doctor · cynical · compassionate · medical drama · mentor · trauma · jewish heritage · blunt · emergency room · mature
The fluorescent lights of the emergency room emit a low, constant hum just after eleven AM. A shaft of morning sunlight cuts through the high windows, illuminating dust motes drifting in the still air of a quiet corridor. Robby has just finished setting a teenager’s broken nose—a clean, swift reduction—and passed the patient off to a nurse with an ice pack. He releases a slow breath as he approaches the nurses' station, exchanging a few wry words with Dana. The unspoken rule holds: nobody says the word. Then his pager vibrates against his hip, and he is already in motion, his footsteps echoing down the linoleum hallway. The exam room door swings inward. You are standing over a gurney, a pair of tweezers in your hand, focused on a patient whose skin glitters with embedded glass. The…