Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback on the first chapter, guys. Here's chapter two. Still don't really know where the story's headed, but going with the flow. This one might read a little haphazard as usual, so please do bear with me. And do forgive the typos, my grammar skills seem to very off, especially while trying to write the dialoguesā¦lol.
Chapter 2: First Impressions
Atul turned and saw the tall and beautiful girl standing across the room rummaging around in her locker. "She's probably one of the new interns as well," he thought to himself. "I should go and introduce myself." He walked over, and offering a hand said, "Hi, I'm Atul." The girl turned around and looked at him for a few moments, and then glanced down at the hand he was offering. She looked back up, an eyebrow arched as if to say, "who the heck are you to even try talking to me?"ā¦then she turned and walked out the door, leaving Atul staring after her in surprise, his hand still outstretched. "Wow! He thought, "What's HER problem?? I was just trying to be polite!" Riddhima and Sapna walked over to him. "That's my Anjali di, Atul," said Riddhima. "That's your sister??!!" Chorused Atul and Sapna in unison. Smiling, Ridzy nodded. "Wow, you guys are so different!!, said Atul. "You're so sweet and friendly, and she's soā¦.," Atul trailed off after looking at the expression on Ridz's face. "I mean to say, so nice!" grinned Atul in a somewhat cheeky way.
Armaan joins the other interns, and his equations with everyone are the same as that in the show. "Nok-jhok" with R, bonding with Angie, and the "champ" style one-upmanship games with Atul.
All the interns meet Dr. Keerti and are given their various assignments for the day. Atul and Angie are assigned to work together in the general ward.
General Ward:
Angie was attending to one of the patients when Atul walked in. She'd walked off after Dr. Keerti had assigned them together, without giving him a chance to catch up at all. On top of that, he'd gotten a little delayed cuz he'd seen some kids tossing candy wrappers randomly on the floor. He'd stopped to pick those up, and put them in the trash can, yet again wondering why the importance of a clean environment was not impressed upon children since childhood. Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he walked over to Anjali. She was talking to the patient, Mr. Mehra. "The surgeon will make a little incision in your scalp, behind your ear to get to the tumor. The surgery should not take more than four hours. Although rare, there is still a possibility that you may slip into a coma. I had to make you aware of that according to protocol." All of this was said in an emotionless tone, while Atul watched with some alarm as Mr. Mehra's face paled with each word she said.
"Don't worry, Mr. Mehra! It's a very simple procedure! It's been done countless times before," said Atul with a smile, and a reassuring pat on Mr. Mehra's arm. "And our very best surgeon, Dr. Shashank Gupta will be operating on you! You'll be as good as new in no time."
Anjali gave him a steely look, and motioned for him to come over to the side away from the patient. "What do you think you're doing Drā¦..ummm, what was your name again??...Arun?" "It's Atulā¦Dr. Atul Joshi," said Atul. "Ok, Dr. Atulā¦.what do you think you're doing interfering when I'm talking to my patient?" asked Anjali. "Nothing! Atul replied, I just wanted to reassure him because it looked like he was getting scared, and Iā¦" "And you what?" interrupted Anjali, "We are doctors, Dr. Atul. Not their Mommies that we should mollycoddle them. Our job is to treat them, and ensure to the best of our abilities that they are as healthy as possible." "Butā¦," said Atul. "But what? interrupted Anjali again. Please don't try and act all innocent now, ok? Do you think you'll earn extra brownie points by doing all this? "Brownie points?!?" asked Atul in bewilderment, what are you saying? Iā¦neverā¦" "That's enough, Dr. Atul, said Anjali. I don't want to create an unnecessary scene; I've made myself very clear. Please don't interfere like this again, because it's not going to work to your advantage in any way." Saying this, she turned around on one heel, and walked away to the next patient, clearly dismissing him. Atul was once again left staring in bewilderment after her. "Khud ko kya samajhti hai, itna akadti haiā¦Sanjeevani mein nayee nayee aaye yeh AnJALI hai," he muttered to himself. A nurse passing by asked him, "Did you say something, Dr?", "Nothing, nothing really" smiled Atul. To himself he thought, "I think I need a drink of water after that earful"
Water Cooler
Atul was grabbing a drink of water from the cooler, when an arm landed around his shoulders. "Hey Champ! Kya chal raha hai, asked Armaan? How's your first day been so far?" Atul glanced at Armaan and gave him a full toothy sarcastic grin, "Kaise chal raha hoga, huh? Ek to subah subah woh Dr. Keerti...the way she glares at us with those big khoonkhar eyes of hersā¦baap re! lagta hai khaa hi jaayegi! On top of that, I got stuck with the worst possible person on General ward duty todayā¦Dr. Anjali "God knows what her problem is" Gupta," he finished, making a face. "Who? Angie? asked Armaan, You're actually complaining about being stuck with her? What is there to complain about? She's gorgeous, sexy, and intelligent on top of that! Do you know how rare that combination is in a woman? Trust me, I've got the experience to prove it!" smirked Armaan with a wink at Atul. "Yeah, I'm sure you do, replied Atul wryly. But Dr. Anjali seemed to have some kind of problem with anything that I said. You should have seen her! She was just going on and on, over nothing! Didn't even let me get a word in edgewise! And she was talking to me like I'm her servant or something!" "But Angie's a sweet girl, Atul, said Armaan. She was really nice to me this morning. You should be thankful that you didn't get stuck with Dr. Riddhima instead," he said, making a face. "Ek to I get stuck with the ultimate behenji, on top of that, she's unnecessarily giving me attitude! Me?! Armaan Mallik! Who does she think she is?"
