Chapter One
A Hard Day's Night
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Grey's Anatomy
'The game. They say either a person has what it takes to play, or they don't. My mother was one of the greats. Me, on the other hand...I'm kinda screwed.'
I woke up on my couch completely naked. I looked at the ground to see a gorgeous man. I quickly pulled the blanket off of him and wrapped it around myself. I took the pillow off of my couch and dropped it on his butt. He grunted waking up.
"This...is...? " he chuckled while picking up my bra which was next to his face.
"Humiliating on so many levels. You have to go." I said grabbing my bra.
"Why don't you just come back down here and we'll pick up where we left off? " He smirked while sitting up.
"No, seriously. You have to go, I'm late. Which isn't what you want to be on your first day of work, so..." I trailed off and motioned for the door.
"So, ah, you actually live here." he said looking around.
"No."
"Oh." he said.
"Yes. Kind of." I said again quickly.
"Oh. It's nice. Little dusty. Odd. But it's nice. So how do you kind of live here?" he asked pulling on his boxers and jeans.
"I moved two weeks ago from Boston, it was my mother's house, I'm selling it."
"Oh, I'm sorry." he said sincerely.
"For what?"
"You said was."
"Oh! My mother's not dead, she's - you know what, we don't have to do the thing."
"Oh. We can do anything you want." he smirked yet again.
"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..." I looked at him not knowing his name.
"Kakashi."
"Kakashi. Right. Sakura." I said and we shook hands.
"Sakura." he smirked looking me over.
"Yeah." he came closer and I backed away towards the stairs. "Mm-hmm."
"Nice meeting you."
"Bye Kakashi." I smiled then ran upstairs.
Hospital
"Each of you comes here hopeful. Wanting in on the game. A month ago you were in med school being taught by doctors. Today, you are the doctors. The seven years you spend here as a surgical resident will be the best and worst of your life. You will be pushed to the breaking point. Look around you. Say hello to your competition. Eight of you will switch to an easier specialty. Five of you will crack under the pressure. Two of you will be asked to leave. This is your starting line. This is your arena. How well you play? That's up to you." The chief of surgery said.
'Like I said. I'm screwed.'
Intern Locker Room
"Okay. Martin, Robinson, Bond, Parkins." A doctor read off of his clipboard.
"Only six women out of twenty." I said to the woman next to me.
"Yeah. I hear one of them's a model. Seriously, like that's going to help with the respect thing?" She scoffed.
"You're Tenten, right?" I asked.
"Which resident you assigned to? I got Kurenai."
"The Nazi? Yeah, me too." I smiled.
"You got the Nazi? So did I. At least we'll be tortured together, right? Sai, uh, we met at the mixer, you had a black dress with a slit up the side, strappy sandals..." I exchanged a look with Tenten as he rambled on.
"Now you think I'm gay. " He sighed.
"Uh-huh." Tenten chuckled walking away.
"No, I'm not gay, it's, ah, it's just that, you know, you were, I mean, you were very, unforgettable." He smiled at me.
"Sai, Tenten, Haruno, Yamanaka."
"And I'm totally forgettable." Said muttered to himself as we all walked toward the doctor.
"Kurenai? " Tenten asked the doctor before we left the room.
"End of the hall." he said.
"That's the Nazi?" Tented asked looking at the not so threatening lady. She had long black hair, a stunning figure, and shockingly red eyes.
"I thought the Nazi would be a guy." Sai said after looking at her.
"I thought the Nazi would be...the Nazi." I stated.
"Maybe it's professional jealousy. Maybe she's brilliant, and they call her Nazi because they're jealous. Maybe she's nice." A woman said.
"Let me guess. You're the model." Tenten said after looking at her. She was tall and had light blond hair with baby blue eyes. Ino glared at her and then walked all the way up to Kurenai.
"Hi, I'm Ino Yamanaka." Ino said extending her hand towards Kurenai. She just looked her up and down without responding or shaking her hand.
"I have five rules. Memorize them. Rule number one, don't bother sucking up, I already hate you, that's not gonna change." She then indicated towards stuff set on the counter. "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. 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!" We all grabbed one of each other the items on the counter and then followed her to another room that had several bunk bed in it.
"On call rooms. 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 woken me for no reason."
Roof of Hospital
"What have we got?" Kurenai asked after the helicopter landed and the paramedics unloaded a girl on a stretcher.
