Nightingale (Sequel to Solider Boy)

Epilogue: Seven Months Later

The sim flickered to life behind her, the glass walls turning into the scene of a car crash. The blue SUV was turned on it's side, shattered glass cross the black tar. Inside the cab, a forty-something year old woman hung from her seat, held in place by the safety belt, a nasty gash on her forehead. Several feet from the car, a man around the same age was on the ground, his arms scraped up and skin torn away by how far he'd skidded across the road. He was the one with the ruptured spleen, but the interns and third year residents watching her didn't know that, not yet anyways.

"As you can see," she said, voice carrying across the fairly silent simulation floor. "This is a very nasty car accident. You're driving by and you see this and of course, being doctor, you pull over to help. What's the first thing you need to do?" At that, hands flew up to answer her question. The white-coated students looking eager. That wasn't going to last long and she pressed a button on the small remote to turn off the sim. This thing would give them clues and Melody didn't want to give them that. They had a chance to look, now they needed to think on their feet. Trauma and emergency medicine required fast thinking. 

"Yes," she pointed to the resident in the front, a male who's name was Thomas, according to the embroidery on his white coat. "Doctor Miessia?" 

"You go to the victims-."

"Wrong." Melody interrupted. "Anyone else?" Hands went up again, but this time far fewer. They were starting to realize that Melody was living up to her promise that the training was going to be immersive, difficult and time-consuming. She called on a young woman in the back, far shorter than her colleagues. "Yes, you in the back?"

"Look around the scene and in your car for supplies, use what you have in the field to help-."

"Wrong again." Melody's voice cut across her and she saw the young doctor, perhaps an intern, given the startled expression on her face. "No, the first thing you do is search the area, this is an SUV, a family vehicle. All you see are two victims, but there's a high possibility there could be more." In the back, she heard a scoffing sound and she tucked her hands into the pocket of her white coat. She'd missed the garment in her time away from medicine. "Something you want to share?"

"Forgive me, Doctor, but I thought this was supposed to be a mass causality situation. The most you could fit into that sort of car is about five people, maybe six. That's not a lot of people."

"It is when there's only two of you there." Melody replied. "There's fifteen of you here, but only two of you will work on this simulation at a time. The rest of you will be in more traditional skills lab."

"That's not fair." The same doctor said this and Melody narrowed her eyes, taking a step towards him and then another. He didn't back away, though his eyebrows rose up in response.

"Don't worry, Doctor...?"

"Doctor Okafor," he replied.

"Well, Doctor Okafor," she said, her words clipped and firm. "You're going first." If this man wanted to question her methods, that was going to be his mistake. He was a resident, she was sure of it. An intern would have been fearful of an attending getting that close, but he wasn't. He had the confidence of someone who'd been around the block, but Melody knew with everything in her that he'd never done anything without proper tools, without an OR, a team of surgeons or nurses or medications. In this first round of training, he would fail.

His smug expression changed, becoming an excited grin. "Great, do I get to pick who comes with me?"

"No."

Melody scanned the crowd of interns and residents. Their surprised and indignant expressions were easy to read. Their coworker had been disrespectful and seemed to be being rewarded. "Who here can tell me what 'triage' is?" Hands shot up instantly, like rockets and Melody called on the first one she saw. "Yes?"