Precaution

When I entered the hospital, the chill didn’t escape my bones. I felt nervous all over again as I rushed through the doors of the elevator, my coworker trailing not far behind me.

“Wait!” She yelled, mashing through the elevator doors without a second to spare. Her name was Alexandra Scott, but everyone just called her Lexie. She was tall and blond, with big green eyes and an easy going smile that made her seem completely at ease all the time. She was the first person I met at the orientation dinner, approaching me at the food table. She was a Pittsburgh native and according to her, obsessed with the city. When I met her, it was my first full night here, and after trudging through the snow and rain all day and moving boxes up sixteen floors, I didn’t exactly understand her. But after some time, I began to love the steel town.

“What happened to your coat?” She asked, pointing to the coffee stain with a curious smile on her face. I just shrugged and laughed, checking my watch to ease my nerves.

“I wasn’t paying attention. “ I said with another laugh “Well, I wasn’t the only one. The person who ran into me wasn’t paying attention either, so we were both equally at fault.”

The elevator doors sprung open and the two of us joined the rest of the interns in the locker room. Mark greeted us first, smiling at the both of us with the sort of grin that implied something dirty, despite the fact that nothing was said. He flung his shirt off and put on the light blue scrubs, placing his clothes on the bench.

“Nothing good today. Boards quiet.”

“Don’t say that, you know nothing good comes from a quiet board.” Lexie replied with a frown, shrugging her coat off and stuffing it in her locker.

“I hope they don’t stick me with Pierce. Some sports team is visiting the Cancer Kids and I’m not holding some meathead millionaires hand while they talk to kids. I hate Peds. Those kids aren’t even dying.” Katarina Swenn interjected, shaking her mass of shiny black curls into a ponytail.

“See, that’s what I like in a girl: sensitivity” Mark said, staring at Kat. “That was hot.”

“Go to hell, Lauder.”

I looked back towards Lexie, pulling my shirt on over my longsleeve white t-shirt.

“Sports team? Why?”

Lexie shrugged and Kat slammed her locker shut.
“It wipes away their sad black tears.” She replied and moved out of the locker room to find our resident, Dr.Novikova. She was tall, slim and very angry and had a lingering Russian accent that seemed to get stronger whenever she spoke to us.

“Listen up” she began, her blond hair pulled back into a tight bun and her icy eyes observing us as we stood awkwardly in line. There were six of us. Lexie, Mark, Kat, Colin, Olivia and Michael.

“There are six of you. By the end of your internship, there won’t be. These are your pagers. You answer every page and you answer them at a run. Understand?” She moved away from us, looking down at her own pager and beginning to walk hurriedly down the hall. We all scrambled after her, grabbing our pagers without even looking.

“Your shift begins now and lasts for forty eight hours. Swenn, you’re with Holary, Scott you’re with Peterson, Lauder you’re with Savard and Anderson go with Pierce” Novikova flipped open her chart and began analyzing, completely forgetting about Olivia, Colin and Michael. “The rest of you go do rectal exams.” She said with an icy smile.

“No rounds?” Olivia asked quietly, throwing her hair on top of her head in a sloppy bun.

Novikova looked at me before returning her blue eyes back towards the chart.

“No. Special event today.”

I shrugged towards Kat and Lexie and Mark grinned my way.

“Have fun with Cancer Kids. I’m going to go watch Holary butcher someone’s brain.” Kat said with a wave, sailing past the nurse’s station to grab her attendings charts.
I sighed and walked towards the elevators, making my way up to the third floor.

When I arrived in the pediatric center, Dr.Pierce had already been waiting for me. “You’re my intern?” She asked, glancing over at me quickly.

“Yes, I am. Novikova assigned me to your service today.”

“Excellent.” She replied, handing back a pile of charts to the nurse while she continued to move down the hallway rapidly. “Unfortunately, there’s nothing surgical today. But I could definitely have an extra set of hands up here. The hockey team is coming to visit the kids today, they do it every year before the holidays. We split the guys up into groups so if you could take one group and show them around the surgical wing and then let them meet the kids there, that would be fantastic.” Pierce smiled at me and it made me completely unsure. She was a total 180 from Novikova and the difference was unsettling. Annabelle Pierce was a younger attending, with shoulder length brown hair, olive skin and warm eyes. She had a great smile and you could tell that she was a pediatric surgeon. Pierce didn’t have the frosty exterior of some of the other surgeons, nothing close to those in cardio or neuro.

“Yeah that’ll be fine.” I replied and followed her to the atrium.

“They should be here any second. “ Her brown eyes sank on the automatic doors before moving back to me. “Oh and if you could give the kids a quick look too. Just survey their charts and make sure their vitals are stable, I’d really appreciate it.” Her kindness was still overwhelming and I wasn’t sure how to take it.

But I didn’t have too long to ponder over it because the doors opened and an influx of guys dressed in black jerseys and jeans flooded the hospital atrium. Including a tall blond player and three dark haired ones from earlier before on the street. It only took a second for us to recognize each other and the blond elbowed the accented, backwards cap friend in the ribs and pointed at me. He still had on his cap and when he turned to look at me, I shuffled uncomfortably and gave a quick wave.

He split up from the group and two friends trailed behind.

“It’s you again!” He said as he approached me, causing Dr.Pierce to shoot me a curious look.
“You know, we never introduced ourselves. And I feel really bad about this morning, especially since you wouldn’t let me pay for your dry cleaning.”

I laughed and shook my head. “It’s fine. We have great sinks here. Stain came right out. I mean, my coats wet but at least it’s clean.” I said and stuck my hands in my white lab coat.
“Well, I’m Jordan. That’s Marc-Andre, but you can call him Flower. Or Marc, I guess.” He said, pointing to the boy in a baseball cap. “And that’s Max. “

“You can call me superstar.” He said and extended his hand for me to shake.
“Please don’t. “ said Jordan as I shook Max’s hand. “It’ll give him a big head. Plus, he’s only a superstar in the playoffs. When the cameras are on him.”

“That’s the only time it counts.” Max quipped back and I smiled.

“I’m Violet. “ I replied back to them. “I’m also your tour guide for today. Except you’re short two guys so can you steal a few more players over here?”

“I’ll see you later, Dr.Anderson.” Pierce said as she walked towards her group. I waved back and then turned my attention back to Jordan, Max and Marc. Max came back holding another players hand awkwardly and another two trailed behind.

“I got an extra if that’s alright. I didn’t want Benny to feel left out.” Max said, evidently pleased with himself.

“That’s fine” I replied easily, recognizing one of the boys from earlier this morning. “So should we move on?”