"Katie Bryce, fifteen-year-old female, new onset seizures, intermittent for the past week, ID lost en route, started grand mal seizing as we descended." The paramedic said.
Exam Room
"All right, get her on her side, Ino, ten milligrams Diazepam, no, no, the white lead is on the right, righty whitey, smoke over fire, a large bore I.V. don't let the blood haemolyse, let's go!" Kurenai ordered and Ino fumbled to do what she said. As soon as she injected her she stopped seizing. A new doctor then entered the room. He was tall and confident with brown hair.
"So I heard we got a wet fish on dry land?" He said looking at Katie.
"Absolutely Dr. Yamato." Kurenai said.
"Dr. Yuhi, I'm gonna shotgun her." He said.
"That means every test in the book, CT, CBC, chem, tox screen, Tenten, you're on labs, Sai, patient workups, Sakura, get Katie for a CT, she's your responsibility now." Kurenai ordered.
"Wait, what about me?" Ino asked.
"You - honey, you get to do rectal exams."
Operating Room 2 hours later
"What are you doing here?" Kurenai asked coming to the door and lowering her surgical mask.
"Um, Katie Bryce's labs came out clear, there's nothing in the results that explain her seizures, I just thought you'd wanna know." Tenten said.
"Okay." She then went to go pull her mask back up and close the door.
"Ah, I - I heard every year the attending on call picks the best intern and, and lets them perform a procedure, during the first shift?" Kurenai just glared at her. "I'm, I'm just saying it's what I heard..." Tenten trailed off.
"Go away. Now."
Patient's Room
"Yeah, sounds good." Sai said after listening to the patients lungs.
"He'll be fine? You'll be fine." The woman comforted her husband.
"If you don't count that my bacon days are over, sure." He groaned laying back.
"You'll have surgery tomorrow with Dr. Yamato, I hear he's good, and after that, you can have all of the bacon-flavoured soy product you can eat." Sai smiled.
"Mmm, kill me now."
"I wish I could, but I'm a healer." Sai said and they gave him weird looks.
Elevator
"You're lost." Katie said in the elevator.
"I'm not lost. How are you feeling?" I asked as I wheeled her bed off the elevator.
"How do you think I'm feeling? I'm missing my pageant." She said upset.
"You're missing your pageant." I stated as I wheeled her around the corner.
"The Spokane Teen Miss? I was in the top ten after the first two rounds. This is my year. I could've won." She sat up in her bed as I wheeled her back past the elevator. "Hello? You're so lost. What are you, like, new? I twisted my ankle once. I do rhythmic gymnastics, which is like, really cool. Nobody else does it. And I tripped over my ribbon, and I didn't get stuck with someone this clueless. And that was like, a nurse." Katie said.
Exam Room
"Nope." Sai said yet again as he attempted to give his patient who was wincing in pain, an injection.
"Out. Out." Yamato ordered as Sai failed once again.
"Bet you missed a lot when you first started out." Sai said as he pulled off his gloves."You and I are going to have so much fun together." Yamato said sarcastically.
Cafeteria
"This shift is a marathon, not a sprint, eat." Sai told Ino as she sat down and just picked at her food.
"I can't."
"You should eat something."
"You try eating after performing seventeen rectal exams. The Nazi hates me." Ino sighed.
"The Nazi's a resident. I have attendings hating me." Sai said.
"You know Sakura is inbred?" Tenten asked as she sat down with us.
"Like it's uncommon around here to be a doctor's - " Sai started to say before Tenten cut him off. "No, I mean royally inbred. Her mother is Tsunade Haruno."
"Shut up, the Tsunade Haruno?" Ino asked.
"Uh-huh."
"Who's Tsunade Haruno?" Sai asked causing both Ino and Tenten to laugh..
"The Haruno method? Where'd you go to med school, Mexico?" Tenten asked.
"She was one of the first big chick surgeons, she practically invented the abdominal-" Tenten cut Ino off. "She's a living legend, she won the Harper Avery. Twice."
"So I didn't know one thing. "
"Talk about parental pressure." Ino sympathized.
"I would kill to have Tsuande as a mother. I would kill to be Tsuande. All I need is one good case." Tenten said right before Sakura joined them.
"Katie Bryce is a pain in the ass. If I hadn't taken the Hippocratic oath, I'd Kevorkian her with my bare hands." I said sitting down and everyone stared at me.
