Columbia Mercy Hospital

>>Via, I don't mind in the least. And I'm assuming you won't mind either, even though I won't do anything really. ^.^ [but if I do something y'don't like, just let me know]

Evan Kensington

I kept my smile from spreading across my face as I kissed Sydney, letting one of my hands slide sneakily to rest on the skin between her pants and her shirt. She gasped slightly at my touch.

"No more for now love," I whispered, kissing her again very softly before stepping back away from her. She crossed her arms, glowering at me as would a small child if I took away their favorite game. "Tonight," leaning forward, I whispered in her ear.

A grin spread across her face.

***great job guys you guys are the ones making all the more exciting!!! ***

Sugar-Beth

I sat on the steps as Zoe rubbed my back with her soft hand.

"Sugar-Beth.... what's wrong?"

"Everything." I sobbed, letting fresh tears wave their ay out of my eyes. I sobbed I had that feeling thr throw up. I put my head between my knees.

"Ah, geez. Do you wanna go home are you feeling sick?" She asked.

"No, no nothing like that, it's my sister." I sobbed.

"Oh God what's wrong?" She asked.

"I finally relized the truth, and it hurts, like hell." I sobbed as the rain poured down. We were already soaking in my tears.

"Well if it makes you feel any better you still look like a barbie/rockstar, even when your crying." Zoe smiled.

I laughed, "even when I'm crying?"

"Even when your crying." And we both started laughing, but it still didn't stop the tears from pouring out my eyes.

"C'mon, lets get inside, before WE'RE the paticents in the hospital." She giggled.

Aaron Lancer -- Infectious Diseases

Aaron briskly passed by the sheep-like mass of new interns, thumping his clipboard against his leg as he did. He glanced at the clock on the wall before speeding up. He was late for his budget hearing, and though he wouldn't mind missing it entirely, on threat of termination, he was begrudgingly showing up.

He pushed open the large door that led into the conference room. At the far end of the room, a man Aaron didn't recognize was sitting with his briefcase open, and Des was leaning towards him and talking quietly. They both stood up when Aaron entered, and Des motioned him to the sit opposite her. Aaron took a breath and walked down the length of the table towards them.

"Aaron, good to see you." Des watched Aaron carefully as he eyed the man. "This is Paul Virilio — he's a senior auditor for the hospital."

"Right." Aaron nodded. "Good to see you, too, Dr. Keating."

Mr. Virilio stuck out his hand. "Nice to finally meet you, Dr. Lancer."

Aaron stared at him for a long moment before sitting down without shaking his hand. Des's eyes flashed a warning message to him.

"Well," Virilio said curtly. "Let's get right to the point." He sat down quickly and pulled a large file out of his briefcase. "I assume you're familiar with the case, Dr. Lancer."

"Assume away." Aaron set his clipboard and pager down on the table, waiting with mock patience for Virilio to actually get to the point.

"So...Mr. Nelson was admitted to the hospital...seven weeks ago, is that right?"

Aaron sighed while Des continued to give him a hard stare. "Aaron, for God's sake, just answer the questions."

He remained inert.

"Okay then." Virilio flipped a page, obviously annoyed. "He came in with a fever and...a lesion, and you started him on interferon-alpha?"

Aaron remained silent until he felt Des's foot connect with his shin. He winced, pulling his leg back. "If that's what the papers say, then yes."

"Why would you do that?"

"Okay. Look." Aaron turned to fully face the man. "Is this a medical hearing or a financial one? If you feel like my practices as a physician are questionable, maybe you should have gone to medical school instead of becoming an accountant, or better yet, you could submit your complaint to the AMA."

"Aaron—" Des's voice wavered.

"I am just trying to get a complete picture of why exactly you signed off on a $280,000 surgical procedure for a man with no medical insurance and no feasible way to pay for it!" Mr. Virilio retorted, slamming his briefcase shut and dropping the file on top of it. He seethed for a moment before continuing. "You know, ever since you got here you've done nothing but rack up charge upon charge for procedures and pharmaceuticals that the hospital is having to eat in finances."

Aaron stood up abruptly, shaking his head and scoffing. "I realize that in your profession there are no ethical standards, but as a practitioner of medicine I have an obligation to not cause deliberate harm to any person and to treat to the best of my abilities their illnesses—that this patient had a Buruli ulcer that became septicemic before I treated him is not my problem."

