<strong>Julie Markum, M.D. </strong><br/><hr/>Julie smiled at Rogers' pleasant way of greeting her.  He seemed to easily acknowledge that just for her to be there in a white coat was a mark of her accomplishment.  He probably had as much trouble as she did gaining acceptance.  A black doctor was about as rare as a female doctor.  All they needed was a woman of color and they'd have a great little trio of minorities on the ward.<br/><br/>"I'm looking forward to working with you as well," she said, her smile warm and genuine.  It seemed like he would be easy to get along with.<br/><br/><em>"Oh, well,"</em>Julie repeated in her head.  Her right eyebrow arched high as she accepted Boss's hand for shaking,<em>Great, with a last name like that he's going to sprout an even larger ego with us all calling him Boss.</em><br/><br/>As she took his hand, it was impossible to not notice the shiny little Harvard cuff links. That would explain a lot about his demeanor.  It wasn't hard to see that even a black male ranked higher on the acceptable level than white female.  She'd not only have to prove herself capable, but more than capable.  The question was, why was Boss here and not at Harvard's own partner hospitals, Deaconess or Mass General?   She immediately pictured some little scandal that had won the young Doctor Boss the boot from his Alma Mater.<br/><br/>She ignored Dr. Wasserman's question about short doctor's names, not entirely sure if he was trying to make a joke or if he was serious.  She had learned that joking around was not something she did well.  As a matter of fact, she was downright bad at it and had learned to not even try.  Instead she had taken to sitting back and waiting to see how a conversation turned before joining in fully.  This had served her well when contemplating answers to complicated questions...others would raise their hands and jump in, often with wrong or ill-formulated opinions, while she took her time to think through her own.<br/><br/>