Sypnopsis:
"If I don't say this now, I will surely break…and I'll look after you." With Izzie, Meredith, Cristina and Alex about to enter their second-year residency and George repeating his internship, it seems like things are finally settling down at Seattle Grace Hospital, right? WRONG! With troublesome interns, flaring tempers, new doctors and explosive confrontations, our favorite characters discover that this is only the calm before the storm. Because someone in the group is hiding a devastating secret from them all…
A.N.: Thank you all for the positive reviews. I'm very sorry for the lag time in updates...I got a mild case of the hated writer's block for this chapter, but I'm back and kicking with TWO new chapters for you guys! Anyways, enjoy this chapter first. I honestly tried to make the medical procedures as accurate as possible, but I don't have a M.D., so please excuse any mistakes! Pairings are tentatively as follows: Mer/Der, Gizzie, Cristina/Theo (the new cardiothoracic head),Alex/Ava, Mark/Mia (the new obstetrics/gynecology head), Richard/Adele, Callie/Joe (an obstetrics/gynecology attending), and Lexie is alone as of right now…any ideas for her potential boyfriends? Check out the trailer for this story on YouTube; just type in 'Grey's Anatomy Season 4 Preview (MY Version).' Happy reading!
Previously on Grey's Anatomy:
-Dr. Cristina Yang: Was I too absorbed in surgeries and being a terrible girlfriend?
-Dr. Meredith Grey: I'm thankful that he gave you the chance to be free, to reclaim the passion that you lost during the course of this relationship.
-Dr. Izzie Stevens: Marriage isn't something that should be taken lightly. It's FOREVER…and nothing can or should change that!
-Dr. Callie O'Malley: If you stay at Seattle Grace, then I'll stay with you…we're husband and wife. I'm not going to work at a different hospital unless you're there with me.
-Dr. George O'Malley: Forgive me. After all you've done for me, this is how I repay you.
-Dr. Alex Karev: I missed my chance to be with the woman I love. First it was you, then it was Addison…and now it's Ava…she was in that hospital room today, begging me to give her a reason to stay in Seattle. And I just couldn't let myself give her that reason.
-Dr. Cristina Yang: I risked my career to save his ass when he was in trouble, so I'm not about to ruin the start of my residency by missing him. I'm not…I'M NOT!
-Dr. Meredith Grey: I'm always on your side, Cristina. No matter what. You'll get past this. I know it.
It's been said that keeping track of old scores and scars, getting even, and one-upping always makes you less than you are. But that's easier said then done. We can tell ourselves to forgive and forget all we want. But when push comes to shove, we find that we can't do anything about the pain and rage that swells up like an overflowing river. Humans are forever searching for a divine intervention…to find a reason to live, forgive and forget. However, that revelation only comes at a time when we least expect it. And when that moment appears, we begin to truly understand what it takes to move on…and with it, we start to heal our wounds.
17 days later…
Izzie opened her eyes, and a smile immediately sprang to her lips. Today was her first day as a resident…which meant torturing her first batch of timid interns. Her pride at surviving the hellish surgical internship had been the only thing that had kept her from going insane these past two and a half weeks.
She had spent this temporary respite alone; after her gentle nudging, Alex had left on a solo road trip to drive towards Ava's direction but ended up coming back to Seattle without her. Meanwhile, Cristina and Meredith had flown off to Maui to utilize an unused honeymoon suite and bask in the tantalizing rays of the Hawaiian sun. And George…her best friend had literally disappeared off the face of this Earth, effectively dashing her hopes of any romantic reconciliation with him. These days, it seemed like they were drifting farther and farther apart, and it was tearing her apart.
Hearing Meredith turn off the shower, she sighed as her good mood disappeared. Forcing herself out of bed, she stumbled into the bathroom and took a quick shower. Feeling slightly more refreshed after standing under the jets of hot water, the surgeon walked down to the kitchen. By the time Meredith and Alex walked in, Izzie was already flipping tasty, steaming chocolate chip pancakes onto a serving platter.
"YUM!" Alex exclaimed as he scraped his chair backwards, causing a loud and ear piercing screech. Wincing, Izzie smiled at him. "Eat up…we get to become the new Nazis, and we don't want to collapse out of hunger on our first day as residents." Laughing, they quickly filled up on the delectable breakfast. Within the hour, Meredith, Alex and Izzie were on their way to the hopsital, thinking that nothing could ruin this perfect day. Little did the surgeons know that the start of their residency would turn into hell on Earth. Nobody could predict that their lives were about to be turned upside down.