"No," Mr. Virilio said quietly, nostrils flaring. "But you know what is a problem, Dr. Lancer? A real problem? The way you spend money costs this hospital so much--"

"You wouldn't know a 'real' problem if it crawled up your ass and sucked out your colon. Life and death are real problems, but all you—"

"Aaron!" Des stood up, slamming her hands against the table. She glanced from him back to Paul. "Will you please, for once, just listen to what someone is about to tell you? Surgery can't keep performing procedures nobody can pay for."

Aaron swallowed and narrowed his eyes before looking back at Mr. Virilio, who cleared his throat while shaking his head.

"Well." He licked his lips as he popped his briefcase open and slid the folder inside. "I hope you're happy with yourself, Dr. Lancer." The case slammed shut. "Because you just cost your two colleagues their positions."

"What?" Aaron and Des simultaneously guffawed.

"You can't—"

"Oh, but I can, Dr. Lancer. You see, you've cost this hospital so much money that the CEO and Board of Directors have given me authorization to take whatever steps are appropriate to curb your spending habits. I was willing to work with you on this, but your belligerent attitude has forced me to assume you don't want to change, and if you're not willing to change, then everything else has to."

Aaron shook his head. "How am I supposed to get anything done if I don't—"

"You'll have to work out the details with Dr. Darcy."

Aaron looked over at Des helplessly. "But she's just over the residents—I need actual doctors to—"

"Perhaps," Mr. Virilio said, sliding his briefcase off the table and walking to the door, "you should have thought of that before you involved my colon. It can be so, so irritable." With that, Mr. Virilio disappeared out the door, letting it slowly shut behind him.

Aaron turned, shrugging meekly at Des. "I think he meant spastic. You get irritable bowels, spastic colons." She stared at him, unamused. "Other parts get excited."

"Yes," she said, shaking her head in disbelief. "Do you have any idea what you just did?"

Aaron slowly picked his clipboard back up and looked at his pager. "He's bluffing."

"He's not bluffing. Aaron, you're brilliant, but you don't understand that sometimes limits have to be placed on care."

"Well, if the residents had paid attention in medical school, they would have found the lesion that led to the costly septicemia in the first place. Why not cut their budget?"

"Because they don't make enough money as it is, Aaron. Don't push this, okay?"

"What's gonna happen to—?"

"I don't know. I have a meeting in about fifteen minutes with the new interns. I suggest you tag along."

Aaron sighed, disdained with this prospect. His pager buzzed on the table. He quickly picked it up and looked down. ED. "Oh," he said, feigning sadness, "I'd like to, but—"

"Since when do you answer your pager?"

Kelly

I turned and saw a group of patients all sitting together. "So, mind sitting with us?" an elderly man asked.

"Sure," I grinned, grabbing a chair. "I'm Kelly Castrovaci."

"Well, Dr. Castrovaci, what do you specilize in?" a woman with long hair asked.

"Oh, I'm not a doctor yet, Kelly is good for now. I'm just an intern. But I do hope to specialize in pediatrics."


We talked and talked so that by the time I lifted my head to glance at the clock, It was only five to one! I had five minutes to get to the meeting! A quick look around told me that all the other interns had already left.

"Oh, I have a meeting at one! I have to run, sorry!" I gasped, dumping my tray in the garbage and setting it on the belt before dashing out, not forgetting to wave to them all.

I ran all the way across the floor to the meeting room. I burst in, out of breath and my hair flying in every way. The other interns and Dr. Keating just stared. I smiled nervously and smoothed my hair and clothes before sitting down.

Rebbecca sat at the table on her own, something was seriously wrong with her. Her boyfriend had dumped her and her mum had died. Her sister wasn't helping, she was getting married in Wales and I wasn't invited. Rebbeccas life hadn't been up to the fullest lately.She got back up off the table and went to the nearest coffee machine.The reason she hated the parents was because it just reminded her she didn't have any anymore.she set off to her work.

KAyleigh a seven year old abused child, has a broken legs and brused back, god not another day of abused and crying kids. Rebbecca could fel a tear roll down her face.

Ben Morrow

He picked up his lunch, then looked around the cafeteria to see where everyone was sitting. Seeing Corrie on her own in one corner, he made his way over to her, pulling up a chair and setting his lunch down on his lap. "Hey."

She glanced up, and it was clear to him that she was miserable, although she didn't seem to want to talk to him about it, which was perfectly understandable. After all, he was just the doctor who was meant to be teaching her, right? After a moment, she replied, "Hey."

