<div style="text-align: right"><b>Sunday evening.<br/>
Nowhere.<br/>
Somewhere near the middle.</b>​</div><br/>"I have never been this far from a nail salon," Alexandria McCallington said, lounging back in the armchair. She held up her hands in front of the iPad, on which was the face of her best friend, Sandra. "It's been months since I got my nails done," she explained. Sitting there, looking at her friend, Alexandria was studiously ignoring the chaos which surrounded her. Boxes (unpacked, poorly labelled), cases (she couldn't remember what was in them, but it was 'her stuff') and the detritus of moving home lay strewn about. The casual observer could well be forgiven for thinking she'd just arrived.<br/><br/><br/><br/>"You've been there a week," Sandra said, her voice a little tinny and not quite in time with the picture of her on the screen. "Lexi McC, did you ever go to a nail salon when you lived in the city?" Alexandria shook her head, her autumn-brown shoulder-length hair moving as she did.<br/><br/>"I did not ever, no, but that isn't the point!" Sandra laughed as Lexi tried to explain this, not interrupting, but just listening to her friend moan. "I was able to. I had a choice. It's a philosophy-thing, you know," Lexi waved her hand in an obvious dismissal of thousands of years of deep thinking, consigning philosophy as a practice and an academic discipline to the 'nope' bin. "This idea of freedom from, and freedom to. I had, when I was there, the freedom to go to a salon or not. I no longer have that freedom and thus I am in prison."<br/><br/>Sandra shook her head. "No way, Lexi, you don't get to grumble over this. Lets go over it again. What are you doing there?" Lexi sighed and glanced out of the window. It was beautiful, she had to admit. "I'm here for a one-year paid internship in the local medical facility." Sandra, meanwhile, nodded and made a motion with her hands urging Lexi to continue. She did, albeit rather grouchily, "during which time, you'll be getting all the surgeries and I'll be freezing warts from the ends of winkies."<br/><br/>Sandra gave Lexi<i> that </i>look, and so, Lexi complied. They'd been friends, after all, since they started med school together and now that they were actually, finally, Attendings, and it was everything they'd dreamed of and more. Except for the warts-on-winkies-Hicksville-year she was about to endure. Still, she was doing it for a reason. "At the end of that year, I have a contract to work with Patrick Smithson in his private practice." Sandra wasn't letting up on this, so Lexi finished, "and he's the best cardio-thoracic surgeon in the US. Possibly the world. He wants me as his second, but he says that my focus has meant that I don't have the breadth of experience he requires. So this is paid … ", the pair of them spoke together then as the friends grinned one at the other, "<b>with a very competitive package, </b>" Lexi continued, "after which I will go to work with him."<br/><br/>Sandra nodded. "And how much are you getting paid to hang out in the rural boredom and learn how to knit from Old Lady Withers?" Lexi grimaced. "I can already knit, but yes. More money than I ever thought possible, and I live here rent free." Sandra nodded and Lexi slowly stuck out her tongue at her friend.<br/><br/>"Face it, Lexi, you can't grumble. Even Smithson is a hunk. By the end of the year, you'll be on your way down the aisle, and into your own practice with Patrick McSmoothie." Lexi shook her head. Sandra was impossible. Or, at least, highly improbable. "How's the office?" Sandra asked, and Lexi wasn't quick enough to hide the delight on her face, so she went with telling her friend the truth.<br/><br/>"It's amazing. It's new, new premises, and it's got everything. We can do minor surgeries and here, that can be a fairly major thing. I can get called back into Seattle, but it's not likely considering the distance. But it's good. I've got my first patients tomorrow." Lexi sounded pleased and Sandra thought that her friend largely was. It was just a lot to get used to.<br/><br/>The two women chatted for another hour or two, Sandra bullying Lexi into taking her on a virtual tour of the house, which caused a flurry of exclamations. It was a large, four-bedroomed home with a wonderful view and every technological gizmo and gadget known to mankind, as far as Lexi could see. They chatted while Sandra insisted that Lexi unpacked - and in fairness, when Sandra pointed out that Lexi had, literally, five boxes of clothes and toiletries and nothing more, it did make sense. So, by the time they bade each other goodnight, the place looked better and Lexi felt better.<br/><br/><br/><div style="text-align: right"><b>Monday.<br/>
Day 1 of work in Nowhere, The Middle Of.<br/>
Location: The Clinic.<br/>
Time: 8:59am</b>​</div><br/><br/>She had five people to see this morning. There were lists, there were notes and there was everything she could possibly need in order to know everything about her patients before she met them. She'd come in early to make sure that she was up to speed and, right at this minute, Lexi wanted to lift up the keyboard and batter this young man over the head with it. "We've been here two hours, I can't get the patient records, and I'm due to meet Jakob Sanheim now. So, I'm going to see him now, blind to his history, and later, I'm going to scream at you. There may be some shaking, too. " The paper notes hadn't been filed yet (because they'd only just opened, the young practice manager had explained, which she had dismissed) and so, Lexi knew nothing about this patient. Was he five or ninety five? In good health or in imminent danger of croaking on her consulting-room floor? No idea.<br/><br/>Looking at the "office manager" she said, quietly and calmly. "It is my job to make sure people are healthy here. You are making that much more difficult. If you can't manage to find me the notes for my next four patients by the time I finish with Mr Sanheim, I suggest your final act in your job is to find someone better suited to it than you." A pause. Just a slight one. "Perhaps you could ask the cleaner. Now get out."<br/><br/>The display in the waiting room showed Jakob's name and told them that Dr McCallington was in Room 2. Lexi was sitting, and called out when the door was knocked, "Come in!". Her eyes - by far her most unusual feature being pale ice-blue - turned to greet the unknown patient with a smile. "Mr Sanheim?" The young man who walked in was her focus, she hadn't yet raised her gaze to look at his father. "It's a pleasure to meet you. Come in." Glancing up at the father, there was a flash of recognition from her, but she couldn't place where. Maybe he'd been a patient previously, she thought. "Now then, I'm Doctor McCallington. How can I help you today?"