"Yes, well..." Mrs. Rikka trailed off, looking around the table and stopping at Violet and her friends, and she said, "Miss Metzler, Miss Watkins, and Miss Drake, your uniforms are impeccable."
"Thank you, Mrs. Rikka," the three girls said in unison and then giggled. A faint smile that looked more like toleration than actual joy crossed Mrs. Rikka's lips and then quickly disappeared. I couldn't tell if she liked the girls or not and made a mental note to watch more closely so I'd know.
"Ladies, today you are starting your internship here at Chicago General," Mrs. Rikka began. "We have very high expectations given the fact that you are coming out of one of the top nursing programs in the country, so before you begin, I want you to understand that all eyes are on you, and by association, on me as well. I expect you to behave in a way that reflects well on this program, and if there are any infractions, rest assured, they will be dealt with swiftly. Am I making myself clear?"
"Yes, Mrs. Rikka," we all replied solemnly. Liz reached under the table and pinched my thigh, causing me to jump in my seat.
"Is there a problem, Miss Pierce?" Mrs. Rikka asked. I shook my head, and she continued, "I'm going to assign you a department today. You will work there for three weeks before you rotate to a new department. By the time you finish your internship, you will have rotated through all of the major departments in the hospital and will be familiar with the protocols for each one."
She quickly began reading off the list of assignments, and I was happy to find that Liz and I had been assigned to the ER on the first rotation. Violet and her group had been assigned to the maternity ward, and were oohing and ahhing over how fun it was going to be to be around all those babies.
"Ladies, the maternity ward is more that just babysitting," Mrs. Rikka said, looking at them pointedly. "There are as many unpleasant things that happen on the ward as there are pleasant, so please be aware of the possibility that you might be assisting with some sad moments in people's lives as well as the happy ones."
"Yes, ma'am," Violet's friends said.
"And you two," she said looking at Liz and I with one eyebrow raised. "I'm sure you're familiar with the general nature of the ER."
"Yes, ma'am." I nodded.
"Sure," Liz said as she bounced a little in her seat. "It's like on television, right? Always busy and bustling with activity, and tons of interesting characters."
"You'll be observing and doing basic work down there, Miss Baker," Mrs. Rikka said. "Our ER is not a television program."
"That's a darn shame." Liz grinned up at her.
"Miss Baker, need I remind you that this is a hospital, not a game show?" Mrs. Rikka said disapprovingly. "If you can't behave appropriately, I'll have no problem removing you from the internship and telling your advisor you're not ready for this portion of your education. Do I need to do that?"
"No, ma'am," Liz said, looking down at the table sufficiently chastised. I’d long ago learned not to feel embarrassed by Liz’s outbursts or her somewhat uncouth behavior. I knew she had the best of intentions, even when people misunderstood her actions.
After she'd finished filling us in on the expectation of our internship, she sent us off to the departments we'd been assigned to. Liz and I were quickly assigned mentors and were absorbed into the flow of the ER department. The morning passed much quicker than I'd expected, and after lunch, we'd headed back down to find our mentors had clocked out and gone home. Liz and I still had a couple of hours left until we could punch out, so we busied ourselves helping stock and clean.
Around four, we heard some shouting out in the main area of the ER. Liz grabbed my hand and yanked me away from the shelf of gauze pads I was organizing and restocking and pulled me to the nurses’ station. A group of firemen were standing around a gurney yelling at the nurse to do something, and do something fast.
"He's in pain, can't you see that?" a tall guy in a Chicago FD baseball cap pleaded with the head nurse. "Can't you do something?"
"I'm waiting on the doctor," the nurse said as she typed something into the computer and then ordered the man moved to Exam 2. "She'll be right down and deal with this."
"What's going on?" I whispered to the nurse standing next to me.
"Firefighter cooking accident," she said, rolling her eyes. "We get these every so often. Good guys, but a lot of them are idiots when it comes to kitchen safety. Sometimes I feel like we ought to go into every fire station in the city and give lessons on cooking techniques as a public safety."
"What'd he do?" Liz asked.
"Took his shirt off while frying meatballs," the nurse said with another eye roll. "He's probably got some second degree grease burns."
I winced as she told us what happened, and when I turned back around, I found myself standing in front of a tall man with broad shoulders, unruly rust-colored curls, and piercing green eyes.
"You must be new around here," he said, smiling down at me. "I haven't seen you here before."
"It's...um...my first day," I said, trying to look away but completely unable to stop myself from staring. "I'm a nursing student...new...it's my first day."
"So you said." He grinned. "What's your name, newbie?"
"Me?" I asked, pointing to my chest.
"Well, yes, you," he said as he sunk his teeth into his lower lip.
"Alexandra," I said thrusting my hand forward as I tried to remember my manners. "Pierce. Alex Pierce."