"What?" I asked as Yamato walked up to our table.
"Good afternoon interns. It's posted, but I thought I'd share the good news personally. As you know, the honor 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." He patted Sai on the back. "Sai. You'll scrub in for an apidectomy this afternoon. Congratulations."
"Me?" Sai asked surprised.
"Enjoy." Yamato smiled and then left.
"Did he say me?" Sai asked us.
Attending's Lounge
"I've seen his file. Sai barely made the cut to get into this program, he's not your guy." Kurenai told Yamato.
"No, he's my guy all right."
"Still, every year you pick your guy, and every year your guy suffers more than any other intern on surgery."
"Terrorise one, and the rest fall in line."
"I get it, I respect it, but Sai? Sai's a puppy, he can't even take the pressure."
Outside Katie's Room
"Katie Bryce, 3604?" A woman asked a nurse.
"It's right there." She pointed to the room.
Katie's Room
"Katie, honey, mom and dad are here." the mom said holding her hand.
"They gave her a sedative for the CT scan, so she's a little groggy." I explained.
"Will she be all right?" The mom asked.
"Our doctor at home said she might need an operation, is that true?" The father asked.
"What kind of operation?" The mom asked.
"She's, um, well, you know what, I'm not, I'm not the doctor, uh, I'm a doctor, but I'm not Katie's doctor, so I'll go get him for you." I managed to say.
Outside Katie's Room
"What?" Kurenai asked as I walked up to her.
"Katie's parents have questions. Do you talk to them, or do I ask Yamato?"
"No, Yamato's off the case, Katie belongs to the new attending now, Dr. Hatake, he's over there." She pointed to a room down the hallway.
I walked to the room and opened the door stepping inside. I saw the man from this morning laughing and talking to several other doctors. He glanced over at me and then did a double take. I quickly left the room and shut the door behind me. I began to walk away quickly. I could hear him open the door and walk out so I began to walk even faster.
"Hey - " I protested as he grabbed my arm and pulled me into an empty stairwell. "Dr. Hatake, - "
"Dr. Hatake? This morning it was Kakashi. Now it's Dr. Hatake."
"Dr. Hatake, we should pretend it never happened."
"What never happened, you sleeping with me last night? Or you throwing me out this morning? Because both are fond memories I'd like to hold onto." He smirked.
"No. There will be no memories. I'm not the girl in the bar anymore, and you're not the guy. This can't exist. You get that, right?"
"You took advantage of me and now you want to forget about it." He chuckled.
"I did not take - "
"I was drunk, vulnerable and good-looking and you took advantage."
"Okay, I was the one who was drunk, and you are not that good-looking." I lied.
"Well, maybe not today. Last night, last night I was very good-looking. I had my red shirt on, my good-looking shirt, you took advantage." he said walking closer to me.
"I did not take -"
"You want to take advantage again? Say Friday night?" He said pinning me to the wall.
"No. You're an attending. And I'm your intern. Stop looking at me like that."
"Like what?" He asked as he nuzzled into my neck.
"Like you've seen me naked." He smirked against my neck. "Dr. Hatake. This is inappropriate. Has that ever occurred to you?" I asked while pushing away from him and leaving the stairwell.
Gallery above Operating Room
"Open, identify, ligate, irrigate, close. Open, identify, ligate, irrigate, close. Open, identify, ligate, irrigate, close." Sai muttered to himself down in the O.R.
"He's going to faint. He's a fainter." A random intern laughed.
"Naaah, code brown. Right in his pants." Another intern said.
"He's all about the flops, he's going to sweat himself unsterile." The first intern said again.
"Ten bucks says he messes up." A third intern better.
"Twenty says he cries." Tenten said.
"I'll put twenty on a total meltdown." The second intern said.
"Fifty says he pulls the whole thing off." I said and everybody looked at me completely silent.
"That's one of us, down there. The first one of us. Where's your loyalty?"
"Seventy-five says he can't even ID the appendix." Tenten said after a pause.
"I'll take that action." Ino and a couple others agreed.
"Okay, Sai, let's see what you can do." Yamato said as he walked into the O.R.
"Here it comes." I said leaning forward in my seat.
"Scalpel." Sai said.
"Scalpel." The nurse said and Sai took it. We all cheered in the gallery and Yamato motioned for us to shut up.
