Jess & Riley

[jesswhitman]

Just because Jess Whitman was new on the job didn’t mean he had to feel ostracized. In fact, he saw the new surroundings as an excuse to get to know them. First, however, before he went and flirted with nurses, he had some doctors to introduce himself to. Always preferring the stairs, Jess’ legs took him up to the fourth floor swiftly, two or three

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[e_jeanriley]

Riley really did not want to answer that. But Franklin had paged her after lunch, giving her a heads up that the new intern might be coming by. And that the department was collectively forking him over onto her responsibilities. So, she answered the door, smile bright on her face.

She had been finishing the paperwork for the next millennium, and her hand was starting to cramp up, so it wasn’t an entirely unwelcome reprieve, which made it easier to smile. Besides, the swelling of her lip had gone down long ago, and it hurt much less. It’d probably help if she quit biting it, but it was impulsive. “Good afternoon,” a cheery tone. “You’re Dr. Whitman?” Riley held the door open for the intern to enter, gesturing him in.

[jesswhitman]

Ah. Most definitely not a scary Irish lady. Jess smiled, the expression warm as it split his face. His green eyes focused on her split lip, and he was mildly concerned, as well as intrigued. “That’s technically me. When given a choice I go by Jess.” He grabbed Riley’s hand, and lifted it gallantly. “Enchante, mademoiselle.” He coupled his French with an overdone bow, and an exaggerated accent.

Hey, he had taken French in school. Romantic language my ass, it was all rolling of the ‘r’s’ and pretending to like caffeine-charged beverages. But anyway, that was beside the point. Jess stepped into Riley’s office, long legs taking two strides. “And you’re the elusive Doc R.”

[e_jeanriley]

Well, that was one way to make a memorable first impression. Not allowing herself to be as thrown as she should be, Riley smiled coolly, arching an eyebrow. As Jess entered her office, she made a bit of a ‘Hoo, boy,’ face out to the corridor as she closed her door behind him. “Guilty as charged.”

Riley slid her hands into the pocket of her lab coat, brain already working to assess the intern. “I assure you, not too many of the stories are true.” She smiled as she tugged a chair towards her desk, sitting in one adjacent to it and gesturing for Whitman to sit down. “I’m sure you’ve heard it today, but welcome to Princeton-Plainsboro.”

[jesswhitman]

“Yep. I’ve heard it more times than I can count, and yet…” A mock-thoughtful look, “It never gets old.” Jess grinned a little; Riley certainly had a handle on her image at PPTH, if not control, than at least a passing familiarity about the hobnob in the halls. A bit of a sly look, “Just for clarification, could you tell me what is and isn’t true?”

[e_jeanriley]

“Nope. We haven’t got all day.” Riley grinned, and before turning the conversation back to Jess, thought to say one thing. “However, the bit about dancing in cornfields with snakes on Saturday nights? Not true. My snake-dancing days are every other Sunday.” What? Riley had always been bad at this ‘formal’ nonsense, and besides, Whitman was closer to her own age than most of the doctors in the hospital.

For a person who rarely talked down to anyone, that fact made it especially hard. Why fight a loosing battle, right? “So, I’d like to get the scary boss-lady junk out of the way as soon as possible, if that works for you. Because you’ll be working as an intern in my department, it gets to be my job to interview you.” Her tone conveyed that it was a dubious honor, indeed, and that if Jess had any sense of self-preservation, he’d be edging towards the door.

[jesswhitman]

“You sound thrilled about it,” Jess observed sagely. “Why do they give you the boss-lady stuff if it’s not your favoritest thing in the world?” That was a rhetorical question if ever there were rhetorical questions. “I’m an open book.” He spread his palms wide, in a gesture of supplication. “Shoot.”

[e_jeanriley]

"I have this thing against prying into the lives of people who I hardly know about details I'm not particularly curious about, no offense meant." Riley made a little bit of a face, then reminded herself about being professional and... doctor-y. "Right. Moving on. So, now's when I ask you a bunch of questions like: What's your motivation? How will you benefit Princeton-Plainsboro? What instruments can you play? Why did you choose Internal Medicine? And, my personal favorite, where do you see yourself in ten years?"

The questions were asked with varying degrees of sincerity, even as she threw in one that was sarcastic in its entirety. "Feel free to ham up your answers all you like, I don't have to gauge their authenticity, I just write them down." In fact, the more candid they were, the better. Heh, if she had to do this, she was going to do it the way she wanted to.

[jesswhitman]

"You're not half bad at this, doc." Jess grinned, taking Riley's words into stride, same as always. Actually, her candor was quite nice. "Motivation: Liking life. Benefit: Hard worker, mostly positive outlook, non-jugmental, and all the other right answers

[e_jeanriley]

By the time he had finished, Whitman's deadpan approach had Riley laughing softly. It was nice to be able to laugh and temporarily ignore what weighed on her mind. Thank God she and he probably weren't going to be butting heads every time they had to work together. That was a particularly treacherous risk to run while playing 'intern roulette.'

But Jess, upon first inspection, seemed alright. Once he asked his question, Riley's laughter had sobered to an easy smile, slung low around the corners of her mouth. "Oh, this?" Her right hand went to her split lip. "A seizing patient got me while I was restraining her." Now that it looked better, people had actually start to beleive that story, Riley changing minute details to distance the truth.

Riley smiled again, and blinked. "You don't get to do anything cool like that till your second year of residency, sorry."

[jesswhitman]

"Here's probably when I consider taking a Peds fellowship after my residency, isn't it? I understand nine year olds don't have the most impressive right hooks." Jess wasn't seriously considering it, applying for a fellowship position obstructed his philosophy aiming to immediately affect the world. No, Peds was not for him. But anyway.

[e_jeanriley]

Annnnnnddd... Boom. Riley was back to professionalism, like that. "Maybe. Your call." Peds had never really been an option for Riley, either. Part of her job, part of a doctors job, was having patients die. And she knew that she'd never be able to watch children pass away. "Do you see yourself in a fellowship in a few years?" It was a question she probably should have asked earlier, but, hey, she was askinbg it now.

[jesswhitman]

"Nah." Jess sat back in his chair, crossing one gangly leg over the other. "I'm gonna go the easy road and stick with just the one specialty." He was so kidding about that last part. He knew as well as anyone that single-focus doctors were subjected to as much pressure as polys, and then there was that expectation to take on fellowships... but that was okay. As long as he got practicing as soon as possible. Jess wasn't hasty, but he sure wasn't patient with his future. He was more... pleasantly anxious. "Now... coffee?"