When I reached the fourth floor, I didn't go to my office immediately but rather the room at the end of the hall. Cheryl DuBois had been a patient at Memorial for almost three months. She'd come in one night complaining of flu-like symptoms. After two rounds of antibiotics, her condition worsened. She'd been transferred to the diagnostics department, and I'd been trying to work out what was ailing her ever since.
"Good morning, Cheryl. Are you ready for today?"
Perching on the edge of her bed, I patiently waited while she shifted her elderly body into a seated position. I'd quickly learned that offering the feisty sixty-eight-year-old a helping hand was a lot like slapping her across the face.
She didn't like it. At all.
Once she was comfortable, she gently fluffed the soft white curls framing her face. "How do I look?"
"Gorgeous, as you always do."
She smiled sweetly and for the millionth time, I hated that we hadn't figured out what was attacking her. She should've been home, spending whatever time she had left with her loved ones. Instead, she was confined to a hospital bed and subjected to test after test.
I could only hope that my team and I would bring her an answer before it was too late. Pushing to my feet, I walked to the front of the bed and snatched her chart from where it was hanging. Flipping through the pages, I noted that she'd complained about abdominal cramps again.
"Your stomach doing better this morning?"
She waved her elderly hand through the air. "The pain comes and goes, but I'm all right now."
"You sure?" I returned the chart to its spot and folded my arms in front of me. "The team doesn't have to—"
"Stop fussing, Sebastian. I'm more than ready to meet your shiny new team."
"I know you are, but they're—how do I put this—excited to be here and I'm afraid once they pile into the room, they might forget that you're more than just a name on a chart."
With Memorial being a teaching hospital, it happened every day. Doctors would be so focused on the case they were working and learning about, they forgot patients were people, too.
"So sweet how you worry," Mrs. DuBois awarded me another warm smile, deepening the lines around her mouth. "But so unnecessary. Now, go get that team you keep going on about."
A chuckle worked its way through my chest. "Yes, ma'am."
Unfolding my arms, I gave her a mock salute and hurried to the staff room to finally meet the four new doctors I was in charge of.
Or at least, the remaining three.
Chapter 3
MIA
"Seriously?"
I scanned the floor by the elevators, searching for my discarded bag, and came up empty handed, yet again. When I'd seen the man in distress, the last thing I thought when I dropped my bag was that someone would take it.
Could this day get any worse? I knew better than to tempt Murphy, so I pushed those thoughts to the very back of my mind. My finger gently pressed the elevator button when I really wanted to stab it repeatedly. But I figured it wasn't the button's fault that my mood had gone from happy to pissed off.
Ugh!
With my hands planted on my hips, I glared at the ceiling as if it was something offensive. Would it have killed the man to be even the teeniest bit friendly? Judging by his behavior, I'd been idolizing a freaking jerk all these years.
Guess what they said about never meeting your heroes was true. I blew out a breath and turned my attention to the numbers above the door slowly ticking down.
"Hey!" I heard someone yell, but I was too caught up with my own musings to pay attention.
"Hey, you… with the red hair."
My head whipped from side to side and when I didn't see anyone else with red hair, I spun around and started scanning the crowd. A petite little thing dressed in light blue scrubs came hurrying toward me with what looked a lot like my bag clutched to her chest as if it was something valuable. Taking pity on the poor woman, I started heading toward her.
"Phew," she huffed out. Her index finger flew skyward, indicating she needed a minute to catch her breath. When her lungs were replenished to her satisfaction, her mouth stretched into a big smile. "I've been looking for you."
Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I stole a glance at the bag still pressed tightly against her. It was definitely mine.
Meeting her gaze again, I said, "You found me."
I didn't think it was physically possible, but her smile stretched even wider.
"What you did back there," her blond head jerked in the direction of the waiting room. "Was so freaking badass." She leaned forward as if she was about to divulge a juicy secret. "And then you got to talk to Dr. Hottie and Dr. Stormy too."
My nose wrinkled in confusion. "I'm sorry, I'm not following." Flicking my wrist, I barely kept the curses from spilling over my lips when I saw the time. I'd gone from being early to being late. Sighing, I gave the woman an apologetic smile. "You seem really nice, and as much as I would love to talk some more about hot and stormy doctors, I just can't." Her face fell a little. "It's my first day, and I had to check in with Gillian five minutes ago, but I got held up doing that," I explained, pointing my chin toward the waiting room. "And looking for my bag."
Realization dawned, and her arms shot out, shoving said bag into my hands. A deep red stained her cheeks. "I'm not a thief, I swear. I saw you throw it to the ground and figured it best I picked it up before a real thief laid eyes on it."
Poor thing needed to catch her breath again after all those words.
"Thank you." I peeked over my shoulder and watched the elevator doors slide together again. It seriously was not my day. "I have to go."
I barely took a step when her voice sounded. "You're not taking the stairs, are you?"
"Why?" I asked cautiously.
"The staff elevator is so much closer. Come with me. I'll take you."
Without waiting for an answer, she spun around and started weaving through the throng of people. My long legs had no trouble keeping up with her short, quick steps.
"Your first day, huh?" She glanced at me before greeting a guy rushing past us. "What department?"
