Little Unwell

Crossover: Grey's Anatomy/The Night Shift

[AU Crossover] No one knew Derek had a younger brother until he shows up at the hospital. When TC comes back stateside and drags his friends with him, it inadvertently creates problems for the hospital's staff, the current and the new, from soldiers to civilians. The Night Shift comes to Grey's Anatomy.

"Dr. Derek Shepherd to the ER, Dr. Derek Shepherd to the ER".

He heard the overhead page but chose to keep his feet planted behind the glass wall of the catwalk, his hands bracing on the railing. Crisp blue eyes gazed listlessly out the full-length window across from him to watch the sun set on the Seattle horizon.

Losing one was still hard. He should have tried harder. Should have thought of something else, another way to look at the problem for a better solution. His gaze dropped to his dark blue scrubs and shook his head once. The vibration of his black pager went off again in addition to the all-call system.

He pushed off the railing to head downstairs. The ER would inevitably have a serious injury needing his attention. As his wife would say, life's a carousel; it never stops to let you off.

Entering the hall that led to the pit, Derek saw a few of his colleagues working on a patient lying on a gurney. Lines were already attached to the skin, the monitors alive with steady beeps. He assumed his game face despite his shift's latest loss. "Alright, what'd you got?"

"Male, mid-thirties, hit a pole on highway 3 at 55 miles per hour. BP is stable. For now," Meredith snapped as she cleaned a deep gash in the man's temple. Dark blood still seeped from the wound, swelling already setting in.

"Was he brought in alone?"

"Yea."

Without thinking about what his body was doing, Derek quickly shoved his hands into the blue gloves and pulled the light pen from his white lab coat, opening the patient's eyes to shine the light. The brown irises were clear, but the black holes in their centers were slow to react, however they were responding. "Call up and get a head CT. Anyone know how his head took the hit?"

"Yea, Doc," a sarcastic, deep voice stated. "The car stopped but his head didn't. I thought they taught you that in med school."

Derek's breath hitched only for a moment at the familiar, yet distant voice. It had been at least four years since he had last heard it. He glanced up from leaning over the patient's head to where he heard it, his eyes laying claim to a tall, dark-haired man standing with his feet planted the same width as his wide shoulders.

A soldier's stance.

He straightened, his voice flat with a hint of surprise. "What are you doing here?"

The man wore wrangler jeans that stuck to his thin yet muscular frame. Brown cowboy boots graced his feet and a green t-shirt covered the rest. A lazy smirk appeared on the unshaven jaw. "Ahh, come on, that's no way to greet your-"

"TC, get out."

"-long lost brother."

Meredith's hands faltered and the nurse across from her both exchanged glances then gazed to both men. Derek took the clipboard with the patient's status information they had been able to gather. His eyes had turned hard and he refused to look up as he wrote.

Listening to the steady beeps of the monitor and the silence that filled the rest of the room, Meredith's eyes searched. "What-"

Christina stopped by the open doorway, slightly pushing TC out of the way with her news. "Bus crash with injuries, ten minutes out. EMTs are bringing four here. All children. April's gonna need some hands."

She frowned, giving the back of TC a look up and down before she turned to leave.

"Ok," Derek broke the remaining silence, keeping his voice upbeat. "Admit him and call his family. It doesn't look horrible, but could potentially become serious. His pupils are dilating, but not as fast as I'd like. Push ten of mannitol and page me when the scans come in."

He caught the look Meredith tossed his way. The look that meant the conversation isn't over. He had seen that in her eyes many times since beginning his job at the hospital.

Leaving the room, Derek looked at TC as he passed through the entry. "What are you doing here," He asked again, though it was more of a statement.

TC followed him, his boots clacking on the floor. "I've been home for a few months. Tried life as an EMT, but it doesn't cut it."

"You brought him in?" Derek asked and pointed to the room they had exited.

"Witnessed the accident on my bike," TC replied. "I was already on my way here."

Picking up a yellow trauma gown off the supply cart, Derek shook his head. "Dammit, TC. You've been back for how long and can't even man up to tell mom?"

TC frowned as he spoke and watched him tie the tie strings at his neck. He let the last part of his statement slide. The neurosurgeon wouldn't understand what it was like. What he had had to deal with on a daily basis. "I will. I've just needed time to adjust."

"Go adjust somewhere else. Not here."

"I need a job."

Derek tried to ignore his younger brother as he trailed relentlessly behind him as he made his way through the ER unloading bay. "When you do, call mom."

"Derek," TC touched his arm as they halted at the sliding doors. "Please. I need a job where I can be me."

His older brother stared into his green ones. TC was hurting. It may not be physically, but emotionally -maybe mentally- there were scars that still needed healing. A job fixing other people may not be the answer he was searching for. He needed to fix himself first.

"I can't-"

"Then who can? I can do this, I just need the opportunity, the benefit of the doubt here. I've been through worse."

Taking a deep breath, Derek was aware his fellow doctors were filling the entryway and were giving TC strange looks. No one said anything. Some inches taller than Derek and broader shouldered, the stranger looked very similar to their head neurosurgeon: dark hair, strong jaw, clear eyes and a smile that could drop a few female staff members to the ground.

"Hunt. Dr. Owen Hunt. He's the chief," Derek sighed. "He's a background similar to yours. You may get in with him."

TC tightly squeezed his brother's shoulder as his lips turned up into a smile. "Thank you, brother."

And Derek knew two things in that moment. One, that the doctors crowding the doors waiting on the Ambulance now knew that he not only had a younger brother but that he had neglected to tell anyone about him. Cristina had heard every word as she arrived unusually late to the party.

Two, his brother would soon likely join the medical staff at Seattle Grace.