Out Of The Woods

Worst of You

"It's that time of year again," Allura sang as she spun around in her chair, her lips curling into a smile.

"Hatching day," Shiro murmured as he took a sip of his coffee, not looking up from his chart. "Ah dammit. She still hasn't signed the forms for her brain aneurysm surgery and it's about to burst! Do you think you can talk her into it?"

"Shiro, sweetheart, I am a bone goddess. I don't operate on brains."

"Yeah, but you have like this power that convinces everyone to let you operate," Shiro pouted. "Come on. Please?"

"Is Shiro bugging you about talking to his patients again?" Pidge asked as she walked up to them, sitting in the seat next to Shiro. "Ooh, aneurysm. And it's huge!"

"That's the problem," he groaned. "She won't let me operate even though she's literally about to die."

"Ask Katie to do it," Lotor grinned, leaning next to where Allura sat. "She's in charge of scaring the interns every year. I'm sure she can scare your patient into having the surgery."

"It's true," Pidge shrugged, "I am in charge of scaring them. Speaking of which, aren't the preemie chicks hatching today? I heard Alfor yelling at them in the speech hall."

"The classic fourth year medical school idiots," Lotor shook his head. "Kogane is one of those, correct? He won't have any trouble fitting in. Heaven knows how many times he spent walking through these halls for the past months."

Pidge grinned. "What, are you mad that he knows his way around? Think that he'll work better than you?"

"Of course not! I know he's not as stupid as he seems to act like."

"Keith isn't stupid," Allura said with a raised brow.

"Lightsaber fight on a roof," came the dry, unanimous chorus from all three doctors surrounding her.

"Anyways," Pidge said loudly, snapping her chart closed and handing it to Lotor, "they should be getting here in like, a minute if they're not late. They start surgical rotations today."

"For how long?"

"Three months. We're passing them through every surgical specialty with three or two weeks for each. You know, so they feel like they're actually getting an education."

"There they come," Lotor said with a grin, the doctors craning their necks to look down the hall.

A stampede of footsteps were heard running down the hall, nurses looking expectantly in the same direction as the doctors.

Pidge sighed, beginning to get up before she was stopped by Lotor.

"Hold on. Before you talk to the children, look at Room 24's chart. Did you not notice that? Her stats are getting better after we flushed out the toxins," he said as he leaned behind her, placing a hand on her chair.

"Stupid Galra," Pidge mumbled. "Who knew they were sticking toxins in billets now? Assholes."

"Ahem," Allura coughed lightly, "Dr. Holt? Your interns?"

Pidge and Lotor both looked up, their eyes immediately training themselves on Keith, who was busy shoving another med school intern in the arm.

Pidge rolled her eyes, closing the chart and clasping her hands together on the desktop.

"Okay, here's the deal. You guys are all late by...two minutes," she began, looking down at the watch on her wrist.

"Actually, we were here before," a man with brown hair spoke up, narrowing his eyes. "You were just distracted."