felt a bit guilty really but relieved. Mostly relieved. She was safeguarding me too, and that made me even more relieved which was pretty ridiculous really. I don't need anyone else to take care of me, but somehow having set rules there telling me what I had to do made sense. She was a sensible woman, I could rely on her. I could see the expression of worry on her face, and it affected me, so I tried to change the subject.
"So.. you know Daniel's back in?"
Sydney tried her best to look unaffected, but I knew in a vague way there was some history between her and Daniel.
"What this time?"
"Oh.. I got him."
"Cancer?" she looked alarmed.
"Possible, it's just a checkup" I reassured, but I wasn't so sure myself. His scans hadn't looked amazing, even to me, and I see some bad cases. We were interrupted by Evan Kensington coming over to our table, carrying a tray with his lunch on.
"Sydney," he smiled, "Raynor." Not so smiley. What got up his butt?
"Hey Evan," Sydney said, jesturing for him to sit with us, I had to shuffle along a seat to make space for him.
"Hi!" I said pointedly, and he gave me a distracted sort of smile and a wave of the hand. Huh. I bit into my sandwich and sat back, actually pretty relieved to have someone else there to balance out the heaviness of my conversation with Sydney. It wasn't like I had converstions like that everyday, by the way. Because I don't, seriously. Most days I hardly talk to anyone apart from patients, I hole up in oncology and there's only the dying round there.

I looked round the canteen, hoping for someone else maybe, wondering vaguely where Rebecca Jones was. She was a 3rd year resident like myself, only probably a bit more organised than me, even more competant. Huh. Weirdly, just as I thought that she walked through the door, running her hand through her spikey hair. I teased her about that all the time, that and thge way the chief was constantly on at her to tone down on the makeup. Rebecca was kind of aloose cannon, which made her a bit easier to talk to than some of the more straight laced residents here. Not that she couldn't do her job, because I knew she could.

I waved at her to come sit with us as well, and she looked relieved that she didn't have to find a seat herself.

There you go Serenity!

Lily West
"I was looking at Psych back in England." I answered him, "and the psych department is pretty good over here. Hopefully when I do my rotation there, I mean, I'll have to convince them to let me, I can sort of get to know it better. What about you?"
"Neurosurgery." He grinned, and I could see the passion there. He was really into it. Pretty good. I could understand that. Going through the system at age 13, I'd thought of a million things that could be better about mental health treatment, but in England it was pretty much a waste of time to even try. Underfunded, overused, hopelessly misunderstood. I knew in the US it was better, but there was always room for improvement. It meant something to me, just like for whatever reason neurosurgery meant something to Tyson.

i need to be bought in

''Hey Jeremy!'' I waved over, I sat down with him and his friends. '' I feel like poo, I look horrid without my make up'' She huffed. and pushed her long black hair behind her.

>> Serenity. Please remember that all posts need to be at LEAST two paragraphs long (that's at least 6 decent sentences). Thanks!

Jeremy Raynor
"I feel like poo, I look horrid without my make up,'' Rebecca moaned, slumping down in her seat. I smiled sideways.
"You look like a doctor without your makeup, rather than a school kid. You're already short enough as it is!" I moved to try and pat her on the head, patronising, despite the fact that the two of us were the same age. Sydney rolled her eyes at me and Evan didn't even seem to be paying attention, he was involved in his charts. Or at least he had his chart in front of him. He seemed to be staring into space, a point somewhere near Sydney. I peered past her, trying to see what was behind her that he was looking at, but I couldn't see anything. Maybe he was just tired.
"I've had a crappy day so far," Rebecca told me, dodging to get my attention again. "all these kids running around. And my patients have been awful, I mean not the kids but the parents."
"Parents are rarely fun to deal with," I sympathised. In my line of work most of the parents were drawn and exhausted, having a leukaemia child is a mountain of pain to climb, and mostly there was nothing at the top but a long fall. Rebecca's speciality, paediatrics, was all kids. All kids. I don't know how I'd do that, the only sanity I managed to get throughout the day was in chatting to relatively normal adults. No wonder Rebecca was in a bad mood. Then again, she wasn't normally this gloomy.
"You sure it's just the patients?" I asked her, rubbing at my eyes to try and stay lucid. "Hey wait one minute I gotta go get another coffee."
I paid for the horrible cup, milky cappuccino out of a machine - that's not cappuccino that's a travesty. Anyway I drank it, and felt my eyes prickle with the caffeine.
Sydney was a little disapproving.
"Maybe you should drink less coffee," she suggested quietly, and I muttered back:
"Then I'd be falling asleep all over the table, how'd you like that?"
Rebecca had curled her feet under her on the plastic chair, looking defeated.
"Seriously, Beccy, what's the deal?" She didn't like it much when I called her that, but she seemed to answer serious anyway.

