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Budny sighed, looking back over his papers. He couldn’t figure out what he’d done wrong in that clinic. He’d told the patient exactly what the charts had told him. He’d seen cancer patients react less dramatically than that. He frowned down at his clipboard, hardly even noticing his coworker, a med student named Azari, enter the room. He cleared his throat, so Budny glanced at him, then back at his clipboard.
“...Budny, hey,” Azari muttered after a few moments of silence. Budny looked up at him again, nodding once.
“Hey.”
Azari shifted awkwardly, before sitting in the chair opposite of Budny.
“You finished with your clinic hours for the week yet?” He asked, his speech stilted. Budny nodded again. Azari shifted again. “Cool. I still have some left.”
They lapsed back into silence for a few minutes. Budny continued rereading his notes, still stewing over that clinic patient.
…Azari was nice, wasn’t he?
Budny glanced up at the man sitting across from him. He was chewing on an apple slice, looking around at the fliers on the wall. Budny steeled himself.
“Um,” He said eloquently. Azari turned his attention to him, raising his eyebrows. Budny continued, “Have you ever made a patient cry?” Azari’s eyebrows shot up further.
“Not… that I can remember. That’s usually House’s thing,” He shrugged. “Why?”
Budny cracked his knuckles, finally putting his clipboard down.
“It just tends to happen to me a lot.” Budny chewed at his lip, glancing at Azari’s face. “Can you give me some pointers?” Azari blinked a few times at him, which Budny didn’t know what to make of, before he smiled slightly.
“Yeah, man. I got you. You just gotta… y’know, be nicer.” Azari flashed another smile at him, as if such a nondescript piece of advice would help. Budny gave a smile back, before shyly asking,
“Can you show me?” Azari hummed, pursing his lips.
“Like… how?” He asked. Budny hadn’t really thought about that. Azari sat up in his chair. “I could… pretend to be a patient and give you some pointers? Or… something…?” Budny lit up, nodding. Azari motioned for him to go on, so Budny stood up and took a few steps back. He went through his usual motions, knocking on a fake door, only entering the ‘room’ when Azari gave approval. He cleared his throat.
“You have HIV,” He said with no preamble. Azari winced.
“Maybe, like. Ease into it more?” Budny gave him a thoughtful look, and Azari gave him a thumbs up back. “Let’s restart.”
Budny went through the motions again. This time, he paused in the ‘room’ for a moment before speaking.
“Your results came in. You’re HIV positive.” Azari hid a smile behind his hand. Budny wasn’t sure what was funny. Azari gave him another thumbs up.
“Try adding an ‘I’m sorry’ in there, and you’ll be great.” He grinned. “Do you, uh, need to practice again?” Budny shook his head no.
“I’m alright. Thanks.”
They stared at each other in silence, before Azari started to laugh.
“Okay. So… That was stupid,” Azari snickered. Budny smiled, before giggling as well.
“I guess it was,” He got out, covering his mouth with his hand as he giggled.
When Budny stopped laughing, he noticed Azari looking at him strangely, and he looked back down at his papers.
“Uh. Sorry,” He said, looking back up, but Azari shook his head.
“No, it’s fine. I’ve just, uh, never seen you laugh.” Azari shrugged, something like a smile on his face. Budny nodded sagely.
“I mean. How else am I meant to act around a guy like you?” He asked. His pager went off before Azari could reply, and he stood up. “Thanks again for the advice. Means a lot.”