Baggage Claim

Brooke took a deep breath as she walked through the doors of the hospital. She had allowed for herself to get settled into Pittsburgh without giving herself time to get nervous about being mentored by one of, if not the best ear, nose and throat specialists in the country. She had been nervous when she first applied for the transfer, nervous that Dr. Leviey wouldn’t think she was good enough to train with him. But once she got the call from him, she had been on top of the world. She was so happy that all of her work had paid off and all the late nights that she had spent studying and researching for papers and exams up until this point hadn’t been for nothing.

When she walked into the hospital she walk up to the reception desk and asked the lady sitting there where she could find the ward she was looking for. Once the receptionist directed her where to go, Brooke walked over to the elevator and pushed the up button. Once the doors opened she filed in surprisingly with no one else and pressed the button for the fourth floor. As the doors were closing Brooke saw a hand fly through the opening, stopping them from closing all the way and Brooke pressed the open doors button as fast as she could. Though the doors weren’t going to close on his hand Brooke didn’t want to take the chance of having to see a hand being crushed on her first day. “Thanks,” the person said belonging to the hand and the doors opened back up.

“No problem, has happened to m-” Brooke was saying as she looked up at the face belonging to the hand. Standing in front of her was one of the most attractive guy’s Brooke had ever seen in her entire life. He was tall, had brown hair that was just a little too long on the top and short on the sides. He had very soft features with amazingly pale green eyes and a smile that Brooke was obviously a little to focused on. Brooke blinked a couple times and looked down at the buttons, taking her finger of the ‘open doors’ one. “Oh, uh, what floor?” Brooke asked trying to recover. The guy chuckled a bit before answering.

“Six, thanks” he said smiling at her. Brooke smiled back feeling her cheeks starting to get a little rosy and turned to press the button. Brooke couldn’t believe that she had just stood there blatantly staring at him and shook her head as she looked down at her feet. She had never been a girl to be mesmerized but when she looked at him, she felt like a kid who had just seen his hero, absolutely speechless. Once the Elevator started to move Brooke noticed that he was wearing a pair of Denver University shorts.

“Denver University, huh?” Brooke said looking up at him. He looked over at her a little confused and she pointed to his shorts.

“Oh, yeah, I played hockey there,” he answered.

“I almost went there,” Brooke said making conversation.

“You should have, it’s a great school, with great people,” he said smirking at her. Brooke smiled back and laughed a little. The elevator came to a stop on the fourth floor and the doors opened. Brooke turned to smile at him and walked through the doors. The guy put his hand up to stop the doors from closing again and Brooke turned around to face him. “I’m Jake by the way,” He said sticking his free hand out introducing himself.

“Brooke,” She said taking his hand in hers. Brooke smiled and taking her hand back turned her head to look down the hallway. “Well, it was nice to meet you, I should get going.”

“Wait, uh, do you work here?” Jake said rubbing the back of his neck. It was obvious that he was a little nervous and didn’t do this all the time but Brooke couldn’t help but feel nervous too.

“Sort of.”

“Well maybe I’ll see you around,” He said before taking his hand off the door and allowing for it to close all of the way. He smiled at Brooke as the doors were closing and Brooke was short of breath. She walked down the hallway in the direction of the ward she was looking for and came to yet another reception desk.

“Hi, how can I help you?” The nurse sitting behind the desk asked, looking up from her computer.

“I’m a student mentoring with Dr. Leviey, my name is Brooke Blake. I’m suppose to start at nine, so I’m about fifteen minutes early but I can just sit and wait,” Brooke explained starting to feel like he was babbling. The nurse smiled at her and stood up.

“If you just give me a minute I can go back and get Dr. Leviey for you, okay?” She said. Brooke smiled and nodded her head.

“That would be great, thanks,” Brooke said as the nurse turned to leave. She walked down the hallway that was off of the reception area and Brooke stood there waiting. She looked around the waiting room seeing that there was already a gentleman sitting in the waiting area reading a magazine probably waiting for a consultation with the doctor. In the Otolaryngology unit, quiet a few patients are men with sinus issues that disrupt their breathing that in a lot of cases cause them to snore and their wives and partners can’t stand to listen to it anymore. Brooke smiled at the man when he looked up at her and he returned the smile.