"That Yamato, he's trouble." Tenten said and everyone laughed.
"More pressure. Human flesh is a tough shell, dig in." Yamato said as Sai began to make the incision.
"Pick-ups." Sai said after he made the incision.
"Pick-ups." The nurse said handing them to him.
"Clamp."
"Clamp."
"Met some bone. I'm there." Sai said
"Damn, he got the peritoneum and he opened him up." The first intern said.
"I told you, he's going to pull it off." I smiled.
"Scalpel." Sai said again.
"Scalpel." The nurse handed him a new one
"Appendix is out." Sai said tossing it into a tray and we all cheered.
"Not bad." Yamato said.
"Thank you." Sai said as he started to pull up on the purse strings.
"Now all you have to do is invert the stump into the secum and simultaneously pull up on the purse-strings but be careful not to" A rip was heard. "break them." Yamato groaned. "He ripped the secum. Got a bleeder. You're filling with stool, what do you do now?" Yamato asked as Sai began to panic.
"Uh...uh..."
"Think. You start the suction, and you start digging for those purse-strings before she bleeds to death. Belky, give him a clamp." Yamato ordered the nurse.
"BP's dropping." Another nurse said watching the monitor.
"He's choking." Tenten said.
"Come on, Sai." I said.
"Today. Pull your balls out of your back pocket, let's go. What are you waiting for, suction?" Yamato said upset as the beeping became more frantic.
"Getting too low folks... Dr. Yamato..." The nurse warned as Sai continued to stand there doing nothing.
"Get out of the way. Pansy-ass idiot. Get him out of here. Suction. Clamp." Yamato ordered pushing him out of the way.
"007." An intern with dark black hair and onyx eyes said.
"007, yep, that's a total 007." Another intern agreed.
"What's 007 mean?" Ino asked me.
"Licensed to kill."
Hallway
"007. They're calling me 007, aren't they?" Sai asked as we all sat on spare beds in an empty corridor.
"No one's calling you 007." Ino and I both said.
"I was on the elevator and Murphy whispered 007."
"Oh, how many times do we have go through this, Sai, five, ten? Give me a number or else I'm going to hit you." Tenten said.
"Murphy whispered 007 and everyone laughed."
"He wasn't talking about you." Ino said.
"You sure?"
"Would we lie to you?" I asked.
"Yes." He pouted.
"007 is a state of mind." Tenten said.
"So says the girl who finished top of her class at Stanford." Sai countered as my pager went off..
"Oh man. It's 911 for Katie Bryce. I gotta go." I said taking off at a run.
"Maybe I should've gone into geriatrics. No one minds when you kill an old person." Sai said.
"Surgery is hot, it's the Marines, it's the macho, it's hostile, it's hardcore. Geriatrics is for freaks who live with their mothers and never have sex." Tenten said.
"I've got to get my own place." Sai groaned.
Katie's Room
I ran into Katie's room.
"Took you long enough." Katie said putting down her magazine.
"You're okay? The nurse paged me 911." I asked panting slightly.
"I had to go all Exorcist to get her to even pick up the phone."
"Wait. There's nothing wrong with you?"
"I'm bored." She sighed looking at her nails.
"You little...I'm not a cruise director."
"You don't have to wig out. The pageant's supposed to be on cable, but this crappy hospital doesn't get the channel. If that cow Kylie Wood is gonna walk off with my crown, I have to see it. Can you call someone?"
"Okay. This is an actual hospital. There are sick people here. Go to sleep, and stop wasting my time."
"But I can't sleep. My head's all full."
"That's called thinking. Go with it." I said as I stalked out of the room.
Hallway
Kurenai was sleeping on a stretcher and Ino was uncertainly looking at her.
"What do you need?" A male nurse asked Ino.
"Mr Jones has junkie veins and he really needs antibiotics so I should start a central line."
"So start one." He paused. "You don't know how."
"I've never done one. "
"Well, you know what that means." He tipped his head towards Kurenai.
"Can't we just...page someone else?" She whined.
"She's the on-call resident."
"Okay. Okay, I'll just - I'll wake her." She walked over and lightly tapped Kurenai on the shoulder. "Dr Bailey, I don't mean to bother you, but -"
"Then don't."
"It's Mr. Jones."
"Is he dying?"
"No."
"Then stop talking to me." Ino turned away but then turned back and Kurenai gave up on sleeping.
