I don't own any of these characters, they are the works of whoever creates House, Torchwood and Grey's anatomy.
Ok, just so you know, background – house, season 2
Torchwood at the end of season 2
And Greys anatomy is sort of in the middle of season 3, after the episode where Cristina is picking the cake for the wedding, and the interns are all studying for their exams.
When a day begins slowly at Seattle Grace Hospital, there's a sense of foreboding in the air. Interns lose their calm and focus. Attendings get edgy. Everyone knows that something is going to happen. It's just a matter of waiting, waiting for the pager to go off, or for the phone to start ringing.
Miranda Bailey called her interns in. "Karev, Stevens – You're with Dr. Sloane."
"Can't I go with Dr. Shepherd? Ava is getting her baby today." Asked Alex. Alex had become increasingly attached to a Jane Doe found in the ferry incident. He had pulled her out of the water, became her friend and her newborn daughter was just coming out of the intensive care unit. And he wanted to be there more than anything.
Also, with the connection between him and Addison firing more sparks by the minute, who knew what might happen in the on-call room if there happened to be a spare 20 minutes. On a quiet day like this, who knew.
Realising what it meant to Alex, Bailey let him go. "Fine Karev, if you want – O'Malley, you go with Stevens. Yang, Grey – you can help out in the clinic. It seems to be the busiest place in this damn hospital."
Izzy watched Meredith and Cristina walk to the clinic with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Her heart beat faster as George touched her lightly on the shoulder. She shouldn't feel like this. Not after Callie had begged. Not after she still cried herself to sleep every night over her dead fiancé Denny.
Why George? Why Now?
She knew the answer to both of those questions. It was love. Neither of them could deny it, yet neither of them could bring themselves to admit it either. Could that one night, that both of them were trying so hard to regret, turn into the first of many? Izzy didn't want to be a mistress, or a lover. She just wanted to be his.
Meredith and Cristina walked into the clinic through the swing doors, and were greeted by the squalling of a young child and a cacophony of sneezes, groans and coughing fits.
"Great, just great," grumbled Cristina, "only two weeks until my wedding and I get exposed to all this."
"I thought you weren't the wedding sort of girl."
"It matters to Burke, so it matters to me."
"You just want to be in surgery, don't you?"
"Dammit, yes!"
"If you ladies aren't too busy…" the attending interrupted, handing each of them a pile of charts. "Bed 6 needs a physical, 15 needs a diagnosis, and try to discharge bed 3, Meredith, he's been here for two days now and I can't tell what's wrong with him, other than a throat infection."
Both interns rolled their eyes and set to work. Ten minutes later, a tall, lanky young man stumbled through the doors to the clinic. They clattered shut behind him, as he collapsed face first onto the floor. This unexpected arrival stunned the clinic into silence, apart from the child, who continued to cry.
Moments later, the team were galvanised into action, lead by Cristina, who rolled the man over. He had flecks of blood on his chin, haggard deep-set eyes and his breathing was accompanied by loud rasps.
"I need some help over here. We have a code orange, I repeat code orange!"
As the nurses hurried to get the equipment, Meredith helped Cristina to lift him onto the bed with Bailey and hissed into her ear, "What's code orange?"
"It means he could be contagious, so we need to take more care." Replied Cristina in a condescending tone as if she hadn't only learnt it last night when she was studying hospital protocol.
As the staff surrounded him, he began to cough and splutter, sending blood across the waiting room, onto doctors and patients alike. After the initial shock, the team reached a consensus that this man still needed their help. Bailey declared the clinic a quarantined area and closed off the area, explaining the situation to the other people in the room. She then paged Addison to get help.
The moment that Cristina tried to examine the man, his eyes rolled back into his head and his body was rocked with violent spasms.
"He's seizing! Crash cart over here!"
Cristina grabbed the paddles as Meredith opened the man's top using surgical scissors. She then held his body down as best she could whilst Cristina tried to shock his heart back into life.
"Charging…Clear! Charging… Clear!"
Again and again, she tried to resuscitate the man, but after 15 minutes of trying, they gave up.
Bailey resumed control over the situation. "Time of death, 10.52. Get cleaned up and see if you can find any ID. Then we'll get some blood tests done to see if this is contagious."
As they cleaned the blood from their hands, a curious dark green splotch formed under each droplet of blood that refused to come clean.
"Um, Bailey…?" asked Meredith.
Miranda turned to face the two women. She had received a face full of blood. She barely looked human.
