* * *
I hadn't realized who my companion was until we reached the hospital gates. I had been too busy focusing on the little kid's life. Thing is, my escort turned out to be no other than the mysterious, yet attractive guy who was reading medical stuff.
«Of course it had to be him.»
I allowed myself to take my time to analyze his features from up close, having advantage from the proximity of our bodies. He was completely breathtaking. Flawless. So much it slightly annoyed me.
I finally re-composed myself when he put Jackson in my arms and spoke. Now, what he said got me completely in shock.
"I need a bed, now! Dr. Montgomery page Dr. Walker immediately. How many interns do we have in the ER?" He said to a female doctor while some nurses took the kid off of my arms to lie him on a hospital bed.
"We have Brook here, sir. I thought you weren't supposed to be on call?" A nurse spoke as two others started checking on the child's life signs.
"I wasn't. This kid fainted at the coffee shop down the street." His agitated voice said as he rushed to a room where I presumed Jack had been taken to.
I followed him without hesitation. I wasn't going to let this little boy alone, he felt like my responsibility ever since he asked me for food.
As we reached the room, someone who looked like an intern noted my presence before speaking while staring directly at me.
"Is she a relative?" He switched his stare to the man besides me to then look right back at me. "Sorry ma'am , but we'll have to ask you to leave. This is a restricted area for healthcare professionals only." The mysterious man, now discovered to be a doctor, stared down at me as nurses helped him into an emergency scrub.
"He's right, you have to go." He stated with authority.
Oh no. There's no way I was abandoning this kid. His parents haven't even gotten here yet.
"Uhm, actually," I started, thinking about what the hell I could make up to make them change their mind. "I'm an intern here, but I'm not on call." I prayed that the uneasiness of my tone wouldn't snitch me out. "I'd like to stay and watch, if you're okay with that?" I lied with pleading eyes. Stupid decision, I know. I was so going to regret this sooner or later. I hoped for the latter.
The man stared at me for a few seconds, his eyes full of uncertainness to then finally give in. "Fine. She's staying."
I whispered a quick 'thank you' as he opened his mouth again. "Update me, Brook." He stated to the intern standing at the other end of the room.
"Yes, sir. Jackson Hann, ten years old. He's first on the list for organ transplant - liver and bowel. He escaped the hospital about an hour ago." The guy said as he turned the paper from the chart, exposing the kid's weight and height in case we would find ourselves in need of that information. "He's stable now." He proceeded. Poor intern, he seemed nervous. I reminded myself that this was going to be me in a few more years.
My eyes darted to an unconscious Jack laying on the hospital bed. He had surgery scheduled for a liver and a bowel transplant. I sighed in shock, how did he even get that far from the hospital on his own?
"Alright Brook, tell Dr. Montgomery to let the parents know about their son's current state, and that he's here, stable." He said. Brook left the room and after a few seconds he came back, starting to check on the little boy's vitals.
"Where the hell is Dr. Walker? He's the patient's doctor." Hot stranger said to Brook.
"I don't know sir, I think he is in surgery." The intern simply answered.
"Well, page again."
Suddenly the monitor that was connected to the kid started beeping erratically and his body started to convulse.
«Crap.»
"Dr. Vennberg, he's seizing." A nurse called.
Dr. Vennberg? As in The Dr. Vennberg?!If he is who I think he is, then I've been spending time with one of the most prestigious neuro and cardiac surgeons in the States. I was freaking out.
Fuck. I just lied to this man. This is really happening. How did I get so damn lucky? I'm so going to hell for this. I snapped out of it and quickly put attention to the little boy convulsing.
"His I.C.P is way too high. Code blue!" Said Dr. Vennberg pushing a button on the right side of Jack's bed as more nurses started to enter the room. "Brook, what do you do now?" The intern looked at him horrified. To say that I was freaking out now, was an understatement. Are these the internship teaching ways? To test them out on dying patients?
"I uh-" Vennberg cut him off. "For the sake of your maintenance on the program and the patient's life. Tell me, what the hell do we do in procedures like this?!"
"Hypertonic saline and clonazepam. You should put him on a drip with vec and put him on a VIS monitor." I instantly said, interrupting the two of them. I had over-passed my adrenaline umbral and I wasn't going to watch Jackson's life being finished because of a nervous intern and a pushy doctor. I mentally thanked my dad for playing 'rollercoaster' with me when I was a kid.
It was a game he had made up to play with me when I had to be stuck in the hospital with my parents. Day care wasn't entertaining enough -since I was already eight years old back at the time, and every other kid was at least three years younger than myself- so I just ran out of there every time I got the chance to. My mother would always scold me for doing so, she would sometimes even deprive me of dessert at night. My dad, on the other hand, gave up on trying to make me stay somewhere I didn't want to be in, and started taking me with him to his shifts. That's when he invented 'rollercoaster.' It started as an easy game, he would ask me what I would do with some patients -head CT or X-rays- until I grew up and shifts with him weren't out of necessity anymore, but out of my teenage self having free time to spend with him every other day after school. I started taking it seriously, I was really good at it too, to the point my dad would often make calls based on my own judgment. Of course no one in the hospital knew about this game -except from some nurses- since it was extremely illegal.
"What are you waiting for? Do as she said!" Dr. Vennberg stated as he looked at me with a mixed look of curiosity, amusement and approval.
