The elevator doors chimed open and a pair of doctors dressed in identical white coats stepped out. The gentleman was tall and slightly balding, but still cut a distinguished figure. The young brunette who walked briskly beside him was petite but had a 'take-charge' aura about her.

Despite her small size, it was clear that she was a force to be reckoned with. Residents and nurses quickly stepped aside to allow the pair to pass. The gentleman politely nodded in response to 'hellos' but his young companion was too involved in the conversation to even notice what was going on around her. She gesticulated to punctuate her phrases as she explained with eloquence befitting a master at the art of word craft, her latest cases to the older man who grunted his responses at the appropriate times. She sighed as she caught her breath at the end of her oration and waited for his opinion. He paused for a moment, formulating his response, a thoughtful expression upon his face. He cleared his throat and began to speak, "Well, I'm not certain Becs, but it seems that-" His response was interrupted by an announcement over the hospital's PA system, "Paging Dr. Mitchell, Dr. Mitchell report to ER."

As though their movements had been synchronized, the pair turned and ran toward the Emergency Room.

Breathlessly, they spoke in synchrony to the startled orderly behind the admittance desk. "Dr. Mitchell, here."

Slightly amused at the sight before him, Jake Ross, the orderly, looked at the pair in front of him. "Sorry for the confusion sir."

Jake gestured at the young brunette standing beside the older gentleman. "The page was actually meant for you, Dr. Mitchell. They've got a code blue incoming in five."

"I'm not going to be able to get prepped fast enough. Where's Swanson?" He's the cardiothoracic surgeon on call in the ER today."

"Emergency triple bypass in OR 3, both cardiology teams are on it."

"What about the third?"

"Scrapped, not enough docs to cover it."

"Who else did you page?"

"Dr. Conrad. She's prepped and waiting, and two of the new residents are with her."

"Conrad is an Intensivist, for crying out loud! Well then, what are we wasting time here for?" she asked to no one in particular as she took off toward the prep room.

"Right, well, good luck, Becs. We still on for lunch?" "Of course," she shouted over her shoulder. "Thanks, Dad."

"Well, Dr. Beale, welcome to the Barden University Emergency Department." A sturdy black woman dressed in a standard white coat explained to the young redhead doctor who was walking half a pace behind her as they walked through the chaotic lobby with doctors and patients running in what seemed to be totally random directions. Dr. Beale's lips parted in a wide grin as she took in the chaos around her, her blue eyes twinkling.

"Nothing I haven't seen before Dr. Rose."

"But enough with the formalities. Call me Chloe."

Cynthia Rose couldn't help but smile back at the redhead. Dr. Beale was definitely a gorgeous doctor with a beautiful smile. Too bad she was already taken.

"Well Chloe, I know it may already seem overwhelming, but trust me it can get a lot worse. You should have seen last Friday when they brought in those …"

As if on cue, the hospital PA system sounded above the din in the ER. "Dr. Rose to admitting. Paging Dr. Rose."

Cynthia Rose sighed. It already felt like the makings of a long day and it was only 9am in the morning. She excused herself and promised the younger doctor that she would return shortly to finish the tour.

Mere moments after Dr. Rose's departure, Chloe heard the sounds of an approaching ambulance and the loud voices of the paramedics. Her face fell instantly when she heard what they were saying – an incoming code blue and both cardiology teams were on a triple bypass elsewhere.

She rushed into the ER prep room and quickly changed out of her lab coat and attire into a set of blue scrubs before heading into the room where the orderlies and paramedics had taken the patient. "On three. Ready, one...two...three." Five pairs of hands gently moved the patient from the gurney onto the exam table.

Chloe assessed the situation quickly, and stated in a calm voice that carried over the clatter and noise that pervaded the room, "Keep him on the O2, let's get an ECG in here and hook up the leads, and get him intubated."

Several faces turned toward the source of the unknown voice, the puzzled looks on their faces caused her to add "Stat!" to her command. She worked her way toward the patient as the young residents and nurses quickly assembled the necessary equipment and began hooking up tubes and wires to the patient.

"All right, what have we got?" she asked the paramedic who was silently moving aside, allowing the doctors to do their job.

"Uh, 30-year old Caucasian male, no prior known medical conditions, no allergies, collapsed at work," the young paramedic responded.

"Uh, doctor?" she heard a female voice call out in her direction.

"Yes? What have you got?" she asked. "BP is 80 over 50 and falling, pulse is faint and irregular, 40 maybe 42." "We're losing him!"

A loud, long beep was emitted from the ECG monitor. "He's flatlined!" "Get the crash cart!" she heard a young man yell. "No!" Chloe cried out. "We can't defibrillate! Look at the ECG readings. Failure's due to asystole, not V-Fib. Get me thirty milligrams of epi stat!" Almost instantly, a large syringe was placed in her outstretched hand.

Chloe tapped the syringe, sending the tiny bubbles to the top and pressed in the plunger, squirting a bit of the clear liquid into the air. She took a deep breath and stuck the needle into the man's bare chest. She pushed the plunger in all the way and removed the needle. The man's muscles contracted violently as his whole body was gripped in spasms. A long moment later, the long loud beep of the ECG was replaced by a steady beeping. "We got a pulse!" "We have normal sinus rhythm!" someone exclaimed.

Just then the ER doors swung open and Chloe saw a petite woman wearing a lab coat over her matching blue Barden scrubs enter the room. She quickly snapped on a pair of gloves as her eyes swept across the exam room in a quick survey. She moved toward the patient, standing right next to Chloe but barely acknowledging her presence.

