Chapter Text
Lucy has always been a person that wanted to be ahead of everyone since she didn’t like anyone to see her struggle. It started in elementary school, where she would be reading every free second of the day, just to be ahead of her classmates. Medical school was no different, classes had barely started and she was already visiting hospitals in the city, asking if she could do some helping out during the breaks.
So when fall break finally arrives, she’s standing in the St. Stephen’s hospital in front of the Chief of Surgery’s office and takes a deep breath before stepping inside.
This is it, Lucy. She tells herself. She knocks on the door three times. Three times for good luck.
“Come in!” She hears a voice yelling. She opens the door and already sees a familiar face smiling – Dr. Zoe Andersen, the Chief of Surgery, sitting on her desk.
“Miss Chen! Is it fall break already?” she asks with a strong but welcoming voice.
“Yes, ma’am. Fall break officially started today. And good morning.“, Lucy stated with a rather insecure voice. Was she supposed to call again? Write an email?
“It’s good seeing you! I’ve been looking forward to it. It’s rare seeing a first year medical student being this engaged already.”
“I’m thankful you’ve given me this opportunity to get some experience this early.” She relaxes; she is relieved she doesn’t seem like a bother.
“I’m glad you’re here! Our medical interns are on their way for rounds right now. I will show you the way to–“
The phone rings, interrupting Dr. Andersen and she picks it up.
“Hello? Yeah. Okay, I’m on my way.” She looks at Lucy with saddened eyes. “Well, I’m sorry, Lucy, there’s an emergency in surgery right now and I have to go.”
She looks around her glass-walled office that’s overseeing most of the open floor and waves someone over.
“Dr. Bradford will show you around and then you’re gonna catch up with the others.”
Lucy doesn’t notice that the door had already opened, and before she could think about where she had heard that name before, a figure was standing next to her.
“You wanted to see me?”, the deep voice asks.
Dr. Andersen is already standing up from her desk. “Dr. Bradford, be a lamb and show Miss Lucy Chen around the hospital for a bit. She’s a first year medical student and is here for her fall break to learn.”
She rushes out of her office and closes the door.
Lucy doesn’t know what to do so, she just turns her body and searches for the unknown face.
“Hey, I’m Lucy. I’m a -“
“I don’t need an introduction. I don’t have time for this.” He doesn’t even look at her. He doesn’t move one bit.
“Okay…” Lucy wants to disappear right on the spot but she knows she has the right to be here so her voice steadies.
“To shorten this, you could maybe just show me the locker room and after that lead me to where the interns are? Dr. Andersen said they should be at rounds?”
“Fine. Let’s go.” Dr. Bradford turns over his right shoulder and opens the office door.
God, why is he so pissed? Where has she heard that name before? And why doesn’t he even look at her?
A lot of questions are going through Lucy’s head as she tries to catch up with the doctor who’s supposed to be showing her around.
She puts her bag in the locker she was given a few weeks prior though an email. The light blue clothes are staring at her.
Why is she so nervous all of the sudden? Why is a man that hasn’t even looked at her once, making her insecure?
Lucy shakes her head, trying to get rid of all of these voices as she straightens the rather big shirt.
“Hurry up, I’ve got to go!” The voice yells the moment Lucy is already opening the door.
She rushes through it, and all she sees is a body in front of her. Out of reflex, before crashing into him, her hands instinctively land on his chest.
She’s taken aback and freezes in place. Shit Shit Shit.
Dr. Bradford clears his throat and without him having to say anything else, Lucy snaps back into consciousness and takes her hands down.
“Sorry.” She doesn’t move, scared it would make everything worse. Instead, she looks up at the face that’s been avoiding her.
The face seems like it’s been carved out of stone. Strong and sharp jawline. Prominent cheekbones. A designer beard. Buzzed dirty blond hair. And what catches her the most are the ice-blue eyes staring into hers.
All there is, is the smell of antiseptics, her shallow breathing, and her dry mouth from, what must be, a bit of anxiety.
It takes his pager beeping for them to snap out of the moment. They both jump back at the noise.
He looks down at his waistband where the noise was coming from.