"What is it?" She asked sitting up.
10 minutes later
"Next time you wake me, he better be so close to dead there's a tag on his toe." Kurenai threatened.
Nurse Station
"4B's got post-op pneumonia. Let's start antibiotics." The intern with black hair and onyx eyes told a nurse.
"Are you sure that's the right diagnosis?" She asked.
"Well I don't know, I'm only an intern. Here's an idea, why don't you go spend four years in med school and let me know if it's the right diagnosis. She's short of breath, she's got fever, she's post-op. Start the antibiotics." He walked over to where I was leaning on the counter doing charts. "God I hate nurses. I'm Sasuke. I'm with Jeremy, you're with the Nazi, right?"
"She may not have pneumonia, you know. She could be splinting, or have a PE." I said continuing on with m charts.
"Like I said, I hate nurses."
"What did you just say? Did you just call me a nurse?" I snapped looking him in the eyes.
"Well, if the white cap fits..." He trailed off as my pager beeped and I walked away.
"Damnit, Katie..." I mumbled not running this time.
"She seeing anybody?" Sasuke asked Sai.
"I don't know."
"She's hot." Sasuke whistled watching Sakura walk off.
"I'm friends with her. I mean, kinda friends, I mean, not, you know, actually friends, not exactly, but we're tight. We hang out. I mean, really only just today - "
"Dude." Sasuke groaned.
"- but - "
"Dude. Stop talking." Sasuke walked off.
Katie's Room
I was slowly walking to Katie's room when I saw multiple nurses rushing into her room so I broke into a sprint.
"What took you so long?" The first nurse asked.
"She's having multiple grand mal seizures, now how do you want to proceed? Dr. Haruno? Are you listening to me? She's got Diazepam, 2mg Diazepam, I just gave her a second ago, Dr. Haruno, you need to tell us what you want to do. Dr. Haruno!" The second nurse said.
I could barely hear them my heart was beating so fast and I felt like I could barely breathe. Finally I picked up her chart.
"Okay, she's full on Prazepam?" I asked.
"She's had 4mg." The first nurse said.
"Did you page Dr. Yuhi and Dr Hatake?" I asked.
"The Prazepam's not working." The third nurse said.
"Phenobarbital, load her with Phenobarbital." I ordered.
"Pheno's in." The second nurse said.
"No change." The third nurse said.
"You paged Dr. Hatake?" I asked again.
"I just told you." The third nurse snapped.
"Well page him again! Stat." I half-yelled.
"What do you want to do? Dr. Haruno, you need to tell us what you want to do!"
"Heart's stopped!" The second nurse said.
"Code blue, code blue! Code blue, code blue!" The first nurse set off the alarm. They pulled out the defibrillators. I took them and positioned myself over Katie.
"Charge pulse of two hundred." I ordered.
"Charged."
"Clear." I yelled.
"Still defib. Nothing. 19 seconds." The second nurse said.
"Charge to 300." I ordered.
"300."
"Clear." I yelled again.
"Anything?" I asked.
"27 seconds." nurse one said.
"Charge to 360." Still nothing. "Come on, Katie."
"49 seconds." The third nurse said.
"At 60 seconds you're supposed to admit her -"
"Charge again!" I ordered.
"I see sinus rhythm." The first nurse said.
"Blood pressure's coming up." The second nurse said.
"All right now. Pressure's returning. Grid's coming back..." The first nurse said as Kakashi ran into the room. "What the hell happened?"
"She had a seizure, and - " I started to explain.
"A seizure?"
"her heart stopped."
"You were supposed to be monitoring her." He snapped.
"I checked on her and she - "
"I got it. Just - just - go." He ordered and I turned and left the room. "Someone give me her chart, please?" I could hear him say.
"You get a 911, you page me immediately, not in the five minutes it takes you to get to the emergency, immediately, you are on my team and if somebody dies it's my ass," Kurenai yelled as I walked past her. "you hear me, Haruno?"
"Sakura?" Tenten asked worried. I continued to walk and opened the doors to the outside and walked out into the rain. Tenten stopped at the door. I bent over and threw up onto the grass.
"If you tell anyone, ever..." I warned Tenten as I walked back into the hospital.
Outside Katie's Room
"You said it was a seizure disorder. Now you're saying it isn't?" Katie's father said.
"I'm saying that I don't know." Kakashi said.
