Anatomy - Elijah Mikaelson -

Chapter 2

On busy days in her old workplace, up to 5 people came to the ER, mostly drunk teens that played terribly dangerous games on the bridge leading over the river, or have tripped and fell on their way home. Some broken legs, concussions or unconsciousness due to too much alcohol, but noting too serious. Mila and her colleagues had treated them one after another, fixed the broken bones in the OR, sent them back home and went to the patients that had to stay longer. The young doctor remembered nearly every face she treated in the hospital. All people had been nice, most of them knew her parents, violence committed to the staff was never an issue.

She already heard the horror stories from hospitals of bigger cities, but Mila couldn't imagine that patients could be dangerous for her, that she had to be careful with suspicious looking people. Or that she had to treat convicted criminals. When she did some research about her new workplace, she found out that the hospital worked closely together with the cities' jail. A shiver ran down her spine, but she was surprised about herself. She never thought that she could've prejudices towards her patients. Mila needed to stop being a small town girl. This wasn't the place to be small minded, she had to be friendly to everyone, she had to treat everyone the same. 

The staff around her was pretty busy. They barely noticed her when she entered the office she was instructed to go to. Nurses rushed by, grabbing papers from the tables and speaking short sentences to the secretaries. The women in their middle ages didn't even lift their heads to look at the person talking to them. But it didn't seem like a sign of disrespect, it just works like that here. 

Mila hesitated for some time and looked around, pulling at her fingers in stress. Taking all of her courage, she approached one of the secretaries who gave her a whole stack of papers without greeting her. 

"Fill in your data and sign down there. The other one's must be signed by your mentor and the chief of surgery by the end of the week." 

The young woman nodded and tried to put the paperwork in her bag without damaging it. This would have to wait until she finished her shift.

"Who'll be my mentor?" 

Her question made the worker rip her gaze away from her computer and gave Mila an annoyed look. It implied that her words made her sound like she was out of her mind.

"No one has time to really mentor anyone. Just let it sign by someone in dark blue scrubs and you'll be fine." 

Again Mila nodded, being utterly confused. In her old residency program it was perfectly normal for every resident to have their mentor. It was nice having a person of trust to come to and the older doctors had contact to the younger with their brilliant new ideas. 

Time seemed to be an issue in New York. 

The woman facing her explained the way to the changing room with lockers and to the ward she was supposed to work at. She thanked the secretary with a smile, which the woman returned with a look of pity. With a determined expression, Mila went to follow the instructions but got utterly lost. The signs scattered around the walls didn't make any sense and the people she asked just ignored her. After nearly half an hour, a year one intern was nice enough to lead the way to the changing room. He had a kind smile, but looked pretty exhausted and released a deep breath when he reached his locker. 

"I'm Mila. Thanks for showing me the way." 

The young man just smiled, but didn't reply anything. Mila knew how the newbie doctors where treated so she thought bonding with one of them would be a good idea. But she would quickly understand why making friends wasn't easy here. She was the one standing in the middle. Her status as 'the new girl' excluded her from the residents that were n the same year as her, but she also was 5 years away from the people that just graduated from med school. The senior doctors seemed to be a whole different species. Again a thing Mila didn't know. In her home all the doctors had somehow sticked together and even had lunch together, they also got along well with the nurses and every other staff member. But here sharp lines seemed to be drawn between the groups. She should get used to it.