Alex Carter: A Red Band Society Fanfiction

Underestimated

"Adam," a woman's voice called out, drawing Dr. McAndrew from his conversation. He'd know that voice anywhere.
"Erin," he replied, smiling. The hard working days spent in the African sun left her looking healthy and beautiful as ever. Just seeing her again made his heart skip a beat, and all she had said was his name.
"How are you," he asked, after hugging her.
"I'm doing well," she replied, smiling.
"I meant to come up and congratulate you on the promotion. Good job."
"Oh, thank you," she said, happily. "I've been meaning to come and say hi to you, too, and now I have an excuse," she claimed, rifling through a large folder she held in her arms. "I wanted to talk to you about a patient, Charlie Hutchinson."
Dr. McAndrew sighed, knowingly. "Yeah, yeah. That's, uh, that's been a tough one."

As the two walked off, Brittany eyed them, skeptically. "What's their deal," she asked Kenji suddenly.
He turned and saw who she was looking at. He sighed. "Do you want the cliff notes or the Les Mis version?"
Brittany smiled. "I just want to know what their deal is, I don't need you to sing."
"Yooouuurrr Looosssss," Kenji sang, as he spun in his office chair toward her, arms outstretched. "They were adorbs. Met in med school, then hooked up when they both got jobs here, their future reeked of a house in San Fran with two point five kids, when out of the blue, she got a hankering to do some good in the world."

"Isn't she a doctor? How much more good can you do," scoffed Brittany.

"She packed up and moved to Africa," Kenji stated, wiping the smirk off Brittany's face. "Asked him to come with, but life can be cruel. There're no happy endings."

"Rein it in, Kenj."

"McAndrew said no. He was on track to making Chief of Surgery and didn't want to derail his career."

"But now she's Chief, how'd that happen?"

"I'm sure Dr. McAndrew is asking himself that same question."

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Jordi walked by as Dr. McAndrew and another woman were arguing. He was on his way back to his room, wanting to see if Alex was awake yet. He couldn't get their kiss out of his mind, no matter how hard he tried. He wanted to talk to her about it, no, he needed to talk to her about it. He had to know if it were ever a possibility again.
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Kara sat in bed, staring back at Dash, Emma, and Leo as they stared at her.
"Here," Emma said, giving her a small ball. "The doctor gave me this to squeeze when I was getting my wisdom teeth pulled, it's supposed to help with nerves, or something."
"Thanks," Kara muttered, taking the ball.
"And you have Dr. Klein as your anesthesiologist. He's the best, so that's good," Leo chimed in.
Kara turned at the sound of another patient being rolled in. She immediately recognized the very attractive and very annoying Hunter even though this time he was in a gown and on a hospital bed.
"Ok, thank you, you can go now," Kara rushed.
"How about a red band fist bump," Dash asked, holding his fist out in front of him towards Kara. She rolled her eyes at the gesture and ignored it.
"I will kill you in your sleep," she warned.
Leo sighed and bumped fists with Dash so as to not leave him hanging, and they all shuffled out of the room, per request. But not before Dash got a chance to tell out, "that's if you wake up!"

It was quiet for a few seconds, before Hunter called out, "So, you do have friends."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing, just that every time I've seen you, you've been alone. Started to worry you were some kind of...sociopath."
Kara scoffed, insulted. "We'll look who's talking," she accused. "And anyway, those people aren't my friends, they're total randos," she denied.

Hunter nodded, and picked up his book that was lying next to him on his bed. Kara noticed the title, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", and rolled her eyes. "Oh my gosh. Could you be more of a cliche?"

"Only if I were you," Hunter retorted, not bothering to look up. Kara glared at him, insulted.

When she wasn't arguing with Hunter, the nerves began to set in, and she found herself squeezing the ball Emma had given her. The only good thing about talking to the jerk next to her was that it made her forget about her surgery.

Hunter looked over, noticed her fidgeting, and smirked.

"Hey! You! Nurse! Yes, you! For the thousandth time, can one of you slackers come check my IV," Kara finally called out, breaking the silence. "What is this? Calcutta? Burbank? Oh my gosh," she cried, flipping back onto her bed, throwing her hands over her face, exasperated. "I could die before anyone gets here! I'm seriously allergic!"

"Seriously need to chill," came Hunter's voice from the bed next to her. She rolled her eyes. Every time he spoke, she got more and more annoyed with his arrogant, calm tone. "An anxiety attack isn't going to keep you out of surgery."

"I'm not having an anxiety attack, I'm having a medical reaction to whatever generic drugs they're dosing me with," she shot back. "Kenj-" she started to yell, but two hands grabbed her wrists and shoved them into the bed on either sides of her head.

"You're having surgery for the first time in your life and you're totally freaked out that you won't wake up. Just say it. Say it. Say, 'I am scared'." Hunter stared at her, his eyes cold, and unmoving from her own.

"Fine. I'm scared," Kara whispered.

Hunter continued to stare at her sternly as he got off of her and moved to his bed. "Better?"

"Sort of," Kara admitted.

"Good." But then, he added, "It's pretty pathetic getting worked up over a freaking pacemaker, some people are in for real things."

"Oh yeah?," Kara called, sitting up quickly. "What real thing are you in for?"

Hunter met her gaze evenly. "Bunk liver." Kara stared back at him, wordlessly. "Doctors gave me six months tops before it craps out. You see, the sicker you get, the higher you get on the transplant list. Yesterday, my pager went off. They found a liver. Some unlucky soul ate it on a motorcycle. This is in honor of him," he explained, as he held up the book she saw him reading. Hunter smiled at her sadly, and dropped it back on the bed.

"Wow, that's...such a load of crap," she scoffed. "Was your drooling brother on that bike, too," she asked with mock concern.

Hunter smirked. "I may have underestimated you."