"Well, what do you think it could be?" Her mom asked.
"I don't know."
"When will you know?" The father asked frustrated.
"I don't have an answer for you. For now, Katie is stable -"
"Wait one damn minute. We came here because this hospital is supposed to be the best in Washington. That's my kid in there. My kid. And you have the audacity to stand here and tell me I don't know?"
"Mr. Bryce, - "
"No, I want someone else. A doctor who knows what they're doing. You get me someone else. Someone better than you."
"Mr Bryce, I assure you that I am working hard on Katie's case."
"No, you're not. If you were, you'd be able to give me some answers."
Sai's Patient's Room
"I put you on a bypass machine, which pumps blood for your heart, fix your ticker, take you off the machine, I'm done. Simple procedure." Yamato explained.
"So, I shouldn't worry?" His wife asked.
"I'm very good at what I do. It's still a surgery. There are some risks. I'll see you in the OR this afternoon, Mr. Savage."
"You're not going to leave me in there alone with that guy, are you?" The man asked Sai.
"Oh, I'll be outside the OR the whole time. Dr. Yamato is very good. Don't worry. I'll see you after."
"He'll be fine, right?"
"It's one he's going to sail through. You have nothing to worry about. I promise. Gotta go."
Conference Room
"What are you doing?" I asked sitting next to Tenten.
"I'm suturing a banana, with the vain hope that it wakes up my brain." She said and Sai laughed.
"What're you smiling at, 007?" She snapped and he stopped laughing.
"I'm sorry, I get mean when I'm tired."
"You know what? I don't care. I comforted a family, and I get to hang out in the OR today. All is well."
"Does anybody know why we're here?" Tenten asked looking around at the crowded room of interns as Kakashi walked in.
"Well good morning. I'm going to do something pretty rare for a surgeon, I'm going to ask interns for help. I've got this kid, Katie Bryce. Right now, she's a mystery. She doesn't respond to her meds. Labs are clean, scans are pure, but she's having seizures. Grand mal seizures with no visible cause. She's a ticking clock. She's going to die, if I don't make a diagnosis. Which is where you come in. I can't do it alone. I need your extra minds, extra eyes, I need you to play detective, I need you to find out why Katie is having seizures. I know you're tired, you're busy, you've got more work than you could possibly handle. I understand. So, I'm going to give you an incentive. Whoever finds the answer rides with me. Katie needs surgery. You get to do what no interns get to do. Scrub in to assist on an advanced procedure. Dr. Yuhi's going to hand you Katie's chart. The clock is ticking fast, people. If we're going to save Katie's life, we have to do it soon." Kakashi explained and then we all got copies of her chart.
Nurse's Station
"Look, give the antibiotics time to work." Sasuke said.
"The antibiotics should've worked by now." The nurse said.
"She's old, she's freaking ancient. She's lucky she's still breathing. Now, I got a shot to scrub in downstairs and a patient who wasn't alive during the civil war. Don't page me again." Sasuke walked off as Tenten walked up to me.
"Hey, I want in on Hatake's surgery. You've been the intern on Katie since the start. You want to work together? We find the answer, we have a fifty-fifty chance of scrubbing in."
"I'll work with you, but I don't want in on the surgery. You can have it." I said handing my chart to a nurse.
"Are you kidding me? It's the biggest opportunity any intern will ever get."
"I don't want to spend any more time with Hatake than I have to."
"What do you have against Hatake?"
"If we find the answer, the surgery's yours. Do you want to work together or not?"
"Deal." She grinned.
Library
"Well, she doesn't have anoxia, chronic renal failure or acidosis. It's not a tumour because her CT's clean. Are you seriously not going to tell me why you won't work with Hatake?"
"No. What about infection?"
"No. There's no white count, she has no ceteal lesions, no fevers, nothing in her spinal tap, just tell me."
"You can't comment, make a face, or react in any way. We had sex." I blushed and Tenten opened her mouth and then closed it."What about an aneurysm?" She asked.
"No blood on the CT, and no headaches."
"Okay. There's no drug use, uh, no pregnancy, no trauma...was he good? I mean, he looks like he would be, was it any good?"
"What are the answers? What if no one comes up with anything?"
"You mean if she dies?" She asked.
"Yeah." I sighed.
"This is gonna sound really bad, but I really wanted that surgery."
