Cult of personality [Silas]

[Evelynn]

It’s been about a week since Evelynn Black has been transferred, and soon (too soon) she feels overwhelmed by work. It’s not an uncommon sight now, to see the small woman walking in a hurried pace down the halls, nose buried in a file that she holds two inches away from her face—reading and re-reading, obsessively checking everything ten times over. It’s been a habit of hers since she was a first-year resident, after having been nagged at for not checking things enough, she does it like it’s her singular job. As stressful as the 35-patients-per-day workload weighs her down, Lynn is grateful for it.

It brings to her a distraction—something to keep her from focusing on the newness of the place. The unfamiliar faces, the twisted hallways that she still manages to get lost in, the loss of everything that she had become familiar and concrete with back at home. It is not only a new hospital that the young doctor is forced to adjust to, it is a new city as a whole.

Boston had never exactly been her idea of a “final resting place.” Luckily for her, living right outside of the city lines had prevented her from having to move away, but unfortunately costs her more money for gas. It’s big, intimidating, crowded, and much more than what she had ever expected it to be. Somehow, in her years of living in the house that she had inherited, she had never been brave enough to venture to “the great beyond,” otherwise known as “Boston, MA.” The city is okay, the food is nothing more or less than she had expected, and the people are… well--

Aggravating.

But less aggravating in the hospital, where as a physician, she is considered one of the “big guys,” even as a newbie. Things are loud in the background, but quiet in her mind as she walks quickly through the ER, hardly paying attention to where she’s going but narrowly avoiding crashing into some nurses and wandering patients with the help of peripheral vision and quick reflexes. She earns many dirty looks as she moves on through like a hurricane, but she feels that she has an idea. With the patient report and the blood test resort, she has one set location in mind: the lounge, with every intention of hunting down the one radiologist that she had managed to make friends with, to ask him for a personal favor.

But even her clearly superior peripheral vision is not enough to see through walls. As she rounds the corner, the sight of another human body immediately enters her vision—and she hasn’t anywhere near enough time, or space from him, to dodge this one. It’s upon the impact that she retreats backwards at an instant, and since she merely comes chest-high to the man in question, it is not his facial expression or his potential reaction that attracts her attention. It’s the smell of wolf that overwhelms her senses, causing a short hitch of breath in surprise.

How silly of her, to think that she could be the only one.

“I’m so sorry—”

[Zephyr]

There’s protocol for when you’re supposed to get back to work after having gotten shot. Protocol that would be put in place when one actually goes to the hospital for a gunshot wound. As a medical professional, Silas knows this. As a werewolf, he could hardly go to the hospital after he was accidently shot in the shoulder. Not only because of what he is and because they can hardly treat him for silver poisoning, but because gun shots are required to be reported to the authorities. Pack justice is kept within the pack. Getting the police involved would just fuck everything up. Not to mention the fact that he isn’t exactly eager to get Matthias arrested for shooting him.

It was an accident. The kid didn’t mean to shoot him. It’s over and done with.

Except for the part where it isn’t. He might heal extraordinarily fast because of the werewolf thing, but there’s still a painful line of stitches on his shoulder, and he’s still a professional. Coming back to work was unavoidable. He might have built up plenty of vacation time by never taking a day off…like ever, but there was only so long he could avoid work without a proper excuse. Fortunately for him, he’d recently gotten a promotion. Head of neurosurgery. It isn’t something that he’s been working for. Silas rarely ever works for promotions. He just does the best he can in the role he’s given. If his hard work is appreciated and rewarded, then he goes with it. If not, he’s perfectly fine where he is.

The good thing about the promotion is that he’s able to divide his time a little more evenly, which means keeping out of surgery until he’s sure that the bullet didn’t affect his arm any. He’s a goddamn professional, and he isn’t going to do any surgery unless he’s absolutely sure that he isn’t going to break anyone’s damn brain. It isn’t that he actually cares about anyone he treats. Well, he might, very, very deep down…but he likes his job, and he likes his promotion and he isn’t in a hurry to lost it because of a malpractice suit and possibly going to prison for his own carelessness.