“Brooke?” A man said from behind her. Brooke turned to see a gentleman in his early Sixties standing in front of her in a blue dress shirt and tie with his glasses sitting on top of his head.

“Yes,” Brooke said extending her hand out to the man.

“Dr. Leviey, it’s nice to finally meet you,” he said introducing himself to her.

“Same to you, I’ve been rather excited to start learning from you,” Brooke said readjusting the strap of her bag on her shoulder. The doctor smiled at her and motioned for her to follow him.

“Come back to the office and we can get you settled in,” Dr. Leviey said as he walked back down the hallway he had come from. “This will be your office,” He said motioning to a door. Brooke wasn’t expecting to get an office of her own. She had just been expecting to get a little bit of desk space at the front desk with the nurses like she had at John Hopkins. “And mine is just right down here,” He said as they continued their way down to his door. His office was quite spacious with a couch against the wall and two big chairs sitting across from his own. He had a large mahogany desk also with matching bookshelves that filled the wall behind him. He sat down in his chair motioning for Brooke to take a seat across from him which she did. “So how has your time in Pittsburgh been so far,” He asked picking up his cup of coffee sitting on his desk in front of him and settling back in his chair.

“It’s been good thank you, the city is beautiful and so full of energy.” Brooke explained.

“Ahh yes, the rush of people in downtown never seems to stop. The city sees its quiet moments but not too many now a days,”Dr. Leviey said smiling over his mug. Brooke got the feeling that she was sitting at home having a conversation with her own grandfather. He had a warm effect that fell over the room that made you feel like you could talk to him for hours and hours about just one topic. “And you’ve found a place to live close to her I presume?” Dr. Leviey asked.

“Uhh, I’m actually living with a family friend out in Sewickley, so it’s not too far away,” Brooke answered hoping that he wouldn’t ask any other questions regarding her ‘family friend’.

“I live in Sewickley as well, it’s a very nice neighbourhood and a nice drive into work as well,” He said setting his mug down on his desk and pulling his chair forward to sitting closer to it.

“It is, you’re right,” Brooke agreed.

“So Brooke, you don’t mind he calling you Brooke do you?” He asked.

“No, Brooke is fine,” Brooke said smiling at him.

“Good, good, well today we are just going to be meeting with some referral patients and I have a couple patients whom are coming in for a post-op check up. I also have a young girl whom we are going down to check on before she is moved to the children’s hospital. But other than that, we’re going to try and get you as familiar with the hospital as we can, okay? Sound up to it?” Dr. Leviey asked Brooke.

“Of course,” Brooke said with a smile on her face.

“Alright, let’s get going then,” he said as he picked up a folder off his desk and took his white doctors coat off his coat rack. “This is for you,” He said handing one to Brooke as well. “Off we go,” He said as he walked out the door with Brooke following behind him.
…

Brooke pulled up to the gate outside of Sidney’s house and put in the code for it to open. Once the gate swung open, Brooke drove up the driveway and noticed a vehicle was sitting in the driveway next to Sidney’s. She parked behind the Range Rover assuming that Sidney wasn’t going to be leaving anytime soon and turned the car off. She had finally decided to take her car out for a drive two days after sitting around the house with absolutely nothing to do. She was still disgusted that her father had bought her the car but she couldn’t deny that it wasn’t a nice car to drive.

Brooke walked through the front door assuming that she was going to hear voices but she didn’t. Brooke was tired form her long day but it was been more than amazing. The appointments with he patients hadn’t taken long and Brooke had already learned a couple of things. When they went to visit the young girl, Brooke had learned that she had developed tumors in her nasal cavity and was scheduled to have them remove in the next week. She was amazing by all of the different cases that the patients had had and was taken aback by how well Dr. Leviey remembered each patient and addressed them as is they had been long time friends.

