a/n: This story takes place in New York City, and almost all the places actually exist where I say they do…seriously, with the exception of the hospital where they work. The name of the school has been changed. The real school is located on 94th and Park, and isn’t called St. Lawrence. In this story, the hospital is located where a couple of apartment buildings stand in reality, but who cares…unless you live there :P. These characters are all mine, and they are not based on me or anyone I know, and neither is the plot. This story comes out of the realms of my twisted mind, and I prefer not to explore that thing anytime soon. I’ve just come to terms with it, and write down whatever comes from the frail nervous system. Anyways, enjoy what I’ve got and don’t forget to read and review, so I know if my mindless rambling is worth your time.

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Chapter 1- Welcome Back?

“Okay Dr. Blake, your office is room 21B, on the fourth floor, and you can settle in now, so you will be ready to start work first thing in the morning tomorrow at 9:00am sharp. Here are the keys to your office.” The petite nurse behind the counter pointed the elevators to the handsome new doctor.

“Thanks Ms…” the doctor hesitated, searching for some form of identification on her. His eyes fell on her name tag. The name “Rosen” was printed in red spindly letters on white backing, clipped to the breast pocket of her white lab coat.

“Thank you Ms. Rosen.” He flashed her a quick, grateful smile and hurried to the elevators as fast as he could, while lugging a large cardboard box.

The brunette nurse stared after the figure of the new doctoral the way to the elevators, and lingered there even after he had disappeared into one of them. That’s one hot doc. I wonder how long he’s gonna stay here, and who’ll be the lucky girl…if there is one of course. After all, all the hot ones are either taken or gay. The world’s unfair that way. Wonder what Kaitlin’s gonna think.

--- About 5 minutes later ---

“Jesus! It took me five minutes just trying to find my office. How the bejesus will I be able to get around in this place?” Jarrod muttered to himself as he dumped his box on the clean white floor of the fourth level at St. Joseph’s Hospital.

“Hey there. You look like you can use some stress reliever. We could go to my place after you unpack. My shift is almost over.”

Jarrod twisted around to see who his unwelcome intruder was, and was shoulder to eye level with a blonde woman wearing a green surgeon’s coat, with the name “Dr. Elliot” in bold black letters.

“Um…” he stammered. He was cut off by a resounding yell from down the hall that distinctly sounded like “Dr. Elliot!”

“Shit! Sorry Hun, we’ll have to save it for some other time. I gotta go. I’ll see you around…for sure.”

As Jarrod watched the back of her retreating figure, he sighed. He turned back to trying to open his door. “Damn this stupid thing!” after three more keys, he found the right one and shoved open the door.

The room was a small whitewashed with one window facing the busy street of Park Avenue below. There was a plain black metal desk with a black leather chair to go along with it. “Well. This isn’t bad, just a tad bare.” He dropped his box onto the white linoleum floor and walked over to the desk and started to unpack items from his box.

An hour later, Jarrod put a clock above his door and collapsed onto his chair. “Looks like I’m all set to get my gears grinding in the morning.” A quick glance at the pizza clock, he grabbed his coat from the back of his chair and headed out of the hospital.

--- 45 minutes later ---

Jarrod closed the door to his apartment in Forest Hills with a click, and surveyed the room before him. A loud ring from the telephone startled him out of his reverie.

“Hello, Jarrod Blake. Who’s this?”

“It’s me, Joe. So you are really back. Hotness! How’ve you been these past four years?” Came a familiar voice that brought back memories of their high-school days.

“Joe! Watsup? How’s your pigskin holding up?” Jarrod retorted, glad to hear that familiar voice for the first time in nearly four years. “How’s it going? You still in school?”

“I’m good. Just graduated law school at Yale and I’m working at a pretty good firm. How’s medical school coming along for you?”

Jarrod snorted in response. “So you can still retain some information. Glad to know you still remember some stuff about me. I finished school too. Actually, I moved back a couple of days ago ‘cause I got a residency job at St. Joseph’s, you know, the one across the street from Brick.”

“Uh…” a long pause registered after that. “Nope. Not really, but if you say so, I believe you. Doesn’t it disturb you just a bit that you are working in a place where you could see Brick from you office window? I’m not saying I don’t love the Brick Prison, but don’t you think that seeing the fire hazard of a school everyday for six years is enough? Anyways,…your choice. If you wanna work there, be my guest. You know, I haven’t been down there in such a long time. We haven’t hung out there in a while. How’s about Jackson Hole, for some burgers and fries? I think Tony’s still the manager at the one on 91st and Madison.”

Jarrod was beat from the commute to and from the hospital, but he could hear the eagerness and excitement in Joe’s voice. “’Kay. Sounds good to me. How does 9:00 tonight sound? I start work tomorrow, and God knows the next time I’ll be free, so might as well enjoy my last night of freedom at a friendly reunion.”

“Deal. Later at nine. You better be there.”

“Or else what?” Jarrod teased. “You know you can’t take me on, shrimp.” He hung up before Joe could make a comeback. He tossed a glance at the clock. A neon green 6:00PM glared at him. With three hours the kill before the meeting, Jarrod decided to go for a spin around the city. Refreshing his memory of his home town wasn’t such a bad idea.

--- an hour later ---

Jarrod stepped out of the 6 train at the 96th St. and Lex station, pushing his way pass rushing men and women who were hurrying to get into the subway so they could get home. He quickly make his way p the stairs, trying not to get pushed down by the torrents of people going down. “This is definitely something I didn’t miss.” He sighed as he stepped outside, glad to be aboveground once again.

Every way he turned , people pushed pass him, like iron filings drawn by their own invisible magnet, going in all different directions at once. The streets were overloaded with taxis’ and cars beeping at one another, creating a dissonant free-flowing symphony of noise. Jarrod shook his head and started towards Central Park, passing Park and Madison Avenue, passing St. Lawrence High School, which used to be an armory back in 1914 or somewhere around that time. After two hours of walking in Central Park, he found himself back at the 96th street entrance, and looked at his watch. A minute later, after a long debate about whether or not to wander some more, he headed up towards Madison and Jackson Hole.

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There you have it! The first chapter, probably the hardest one to write. Future chapters will be longer I believe. I hope you enjoyed it, so review now. Please.

Julia