Callie pulled on her lab coat, staring proudly at the words emblazoned on it:
Calliope Torres, M.D., Chief Resident
Grinning widely, she walked out of the locker room, ready to face her first day as a boss. The smile faded as she thought about George. By the time she had gotten up, he had already left for work. Callie knew how hard this day had to be for him, since George was being forced to repeat his internship while he watched his friends became second-year residents. After all that he had done to help Meredith pass her test, it was a cruel twist of irony that George had failed his.
Her beeper suddenly chimed, cutting into the silence and shaking her out of her wandering thoughts. Squaring her shoulders, Callie walked out of the locker room, ready for her first day as Chief Resident.
Bailey stood in the ER, watching Cristina, Meredith, Izzie and Alex teaching their new interns. She couldn't stop a grin from escaping when she overhead Yang lecturing her interns, "1, 2, 3 and 4, you guys are going to stand out of my way while I do my job, unless I ask for you. Understand? Because any mistakes you make is on me, which means I'm responsible for your crap! Move, move, move!"
When Callie walked in, she felt an uncontrollable sense of hatred toward the younger woman. To Bailey, the wound over losing Chief Residency to her fellow resident hadn't healed at all during the past few weeks. In fact, just seeing Callie's face made the blood boil in her veins. However, Bailey prided herself on her consummate professionalism, and she'd be damned if she gave up that reputation. Forcing herself to focus on her job, she adressed the new Chief Resident.
"Dr. Torres! 15 GSWs, ETA 3 minutes!"
Callie nodded and led the team of surgeons to the ambulance bay, everyone ready to save lives.
Screams spilled out of the ambulance the second the doors were open. The paramedic stuck his head out and addressed Izzie and her interns, "23-year-old Alyssa Henderson, 30 weeks pregnant, contractions 10 minutes apart, shot in the stomach during a drive-by shooting! BP 80/60, pulse thready at 32, 100 O2 by mask."
Izzie stood in shock for a crucial second, unable to look away from the patient and feeling overwhelmed. Snapping out of her daze, she began to wheel the gurney into the hospital. Snapping her head back, she yelled at one of her interns, "Taylor, go and page OB/GYN now! They need to come take a look at her!" Without missing a beat, she directed the paramedics, "Take her to Trauma One!" When they burst through the doors of the trauma room, she prepared to move the patient onto the bed, "On my count…1, 2, 3!" Whipping around, she pointed a finger at her other interns, "Leighanne, order a CBC, Chem 7, blood culture, and chest films! Tony, get the ultrasound in here, I need to assess the fetus' condition. Where the hell is OB?! Clark, go page them again! Jerry, get ready to move her to CT! Go, go, go!" A second later, the doors burst open again, and in walked a gorgeous and refined Chinese doctor. Slipping into a trauma gown, she addressed Izzie calmly, "I'm Dr. Mia Ko…what's the situation?"
Izzie took a deep breath, "32-year-old female, 30 weeks pregnant, shot in the stomach. We preparing to take her to CT, but we still need to do an ultrasound. The baby's condition is still unknown at this time."
Mia nodded and took the ultrasound. Waving the wand over the patient's swollen belly, she gently probed the abdominal wall. Fear suddenly crossed her distinguished features, and she put the machine back onto the cart and moved it out of the way. "Get her stabilized and intubated, we need to redline her to the OR. She's bleeding into her belly, and the baby's in respiratory distress. Somebody page Dr. Bailey; we need a general surgeon to do a laparatomy. Move it, Dr. Stevens!"
Izzie's hands shook badly as someone handed her the laryngoscope. Positioning the chords, she tried desperately to intubate the patient. She shook her head in barely controlled panic, "Dr. Ko, it's not working! Her airway's full of blood; I can't see the chords. Jerry, bag her! We're losing precious time." Speeding out of the room, they rushed the patient to surgery.
Meanwhile, Cristina had her own hands full with her patient. "Page Dr. Burke..HURRY! This guy's losing blood faster than we're giving it to him!" she barked to Olivia.
The nurse shook her head, "Dr. Burke left on extended leave 17 days ago, but he's still in Seattle if we need him. But he gave specific instructions to page the new cardio head, Dr. Theo Wright."
Cristina shook her head in annoyance, "Whatever…just page somebody from cardio down here. We need to get this guy to the OR now! The bullet is too close to his heart, and we need to take it out before we lose him."
After a frantic 20 minutes, she managed to get the patient temporarily stabilized, but the cardio doctor was still a no-show. Cristina hollered, "Where the HELL is Dr. Wright! Olivia, page him again and tell him to get his ass down here!"
