"It's so much better than I imagined."
Harper Young rolled her eyes at her in awe best friend, Camille Scott.
"Cam, you've been to a hospital before. Trust me, I know, from the many, many times I've held your hand while you vomited on some ER nurse because you were so intoxicated."
Camille rolled her eyes, and stuck her tongue out at her brunette best friend.
"I don't understand why you're so surprised that this hospital is any bigger or better than normal. Didn't you look at the pictures online?"
Camille turned to her friend, eyes wide with fear. "Oh no, were we supposed to?"
The two had just finished medical school, and today was their first day as surgical interns. Harper was prepared; she had read all about the hospital, its surgical program, and the doctors that worked there. Camille on the other hand, was about as irresponsible and unprepared as you could get. That was how it had always been with their friendship though. The two were total opposites, and not just personality wise. Harper was short, brunette, and all-around small, while Camille was tall, blonde, and curvy. Harper had a head full of crazy curls, while Cam's hair stuck down like a pin. They balanced each other out, though. It worked.
"Are you two going to go inside, or what?" A man's voice came from behind them. He was short and stocky, had brown hair and eyes, and could be no older than twenty-five. His voice was sarcastic, and slightly rude, much like Camille's tended to be at times.
"Depends. Are you going to be there?" Camille winked at the boy, did a hair flip, and sashayed into the building. The boy just rolled his eyes, and started to walk inside the hospital too.
"Hey! Wait up!"
He paused slightly, but only slightly, as if he were simply acknowledging that Harper existed.
She ran up to him, until she was standing right by his side. She thought about grabbing his arm, maybe doing something to get him to stop walking, but he seemed like the type of person that would claw her eyes out if she even looked at him wrong. So, she could walk and talk.
"I want to apologize for Cami. She's a little, um, confident?" It hadn't meant to be a question, but judging by the way Harper said it, she was sure that that was what it had been.
"I'm Harper by the way," She held out her hand, and surprisingly, he shook it.
"Aiden. Aiden Parker." He gave her a slight smile, and raised an eyebrow. "I didn't just roll my eyes at a girl who has a dying dad or something, right?"
Harper laughed lightly. So, this boy did have a soul after all.
"No. We're surgical interns, and today is our first day."
"Really? Me too." Aiden said.
'Thank the lord' Harper thought. She hadn't even gotten her scrubs on yet, and she had already made a friend.
The two kept chatting as they made their way into the elevator, and up to the surgical wing, where a mass of people were waiting by the front desk.
Interns.
Richard Webber was standing at the head of the group, looking at all of them with a pleasant smile on his face. Most of the people there were talking to one another quietly, mingling and trying to make friends rather than enemies. You did not want to be enemies with another surgical intern. They would find some way to guarantee that you wouldn't get to scrub in on any surgeries. They were vicious.
"Alright, everyone, quiet please." The crowd instantly fell silent, and all turned their attention to the man in front of them.
"A month ago you were in med school being taught by doctors. Today, you are the doctors."
Harper heard a squeal coming from her left, so she turned that way, only to find Camille with a huge smile on her face. What a surprise.
The large group of about 30 people continued on through the hospital, down hallways and in ORs. They even stopped by in an OR gallery while Meredith Grey was performing an appendectomy.
"That down there, is Doctor Grey, our Head of General Surgery. Can anyone tell me what surgery she's performing?"
Most of the people in the group shrugged and shook their heads, but there were a select few that raised their hands. Harper, a very tiny Hispanic girl, and a boy with acne and glasses who looked like he was forever frozen at age seventeen.
Richard pointed to the Hispanic girl, who smiled over eagerly, but managed to say "An appendectomy sir," with a clear voice.
"Very good. What's your name?" He asked, obviously impressed.
She cleared her throat. "Ruby. Ruby Thompson."
Richard nodded approvingly at this, and turned back to the group. "I hope you all try to be as straightforward as Miss Thompson, here."
Ruby smiled widely, and started to get blushed cheeks. Harper could hear Camille groan at this.
"Oh boy. Looks like you're not the only goody-two shoes, Harper."
She ignored her friend's snotty remark, and continued on with the tour. About twenty minutes later, they were in the locker room changing into light blue scrubs. Harper was admiring the lab coat she had been given mere minutes ago.
"It's beautiful. Truly beautiful."
"You're a very strange girl," Aiden said in reaction to her surprise. He took his shirt off, revealing a very well-toned midsection.
"Hot damn," Camille said as she eyed him up and down. Aiden pretended that he thought she was disgusting, but really he was hiding a smirk.
"Hey Cam, who'd you get assigned to?" Harper was hoping that they had gotten the same resident. Camille was like her safety blanket, and she wasn't sure if she was ready to let go just yet.
