In school, you did as you were told. Teachers ruled the lives of students while in those four walls.
"HEY! Get your lazy ass selves ready!!" Bailey commanded, having walked into the locker room to find majority of the interns getting ready and filing out of the room, and then seeing the sight that was Meredith and George sitting up side by side sleeping, their shoulders brushing together with every breath.
As Bailey shouted at them, she simultaneously hit both of their heads with a notepad she was holding as she passed them by.
They both jerked awake instantly, George complaining while Meredith gradually opened her eyes, then shouted out with shock. Both of them had been there first, and had been sitting quietly while they waited. She hadn't expected to fall asleep, and then to wake to find that the room was full of the other interns and their resident. Whoops.
"George pit, as quickly as possible."
"Yes Ma'am!" George began running around frantically throwing clothes off and throwing scrubs on, then continuing to run out the door just as fast, nearly knocking down Derek who was passing the door at the time.
Meredith laughed quietly to herself. Derek looked through the door and gave a quick wave, which Meredith smiled to in reply; Bailey caught this and shouted her name, then followed her eye line to the door, which thankfully as Meredith saw was now clear.
"Stop daydreaming, Grey, and get changed!" Bailey ordered her again.
A job works exactly the same way. Having someone there to teach you is there for a reason. They guide. They instruct. They help you to grow.
As soon as George had reached the pit he saw that it was quite full, other interns already down there assessing as they went. He joined them, seeing to a few minor injuries before being called over to see a patient on a stretcher who wasn't breathing. He called for an intubation kit then got out his handbook, flicking quickly through the pages.
They keep themselves unattached, so that they can work and concentration solely on the work. But what if this fails?
Back up in the locker room, Meredith was changed and standing with Izzie and Cristina as Bailey was checking something off of her notepad.
Mark Sloan turned up at the door at that point.
"Dr. Bailey." He said her name as he leaned against the door frame, and just enough forward as to get his head in the room.
Bailey turned to him and rolled her eyes are she spun back round to her interns, who were standing at that point, giving each other looks, wondering why they were still waiting after she'd been shouting at them to get ready.
"Stevens. Dr. Sloan has requested you to work on his service today." She said to the tall blonde who now had a blank look on her face.
Izzie looked to Meredith, who looked back and shrugged at her. She chose to ignore the fact that she could see the small grin playing on Cristina's face which she was doing a bad job at hiding. The question was, was she trying to hide it at all? Probably not.
She resigned to the fact then headed off to the door. He sidestepped out the way for her to pass through and then they walked off together to do whatever he had planned for her.
Bailey beckoned to Cristina and Meredith to follow her and began to walk out the door and down the corridor. When they arrived at a nurses' station, she stopped, requesting something from a nurse then spoke out to Cristina without turning around.
"Yang, go find Shepherd, you're with him today."
"I…" Cristina started to answer back.
"SHEP-HERD-GO-NOW." She said her sentence very slowly, separating each syllable to make her point.
And then Cristina was gone, if anyone could control, it was Bailey.
She set off again, fast paced, marching along, with Meredith following on heel. She was silent as she went, not giving any orders, which Meredith found very strange. In fact she was wondering whether she had remembered that she was still following her around.
Right as she was thinking this Bailey took a sharp left into a patient room, Meredith just getting herself through the door, having been so close behind the small woman, she had nearly missed the turn.
"Miranda!!" A young woman cheered from her bed, as the man who had been sitting at her side stood up and strode toward Bailey and engulfed her in his arms, repeating her name as previously done by the patient. Obviously they must have been friends.
Meredith stood right at the back, looking a little uncomfortable with the situation.
Bailey moved round to the end of the bed, as the man went and sat back beside the woman.
"Grey!" She barked from where she was, sliding the chart out of its holder and handing it sideways to her.
Meredith opened it and began reading as Bailey quickly talked to the patient, starting off medical, but then slipping ever so slightly personal, as the young woman joked to Bailey. Meredith listened to the medical parts hearing from the patient herself about feeling so bloated with pregnancy and the such, then looked up once she'd got the gist of it.
"Marie Lloyd, 38…and her husband, Tony." Bailey gestured towards the man, who smiled, while Meredith returned it and nodded. Bailey continued. "She's been suffering from abdominal pain for the last week." Bailey started announcing her stats.
