"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 nurse's 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."
"Well, Alexandra Alex Pierce," he said taking my hand and shaking it warmly. "I'm Cameron Conner, but most people call me Cam."
"Hi, Cam," I said as I stared up at him, trying hard to control my breathing. If there was such a thing as a beautiful man, Cam Connor was it, and I had no idea how to act around him. Suddenly I remembered why I was there in the first place and sputtered, "Do you need some help? I mean, are you hurt, too?"
"I'm not as bad as Danny over there, but I do think I got some grease on me," he said as he held on to my hand still shaking it. "Do you think you could give me a gauze pad or two to cover it up?"
"Gauze! Yes! I can do that!" I cried remembering that I'd been stocking the supplies just before he'd come in. "I'll get some!"
"I'll just come with you, if you don't mind," he said following me back to the back storage area in the trauma room.
Once inside the room, I became even more unsettled as he pulled his shirt up and revealed his bare torso. He had a lightly hairy chest and abdominal muscles that I would have killed for. The fire department logo was tattooed all the way around his upper bicep.
"Nice tattoo," I said as I wiped off the small area that had been hit by grease with an alcohol wipe. He winced, but said nothing. "Did that hurt?"
"A little," he said watching me closely. "So, Alex Pierce, what made you decide to work here?"
"It's part of my nursing program internship," I said looking up at him and noticing that in addition to being mesmerizingly green his eyes were flecked with gold.