The blonde girl checked the yellow post it note she had been given. "Uh, Edwards. You?"
Harper blew air out of her mouth, while tying the strings on her pants.
"I got Wilson."
"I got Wilson too." Aiden smiled down at Harper. He was on the shorter side for a guy, probably only about 5'7 or 5'8, but he was still taller than her.
"You have fun with the Neuro nerd while Aiden and I are getting to do it all. I hear Edwards is basically married to Neuro, so that's probably all you'll be doing."
Harper was expecting her to roll her eyes, or at least groan like she usually did, but instead, she smiled. "That's okay. I like brains. Brains are cool."
"Uh, Young, Parker, Lloyd and Thompson." A bored looking man in navy blue scrubs stood in the doorway of the locker room, tapping his foot impatiently.
"Looks like that's me. I'll see you at lunch?"
Camille nodded, but grabbed Harper's shoulder as she started to leave.
"Just try to contain yourself from pouncing on that hot piece of ass over there," She nodded her head towards Aiden.
Camille was truly the queen of inappropriate comments.
"I'll do my best." The two exchanged an arm bump, and Harper sauntered off to the doorway to meet the attending.
The other three people whose names were called quickly showed up as well. Of course there was Aiden, the Hispanic girl from earlier named Ruby, and a dirty blonde haired, blue eyed boy with a slight goatee.
"Took you all long enough," The attending, identified as 'Alex Karev; Pediatric Surgeon' on his lab coat, spoke to them in a dull, annoyed voice.
"Okay, this is how it's going to go," He talked while walking quickly out the door, and towards the reception desk where a young woman was standing. "Dr. Wilson is my wife. So, if I hear that any of you mess this up for her, or make her look like an idiot, you'll have to talk to me. Understand?"
They all nodded, except for the blonde haired boy, who stood there with a smirk on his face. Alex noticed this, and clenched his fist to keep himself from attacking the young man right then and there. He had a real problem with people who hurt, or might possibly hurt Jo, physically or otherwise.
"I said, do you understand me?" He and the boy, Lloyd, locked eyes.
"Yes sir," The words were dripping with sarcasm, and Alex obviously wanted to punch his lights out, but they had already been standing there for too long, and he couldn't just punch somebody in the middle of a hospital because he didn't like his attitude. He had learned by now how to store some of that anger away.
Jo Wilson looked up from the chart that she was eyeing, and quickly put a smile on her face. Alex left the four interns and Jo alone, but not before giving her an encouraging thumbs up. These were her first ever interns.
"Raise your hand when I say your name, so I know who is who." Jo's smile stayed present on her face, but her voice was still commanding. She didn't to be completely rude and make them hate her, but she still wanted them to know that she was the one with the authority, and not them.
"Aiden Parker." Aiden raised his hand, and Jo handed him a black pager.
"Ruby Thompson." Another hand was raised, another pager was handed out.
"Zachary Lloyd." The arrogant blonde boy raised his hand, and when Jo handed him the pager, he winked at her, to which she responded by rolling her eyes.
"Flattery will get you nowhere with me, nor will it get you anywhere with the other doctors in this hospital." Harper stifled a laugh. She liked Dr. Wilson already.
Once Harper received her pager, Jo started to walk down the hallway, and the interns eagerly trailed behind her.
"I'm going to tell you five rules. Try to memorize them so I don't have to repeat myself. Rule number one: don't try to suck up. You're the interns, I'm the resident, and that's not going to change just because you bring me coffee and a bagel," Jo turned her attention towards Zach, who simply shrugged his shoulders. "Alright, on to rule number two: you see those pagers I just handed all of you? If yours goes off, you better be up and running, no matter what you're doing. Whatever the page is for, it's obviously an emergency and can't wait," She opened the door to an on-call room, and moved out of the way so the interns could look inside. "This is an on-call room. Your first shift lasts for 48 hours, so if by some miracle, you get a chance to sleep, use it. But if I happen to be sleeping in one of these, you better not wake me up unless your patient is dying. And if you wake me up and your patient is already dead? You woke me for no reason, and you killed a person. Those are rules three and four." She shut the on-call room door, and continued walking down the hospital hallway. "Rule number five is very simple: when I move, you move. You don't have a critical patient; we have a critical patient. Your wins are my wins, and your losses are my losses. Don't disappoint me."
Just then, Owen Hunt went running by, but before he could fully run past the group, he turned back, directing his attention at Jo. "Big trauma, Wilson, it's all hands on deck!"
She nodded, and started running in the direction of the ER.
God, she hoped her interns were following behind her.