"Diagnostics."
She made an excited sound before aiming her too-wide-smile my way once more. "We'll be seeing a lot of each other, then. I transferred there from the ER about five months ago. I'm Ginny, by the way."
Swaying my body sideways, I avoided shouldering someone. "Mia. Nice to meet you, and thanks for rescuing my bag."
Her eyes lit up. "You're very welcome." We came to a stop in front of an elevator situated at the very end of the hall. "Well, here we are." Ginny poked the button, and the doors parted with a whoosh. "I'll see you up there in a bit. Good luck." Then she was off again.
After stepping inside, I pushed the number four button. Hands on my hips, I dropped my chin to my chest and released a long breath when the car started its slow climb. What a way to start my first shift.
When I finally reached the fourth floor, my mouth stretched into a smile again. Gone was the hustle and bustle from the ER. In its place, a serene quiet that made you want to shut your eyes and find your zen.
In the open space, that could easily be called a lobby, sat a large nurse's station. At the very end of the counter were four baskets with names on them sitting in a neat line. One of those names was mine. Dr. Mia Phillips printed in big bold letters.
This was actually happening.
"Morning sugar, you must be Dr. Phillips."
Dragging myself from my daze, I focused on the woman behind the counter. She had to be in her late thirties or early forties. Her brown hair was cut into a short pixie style that accentuated the roundness of her face.
"I am." I rushed forward. "And I'm also late… Do you know where I can find Gillian?"
"I'm right here." She winked and then motioned for me to follow her. "Don't worry, Dr. Hogue called. I know why you're late."
We entered a room I could only describe as a locker room. There was a row of tall
lockers stacked against one of the walls and a few cubicles lined up against the other.
Gillian motioned toward the three long benches in the middle of the room.
"I left your scrubs there this morning. You'll notice that the doctor's scrubs are teal-colored while the nurses wear light blue. The attendings wear whatever they want, of course." She placed her hand on my shoulder. "Why don't you get changed and we'll see you for debriefing in the conference room as soon as you're done."
After she gave me quick directions to said conference room, she took her leave. I wasted no time in stuffing my belongings into the nearest locker and swapping my jeans and tee for the teal scrubs. Once I pulled the top over my head and down my upper body, I caught a glimpse of white. My initials and title were stitched onto the left side, just below my collarbone. I took a moment to trace my fingers over the delicate stitching before hightailing to the conference room, hoping Dr. Ryker was a lot less ticked off than when we first met.
Not knowing someone was standing right there, I sprinted through the door. No matter how hard I tried to skid to a stop, I still barreled into Dr. Ryker's back.
"I'm so sorry."
"Now, that's how you make an entrance," someone mumbled.
I couldn't see who because the instant he was able to do so, Dr. Ryker glared at me. I swear, if looks could kill, I'd be dead and buried five minutes ago.
"You're late," he gritted out.
This man's attitude toward me rubbed me the wrong way. Narrowing my eyes, I straightened my spine and widened my stance. Tucking my arms under my breasts, I glared right back.
"You know why."
With a harrumph, he gave me his back; facing the three other people in the room. "Now where were we before that rude interruption?"
Letting out a slow and steady breath, I calmly joined the other doctors. In a perfect world, I would have liked to grab Dr. Ryker by the shoulders and demand he tell me what the hell was wrong with him.
Because this could not be the man I'd placed on a medical pedestal for years.
My annoyance only grew when he refused to make eye contact with me while he was explaining how everything worked and what was expected of us. His gaze would scan over the room before landing on the woman standing beside me. Then it would travel back to the person farthest from me.
I might as well have not been there at all.
Determination lit a flame under my butt. I didn't need him to like me to prove I was a great doctor. I'd just let my work ethic speak for itself.
Chapter 4
SEBASTIAN
I kept my distance behind the four doctors as we made our way to Mrs. DuBois's room. Five minutes with them and I'd already summed them up. Well, all except one. There was just something about Dr. Phillips that had my every sense on high alert. Determination oozed out of her pores in a way that reminded me of a decade younger version of myself.
I liked that, admired it even. But I was also man enough to admit it scared the shit out of me. When I'd just started out, I'd been so determined to prove myself that I had no regard for rules or regulations. Listening to mentors who'd been where I had been hadn't been on top of my priority list. I'd had a point to make, and I was going to make it no matter the consequences.
If it hadn't been for my father, who knew what mistakes I would have made? Now, I was tasked with being the voice of reason to these doctors. It was my responsibility to mold them into the best possible physicians they could be. I did not doubt that this would be an easy task when it came to Dr. Sandeep, Dr. Brent and Dr. Lawrence.
Dr. Phillips, however, she had this defiant streak that I wanted to both nurture and break at the same time. And for whatever reason, my brain automatically switched to annoyed whenever she was in the vicinity.
When we entered Cheryl's room, I chose to hang back and observe. As I suspected, almost all of them made a run for the chart. Dr. Sandeep was the first one to get his hands on it and the other two huddled around him as he flipped from page to page.
Dr. Phillips wasn't bothered with the chart; she headed directly to Cheryl and stuck her hand out.
