It's been a fortnight since Dr. Bravucci joined Sullivan Teaching Hospital as the new chief of surgery.
Already the Italian surgeon had marked his territory, he oozed of an effortless charm that left everyone speechless during his introductory speech. His presence just had to be felt. Leonardo's aura demanded respect without him saying anything. The respect that his co-workers already showed him was like that of an aged bottle of wine, it became stronger and more robust by each passing day. It was almost impossible for his colleagues to not admire him.
Seth also had a high opinion of Dr. Bravucci though in those past two weeks he had done everything in his power to stay clear of the Italian—probably a good thing for both of them considering...
During lunch break, Seth was sitting with his usual squad of residents in the hospital cafeteria at a secluded table where they'd unintentionally claimed for themselves a few years back. The cafeteria might've been Seth's favorite place in the hospital, he loved the casualness that hovered around the place.
Today wasn't any different and the cafeteria was so dense and stagnant making it easy for any piece of salacious gossip to sweep through with an indecent efficiency. The topic of discussion was of course he who shall not be named—the new hot chief. As Seth was absently staring into space, twirling a ketchup dripping fry a laugh suddenly rippled, piercing the not so silent room. For some reason everyone at the table was gasping in between heavy giggles.
Do I have ketchup on my face or something?
Seth frowned, "If you idiots are done you might as well share the joke."
Ed was the first one to recover from his fit. A wild grin slithered on his features while the others were still trying to stifle their breathless heaves. "Vera thinks Dr. Bravucci might be into cock since he's always scowling at females nurses and residents willing to drop soaking lacy panties for him." Ed had the audacity to look sheepish after spewing those unfiltered words.
Seth snorted. It was more of a nervous guffaw. For some weird reason his heart beat decided to pick up pace. Stop being dramatic! He managed to keep a blank expression. "That's ridiculous, maybe if the said females in this hospital stopped being too obvious with their thirst he'd actually be interested. It's not as attractive when everything's just thrown to your face like that." Seth shrugged, munching on a fry nonchalantly.
Only if you knew how good he is at sucking—
Just the dirty thought had Seth twitching inside his scrubs. He bit down on his bottom lip hoping no one took notice of his excitement.
"Seth has a point you know?" Dr. Vera McAllister, an orthopedics attending who hanged with residents since her boyfriend was one, too, chimed in yet again. "But one thing you should know about me is my gaydar is never wrong."
There was silence just for a couple of minutes. Whatever thought swirling in each surgeon's head on that table was best known to themselves. Seth didn't know how to react to that not so off the rails piece of information from Vera but pretending not to be interested in the discussion was a very good idea at that point.
"It's none of our business anyway. If the guy prefers getting his rocks off with a dude then so be it, tough luck for some of us." Marianne finally diffused the suffocating silence erupting another laughing chaos at the table.
"Speak of the devil and he will appear," Someone whispered. "Looks like he's looking at you, Mickelson."
Seth almost choked on his Sprite. Indeed Dr. Bravucci was looking in his direction. The two held eye contact. The older man's eyes were so black. Two pristine onyx stones swimming in those sockets. They showed a sweet silence before dawn—so beautiful, Seth thought to himself before averting his gaze sideways. His heart thumped erratically inside his chest. He was so damned, those eyes were dragging him deep into a black hole of unspoken emotions.
"You good bro?" Ed prodded.
Tersely, Seth's eyes flickered back to reality. Dr. Bravucci was long gone by then. He mumbled, "Yeah. All good." As if on cue his pager blew off.
Pushing his empty paper plate away, Seth excused himself from the gang. His mind was buzzing with possibilities of his work colleagues catching up on his little secret with the boss himself. He'd never hear the end of it until next Christmas.
Maybe if Seth was paying attention he would've noticed who exactly had paged him. His mind was thoroughly fogged with unwelcomed insinuations which immediately dispersed when he let his eyes roam noticing he was there, in the isolated hallway with him.
"Took you so long responding to my page, Dr. Mickelson." Dr. Bravucci said, maintaining his unbreakable icy demeanor.
"I'm not exactly a robot you know?" Seth muttered a retort. This was going to be fun. Dr. Bravucci made him nervous, a sweet kind of nervous, he could feel a cold shiver swimming inside his blood veins.
"What was that?" The older man rasped, sizing the younger resident with his dim eyes that held Seth in position.
"You paged Dr. Bravucci." One of the scrub nurses announced, unexpectedly stopping Leonardo who was now only inches away from Seth.
"I did. I have a valve replacement in an hour and I want you to get ready." Leonardo informed and the scrub nurse was quick to nod.
"Prep my patient for surgery Dr. Mickelson." It was an order. Seth knew he had to do exactly what his superior had asked but for some reason he felt like defying him.