Brooke walked up to her room to put her stuff away and came back down the stairs to see if she could locate Sidney. They had been civil the past couple of days. He had tried to stay away from her as much as possible, giving her space and Brooke could tell that he was still mad. She had decided that she was going to make him dinner tonight as sort of a piece offering since it was his house that he had offered up to her and she didn’t want the uneasy atmosphere around them anymore.

Once she made it into the kitchen she saw that there were some people sitting out on the back deck and went over the back door and stuck her head out to say hi. “I’m telling you, she let me bang her on the counter and she didn’t care that the door wasn’t locked,” Was the first thing that Brooke heard when she opened the door. Sidney turned his head to look at the door from where he was leaning against the railing.

“Brooke,” Sid said, trying to indicate that someone had joined them and to get his friend to stop talking. There were three other guys sitting in the chairs around the deck and the one who had his back toward Brooke, she assumed was the one telling the story. They all turned to look at Brooke once Sidney had mentioned her name other than the storyteller.

“What, no dude, I don’t remember her name. she was hot though, an easy lay too,” The guy continued on and was hit upside the head but the guy sitting next to him. “What the hell did you do that for?” He asked turned to look at what everyone else was looking at. “Oh,”

“Hi,” Brooke said with them all looking at her. She gave a little wave and could feel her cheeks starting the heat up a bit. She felt like she was intruding on sacred guy talk or what ever and felt rather awkward standing there. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt what ever it was you guys were doing, I was just coming out to say hi,” Brooke said blushing even more.

“Don’t worry about it, anything to get Nealsy to shut up,” guy sitting next to the storyteller said hitting his shoulder. “Aren’t you going to introduce us Sid?” Sidney stiffened and narrowed his eyes at his friend.

“Brooke, this is James Neal,” Sidney said pointing to the guy who was telling the story, “Marc Andre Fleury,” pointing the guy sitting next to James, “and Evgeni Malkin,” point to the guy sitting across from the other two. “Guys, this is Brooke, she’s living with me for the next couple of months, her mom and my mom have been friends since they were kids” Sidney said introducing them all to each other. They all smiled and waved, James a little embarrassed and Brooke waved back. Brooke could tell that Sid wasn’t exactly comfortable with her still and it kind of stung how he introduced her.

“They all-” Sidney started to say before being cut off by Brooke.

“Play for the Penguins too. I’ve watched a couple of your games,” Brooke said getting a glare from him. The guys laughed and Brooke smiled at him trying to lighten his mood.

“Sid, how you get beautiful girl to live with you” Geno asked smiling at Sid. Brooke blushed a little bit.

“I don’t know,” Sid said taking a drink from his beer. Brooke was surprised by his answer and was expecting a sarcastic comment to come out from him.

“What brought you to Pittsburgh?” Marc asked leaning his arm on the back of his chair to turn and look at Brooke.

“I’m doing a mentorship at UPMC,” Brooke said.

“You are a doctor?” Geno asked.

“Not yet, but hopefully soon,” Brooke said smiling at him.

“That’s cool, what unit are you at in the hospital?” Marc asked.

“The Otolaryngology unit,” when no one really seemed to know what that was Brooke went on to explain. “It’s the ear, nose and throat unit.”

“Oh, that’s cool, how are you liking that?”

“Guy’s, it was her first day, why don’t we just lay off with the questions and let her relax,” Sid said jumping in. Brooke didn’t mind that they were curious. They all seemed nice. Brooke crossed her arms across her body feeling a little bit awkward again and felt like she had invaded enough of Sidney’s life for the day.

“I think I’m just gonna go head up and have a shower anyways. It was nice meeting all of you,” Brooke said waving before turning to head back in the house. All the guys said their goodbyes and waited a couple minutes after Brooke had gone inside to speak again.

“Sid, you are one lucky guy,” James said shaking his head and taking a drink out of his beer.

“And why is that Nealer?” Sid asked already knowing what his answer was going to be. Neal only though about two things: hockey and sex.

“Well for one thing, I don’t know if you’ve taken a look at her or not but she’s hot. And you get to live with her in your house for the next four months. That’s gotta have some benefits to it for you.” James said pleading his case.

