A/N: You guys didn't think I'd let the 22nd anniversary of this show go by and not do anything for it, did you? Especially since 22 is an important number in the fandom. Anyway, this is gonna focus on the Original Six, and what they are up to 22 years after we met them. Just little glimpses into their lives. Also? I'm basing kids' ages on how they would be in real life, not how they would be in the show. Like Reese would be 19 and Ella would be 15. Make sense? Good.
Enjoy!
"Alright everyone: take a deep breath. We're gonna run this like we've done hundreds of times before," Rachel Greene announces as she pushes through the double doors of Trauma Room 2, right on the heels of a team of paramedics rolling a gurney carrying their newest patient.
The nurses, med students, interns and the other resident in the room with her take her lead and set to work getting the man onto the table and begin to assess his condition. The monitor beeps rapidly, filling the already bustling room with more noise.
"Will someone please call Surgery and tell them we have a serving of 'Gun Shot Victim' coming to them soon? And I need him typed and crossed for four, a number eight ET tube, a laryngoscope and 50 of Sux and 120 of Etomidate on board as fast as we can."
Rachel tried to keep her traumas, and not emergent cases for that matter, as calm as possible. No need getting all worked up if you don't have too.
Once the drugs had been pushed, Rachel called over one of the med students huddled in the corner.
"Okay, have you ever intubated someone before?" she asked the Third Year standing next to her over the patient's head.
"No," the woman answered. "I've seen one done before," she perks up.
"See one, do one, teach one," Rachel tells her, stepping aside so the students can have a better angle. "Okay, Laura, this one is yours," she says handing over the laryngoscope. "Now: take a deep breath and hold it. If you run out of air, you're taking too long." The student takes a breath and turns to Rachel with puffed out cheeks. "Okay," Rachel chuckles. "Go in laterally, sweeping his tongue aside. Don't rock back or you'll break his teeth."
Rachel watches the med student follow her directions, and gently corrects her minor mistakes.
"I can't see the cords," Laura sighs, growing more frustrated.
"That's okay, try again," Rachel encourages, putting pressure on the patient's throat.
"Rachel," the other resident in the room, Gabriel, insists, noticing the falling oxygen levels. "This isn't a teaching case."
"Give her a chance, Gabe!" Rachel barks at him, causing Laura to look up. The med student suddenly doubts herself and her training and starts to hand over the tool to her superior.
"Maybe you should do it."
"No, you're gonna try one more time. Ready?" At her nod, Laura starts again. She remembers everything Dr. Greene had told her and a minute later she sees the cords and slides the breathing tube down the patient's throat.
"I'm in," she announces, stepping back, smiling, proud of herself.
"Great job, Dr. Beckett!" Rachel says, smiling at the med student.
The ER's work continues, and eventually the gun-shot victim is stable enough to be brought up to surgery. Rachel signs off on his chart and hands it to a nurse just as the elevator doors close and they disappear, she disposes of her bloody gown and moves to the Admit desk to pick up another chart.
"Med students are so useless, I don't understand why they have to be involved in traumas in the first place," Gabriel complains to whoever is listening as Rachel walks up, collecting the next chart on the rack.
"It's a 'Teaching Hospital,' Gabe," Rachel tells him, signing up on the board. "You're gonna have to do it at some point." And with a pat on her colleague's shoulder, Rachel walks off to meet her next patient.
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Elizabeth looks up from her paperwork as the front door opens and closes and her daughter appears in the doorway of her office.
"Hey! How was practice?"
"It was good," Ella nods. "We finally hit zero on our pyramid which is great."
"Well good for you," Elizabeth smiles. Despite the nine years Ella has been doing competitive cheerleading, she still doesn't understand it. Though she assumes 'hitting zero' is a good thing. "Are you hungry? I saved you some dinner."
"Yeah. But I think I'm gonna go take a shower first, if that's okay."
"Of course, sweetheart," Elizabeth smiles. "It will be ready when you are."
Forty minutes later Ella, showered and changed into pajamas, sat at the kitchen table, a cat on her lap, and a plate of Thai food in front of her. Her mom had taken a break from her paperwork and migrated into the kitchen to be near her daughter who she hadn't seen since this time yesterday.
"So," Ella started over a bite, before reconsidering and chewing first. "So," she starts again, "the new Moana trailer came out today." At her mom's acknowledgment, Ella continues. "And it reminded me of Dad. He would have loved this movie. Probably would have been the first in line for tickets, huh?"
"Yeah, he would have," Elizabeth chuckles. "Probably would have seen it a hundred times, too." Fourteen years had passed since that awful spring spent in the Hawaiian Islands and talking about Mark didn't hurt as much as it once did. In recent years it had become regular conversation rather than topics to be tread lightly around. "And then he would have insisted we bought it on video so he could watch it another hundred times."
"You don't need dad to do that," Ella laughs. "I'm already planning on putting it on my Christmas list." She stands and carries her plate to the sink, rinsing it off before sticking it into the dishwasher.
"Well I certainly hope Santa Clause knows where to find such a video," Elizabeth winks, following her daughter into the living room where they take their favorite places on the couch. The cat finds a place mashed right into her thigh, and she strokes it between the ears while watching her daughter navigate their Netflix playlist. The two had been working their way through Gilmore Girls before the revival series comes out, and were currently halfway through season four. "Do you have any homework?"
"Just an essay to finish that's due next week," Ella answers as the episode starts.
"Okay."
They make it through two more episodes before Ella gets sent to bed and Elizabeth goes back to her office to finish her own homework. A picture on her desk catches her eye as she sits in the office chair. It's of the three of them: her, Mark and Ella, taken mere moments before Ella had gotten ahold of her first birthday cake. Elizabeth smiles at the memory and fiddles with the wedding rind hung on a chain around her neck.
And as she digs into the final stretch of this pile of papers, she can almost feel him standing over her shoulder and hear him whisper 'I love you.'