"She's just never going to get the chance to turn into a person. The sum total of her existence will be almost winning Miss Teen whatever. You know what her pageant talent is?"
"They have talent?" Tenten asked.
"Rhythmic gymnastics." I said and we both laughed.
"Oh, come on." Tenten smiled.
"What is rhythmic gymnastics? I don't know - I can't even say it, I don't know what it is." I said.
"Isn't it like something with a ball, and a" I went still thinking. "...what? Sakura, what?"
"Get up! Come on!" I said quickly.
Elevator
"- the only thing she could possibly need is a - Oh, oh, Dr. Hatake! Just one moment, um, uh, Katie competes in beauty pageants - " Tenten said.
"I know that, but we have to save her life anyway." He joked.
"Okay, she has no headaches, no neck pain, her CT's clean, there's no medical proof of an aneurysm - " She continued.
"Right." He said stepping onto th elevator.
"- but what if she has an aneurysm anyway?" She asked.
"There are no indicators." Kakashi said.
"Ah, but she twisted her ankle, a few weeks ago when she was practising for the pageant -" Tenten said and Kakashi stopped the elevator from closing.
"Look, I appreciate you're trying to help, but - "
"This is not helping!" another doctor on the elevator yelled.
"She fell. When she twisted her ankle, she fell. " I said.
"It was no big deal, not even a bump on the head, you know she got right back up, iced her ankle and everything was fine, it was a fall so minor her doctor didn't even think to mention it when I was taking her history, but she did fall." Tenten continued.
"Well, you know the chances that a minor fall could burst an aneurysm, one in a million! Literally." He said and then allowed the elevator doors to close. We sighed and turned around. We heard it ding again and turned around to see Kakashi getting off.
"Let's go."
"Where?" Tenten asked.
"To find out if Katie's one in a million."
Scan Room
"I'll be damned." Kakashi said looking at the new scan. "It's minor, but it's there. It's a cerebachnoid haemorrhage. She's bleeding into her brain. She could've gone her entire life without it ever being a problem. One tap in the right spot -"
"And explode." Tenten finished for him.
"Exactly. Now I have to fix it. You two did great work. Love to stay and kiss your asses, but I gotta tell Katie's parents she's having surgery. Katie Bryce's chart, please." He asked a lady at the desk.
"Here you go." She handed it to him.
"Oh, and Dr. Hatake, you said that you'd pick someone to scrub in if we helped."
"Oh, yes, right. Um, I'm sorry I can't take you both, it's going to be a full house. Sakura, I'll see you in OR." We stood there for a minute and Tenten looked at me to say something.
"Good. Thank you." he handed it back to the lady and left.
"Tenten..." I called out as she walked of pissed.
Outside the O.R.
"Wow, that was quick." Sai said standing up.
"His heart had too much damage to give him a bypass. I had to let him go. It happens, rarely. But it does happen. The worst part of the game." Yamato said.
"But I told his wi- I told Gloria that he would be fine. I promised her that - "
"You what?" Yamato seethed.
"They have four little girls - "
"Who the hell are you to promise anything on - this is my case. Did you hear me promise? The only one that can keep a promise like that is God, and I haven't seen him holding a scalpel lately. You never promise a patient's family a good outcome!"
"I - I thought - "
"You're important enough to make promises to Mrs. Savage, you get to be the one to tell her that she's a widow."
Empty Corridor
"Ino."
"Maybe Sakura couldn't -"
"Ino!" Tenten cut her off as I walked into the room.
"I'll tell him I changed my mind, you can - " I said.
"No, no, don't do me any favours. It's fine."
"Tenten, - "
"You know what, you did a cutthroat thing, deal with it. Don't come to me for absolution, you want to be a shark, be a shark."
"I'm not -"
"Oh yes you are. Only it makes you feel all bad in your warm gooey places. No, screw you. I don't get picked for surgeries because I slept with my boss, and I didn't get into med school because I have a famous mother. You know, some of us have to earn what we get." She said angrily so I turned and left the room.
Mr. Savage's Room
"Gloria...there were complications in the surgery. Tony's heart had a, a lot of damage. They - we tried to take him off bypass, but...there wasn't anything we could've done."
"Uh...what are you talking about?" She asked.
"He...Tony died. He's dead. Gloria, I'm so sorry."
"Thank you. Please...go away." She whispered and as he left the room he could hear her begin to cry.