Elsewhere in the hospital, Izzy was trying her best not to stare implicitly at George's behind, which was within arms reach. Was it her fault he turned up on her doorstep to get drunk after an argument with Callie? Why couldn't he see that she wasn't good for him. Sure, there was a lot of love between the two of them, but there was a lot of animosity and aggression too. If Callie got her way, and Izzy left George alone, then who knew what would happen.
Her train of thought was brought to an abrupt halt as Derek pulled the two of them aside. "Listen guys, I need you to do me a favour. Sloane can wait, this is more important."
The chief was due to be holding a conference with the top diagnosticians from all the other teaching hospitals in the country next week. However, the guys from Princeton-Plainsboro had got the dates wrong. Either that, or they really wanted to screw up Derek's life. To him it seemed that was everyone's prerogative recently.
He led the two of them over to a closed door. " Just behind this door is the finest diagnostician in the country – oh and his team. I want you to – give them the guided tour, keep them occupied. Make us look good – Ok?"
Izzy nodded and reached for the handle, just as George did. Their fingertips touched and their eyes met briefly before Izzy snatched her hand away. "Whatever you two have got going on," warned Derek, "Stop it now – I can't deal with you two as well." He stormed off down the corridor mumbling to himself.
Just as George opened the door slightly, a wooden cane reached through the gap and rapped him on the knuckles.
"Ow." Protested George, rather feebly, looking along the cane which was in the grasp of Dr. Gregory House, M.D.
"Are you the hired help?" House asked as he flipped the cap off an orange vial and swallowed one of the oval white vicodin tablets contained within.
"Don't mind him, he gets cranky in strange environments. I'm Lisa Cuddy, that oaf is Dr. House, next to him is Dr Wilson. The blonde Australian guy catching flies is Dr. Chase, who is mooning after Dr. Cameron. And the other guy is Dr. Foreman." She gestured to each of them in turn as they were introduced.
Izzy and George were prevented from returning the introductions by a rallying cry of protest.
"I was not mooning. I do not moon. Only idiot moon." Argued Chase.
"There is the flaw in your argument then. Cause you're obviously an idiot. Even the pretty blonde can see that." Pointed out House.
"If he was mooning, he would have been slapped by now. As he wasn't, can we leave it and see this place? Lead the way Dr…."
"O'Malley. But call me George." Filling in the gap left by Cameron. "And this is Dr. Stevens."
"Izzy. I'm Izzy."
The doctors left the conference room with Foreman taking up the rear, muttering to himself. "I used to be the black guy. Now I'm just "The other guy""
"Oh quit complaining," called back House, "You're not the only minority here." He turned to Izzy "Hi, I'm an adorable cripple."
"Hi, I'm not interested." Batted back Izzy.
"Oooh, a tough cookie, I like you."
"I wish you wouldn't…"
"The first stop on the tour is the free clinic, which is run by Dr. Bailey." Narrated George, as if he had been a tour guide all his life. He pushed against the swing doors, meeting resistance where he expected to find none and banged his head on the door.
Dazed, George slowly crumpled to the floor. Cuddy and Wilson were the first on the scene. As George slowly opened his eyes, he saw a dark haired, buxom woman looking at him in a concerned fashion.
"George are you alright? Can you hear me?"
"Yeah. I'm Ok, I think… Thanks Callie. You said you'd always be there for me." Cuddy only had time to shoot a surprised glance at Wilson before George had pulled her down on top of him and started kissing her.
"Not even I succumbed that quickly to her feminine wiles…" muttered House to Cameron, who looked disgusted, as if House had personally insulted her. Not that it mattered, she still went weak-kneed every time he so much as glanced at her. But to act on it would be unprofessional, something Chase would be more likely to do. Maybe this trip would be good for the both of them. They both were eyeing up Dr. Stevens, she had noticed, and she felt strangely jealous. She was used to getting all the attention from the guys, and she kind of missed it. Not that she was interested in Chase. No way.
House tired of watching Cuddy move from surprised confusion, to full on make-out session, so he set about trying to prod open the door with his cane.
Wilson, still on the floor, protested as House moved to step forwards. "Hey, watch out! Some people are trying to help others down here. Not that you'd know what compassion was…" Ignoring him, House stepped forwards, treating Dr. Wilson to a one off, private showing of the Gregory House crotch show. Not that he actually minded all that much. Checking first to see that no-one was paying him any attention (they were all still astounded by George and Cuddy, or arguing amongst themselves), he inhaled the familiar deep musky scent. But he would never admit to anyone, least of all himself, that he had a problem.
Foreman asked Izzy, "Is there another way in?" as he tried to find a logical way to tackle the problem that wouldn't see them charged with Breaking and entering.
