There and Back Again; Chapter 1

Hey everyone! I don't know if you still remember that prologue to my fic which I posted quite sometime ago, but finally, I've got the first chapter together. Here's who's who in my fic, and a little peek into their character and history. Remember to let me know what you think - I'm really nervous with this fic and writing it, because I'm not sure what you guys enjoy reading. Here we go!

*

There and Back Again; Main Characters

Moses Chan Ho
Dr. Lam Man Chung/MC
Top neurosurgeon at Yan Sang Hospital. Will most likely be chief of his department once the current chief of neurosurgery retires. Renowned surgeon and excellent as what he does, this character is modelled after Moses' MC character in HH II and III. Handsome, intelligent and arrogant, his cool demeanour makes him Yan Sang's most eligible, yet unattainable bachelor. Does not get along with his younger brother Michael. Their parents are divorced, with his father passing away recently, and his mother nowhere to be found. The person he considers closest to family is Lan Yee, the long-time faithful family helper.

Raymond Lam Fung
Dr. Chai Fung/Ben
Completed his medical internship and several years of his residency in the States where he had first obtained his medical degree. Transfered back to Hong Kong not long ago to care for his parents. Has been accepted at Yan Sang to complete his residency. Long-time friends of Noelle and Suet Lei, the trio are finally reunited after his many years in the US. A filial son, commited worker and kind at heart, his amiable and easy-going personality make him well-liked by many. Although witty, outgoing and flirty by nature, he's always pushed love to the back of his life queue.

Bosco Wong Chung Chak
Lam Man Kit/Michael
The second and youngest son of the rich Lam family, and born with a golden spoon in his mouth. Fresh after graduate school, he has been jobless for a year, and still goes about his partying and womanising ways, living off the family fortune left behind by his late father. Like his brother, he can't stand his sibling's guts either, but treats Lan Yee very well, who just might be the only woman in the world he has treated with such respect thus far. Cocky, fun-loving and immature, he has never felt love, although he doesn't know it.

Bernice Liu Bik Yee
Man Po Yee/Noelle
Sensual, vivacious and beautiful, she is an aspiring model-actress who has trouble committing. Going through boyfriends as quickly as fashion changes, she keeps only her dear friends near. However, despite her shell of an appearance, she is very vulnerable insides. Growing up with Suet Lei's family has given her the parental love she lost when she was young; Suet Lei is the sister she never had. Together with Ben, the three of them leave behind the good old days of high school and learn to live and love.

Leila Tong Ling
Chan Ka Ching/Ah Ching/Ching Ching
A cancer patient for the past five years, she has been in and out of Yan Sang hospital more times than she can remember. Through out these past years, she has formed a strong sisterly relationship with Suet Lei, who is one of the nurses at Yan Sang. With a strong will to live, she has overcome every single medical obstacle life has thrown her thus far with her positive outlook and bubbly personality. However, a recent relapse brings her back to Yan Sang again, and she builds up the strength to fight all over again.

Tavia Yeung Yi
Tam Suet Lei
Simple and normal - these two words sum up all she needs from life. A nurse at Yan Sang, she goes about her responsibilities with heart and commitment. Always never daring to hope for more than necessary, she is often admonished by her closest friends, Noelle and Ben, to live life outside the box for once. Has a good friendship with Ka Ching, one of the patients at Yan Sang as well as a warm-loving family.

*

Chapter 1 - The Calm Before the Storm

"Calm before the storm set it off
And the sun burnt out tonight.
A reception less than warm set it off
And the sun burnt out tonight." - Fall Out Boy, Calm Before the Storm.


“Po Yee!” Suet Lei (Tavia Yeung) yelled as she poured some juice into a glass. “Get up, you pig!”

An incoherent mumble came from the top of the stairs. “Nggggghhhh. Why do you feel the need to yell every morning?”

Suet Lei rolled her eyes. “Hey, you asked me to wake you up at nine today, and that’s exactly what I did,” she said, nodding towards the clock. “Come on, eat up, or you’ll be late.”

Noelle (Bernice Liu) shuffled to the table in her bunny slippers and plopped down, her long curly hair tousled from sleep. “Morning shift today?”

“Uh huh, one of the attending doctors got promoted, and Ben’s taking over all his patients, so I’ve gotta go make sure that goes smoothly.”

“Wow,” Noelle noted. “Does that mean Ben’s next in line?” She’d known Ben from high school; they’d been lab partners the first year and had been good friends ever since. She’d roped in Suet Lei into their friendship, and as fate would have it, Ben and Suet Lei were now working at the same hospital. “You really should consider him, you know. He’s hot,” she winked.