"You're 28 weeks pregnant?" Meredith asked the woman, who nodded back at her rubbing a hand over her enlarged stomach. Meredith then turned to Bailey. "I take it you believe there's something else."
"That's correct. It could be that the pressure in her abdomen from the baby is putting strain on the other surrounding organs." Meredith nodded along. "That's why I'd like you to get an MRI and an OB consult. Why?" She tested her.
"MRI to see what's causing the problems. OB consult to see whether it's caused by the pregnancy or just by coincidence and what can be done." Meredith answered the question, looking back towards the patient and smiling, who returned the favor.
"Good." Bailey said, taking the chart back off her and sliding it into its slot. "I expect you to give the best care you can." She continued now moving towards the door.
"Of course, Dr. Bailey." Meredith respectfully answered her superior.
"Find me, when you know something." She finished, stopping in the doorway as her pager beeped. She looked at it for a second, then left, Meredith guessed to go answer it.
Meredith informed the woman that she'd go off and try to book an MRI for as soon as possible, but warned her that there might still be quite a wait considering she wasn't in a critical state. She told she'd be back after that to take her there, and she'd have an Obstetrician down to see her once they got the films.
The woman thanked her and then she left.
She headed off to MRI, and found the tech guy sitting currently working with Derek and Cristina. All three looked up to her sudden appearance at the doorway thinking that maybe someone had come to inform them of something important.
Upon seeing her Cristina knew that was not the case, and the tech guy looked back to the computer while Derek greeted her.
"Hi."
"Dr. Shepherd." She replied, walking round them to the other side and checking the timetable that was up.
Cristina rolled her eyes to herself and looked back at the screen.
"Whoah."
Meredith turned around from writing down the patient name and her own initials in a time slot, and looked through the gap between Derek and Cristina. She then looked up to see the patient in the machine.
"He's still alive?" Meredith asked, forgetting she wasn't on the case, but the interest taking over.
"He is." Derek said quite shocked himself upon seeing what he could see.
"How is that even possible?" Cristina asked. The three of them, and even the tech guy were sitting there partly gawping at the screen.
What they were looking at was the picture of the man's spine crushed around and into his spinal cord.
"There's bone fragments embedded all the way up…removal would kill him…or paralyze him." Meredith continued to give her opinion.
The attending and intern turned their heads to look at her, at which point she remembered exactly why she was there in the first place. Not for that man, that was for sure.
"Err. Well I should get going now. Bye." She spoke very quickly and left as fast as she could, not sticking around long enough to see the confused looked on Derek's face as he had asked Cristina what that was about as she ignored him. Meredith continued to power walk along the corridor, heading off to the coffee cart.
Clarity in a cup. That's what she needed right now. She'd already missed the chance earlier to get a cup in before being hauled out onto the job, so with the time she had to spare that's what she was off to get.
Once she had a cup in hand and the smell of a double shot of coffee wafted up her nose, she looked up to the walkway above, and decided it was time to make it up there, and look out upon the city. All of 5 seconds peace and it was interrupted again.
"Hey!" came the calling voice of Izzie as she stepped up beside her, and leaned on the rail. "Oh wow. How amazing is that view?" She asked stunned by what she was seeing.
Meredith nodded and made a humming noise of agreement, but didn't say anything. She could see storm clouds far off in the distance, and guessed it would be raining soon.
"What's Sloan got you doing today then?" Meredith asked curiously turning to Izzie briefly then back to the window.
"Well, after I went got him his 'special'…" Meredith had to laugh, because Izzie made quotation marks in the air, rolling her eyes back into her head, being very dramatic. "…coffee, I found him again and he gave me this." She head up a ticket. Meredith frowned and took the ticket out of her grasp and looked closer.
"Dry cleaning?!" Meredith exclaimed loudly holding the ticket away from her again as if it were diseased.
"Exactly." Izzie sighed and leaned back on the rail again. "I think I'm writing his post-ops for the last 20 million surgeries he's done too…later on."
"Oh hey there's Bailey… I'll see you at lunch! If you're free that is." Meredith stuck her tongue out at her, and quickly jumped into action after seeing her mentor, and bid Izzie goodbye.
"Okay. See you!" Izzie called at her. Standing there, where she was, for a second longer she wondered what she could possibly get up to which would be more fun than collecting clothes and that would act as a good excuse against Sloan. Finding nothing instantly springing to mind, she gave up and headed off.
