The third week of being a surgical intern heralded many remarkable events. Elaine went back to speech therapy. She got to perform an orthopedic surgery – under the guidance of Dr. Callie Torres. She hit a boy for the first time since pre-K. And she had her first heart to heart with Meredith Grey. It was a remarkable week for Alex too - for all the same reasons.
*Authors note: Hi, again. These next few chapters were originally supposed to be a separate story on their own - the same story verse, but more like a different episode of the same series. However I was assured by my lovely Beta that the plots work so well together that this fit as additional chapters to the already existing story. Hence, the next few chapters - while the spiel above is explained.
*Additional important notes: Thank-you to my grammar angel, punctuation saviour and spelling wizard - my gorgeous and patient Beta who somehow manages to follow the scatter-brain plots I present them with.
10 Tricks to Help You Get Ahead at Work.
Easy Updos to Wear With Everything.
How to be Happy (When You Need a Boost).
The Five Little Things That Are Giving You Pimples.
These articles were starting to scare me. It's like if I flipped to the front of my issue of Cosmopolitan I'd find a dedication to Elaine Robinson. Today was my first break from Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital after practically living there for two weeks - and I was sitting in a waiting room, at a clinic. It was a truly fascinating change in scenery – the only difference was I didn't have to deal with anyone's issues. I was at the Hearing, Speech and Deafness Centre in Seattle.
When I'd told Mary Jane that I was going to the clinic, she'd assured me I was doing the right thing. As my big sister, she told me, she knew me better than anyone else – and she knew that I was a much happier person, and the best version of myself when I wasn't worrying about how I talked. That had encouraged me more than any research I could've done. And she assured me all this while not missing a beat making a decadent cheesecake.
I'd been led to the clinic after some of this - covert research. I'd found that working at a hospital had some unexpected perks:
There weren't any difficult choices about what to wear to work.
The long shifts meant that I could avoid a large percentage of my mother's phone calls asking that I come to my senses and come home to Minnesota; to stop kidding myself: I was a pretty face – not a doctor.
Working at Seattle Grace also meant that I had a multitude of scientific and medical research and journals at my fingertips. I'd poured through them– trying to find the best way to deal with my stutter in the Seattle region. Immediately I'd come across the SpeechEasy. It was a small device, similar to a hearing aid – however, instead of amplifying sound; it allowed me to hear my voice at a slight time delay and at a different pitch. At first the "choral effect", the underlying principle of the device, had thrown me.
"Dr. Karev?"
It'd been a relatively slow day at the hospital and I'd been with Dr. Karev all morning, shadowing him while he did pre and post-operative rounds. Sam and Hannah were in the skills lab, Nathan was in the Pit, Anne was looking after a knee reconstruction – well she was watching as Dr. Torres did the consult for her patient, and Louise was with Dr. Sloane who was about to perform rhinoplasty.
"Yeah?" he answered, without breaking his continuous stride down the hall. I looked down at the chart I was carrying, trying decide the best way to phrase my question.
"Have you ever head of the… 'choral effect'?" I mumbled, looking up hopefully. Unfortunately, I was still only greeted with the back of Dr. Karev's head.
"Nope. What is it?"
"Oh, nothing special… just something I'm looking into, f-f-f-for… for my- speech…" I trailed off.
Dr. Karev stopped and turned. He looked intrigued - which came as a shock.
"Ask Sloane, he's our ENT guy, and he might know about your 'corral effect' " Dr. Karev offered smiling, as he went back to flipping through charts.
I returned the smile, blushing. "It's 'choral effect' – like choir Dr. Karev".
Dr. Karev didn't look up from his paperwork as he muttered, "Like I said, talk to Sloane."
I'd cornered Louise as soon as she'd entered the cafeteria.
"Lou. You have to let me talk to D-D-D-Dr. Sloane… Please." I'd begged, clutching her arm as she walked towards the food. Louise raised her pencil thin eyebrows and looked me from top to bottom with a smirk.
"And what do you want with McSteamy, El?" she questioned.
I sighed. "I have a-a-a question about ENT."
Louise didn't look convinced as she grabbed a lunch tray. "Sure you do El… Well, I've gotta go with him to check up on the patient in about an hour, so grab some lunch with me – and then I'll hook you up," she quipped, grabbing a garden salad. I quickly poked my tongue out before taking a salad for myself. Louise and I both paid and began making our way over to the other Karev interns – we'd pushed two tables side by side in order to all sit together.
Two weeks had done an awful lot for improving our group dynamic. My first surgery had been forgotten as Nathan had scrubbed in on heart surgery with Altman, Hannah had become a favorite of Dr. Torres' for her boundless enthusiasm for fractures and casts, and even Sam had gotten points with Dr. Bailey – she appreciated him not being consumed with 'all that intern nonsense – all caught up in brown nosing your attending' and saw our first bowel resection. My appendectomy was nothing.