"Yeah, there is, but I'm just paging Dr Bailey. That door shouldn't be closed off." Said Izzy absentmindedly as she tried – and failed – to ignore George on the floor with Cuddy.
"If you're lucky, she won't be wearing any panties today." Commented House to George as he gave up on the door and hit him across the face with his cane.
"Oh my god." Said a stunned George who came to his senses and realised what he was doing, so promptly started apologising profusely to Cuddy.
"Something tells me that there's something on the other side of this door that people don't want us to see." Reasoned Chase.
"Exactly, a quarantine. And as these two have no idea what is going on, I guess no-one knows what it is yet. So I want to get in. Foreman, you're the one with the dubious background. Get to work on this door." Ordered House.
Foreman raised his eyes to the heavens, helped a dishevelled Cuddy to her feet and did as his boss asked. It wasn't even worth considering the ethics or retaliating anymore. Sometimes, he wondered if it even mattered that he existed, or if anyone would notice if he were gone.
Meanwhile, in the centre of Seattle, the remaining members of Torchwood three were on a holiday – of sorts. Whilst repairs were being made to the hub, Jack had decided they should give their international counterparts a visit. A change of scene might help them all get over the recent deaths of their friends and colleagues.
The three companions, Ianto Jones, Gwen Cooper and Cpt. Jack Harkness stared up the needle as they slowly descended on an invisible lift, the workings of which were not dissimilar to their corresponding lift in Cardiff.
They were met by an extraordinary sight. A black cavernous den, illuminated by spotlights, flashes of chrome and bold swipes of bright colour.
"Very swish." Commented Jack
"It looks a bit like my kitchen." Remarked Ianto bluntly. The transatlantic trip had done nothing to dampen his dry sense of humour. Gwen giggled and Jack looked at her fondly. It had been too long since he had heard Gwen laugh. Since any of them had laughed. The deaths of Tosh and Owen had hit them harder than they liked to admit, and only served as a painful reminder that all life is precious, a sentiment that had been forgotten recently by the team.
Gwen noticed Jack's gaze, and blushed, mistaking his intentions, which, for once, were honourable.
"I wonder where they are." Pondered Gwen, trying to hide her reddened cheeks. Ianto called them over and read the note he had found by the coffee machine that he had gone to acquaint himself with.
"hey y'all,
Been called out on business, you know how it is! Help yourself to anything that's in the den. If the red phone by the main console rings, it's urgent, so can you please deal with it? You have access to all our equipment, your DNA files are in our system and will let you use anything. Should be back in a day or so, hopefully.
Andy, Chuck, Sandy and Ellis."
"Hey, they left half a pizza – tuck in guys!" exclaimed Jack in delight. Gwen smirked in derision as the two boys proceeded to stuff their faces with "genuine American imitation cheese" topped pepperoni pizza. As she explored the base, she found photos of the team. A tear came to her eye as she remembered her team. She had been hired to keep them in touch with their emotions. Perversely it was this quality that was now stopping her from being able to do her job.
Whilst the Torchwood gang were settling in nicely, just four miles away, Alex Karev was cradling a week-old newborn in his arms. The mother's face lit up as he entered the room.
"Hey Ava, here you go" said Alex as he passed the baby girl over. Ava wasn't the mother's real name, but one that Alex had given her, so she at least had some identity.
Alex was followed in the room by Dr. Addison Shepherd, Derek's ex wife. She had secretly been eyeing up Karev as he tenderly held the baby.
'Ava was right' she thought 'He is the kind of guy who will stick around to play catch, not like Sloane.'
Her pager beeped, followed by Alex's, interrupting her thoughts. Hers read "Quarantined clinic – unknown threat, possibly paranormal. Contact authorities – Bailey."
As a contrast, Alex's was from Meredith. "In quarantine, turning green – seriously! Help!"
Reluctantly, the two of them left the heartwarming scene; Addison headed to call the police, Alex to the clinic. This was no time for the two of them to fool around. This hospital had been under quarantine before, just not in situations like this, and their friends needed help.
Alex met up with Izzy, George and their "Tour group" outside the internal entrance to the clinic, and explained the page he had got from Meredith. Introductions were made, and all they could do is wait and kick their heels as Foreman continued to steadily work on the door.
Elsewhere in the hospital, Dr. Sloane was wondering where the hell everybody was, where his interns were and why the hell didn't he have any coffee yet...
Finally – first chapter done! Tell me what you think, and where you think it should head. I have a few vague ideas, but if yours are better…
Reviews happiness, so get reviewing!!