"Dr. Bailey." Meredith called once while running towards her. "DR. BAILEY!! This time Bailey turned around and Meredith skidded to a stop.
"Yes?"
"Er, Mrs. Lloyd is booked for an MRI at 10."
"Okay, you go inform her of that. Remember manners." Meredith Nodded along. She was being reminded of manners, what kind of person did Bailey think she was? "Have you scheduled the consult yet?" Bailey asked her, signaling for her to walk with her.
"I was just about to." Meredith answered.
"Good. Go find Dr. Montgomery and give her a copy of the patients' notes."
"I'm on it!" Meredith cheerily confirmed as she then fell out of the walk she had joined Bailey in and headed back to the patient room.
She popped in quickly, asked Marie if she needed anything, the patient not requesting anything in return, and then told her she had a few hours to wait but that she'd be back to pick her up and take her down.
Meredith then removed the chart, and took it with her to a nurse's station, requesting the nurse that was sitting at the desk to go copy the patient information as quickly as possible. At the 'quickly as possible' part the nurse slinked away scowling a little. Meredith decided to ignore it, assuming it was just a bad day. "Thank you!" She shouted after the nurse who muttered a 'no problem' back as she left.
There she waited at the nurses' station, scanning the people passing by while waiting…then she realized something.
"Who's Dr. Montgomery?" She asked herself out loud, looking around. Any of those passing doctors could be her.
"Here you go Dr. Grey." Meredith turned round to see the nurse had returned thanked her again and took the papers and chart. She decided the best bet was to check the OR board, all surgeries, to happen, or currently happening, that could fit on the board at the time were there, and considering surgeons were very busy people, it was probably the easiest way for her to find the doctor.
When she got to it she found that someone was editing what was up with a marker so she stood back and waited. After they left she scanned the board.
General.General. Bailey. Plastics with Sloan just started…oooh I wonder if Izzie's in there. Neuro…Shepherd…wonder how that's going. Montgomery!! Finally.
There was an open gallery too, so she hopped off up the stairs and into the observation area. Finding a seat in the front row and began watching the surgery. She had enough time; the surgery was scheduled, according to the board, to be finished long enough before the MRI slot, so this was her opportunity to just enjoy watching a surgery.
As always the gallery was full of other surgeons, and random doctors that had visited out of curiosity from other fields; there was an attending standing in the far corner, and then two interns sitting front row with a bag of M&Ms between them, a couple of residents, and some others with lab coats.
The in and out flow of spectators wasn't something that usually grabbed anyone's attention as it was a usual thing and plus the surgery was way cooler, unless of course there was some great disturbance caused in which everyone would be listening for anything of gossip which could be spread around the hospital.
That was one thing the interns had learnt fast about; the Nurses and their gossip. Who needed a magazine to find something juicy, when there was always something good going on in and around the corridors of Seattle Grace? They had their ways, in fact there was probably one lurking their right now, in the back, waiting for something to happen in the OR.
Meredith had had a head start in this case, she'd known from her mother all those years back, of course her mother hadn't approved, but it was something that was common and so it came up once in a while in her mother's preaching's of hospital greatness.
She watched the surgery until the end, carefully following every cut, every command and action following it. The surgeon was extremely calm and collected and moved very fluidly, even in a tight spot. That was something every aspiring surgeon wanted to achieve.
Before she knew it, the surgeon stepped away, signaling to what she guessed at an intern up there with her, and correctly so as then an intern passed her on the way out. Meredith thought best to follow the intern to Dr. Montgomery.
The intern disappeared into the scrub room, and Meredith stopped at that, waiting for the doctor to emerge. She didn't wait long; apparently Dr. Montgomery was rushing because she nearly walked into Meredith as she exited the scrub room.
Both apologized then just as she was about to rush off again, Meredith shouted out to her.
"Excuse me! Dr. Montgomery?!" As she began to walk after her slightly. Dr. Montgomery stopped and turned curiously, as she knew that wasn't the voice of her own intern.
"Yes?" She asked quickly, then looked at her watch. Meredith thought it was a little rude, but guessed by the quickness of her pace she was actually busy.
"Er, Dr. Bailey asked me to get you onboard for a consult on her patient…" Meredith started explaining, then noticed that Dr. Montgomery was starting to move again, only walking backwards very slowly this time as she was trying to get going.
"Okay, get me…"
"I have a copy of the patient information here." Meredith waved the pieces of paper around in the air, while taking steps forward herself, to stay within a decent distance of the rushing doctor.
