Ringo Imagine:

"Y/N, stay still!"

"It's gonna hurt!"

"It's only a little pinch."

You grumbled and extended your arm for the nurse to take. She grinned at you humorously before pricking the back of your hand with the IV needle. You flinched, squeezing your eyes shut as your mother stroked your hair soothingly. Once the nurse said, "All done!" you turned to your mother with a pout.

"It hurt!" you said accusingly.

Your mum smiled. "The good news is, you got it out of the way."

"But I still need surgery."

"It's only your appendix, Y/N. Remember what Dr. Chao said? It's the most simple procedure, he could do it in his sleep!"

You gazed at your mum thoughtfully. "People don't need an appendix, do they?" you asked.

"They can certainly live without it," your mum replied.

"I wonder why we have it," you wondered. You gazed at the IV drip trickling into the tube right into your system, providing your the medication to ease your pain. "So cool," you said in awe.

"What is?" your mum asked.

"This!" You pointed at the IV. "It's only in a bag! And then it goes into you through such a small tube!"

"It's interesting, isn't it?" a voice said by the doorway. You turned to the voice, spotting Dr. Chao grinning at you. "And how are you, Miss Y/N?"

"Great!" you giggled. "The nurse put the IV in me and I didn't even cry!"

"Well, aren't you a brave little thing!" Dr. Chao chuckled.

"Hey Doc," you said, leaning back against your pillow. "Can you tell me how you do the surgery?"

He raised his eyebrows and glanced at your mum. She rolled her eyes slightly but smiled all the same.

"You can tell her," she assured him. "Medicine fascinates her. Believe me, you won't scare her."

Dr. Chao chortled, "If you insist!"

Sitting on the edge of your bed, he explained in detail how the appendectomy would proceed, responding to any question you had regarding it. You listened, your eyes glistening eagerly.

"I bet I'll have a cool scar too!" you gasped.

"Indeed you will!" Dr. Chao said brightly.

"Cutting somebody open... and they don't even die! They get saved!" you said excitedly. "Mummy, how amazing is that?"

"Very amazing," your mother laughed.

"Dr. Chao?" another voice sounded by the door. Turning, you found a woman, young and quite tired, standing there anxiously. "Sorry to bother you, but Richard's in a bit of pain. Do you think you could...?"

"Certainly, Mrs. Starkey, I'll be right there," Dr. Chao replied kindly.

After bidding you and your mother a, "See you in the O.R.," he left with the woman. You sighed, grabbing hold of your stuffed bear and staring up at the white ceiling.

"It's boring in here, Mummy," you whined.

"Hm," your mum hummed softly. "How about I go and grab a board game at home? We can play Monopoly."

Your eyes lit up. "Yes please!" you nodded vigorously.

Your mother chuckled and kissed your temple. "I'll be back soon, love. Behave, okay?" When you nodded again, she stood up and exited through the door. You spotted her whispering to one of the nurses, asking her to keep an eye on you until she returned.

It felt like it was taking forever. You sighed, slumped against your pillow as you peevishly waited for your mother, who was probably stuck in traffic. You swung your legs over your bed and stood up carefully, wincing slightly at the pain in your abdomen, and paced the room, completely bored of just sitting in bed all day. You wished there were kids up here that you could play with your age...

"The meds will kick in soon, Mrs. Starkey," Dr. Chao's voice sounded next door. You stopped and listened. "Richard should be feeling better soon. Sit tight."

You thought for moment before realizing something. Dr. Chao was a paediatric surgeon. That meant he was a doctor for kids. Whoever he was treating next door... must be a kid!

Eagerly, you approached the doorway and peered outside. The nurse that your mother had asked to watch over you was busying herself with paperwork. You slid out of your room, dragging your IV bag behind you, and peeked through the room next to yours.

Inside, there was the woman who had appeared in your room earlier standing next to the bed bearing a little boy. A kid! And he seemed just about your age.

Finally, someone to play with!

"I'm going to get some coffee, Ritchie," the boy's mother told him. "I'll be right back, okay?"

The boy nodded glumly as his mother approached the door. You leaned away from it quickly so she wouldn't catch you. She exited the room, offered a few passing doctors a brief nod in greeting, and disappeared from view. Taking in a breath, you gazed back inside the room and knocked.

The boy glanced up, surprised. "Huh?"

You grinned. "Hi!" you greeted, waving. When he slowly waved back in response, you said, "I'm Y/N! I'm in the room next to yours."