"We're losing him, doctor." One of the nurses spattered as the monitor went crazy.
"Stay back! I'm starting CPR."
I took that as a cue that I couldn't do anything else at this point. I just resigned to step back and watch doctors do their jobs as I hoped for the child's life.
"Hey intern I've never seen before, any suggestions?" Dr. Vennberg turned to me. He has got to be kidding me. The boy needed cardiopulmonary resuscitation and he was asking me for medical advice? It's a code blue, for God's sake.
«Well, you told him you were an intern, genius.»
"Uh," Come on, I haven't even started med school yet! I'm having my first class in two freaking days. Think. Think fast. "Okay. Okay. Uhm, push .35 of EPI." It took me a while to make the calculus of how much Epinephrine Jackson would need, considering his weight and height previously given by the intent, but again, I hadn't done this since I was fourteen.
I saw how the nurses looked at Dr. Vennberg as he nodded at them to do as I told. "Get him fifty of bicarb, too. Quick." He added and then started the compressions on Jack's chest. He was going through the second round when the monitor started to slow down. I let out a sigh of relief I didn't know I was holding.
"His blood pressure and pulse have stabilized." Spoke Brook for the first time since he was paralyzed.
"Get him to OR three, now. He needs this transplant immediately. I'll meet you there. Can someone please page Dr. Walker again!" He breathed out angrily. "Oh, and Brook," he said while the intern guy looked scared to death. "I hope you know that you won't see the inside of an OR for at least a month. Now get out of here, you almost cost the patient's life."
"Y-es, sir." Brook shook as he vanished out the door.
"Vennberg," another doctor emerged in the room. "You paged me?" His thick British accent resonated through the entire space.
"Yes, Walker. Don't worry, we've already handled the situation. The patient's surgery will be in OR three. Oh, and your intern won't scrub in on any surgeries for the rest of this month. He almost killed Jackson."
"Hann? The transplant kid?" The man asked, assimilating the information. "Bloody, Brook. He really needs to learn how to handle pressure." He rolled his eyes in annoyance. "I'll meet you in OR three then." Dr. Walker finalized. He was about to leave when his gaze met mine.
He examined my existence while giving me an untrusting look. "Who's this? A relative?" He took a step forward. "Ma'am, you can't be here. I'll have to ask you to leave. Has she been here all along?" He then turned to Dr. Vennberg.
The hot doctor looked at me. "This lady right here is an intern, and she just saved the patient's life while Brook simply stood there, looking." He then turned to me. "That was impressive, may I know your name?" He stepped closer to me.
"I'm Amalia. Amalia Knox, sir." I answered as my pulse raised. I mentally slapped myself and my body reactions for betraying me like this. Giving him my real name probably wasn't the best idea either.
"So, Amalia. You are an intern here, then? I've never seen you before." He said while Dr. Walker looked at me knowingly. Shit. He knows. Of course he'd notice.
Crap. Stupid me. I can't keep on lying to Dr. Vennberg. He's going to kill me. What I did was illegal. Mysterious intimidating doctor wouldn't call the cops, right?
I was in the middle of my existential crisis when Dr. Walker had this amazing idea of speaking up.
"Vennberg. I don't think she's a-" I cut him off before he could say anything else. "Uh, actually." I gulped. "I'm starting my first day as a medical student this Monday, sir."
He just stared at me.
«Okay, this is it. I'll die. He'll kill me. He looks like he wants to kill me.»
"Did I just put a patient's life on someone who's not even started med school yet?! God, what's wrong with you? Do you realize how dangerous and irresponsible that was? I should've never let you in Jackson's room." His face became a slight shade of crimson as he looked at me in anger. "I don't have time for spoiled little girls like you. You could've killed him! Is that what you wanted?" I wasn't able to reply. "Next time you should know better. You're a student, not a fucking doctor! I thought you were an off-call intern. You told me you were one. Not to mention that what you did was illegal. Tell me one reason why I shouldn't be calling the police right now." He stated coldly. His voice rising at least an octave higher.
I froze. Boy, was he intimidating. He waited for a reply and when he didn't get one, he took a deep breath and then continued. "Well, Amalia," my name came out as venom from his lips. "I would love to stay here and learn more about how you've come to know all this stuff by yourself considering you haven't even started med school yet, but I have a surgery to get to. Goodbye." He asseverated with a hint of sarcasm.
"Sir, I- I'm incredibly sorry." This was one of the first times I actually felt intimidated by someone. Usually I don't let people smack me as if I were some kind of insect.
«Oh my god, get a grip already.»
He was about to leave, and I just couldn't keep my mouth shut. "Uhm, do you think that Jack,-" I stopped for a second so I could sound a bit more collected. "Is he going to be okay?" I said. He obviously noticed how both intimidated and frightened I was by him.
He tried to calm down and answered. "We'll do our best in surgery. Despite the fact that you shouldn't have lied to me and made life threatening decisions on a patient, he's alive. Now go away before I call the cops on you. I don't ever want to see you stepping a foot in here ever again, understand?" His deep voice filled my ears as he shot me a glare and then left, closing the door rather loudly, leaving me along with two other nurses in the room submerged in an unbearable silence.
I sighed in frustration, letting the past events replay on my mind.
«That was something.»