Just then, the doors burst open and revealed a tall and handsome doctor. "No need, I'm right here. So, you must be the infamous Dr. Cristina Yang! Burke's playmate and ex-fiancée. How do you do?!"
Cristina glared at him in disdain. "Dr. Wright, this is 32-year-old Nigel Evans, shot in the chest during a drive-by shooting. X-rays show the bullet is lodged in the right subclavian artery. We've started the patient on saline, but he's lost a lot of blood since he arrived. We're already on the sixth unit of blood. He-"
She whipped around to glance at the monitors as a shrill beeping interrupted her diagnosis. "He's in V-tach, charge the paddles to 200!" As Olivia handed her the paddles, she shouted more orders, "Push in an amp of epi!" Cristina froze when Dr. Wright yelled out his commands, too, "Page Dr. Burke with a 911 now! We're going to need his help on this case! Tell him to get here, STAT!" Shaking herself out of her temporary daze and ignoring her suddenly pounding heart, Cristina pressed the paddles to the patient's chest. "CLEAR!" Watching the patient's body jump up and fall back down to table, she continued to hear an abnormal heartbeat. Taking a deep breath, she called out, "Charge again to 200!" When Cristina heard the paddles charge up, she placed them on the man's chest again. "Clear!" She breathed a sigh of relief when she heard a reassuring and normal beat. Olivia announced to the room, "Sinus rhythm!"
Theo bellowed his orders, "Start the patient on 100 O2 by mask! Redline him to the OR. When Dr. Burke gets here, tell him to meet us there! Let's go, people! MOVE!"
As they ran out of the room, Cristina felt shaky. She wasn't scared of assisting in a surgery; no, this was the field that she loved the best. Unfortunately, the prospect of seeing Burke again left her stomach in knots and made her want to throw up. Cristina Yang, she thought firmly, don't let a self-absorbed jerk like Burke destroy your potential in cardio. But her heart twinged painfully at the thought of seeing her ex-fiance again, since the man had made her see a different side of herself. After all, he had been the only man she had truly loved.
Izzie stood in the scrub room, carefully prepping for the surgery. She jumped when a voice cut into her thoughts, "Crzy, huh?"
She whirled around to see Alex standing there with a grin. He shook his head as he walked over to the scrub sink. "Life sucks, huh? You're pregnant, and you're excited, about to give birth. Then you get shot, and suddenly, you and the baby are in danger."
Izzie studied Alex. "What are you doing here? I thought you'd be back to fetching cappucinos for Sloan since you're off the gyne squad?"
He smiled mirthlessly. "Before Addison left, she told Dr. Ko that I had a natural talent for pink and squishy babies. So the hot new doctor felt like paging me to be on this case. Not that I'm complaining…I was back to doing crap for Sloan, and it wasn't making me look good in front of my interns. So, you ready to help save not one, but two lives?"
At her nod, Alex smiled softly and led them into the OR.
As soon as they were in place, Dr. Bailey began the laparatomy, with Mia assisting the surgeon. Meanwhile, Izzie and Alex continued to study the fetal monitor, watching out for any changes. Suddenly, they saw the numbers increase. Izzie cried out in alarm, "Dr. Ko, the baby's having late D-cells. It's in respiratory distress!"
Mia looked up in alarm and began the procedure of getting the baby out. A few minutes later, she called out, "I need a clamp!" Suddenly, a baby's cries echoed through the OR. She smiled, "Get this baby on a pediatric warmer, and page pediatrics to come and take a look at her." Mia turned to her fellow surgeon, "How is she doing, Dr. Bailey?"
Bailey didn't even look up from her work. "She has a ruptured spleen, but I'm working on it. Dr. Stevens, what's her BP?"
Izzie glanced at the monitor, "110/100, pulse 52. She's going strong, Dr. Bailey."
The surgeon grunted, "Oh, damn! I need to remove her spleen, the damage is too extensive to try and save it. We also need to remove the bullet before she loses more blood."
Alex sighed. "Why is life so unpredictable? One minute you fine, the next, you're in the OR with a bullet in your stomach…unbelievable."
Mia glanced at him briefly before turning her attention back to the patient. "Dr. Karev, keep your mind on the present. The best thing we can do for the patient right now is to get this bullet out of her. The rest is up to her…but with such an adorable baby to keep her company, I'm sure she will be okay."
After that, the OR was shrouded in contemplative silence, save for the continuous beeping of the heart monitor.
