New job, new home. Even after all this time I'm still shocked that I managed to become a surgeon, and not just a surgeon, apparently one of the best alongside Ellis Grey. I remember meeting her and her daughter for the first time, and thinking wow, she's a total bitch but her Meredith is pretty damn cool. I guess that's how I came to start working at Seattle Grace as the new head of Trauma, along with Meredith who's starting her first day as an internship.
Ding Ding Ding
I reach over to grab my phone off the bedside table and turn off my alarm, sighing deeply as I slide out of bed to get ready. I get dressed efficiently and head downstairs, chuckling as I see Mer wrap a blanket around herself as she chucks a pillow atop some random guy. Said guy awakes with a start and gives this kind of lopsided smirk, while also holding up a black lacy bra.
"This is, uh," The handsome guy starts, "Humiliating on so many levels." Mer finishes, snatching her bra back as I watch with a raised brow.
"You have to go." The woman I see as my little sister states simply, waddling around the couch as she tries not to trip over the blanket while handsome dude leans up with that stupid smirk.
"Why don't you just come back down here and we'll pick up where we left off?" He offers, but apparently Mer is having none of it.
"No, seriously. You have to go," She replies, tossing the man his pants, "I'm late, which isn't what you want to be on your first day of work so.."
"So, uh, you actually live here." Hottie tries as he pulls up his pants, glancing around the living room but still not noticing me in the background somehow.
"No."
"Oh." Hottie kind of looks put out which leads Mer to start babbling.
"Yes, kind of."
"Oh." Apparently that's all hottie can say at this point. "It's nice, a little dusty, odd, but it's nice." Hottie replies, turning around to peer at the stuff on the mantle.
"So how do you kind of live here?" He questions as he buttons up his pants, mirth shining in his eyes as he practically interrogates my best friend.
"It was my mother's house, I'm selling it." Smart, leave it at that Mer.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Leaving both Mer and I slightly confused as he fiddles with his belt.
"For what?" That's what I'm asking sister.
"You said was." Hottie finally looking back up at her, a slightly confused look on his face. Apparently Mer gets it because she quickly tries to reiterate on what she said.
"Oh! My mother's not dead, she's - you know what, we don't have to do the thing." Mer starts, but then shakes her head with a smile, but Hottie ain't backing down so easy.
"Oh, we can do whatever you want." Hottie flirts back, but Mer is not falling for it.
"No, the thing, exchange the details, pretend we care...look, I'm gonna go upstairs and take a shower, okay, and when I get back down here, you won't be here, so, um, goodbye...um..." Mer trails off awkwardly, watching the hottie slip on his shirt as he smiles.
"Derek." The hottie supplies simply, leaning forward to shake Mer's hand like they didn't already skip to the sex and are meeting for the first time.
"Derek, right, Meredith." She offers in return, shaking his hand as he repeats her name back, hopping over the couch like a teenager.
"Nice meeting you." He states, smiling up at her as she goes up the stairs and passes right by me, a small smile still gracing her lips. I roll my eyes as I watch Derek leave and follow Mer up the steps, walking into the bathroom once I'm sure she's in the shower.
"You know," I start, watching as she slides the door open a bit to look at me, "Giving your fuck buddy your name probably wasn't the best idea."
"Oh, bite me, Hadrien. You're just jealous I got him instead of you. Besides, I'll never see him again so there's no harm, no foul." She teases, shutting the door and effectively ending our conversation. I chuckle softly under my breath as I leave the bathroom and head downstairs to my car, not wanting to be as late as she is.
The drive to Seattle Grace is uneventful as any other and I quickly head to the Attendings lounge to grab my coat. I manage to maneuver my way through the hospital fairly easy and find my way to the lounge. I grab my coat from my locker and slip it on, sighing softly as I think about the rest of my career here.
Leaving behind my internal thoughts in the lounge I head to where the interns leave their garbage, overhearing Mer's conversation with someone named Cristina and some guy who seems a bit queer. Nope, scratch that, crushing on Mer. I peer over as Dr. Evans calls out their names plus one I don't know and watch them scramble out the door.
I see them calmly walk down the hall with quiet murmurs about 'the Nazi' when a blonde woman suddenly joins them. Stevens I'm assuming.
"Maybe it's professional jealousy. Maybe she's brilliant, and they call her Nazi because they're jealous. Maybe she's nice." The blonde states cheerfully, Yang giving her a look while whispering something about a model. I follow behind and watch them approach the Nazi, or Dr. Bailey as I am to refer to her as. Stevens introduces herself but the short woman seems highly unimpressed ignoring the blonde to address the entire group.
