Bryce Lahela

Bryce Lahela, a character in the Open Heart series, is a surgical intern at Edenbrook Hospital and one of your love interests. He is first seen in Book 1, Chapter 1.

Appearance
Bryce has brown eyes, dark hair with brown streaks and a dark tanned complexion. His casual outfit consists of a maroon-wine colored button-up dress shirt under a dark gray sweater and dark blue jeans. He wears a black corded bracelet and a brown leather wristwatch on his left wrist. His scrubs are green (possibly to denote his department).

Personality
He says he has an unshakable self-assurance. He is confident, flirtatious and has a healthy self-esteem. He doesn't have many surgical intern friends because they think he's arrogant and pushy (and he is getting noticed by their attendings). He says he has never been one to care much about what other people think. He works hard, takes risks and seizes opportunities. He also enjoys trying new things.

Background
The Lahelas were property tycoons who became white-collar criminals. When Bryce was a senior in high school, his father went to jail for insider trading while his mother was acquitted because she testified against him. Consequently but hardly surprising, the kids whose parents had lost money from his parents' schemes took their anger and frustrations out on him - and he couldn't even disagree or blame them. It didn't stop when he got to college either though he tried to get as far away from Hawaii as possible. When Keiki was six years old and in elementary school, Bryce left for college and did not return. For, at least in hindsight, obvious reasons his parents always wanted him to become a lawyer, but Bryce chose to become a doctor instead. Eventually, his father was paroled for “good behavior”.

Book 1

 * Chapter 1: The Doctor Is In
 * Chapter 2: Code Blue
 * Chapter 3: Hanging in the Balance
 * Chapter 4: Dolores
 * Chapter 5: Relief
 * Chapter 6: Housewarming
 * Chapter 7: Patient X
 * Chapter 8: Make-Believe
 * Chapter 9: The Pita
 * Chapter 10: Risk and Reward
 * Chapter 11: Whatever It Takes
 * Chapter 12: Panacea
 * Chapter 13: Admission (Determinant)
 * Chapter 14: Triage
 * Chapter 15: Hearing Impaired
 * Chapter 16: The Curious Case of Dr. Banerji
 * Chapter 17: The Oath

Book 2

 * Chapter 1: Prognosis
 * Chapter 2: The Interns
 * Chapter 3: What's Done Is Done
 * Chapter 4: Blind Spot
 * Chapter 5: Influence
 * Chapter 6: Buying Time
 * Chapter 8: Fair Game
 * Chapter 9: Undetected
 * Chapter 10: The Senator
 * Chapter 11: Countdown

Your Character
"Fighting for what's right is what makes you a great doctor."

- Bryce to MC

You first meet him in the locker room on your first day. In Chapter 2, when you are hiding in a supply closet, you are able to let him help you gain some confidence. You can choose if you want to keep the conversation on a professional basis or if you want to hug and even kiss him. At the bar, you have the option of playing darts with him and his fellow surgical interns, even wagering a kiss if you win.

If you ask him why he went into surgery, he tells you that he has always liked fixing things. He thinks it's amazing something like us can become self-aware, can make art, can fly to the moon, can seek its place in the universe. In Chapter 6, after your housewarming party winds down, you can choose to hook up with him.

In Chapter 7, when you are following Dr. Ramsey, you ask Bryce to distract Ines and Zaid for you. He says you owe him for this. In Chapter 10, he will reveal to you that he doesn't have many friends among the other surgical interns anymore. Apparently they say it's because he's too arrogant and pushy. In Chapter 11, he will join you and Kyra if you go skydiving together.

In Chapter 13, if you choose to see him, you can choose to hook up with him. Either way, he tells you that what is bothering you isn't something new. It is something you've carried all along: your doubt. He tells you that while he knows how to own his talent, you always feel the need to justify why you're there like you don't think you're cut out to be a doctor. He tells you that you're so wrong. You deserve to be there because you are a good doctor, a brilliant doctor. In Chapter 14, you have the option to go go-kart racing with him where he tries to cheer you up. He tells you that fighting for what's right is what makes you a great doctor. He believes Mrs. Martinez wouldn't want you to change or surrender. She'd want you to keep helping people stuck in the system.

Jackie Varma
When you meet him in the locker room, you also meet Jackie. It appears they know each other as she likes to egg him on and he doesn't mind the nicknames.

Dr. Tanaka
Dr. Tanaka is one of Bryce's surgical attendings. Bryce impresses him by being proactive and stepping up when necessary. He saved the patient and handled a solo surgery. However, due to his rash yet confident behavior in later surgeries, Dr. Tanaka took Bryce off his schedule because he felt Bryce was being too risky, even if the end worked in the patient's favor. Due to that, other attendings and surgical residents followed Dr. Tanaka's direction and took Bryce off their schedules. It takes Dr. Ryan to add Bryce back on her schedule for him to start again, and in Chapter 14, when all hands are on deck for the subway derailment accident, Bryce gains favor with Chief Emery and assists her in saving Rafael. He earns her kudos and she praises him in front of Dr. Tanaka.

In Book 2, when Bryce performs an extrapleural pneumonectomy on Kyra Santana and you are caught up in an assassination attempt on Senator Ed Farrugia, Ines offers to call Dr. Tanaka for him to take over. Bryce tells her that Dr. Tanaka is on vacation, but she offers nevertheless. If Bryce decides to have her call in a premium opportunity, Dr. Tanaka arrives as Bryce finishes wrapping Kyra's heart with Gore-Tex. Dr. Tanaka praises Bryce for his cool head and is impressed by his technique. He takes over for Bryce when Bryce is done.

Dr. Harper Emery
Bryce's dreams of seeing Chief Emery operate are fulfilled in Chapter 14. She also appoints him her second and tells him that he did excellent work that surgeons ten years his senior couldn't pull off.

Unnamed Parents
In Chapter 9, Bryce mentions he went to the farthest medical school he could find a way from his parents. When asked what's wrong with them, he says it would be easier to list what isn't wrong with them. In Book 2, Chapter 5, you discover that a large part of their estranged relationship is due to the fact that his parents are criminals. Bryce is still angry at them for how their choices hurt him and Keiki. He describes them as being "total con artists."

Keiki Lahela
Keiki is Bryce's younger sister. In Book 2, Chapter 5, Keiki had run away from home and stays at Bryce's apartment. They are not close and they rarely talk, and Keiki seems to hold a grudge against Bryce for 'skipping out on her' when he left to go to college. Bryce says their parents saw her as their perfect princess.

Trivia

 * He is shown on the cover of Open Heart: Second Year.
 * He shares the same forename as Bryce Sterling from Veil of Secrets.
 * The name Bryce is of Celtic origin and means "swift" or "speckled".
 * The surname Lahela is of Hawaiian origin. In the Hawaiian culture, it takes the English names and modified in the Hawaiian version. Lahela is the Hawaiian version of the Hebrew name Rachel (which means "ewe").
 * His family lives in a massive estate in Maui, Hawaii.
 * In Chapter 4, if you go out with him, he tells you that his ex called him a golden retriever - that he sees something that excites him and he goes for it, everything else be damned.
 * He worked through med school as a bartender.
 * In Chapter 9, it's revealed that he went to Stanford University.
 * In Chapter 11, it's revealed that he is a skydiving expert and goes skydiving as often as he can. Elijah even asks him if he is an adrenaline junkie.
 * He is a playable character in Book 2, Chapter 11.

Memorable Quotes
(Thank you to the PLL Wikia for letting us use their template for this memorable quotes section!)