Cristina closed her eyes, trying desperately to keep the tears from flowing. Cardiothoracic surgeons were tough; losing her composure would only make her seem weaker in front of that infuriatingly cocky Theo Wright. Taking a deep breath, she whispered, "Time of death, 5:25 P.M." Ripping off her gloves, she stormed out of the OR and began scrubbing out. Cristina was all too aware of Burke's inquisitive look, so she finished quickly and left the room. Suddenly, she yelped in surprise when he grabbed her arm and dragged her toward the stairwell. Struggling to free herself from his firm grip, she snarled, "Let go of me! Where the hell are you taking me?!" Howling, she finally managed to wrench her arm away. She yanked the stairway door open with unnecessary force. When Burke continued to follow her, Cristina finally exploded. "What are you doing?! You left me, and we went our separate ways 17 days ago. So what the hell?"
Burke grinned, which only served to infuriate her even more. "I missed you, Cristina. Aren't I at least entitled to that? When she threw her hands up in disgust and continued walking down the stairs, he quickly sobered up and followed her. "What?" Burke asked in genuine confusion. "I thought-"
With unshed tears glittering in her eyes, Cristina whirled on him. "I was always giving 100 into this relationship. I loved you in the best way that I knew how to, okay! I told you, I wanted a small ceremony; if you had listened to me instead of Momma, we might be happily married right now. Look, the second you left me at that church, you destroyed any chance of us getting back together. I had vows on the day of our wedding; Callie wrote them on my hand for me during the bachelorette party. But then Mama took my eyebrows. Did you know that I stood in front of Dr. Bailey and begged her to let me cut?! I had lost all sense of being me; I didn't feel like a surgeon anymore. Hell! I didn't even feel like a person. So you're going to wipe that smirk off your face and leave me alone until my shift ends. I can't talk to you right now because I'm so angry that I can't even look at you. So, I'm going to be the mature one and walk away so that we can talk calmly as two respectful adults. Meet me at the hospital entrance at 10:00 tonight. We'll go home, and we can talk. But if you thought for one second that we might be able to repair our relationship, then you are so wrong!"
Hurrying away, Cristina finally let the pent-up tears cascade down her face, while Burke stood frozen on the spot, regret flashing across his features for a brief second.
Alex whipped open the curtain concealing his next patient, exhausted from this seemingly endless day. The repair on his patient had taken hours, and even now, they were in critical condition. He sighed, recalling his conversation with the patient's loved one.
Alex walked into the surgical waiting room. His eyes scanned the room and landed on the lone occupant. "Excuse me, sir? Are you waiting on news about Alyssa Henderson?"
After the man nodded worriedly and introduced himself as Craig Davis, Alex began to describe the patient's condition. "Alyssa is in critical condition right now. Although we managed to take the baby out, the bullet did extensive damage to her spleen. We were forced to remove it, but most people can survive without their spleen. However, what concerns us right now is that her kidney is showing signs of rapid detoriation. If that continues, we will have to start her on dialysis until we can find a viable kidney donor."
When Craig began to sob and stammer, Alex awkwardly patted his shoulder. "Mr. Davis, I promise you that we'll do everything we can. Don't worry; your girlfriend still has a lot of fighting strength left in her. With you and the baby by her side, I'm sure she'll overcome any obstacles…"
Taking a deep breath and rubbing a hand over his face, he forced himself to keep a good bedside manner. Turning to the group of interns clustered around him, he asked tiredly, "Nancy, patient's name…"
Before she could answer, his eyes raked in the patient's delicate features. All of a sudden, he froze when his numb brain finally registered who was sitting in front of him. His heart stopped when she shot him a sad but radiant smile. "Hey, Alex."The storm is coming, but I don't mind,
People are dying, I close my blinds.
All that I know is i'm breathing.
I want to change the world...instead I sleep,
I want to believe in more than you and me…
But all that i know is i'm breathing,
All i can do is keep breathing,
All we can do is keep breathing now…
Now…now…
All that I know is i'm breathing,
All I can do is keep breathing…
All we can do is keep breathing.
All we can do is keep breathing,
All we can do is keep breathing,
All we can do is keep breathing,
All we can do is keep breathing.
All we can do is keep breathing,
All we can do is keep breathing,
All we can do is keep breathing.
All we can do is keep breathing now…
-Ingrid Michaelson, Keep Breathing
AN: Like it, love it, hate it? Please review, review, review; wow, this was a long chapter. Hehe…I felt the need for a longer length since I stopped updating for a while. The next chapter is coming very, very, soon! Hopefully by the end of this week…or even earlier. Thank you for the continued support!