This is a game. Or more specifically the game. That's how this goes, you play and you move the pieces on the board and you either win…or fail. Wulburga had always played the game well. If anyone ever wins the game it’s Dr. Walburga Black. Regulus on the other hand is, quite literally, screwed.
The first thing Regulus hears is his phone beeping and buzzing. That annoying alarm sound immediately gives him a headache, the beeping drilling into his skull. He throws a pillow over his head and tries to drown out the sound and can't help but think that, if this is how it feels to have a brain tumor then he pities the people who’s charts he’ll be reading today. Oh… shit. Regulus jumps up, throwing the pillow across the room, because he has to read charts today. He has to get up and read charts. Finally he reaches for his phone and sits up turning off his alarm. He scrubs his hands over his face and is awake enough to acknowledge the fact that he’s on his couch, in the living room apparently? Wait, why was Regulus sleeping on the couch in the living room? And why isn't he wearing any clothes- oh. Regulus’s thoughts are interrupted as he looks down at the floor next to him. There’s clothes strewn about the living room and in a pile of blankets on the floor next to the couch… is a guy. Regulus rolls his eyes at his own stupidity, because of course he had decided a few shots and an apparent hookup, he can’t completely remember, was the best way to celebrate his first full night in Seattle. Regulus gets up from the couch and pulls a blanket from off the floor wrapping it around him. He tiptoes out of the room though evidently not quietly enough as he hears a voice behind him go,
“Hey.” Regulus freezes in the doorway and turns awkwardly towards the guy sitting on his living room floor and smiles uncomfortably,
“Hey…” Regulus trails off awkwardly. What else is he supposed to do? He can’t remember the guy’s damn name and honestly just wants him out of his house so that he can run upstairs, shower and grab a poptart or something before he needs to run to work, because being late on your first day is just so embarrassing.
“So? Sleep well?” The guy on the floor puts his glasses back on and stretches his arms out. Now Regulus remembers why he made the choices he made last night.
“Um- yeah, yeah I did. You?” Regulus pulls the blanket tighter around him as he impatiently makes conversation.
“Yeah, I did. Thanks.” The guy smiles and nods. Ugh and he’s charming too, of course he is, Regulus thinks to himself.
“Listen - um…” Regulus trails off, wincing slightly at the embarrassment of not being able to remember this guy's name. The guy on the floor lets out a little laugh realizing the situation.
“James, it's James.”
“Oh! Right, yeah James. Um, I’m Regulus.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Great- yeah. You know that.” Regulus mutters.
“Mhm.” James nods from the floor still smiling at Regulus’s obvious embarrassment.
“So, listen, James. I had a…nice time last night, but I’m kind of late for work so I sort of need you to…”
“You’re kicking me out.” James snickers, phrasing it as a fact, not a question.
“No, not kicking you out, per say.” Regulus grabs James’s jeans off the armchair next to the couch and tosses them at James on the floor.
“Ok, maybe I’m kicking you out a little.” Regulus grabs James’s shirt off the floor and tosses it at James, who is now standing up and putting his clothes on, thankgod.
“That’s a shame. Nice house you’ve got.” James pulls his shirt over his head.
“Thanks- but it’s not mine, well technically it's mine but it was my Maman’s- my mother’s house but I’m selling it.” Regulus hands James his shoes.
“Selling it? Why would you do that?” “I just- um new job, can’t afford it, blah blah blah. You know how it is.”
“Actually, I don’t know how it is. I met you sixteen hours ago.” James smirks as he pulls on his shoes.
“Yes, well, great sixteen hours. I need to go to work now.” Regulus hands James his keys and phone, or rather he shoves them into James’s hands.
“So I don’t even get your number?” James smiles as Regulus ushers him to the front door. Regulus just had to pick up a charming guy who actually respects people, didn't he?
“Look…” Regulus sighs.
“James.”
“James, yes. James, I have a pretty busy job, and I don’t have tons of time for dating and shit.”
“Dating and shit?” James snickers,
“Yeah, so, no number and…um, have a good day?” Regulus opens the door for James.
“Ok, I will.” James nods and steps out of the door, seemingly not offended at all by the situation. He should be, Regulus can’t help but think. If the same had happened to Regulus he’d probably be at least a little bitchy about it, but James seems to be taking this all with amusement more than anything else.
“Great.”
“Bye Regulus.”
“Yep, bye, James.” Regulus nods and closes the door and sighs at the strenuous situation he just experienced before running up the steps and straight towards the shower.
