He was a tall man, with broad shoulders. His fingers were long and thick, like any man's would be. His face was hard, sharp, definined. He walked like a lumberjack, thudding down the hall in black doc martens with his chest poked out.

Anywhere else, he was the opposite of delicacy. But in the OR with a scalpel in his hand, Zeus had more grace than a ballet dancer.

(edited xx)

****

My foot won't stop tapping. Cold sweat collects on my brow, dripping down my cheeks to my cupid's bow. My hands clench and unclench uncontrollably, and I can't seem to get my hair in the ideal spot. The bus bumping along the road doesn't help with any of these things.

You would think I'd be so nervous and uncomfortable because I (along with 9 other male, and large surgical students) am on my way to the first day of the intern program, especially since my weekly spot is expendable. But that has nothing to do with it; medicine is second nature to me.

It's because of Michael. Since yesterday, I couldn't stop thinking about him. The way he called me baby, the way he touched me, the way we kissed... it clouds of my mind. Worse? He's back to his asshole default setting and won't even look at me, except to scowl angrily. I don't know why, and I shouldn't care. I know he's only out to get me; kissing me was part of his sick game.

He scribbles in his notebook furiously, whatever he's writing must be pretty important. Medical notes, maybe.

The bus halts, throwing me out of my reverie. "Nelson! Lets go." I swallow and stand quickly, filing off of the bus with the rest of the guys. I gasp; because waiting outside the hospital doors is a troop of doctors. About 5 of them, all wearing dark blue scrubs. Their stony faces probably strike fear into the hearts of many, but the only one who really scares me is the man in the middle. It's not his face, it's just.. his appearance.

He's got long reddish-blonde hair, really long, almost as long as mine. He wears a red bandanna around his head along with a backwards baseball cap. It's kind of a weird look for a doctor, and it makes me uneasy. His air of superiority bombards me as we gather in a group, along with some other interns who were already waiting.

The sound of the city echoes in my ears, the distant roar of police sirens and the buzz of people. The hospital is gray and concrete, like any other building on the block, only the words 'Rieke Memorial Hospital in Manhattan' are printed on the front. "Interns, hello." The voice of the tall man with the blonde hair in the middle sounds. It's deep, booming, and only fitting of this man. I swallow hard, trying my best to look over the tall shoulders and heads to get a look.

"Welcome to Rieke Memorial. The place where your aspirations and dreams come to die." He smirks, examining the crowd of about 25 interns. I have a feeling he doesn't see me, we don't make any eye contact.

"Come, follow me into Sparta." Sparta? The interns murmur as we walk in. I look around, marveling. Everything in New York is big and beautiful as far as architecture, and this is no exception. Tall ceilings, glass windows and quality tile meet us, a bridge passing right through the lobby. "Now! Don't be fooled by the beauty of it all, runts. This is gonna be the best and worst time of your young and pathetic lives."

"They call him Zeus." A guy whispers to me. It's not long before I notice that I'm the only girl in the program. Our feet shuffle against the ground, lots of hospital patrons turning to look at us with skeptical eyes. Zeus? Zeus and Sparta are two different things, but I suppose they go well together.

"Zeus?" I whisper back to the person, a guy not much taller than me with wide blue eyes. I look past him to Michael, who isn't paying much attention to me. Why do I care? I try to reprimand myself, but it doesn't work.

"Yeah. He's the chief surgeon here, and he's really... powerful. Ruler of all rulers, you know? They say if you cross him? You'll be sorry. He's not easy on anyone." I swallow hard as we walk down a narrow hall, filing through one of the chestnut colored doors.

I marvel at the beauty that is a real operating room. We all gather in it, a simple room with lots of equipment, and a gallery up top looking down on it. "Gather around!" Another doctor yells, and we all bunch in the middle of the room.

"Look around you, and say hello to the competition. Only 5 of you will be asked to be surgical residents at Rieke Memorial. That means 10 of you will crack under the pressure. 3 of you will choose a new specialty. 7 of you will be asked to leave." A tall thin man with dark skin paces, looking back and forth at us. "You will be pushed to your limit. And beyond that."