"You're persistent, aren't you?" The doctor stopped again and extended her hand to collect the papers that Meredith was now holding out to her. "Tell Dr. Bailey I'll be around as soon as I'm finished on this case." She had given the front sheet of paper a quick look over and was now walking again.
"Okay." Meredith said more to her than to anyone else as Dr. Montgomery had now walked out of earshot and no one else in the surrounding area wanted to know, or even cared what a wandering intern was up to.
Meredith headed off again. Leaving informing Bailey till the time she'd see her outside MRI, she decided to check out another gallery. Back at the board again she scanned, all were pretty much the same, except for the empty slot now that had once been taken by Dr. Montgomery.
She first poked her head in at Izzie, to find that she was standing at the back of all the rows of doctors that were watching in the OR. Izzie happened to look up at that point, sensing the feeling of being watched and saw Meredith. Meredith smiled down at her, and received what looked like a look that said death would meet Mark Sloan soon.
She wandered back out of that gallery and to another on the other side of the floor climbing the stairs and sliding quickly into the last remaining chair. Had it been empty she would have stood for a bit, judging first whether to stay or not, but considering the lack of space she grabbed a seat immediately. Apparently Neurosurgery was a lot more popular than Plastics.
Cristina was assisting, holding instruments into the open section being operated on, retracting and answering questions while Derek had control over the main surgical tools. It was tense, she knew herself as she'd seen the films. Once again Meredith watched that long that Cristina looked up, quicker than Izzie had, but obviously catching the view of Meredith sitting there, refusing to waste time in acknowledging.
Meredith had never met anyone like Cristina before. Sure she'd had her run ins with those in college who worked hard and constantly, she'd had been one; the course demanded it, of course that was when she wasn't drinking, or doing something else, but she'd never met one that wouldn't even give people a chance in a first glance or that would knock others down to gain. She was seriously hardcore…ABOVE hardcore.
She then saw a nearby nurse step away and head for the door; at that moment she saw Cristina's eyes go from Derek to follow the exiting nurse. It was then that Derek looked up, and simply locked eye contact with her for a second. She had to admit, they were most improbable team of attending and intern ever; a happy surgeon and a riled up intern. Meredith had bet their morning had been interesting.
The nurse had returned and the surgery continued, whatever had been a problem must have been ironed out. Meredith hadn't stayed long after that, checking the clock to find that it was quarter to 10, so she left to go back to the patient room. When she arrived there she found that Bailey was already present, sitting on the bed in fact, apparently catching up with the life of her friend. As soon as she saw Meredith enter she got up, boss Bailey back in action in an instant to rule over her interns, and majority of the hospital. At first she just looked at her for a second then Meredith informed her about Dr. Montgomery calling by later.
"Okay. Good." Bailey left for a second and returned with a wheel chair. Mrs. Lloyd got into it just fine and Meredith pushed her down to MRI as she and Bailey had continued to chat in the motion.
The MRI went smoothly, everything looked reasonably normal, but there was a slight shift from where an average baby should lie, the thing that confused the doctors was the fact that it wouldn't cause that much of a problem. Bailey told Meredith to make herself busy, as Bailey then wheeled her friend back to her room. Apparently nothing could be done till after the OB consult, so Meredith headed off to the pit to find George.
When she arrived she actually found George and Izzie sitting with patients suturing.
"Hey!" Meredith greeted them quite cheerily. George's pager went off and he stood, shot Izzie a look and started muttering while walking past Meredith as if she hadn't been there at all..
"Hi." Izzie replied. Meredith took his place after Izzie had nodded towards George's abandoned patient, and stated pulling on a pair of gloves and then went on to give her a weird look from George's strange actions. "He's had a rough morning." Meredith simply nodded.
"And you?" She asked Izzie getting to work.
"Sloan said I got good coffee." She nodded smiling proudly for a second then rolling her eyes slowly to demonstrate the extent of her sarcasm. Meredith suppressed a laugh, replacing it with a sympathetic look. "His case was boring too; it's as if he was purposefully torturing me this morning."
"Try to get on another service." Meredith said to her looking at the line of stitches she was making as she precisely placed each one. When Izzie didn't answer she looked up. Izzie then gestured animatedly at the fact that she was in the pit and doing sutures. Meredith gave a small laugh. "I see."
