Love's diagnosis

Chapter 1

My breath hitched in my throat as the cold Manhattan air hit me in all the wrong ways. My hands looked just about purple. No- scratch that, they were purple. My nose was runny and I couldn't help but wonder if any of this could possibly get any worse. As I ran in to the hospital, my wet shoes squeaked against the floor. I felt wary eyes on me, probably shooting sneers my way but I couldn't bring myself to care enough because I got bigger things to worry about. 

As I reached the room full of all the interns that are supposed to meet at for the first day of work, I noticed I'm the only intern not sitting down in the huge spokes room. The chief of surgery, Dr Connors, went silent on the stage, sighing to himself. 

"And if you could please sit down, I'd like to continue why every minute spent in this hospital during your internship will affect the outcome of your career." He said, looking rather annoyed. Shamefully, I took off my jacket to sit down to a random intern in the back of the room. I sent a gentle smile their way, to in return notice them rolling their eyes at me. Fine, it looks like this place is filled with a pack of wolves. 

"Your intern year will determine if you're good enough to become a doctor, and if you should go on to even get into a residency program. We expect nothing but the best out of you. No mistakes, no errors, no being late to meetings..." Dr Connors announced. Ouch, way to point someone out. 

He went on about the hospitals policies, rules and how things work at the hospital. Once done, he gestured to a group of people to go up on the stage. Older individuals go up, all holding their chins high and apparently their egos even higher, judging by the way their mannerism. Some were in their late thirties, most in their fourties and fifties, but one guy seemed to be our age. How the hell did he end up becoming a physician at so young? I wasn't the only person to notice the young doctor, I could overhear people around me murmuring, although I suspect they were talking about his good looks rather than his age. His tanned skin shone on stage, nicely complimented by his dark features. 

"These guys are the finest physicians on the east coast, and you guys are lucky enough to have them as your teachers. We'll introduce them one by one." The chief or surgery said, leaving the talking stand for the physicians behind him to introduce themselves. They all said their names, their specific job and age. I could tell people were waiting for the young doctor to speak up, and when he did I could tell everyone's attention was set on him. He could capture the attention of a hundred people off of his looks and status alone. 

"Hello, my names Edward Harrington and I'm originally from Britain if that wasn't already obvious." The young man spoke, attracting laughter from the crowd - mostly girls though-. 

"I'm twenty nine years old and I'm a neurosurgeon here at NYC hospital." He stated, before waving at the crowd. People applauded him like they did with the previous physicians, but I could tell from the gasps in the room that I wasn't the only one who was surprised at him being a neurosurgeon at twenty nine years old.  I wondered if that was even possible, I mean clearly it was but I'd never heard of it before. This fact apparently only made him hotter to the women in the crowd, for their comments about his money and physique could be heard. I rolled my eyes before the meeting moved on. 

                                                                        ---

After the meeting ended, all interns were asked to meet their group of interns along with their resident. My hands clamped at the paper given to me by one of the hospitals staff, and my eyes scanned it. I searched for my name until I found it, under the resident '12. Dr. Reid - General'. Just perfect. I'd heard of Dr. Reid before, given their reputation being that they was cunning but also outright cold as well. A chill ran down my spine as I walked towards the area in the hallway with the number 12 printed on paper, plastered on the wall.  A few interns were already there, but I could already tell that they weren't Dr. Reid. We all looked too clueless and fragile to look the part. The interns stood there talking, two girls and two guys, until I walked up to them to which they looked me up and down. One of the girls, short with dark blond hair came up to me, a smile wide on her face. 

"Hey! My names Lexie Barton but everyone calls me Lex." She shook my hand with confidence and I could tell she was here to stay. 

"Hi, I'm Chelsea Lawson." I introduced my self and the others came up and greeted me as well. 

"Hello, I'm Christopher Evans." Said one of the male interns in my group. He was tall, blond, and looked like a typical rich kid. He was probably was if I was being honest to myself. 

"Hey, I'm Kai Lee" Spoke the other male intern, he had jet black hair and a tall stature. How come most people here were so attractive? 

"Hi, I'm Anja Griffiths" The last intern spoke, her brown features standing out because of her beautiful pale complexion. We all chatted, asking the other where they'd studied medicin. To no ones surprise, Chris studied at John Hopkins and his parents were also quite known physicians who'd also studied there. Must've been nice getting an easy ticket into med school. Our chatter was quickly shut down when a small but powerful woman with beautiful curly hair came up to us, her presence alone scaring us. 

"Dr. Barton?" She said, not bothering to look up at us. 

"Here?" Lexie replied, unsure of what answer she was actually looking her. She got no confirmation from her either. 

"Dr. Evans?" 

"Here." Chris answered, and Dr. Reid went on to call all of our names. It wasn't until she was done calling our names that she actually looked up at us, eyeing us as if we were pray. Damn, that lady was intense.  

"Seems like you guys get scrawnier every year." She scoffed before continuing. 

"I'm Catherine Reid and I've got a few rules for you guys." Dr. Reid say, our notebooks flying out of pockets. 

"Rule number one; complaining won't be tolerated. Rule number two; If I'm sleeping you better not wake me for dumb reasons. Rule number three; if a patient dies, my ass gets the blame so you sure as hell better have a good reasons for it happening." She spoke, walking with fierce speed around the hospital. I suppose this is her way of showing us around. 

"Rule number four; You speak when spoken to, unless you have an actual intellectual question. Don't let it be a question that can be answered by your texts books, for the love of god. And lastly, number five; no romantic or strange relations with superiors will occur because trust me, it will cause wrong tension at the workplace. Our regulations say that if and only if a relationship is serious, then it can't be hidden and has to potentially be reported to chief of surgery." She stated, abruptly turning around to analyze us. 

"No questions? Good." She said, grabbing folders before handing one out to each one of us. 

"You've all been assigned to cases. Some of you might work together whilst some of you might work alone. Now, go change before meeting your attending's." She said, leaving us dumbfounded in the halls. 

                                                                        ---

My hands reached for my boots, rushingly taking them off to replace them with my inside shoes. I felt a small rush of adrenaline from how fast things we're moving. We've all been assigned a locker. They were nothing special, in fact far from it but we were at the bottom of the food chain. 

"Who'd you guys end up with?" Chris asked, combing his hair in the mirror. Typical. Me, Lexie and Chris remained, Kai and Anja practically ran to the ICU because their attending's needed help but a burn victim. 

"I'm with Dr. Henderson, Cardio. It's like they know I'm meant for cardio." He added, closing his locker to look at us. I tied my shoes, sitting up to braid my hair. Lexie squealed looking at her folder. 

"I'm with Dr. Harrington! Gosh, he's so handsome. I mean he has to be over six foot three or something, and he's so strong!" She said, a bright smile lighting up her face. Chris rolled his eyes, before turning to me just as I finished my braid. I grabbed my folder, opening it. 

"Huh, looks like we're togheter on this one." 

"Well just so you know, I'm claiming him as mine." She winked at me, looking herself one last time in the mirror before heading out. I looked at Chris who only shrugged his shoulders as if to say, yeah good luck with that.