My New Colleagues

[Alex Valentine]

Alex followed Dr. Sharp into the Orthopedics ward.
"Nice day," he said, attempting to make conversation.
He had never met a woman who scared him as much as Dr. Sharp did. Man, she was scary. Very pretty, but she was scaring the crap out of Alex. And he could tell that she wouldn't respond well to flirting.
"It is," Dr. Sharp said, without looking at him. "Nice and clear."
He followed her in silence to an office.
On the door was a plaque saying "Dr. Watson."
He opened the door without Dr. Sharp having to knock, and looked Alex up and down.
Alex gulped. Two scary people. For God's sake, they were doctors, surely they'd be a little more, well, approachable?
"This him?" Dr. Watson said, turning to Dr. Sharp.
Dr. Sharp nodded. "Yes, Dr. Watson."
Alex checked at her respectful tone, then reminded himself that Dr. Watson was an attending, and Dr. Sharp was only a resident. And he was only an intern, a little runt.
"Okay, well, I'm busy, so go and show him where the other interns are," Dr. Watson snapped, before going back into his office and slamming the door behind him.
Alex raised his eyebrows.
Dr. Sharp gestured to him to follow her. "Ignore Watson, most doctors in this place don't have as big a goddamn God-complex as him."
Alex grinned. "Good, I was starting to freak!"
Dr. Sharp looked through a window to a cast room. "Okay, they're in there. Come with me."
She opened the door. Inside the room were a curly brown-haired guy and a harassed-looking but pleasant girl. "Okay, Grey, Dawson, this is Alex Valentine, he's been reassigned - so I'm his resident now. You two teach him how I expect him to behave, show him the ropes, warn him about Rob," Dr. Sharp addressed them.
The other interns laughed appreciatively. "Will do," the guy said.
"Where is he? And the other?"
"Rob and Jake are in another room," the guy grinned. "Jake has been giving Rob a few dressing-downs."
Dr. Sharp grinned. "Good. Alright, I shall see you guys later." She left the room.
Alex looked at the interns. He was strangely nervous. Man, it was like the first day of kindergarten. Or high school. God, high school. No, not like high school, the other interns weren't in stitches over his name. He smiled. "Heeyyy, I'm Alex."

[Amélie Grey]

Amélie smiled. "Hi, I'm Amélie."
God, she was having such a crap day. Dr. Watson was still keeping them on casts, and it sucked. Well, at least she'd figured out why Watson hated them so much. It was because he was late on that first day, and Adam had told him off.
She was consoling herself with the fact that there were only a few more weeks to go.
"Hey, I'm Andrew," Andrew smiled affably.
Amélie put a cast into the bin. "Okay, done. Have you met Watson yet?" she asked, smiling at Alex.

[Alex Valentine]

Alex regarded Amélie carefully. Was she French? She had a French accent. Or maybe she was Canadian.
Andrew had very curly hair. Very curly hair.
"Dr. Watson? Rude, arrogant and very very scary?" he asked.
Andrew laughed. "Yes then. Well, he's our boss for the next while, and he's-"
"Rude, arrogant and very very scary," Alex finished. "And making us clear up cast crap, I see."
Amélie laughed. "Yes. You have a lovely surname," she continued. "Dr. Valentine."
Alex could feel himself going red. Why the hell didn't he change his surname? Something more macho, like... em... oh, hell, he didn't know.
"Er, thanks," he said, blushing, praying that Andrew wouldn't say anything. He hated it when people tittered or full on laughed at his name. It was so damn feminine.
He searched around for another topic, and said the first thing that came to his tongue. "Did you two go to the prom?"
Oh, nice one Alex. Very masculine.
"Yes, we did," Amélie said, glancing at Andrew, then said in a stage-whisper. "Andrew went with a shrink."
"Amélie!" Andrew exclaimed, making out to throw a heavy bone setting instrument at her.
Amélie ducked and laughed. "Andrew, calm down!"
"A shrink, dude?" Alex asked.
"Yes," Andrew said, red. "What is wrong with going out with a shrink?"
"Nothing," Alex said, smiling. "Seriously, nothing wrong at all."
Andrew had the grace to smile. "Right, whatever. Amélie's dating a pathologist."
"Oh, that was low," Amélie laughed. "There's nothing wrong with dating a pathologist either."
"No," Alex said, trying not to laugh.
There was a silence as the three of them cleaned up the room.
"Oh," Alex said, remembering what Dr. Sharp had said. "What's Dr. Sharp like?"

[Amélie Grey]

"Scary," Andrew said.
"Hey, that's mean," Amélie said, hitting him. "She can be very nice."
"She can be extremely scary though," Andrew said.
"Well, sometimes," Amélie admitted. "But she's nice enough. She's very strict though. You're never allowed to shirk from any duty. She's good about surgeries though. When she can get them, that is. We're with Watson, so we're not going to see the inside of an OR for a few weeks..."
"Amélie found an X-ray where there were two Barbie heads inside a guy's stomach," Andrew grinned. "So we got to take that out."

[Alex Valentine]

"What, seriously?" Alex said, his jaw dropping. "Barbie heads? Who eats frickin' Barbie heads?"
Amélie gave him a strange look.
He blushed. "Sorry, that must have sounded insensitive. But that must have been a cool surgery."

[Amélie Grey]

"Yes," Amélie said cooly. She didn't appreciate Alex's tone of voice, to her it seemed really insensitive. "He's in Psych," she said pointedly.