"Oh," the boy said, blinking. "I'm Richard."

"That's a nice name," you complimented. Richard mumbled what sounded like a thanks. "I'm bored in my room all alone. Do you want to play with me?"

"Really?" he said, shyly staring at his lap. "But I... I don't have anything we can use to play with."

"That's okay!" you said brightly, entering the room and padding towards his bed. "We can pretend! I can be the princess and you can be my knight in shining armour!"

Richard tilted his head. "I've never had a princess before," he said thoughtfully. "What's that like? Are we supposed to get married?"

"In a big castle, with a big garden and a big archway!"

A smile lit up the little boy's face. But it went as quick as it came. "Are you sick too?" he asked, pointing at your IV drip.

"Yeah," you said with a shrug. "It's only my appendix. Dr. Chao said he's gonna do an... an..." You racked your brains for the word. "Appendix-ectomy?"

"Me too," Richard said. "It sounds scary... I've never had surgery before. I got sick a lot, but it was never this bad."

"Don't worry!" you reassured him. "Surgery's not a bad thing! It saves you!"

"But don't they cut you?" he said in a hushed voice.

"Well, yes," you said. "But not in a bad way. They put you back together again."

"Still," Richard said nervously. "It sounds scary to me. Aren't you scared?"

"Not really," you shrugged. "Because I know I'll feel better once they're done. Plus, I'll be asleep the whole time so I won't feel a thing! Think about it! They'll be doing all sorts of stuff to fix you and you'll be sleeping through it! How interesting!"

"You think so?" he said, surprised. "You seem excited."

"I am," you giggled. "Surgery sounds really cool to me. In fact, I'm gonna tell you a secret." Richard leaned in to listen, intrigued. You whispered, "When I grow up, I'm gonna be a surgeon."

He blinked in shock. "Really?" he gasped. "Cool! I didn't know girls could be doctors too. I thought they could only be nurses!"

"Nope," you grinned. "I don't care what everyone says. I'm gonna be the best surgeon in the world!"

Richard brought his legs up to his chest, wrapping his arms around his knees. "When's your surgery?" he asked.

"Two hours," you replied.

"Mine's right after yours!" he smiled. "Will you come see me after we're both done?"

"Sure! My mum will have brought board games by then. We can play Monopoly!"

"Y/N?"

You jumped, startled as you whirled around, where the nurse who was supposed to be watching you stood with raised eyebrows.

"Hi," you giggled.

"Oh Y/N, you're supposed to be in your room," the nurse chuckled. "Your mother will be back soon. Come on, let's go back."

"Fine," you sighed. You turned back to Richard, who looked glum once again. "I'll see you after your surgery, okay? Promise!"

A hint of a smile lit up his face. "Okay!" he nodded.

***

"You did great in there, Y/N."

You smiled groggily as you looked down at your incision. It was small, just like Dr. Chao said it would be. You glanced back up at your grinning mother and your doctor.

"Did you see all of my insides?" you croaked, your throat slightly dry. Your mother reached for the cup of water for you.

"I sure did," Dr. Chao chortled. "Your body's working very nicely. And now you have no appendix."

"Did you save it? Can I see it?"

"Y/N!" your mum scolded.

"It's quite alright," Dr. Chao laughed. "Sorry, young lady, I'm afraid I didn't save it. But I can tell you what it looked like."

You crinkled your nose. "I suppose... Oh wait!" you gasped, sitting up slightly. "How about Richard? Is he done yet? Can I see him?"

Dr. Chao's smile faded. "Richard, dear?"

"Oh, they had a bit of fun while I was gone to get a board game for her," your mother said. "They've become friends. How is he?"

"I'm afraid I can't discuss-"

"Please," you begged with big, puppy-dog eyes. "He's my friend! I promised him that I would go see him once we're both done."

Dr. Chao passed a hand over his face and sighed. "Y/N," he said quietly. "Richard's surgery was a little more difficult than yours."

"How?" you asked. "He said he was getting his appendix taken out just like me."

"That's right," he nodded. "But sometimes, surgery can go wrong... Richard's in a coma right now. Do you know what that is?"

You furrowed your brows as your mother placed a hand over her mouth in shock. "Doesn't that mean... that he's asleep?"

"Yes... a very deep sleep."

"When will he wake up?"

"That's hard to say, Y/N... At this point, it's up to him when he wants to wake up."

***

"The patient is in V-fib! Get a crash cart!"

"Dr. L/N, move out of the way!"

