Journey (3)

Chapter 64

author note: this chapter took me about three and a half weeks to write because it was so difficult and i had no idea how to write it. it's very weird in some places, but just go with it. hope you enjoy!

renegade- taylor swift

Everyone has been asked to assemble in the ED for some sort of instructed course that no one knows anything about, so I'm at the hospital in the early hours of the morning, relying on coffee just to stay awake.

"Do you know what this is about?" I ask Connor, who is standing next to me, looking just as exhausted as I am. I haven't come into the hospital this early in months.

"I have no idea," he says, shaking his head. "I heard it was important, which is probably why we're all down here so early." He sighs. "Whatever this is, I hope it's productive."

I nod. "We'll find out soon, I think," I say, watching as Dr Lanik makes his way through the disgruntled crowd of people to stand in front of everyone. "I think he has something to say," I point out to Connor.

Dr Lanik clears his throat, addressing everyone. "I'm sure you're all wondering what the reason is for this early start to your shifts," he says. "Due to...recent events, Ms Goodwin thought it was best that everyone here has a refresher on patient care. This is a workshop that focuses on giving adequate patient care as well as making medical decisions in the heat of the moment." Dr Lanik looked straight at Connor and I when he mentioned the 'recent events'. I know exactly what he's referring to.

Several people roll their eyes, exasperated. "Do we have to take part in this?" a nurse calls out from the crowd, clearly frustrated at having to do this course.

"Yes, it's mandatory," Dr Lanik explains. "And led by me, of course." He smirks. "You'll be working on patient care of these lifelike patient simulators." He gestures to behind him, where the treatment rooms are not filled with patients, but instead medical dummies, like we used to practice on in medical school.

"Great," I say, rolling my eyes. "I didn't realise I was going back to medical school today."

"It might be helpful," Connor says, shrugging. "And it's better than treating an actual patient. Nothing can go wrong, and as an added bonus, they never complain."

"I guess that's always a positive," I say, nodding and taking a sip of my coffee. "But if Lanik is going to walk around being smug all day, I don't know how long I'll be able to do this." I sigh, watching his slight smirk.

"You'll be put into randomly assigned groups," Dr Lanik continues. "And you'll be given a patient simulator with a life-threatening condition, that you have to treat and make fast decisions, while also being evaluated on your standard of patient care."

There are several more eye rolls and groans from the crowd.

"Don't blame me for this," Dr Lanik says, although he still looks oddly smug. "This was suggested by Ms Goodwin. I'm sure we all remember that there have been some...incidents recently."

I roll my eyes. "It could be worse," I say, shrugging. "At least we still get to practice treating patients."

Dr Lanik starts to talk again, addressing the crowd of irritated doctors and nurses who would rather be doing anything else. "Like I mentioned, you'll be put into groups. You'll have an alert sent to your phone to let you know who you're grouped with."

It only takes a few seconds for my phone to receive the alert. I read the message off my phone screen. "Team Four," I say.

"Team Four?" Connor repeats, looking up from his phone. "Me too. Isn't that a coincidence?"