"You're sure there's nothing you want to talk to me about? I mean, sure, you don't know me, but sometimes it's better to talk with someone you don't know. I don't have any previous knowledge about you, so I can't judge you." He paused for a moment, then, "But if there's anything you want to say, we've only got fifteen minutes before the meeting."

**Umm, I just posted that interns are supposed to be in the meeting room now.**

Daniel

"I've spent most of my life in this hospital," Daniel said with a grin as he stirred his food around the plate.

"Aren't you hungry?" Isabella asked, taking another bite of her burger. Daniel paused, realising what he was doing and laughed at himself, a laugh that came easily and bubbled its way out of his throat.

"I was," he said. "But I think I've had enough now." Isabella looked critically at the plate but Daniel seemed oblivious. He was pretty used to illnesses and treatments that stole his appetite and no longer allowed himself to worry about them. "I'm feeling rather tired actually. I think I'll sleep a little before my appointment."

"Oh..." Isabella sounded disappointed but then she rallied and smiled a little: "Yes, you should certainly get some rest. You're looking tired." It was true. His good looks were slightly depleted by the fatigue that hung to his eyelids, causing them to droop but when he smiled, he seemed to brush it aside and it could be forgotten. For a moment.

"I'll see you around, beautiful." Daniel took her hand in his gently and hissed the back of it before setting off towards the door.

"Daniel..." Isabella called. He paused and turned. "Want me to walk with you?" She half stood up but he shook his head.

"Finish your meal, Isabella. I wouldn't want to trouble you." He didn't give her the chance to say it was no trouble at all as he walked gracefully around the corner and there paused a moment to lean against the wall. He felt so tired. His breath came in short gasps and for a moment, he found himself bent over, coughing.

People passing by looked worried but he flashed a reassuring smile and made it to his room where he pulled the curtain about his bed and climbed in.

__________________________

Roxanne

As the clock ticked by, Roxanne realised that it was time for her to head down to her office and work through the papers in a more private area. She walked down the hallway, papers tucked under her arm and a few pens in the pocket of her scrubs beside a pencil and a paintbrush. The latter was a common site to most of her colleagues but it still brought curious glances every now and then.

Roxanne arrived at her office and closed the door behind her, wincing as it creaked a little. That would need to be fixed as soon as she could find a spare moment to talk to the janitor. She tidied the clutter of papers at the desk into a neat pile, wrapping an elastic band around the stack and setting it aside. Then she laid her current files down and sat in the cosy armchair.

The room was practical but decorated with simple, yet effective trinkets. The window was framed by lavendar curtains and the white walls were accentuated by two paintings and a tapestry. The wall behind the desk and chair held the tapestry; a scenic, beautiful design that rotated about a small, thatched cottage, a dream garden and a lovely back-yard pond. The two paintings on the opposite wall, one at each side, were both sunset views.

A knock at the door interrupted Roxanne's work.

"Come in," she said crisply but smothly with little hint of her irritation.

Corrie-

I shifted in my chair and sighed, "It's just me being stupid. I think I have this need to create drama in my life, or so a therapist told me once." I shook my head a little. I tired to brighten up by smiling, "But really, I'm fine." Dr. Morrow continued eating and nodded his head.

"So how do you like your internship so far?"

"I don't know, I havn't really seen all that much so...I guess only time will tell." I checked my watch, "I should get going to that meeting or whatever."

On a side note before we start: it might be easier to keep track of everyone if all posts included a brief heading, with a timestamp and a location--see below for an example. What d'you think?

Dr. Des Keating-Parker, 1:00 PM, Conference Room

Des stood at the front of the conference room, her chair still neatly pushed in under the long table, to wait and watch as the interns filed in. Lancer, who she'd dragged along perforce, slumped, already bored, halfway down the table, where he could disappear into the hormonal, over-dramatic mob of children. She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at his unprofessional lack of decorum; if he noticed, he didn't change his posture, just kept fiddling with his pager. Des shook her head and rolled her eyes up to the heavens when he popped out the battery and began tinkering with that.

As the conference room filled, she reviewed her mental checklist. She couldn't identify the interns by name yet, though their faces were increasingly familiar: the handsome black man, a modelesque blonde whose behavior screamed 'I'm really a wreck underneath,' the girl in the wheelchair with the cartoon scrubs. Others were still undefined in Des' memory, and these were the ones she watched more closely, cataloguing their tics and habits. Every toss of the hair, every flirtatious glance, every bored sigh was tallied up in her prodigious memory. Emily was wrong; these interns would be nothing but trouble unless Des and her staff kept them in check.