You glared are your fellow attending as you quickly grabbed the paddles. "I'm the attending on this case, you have no right to tell me to step away from my patient! Make yourself useful and charge the paddles to 200!"

The attending growled under his breath and obediently charged the paddles at your command. After charging and pumping the female patient multiple times, the heart monitor beeped back into rhythm.

"I have a rhythm," you sighed, relieved as you put the paddles back into place.

"Dr. L/N, when I tell you to move-"

"I repeat, Dr. Percy, as I am this patient's doctor, it is my duty to give her the best care I can offer, and that includes resuscitating her," you snapped. "I paged you for a consult and nothing more. I don't need you anymore, so you can see yourself out."

Dr. Percy glared at you. "You dare speak to your superior this way?" he said angrily. "You will listen to me when I give you orders!"

"I'm sorry, but you're not my superior," you said calmly. "You can give me orders if you'd like, but I won't listen to them unless I need to. This isn't a neurological case, simply general. If this were neurological, I would listen. But you said her head C.T. is clear, correct? That's great. But there is free fluid in her belly, which is a general case. I am the available general attending, which makes me in charge of this patient's case. I assumed you would know that. You work on patients' brains, I would guess that you would have one yourself."

You heard the nurse snort behind you, which she quickly covered with a cough. Dr. Percy glowered at you but appeared to have nothing to say. Turning on his heel, he stormed out of the room, grumbling incoherently under his breath. You caught something from him that sounded like, "A little woman like her... The nerve of her..."

The nurse, Denise, rolled her eyes at you. "He's a bleeding wanker," she huffed.

"That's quite alright," you grinned. "I went through it in residency, I can power through it now. Besides, I made my case and he couldn't fight back. So I win."

Denise laughed. "I need your confidence," she chuckled. "All of the male doctors here listen to you."

"Well, I have to fight them for them to actually listen," you shrugged. You sighed as you scanned the Jane Doe's chart. "Alright... Denise, make sure this one gets her diuretics. I'm gonna book an O.R. so I can fix that pancreas. Also see if you can figure out her name. I haven't been able to get a word out of her."

Denise nodded. You left her to tend for the patient, stopping at the front desk to turn in the patient's chart. The nurse at the front desk, who was on the phone, glanced up at you.

"Oh, Dr. L/N," she said. "You're being paged for a consult. Possible tonsillitis."

"Thanks, Leslie," you smiled.

You checked your pager and left to the assigned location of your next possible patient. You stopped abruptly, however, your brows arched in shock. Several teenaged girls were crowded behind the door to the patient's room, squealing and giggling in excitement.

Blinking, you turned to find the resident who had paged you and approached him.

"What's going on?" you asked.

"It's Ringo Starr," he whispered.

Your eyes widened. "The Beatles' drummer?" you asked. When he nodded, you sighed and ran a hand through your hair. "This won't be easy... Alright. Ladies!" you called. When they paid you no mind, you sucked in a sharp breath and yelled, "LADIES!" The girls quietened and turned to you. "I understand your excitement, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I can't have you lurking and watching while I tend to the patient."

"But it's Ringo Starr!" one of them argued.

"I want to meet him!"

"Do you think he'll sign my bra?"

"Mr. Starr will not be signing anything!" you said loudly. "I'm sorry girls, I understand you're fans and he's the earth and heaven to you, but he's also a person who deserves the privacy of a regular patient. So I will ask you all again to please leave, or else I'll have to call security."

The girls whined and glared at you but eventually left one by one. Once they all fled the surgical floor to the waiting room, the resident turned to you, clearly impressed.

"Badass," he commented.

You chuckled appreciatively. "Go find your assigned attending. I'll see to the patient."

The resident left you to your duty. Sighing, you opened the door to the patient's room and entered. Sitting on the bed, already dressed in a hospital gown, was the drummer himself. He had the bluest eyes you had ever seen. Not like the ocean, no. Much bluer, much more rich, like a hydrangea. His nose was rather big, his face very kind and friendly. His bed of dark hair was trimmed to the classic mop top style. He had a rather familiar glum look painted across his features.

"Hello, Mr. Starr," you greeted kindly as you took his chart. "I'm Dr. L/N. I understand you have a bit of a sore throat."

"Think I'll need surgery, doc?" Ringo asked, his voice hoarse and tight in pain. He rubbed his throat with a ringed hand. "I'm not exactly keen on getting myself cut open."

You smiled. "Well, let's take a look first. If you do need it though, it won't be the worst thing. I can remove tonsils in my sleep."

