A/N: Another new story! I couldn't get this plot bunny out of my head. So, obviously, this is AU. All of our favorite characters will be incorporated, so don't worry! I'm a registered nurse, and thought it would be a fun experiment to drop our favorite characters into a hospital setting.

I've tried to keep things as basic and understandable as possible, but if some of the medical jargon is too much, please let me know, and I can tone it down.

This is just an experiment right now, so if you want to see more, you're gonna have to review!

Rey took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and centered herself. Tonight was her first night off orientation. Her first night alone in the busy emergency department at the state's most prestigious hospital – Galactic Healthcare. She was a new graduate registered nurse and had just spent 12 weeks on orientation, under the guidance of a preceptor. Tonight, though, her training and her skill would be tested.

Exhaling, she straightened her back, smoothed down her black scrubs, adjusted her bag, and marched forward with more confidence than she had. She wasn't new, she kept telling herself. You've worked here for 3 months now. Luckily, her preceptor Leia was working with her tonight. It comforted her to know that she wouldn't be alone.

Walking through the sliding glass doors, she smiled and waved at the security guard, making her way to the time clock. With shaking hands, she badged in and made her way to the nurse's station.

"Hey Rey!" a friendly voice called out. Poe. He was a veteran nurse in the ER, and had been extremely helpful to her during her first weeks on orientation.

"Hey!" she said, hoping her voice wasn't wavering too much. "Are any of the other newbies here tonight?"

"Finn is here tonight. He's running late, said there was a bad accident heading in and he was stuck in traffic," Poe said, looking at the schedule.

Rey nodded absently, checking which rooms she was assigned to. Beds 3 through 5. Not bad. She could handle that.

She put her things in the breakroom before heading to the station to get report from the dayshift nurse.

"Ready for your first night?" the kind woman asked, smiling warmly.

"No," Rey said chuckling. "But, here I am nonetheless."

"Well, the patients right now aren't too bad. Bed 3 was brought in via EMS with shortness of breath and difficulty breathing. He's receiving oxygen right now, and we're waiting on a bed to open up upstairs to admit him."

Rey nodded, diligently taking notes.

"Bed 4 was also brought in via EMS. An elderly man who was walking his dog. I guess he tripped and fell, so he's got a 4 cm laceration to his forehead. He takes blood thinners at home, so we're waiting on CT to open up to make sure he doesn't have a bleed on his brain. All of his assessments have been normal so far."

Rey's eyes widened slightly at that, and her brain started thinking about all of the things that could potentially go wrong with him.

"Bed 5 is empty right now, but you know how it is," the off-going nurse said with a chuckle. "Someone could come rolling in any minute. Do you have any questions before I head out?"

"Who's the doctor?" Rey asked, hoping it was somebody nice. She had heard horror stories about the attending physicians who worked night shift in the ER.

"Doctor Ren is taking most of the patients tonight," the off-going nurse said, smiling slightly in sympathy at the dismayed face the young woman made.

"Doctor Ren…" Rey said, her face falling.

"He may be an asshole, but at least he's not bad to look at!"

The night progressed about as well as Rey thought it would. Leia had been assigned a different area of the ER, so she didn't see her except maybe once or twice. Her encounters with Doctor Ren, however, were enough to last her a lifetime.

"Nurse!" a voice barked, demanding her attention.

Rey whipped around, a dazed and frazzled expression on her face. It was nearing 10 in the evening, and if anything, the night had only gotten busier.

"When an order for a STAT CT scan gets put in, what do you think that means?" the handsome man asked her, eyes boring into her own.

"I'm sorry?" she asked, confused.

"The patient in bed 4 should have been scanned an hour ago, and yet, here he is, still sitting in my ER," the man said.

Ah. This must be the infamous Doctor Ren.

"I – I'm sorry," she said, "radiology has been backed up all night…they said they were coming for him soon."

"Then call them, and tell them that this patient needs to be seen NOW," he said, "unless they want him to bleed out and die from a stroke before he even gets put in the damn machine."

All Rey could do was nod. She picked up the phone and made the call.

"Radiology this is Rachel," a chirpy voice said on the other line.

"This is Rey in the ER again. My patient in bed 4 needs that CT scan done right now," she said, trying to keep her voice from shaking.

"Rey, he's in line. We're super far behind right now."

"This patient is in for blunt head trauma, and has an order from Doctor Ren for a STAT head CT. Someone needs to come and get him now!"

"Fine!" Rachel said before hanging up.

"They're coming for bed 4," Rey told Doctor Ren when she saw him loitering at the nurse's station.

He only grunted in response. Rey rolled her eyes.

"Are you new here?" he asked her, searching her face.

"Kind of. I'm a new grad, and tonight's my first night off orientation," she told him, feeling defensive.

"Ah, shit, I'm sorry," he told her, pushing his hair back from his face. "I didn't mean to go off on you like that. It's been a crazy night."

Rey nodded, picking an imaginary piece of lint off her scrub top.

"You're doing a good job so far," he told her. "Nobody's died on your watch yet!"

That actually made her crack a smile. "Yeah, yet."

He winked at her, picking up a chart from the counter. "I've been told I can be…difficult. If that happens, just know it isn't personal."

He turned to walk away, leaving Rey with a warm feeling in her chest.