"I'm pretty sure you can find an intern for that Dr. Bravucci." Wrong move. Seth gulped noticing inquisitive eyes were now gazing at them in anticipation. He was attracting an audience. Mind your damn business people. Seth wanted to roll his eyes.
Dr. Bravucci wore a sinister smirk on his face accompanied by a glare which was almost as sharp as a loaded arrow. Seth let out a shaky breath feeling dread and anxiety deadening his body.
"Don't make me tell you twice, Dr. Mickelson." Leonardo whispered so that only Seth could hear. "I hate repeating myself." Something about that tone had the resident immediately grasping the doorknob to Leonardo's patient room.
Prepping Leonardo's patient meant he had to scrub in too. There was panic. He couldn't do this. Dr. Bravucci was new to this hospital so he wouldn't have known Seth never scrubbed in for cardio surgeries ever since he completed intern year. The guy was also chief meaning there was a possibility he had read everyone's files. The young resident already felt his pulse pounding in his temples.
Calm down for God's sake! It's just a valve replacement, nothing to shit your pants about. Besides, he's the lead surgeon. You'll just be a spectator in there.
Clearing his throat to announce his presence, Seth immediately smiled warmly at the woman in bed. She was surrounded by people who were obviously her family and judging by the looks on their faces, they were all anxious. Seth was already used to people being jittery, it didn't faze him like it used to when he was a student. Quickly, he read through the woman's chart.
"Good afternoon, I'm Dr. Mickelson and I'll be prepping you for surgery, Mrs. de la Cruz."
"You look way too young to be a doctor my dear, are you sure—" A lady sitting close to the patient's bed pointed out.
Before Seth could say anything in his defense one of the family members butted in. "Meemaw relax. I'm sure Dr. Mickelson is very much capable of doing his job otherwise he wouldn't be here."
The lady didn't look very satisfied though she slowly nodded.
Seth understood where this woman was obviously coming from. He was only twenty-five and most people his age were still wrapping up med school yet here he was, a whole second year resident.
"You don't have to worry ma'am, I'll be only prepping your daughter for surgery but the rest Dr. Bravucci will take over from there." It didn't really bother him that she doubted his capabilities, all he needed to do was provide his service as he'd vowed he would.
"Is he good? I mean, Dr. Bravucci, is he good? Someone referred us here." Another family member asked maintaining a secretive undertone.
"Dr. Bravucci is a reputable surgeon. Rest assured, Mrs. de la Cruz is in safe hands." The young resident replied.
"Thank you." One of the family members said.
The family then decided to give a short prayer and Seth stood there awkwardly as he watched them. He was not much of a religious person himself though he did believe in a higher power or a higher force out there. Seth managed to utter a low amen with them before summoning the nurses to help him wheel out Leonardo's patient for surgery preparation.
. . .
"Let's get started people." A deep voice boomed in the operation room. Seth tried not to look at Leonardo who somehow managed to make his navy blue scrubs look ultimately expensive.
How on earth does someone make scrubs of all things look so sexy?
As if gluing his eyes on Ed who was busy administering general anesthesia to the patient had suddenly become the most interesting thing to do, Seth made sure to use that as a shield.
The gallery started filling up mostly with interns eager to witness a valve replacement. Seth wished the gallery was closed but a guy could dream, right? Sullivan hospital was a teaching hospital after all.
"Okay, you're good to go." Ed announced paving way for the lead surgeon and his crew. Seth gulped. It was show time and here he was shaking out of his own skeleton.
"Dr. Mickelson, brief me the details of this procedure." Dr. Bravucci spoke in a voice commanding authority.
Seth knew the valve replacement procedure like he knew the back of his own hand but at that specific moment his body chose to freeze. He couldn't utter a single word, not even a single stutter or one single vowel. Dr. Bravucci eyed the resident with a more or less annoyed expression plastered on his face. Thank God for the surgical masks Seth couldn't see Dr. Bravucci's condemning scowl though his eyes said it all.
"Scalpel," The attending said which he quickly got from a scrub nurse. "Dr. Mickelson the patient is open now, what should we do from here?" Leonardo questioned again after slicing Mrs. de la Cruz's chest area using the sharp object. Seth did not respond yet again. Clearly he was not in the surgery with any of them. The guy was just literally frozen.
"Dr. Bravucci the patient is crashing!" An intern shrieked panic-stricken, it was her first day after all.
"Fuck! Get this useless kid out of my OR!" Dr. Bravucci barked. "If his hands were mine this patient would've been dead before he even started. Get him out now!" Leonardo was hissing out pure venom.
The sudden uproar brought Seth from wherever he was gone. All the memories of his first day at Sullivan hospital came back full force weighing on him. It was too painful, still fresh and too vivid. He dashed out of the operation room daring himself not to show any form of emotion. He hated Dr. Bravucci with every living cell in his body. The man could've excused him from surgery but instead he chose to embarrass him in front of his interns.
I knew he was an asshole.