At the moment, he’s leaning on the counter to the nurse’s station. Eve has taken to being the sole provider of his paperwork because he intimidates the rest of the damn nurses. That’s mostly his aim, to make sure no one else ever bothers him, because he just doesn’t like dealing with anyone else. He only deals with Eve out of necessity, and he’s had more time around her. She’s been around for years, and the only one who’s cared enough to get to know him, even a little. So he mutters and growls at her, but she smiles widely back, cheerfully ignoring all of his bitching.

It’s annoying sometimes…actually, it’s goddamn annoying most of the time. But he actually likes her, so he tolerates it and doesn’t bitch her out too badly. “How’s your office?” She asks him lightly, a little bit of amusement in her voice. Silas glares at the blonde, snorting lightly. “It’s a goddamn office. It’s fine, it’s…” “Has Nate been by yet?” Silas shoots her another glare, his entire face red with a flush. “NO. And that’s none of your goddamn business. Go away!” He growls at her, takes his paperwork and he’s actually the one to turn away from her cheerful grinning just in time to have someone else slam right into him.

Silas isn’t actually used to people bumping into him. To anyone else, it would likely be nothing. The other person would say sorry and continue on their way. People know how Silas is and actively try to avoid him so something like this doesn’t happen. So when the small woman slams right into him, Silas freezes, dropping his papers in shock. His eyes widen, eyebrows doing some seriously crazy shit before the flushing on his face turns bright red. “What the fuck? Why don’t you watch where you’re fucking going?” He growls, the words tight and angry.

This isn’t someone he knows, and as he leans over to get his papers back in order, the wash of werewolf scent is strong. His wolf, which is content to sleep most of the time is instantly awake and curious. Silas presses it back. This is a wolf who isn’t a part of the pack. She shouldn’t be here…she should be meeting with Nathan at least. Still. Silas never paid much attention to pack things. The only real loyalty he has is to Nathan, so he’s more likely to let an unknown wolf slip by without worrying about it, as long as they aren’t obviously dangerous.

And as he glares down the woman, his left eye twitching dangerously, he doesn’t see how she could hurt a fly, let alone blow their goddamn cover. “You’re new.” He growls, not letting up any on the anger. The statement isn’t a question, because she obviously is. Otherwise why would she just bump into him like that?

[Evelynn]

Crashing into another doctor in the hospital is nothing like they portray it to be on TV. Lynn, through experience that she refuses to admit to having, knows this well from her days in residency. There is no crashing, picking up papers, apologizing and leaving like she had attempted to years ago after escaping medical school. All of those shows—Scrubs, Grey’s Anatomy, House, whatever, they would all depict the action as careless. Something to be thrown aside, certainly not something that would cause a fierce loss of temper. But Lynn knows—Most doctors are cranky and aggressive at best, and for this reason, Lynn expects nothing less than the very best from whoever the hell she’d just collided with. She’s entirely correct in her assumption, when the response is a slur of cusses and furious tones from a rather unhappy Dr. Someoneshe’snevermet.

And while he absolutely seethes at her, she can only think that she is glad that there had been no coffee in his hands.

In return, her response is that of an exasperated sigh, and a look that clearly reads ‘you done yet?’ It’s common knowledge that “the wolf” is responsible for many temperamental outbursts, bad attitudes and fiery attitudes alike—but somehow, Evelynn doubts that his wolf had changed too much about his personality. There’s something about the way that he reacts that reads purely of instinct and natural reflex; true colors that the man had probably never bothered to hide. A pleasurable human being indeed, but Lynn is not shaken. There’s amusement in her expression when she arches a brow as the corners of her lips twitch in a suppressed smile. “Good afternoon to you too, Doctor…” her eyes scan quickly for his name. “—Vincent.” However little sarcasm may be used towards Silas from the other physicians is no matter or mind of Lynn’s.