“This is OR two.” Regulus hears the chief of surgery swing the door open. He is one of about twenty, maybe twenty two, (he would’ve counted had he not been late) interns being guided through the halls of Seattle Hallow Medical Center by Dr. McGonagall. McGonagall is a stern looking woman, it's obvious she commands respect, but there’s also clear reason to respect Seattle’s city wide first female chief of surgery. Regulus and the other interns walk into the operating room. With its white walls and massive amount of medical equipment and the gallery hanging above the room, it's intimidating to say the least. And Regulus is clearly not the only one who thinks so.
“This is your battlefield. This is your arena. Your chess board. How well you play, depends on how well you’re willing to play.” Dr. McGonagall smiles slightly as the group of interns all gaze around the room in awe.
“Eight of you will switch to less difficult specialties. Five of you will snap under the pressure and will have ultimately wasted all your years in med school. Two of you will be asked to leave this program. So, if you hope to survive the next seven years of residency, you need to play the game. And win.” She allows them to gawk and gossip a moment before snapping everyone's attention back to her,
“That’s all the inspirational words I have for you. Now you will be responsible for your own inspiration, as well as reporting to your residents at the nurses station in forty minutes. Your scrubs should be in your lockers if you did your due diligence to pick them up yesterday like you were supposed to. Your resident assignments are in the locker room.” With that it’s clear they’ve all been dismissed as they all rush out of the OR and across the surgical floor.
To say that Regulus is fearful would be a gross understatement. Regulus slams his locker shut. Despite his fears there’s a smug sort of satisfaction Regulus feels in pulling that white coat on with the words ‘Dr. Regulus Arcturus Black M.D., P.H.D.” stitched onto the front.
“Nice isn’t it?” The girl with the locker next to his smiles as she pulls on her own coat.
“They always go on about how nice the white coat is in med school but the feeling, it's beyond nice.” She muses.
“Yeah, it is.” Regulus nods, pinning his ID to his coat.
“I’m Lestrange by the way, Pandora Lestrange.” Pandora holds out her hand,
“Black, Regulus.” He shakes her hand.
“You have Dorcas Meadows as your resident, right?”
“Mhm, I hear she’s good.” Pandora nods, pushing her own locker closed.
“Meadows?” A blond guy sitting on the bench next to them snorts.
“Yeah. Meadows. Is that funny to you?” Regulus sticks his hands in his coat.
“No. Well, yeah, you know they call her the ‘death eater’ right?” The blond guy stands up and pins his badge to his white coat.
“Doesn't mean she can’t still be a good teacher. She might just be harsh.” Pandora shrugs,
“Or she’s a soulless monster. I don’t think people give you the nickname ‘death eater’ because you’re just ‘harsh’.” The blond smirks.
“Or she’s a brilliant woman who men are threatened by so they feel the need to take her down a peg .” Pandora smirks back.
“Touché.” The blond nods.
“So you’ve also got the ‘death eater’?” Regulus asks.
“Yeah, looks like I do.” The blond nods over at the resident assignment chart on the wall next to the row of lockers.
“I’m Evan.” He smiles at Regulus and Pandora.
“Regulus.”
“Pandora.” She nods and smiles.
“Great to meet you.” Evan nods. The three walk out of the locker room. Regulus doesn't feel very strongly about Pandora or Evan yet, which is unusual because he can get a good read on a person most of the time within an introduction. How they walk, how they talk, it’s all very telling in Regulus’s opinion, and sometimes people just have douchey names which Regulus can’t stand.
“Is that her?” Pandora mutters. The three of them are standing at the entrance of the locker room, the nurses station about twenty feet in front of them. A tall woman with dark skin and piercing eyes is standing next to the station, a chart in her hands.
“She already looks scary.” Evan lets out a low whistle.
“She looks like she knows what she’s doing.” Regulus nods at the woman. She does indeed look like she knows what she’s doing. Her braids pinned up securely in a bun, her white coat looking a little worn but not dirty or messy in any way, just thoroughly used.
“That’s the death eater?” A voice comes from behind the three.
“Yeah.” Evan nods, neither him nor Pandora or Regulus look behind them to see who asked the question.
“Hm. Not that scary looking to me.” The voice says casually. Pandora snorts as the three turn around.
“What?” the guy behind them, tall with dark messy hair, smirks at them.
“You can’t tell me you’re actually scared of her? You just need to ‘play the game’ as it were.” He snickers. Regulus scoffs. He may not have made up his mind about Evan and Pandora yet, though he’s leaning more towards liking them, but this guy he already can’t stand.