"Good morning. I'm Dr. Phillips, but you can just call me Mia."
Cheryl's smile was big and bright while the introductions were made. She didn't even pay attention to the three doctors at the end of her bed nosing through her medical history.
"How are you feeling today?" Dr. Phillips asked.
"My stomach was giving me trouble last night, but it seems to be doing better now."
I folded my arms in front of me and propped my shoulder against the frame while I continued to watch the exchange between Dr. Phillips and Cheryl.
Besides asking her how she felt, Dr. Phillips hadn't inquired about Cheryl's symptoms at all. They'd talked about what books and magazines she liked to read. Her favorite food and drink. Hell, everything they could possibly fit into fifteen minutes worth of conversation.
They'd been about eight minutes into their discussion on literature when I noticed the three other doctors looking on with baffled expressions on their faces and the only thing I could think of was the Hippocratic Oath: I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability.
To treat an illness, you had to know the person behind it first. A strange sensation fluttered through my chest, but it was gone before I could figure out what it was.
"Alright, let's get you introduced to the other patients on the floor."
I stood to the side while everyone hustled out the door. The moment Dr. Phillips walked past me, she flicked her braid over her shoulder with so much vehemence, it barely missed my face. Cheryl let out a little chuckle, and when I pinned her with a stare, she simply shrugged.
If I thought Dr. Phillips' behavior with Cheryl had been a one-time thing, I was sorely mistaken. She'd acted the exact same way with the other patients. And the odd thing was, it didn't seem fake; she was genuinely interested in everything they had to say.
This woman was a breath of fresh air wrapped up in an enigma.
When we made it back to Gillian's desk, I divided them into two teams—Dr. Sandeep and Dr. Brent on one team and Dr. Phillips and Dr. Lawrence on the other. Once I assigned each team to a few patients, I retreated to the safety of my office.
My ass had barely connected with the plush leather when a knock on my door sounded. For a second I was tempted to just remain silent, but I was waiting on the results of Cheryl's blood work and for all I knew it could've been the lab tech waiting outside.
"It's open." The words had only just left my mouth when Simon stepped inside. "I changed my mind. I'm not here. You can leave now."
Undeterred, he made his way across the room to plonk down on one of the couches.
"Have I told you that you're extra prickly today, Seb? All that grumpiness can't be good for your health."
I sighed heavily. "I just saw you less than two hours ago. What could you possibly want now?"
He scooted to the edge of his seat and studied the board mounted to the wall. "Are they as bright and wonderful as you thought they'd be?"
My gaze followed his, but instead of scanning each individual face, I remained stuck on one. Large, smiling green eyes stared back at me and that fluttering inside my chest made itself known once more.
Touching the heel of my palm to the spot, I answered honestly, "I don't know." My eyes flicked to Simon. "Ask me again at the end of the week."
The grin on Simon's mouth warned me that he was about to say something that would most likely piss me off. "Did Dr. Phillips make the mistake of doing her job again?"
"Really, Simon? Don't you have patients to treat or something?"
A hearty laugh pushed from his lungs, his hands coming up in surrender. "All right, all right. You know I'm just messing with you." Still chuckling, he pushed to his feet. "You can't blame me, though. Not when you make it so easy to push your buttons."
"Just
because something is easy doesn't mean you should do it," I deadpanned.
"Isn't that what I said about your last girlfriend?"
"That's it!" I jumped out of my chair and pointed toward the door. "Get your ass out of my office."
His chuckle turned into a full-blown guffaw, but at least he had the good sense to leave me in peace. I collapsed back into my seat with a groan the instant the door clicked shut. Sighing heavily, I dragged my finger over the trackpad to wake up my computer.
As much as I tried to focus on the words in front of me, I simply couldn't. My brain was too busy trying to make sense of the redhead crawling her way under my skin.
Chapter 5
MIA
"Can I have the biggest coffee you've got, please?"
The woman behind the counter smiled before slipping away to prepare my drink. I was about seven hours into my twelve-hour shift, and even though my clinical rotations at Newlife should've prepared me for this, I was still beat.
Even on the diagnostics floor things moved fast. There were tests to be done, results to be fetched from the lab, and on occasion, we'd been paged by the ER too. In the last hour alone, I'd seen a patient who had contracted malaria, another who'd suffered from salmonellosis and another who kept making up weird symptoms so he could get free medicine.
It had been an eventful day.
A few minutes later, the woman returned with my steaming cup in her hands. I was so happy, I almost leaped over the counter to pull her into a hug. After I asked her to add a bagel, she rang up my order and handed over my food and drink.
In a rush to find a spot to sit down, I spun around without looking and hit my face against something hard. My arm shot up to keep the coffee from spilling over and two large hands immediately covered mine in a steadying grip.
"I'm so sorry."
I didn't need to look up to know who I'd barreled into… again. Because my eyes were level with the knot on his dark blue tie, I could see his Adam's apple slowly bob up and down. My gaze tentatively moved over his thick neck to his strong masculine jaw peppered with the days' growth. I ventured higher still, pausing at his full lips for just a second too long.
Egotistical Jerk: A Hero Club Novel Page 2