firecracker.

❝What is that saying? ——A smile a day keeps the doctor away?❞ That… probably was not it, but Luka didn’t always know what the cultural sayings were. He’s pretty sure he’s heard this one somewhere. Maybe it was on T.V? ❝The system is broken but what can we do about ti? Nothing will change as long as Weaver and Romano have their way. But I’ll figure it out. I am committed to bringing the best care to my patients.❞ There were many things he didn’t like since coming to America, but there are many things he does like and he happens to be looking at one —— or was until he turned his gaze away to look at a chart in his hands.

❝You’re very good at what you do.❞ He grins in return but then once more finds himself look everywhere else.  ❝Well, I had plans to sleep after pulling so many doubles because Romano doesn’t believe in sleep. However, if he has his way, I’ll be pulling a triple. I don’t want to make plans only to have to cancel. Ah ——– what is that saying? No rest for the wicked? That seems to be me. Or is it No pain no gain? Both accurately fit my situation at the moment.❞

“Apple,” She corrects him, but with a soft smile. Luka has a thing around the department for getting these kinds of anecdotes mixed up, but since she wouldn’t know where to start with speaking a single word of Croatian “They always say that it’s an apple, but I don’t think it works -- if it did, then we would be put out of business pretty quick.” She teases with a little snort of laughter. “I think at the end of the day that needs to be your priority. Otherwise, this place would drive you mad.” Which it does, but it also has a way of growing on you too, that is if you completely exclude the hospital politics between Weaver and Romano. 

❝If Romano and Weaver were a Disney song, they’d be ‘Be Prepared’ from the Lion King.❞

❝Am I really that much like a puppy?❞ Maybe, on second thought, he shouldn’t have an answer to that. But her nudge earns a smile, a Luka brand smile so it still has a certain air of sadness, but it’s something and he is in noticeably better spirits considering his baseline. ❝I shouldn’t beat myself up. I trust my judgment. No one is more dedicated to patients than I am. It isn’t me, it’s the system. But I think we all know the system is a little bit broken at times, yeah?❞ Or so he heard often. The complaints of doctors are very well noted but County General will never change policies; not as long as the money is rolling in.

❝You really know how to pick me up, despite my baseline as you refer to it.❞ And yes, he did chuckle a little bit.

“Well, I mean--” Abby doesn’t exactly answer the question, but she does give him a little smile of her own. “You look better when you smile like that.” She isn’t complimenting him half-heartedly, and just because she knows it’s going to make him feel better. She sees how he is with patients, and how naturally it comes to him. “The system being broken might be an understatement, which should be every reason to try and override it-” ” The combination of Weaver and Romano is just deadly, and patient care is second priority, like they’re numbers of a quota rather than people. 

❝If this is your bad day then I’d hate to see your good day.❞ His remark is flippant, but the task has been achieved and he’s already motioning for them to make their way across the street. He had in mind to snag a booth and just the drinks. The food? Well, Hawkeye had a thing against questionable food and his stomach still recalled the unedible substances he lived off from the army. So a meal was out of the question; as was the cafeteria.

❝Have as many as you want, within reason of course. But you do look like you may need an ear. So I’ll spare a few of my witty banter in case you feel like divulging what’s on your mind.❞ But her remarks about his drink preferences earns a hearty laugh, the kind that came straight from the belly and diaphragm. ❝Yeah well, years of making my own alcohol in a distillery has spoiled me. I’m like a ferret —- I imprint on only one kind of food and can’t adjust otherwise. So I take the dryest martinis possible and nothing else.❞

He’s even being a gentleman and holding the door open for her. ❝I’m still surprised you even agreed considering my reputation as a true womanizing skirt-chasing pervert.❞

“Gee, thank you? I’m flattered, really, the best compliment I’ve received all day” Bunking off in the middle of a shift (unless it’s for an earned smoke break) isn’t really her style but who is she trying to kid? it’s been a day. Doc Magoos is right across the road from County General, and a usual hangout of the hospital staff, it’s kind of a County staple, she’s learned. 

“It’s nothing that interesting,” She tells him with a shake of her head, she’s never really one to talk about herself. Her bipolar mother who can barely hold her life together doesn't feel like much of a talking point either. “Just how picky are we talking? I’m willing to bet you haven’t divulged into eating at the canteen. Last time I had a bacon sandwich in here, it was cold.” She shakes her at the thought. “I sort of had you for a shaken not stirred kind of guy? I’m disappointed my assessment was wrong.”

❝I am not sad. That is just my face. But no I am not okay. Well, I am physically ok but I am not sure how much I am actually helping. Every time I try and do something good it backfires. I thought as doctors we were supposed to do no harm.❞

❝All jokes aside, I am hoping they reach us before we start to wither away.❞ But his hope for County doing anything fast dwindled along with his nerves and his patience after this trying shift. There’s more charts waiting for him and a well-deserved lecture from Weaver. But the last one can wait a bit. He doesn’t fancy another lecture from Weaver but he honestly just does what’s right ——– or rather what he think’s is right. What he thinks and what County things are simply two different matters.

He chances a glance up from the page he’s looking at. ❝If it will help light a fire under their ass then, by all means, light the entire damn thing.❞ And he means that as he crawls out his signature on another page. ❝I won’t ask why you’re good at forging signatures but here you can take the bottom half and we’ll call it even. I’ll even buy you a cup of coffee and a cake. But don’t put that out there. I don’t want to be stuck in here when the lights go out and the elevator starts trying to drop. I like my life and my spine right where it is.❞

“I wouldn’t be too hopeful on that one,” She hadn’t been at County for long, but it doesn’t take much for her to work out the just of the place - things, for the most part, don’t get done very quickly. She takes his words as permission to reach for a cigarette to light up, with any hope she’ll maybe set off a fire alarm and a frenzy. “You smoke? I told myself I was going to quit until I started my rotation here,” She sighs, before taking a long drag. She’s known how to forge a signature since a teenager, it all started out with copying Maggie’s signature onto her little brother’s school permission slips, she doubts it’s anything Doug wants to know about. “It’s a skill round here that people probably wouldn’t be too happy at me knowing,” She takes a chart and looks over his shoulder so that she can get a look at his handwriting to try and copy out before she holds it up to him to display her work.

@abbylockharted​ continued from here

❝How about a semi-regular thing?❞ He’s really pushing it, but he has it on good authority that Doc’s is the perfect place for a drink and it’s right across the street so they can both be back if and when they are inevitably called back —– and they will be. It never fails. Hospitals actually need doctors to practice.

❝Just one. Although if you ask for more I will gladly throw the money down on the tab. What’ll it be? I like my martinis so dry you can see dust on the olives.❞

“We can call it an ‘Abby is having a bad day’ regular sort of thing.” The last thing she had needed was to get a phone call from Erik, telling her that Maggie was off her medication (again) and having another manic episode.  She should have been entirely used to it by now but it still hit her hard.