Once she got there, she was immediately greeted by Alex, who handed her a trauma gown, and helped her tie the back of it. In turn, she handed each of her intern's gowns as well. They reluctantly tied each other's, after many exchanged glances. They didn't know one another at all, but they would have to get used to each other eventually.
Footsteps hit the ground in unison as they all ran back to the ambulance bay. There was a mass group of doctors, all wearing the same yellow gowns. Nobody was really talking; they were all just waiting for the ambulances to arrive. The sound of sirens was faint, but growing louder by the second. They would probably get here any minute, and then it would all be chaos.
"Hey!" Amelia yelled towards Jo, who was standing next to her. She looked past the resident, to her interns.
"Interns?" Jo nodded, and Amelia smiled, but her smile faded once her eyes landed on the intern standing next to Jo.
It was a girl with dark brown hair that was wrestled back into a ponytail. She stood patiently next to the other doctors, while nervously cracking her knuckles.
It looked like..
"Harper?"
Dammit Amelia!
Harper turned her attention to Dr. Shepherd, and smiled. "That's me. You're Dr. Shepherd, right? Chief of Neuro?"
"Mm," Amelia nodded. Normally she would've said something like "Shouldn't you know that already?" to an intern, but this wasn't just any intern. This was the girl that she'd seen four years ago. The girl that she almost met, but didn't have the heart to.
Amelia's eyes were stuck on Harper, but the young girl had already turned her focus back to watching for the ambulance, so she didn't notice the doctor's fixed gaze on her. However, Owen did notice.
"Amelia?" He grabbed her shoulders, and turned her small frame towards him. His eyes were narrowed, and his eyebrow was raised. "Are you okay?"
Again, she numbly nodded. What was she supposed to say?
"Sorry sweetie, I'm just distracted by my twenty-two-year-old daughter who I gave up for adoption, who happens to now be an intern at the hospital we both work at. I guess I forgot to mention her."
Owen definitely wasn't satisfied with that nod, but the poking and prodding would have to wait until later.
The first two ambulances had arrived, the first one immediately being scooped up by Bailey, Owen, and a few eager residents. Amelia took the next one, along with Jo, and of course her interns. They had to stay with their resident until instructed otherwise.
"What do we got?" Amelia asked the paramedic as they unloaded the gurney from the ambulance. She really wanted to talk to her daughter, but that would have to wait until later. Right now they had a patient that needed their help.
"Skylar Hamilton, 26. GSW to the abdomen. BP is 120/80."
The girl's eyes nervously darted around, looking at all of the doctors surrounding her.
"What happened? Where am I?"
Jo wasn't sure what the backstory was, or why she had been shot, but she was planning on saying something short and sweet, before Amelia stepped up.
"Skylar, you were shot by a man robbing a bank. But, we're going to do everything we can for you, okay? Just try to stay calm, and breathe," They continued wheeling her into the hospital, until she was transferred onto a trauma room table.
"My baby. Is my baby okay?"
Amelia and Jo exchanged a glance. "How many weeks are you, Skylar?"
"Uh," The young woman's eyes were still darting around. "I'm 19 weeks."
"Okay, let's get an ultrasound, and page Robbins, stat!"
The nurse standing nearby nodded, as she went to get the ultrasound machine.
"Skylar, I'm just going to turn you on your side to see if the bullet went all the way through, alright?"
The blonde nodded, and Jo turned to her interns. "I need two of you to help me get her on her side."
The interns were eager to do anything, even if it was just moving a person slightly. Ruby and Harper raised their hands faster than either Zach or Aiden, so Jo pointed to them, and motioned for them to come closer.
Ruby took the side with Jo, while Harper stood next to Amelia. Amelia could practically feel the electricity buzzing through the air. Her daughter was standing right next to her. How had she even gotten here? She lived in Pittsburgh last time she checked, so how did she find her way to Seattle?
"On my count. One, two, three," The four doctors lifted their patient up gently, and turned her on her side.
"Clean entry and exit wound," Harper stated.
Just then, Arizona came bounding into the room, the ultrasound machine quickly following behind her.
"What do we got?" The blonde asked, trading places with Ruby so she could make her way to the patient.
"Skylar Hamilton, 26. GSW to the abdomen, clean entry and exit wound. Oh, and she's 19 weeks pregnant."
Arizona sighed, but put on the best fake smile that she could. She was really hoping that the bullet had missed the baby. She would know in about a minute, after she did the ultrasound.
Gel was squeezed out of the bottle, and onto Skylar's stomach, and Arizona smiled widely once she had located the baby.
"Your baby seems to have no damage. The bullet missed them completely." Skylar reached up for Arizona's hand, which startled her slightly.
"Thank you."
