Enticement

2 | anamnesis

NEHA MONROE 

For the rest of my first day as an intern at Los Angeles Children's hospital, each and every thought was consumed by him. As soon as we pulled away from the embrace his touch lingered all over my body, not to mention the fact he hugged me whilst I was in a bra. 

"Neha, will you grab the bloods from the labs and then take Marie Solace to get an MRI... you'll have fun with Marie. She's an outspoken 17 year old... let's say that." 

"Yeah sure." I reply not even listening to the request because all I can think about is him. 

Luke Ayad. The mysteriously hot doctor who is also my boss and the fact he held me in the most loving way I've ever been held in my entire life. Not even my parents have held me like that.

I pull back the curtain to reveal a grumpy Marie. She was definitely the definition of 'clean girl' aesthetic or whatever they called it online. Her dark brown hair was tied up into a bun, held by one silk scrunchie and had blonde highlights. Her skin was doing well, for a teenager. Mostly clear with a few pimples here and there. Much better than how my skin was doing at 17. She was engrossed by her phone and as soon as she saw me she turned it off and all of her attention was on me. 

"Ah, another doctor has been bought in to see if they can handle me."

Oh. 

"Hi Marie. I'm Neha and I'm one of the intern doctors here. I'm just going to take you up to have an MRI, if that's alright?" I raise my eyebrow up to her when she doesn't reply straight away. 

"It's not like I have a choice, you're going to take me either way." 

I sigh knowing she's right. 

"All you doctors don't even care about us; all you want is the money and then send us away to see more patients to make more money. No one here has even asked me how am I and at this point being here is useless. I'm going to die anyways, cancer is a bitch. You can't cure me and I'll die before I ever get to go to prom." She rants to me and I stand there and just listen to her. 

I know how it feels to hold something in for ages and then let it all go. I stay silent for a moment to allow her to relish in the feeling of letting everything out. Out of nowhere, Marie slumps back into her duvet almost collapsing and falls forward. Her body starts to tremble slightly and her eyes roll to the back of her head. And then silence and fear instills in myself as everything goes into slow motion. Everything I begin doing feels like I'm stuck in jelly as I try relentlessly to help her. I rush to her side and pick her upper body up, lay her down and check her heartbeat. Then I grab the oxygen mask on the side and slip it over her head.

"Someone help me! Someone!" I'm yelling and don't even care. She could die on my watch. Another life on my watch, again. 

Luke pushes the edge of the curtain grabbing onto it for support as he runs in with a resus trolley equipped with defibrillator, medications and other tools. I stare at the trolley for a split second and remember what happened last time I used a defibrillator, my patient died. I gulp down my guilt and fear and quickly grab the sticky tabs ready to use on Marie. I feel sick and my own hands are shaking. What if I can't do this? 

I'm about to do this. Me. Oh my God. And with my boss watching me. Don't sweat Neha, you can do this. 

As I move her body further up the bed her breathing slows down back to normal and she starts to gain consciousness. What? Her hands move to the oxygen mask and remove it and she starts laughing. She did this on purpose? 

"Should've seen your face! It was priceless. Loosen up a little, I won't bite." She smiles at me and all I can feel is anger. 

"Don't you ever fucking do that again?" I raise my voice to the teenager sitting in front of me laughing and I storm out of the ward. 

"Neha! Come back here! Right now!" Luke is now shouting at me but I don't care and keep walking, ignoring him. 

I reach the toilets, the women's toilets not making that mistake again, and shut myself into a cubicle. I slam the door and slide down onto the floor next to the toilet. If I can't even use a defibrillator how am I even going to survive in this career? So many things are running through my mind right now but suddenly I feel bile rise up my throat and without even thinking, I push any hair out of my face and throw up into the toilet. Wow, what a great first day!  

I stand in front of the mirror wiping the corners of my mouth with tissue, splash my face with water and tidy my hair before going back to the disaster that happened only a few moments ago. I nervously play with my pen as I approach Marie's curtain and pull it back and see her talking with Luke. 

"Speak of the devil, she's back." Marie rolls her eyes towards me.

"Eh, Marie. Don't use that tone with her and apologise for what happened earlier." Luke says. 

"I guess I am sorry Dr. Monroe. You didn't deserve that especially considering it's your first shift. I should've waited until at least your third shift," Luke tsks at her, "what? She needs to deal with difficult patients right?" When Luke doesn't respond to her, she remains silent and looks down to her fingers which are clasped down in her lap. 

Luke gestures for me to come outside with him. I follow him to the staff room and he stands in front of me, arms folded in front of his chest which a questioning look on his face. 

"Why did you run out like that? And do I need to remind you that you must stay professional at all times?!" 

What's with this sudden change in tone. Only a few hours ago he was acting so sweet with me and now this. What else do I need to expect?

"Professional? Just like when you, my boss, hugged me this morning when I was only wearing a bra and leggings. Oh yeah, professional!" I scoff at him.

"That sarcastic tone needs to be dealt with!" 

"And why, there's nothing wrong with it?"

"You'll see why!" He's only a few centimetres away from me. I can feel his breath on my face and the heat radiating off of his body. 

"What exactly would you like me to see, Dr. Ayad?" 

"Don't test me, Dr. Monroe! Know your place, don't question your superior."

My superior, who the fuck does he think he is. He's only, what, like 3 years older than me. What has he done which is better than what I've done. 

He doesn't give me time to reply before storming out of the staff room and leaving me alone, breathless. 

I then decide to go back to Marie. I need to get this MRI scan done and really don't want to get told off by the nurses. 

"You're back!" Marie chirps up. 

"I guess I am." I smile at her. Although she pissed me off I need to stay calm. She's my patient and needs my care and that's exactly what I intend to do. "Gonna take you for that MRI now hun."

I reach across her bedside to get her charts and I can feel her staring at me. 

"Did you and Luke the hottie have an angry makeout sesh?" She asks me bluntly causing me to laugh a little at first. They were right, Marie is an outspoken teenager.

"Why?" 

"Your pupils are dilated."

Shit. Did Luke shouting at me turn me on? That's messed up. And how can she even tell my eyes are dilated, they're dark brown. 

...

Hope you liked the chapter!!!