“Are you sure you’re supposed to refer to one of our closest guy friends like that?” Suet Lei rolled her eyes. “Besides, ew, he’s so close that it’s incest.”

“Well, he doesn’t have to know. He’d get conceited anyway, if he knew I thought he was hot,” she laughed. “How is he, anyway? I can’t believe I’ve only seen him twice since he came back from that job in the States. Okay wait, you know what, on second thought, do not go after him, he’s practically married to his job.”

“You’re rambling,” Suet Lei noted dryly.

“But you’re listening,” Noelle shot back affectionately, and the both of them started giggling. The both of them could banter back and forth like that for hours, but it was all affectionate. The both of them had grew up next to each other, and when Po Yee’s parents died when she was 8, she spent most of her time next door, and was the older sister Suet Lei never had. Only that Suet Lei was the more responsible one, and Po Yee was the more carefree one. It was a role reversal that worked for them, and that had strengthened this fourteen year friendship.

Suet Lei checked her watch, and downed the last of her juice. “Okay, enough!” she admonished when Noelle continued giggling. “I’ve got to run; I’m going to be late. See you later!”

“Say hi to all the good-looking doctors for me!” Noelle yelled as Suet Lei was halfway out the door.

“Finish your toast!” came the answer, and the door slammed shut.

Noelle smiled to herself, shaking her head, and stuffed the last of her toast into her mouth, enjoying the silence of the house while it lasted. Suet Lei’s parents would soon be back from the taichi lessons at the park and the market respectively, and her younger brother would be wrapping up his morning job right about now. The entire family were such early birds that it made her feel like a complete pig at times.

Remembering their earlier conversation about Ben, she flipped her phone open and texted him to see if he wanted to meet her and Suet Lei for lunch. “I wonder if the workaholic even takes lunches these days,” she wondered out aloud, giggling to herself as she awaited a reply.

It would be just like the old days.

*

MC Lam (Moses Chan) glanced critically at his brother over the top of the morning papers. Disheveled and barely out of bed, his younger brother shoveled a forkful of eggs into his mouth.

“What?” Michael (Bosco Wong) met his gaze defiantly.

“Why don’t you get a job?”

He raised an eyebrow. “I told you, I’m still looking.”

“Maybe you should look harder.”

Michael snorted. “Why does it matter to you?”

MC shook his head and returned to the morning headlines. He knew his parents had told him to look after his brother before they had passed away, but he was a fully grown adult. Wait, make that fully grown useless adult. If he wasn’t going to bother, why should he?

A girl, dressed in a crumpled tank top and jeans came down the stairs, her hair messy. Taking one last look at Michael, her expression changed when he didn’t notice. “Bye, Michael,” she said pointedly.

Michael finally glanced up. “Bye,” he said coolly, his eyes returning to his breakfast.

MC glanced after her as she stomped noisily out of their front door past Lan Yee. “Is that a different girl from the one that came down yesterday?”

“Yeah, but this one isn’t as annoying.”

“It might do you some good to stop fooling around.”

Michael snorted. “I’ll take advice from people who actually deserve to dish it out, thanks very much. Don’t think I didn’t hear you and your new flavour of the week last night in bed. Walls in this house aren’t all that thick.”

MC shrugged. “It’s different,” he said coolly.

“Right,” Michael rolled his eyes. “We both enjoy women. We’re both players. But at least I have the balls to admit it.” Standing up, he tossed the magazine he was reading on the table, and jogged up the stairs, the sound of his room door slamming heard a few seconds later.

Lan Yee watched the interaction with a heavy heart. As much as they both would deny it, the two brothers were actually emotionally more alike that they ever knew. Sure, MC had the career, the golden reputation in the medical world, while all Michael did was grace magazine covers with his rich-boy flings. ‘But, in actual fact, both of them shared far more in common than they realized’, she lamented to herself. She loved them both like they were her own sons, for she was the only parent figure that was around when they were little toddlers.

“Lan Yee?” MC’s voice shook her out of her thoughts. “Are you all right? Did Michael’s slamming of the door startle you?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m fine.” Pausing for awhile, she then spoke again. “Maybe you shouldn’t be so hard on your brother sometimes.”

“You shouldn’t spoil him you know.”

Lan Yee smiled. That was the same answer he gave her all the time. “I spoil you too. Do you think you would have just the right amount of sugar in your coffee every morning, if I didn’t?”