Ringo grinned slightly at you as he opened his mouth for you to take a look. You clicked on the light and peeled inside.

"Ouch," you winced sympathetically. "It's definitely your tonsils. Sorry sir, I'm afraid I'm going to have to remove them."

He sighed, slumping back against his pillow. "I suppose there are worse things," he said gloomily. "It's a simple surgery, right?"

"I learned it in my first year," you assured him.

He nodded. "I'm not doubting you or anything," he said quickly. "I'm sure you're a great doctor. It's just... I've had a few surgeries in my youth, and one of them put me in a coma. Appendicitis," he added. "Supposed to be a simple procedure, but there were complications."

"Well," you said gently. "Every surgery has risks, even the easy ones. Apart from your throat, you're quite healthy. Vitals are stable. I'll do a quick exam just in case." Ringo looked grateful as you pulled your stethoscope to your ears and listened to the beat of his heart. "Appendicitis, huh?" you said thoughtfully. "I had that too, when I was a little."

"Must've been nerve wrecking for you."

"Actually no," you chuckled. "On the contrary, I was very excited. Medicine always fascinated me. I asked my doctor to give me the details."

Ringo laughed. "You remind me of someone..."

"Do I?" you asked.

He shrugged. "Perhaps."

"You know," you said as you shined a light in his blue eyes, instructing him to follow it. "I actually made a friend when I was getting my surgery. He also needed an appendectomy. But his didn't turn out as good as mine. I always wondered if he came out of that coma. I was discharged before I could ever find out."

Ringo stared at you, no longer following the flashlight. You lowered it, gazing at him quizzically. Slowly, a smile curled upon his lips.

"He did come out of that coma, Y/N," he said softly.

"Now how would you know..." Your voice trailed off. You took a step back, blinking. "You know my name...? Wait."

You turned and grabbed his chart again. You scanned the file until you finally found his name.

Richard Starkey.

You whirled back around, your eyes wide but your mouth surely smiling in the brightest of grins. "Richard!" you said eagerly. "Goodness, it's been years!"

"So it has!" Ringo said, mirroring your expression. "So you became a surgeon just like you said you wanted to be! That's wonderful!"

"And you're okay! Oh, I'm so happy to see you again!"

"I feel a lot better now that I know who my doctor is," Ringo grinned. "You're beautiful! And adorable in scrubs, might I add."

"Oh, well," you said breathlessly, flustered. "You've made quite a name for yourself too. You're famous!"

After you requested a nurse to book an O.R. for Ringo's tonsillectomy, you remained with him to catch up. He told you of his other adventures in the hospital as well as forming the band with his friends. You told him of your time in medical school and your residency, as well as some stories of incredible surgeries you'd performed.

"Y/N," Ringo said once you checked your watch and announced that it was time for his surgery. "Is it too early and crazy to ask you out on a date?"

"Pardon me?" you said, surprised.

"Well, you're very pretty and we've met before," he said with a tilt of his head. "And it'd be a right shame if I at least didn't ask you out. So what do you say?"

"Richard," you said, blushing. "I'm flattered. But I can't date a patient. Hospital policy."

Ringo pouted slightly but smiled all the same. "No worries, love. Totally understand."

***

You smiled when Ringo started to regain consciousness. He rubbed his eyes groggily, coughing slightly. You sat on the edge of his bed and handed him a cup of water.

"Hey there, Richard," you said gently.

"How'd it go?" he croaked.

"Great," you grinned as you helped him drink his water. "Smooth sailing. Your throat will be a little sore, but that's normal. I can confidently say that you'll recover very nicely."

"So I'm not your patient anymore?" he asked.

"No sir," you chuckled. "I'd like to keep you here overnight, then I can discharge you tomorrow."

"Then tomorrow," he said with a groggy smile, "I can ask you out again. You said you can't date a patient. Tomorrow I won't be a patient. Which means I can take you out no problem, right?"

"You really want this date, don't you?" you chuckled, rubbing his hand with yours.

He took your hand in his in response, gazing at you with those bluer-than-anything eyes. "You do too," he said cheekily.

"You're right, I do," you blushed. "Alright then. Once you're not a patient and you're feeling better, we can go on a date."

"I'll make sure to recover quickly then," Ringo grinned.

"I certainly hope so."

"Because you're my dream surgeon."

"That's the drugs talking."

"Nah... You're definitely it."

This is so long but man I've had this idea for weeks! This is by far my favourite Ringo Imagine that I've written :)