Next comes a few questions. 'Where do you go to school.' 'How much experience do you have.' Finally, Zeus speaks up. "Enough with that." He goes over to the wall, and places a CT scan of a brain on the scanner. "Can anyone tell me what's wrong with this scan?"

I know immediately, but nobody else seems to; the interns shift and murmur uncomfortably. "Come on, runts. Anyone? Have you had any medical training?" I swallow hard, picking at my uniform. "Subdural hematoma with a midline shift." I whisper breathily. The interns look at me with obvious resentment. Zeus peeks through the crowd, scanning our faces pensively.

"Who said that?" I don't respond, my eyes darting around nervously. "Come on out! Don't be afraid, I won't bite." The crowd of interns parts for me. My heart beating loud in my ears, I step out in front of them. Zeus's eyebrows raise, and his mouth drops a little bit. "You? You identified a hematoma and midline shift?" He almost smiles, and I swallow, nodding. "Yes sir." My voice is little more than a forced squeak.

He steps a bit closer to me and I almost jump, my fingers clenching and unclenching with nothing to distract them. His eyes are pressing, the corners of his mouth are curled up. "And tell me, how exactly does this sort of an injury occur?" I look down at my feet. "It's most likely found in victims of severe head injury, and sometimes in children with shaken baby syndrome.  A further cause can be a reduction in cerebral spinal fluid pressure which can create a low pressure in the subarachnoid space, pulling the arachnoid away from the dura mater and leading to a rupture of the blood vessels." I ramble, and look away.

"Wow. Very good. What would be your course of action?" God, why is he so intimidating? I force myself to meet his eyes, which seem unreadable to me. "This particular hematoma would need a craniotomy." He grills me on the signs of a hematoma, prevention, and possible post-op complications. I answer it all quickly and with detail.

"Wow. Very, very impressive. Tell me, how old are you?" Dang it.

"15." It's obvious he wasn't expecting this answer, the way his mouth falls open slightly. "Damn! 15 years old." "I skipped two grades." I explain, and he nods, circling me. "And who taught you so much about Medicine?"

"I did." He chuckles, turning back to the other interns. "She just put you all to shame. I wouldn't expect any of you to know everything she does, and with such detail, but I have to say. She just put you all... to shame. Now you're in the hole, and you have something to prove. You've been one-upped." I smile, and Michael catches my eye, frowning deeply as he scribbles in his notebook.

"You, Junior, give me a medical boner." My eyes widen. He's talking to me. "Keyword... medical." He adds, circling me again. "The chief of surgery usually doesn't have an intern, but that may have to change this year."

I think it's the word 'boner' that activates that part of me, and suddenly it hits me that Zeus is really good looking. He may be weird with the whole bandanna-baseball cap thing he's got going on, but he's amazing to look at. Strong facial features, a jaw lined with orangey stubble. Even through his white lab coat I can see his broad shoulders and toned muscles.

God! I've gotta stop. I knock myself out of it, and tear my eyes away from him, studying my shoes. "Today's gonna be a blast, fresh meat. You... yes you, are gonna be running things. The ER, the Pit, taking things to the lab, retrieving people for scans- the only exemplary is the surgery, you're definitely not ready for that. You'll be given pagers lab coats, and set to work. The intern who shows the most promise will scrub in for an appendectomy- solo." My eyes widen, and my fingers begin itching for a scalpel.

"You kids have fun." Zeus ends, glancing at me with a smirk before leaving the room. "Follow me, we'll change you into scrubs." I can tell the interns are either gonna love me or hate me. And the way they look at me with envious eyes lets me know that the scale is tipping towards hate.

Michael brushes past me, his shoulder briskly bumping mine. "Like you could give anyone a boner." He mutters, and my heart sinks just a little as he walks past. But what about the stuff he said yesterday? I sigh and follow them out, attempting to push last night out of my mind for the umpteenth time. I've got more important things to worry about: getting the appendectomy.