MC smiled. “I’ll come home early for soup tonight, I promise.”


*

“Nurse, where are my white lilies? And my handpicked blue M&Ms?” Chan Ka Ching (Leila Tong) demanded, placing one hand on her right hip.

Suet Lei mock-glared at her as she walked into the room. “Well, Ms. Diva, the last I checked, your name wasn’t Britney Spears, or even anything remotely famous.”

Ka Ching giggled. “Oh come on, where’s the morning humour?”

“Flushed down the toilet with the bowels of the patient in Room 432’s.”

“Oh, you are so disgusting.”

“But I’m your favourite friend at this hospital anyway, admit it,” Suet Lei laughed.

“I don’t know. Dr MC Lam’s pretty hot. He could be my new favourite.”

Suet Lei rolled her eyes. “You had better join the long, long queue, if you’re going to join his fan club. Certified playboy, never stuck with the same woman for more than three weeks, or that’s what the gossip queen at the nurses’ station is saying.”

“I bet she’s been trying to get his attention since Day 1 and has miserably failed,” Ka Ching giggled.

“That’s probably why she’s been so bitter about it.” The both of them laughed. “But I didn’t think he was your type anyway, Ah Ching.”

“Nah, he’s not. Too cool for a girl like me.”

“Yeah, me too. I just want to find someone normal.”

Ka Ching smirked. “See now, you’ve gone and jinxed it. You’re probably never going to find that boring, nice man you’ve always dreamed about.”

“Hey! What’s wrong with being nice?” Suet Lei protested.

“Nothing. It’s just that it wouldn’t hurt you to live dangerously for once,” Ka Ching winked.

“Dangerous? Me? Hah! You have got to be kidding me. Now, take your pills and I’ll be back in an hour’s to check on you.”

*

"Hey, free tmrw, Mr. Hotshot? Suet Lei and I wanna have lunch with you...okay by you?"

Shaking his head, Ben (Raymond Lam) quickly texted a reply and put his phone back into his pocket. Over the years, he had lost count of the many nicknames Noelle had conjured up for him. Absent-mindedly, he walked down the hall, rattling off patient history in his head as he went along. Taking over all of Dr. Chan's patients was not going to be an easy feat. It would probably mean late nights and off-days being constantly on call, but that wasn't going to deter him. He thrived on it.

Knocking on the first door on his right, he heard a sunny 'come in' before pushing it open. "Morning," he said cheerfully.

His patient smiled at him. “Hi,” she paused, reading off his name tag before continuing. “Dr. Chai.”

Ben returned her smile. “Please, just Ben. Between you and me, the whole Dr. Chai thing makes me feel ten years older.”

Ka Ching winked. “See, you look more like a ‘Ben’ than a ‘Dr. Chai’, anyway. Where’s Dr. Chan?”

“Dr. Chan got promoted, and his patients got passed on to me,” Ben checked her charts, and noted down her stats.

“And he didn’t even come say goodbye?” Ka Ching feigned hurt. “I’m heart-broken. Me and him, we had a special thing going on, you know. He’d bring me an apple, I’d knit him a scarf. Things like that.”

Ben smirked, one of his eyebrows raised. “Interesting.”

“Yup, and now he got promoted and forgot all about me and just passed me to you?” she mirrored his smirk. “Real smooth of him.”

“Well,” Ben leaned a little closer and put on a conspirational tone, “Considering the fact that he’s twice your size and a good thirty years older than you, the last time he had to be smooth was probably what, three decades ago? I’d say he’s a little out of practice.”

“Hey, you don’t have to be young to be smooth,” Ka Ching retorted. “Are you implying that you’re smooth?”

He laughed a little under his breath. This was turning out to be a good morning already. “Maybe. We’ll see.”

She laughed with him, and he decided that he liked the sound of her laughter. Ringing, melodic, sweet. “So, I’m in good hands, eh?”

“You could say that,” Ben smiled, and hung her charts back on the foot of her bed. “Now, off to my other patients, or else they’ll accuse me of forgetting them too. I’ll tell Dr. Chan you said hi.”

Ka Ching smiled to herself as he left the room, humming a tune to herself. Suddenly, the sky seemed bluer and somehow, she found herself waiting eagerly to the next time Dr. Chai would come in to check on her again.

*

Author's note: There you go! All six characters introduced and have made an appearance - any thoughts? Is it too long? Criticisms? Suggestions? Questions? Come on, talk to me. :)