“We aren’t scared, we’re showing an appropriate amount of respect.” Regulus rolls his eyes. The brown haired guy scoffs,
“By cowering by the locker room while our resident waits for us? Which makes a shitty impression by the way.” He rolls his eyes back at Regulus. Oh yeah, Regulus doesn't like this guy at all, who does he think he is? Though this is surgery, he’s lucky this dude is the only person he’s come across with a god complex. Pandora raises her eyebrows at their apparent colleague and Evan gives him a look that Regulus can read as ‘Yeah, good luck making a better impression’. Ok, Regulus likes Evan. The dark haired surgeon walks forward approaching the so called ‘death eater’, Pandora, Regulus and Evan quickly matching his pace. This is Regulus’s starting line. This is where he needs to start playing the game.
“Dr. Meadows, a pleasure to meet you, Barty Crouch.” The dark haired guy smiles at Meadows and holds out his hand as well as a cup of coffee from the cart in the lobby. Smart, Regulus thinks, the cart seven floors below them has significantly better coffee than any of the nasty stale pots on this, or any, floor. Dr. Meadows looks up from her chart and places it on the counter of the station. She eyes Barty with a skeptical look. An intense moment later she pushes away Barty’s hand, takes the coffee from him and takes a sip.
“Don’t suck up to me. I don’t like you and that isn’t likely to change especially considering I don’t like kissasses. And if you do insist on sucking up, I don’t like black coffee. I drink quads or vanilla lattes.” She takes another sip and starts walking down the station, the four interns hurriedly follow.
“Pagers, trauma protocol, and notes.” She gestures to a pile of four of each and keeps walking as Barty, Evan, Pandora and Regulus hurriedly grab their pagers and protocols. Dr. Meadows walks briskly and quickly down the hall forcing Regulus and the rest of her interns to jog inorder to catch up with her.
“Your first shift starts now and lasts forty-eight hours, you work every other night and sleep here.” She opens a door to a darkened room with four bunk beds shoved against the walls.
“On call rooms. Don’t bother waiting for a ‘free one’, one person, at least, is already in there at all times, don't whine about it, especially not to me. I did my intern year already and I don’t want a repeat.” Meadows barely takes enough time to swing the door open for her interns to glance inside before she keeps walking. Regulus is already wary of this woman, and he sure hope’s Barty is too because if he pisses her off this much by bringing her coffee he’d hate to see what she’s like when Barty gets irritating. And Regulus is sure Barty can get much more irritating.
“You may be surgeons but that doesn't mean you’re untouchable and can be a douche to everyone but your attendings. Nurses have just as much power as attendings and will keep you from an OR for weeks at a time if they don’t like you. The sooner you learn that the better.” Dorcas keeps walking.
“Wait, they can actually do that?” Evan catches up to her a little.
“Yes. Nurses assign cases, page surgeons and do all the work you don’t have to. They can just as easily stop doing all those things if you disrespect them. Brings me to another important rule, a nurse pages you, you run. No matter if it's a nine-one-one or not, you answer every page a nurse sends you at a run. Just because they don’t have a white coat doesn't mean they page you for no reason. Got it?”
“Got it.” The four of them answer.
“Attending’s services will be rotated every week whether you know your specialty or not.” Dorcas continues, as the five of them walk past the blood bank.
“Do we get any input where we end up?” Pandora asks.
“You can ask me to consider your input.”
“Will you consider our inputs?” Regulus demands. Meadows stops in front of a door to an OR gallery and sighs in exasperation.
“That depends on if you keep asking stupid questions. Oh, and last rule-” She turns around and looks directly, and pointedly at each of her interns.
“I am well aware that I have been dubbed the ‘death eater’ by you lazy double-o-sevens. And if I hear a single one of you call me that all four of you won’t see the inside of an OR until Chief McGonagall tells me personally to let you into one. Is that understood?” All four of them nod infront of her, as Dorcas turns back around and reaches for the gallery door.
“Where are we going?” Barty speaks for the first time since meeting Dr. Meadows.
“I’m going to go watch Dr. Lupin perform a thoracotomy. Crouch, go see Thompson at the nurses station you’re doing scut. Lestrange you go see Dr. Longbottom, he’ll find something for you to do. Rosier and Black go see what Dr. Vance needs done in the pit, the ER always needs staffing.” Dorcas opens the door, Regulus, Evan, Pandora and Barty all standing there a moment before she notices they still haven't left.
“Go! Go! Go!” Dorcas shoos them away and Regulus splits off from the others along with Evan hurrying towards the ER.