****

Lost puppies. That's what the other interns are, even Michael. I could hear them, frantically searching for things, supplies, getting lost in the hospital, panicking over how to treat the patients. Me? I've been cruising through all day. I've sutured 5 patients, run to the lab 7 times, taken 8 patients for scans, administered 4 patients with antibiotics through a central line, and more. While everyone is running around trying to find the lab, I'm winning that surgery.

I can tell it irritates Michael to no end, because he's obviously runner up in the group. I can out-brain him any day, and that's why I'm on top.

The attendings and residents, including Zeus, have been sitting on the sidelines all day. They laugh, pointing at each different one of us, probably highlighting our flaws. Not Zeus. He only sits back and watches me with curious eyes, sometimes slightly nodding. 

I've been on my feet all day, running from place to place but I don't feel it. I'm in the pit suturing a woman's arm when an emergency case comes into the room, the paramedics rushing through the doors with a seizing man on a gurney. Of course, Michael is the first one there, rushing her over to a treatment room.

Just listening, I can tell a few things. "27 year old male, found unconscious inside his house with an obvious head injury. We gave him IV fluids in the rig, and he started Grand Mal seizing as we got here." Michael seems lost, unable to decipher what to do. Why would he take the case?

I finish suturing and smile at the woman. "Thank you so much." She says as I bandage her, standing and leaving. As I take off my gloves, I hear people yelling. "Code Blue! Code Blue!"

First code of the day, so I turn to look. Michael is frozen at the foot of the bed, his arms out, his chest heaving. She's coding! He doesn't know what to do? "Doctor! Doctor, what is your course of action?"

All the other interns stand around, just watching. I rush over and push him to the side. I can feel Zeus's eyes on me. "Phenobarbital! Load him with phenobarbital, and push 1 of epi." The code team nods. "Yes doctor."

"Phenobarbital's doing nothing!" "Alright, push Diazepam, 4 milligrams Lorazepam." That stops the seizing, but the man still suffers from asystole- no heart beat.

"Alright, charge the paddles to 150." Michael's jaw drops as I climb other, rubbing the paddles together and placing them on his chest. "Clear." I shock him once, and his body jolts. "Still in asystole." "Charge to 200."

That doesn't do it. "300." His body jolts once more. "Pressure returning." The nurse sighs as the heart monitor begins to beep again, and I grin, blowing some hair out of my face. I place the paddles down, and turn. Zeus stands there, a satisfied smile on his face and charts in his arm.

"Again interns, you have been one-upped. Here, Junior. Make my afternoon rounds for me." He shoves the charts in my arms, and walks away. Time has flown, it's already 2. I'm probably gonna be late for my date with Jay... but this is worth it. My heart flutters a little, Zeus's hand touched mine. I blink rapidly, I have to stop thinking these thoughts. 

'Junior'?

I turn and start up the stairs to make the rounds.

****

A break time comes, and all of us interns sit at a table in the cafeteria. I munch a bag of carrots, reading my favorite book on Neurosurgery. Michael scowls at me. If he keeps it up, I bet his face will be permanently stuck that way.

"Interns." I jump, looking up to find the source of the deep and rasping voice. Zeus stands over us. "I can see you all worked hard today, but it was obvious from the start who was getting the solo-surgery." He walks around clapping a hand down on my shoulder. "Junior. Congratulations, you're scrubbing in in 30 minutes." I smile deeply, and Michael frowns, slamming his chair into the table and stalking away. I kinda feel bad... not really.

"Um, my name is Skipper." "See you in half an hour, Junior." He says, walking away. I fist pump, looking after him. He seems to have taken a liking to me, and god knows I like him. I figured out early on that he's a neurosurgeon, which is even better. I could learn so much from him, and the fact that he's easy on the eyes can't hurt.

I can tell this internship is gonna be a bloodbath.

Literally.

Hey guys! I know Medical stuff is confusing but... ignore the big words :) I would appreciate your feedback, always! Votes and Comments welcome :) :)

Part 2 of this chapter to come soon :)