She continued to stare at them, her face--still attractive, if increasingly frought with crow's-feet--an impassive mask and her arms folded. They chatted a bit among themselves as the table filled up. Her silence made the conversation increasingly awkward, until it ceased altogether. She stared at them a few moments more for effect, shamelessly playing on their nerves.

"Well. It's good of you all to join me. This meeting should have started four minutes ago." The silence took on a distinctly embarrassed, incredulous feel as the interns shifted in their seats. "I'm Dr. Keating-Parker, Head of Surgery. You can call me Dr. Keating.

"Your residents, I'm sure, will go over everything you should expect from these two years--the long hours, the emotional and mental strain, the tolls on your body. I'm here to discuss with you my expectations of your conduct while you are in my hospital. And while there's a lot expected of you in that area, it can be summed up in two words: calm and professional.

"Regardless of what happens in this walls--and especially regardless of what happens outside of these walls--you cannot let it adversely affect you. The patient is our number one priority here--your number one priority, as of this moment. When you are in my hospital you have no lovers, no family, no friends, no enemies. You have patients and you have coworkers. And since the patient is your number one priority, you will stay calm and reassuring regardless of how bad something is, how bored you are, or how screwed up your relationships are.

"And speaking of relationships, while I do not forbid personal... alliances between my doctors, I expect you to stay professional." She paused for a moment, looking around at them. They looked alternately sheepish and mildly offended; they would have to get used to her ordering them around. Hospitals, she liked to say, are not democracies; they are autocracies. "This is not television. TV is going to be the death of medicine if all of our interns come in expecting to prance around like the whores from Grey's Anatomy and whatever else is on today. And if any of you expect to get away with anything like that--anything even resembling that--you have another thing coming. Do whatever you want on your own time, but when you're here, you're on my time. There will be no trysts in the break rooms, empty patient rooms, utility closets, cars on the premises--nothing. If any of you are found involved in such, well--you'd better pray that you're talented enough to keep around, because there will always be more interns to replace you with."

Well. That was a little harsh. Still, it needed to be understood. Des closed her eyes for a moment, and then let her voice drop just a little, still firm but not quite as cold.

"You are also expected to be on time, and to be busy. There will be no fooling around. You will serve six weeks with the residents you're now assigned to, and when that six-week tour is over, you'll be transferred to another unit. At the end of the six weeks, as well, you'll be evaluated.

"You are to stay with your resident at all times. When he or she says jump, don't even ask how high--just jump as high as you can without even thinking twice, understood? Also, keep in mind that your residents are far from the top of the food chain. They report to Dr. Emily Darcy, as well as the heads of their respective departments, and they all report to me. Even I report to someone. There is a definitive hierarchy in a hospital, and right now you are on one of the lowest rungs. Do not expect it to be fun--but if you do as well as your records indicate you're capable of doing, you'll find that it gets better with time."

Des took a deep breath. She thought she'd covered everything, but every year she later realized she'd missed some essential point and ended up calling another meeting. "Now. Are there any questions?"

"Uh." Aaron raised his free hand without looking up, still studying the battery. "I haven't been assigned a resident."

Des looked over at him, equal parts amused and annoyed. "That's because you're assigned to me, Aaron. You're going to be my special, special friend. Now, jump."

"How high?"

"No." Des put her hands on her hips. "It's, 'How far?' And: out of the room."

Aaron sighed, replacing the battery. He was aware the new interns had been staring at him, but he hadn't cared what other people thought about him for some time. "Are you sure you want to let me out? I could do something cuh-razy like save someone's life."

"Don't get my hopes up." Des waited as Aaron pushed himself up from his seat. "And for those of you who haven't completely zoned out, this is Dr. Lancer. He is a wonderful, gifted internist and you should use him as an example of how not to behave."

Aaron gave a slight bow. "Thank you, Des, and--" Aaron looked up for a moment as though puzzling over something "--yes, a word of advice to all of you cadets: forget all that stuff you learned in medical school, because here at this hospital, we have to pinch our little pennies to keep them--"

"No," Des talked over him. "We have to make smart treatment options that don't cost the patient an arm and a leg."

Well, technically," Aaron scoffed, "my guy was going to lose his leg without that surgery."