"I have five rules, memorize them. Rule number one, don't bother sucking up, I already hate you and that's not going to change," She starts as she motions to things lying on the countertop. "Trauma protocol, phone lists, pagers. Nurses will page you, you answer every page at a run. A run, that's rule number two. Your first shift starts now and lasts forty-eight hours." Man, the first forty-eight are a real bitch.
"You're interns, grunts, nobodies, bottom of the surgical food chain, you run labs, write orders, work every second night till you drop and don't complain!" Bailey announces as she takes off at a brisk pace, leaving the others to almost jog to catch up.
"On call rooms," She states, opening a door to show a few bunk beds, "Attendings hog them, sleep when you can, where you can, which brings me to rule number three, if I'm sleeping, don't wake me, unless your patient is actually dying. Rule number four, the dying patient better not be dead when I get there, not only would you have killed someone, you would have also woke me for no good reason, we clear?" Mer, being a complete idiot, raises her hand slowly.
"Yes?"
"You said five rules, that was only four." She points out, watching Bailey intently as a pager begins to go off.
"Rule number five, when I move you move." She says, brushing past the interns and glancing out me curiously before taking off in a jog down a hall, the interns following close behind.
I decide to follow them to a room when they bring a young girl off the chopper, leaning against the door as they struggle to administer Diazepam and insert I.V.'s. I almost feel bad for them when a tall african doctor brushes past me, watching the interns similar to how Buckbeak ogled prey.
"What do we have? A wet fish on dry land?" He inquires, watching them struggle and handing off a chart to Bailey.
"Dr. Bailey, let's shotgun her." I watch as Bailey hands off tasks, chuckling when Stevens gets stuck with rectal exams. I head off to speak with the Chief, smirking gently as he opens the door with a large grin.
"Come in, Dr. Black, good to have you here." Richard states, holding the door open for me to walk through before shutting it back.
"Good to be here, Richard. I like Seattle, it's nice, especially with Mer here as well." I reply easily, crossing my arms over my chest as he goes to sit behind his desk.
"Today you'll just be assisting in the Pit, getting a feel for the hospital and the way we work, along with our new head of Neuro, Dr. Shepherd." I hum absentmindedly and run a hand through my hair, glad that it finally managed to tame itself.
"Yeah, yeah, just keep out of trouble." The Chief mutters as he grabs his glasses, watching as I leave his office with a smirk. I do as the Chief says and spend the first half of my day doing sutures and checking out kids with overly worried parents. Wouldn't have it any other way.
At around noon I get a text from Mer to come join her and the others, so that's exactly what I do. I grab an apple from the bar and plop down in a seat between her and the guy, O'Malley I think.
"Hey, Mer, how's your first day going?" I ask with a slight smirk, ignoring the way the other three gape at me openly. My best friend shrugs as she takes a bite of her sandwich, eyeing my apple warily.
"So far, so good. Is that all you're gonna eat, Hadrien?" She inquires worriedly, almost like Mrs. Weasley would've.
"Yes mum, but I'll eat more at dinner, plus you're one to talk about bad eating habits." I shoot back, smiling as she laughs happily, the others finally getting over their shock as Yang asks the first question.
"Um, Meredith, how do you know the Hadrien Black?" She questions, her eyes never leaving me as I bite into the crisp, red apple.
"We've been friends for a few years." Mer replies simply, not giving away anything but enough to quell their curiosity for a bit.
"Did you know Meredith is inbred?" Yang states out of the blue, fork sticking out of her mouth as she looks at the others.
"Like it's uncommon around here to be a doctor's-" O'Malley starts, but Cristina cuts him off as she rolls her eyes.
"No, I mean royally inbred. Her mother is Ellis Grey." She explains, watching the other's reactions closely. I end up tuning out this part of this conversation, as Mer probably does the same, not too fond of the wretched woman. The conversation silences though as Dr. Burke walks up with a slightly deceiving smile.
"Good afternoon interns, it's posted but I thought I'd share the good news personally. As you know, the honour of performing the first surgery is reserved for the intern that shows the most promise. As I'm running the OR today, I get to make that choice," The imposing man states, clapping George on the back in a friendly manner, "George O'Malley. You'll scrub in for an adipectomy this afternoon. Congratulations." Damn, so they chose the puppy this year.
I chuckle as George sputters out something with a mouth full of food, half of me listening to Burke talk about the procedure and the other half thinking about my own patients. Lunch ends so I follow Mer to visit her seizure patient, Katie Bryce, her parents walking in just after us. Mer tries to answer but then just goes to Bailey, unsure of what to do.