"Aren't you with Bailey? Why are you down here?" Izzie then asked her curious as to why she was tediously suturing too.
"Yeah, still with Bailey. There's nothing to do until we get an OB consult." Meredith started talking again as she was finishing up on the patient applying the dressings over the top. "I've handed over the information, but heard nothing back…so…just gotta wait." She said with a final rub down of the bandage to smooth out the bumps.
"There you go." Meredith turned to speak to the patient. "I'll get a nurse over to sort you with something to manage the pain and then you can go." She said with a smile clearing up the drapes and instruments. After she had disposed of everything and informed a nurse she walked back over to Izzie who was also finishing up.
"Lunch?" She asked, looking around the pit and seeing a bunch of interns already loitering around waiting for something to do.
"Sure." Meredith replied.
Ten minutes later after popping into the locker room briefly, they entered the cafeteria, to find it partially full of interns and residents and the few attending that were free, and then amongst them other hospital staff and visitors. They got in line for the counter, grabbing a sandwich along the way, and pressing coffee on the coffee machine, and moving along to pay. Once done they collapsed at the nearest table by a window. Izzie was sitting holding her head up with her handed propped under her chin, staring straight ahead with lazy eyes that were probably not taking in the slightest bit detail that they were looking at and Meredith currently had her head on the table, both hands clasping the coffee in front of her.
"Are you tired?" Izzie asked not moving from her staring.
"No."
"Then why is your head on the table." Izzie asked this time shifting her eyes down to her friend.
"Cause I can't be assed to hold it up." Meredith answered her head bobbing a little bit as she spoke.
"Oh." Izzie then took a sip of her coffee and sat quietly again.
Silence filled the air for a bit between them, until a shriek shocked them and the whole entire room from their food or drinks. The contents of the room collectively turned to the source of the noise to find George standing there looking a little too close to delusional as he looked towards Meredith and Izzie's table. He started moving towards them.
"IZZIE!!!!!!" He shouted again. The rest of the cafeteria chose to go back to their own business apparently not finding anything of interest out of George's breakdown. "MEREDITH!!!!!!" He shouted again, coming to hug Izzie, and then round to Meredith, before throwing himself down into the chair next to Meredith with a reasonable force.
Both women looked at each other then along sideways at George with confused looks.
"George?" Izzie questioned, as she watched him slam his head into the table and then immediately lifting it up again to answer to his name.
"Yeah?" He asked, now with a dazed look across his face.
"What's wrong with you?" Meredith asked him, looking at Izzie again, who raised her eyebrows and shook her head ever so slightly to show she had no clue why he was acting so strangely.
"This day….this day sucks." He started explain sadly. "In one morning, I've been stuck with all random trauma cases, been avoided for 3 emergency surgeries, rejected for 4 cases and had a whole bunch of deaths if it wasn't any of the first 3 happening. Like I say; it sucks."
"Ah…" Was all that either of them could come up with. Silence filled the space again, as both thought of anything to say that would make him feel better but despite even Izzie's situation with Sloan, it wasn't anything as bad as what George had described.
"Want to go for a drink at the end of the shift?" Meredith offered. Alcohol was a good idea, especially if George was feeling like crap…at least it worked for so long.
"Drinking. Good." That was all George managed to say in return, which was enough anyway, confirming some plans.
Meredith's pager went off at that point, which she looked down to unclip it off her pants and check.
"I have to go…the consult is finally happening!" She said informing the other two that she'd be leaving. "I'll see you later." Then she left.
About five minutes later George's pager went off again, causing him to complain and then leave again, leaving Izzie to sit alone, hoping that she wouldn't bump into Sloan again.
Meredith made it back into the room, moving quietly to the back again, as Dr. Montgomery was checking out the patient and cross referencing with the scans from earlier. Meredith stood there while Bailey stood to the right of her friend and Dr. Montgomery worked. Dr. Montgomery then stood for a few minutes noting down into a chart before looking at Dr. Bailey, and then to the patient.
"Okay, so the baby has moved. It's not critical, but the move was a little too much I think, for what I'd like at this stage and I can correct the baby's position with a quick operation." She said, speaking between Dr. Bailey and the patient and her husband. Then she stopped again, and it seemed as those she was composing herself for some serious thinking, which usually happened when doctors didn't quite know how to say something in a way that wouldn't freak out the patient. "However…" And there it was that the mood of the room changed, and Meredith watched this carefully. These were the kinds of situations that new doctors could learn from for the future. "…however, this wouldn't explain why you're in pain." She said this to the patient. "From this kind of shift it would be like everyday movement, nothing out of the ordinary. Was there nothing else on the MRI?" Dr. Montgomery asked Dr. Bailey.