“I really need to go.” he says with a breathy voice as he turns away from Lucy and starts marching down the hall.
She follows and stays a few steps behind him, keeping her space. This time, there are no thoughts running through her head. All she can focus on is her breathing.
At one point, Dr. Bradford stops walking and stares into a hospital room. Lucy is quick to follow his gaze and sees a bunch of people in it.
Must be the Interns Dr. Andersen was talking about.
“Here you go.” he states and goes further down the hall.
The five Interns and what must be another Senior Resident are looking at her as confused as Lucy is looking at them.
“Uhh… hi, I’m Lucy. I’m a first year medical student and am here for my fall break. Dr. Andersen told me to catch up with you for rounds.”
A gorgeous, dark-haired woman looks back at her and reaches out her hand. “Oh, hey Lucy, I’m Dr. Angela Lopez. Dr. Andersen told me you would join us soon, but I thought she would show you around first.”
“Glad to meet you! There was some kind of emergency in surgery she had to oversee and told Dr. Bradford to lead me to you.” Lucy shakes her hand.
Angela raises a brow and starts laughing “I’m sure he was supposed to show you around first, hm? Typical Bradford.”
Lucy smiles as she shrugs her shoulders. “Yes, but his pager beeped and he had to go.” She does not want to start her time here by talking badly about someone, so she just bends the truth a bit.
“I’m sure he faked that so he could get away.” An Intern states, laughing, and some others are just giggling around him.
“Dr. West! I really don’t know why you seem so confident all of the sudden when you couldn’t even answer any of my questions today.” Angela snaps back angrily.
The room mutes, and the only sound anyone can hear is the TV running in the background that some patient must have put on.
“I’m sure Dr. Andersen still wants someone to show Lucy around so I will have you be her person.” Angela fills the silence with her firm words.
“Yes, ma’am. Glad to do it.” West answers with a rather low voice as he comes up to Lucy, who is still standing in the middle of the room.
“Hi, I’m Dr. Jackson West. Before I start showing you around, have you seen anything yet?”
“I went from Dr. Andersen’s office to the locker rooms to here. So that.” Lucy answers, not knowing if she should be happy Jackson got assigned to her or feel bad for him since he would be missing rounds.
“Okay, let’s start with the main building then.” He smiles at her, looking like he’s offering her his biggest smile.
✦ ✦ ✦
As Lucy falls into her bed, her phone rings.
“Hey, smartass!" a voice shatters through the phone. “How was your first day?”
“Hello to you too! I’m exhausted, but it was so fun. Well, it started kinda weird, but then someone showed me around, introduced me to all the nice nurses, and taught me some tricks.” She responds, while she switches the call to FaceTime.
“You look like you’re about to be dead.” The redhead comments with a joyful tone.
“Genny, what makes you think I’m not already there?” Lucy deadpans back.
After talking for a while, Genny remembers the reason she called in the first place.
“Did you get to meet Tim?”
“Tim?” Who’s supposed to be this Tim and why should she have met him today?
“My big brother? Is your brain fried already?”
Lucy’s confusion is now growing.
“Lucy, I told you that he’s working at the hospital.” The voice talking to Lucy stays calm, but teasing.
Lucy feels bad for not remembering Genny telling her anything about her big brother Tim, other than that he’s already a senior surgical resident and her probably moving in with him, because their dad left them a house in the city.
“No, sorry! I just met the chief, a few interns and some residents. No Tim.”
“He was talking about some big case the last time we talked. So that’s where he probably was.” Genny states. “I’m sure you’ll get to meet him soon.”
“I will update you as soon as that happens, promise.” Lucy smiles at the camera, but then starts yawning.
“Alright, you hard worker. I will let you sleep now! Good night, love you!”
“Sleep well! Love you.” The sleepy medical student responds, as she pushes the red button.
After finally getting ready for bed, she’s checking the mails that she got during the day and sees Genny sent her the concert tickets she was talking about. Lucy clicks the email open to transfer the tickets to wallet, as her eyes wander over the screen.
‘From: [email protected]’
HOLY FUCKING SHIT