"Conrad," she said, looking toward one of the other female doctors in the room, who simply nodded in response. "Okay what have we got?" she asked. "Asystolic 30-year old Caucasian male, no known allergies, no previous medical problems, no history of high blood pressure. He flatlined at 9:07, revived with thirty milligrams of epinephrine at 9:08," Dr. Conrad explained quickly. "What are his allergies?"

"Like I said, none"

"That can't be right, unless he OD'd, and I highly doubt that."

She nodded toward the patient on the exam table. "This guy went into anaphylactic shock. Where was he when he collapsed?"

"At work," one of the residents offered.

"Well, where does he work?"

Someone grabbed the admittance info that the medics had left behind. "Says here he works at Biotex." "Biotex! Get his blood tested, send the samples and results to my lab. If he was working with something dangerous, we need to know. We're not out of the woods with him yet; his blood chemistry will be way off. Let's get a sodium bicarbonate drip with 6 ccs of Lidocaine. Move him to the ICU and let me know immediately when the lab results return. Keep me informed of any changes in his condition," she commanded to the hospital staff in the room who immediately went about following her instructions.

The petite doctor removed the surgical cap from her head and shook out her chestnut brown hair.

Chloe felt her own heart stop and wondered idly where the epinephrine was when she needed it. She couldn't remember ever seeing anyone looking so beautiful and determined as the brunette standing in front of her. She mentally shook herself but couldn't take her eyes off her petite form. Dr. Mitchell, however, must have had much stronger self-control. She brushed past Chloe without giving any evidence that she realized that she was even there.

Chloe made her way to the door when it swung open yet again. Dr. Rose walked in and let out a sigh of relief when she saw Chloe. "There you are Dr. Beale! Admitting told me I could find out in here. I'm sorry about this, though Dr. Conrad told me you handled it like a pro."

"Well..." Chloe began, not sure what to say.

"Dr. Mitchell!" Dr. Rose exclaimed upon noticing the young brunette doctor who was headed toward the elevator.

"Dr. Rose," she replied distantly. "I didn't know you were scheduled in the ER today," Cynthia Rose responded pleasantly.

"I wasn't," Dr. Mitchell said in a clipped tone.

"When your third cardiology team was scrapped because the ER was short staffed, the efficiency and more importantly, the safety, of this hospital were severely compromised!"

Ignoring Dr. Mitchell's enraged rant, Dr. Rose continued. "Dr. Mitchell, I'd like you to meet the new pediatric cardiologist on staff at Barden."

"Nice to meet you," she said, looking past Chloe and not even directly at her.

Chloe removed the surgical cap from her head and pulled off her gloves. She tried to formulate a witty, yet warm and polite response but didn't have the opportunity.

Dr. Mitchell had already turned back toward Dr. Rose and began talking as if she weren't even there.

"How is it that in the biggest academic hospital in the city we are so short staffed in the Emergency Department that the new Peds doctor ends up leading an emergency team trying to resuscitate a patient who's gone into asystolic cardiac arrest? Aren't there standards on these things? You're just lucky that she didn't kill the guy!"

Chloe tried to defend herself, to state that she actually trained also as an emergency doctor but she had been effectively shut out of the conversation.

"As I was saying," Dr. Rose continued, apparently having failed to hear any of Dr. Mitchell's diatribe. "Dr. Mitchell, this is Dr. Chloe Beale." Chloe smiled nervously. The brunette responded with a nod and a curt smile. "Excuse me," she said, feigning politeness before turning on her heel and walking into the elevator.

"I get the feeling she doesn't like me very much," Chloe said with a smile that belied her true feelings. "Don't pay any attention to Dr. Mitchell. Lord knows I wouldn't put up with her if she wasn't one of the best damn cardiothoracic surgeons I've ever seen."

"Wait, are you telling me that that's Dr. Beca Mitchell, the cardiothoracic surgeon?"

"Mm-hmm," Cynthia Rose replied with a nod. "Do you know Beca?"

"Well, I know of her. I read about her in the recent NEJM journal on how she and a Dr. Warren Mitchell, I figured that was her husband, were working on the technology for a new, more effective replacement for the bare metal stent, but I guess I figured she'd be older."

"Well, you've got all of that right except the 'older' part, of course, and the part about a husband. Warren Mitchell is her father. He's Chief of Surgery at Barden. Beca has no time for anything other than work, and even if she did, there are rumors that she plays for the other team." Cynthia Rose said with a conspiratorial wink.

Chloe was secretly pleased to hear that, but attempted to keep her expression neutral.

"So does she always storm into the Emergency Department and declare the incompetence of the entire hospital staff?"

"It's become something of a regular occurrence, I'm afraid. But I can understand where Beca is coming from. Well, some of the time, anyway. She is an incredible surgeon and is completely dedicated to her work and her patients, but she has little patience for anyone who is going to make her life more difficult, including the hospital's administration. The ER is short staffed, and the hospital's board of directors is bemoaning the losses that Barden's Emergency Department suffered last year."

Chloe nodded. "But that's not uncommon. I thought Emergency Departments generally lost money."

"That's true, they do. But because of cutbacks at the surrounding area's hospitals, we've been picking up the slack in recent years. That's been hurting the bottom line and the university board isn't happy about it. When the board isn't happy, I can't do my job right. The ER situation was one of the main reasons we hired you, Dr. Beale. It's not everyday that you can pick up a Peds Cardiologist who's also trained as an emergency doctor."

"I guess not," Chloe replied noncommittally.

"And don't worry about Beca. There is hardly a person who's started working here since her residency that hasn't annoyed, angered, or offended the woman their first day on the job. She'll get over it. Come on, I'll show you to the pediatric floor and introduce you to the team."

Chloe entered into the elevator trailing behind Dr. Rose. She didn't know exactly why, but for some reason she already knew she was going to like Barden.