There you go again Serenity =] I kinda feel like I've written loads and I wanna give Bella some time to write something too, and other people (although they're not .. immediately in the same place as Jeremy/Lily) so after this I'm gonna give it a rest for a while! I think we're in a different timezone -_-

Haha, andimlovegalore, I think you're doing a fine job! Some characters just have more things happening than others, so the writer gets to write more. And some people aren't very active in storybooks when they join, because they have a hard time getting in, or for other reasons. ^.^ **haha, gossip!**

Evan Kensington

I was staring off into space - a space that was convienently located next to Sydney.

"Evan...helloo?" Sydney said, turning from the converstaion with Jeremy and Rebecca. She waved her hand in front of my face a few times, and I shook my head.

"Sorry, what now?" I asked, blinking furiously.

"You zoned again dear," she said, smiling lightly. I rolled my eyes, stretching my arms over my head and yawning.

"Sorry 'bout that. It's been a bit of a morning," I explained. "Ava came in again."

"Ava...isn't she the one who had a boob job?" Evan chuckled at the way Sydney said this.

"Mhm. Whoever did the surgery screwed it up, so I need to fix it before her wedding."

"Oi. It's always easier to do it yourself."

"Yup. Anyway, I'm going to be in surgery at four in order to fix her up. Apparently her younger sister is one of the interns."

"Really? Which one?"

"Sugar-Beth?"

"Ah, yeah, I've seen her. Pretty girl."

"Hmm. I wonder how good she is as a doctor."

Sydney Parker

She shrugged, "She's one of my interns. I just wonder what her parents were thinking." Sydney winked in Evan's direction, trying to lighten his mood a bit.

Evan smiled just a bit, considering how much of a stretch it really was to go from Ava to Sugar-Beth when naming your children.

Sydney glanced over to Jeremy and Rebecca. Jeremy seemed more smitten with Rebbecca today than usual, she thought. Sydney and Rebbecca never, really, entirely got along. Most the time they would put up with each other for the sake of argument, but every once in awhile they just lashed out...calmly. They were both residents, they were both pediatric specialties, and Sydney always kind of thought Rebbecca was a bit jealous of her simply because her mother was the chief of surgery. She often wondered if they would have gotten along had Sydney come in with no attachment to the hospital, but as it stood they merely tolerated each others existance.

She sighed and shook the thoughts from her head, turning back to Evan. It was always about a 50/50 shot to have lunch alone with Evan. Neither of the pair would fight for it to much, it would be to obvious to the others. But when it happened, it happened. Today, though, it didn't. But, with Evan being a bit moody today, Sydney wasn't exactly against the additional company at the table.

Sydney finished up her home-made salad and closed her gladware container, glancing to Evan...who seemed to have a lack of food before him, "You going to eat?"



Tyson Cromwell

Tyson picked up his tray in which he had stacked both their garbage upon and headed to the garbage can, sliding the trash inside and placing the tray on top. He dusted his hands off as if in doing so he had gained sawdust on his soft palms.

Heading back to the table, he placed his hands on the corners of the chair beside Lily and leaned on it a bit, straightening his elbows into stiff positions...knowing full well that one lean too many and the chair would fall and cause a scene so being very careful.

"I think we have about 15 minutes before that meeting." He stated, glancing up to the clock on the wall.

Lily nodded, wondering exactly where this was going.

Tyson gave up his grip on the chair and pulled out his wallet, grabbing a pack of Orbit chewing gum from inside it and taking a piece out, handing it Lily's direction, "Gum?"

Lily held her hand up, "No thanks." A small, increduous smile peaked through as she denied.

Ty nodded and took the piece for himself, sliding his wallet back into his pocket. He turned to the doorway, it didn't seemed to be blocked by any prison guards of any sort. He wasn't entirely sure what they were allowed and not-allowed to do as new interns, but he figured if they didn't tell you not to then it wasn't off limits (yet, anyway).

"You want to go take a walk around a bit? You know, find the best coffee lounge, cleanest bathrooms, etc.?"

**Sorry I haven't posted in a while! Syncro show is in only 6 days and we're moving and my cousin's coming home from Iraq and I've got to read 3 really boring books for school and it's just HECK right now!**

Kelly

I wandered a few times around the floor again, getting a feel for my new work space. I calmly glanced at the clock on the wall my fourth time around and did a double take. I was already almost twenty minutes late for lunch! Fortuneately, I noticed the cafeteria was only in the next hallway.