Dr. Bailey then looked down at the chart on which the observations had been written.
"Nothing that I could see." She said looking a little confused and unsure of herself.
"Dr. Bailey?" Dr. Montgomery asked questioningly, and with a look that told her to get serious and figure it out that instant.
Meredith looked on. Once again it looked like she had been forgotten about, yet there she was watching this whole scene unfold in front of her. Had Bailey got it wrong? And what would that mean?
"No. There wasn't anything else visible." It seemed like she was still skipping around the question, she wasn't sure but as far as her memory served her she couldn't collect seeing anything out of the ordinary. Nothing that was particularly obvious anyhow.
"Okay then, well I'd like to get this sorted out today. I have a surgery in half an hour, it's only short so can we schedule this for about an hour after I finish up with that." And that was finally when Meredith was noticed again. "Dr…?"
"Grey." Meredith answered quickly.
"Right Dr. Grey, get to the OR board and get it scheduled." She ordered.
"Right away." And Meredith was off again. Truth be told, she preferred to be on the move, bar the exception of surgery. Standing around and waiting, even in a normal situation, could be hell.
She got to the board informed on of the nurses of the schedule addition, who then went off to add it to the board, it was then she saw Cristina. And waved at her, as she came over. She didn't look happy.
"What's up?" Meredith asked sympathetically.
"Surgery's not as straight forward as we thought… I mean, it wasn't really straight forward in the first place, but it was doable, now it just got a little more complicated." Cristina rattled off, half to herself, but still to Meredith.
"Okay…" Meredith realized that Cristina hadn't really revealed much but it was obvious that it was affecting her, even if Cristina didn't like the fact. It was happening. As Meredith thought this it seemed like it dawned on Cristina that she was showing some sort of weakness in front of her competition and quickly strolled off, sending a quick 'bye' to Meredith as she left.
Meredith couldn't help but stare after her worried. It was then that her attention was caught again, this time by the voices of Dr. Bailey and Dr. Montgomery and they didn't seem too friendly. Meredith slowly slid her way around the edge of the desk and sat herself down in the empty chair in front of the computer. From that position she could follow just about everything going on in the close area, which is why, she guessed, the Nurse's knew everything. In fact, looking to her left, she noticed that the nurse who had been typing away on the computer had now stopped and was looking over the top of it sneakily.
"Dr. Bailey… expect you to know…you know how this works…don't let it happen again." Dr. Montgomery was lecturing as she walked and Bailey had regained her composure and looked like she was about to kill, taking the chance of silence from Montgomery's end to storm off in the opposite direction. She hadn't heard all but what she had didn't sound all too positive.
Meredith and the Nurse looked at each other for a second, then realized neither was supposed to have been listening and quickly pretended to go back to whatever it was they were doing. What am I supposed to be doing? She thought to herself as she sat there.
She decided to wander off and standing on the bridge for a bit just relaxing and taking in the workings of the hospital. She was wrapped up in her own thoughts, seemingly blocking everything else around her out, up until…
"Hi." Came a voice from beside her.
She turned and looked to see Derek standing there, not really as cheerful as she usually saw, which made her instantly stop the fact that she was going to roll her eyes at him for turning up randomly again.
"Er…hi, Dr. Shepherd." She replied unsure. He stood there quietly looking out over the hospital as she previously had been, not saying anymore, not even looking across to get her attention or anything.
She looked at him, opened her mouth to say something, closed it again, then turned back to the view frowning. Silence followed.
"Are you okay?" She finally asked.
"Erm…" He wondered to himself before sighing. "I think this is going to be a long day." That was all he gave.
"Yeah, I think I know what you mean." Sure her day probably wasn't going to be as stressful as his but it was taking forever, and her two bosses were currently slowly stabbing each other in the face every time they saw each other, and one of her friends was insane, while the other was insanely happy…well most of the time, then there was Cristina…and that was just. Weird.
His pager went off, leaving him a little frustrated at the lack of a break from his day.
"I have to go." He said to her starting to leave.
"Hey!" She shouted causing him to turn, still fiddling with his pager. "A few of us are going over to the bar at the end of the shift, you're welcome to join." She offered.
