Chapter 11
"There is no more room for interns in the cardiology department, so to start you will work in the neurosurgery department, but if you are needed somewhere else, always be ready to help," my uncle smiles at me while we take the elevator to the third floor.
My uncle's hospital selects the best fifth and sixth year students every year to give them the opportunity to do free internships and gain experience. It seems that this is the only hospital in our country with such capabilities.
"Agreed," I turn to him. "Once again, thank you very much for this internship."
"Well, well, don't hope that it will be so easy, interns don't stay long, dear."
"And I'm not like others."
"I understood it a long time ago," he smiles at me again.
"This is Mr Jonson, our head of hospital department, I’ll leave you with him." We go to the reception, where the doctor is standing and signing some documents.
"Mr Jonson," my uncle turns to him, "this is Amelia, I told you about her."
"Ah, of course, " he extends his hand to me, "nice to meet you, Amelia."
"You too," I smile and shake his hand.
He looks about thirty-five, but he's too young to be head of this department. It is hard not to notice his bright blue eyes, which almost blind anyone who looks into them. His hair is dark, but gray appears on the sides. There is light stubble on his face, and bruises are visible under his eyes. I wonder how long he works without a day off?
"Then I will leave you and attend to my business, good luck, Amelia." My uncle turns to me and leaves us.
"Well, this month I lost three interns," says Mr Jonson, but when he notices the surprise on my face, he immediately corrects himself, "I mean, they couldn't stand the workload and went to other hospitals." I nod in response and put my hands in my coat pockets.
"Now I have a very smart student left on my internship, he has been with me since the beginning of the summer, so he knows almost everything, Sonya, who is in the fifth year, also recently arrived. I'll warn you right away, at the beginning I wont let you go to patients, but I think under Danylo's supervision you will eventually be able to work with patients," he says and I freeze. "And here he is."
As soon as I hear this name, I immediately realise who it’s about. But aren't there other Danylo in the country? I hope it's not that Danylo. "Darling." Shit.
I turn around and see Danylo. That Danylo.
He smiles and throws the gloves in the trash:
"What are you doing here?"
"The same question for you, Bondar." "Do you know each other?" Mr Jonson asks us.
"Kinda," answers Danylo.
"Danylo, then show everything here to Amelia, and then come to my office, tomorrow I will have a complicated operation, I will let you watch it."
"Yes sir, it’s a great honour ."
Sometimes it seems he was a little touched in the head. He is a grownup twenty-three-year-old boy, but at the same time, he is completely stupid.
"Perfect," Mr Jonson is leaving us.
"They don't take third-year students here," Danylo immediately says and turns to face me.
"And they took me."
Danylo carefully examines my face and tilts his head to the side.
"Maybe boss-doc is your relative?" he smiles.
"Who?" I ask again.
"Boss-doc, Mr Jonson."
"And who came up with such a primitive nickname?"
"Are you able to come up with something better, darling?" Danylo comes close to me.
"Can you stop calling me that?"
"You don't like it?" he grabs his heart, as if deeply affected. "Sorry, it doesn't bother me," he leans towards me so that our faces are at the same level. "I like when you get angry," he winks at me and returns to his usual position, leaving behind a pleasant aroma of citrus and nuts.
"What is it?" Danylo takes my hand.
"Shit," I groan. My watch started ringing, my heartbeat exceeded the norm.
"Is our little girl worried?" the damned smile appears on Danylo's face again.
"No, it’s probably just broken," I lie and try to turn off the watch, but it doesn't work. Now I'm starting to get even more nervous.
"Those forty seconds that I held your hand were enough to understand that your heart is about to fly out of your chest, darley. "
"You know what," I begin, but then stop.
This time I won't get away with it, so I decide to just keep silent.
"I know," Danylo nods and steps forward. "Are you coming?" and turns to me.
I sigh, but follow him anyway. I feel that the internship will be completely different from what I expected.
We walk along the white corridors, I inhale the pleasant and familiar hospital aroma.
"On this side," Danylo stops and points to the left, "there are patients after operations, and in this one," he points to the right. "Patients undergoing treatment." "Got it," I nod.
"Patients are checked every morning." I nod again.
"Usually, interns do not do any important work, but everything will depend on you. I think at first you will help the nurses with the documentation. They will teach you what to do." "Okay," I pursed my lips.
"A little further along the corridor is the resident's room, where you can store some of your things, and if you work night shifts, you can get some sleep."
"I was told that at first I will work only on weekends. Do you work night shifts?
"I have to."
"Aren't you tired?" I raise my eyes and look at Danylo.
His look shows no emotion. His brown eyes seem quite dark in this lighting.
"Tell me, is there a person who works in a hospital and doesn’t get tired?" he smiles.
Or, more likely, he squeezes a smile out of himself. It's only eight o'clock in the morning, and Danylo looks like he's worked for over twenty hours.
"Was it a difficult night? Lily didn't come back to the room yesterday, and the girls texted that they were out all night, not the best way to spend time before work," I smile and approach Danylo.
He sat down on the windowsill. The colour of his face became almost white. I already regretted the words I had said.
"Tonight we lost a patient," Danylo says quietly, looking at the ground, "he was brought to the ambulance with a brain injury, we didn't have time to help him."
"I'm sorry," I touch his leg, "I didn't know."
I'm not used to seeing Danylo in such a state. This is a guy who constantly jokes, flirts with everyone and smiles with his straight white teeth.
And indeed. Why does he have such perfect teeth?
"It's okay, it's not your fault."
There is silence. None of us say a word. We sit on the windowsill in an empty corridor being silent.
"Maybe if I had reacted faster, if I had managed to make a diagnosis sooner than..." Danylo buries his face in his hands.
"Listen," I lift his head and make him look at me, "It's not your fault, you did everything that you could."
His eyes are already red, and so are his cheeks. Now he no longer seems like such a proud and narcissistic Prince Charming. And although his hair is not styled as usual, his shirt is a little wrinkled, but his medical coat is perfectly clean.
"The hardest thing in this job is to lose someone."
I bite my lip to keep myself from crying.
"Losing someone is the most difficult thing that can happen to anyone," I say quietly, and we are silent again.
Danylo gets up, runs his hand through his hair, he no longer looks at me. His mood changes again, and the cheerful Danylo that I used to see appears in front of me. Although now it seems to me that he is not at all who he pretends to be. I know well what it's like to wear masks.
"My shift ends in two hours, let's introduce you to the nurses, today you will help them."
I nodded and got up. We haven't talked more that day.