I dashed in, snatched a tray and just grabbed a diet Dr. Pepper and a couple of turkey wraps before paying and making my way down the aisle to a table. It seemed like everywhere the tables were crammed with people, and none of them looked really inviting. I felt a small tap on my shoulder from behind me.

"You can sit with us if you like."

***If someone could please jump in now!***

Sugar-Beth

My phone virbrated and I picked it up hurrying around the corner so now one would see me, it would be a miracle for no one to.

"Yeah." I said not knowing who it was.

"Hey kiddo it's me."

"Ava?" I asked into the phone, both of my eyebrows arching.

"Yeah, hey I'm at the hospital right now, getting my boob job the idiot who did it really screwed it up big time." She laughed.

"Well how's you.... husband?"

"Oh, David? He's fine really he's still looking for a tux, you know all men, last minute and...." She trailed off, I was blocking her out not realy listening but looking at the caff from a distance.

"Hey Ava? Why did you call?" I asked rudely.

"Well we are sisters right?" She smiled into the phone, I could tell.

"We're not close, we haven't talked since your first marriage, five years ago."

"Well why not start now?" She tried.

"What room are you in?" I asked.

"Room 128 please come Carey."

"Alright I'll be there." I said, I felt like I was going to throw up. I started walking down the hall, feeling like I was going to hit my head on one of the lights. I walking into room 128 and saw Ava swinging her feet back and forth on a stood texting, she was still a little kid.

"Hey kiddo." She smiled deilishly.

"Look Ava, I don't even think I'm suppose to be in here." I said.

"Relaaaax, everyones eating, their not going to kill you. So did you make any friends? Meet someone special?" She wiggled her perfectly waxed eyebrows.

"No, well an awesome girl name Zoe with really cool eyes. But no guys."

"Oh c'mon I've gotten married three times." She laughed.

"I got married once!" I shouted.

"You were in Las Vegas and you were drunk, you didn't even know the guys name!" She laughed even harder.

"You know what, I knew I shouldn't have come here." I turned to leave.

"No, wait I'm sorry. I just think... I finally found the right guy."

"Well congratz, what do you want? An award? And if you had said that two guys ago I would have laughed." I shot back.

"I finally know what love is Carey." She smiled. Everyone had called me Carey as a kid, I looked like a Carey.

"Well I'm happy for you, too bad I'll never know it." I said truthfully. And turned to walk away

"Oh yeah right!!!!!" She laughed.

I stopped. "Everyone in our lives choose you, over me.... even our father....." I said tears stinging at my eyes. then I turned, and walked out back into the caff, I stared at everyone for a moment, tears spilling onto my rosey baby doll cheeks, my eyelashes sparkling with tears. I then walked slowly outside and sat on the steps, as it began to rain outside.



****She'll come back but I'm gonna have her spend sometime outside.***

Zoe

She finished her food and walked over to a garbage, dumping the food and leaving the tray on top. She glanced around the cafeteria and noticed Sugar walking in with glossy eyes, and then soon walking out, towards the exit. Zoe ran to catch up with her, but trailed behind a bit. Sugar sat on one of the steps when she made it out, and rain began to fall.

"Sugar?"

"What?" Sugar responded, she repositioned on the step.

"Are you okay? What's wrong?" Zoe asked quickly, then sat down next to her, ignoring the rain.

Jeremy Raynor
I anticipated Evan and sydney getting up for him to get food... Rebecca remained slumped in her chair, her eyes low and irritated. There was still maybe 15 minutes left of my lunch break, I decided to spend it in the open air. I went to the bathroom - the one nearest the canteen is the nicest because they fix it up for visiters - and then took the canteen exit into the cool, rainy air. I passed by a couple of interns sitting on the steps, having a quiet conversation. I interrupted them momentarily:
"Hey, are either of you Zoe Laudra?"
The dark haired one looked up at me.
"Yeah, that's me." How lucky.
"Great. I'm Dr Raynor, I'm your resident. I got in late this morning so I couldn't deal with you then. I'm double working you and another intern so uh.. could you find him for me? His name's Tyson something or other. Cromby? I don't know. That'd be great. I have an appointment with an important patient at 2 so if you could come see me at 3:30. I'll be in oncology - just turn up they'll know where I am. That alright?"
She looked taken aback but I was too damn tired to be nicer to her than I already had been - I was putting in an effort, damnit. The blonde girl next to her hadn't even looked up once the whole time I'd been standing there. I wondered if I should ask her if she was alright, but then decided not to bother.
"3:30" I reiterated, "right?"
"Right," she muttered, and I left them to their talking.