He thought about it for a moment, then answered.
"Sure. Thanks." He told her. "See you later." And he was off again, and Meredith at that moment decided to switch sides opting to face out over the city; still bustling with people under an afternoon sun.
Meredith walked into the scrub to find Dr. Bailey there washing. She turned as she heard the door open and looked at her.
"Everything alright." Bailey asked her.
"Yep, everything's good." Meredith answered her, staying put waiting for some sort of order.
"Right," And there it was. "I want you to be in that surgery. Go scrub in, and stand there and watch, very carefully. You answer to me. Anything happens, come find me and give me an update. I'll be along to scrub in myself after I'm done here." She said this shaking the water off and backing away from Meredith now towards the door. "Tell Dr. Montgomery that." She said ending that with a harsh, to the point, tone.
"Okay…" Meredith answered her, wondering what kind of thing she was in the middle of. She headed off to the other OR and began scrubbing in.
As soon as she was done she moved in through the doors, and was greeted by a team of people to dry her and suit her up with a gown and gloves to join around the operating table. Meredith hesitated and held back till Dr. Montgomery told her to move around beside her to hold something.
"Dr. Bailey wanted me to tell you that she'll be along as soon as she has finished up." Meredith informed her not being able to finish before being cut off by a quick 'okay'.
This didn't go unnoticed by those around the table and in the room. Chances were if there was a gallery in that OR, people watching would have been whispering. An attitude like that was obvious and even more so after the loud discussion earlier which had spread like wild fire.
Meredith stood, answered questions, all she did was observe, and observe closely she did. It felt like she had been standing there forever, but Bailey eventually turned up and just in time for her part to come into play.
Just as she arrived in the scrub room, the monitor beginning beeping, faster and faster, alerting everyone. Dr. Montgomery began barking orders to those around and to Meredith to take hold of something while she moved around.
You get attached, or distracted…
Bailey scrubbed fast at her hands, before rushing out into the OR and meeting a nurse who geared her up quickly, allowing her to step in helping to stabilize the patient.
"She's bleeding." Bailey said loudly. "Suction!!" She shouted, as a nurse stepped up closer to poke the suction tools into the body cavity.
"Grey, hold that still." Dr. Montgomery shouted at Meredith who snapped back to what she was doing. "I want you to move your hands underneath the baby and hold him carefully…" Meredith slipped her hands under the baby's body and supported as she felt Dr. Montgomery move away from the other side and move up beside Bailey. "…we need to find the source of the bleeding NOW!" She commanded, but nobody needed telling twice.
"I…can't…find…it!" Bailey said out loud. "There's too much blood."
You can hurt the people around you. You can hurt yourself.
"Find it." Dr. Montgomery began digging too, while more suction came in to clear their field of vision. A second monitor began to increase in the rate of its beeps, alerting the obstetric staff monitoring the baby.
"Baby is going into distress!" Someone shouted from behind them.
"I've found the source of the bleeding. It's from the top of the placenta." Bailey looked up and looked scared. Not because she was lost as what to do next, but because it was all spiraling out of control and it was her friend that was the victim.
"We need that baby out now. Grey, clamp the cord and get the baby out." She said quickly to Meredith, then going back to work with Bailey trying to stop the bleeding.
"NICU's been notified." Someone else called from beside a wall phone.
Meredith needed no more, there was no hesitation. It was life and death right there and then. She clamped the cord and a surgical nurse leaned in and cut the cord; Meredith immediately rushing away to a prepped incubation unit to clear the baby's airways.
Meredith heard the cold chill sound of a flat line behind her, pausing for a second as it hit her, then snapping back again hearing the cries of the tiny baby. She looked back across at the table and saw Bailey staring at the body of her friend and then Dr. Montgomery nodding her head towards the door, signaling for her to stay with the baby. Meredith replied with a simple nod also and left.
That's why there's a learning curve. It takes time. Until one day, we realize and accept everything we know.
First of all... Merry Christmas!! And Happy Holidays to all! Sorry for the wait, but my life is CRAZY and I have little time for writing, and when I do have time for writing I want to sleep to recover from the rest of it, but I'm trying!! This chapter was short in terms of story movement, but the end came a little sooner than I expected and anyway the next chapter follows straight on the tail of this one, and will include a little out of hospital time. :D Hope you guys continue to read.