"Katie's parents have questions. Do you talk to them or do I ask Burke?" Mer questions in a slightly unsure tone, glancing over at me for a second.
"No, Burke's off the case. Katie belongs to the new Attending now, Dr. Shepherd, he's over there." Ah, must be the Neuro guy. I follow Mer's gaze as I sidle up beside her and shake my head as I quickly recognize him. Hottie is our new Head of Neuro, and he's just seen Mer, who spins on her heel and pulls me back through the door with her head down, Shepherd's eyes on us the whole time.
"Oh my god, Hadrien, I am dead. Uber screwed, no more career for me. I screwed my attending." Mer rambles, leaving me trying to hold back my laughter because if it wasn't so serious I'd be dying right now. I hear incoming footsteps behind us and then Hottie appears, that charming smile in place.
"Meredith, can I talk to you for a second?" He asks, pulling her into an empty stairwell with a smile at me before the door shuts behind them. I roll my eyes, because only Mer could get into this type of trouble on her first and head back to the Pit to continue helping out.
Mer shoots me a text when it's O'Malley's turn in the O.R. and I jog up to catch a seat next to her with a smirk. I ignore all the bets going on around me, until Mer is dumb enough to bet that the boy could do it, high chance in Hell of that happening.
We all watch as he manages to get to the very end of the procedure when he accidentally rips the secum, a bleeder popping up and it begins to fill with stool. He flounders with what to do and the patient's BP begins to drop, Burke ending up pulling him out of the way to finish it. Murmurs of a new nickname spread but I'm up before I hear it, following the others to this spot under some windows with a few spare beds underneath.
"007, they're calling me 007 aren't they?" George utters out sadly, looking over at the rest of us. I hop up next to Mer on a bed and invite Stevens up beside me, the two trying to reassure the puppy.
"I was on the elevator and Murphy whispered 007." He states, popping his back with a deep sigh.
"How many times do we have this, George, five, ten? Give me a number or else I'm going to hit you." Cristina interjects, sliding off her bed and goes to grab a drink from the machine. As they keep discussing it I tap into one of my Master of Death perks, seeing bonds. Mer and Cristina have a bronze bond with gold undertones, the beginning of a long-lasting friendship, while Stevens and O'Malley are connected by simple bronze ones.
I note the indigo one with Shepherd's name on it coming from Mer's heart but ignore it for now, the one coming from Cristina with Burke's name more surprising. This is one interesting group of interns. I leave the bond view as pagers begin to beep, Mer running off to Katie Bryce's 911. Not wanting to be alone with the strange interns, I head to an on-call room to get a couple of z's while the others run around for their patients.
After about three hours I head back upstairs where Mer last was to see her trying to bring Katie back, sinus coming back after the fourth shock and Shepherd comes running in, a bit too late. He asks what happens and goes off on Meredith, as if she's supposed to be perfect at this after a few hours. I follow Mer outside with Cristina hot on my ass and quickly pull her hair back as she loses the contents of her stomach in the bushes, Cristina just watching awkwardly.
Mer brushes me off and goes back inside, something whispered to Cristina and then she's gone, leaving me to take a deep breath as the rain falls from above. A couple hour later all interns are gathered in a conference room where Shepherd surprisingly asks for help, scrubbing in being the reward, leaving the exhausted med students scrambling to find the answer.
*Time Skip*
A few hours later I step into the elevator with Shepherd following close behind, the doors close to shutting when Mer and Christina rush up with what seems like a solution. They start speaking quickly but then I get what they're saying, it is a one-in-a-million aneurysm. The doors shut for a second but then they slide back open with Shepherd grinning slightly, saying something to the girls that gives them a bit of energy.
MG: It was an aneurysm after all, subarachnoid hemorrhage, one in a million apparently
HB: Hat's off to you, love. Who's scrubbing in?
MG: Me, but I didn't want it, not Cristina's mad I feel like he chose me because of the sex.
HB: Then tell him that, use that loud voice of yours.
MG: Good idea
HB: I'll see you when your shift ends, good luck in the O.R.
I huff gently as I head back to the lounge to get ready to leave. I slip my coat off and hang it on the hook before going to watch Mer. I note the way she looks at Shepherd when he looks back into the microscope, a sigh escaping me as I think of all the ways this could end badly. Once it's over I grab my messenger bag and sling it over my shoulder as I head for the exit, meeting Mer halfway and her filling me in about her conversation with Shepherd in the stairwell.
We take our respective cars home where Mer goes for a hot shower while I make some sandwiches, both of us starving after a long day. She comes down the stairs after a good twenty minutes and plops down into the seat across from me, a soft smile on her face.
"So, my first day was…"