If I Have To

Daddy's Home

New York, New York
April 13th

Kasey L.

"Let's make sure we're holding the scalpel correctly, doctor." Dr. Kenneth said, placing a red stick on my hand.

I cut my eye at him as he walked off then heard snickering coming from beside me. I looked and Tee looked away. I shook my head and went back to what I was doing. The last day of training and it was a performative task. You'd think that'll be easy but Kenneth and Henry were being dickheads. They had these red stickers which they stuck to your hand when you did something wrong. Or when they wanted to fuck with you for some reason.

Like how they were doing with me. And no, I wasn't the type of medical professional that thought I couldn't do my job incorrect because I sure as hell can. Of course, that's not said aloud because we didn't want to scare patients into thinking we didn't know what we're doing. But just like any other job out there, people make mistakes. And we all made plenty at this hospital. No matter how many bad decisions that's made, I was just happy knowing that after this task I was heading home.

I was sick of sleeping in that small bed. My back was hurting like hell and I could barely close my eyes honestly. All of that ended today and I was thrilled. Soon as I was finished, I was heading right home and going to sleep. Hopefully, Xena wasn't at her greenhouse because she was sleeping with me. We were indeed taking a nap together and she better not refuse.

Going back to my fake patient that was just some mannequin dedicated for this procedure, I continued my assigned surgery. I didn't know the reason for it. That's what I had to figure out which was unrealistic since we're usually told beforehand. But that was the whole point of it. To come up with the reason for the surgery happening. This was not difficult for me since it was obvious by the wound on this damn mannequin.

"There we go." I mumbled, looking at the monitor and seeing the fake bullet. The many times I had performed these same surgeries, I was a freaking pro at it.

I went ahead and carefully used my forceps to latch onto the bullet. I did this thing where I stopped breathing until I had the object out. I did it so often that my body seemed to adjust to it. It never took longer than thirty seconds. That was doable. Having the bullet out, I placed it on the metal pan that Tee was holding for me.

"Object out. Proceeding to stitch." I said aloud to the rest of my team. I treated this just like how I'd normally would without the crazy thoughts and the side-eying at Kenneth. Everything else was the same though.

I did my stitch, making it tight so there was no possibility of it opening. I mean it didn't matter all that much because it was a damn dummy but again I was treating this like it was real. Once the wound was closed and perfected stitched, I cut the string then placed the scissors on the metal pan. I was finished. Thank you. While I took off my gloves, I saw Kenneth walking over ready to examine.

I honestly didn't give a damn what he had to say. I was told that after this procedure, I was finished for the day. I did my part and now I was heading home.

"Dr. Langston..." Kenneth said, rubbing his finger over the stitched. "I guess you did good. Would have loved for a better stitch and more communication with your team other than in the beginning and end of the surgery. Other than that, you're good."

"You should smile more often too." He added while I gave him a blank expression. He gave a wink before walking off. I didn't let his comment faze me.