And of course, he follows up with the statement that she’s already received about twenty times over the last week.

“Your powers of observation is great, Dr. Vincent.” She intones, but whatever bite is in her sarcasm is quickly covered by a bright smile—one that is completely unaffected by the snarl in his words. And as much as she would love to pretend that there is no need to justify her presence, she’s forced to. Lynn had known from the very beginning that there would most likely be a big pack in the city, possibly among others. What she hadn’t expected was to find one working in a hospital, let alone as a doctor. It’s pure intuition that tells her that he cannot just be some rogue living his life—and it’s impossible to ignore the anxiety in her chest that she can only reluctantly acknowledge as her wolf, much more timid in comparison to the ones that she had met in the past.

She had never wanted to be caught up in any of this.

“I transferred here from New York.” Her smile does not drop a millimeter as she speaks. To others, it would be a brief explanation as to why she is so new and fresh looking in the hospital. To him, it would be the simple reasoning behind him not knowing her identity, why she does not belong. Unfortunately for her, in the Medical world, she has little choice in where her company chooses to put her. Living in the rural and suburban towns where everything is much quieter would have been a much better option for her, and much more beneficial in terms of avoiding what had become her worst fear. She could not have denied the transfer, not unless she would have been okay with trading her more luxurious (and better paying) position as a Hospitalist for Cogent with a standard hospital-employed physician.

“Company threw me here.” She offers, as the last bit of information that she’s willing to hive, pointing her finger at the embroidered company name across the front of her scrubs.

[Zephyr]

How was this actually his fucking life?

It’s almost like he just ran into the female equivalent of Matthias, or, rather, she ran into him. That’s an important thing to not forget. Because Silas is nothing if not exceedingly careful in everything he does. Her cheery tone to his scathing remarks leave Silas more than fucking irritated, and frustration and bewilderment drag his brows together as he actually takes the time to look her over. She’s tiny, doesn’t look old enough to be out of college, let alone a full-fledged doctor. Still, even if she could impress him by looking like the youngest doctor in this place, her cheerful jabs are a little too much for Silas to ignore.

“It might do you well to not alienate the more senior hospital staff.” He growls, his words not really a threat as much as just a flat thread of speech, slightly deflated and a little resigned. It would stand to reason that he out of everyone in the goddamn hospital would run into this woman, and not be able to shake her.

Because Silas would really have liked nothing more in that moment than to ignore her or excuse himself and go disappear into his office, but that isn’t an option right now when she’s talking to him and expecting a lively and stimulating conversation on his part. Silas just wanted some goddamn coffee, and barring that, he wanted to go take Nate out for some beers, because he was in the mood to get into a few bar fights tonight.

Something this woman is standing directly in the way of.

He doesn’t particularly care about her entire life story, but that doesn’t stop her from talking…and talking. He isn’t really interested in where she came from, but his interest, which is rarely ever piqued, is a little interested in the face that she was transferred…like she didn’t have any say in the matter. It isn’t unheard of doctors to be passed around from place to place, but usually they have some say in where they end up. Silas had chosen to come to Boston after his residency, it was a good hospital with a decent neurosurgery department that he is now planning on making great…but this woman, despite her cheerful attitude, she seems less than enthused about the whole thing.

“And you didn’t want to come here, did you?” It’s an observation that’s a little less obvious than some of his proclamations, but Silas is really goddamn observant when he isn’t drunk…and since he doesn’t come to work drunk…most of the time, it’s an observation that he sees as clear as day.

Then responsibility comes back to him and he knows Nathan will want to hear about this new wolf, but he can’t bring himself to bring it up yet…because she doesn’t seem like a threat in any sense of the word, and he just wants to ignore the fact that she could possibly be a liability to the pack.