Once again, that bright smile rose to Arizona's face, causing her dimples to pop out. "Hey, you're the one doing all the hard work. While I have the machine out, do you want to know the baby's sex?"
"My boyfriend wanted to wait until the baby was born, but I can't. I have to know."
The fetal surgeon nodded. "I completely understand." For the second time, the monitor was placed on Skylar's stomach, as she waited patiently to hear all about her baby.
"It looks like you're having a.. little boy!"
Skylar nodded in approval, before she started to nod off. Then, the monitors were beeping rapidly, and the doctors were springing into action.
"She's lost too much blood. We need to get her to an OR, now." Amelia firmly instructed.
Without even thinking, Harper reached out and placed her fingertips on the side of Skylar's neck. "I can barely feel a pulse, I don't think we have time to get her to an OR."
"I'm exhausted," Harper announced as she set her tray full of food down, next to Camille.
"From what, your big trauma adventure?" Camille glared at her obviously tired friend. "See, while you guys were actually doing exciting things, I was stuck running labs, and watching Dr. Avery suck fat out of a butt."
Aiden laughed, and took a bite out of his sandwich. "Sounds fun. But it was weird. This one doctor wouldn't stop staring at Harper, and she kept smiling whenever she would talk, even though our patient and her baby ended up dying, she was still smiling. I think you have a stalker."
"Do not."
"Do too."
"Well, whatever," Harper rolled her eyes. "At least my stalker is a brilliant surgeon who is going to teach me how to clip aneurysms and stop bleeds, while you're sucking butt fat with Camille."
"Haha, very funny."
Camille took a bite from her apple, and looked to Aiden. "So, what's your story?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Why is that any of your business?"
"Aiden, don't be a douche, it was just a question."
If those words had come out of anyone else's mouth, Aiden probably would have come up with a snarky retort, but he had clearly taken a liking to Harper.
"I was raised by two dads, but they split when I was seven. I have one older sister. She works here, actually. She's a pediatrician."
Both of the girls nodded their approval, and went back to eating. Harper was caught off guard when the same question was directed at her.
"What about you? What's your story?"
"Two parents, Rachel and Isaac. Lawyers. I have an older brother and an older sister, and they're both in law school. I'm kind of the outcast, I went for being a doctor instead of some snooty prick with a briefcase."
Aiden snorted, and smiled at her. Finally, his brown eyes met with Camille's hazel ones. "And you?"
She just smiled softly, and looked at the ground. "That's a long story, too long to tell when we only have a few precious minutes to eat."
Just then, Ruby Thompson walked into the cafeteria, looking confused about where to sit.
"Aww look, goody-two shoes is all alone," Camille's voice spoke sarcastically.
"Cam, you don't have to be so mean all of the time. Hey, Ruby!" Harper called the girl over. Her eyes widened, and a smile lit up her face once she heard her name. "Come sit with us!"
Camille groaned, and instantly started pouting like a child. The act didn't stop once Ruby was at the table and seated in between Harper and Aiden, so the brunette girl kicked her friend in the leg as if telling her to cut it out.
From a table nearby, Amelia watched the scene in front of her unfold. Harper's laughter with her friends, defending Amelia's "stalkerish tendencies," and the kind gesture of inviting that intern to sit with her. Her heart swelled with pride. Even though she didn't raise her, and hadn't done anything for the girl except give birth to her, Amelia still felt a maternal connection to her. She was still her daughter, even if she was the only one that knew it. That girl was good; she was kind, beautiful, and funny too. Harper had a sense of humor. It was probably twisted like Amelia's.
"Richard, do you see that girl over there? The laughing, brunette intern?" Amelia turned her attention towards the older man sitting across from her. Owen, once again, was too busy to eat lunch with his wife, so she was sitting with Richard. He was the least nosey doctor, and she had to tell somebody her secret. If Amelia didn't she would probably explode.
Richard nodded, and took a bite of his salad.
Amelia smiled pleasantly. "That girl is my daughter."
A/N: I'll be busy during the school year. along with classes, I also have softball practice, piano lessons, band practice, confirmation, and more, BUT I will still try to upload new chapters at least once a week. Some weeks, I might upload more than one chapter, and others I might not upload any, nothing is set in stone. The first few chapters are pretty light, but the drama is coming, just wait! I added Bailey's rules in there for a little bit of oomph. I feel like those rules are the sort of thing that would be passed down to all of the new interns. They're kind of a staple, ya know? oh, and for those of you who are new to the story; i understand that there is already a harper is grey's anatomy (harper avery), but i can't imagine her being named anything else. Hope you enjoyed, and like always, FOLLOW, FAVORITE, AND REVIEW!