Katie's Room
"I promised I'd make her look cool. Apparently being a bald beauty queen is the worst thing that happened in the history of the world." Kakashi said as he shaved Katie's head.
"Did you choose me for the surgery because I slept with you? " I asked.
"Yes." He said with a straight face. "I'm kidding." He laughed after a pregnant pause.
"I'm not going to scrub in for surgery. You should ask Tenten. She really wants it."
"You're Katie's doctor. And on your first day, with very little training, you helped save her life. You earned the right to follow her case to the finish. You...you shouldn't let the fact that we had sex get in the way of you taking your shot."
Outside
"I wish I wanted to be a chef. Or a ski instructor. Or a kindergarten teacher." I said to Sai.
"You know, I would've been a really good postal worker. I'm dependable. You know, my parents tell everyone they meet that their son's a surgeon. As if it's a big accomplishment. A superhero or something. If they could see me now... " Sai said.
"When I told my mother I wanted to go to medical school, she tried to talk me out of it. Said I didn't have what it takes to be a surgeon. That I'd never make it. So, the way I see it, superhero sounds pretty damn good."
"We're going to survive this, right?" Sai asked and I shook my head.
Nurse's Station
"She's still short of breath. Did you get an ABG or a chest film?" The chief of surgery asked Sasuke.
"Oh, yes sir, I did." Sasuke said.
"And what did you see?"
"Oh, well, I had a lot of patients last - "
"Name the common causes of post-op fever."
"Uh...yes, sir." He pulled a notebook out of his pocket.
"From your head. Not from a book. Don't look it up, learn it, it should be in your head. Name the common causes of post-op fever."
"Uh...the common causes of post-op... "
"Can anybody name the common causes of post-op fever?" He asked loudly and everyone stopped what they were doing and one girl looked in he notebook.
"Wind, water, wound, walking, wonder drugs. The five Ws. Most of the time it's wind, splinting or pneumonia. Pneumonia's easy to assume, especially if you're too busy to do the tests." I said after turning around.
He gave Sasuke a pointed look then asked me,
"What do you think's wrong with 4B?"
"The fourth W, walking. I think she's a prime candidate for a pulmonary ambulus."
"How would you diagnose?"
"Spiral CT, VQ scan, provide O2, dose with Heparin, and consult for an IVC filter." I answered.
"Do exactly as she says, then tell your resident that I want you off this case." He told Sasuke and then turned back to me. "I'd know you anywhere, you're the spitting image of your mother. Welcome to the gang." He smiled.
Operating Room
"All right everybody, it's a beautiful night to save lives, let's have some fun." Kakashi said before beginning the surgery.
Outside the O.R. after the surgery
"It was a good surgery." Tenten said coming and sitting with me after the surgery.
"Yeah."
"We don't have to do that thing where I say something, and then you say something, and then somebody cries, and there's like a moment..."
"Yuck." I laughed.
"Good. You should get some sleep. You look like crap." She said.
"I look better than you." I teased.
"It's not possible." She smiled before leaving.
"That was amazing." I said seeing Kakashi.
"Mmmm." He agreed.
"You practice on cadavers, you observe, and you think you know what you're going to feel like standing over that table, but...that was such a high. I don't know why anybody does drugs."
"Yeah." He nodded and looked tired.
"Yeah." I smiled at him.
"I should go do this." He smiled back.
"You should." I agreed.
"I'll see you around." He smiled.
"See you around."
Boarding House for the Mentally Ill
"So. I made it through my first shift. We all did. The other interns are all good people, you'd like them. I think. I don't know. Maybe. I like them. Oh, and I changed my mind. I'm not going to sell the house. I'm going to keep it. I'll have to get a couple of roommates, but it's home, you know?" I said.
"Are you the doctor?" The older woman asked.
"No. I'm not your doctor. But I am a doctor." I said.
"What's your name?" She asked.
"It's me, mom. Sakura."
"All right." She fidgetted with her watch. "I used to be a doctor, I think." She said.
"You were a doctor, mom. You were a surgeon." I said taking her hand.
'I can't think of any one reason why I want to be a surgeon. But I can think of a thousand reasons why I should quit. They make it hard on purpose. There are lives in our hands. There comes a moment when it's more than just a game. And you either take that step forward, or turn around and walk away. I could quit. But here's the thing: I love the playing field.'
AN: Wow! Review or PM me :)