The rain was nice, I walked over the road to the store and bought myself a box of aspirin and a bottle of water. Then I went back in and up to my office in oncology. I had a patient coming up for a check and a consult in half an hour - until then I could fix my paper work and ..
I fell asleep on the desk, my face pressed against sheets of paper and ink staining my cheek.

Lily West
I got up with Tyson to go and see the rest of the hospital in the last 15 minutes of our lunch break. I felt sort of free and happy - caffeinated probably more like it. I was looking forward to the afternoon, to working fast. Most of all, to my embarrassment, I was looking forward to seeing Tyson some more.

We ended up in a coffee lounge, I poured myself a mug (a proper mug, not any of that paper crap) and filled it up with low-calorie sweetener. He grimaced,
"How can you drink that stuff?"
"What?"
"Have some proper sugar! That false sugar is bitter."
"I thought everything was sugar free in America." I emptied another packet into my drink, I'd never really liked black coffee if I was honest, and we sat on almost-comfortable chairs. I put my feet up on the bar of a chair opposite me and wrapped my hands around the warm mug. There was rain dripping down the windows outside I could see through one window and a glass door through to another window that looked outside, so everthing was scewed a little bit sideways. It was nice, quite dark and soft with aged paint on the walls.
"Not so bad," I murmured to myself.
"What?" he asked me. I hadn't meant to say it out loud.
"Oh.. I just meant, here."
"Yeah. Not so bad."
We sat in easy silence for a while, me drinking my coffee and him playing with his nails. It wasn't weird or awkward, just relaxed.
"You seen around the grounds yet?" I asked him, and he shook his head. "You wanna?"

I just realized that I didn't put Evan in a bad mood and I'm really not sure why he's in a bad mood....*shrug* I love how characters take over sometimes.

Evan Kensington

"I thought I had..." I paused, examining my surroundings. I must have grabbed my folder when I thought I had grabbed my lunch. "I left my lunch in the lounge." I said, sighing and moving to stand.

"D"you want some company to go get it?" Sydney offered, smiling up at me as she took care of her gladware.

"I"d love some," I replied, taking her hand to help her to her feet - and innocent enough gesture when viewed by anyone around us.

>>Bella, I'm pretty much going to take control over Evan for a millisecond here lol, if it's not okay just let me know and I'll edit the post out into a less-invasive...thing ;]


Sydney Parker

Sydney smiled and stood, holding on to Evan's hand just a moment longer than helpful would insure. She nodded to Rebbecca, "Sure we'll be seeing you later on." A smile pointed her direction. Whether they liked each other or not was irrelevent, Sydney was never intentionally mean to anyone who didn't give her a reason at that moment in time to be so.

She pushed her chair in at the table and headed out of the cafeteria with Evan.

"So, are you really hungry?" Sydney asked, squinting an eye his direction as she walked the hallway closely.

Evan shook his head one time, but didn't turn her direction as if he was scoping out the hallway, "Nope." Sly expression, for sure.

Sydney nodded, "You know if we go to the lounge it will most likely be swarmed with new interns and residents attempting to escape the new interns right now, right?"

Evan smirked a bit, but didn't say anything for a moment. He checked behind him, and turning around to check behind him he grabbed Sydney's hand and and pushed a door open with his other, dragging her into a darker room and slamming the door behind them.

The roomlight was not turned on, but it was slightly light anyway from a very small window to the hallway and a small window leading to outside near the cieling against the back wall. People passing in the hallway would not think to even look in here, unless coming for a specific reason. It was a supply closet, indeed, but too small to be used very often and didn't seem to contain too many every-patient items.

Evan spun her around and up against a metal shelf, kissing her for a few moments and then smiling, "This better?"

Sydney smiled and giggled a bit like a school girl, kissing him back.




Tyson Cromwell

Tyson smiled and nodded ambitiously. grabbing a bottled water he had brought out of the fridge and then offering her a hand up. They made their way to the door--he opened it for her and extended a "passage" ran, "I'll follow your lead, Lily West."

She nodded slyly and headed out before him, he quickly on her heels and then beside her in the hall. She didn't miss a step waiting on him--she knew he'd catch up fine.

He raised a brow and stuck his hands in his pockets nonchalantly, "So, have you seen the grounds yet? Or are we just going on a lion hunt?" He smiled. He didn't care, but the way she asked made it seem like she had seen them before and was going to educate him, but either way he was honestly quite happy being in her company.

He unscrewed the cap to his bottled water and took a sip, enjoying it's cold, thirst quenching abilities as he waited for her explanation.