The Beautiful Monster

*Eight years later*

The sound of phones ringing and people chatting echoed throughout the lobby and stark white halls of the Bergland Children's Hospital.

The atmosphere of the hospital or any hospital was typically tense, but Alyssa strode into one of her patient's rooms with a smile on her face.

"How is she, Dr. Morgan? Did the surgery work?" a young mother with stress crinkles in her face asked Alyssa.

She held onto the strong arm of her equally worried husband. They both stood at the bedside of their young daughter, Aubrey, who was only thirteen and still asleep from the surgery.

Alyssa brushed her hair away from her face, which now only came down to her shoulders. She adjusted her black-framed glasses as one of her interns handed her the chart with the latest test results.

"It is my pleasure to inform you that the surgery was indeed successful in removing the tumor from her leg," Alyssa told the parents as she lowered the clipboard.

"Oh, thank God!" the mother gasped out before throwing her arms around her husband, embracing him tightly as they tried to fight back their tears.

Alyssa smiled to herself as she looked over at Aubrey, who would soon be feeling much better than she used to be.

Osteosarcoma was tough on anyone, but it was awful seeing children go through awful cancers and diseases.

However, it was her job that she was incredibly fortunate to have. Some days were incredibly hard for her.

There were losses that hit the entire pediatrics department hard, but they also had many wins.

She was one of the most popular and sought after pediatric doctors in the entire state of New York and the East Coast in general.

She earned that title by having a high success rate. Aubrey was one of many.

"She's still under from the anesthesia, but she'll wake up soon.

We'll do some monitoring and then she can go home. We'll schedule follow up visits to make sure the cancer doesn't grow back," Alyssa informed the parents, making sure they know everything.

If she was a parent, she would want to know everything too, so she tried to be as open and informative as possible.

"Do you think the cancer will grow back?" the father asked with a worried look on his face. He tucked his wife under his arm, holding her close.

Alyssa handed the chart back to her intern and then folded her hands together in front of her. One of the things that bothered her about her job was the unknown.

Medical mysteries and tragedies happened all the time that people didn't understand. It made her job that much harder, but she still did tons of research to try to get to the bottom of these mysteries.

"There's a very low chance. Our surgery team made sure to even remove some of the healthy tissue around the tumor to lower the chance of the cancer coming back.

Of course, we'll continue to monitor her just in case so that we can immediately attack it if it decides to return," Alyssa explained to them.

The parents sighed in relief before looking at their healing daughter lovingly. The tension originally in the room was nearly gone at that point.

Alyssa loved delivering good news. It was the best part of her job besides doing the actual life saving things.

She was taught and trained by the very best in the city, and she had more mentors than she could count that helped her get to this point. She was everything that she wanted to be when she was younger and more.

"If you have any questions, feel free to ask Sam," Alyssa told the parents as she gestured to her young intern.

She bid the parents farewell before walking out of the room, adjusting her white coat. Even now, it was an honor wearing it.

"Hey, Morgan. Heard about that osteosarcoma surgery," Dr. Micah Lennon called to Alyssa from down the hallway as he walked toward her.

He was a tall, well-built man with dark hair and a smooth, light brown tone to his skin. His stubble was dark and outlined the sharp edge of his jaw.

He only had two more years of experience than Alyssa and had a speciality in neurology.

Alyssa playfully shrugged as she smiled at Micah. He had been a great friend to her once she was placed at this hospital for her residency.

He even got to boss her around a little when she was just a resident and he was an attending doctor.

However, she was sure to push him around some now that they were on equal grounding.

"That's what I do," she said as she stopped in the middle of the hallway to chat with him.

She acted confident and did have confidence in her skills, but she wasn't going to be cocky when it came to the lives of children.

She cared for them like they were her own children, even if she wasn't sure that she would ever have any.

Ever since getting into medical school, she didn't care about dating or sleeping around. She focused on her studies until she became an intern and then a resident.

Then, she had no time to do anything but to work. She hardly had time to eat or sleep then. Now, in the depths of her career, she didn't see herself settling down anytime soon, and she was perfectly fine with that. She loved doing what she did.

"Well, I have a pretty nasty brain abscess," Micah told her as he crossed his arms, smirking down at her.

Alyssa gave him a pointed look. He always made everything a competition, but she didn't mind playing along.

She had done some amazing surgeries in her time here. She didn't even decide on the surgery track until she got deep into medical school. It seemed like the best way for her to directly help children.

"Is he bragging about that brain abscess?" another voice sounded from behind Alyssa.