"What are you saying, Armaan? said Atul. Riddhima is such a sweet and nice girl! She was really nice to me when I met her this morning. I can't even imagine her giving attitude to anyone!" "Are you kidding? laughed Armaan. Attitude is her middle name, yaar! Trust me, you're lucky you've got Angie instead". Suddenly Armaan's beeper went off. "Dr. Keerti, he said after checking it. Gotta run, Champ! Catch you later." And Armaan hurried off. Atul muttered to himself after he left, "What does he know? There is no way in hell that Ice Queen can ever be even remotely sweet! Pakka apni coffee bhi sugarless hi peeti hogi! Sweet my foot!"
Corridor, later in the day:
Angie was walking towards the cafeteria for a much needed break, when she suddenly spotted Shashank talking to someone down the corridor. A grin suddenly lit up her face, and she called out, "Dad!" He turned around, and she hurried over to him. "Dad! Guess what? Today I handled my first proper official case! I can't tell you how amazing it feels! All the years of med school, and I'm finally here! It was a.." "Dr. Gupta, Shashank interrupted, would you come with me to my office please?" "Sure, Dad, she replied with a bit of puzzlement on her face.
Shashank's office:
"Dad, what's wrong? Aren't you happy that I'm doing so well on my first day? asked Angie once they were inside the office. "Anjali beta, of course I'm happy for you! Replied Shashank. But this is a hospital! We are not at home that you can go around calling me Dad! I thought I'd explained that to you very well. We don't mix our personal lives with our professional lives here at the hospital! Here, I'm just 'Dr. Shashank Gupta' to you, not Dad!"
"I know that, Dad! But I was just so excited when I saw you, and I really wanted to share this with you! I thought you'd understand!" she said, trying hard to hide the hurt in her eyes. "Beta, I do understand! He replied. But there is such a thing as professional decorum also, hana? I would have expected you to understand that," he said with a hint of reproach in his voice. He saw something shift in her eyes, and she replied in a carefully controlled voice, "Of course, Dad. I'm sorry; I lost control there for a moment. It won't happen again." She glanced down at her watch in a deliberate movement, and said, "I'm getting late; I have to get back to work. I'll see you later, then." and without looking at him, she turned and left the room. Shashank stared after her, and the very questions that had haunted him for a while now surfaced again, 'When did these strange distances crop up between him and Anjali? Where had he gone wrong as a parent?' As usual, he felt himself to be at a complete loss for the answers.
Cafeteria:
Angie reached for the handle of the door to the cafeteria when another hand reached past hers and grabbed the handle. Atul opened the door, and without looking up, swept his hand out in a gesture as if to say, 'after you, ma'am'. Getting no reaction, he looked up and saw that it was Anjali. "Oh," he said. Uhhā¦". Anjali gave him a withering look, and swept past. 'Irritating, bumbling fool!' She thought, 'Wasn't it enough that she had to deal with her ultra sugar coated sweet little sis, that now she had this fumbling, overemotional idiot at Sanjeevani to deal with as well! Other people might find it "cute", but she'd never had any patience for that variety. Personal experience had taught her that more often than not, the innocence was a faade.
Reaching the counter, Anjali said, "One black coffee, please. No milk or sugar." Atul walked over in time to hear 'no sugar', and he smiled to himself. "Cheeni kum hai, cheeni kum hai, thodi thodi tujh mein hai kum, kum kum" he hummed under his breath. "Did you say something," asked Anjali. "Nothing, nothing really," he replied with a completely innocent expression on his face. Angie looked at him suspiciously for a moment, then took her coffee and left. Atul turned to the guy behind the counter, and said, "One cup of tea please. Milk, and 2 spoons of sugar. Life mein thodi mithaas to honi hi chahiye, hai na?" he winked at the guy.
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