“That true,” Geno said agreeing with his friend.

“It’s not like that, we don’t get along. I was just doing this because she’s a family friend and my mom arranged for her to live here.” Sid explained. He knew that what James said was true. Anyone with eyes could see how good looking Brooke was but for him, it just couldn’t happen.

“That didn’t look like hate to me, that looked like a lot of sexual tension,” James said standing up and placing his empty bottle on the table. “You guys ready to head out?” James asked the other two, pulling his keys out of his pocket. They nodded their heads yes and both followed James through the back door. Marc stopped before he got into the house with Sidney still leaning against the raining.

“Don’t let James get to you man, he can be an idiot sometimes, you know that but he’s not completely wrong. I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Marc said, walking into the house closing the door behind him. Sid thought about what James had said and laughed to himself as he finished his beer.
...

Sid was walking out of his bathroom with a towel around his waist when he heard a crash coming from downstairs. Knowing that Brooke had gone up to her room three hours earlier, he assumed that it wasn’t her. He quickly found a pair of shorts and threw them on before running down the hall to the stairs. He heard some more movement coming from the kitchen, guessing that who ever was in the house had come in through the garage. Once Sidney was at the bottom of the stairs he felt his shorts realizing that he had left his phone upstairs muttering ‘shit’ to himself quietly. He heard a little bit more noise as he came closer to the kitchen and before completely coming around the corner, thinking about what he was going to do. “HEY,” Sid yelled as entered the kitchen earning a scream and another loud crash.

“AHHHHHHH, OH MY GOD,” Brooke screamed as she turned around and retreated into the corner of the kitchen as far away from him. She had had a pot in her hands and had dropped it as soon as Sidney had yelled. “WHY THE HELL?” Brooke said concerned that Sidney was going to attack her.

“I thought you were breaking in, I didn’t know it was you,” Sidney said calming down slightly knowing that it was only Brooke.

“Well can you please unclench your fists?” Brooke said still holding her hands up to defend herself. Sidney looked down at his hands and looked back up at Brooke.

“Oh, sorry, I wasn’t going to hit you,” Sid said in a cold tone. Brooke walked over and bent down turning the pot right side up and putting the pasta that had gone everywhere on the floor into the pot. “I thought you went to bed,” Sid said as he bent down to help her clean up the pasta.

“I was planning on making you dinner tonight but it didn’t really seem like you wanted me too so after I had my shower I was working in bed for a while, and my stomach started to growl so I figured I should probably get up and eat,” Brooke rambled. “I thought you had gone to bed because I saw the door shut so I was trying to be as quiet as possible but obviously that didn’t happen. And I dropped the pot with the-“ Brooke froze and looked up at Sidney who was crouched down beside her without a shirt on. “I’m so sorry if I woke you up, oh my god I feel like an idiot. I’m sorry Sid,” Brooke said standing up with the pot and putting it on the counter.

“It’s alright, I wasn’t sleeping, I had actually just gotten out of the shower,” Sidney explained using the dish towel to wipe up the floor. He felt bad about the way the he had acted towards her earlier.

“Oh, well, uh sorry I guess for making a mess and well scaring you,” Brooke said slightly blushing. Brooke was having a difficult time concentrating with him standing in front of her.

Sidney smiled, “It’s fine, but I think you’re going to have to make some more pasta,” Sid said pointing at the pot.

“I’m really not even hungry anymore,” Brooke said putting the pasta in the garbage.

“You should eat something,” Sidney said starting to back out of the kitchen. “Sorry, for everything,” Sidney said rubbing the back of his neck. Brooke smiled and nodded her head before Sidney retreated back upstairs. She let out a deep breath finally able to concentrate on her thoughts realizing that the butterflies had come back.

Notes

Just a little heads up, this is from last september so thats why James is still on the team in the story. Sorry for not really mentioning that earlier!!

But hope you're enjoying and sorry for the late update, been pretty busy with work the past couple days. Thank so much for reading/subscribing/voting/commenting you guys all rock!

Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians and Happy Early July 4th to all of my American readers. Hope you guys enjoy the Celebrating :)