"Goodbye, Dr. Lancer." Des walked over and put her hand on his shoulder, guiding him out of the room.

"And, you know what's really cheap? Not solving cases. It's so genius--I don't know why more doctors don't--"

Des closed the door on Aaron and turned back around, sighing. "He was going to be a psychiatrist but it didn't work out for him." A small laugh rippled through the interns. "Anyway, now you see who you'll get placed with if I catch any of you spawning on hospital grounds."

Sydney Parker - 1:00pm - supply room, thirf floor

Sydney smiled at Evan and sighed slightly, rolling her eyes, "fine."

He gave her a one last soft kiss and smiled to her, pulling open the door and stepping out into the hallway. He checked both ways quickly to make sure no one important had their eyes on him (or the supply closet) and knocked softly on the door behind him before turning to the left and heading down the hallway.

Sydney waited about thirty seconds after she heard Evan's reassuring knock and stepped out into the hall herself nonchalantly, turning to the right and heading to the stairwell.

She found her way back down the stairs to the first floor-homebase-and peeked in the window of the conference room counting heads to make sure all of her interns had, in fact, made it into the meeting. She let a sigh of relief go, seeing that they had. That would just be one more thing to explain to Emily and eventually her own mother if she couldn't control her interns even on the first day.

Down the hall to the left, Sydney found the assignment desk, checking her patient chart and running through them for her next. This one was a little girl still in the "before-room," as the kids liked to call it. A simple emergency patient, waiting for Sydney's word on release or admittance.

After a quick review of her chart, she headed down the hallway and let a quick knock fall on the door before pushing it open and announcing herself.

"What have we go..." the chipper, child voice trailed off as she pulled the curtain back and found a very grown Daniel rather than a small child, "Daniel." The charts must have been off.

Isabella Milan - 1:10 pm - Cafeteria, heading for patient

I smiled, looking down at the hand Daniel had kissed, and silently wondering if he did that to all the girls.

Shrugging it off, I stood, throwing away my tray and grabbing my folder. Then I remembered the patient I had been so eager to see this morning.

How in the world did I get so distracted?! I thought to myself, rushing down the hallway toward the room my patient should have been in, my eagerness returning again.


Evan Kensington - 1:15 pm - Hallway, Second Floor

I realized I had a long gap of time to fill before Ava's surgery, and began trying to think of things to do.

The interns were in their meeting, so there shouldn't have been anyone who needed assistance.

As I turned the corner, still fairly deep in thought, someone ran into me.

"Oof," I groaned, stepping back to examine this person.

"I'm so sorry!" the blond haired girl exclaimed. I recognized her attire to be that of an intern.

"It's fine," I said, locating the standard name tag on her chest. "Sugar-Beth. You must be Ava's sister?"

Sugar turned her head, nodding slightly.

"Aren't you supposed to be at the intern meeting?"

"Oh no! I completely forgot...and I don't know how to get there..."

"I'll help you. My names Evan, I'm a plastic surgeon here at CMH," I said, smiling and taking her hand in order to lead her. "Come on."


>>Hope that's okay, Max!

****yep it's perfect Bellz thanks :]] Don't forget it was raining and she had just been crying***

Sugar-Beth

"Thank you...Yeah, I'm Ava's.... Distant, sister." I wiped a tear that had been under my eye, my eyelashing sparkling with pain. As I follwed him, I thought about her, how dare she. Even think about calling us sisters.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I just.......... I uh... yawned." I couldn't think of an excuse. This WAS going to be two years of pure hell. For some reason we both just stood there, thank God he was taller than me I didn't feel like such a tall freak anymore. For some reason we didn't move we just stood there staring at each other....

***take it away Bella lol***

Evan Kensington

"Sugar, if you ever need to talk, I want you to know that I'll listen," I said, wiping a tear from under her eye for her. I didn't know her very well, so I didn't want to push the subject.

She smiled slightly.

"Thank you," she said softly. I nodded.

"But right now, you really need to get to that meeting. Last thing we need is for you to be kicked out on your first day, right?"

Sugar-Beth

"Yeah." I laughed and nodded. "So you know my.... sister?" I bit my tonggue at the last part on purpose, it was a straining saying that. "Can I ask you something."

He froze, "Sure."

"Can you, not tell her you saw me today?"

He chuckled, "why not?"

"We're not like regular sisters, we don't.... just.... nevermind."