"Lou, El – hurry up – Nathan has a McStory" Hannah hissed when we were in earshot - and for Hannah to manage anything quieter than a yell was something of an achievement, so we knew it was a good story. Louise and I shared a smile and sat down either side of Hannah – who was practically bouncing with excitement. Sam was completely ignoring his sandwich in anticipation of Nathan's story, Nathan was munching on his hotdog while grinning – his brown eyes twinkled with the mischief that his story contained, and Anne was reading a book on aneurisms completely disinterested.
"Tell the damn story dude!" Sam exclaimed, thumping his giant fist on the table and causing everyone's food to bounce, which earned him a scowl from Anne.
Nathan sighed, as if heavily burdened by relaying his juicy gossip, and gently lay down his lunch. "Well – " he began, casting his eye around the circle. Sam succumbed to his irritation and kicked Nathan under the table.
"Hurry up!" he hissed as we all laughed at Nathan's pained expression,
"Okay – pants on…" he pouted, moving his chair a few inches further from Sam. "Right – so I saw a certain neurosurgeon and a certain resident, getting friendly in an on-call room…"
"You were watching?" Anne asked, her face screwed up in disgust. Sam began to chuckle and Hannah looked appalled.
Nathan's jaw dropped. "No – I was not watching! I happened to be looking for Dr. Shepherd and – this is the good part…" Nathan reassured us. "The Chief – Dr. Richard Webber—knew where Dr. Shepherd was… The Chief walked in on them!" Nathan finished proudly. Sam and Hannah began to cackle loudly, clutching at their sides, Louise snorted loudly and then began to laugh silently, and I giggled as well, while Anne just rolled her eyes and returned to her book.
"The Chief witnessed McSex and then told you where to find it! Classic!" Sam gasped, as the tables' laughter subsided. This caused a second outbreak of laughter; Louise covered her face as she shook silently with laughter while Nathan ducked under the table.
Hannah was still grinning widely, as she and Sam leant against each other for support when her pager went off. "Shit…" she mumbled, as an instantaneous frown appeared, her full eyebrows furrowed. "My post-op pancreas dude has blood in his pee…"
"Weren't you in the skills lab today?" I asked, picking up a carrot stick from my salad.
Hannah nodded but got up anyway, reattaching her pager to the waistband of her scrubs. "Yeah, but I worked on this guy yesterday; besides it's way better than skills lab."
So I have to go back there by myself?" Sam asked latching onto the back of Hannah's lab coat, pulling her back.
Hannah smiled as she slapped Sam's hand; he released it and began pouting. "Sorry – not really, but bye!" she called out as she jogged towards the cafeteria exit her dark brown curls bouncing. We all waved goodbye, except for Sam who stubbornly remained silent with his arms crossed.
Nathan clapped Sam's enormous shoulder. "Cheer up. Tomorrow you're with Dr. Bailey – and she lurves you!" he teased, jostling Sam. Sam just pouted a bit more as he shrugged off Nathan.
Louise rolled her eyes and tightened her dirt blonde ponytail. "Come on El – I have to do this favor type-thing for you" she stated, grabbing my sleeve pulling me up from the table and began leading me away. My hastily waved goodbye was wasted - Anne was still reading her book about aneurysms, Nathan was still annoying Sam, and Sam was still sulking.
I could hear Dr. Sloane's husky voice talking to a female one. Occasionally I could hear Louise interject, but mostly it was Dr. Sloane talking about preventing infection.
I was sitting outside a VIP room where the rhinoplasty patient was staying. There was fancy wallpaper, select artworks and Egyptian bed linen – this particular patient was a very wealthy – and somewhat vain – businesswoman who was also a generous donor to the hospital. Louise had told me to stay there and she'd bring Sloane straight to me. I'd been sitting outside for a good hour. From what I could hear the female patient was doing a lot of sighing and 'Thank-you-ing' and 'Dr. Sloane – you're my savior," and Sloane seemed very good at the modest doctor routine – for a jock like a plastic surgeon. Although I could tell why Louise liked being on his service: besides the fact he was extremely attractive, she genuinely seemed to have a good time. He didn't ask Louise a barrage of questions like most attendings did to scare interns, and the patient's attention was always on him, especially his female patients. So as an intern, that was a plus: you couldn't get abused for being an intern if you weren't noticed. One person I was nervous about noticing me was Dr. Karev. I'd been shadowing him all morning and I was certain that he'd notice if I was missing and I'd be left with a mountain of scut work as punishment.
"Well you just keep those ice packs on and I'll see you tomorrow Ms. Lockwood," I heard Dr. Sloane say just before I heard squeaky footsteps on the linoleum floor. I jumped up and breathed deeply, nervously touching my pager. Dr. Sloane emerged first, looking down at a chart and completely ignoring me, while Louise came next, gently closing the door. She saw that Dr. Sloane had walked off.
"El – Use your words." she hissed. "Dr. Sloane – excuse me!" she called out.
Dr. Sloane turned abruptly and saw Louise waving him back. He cocked an eyebrow and beckoned her instead. Louise grabbed the cuff of my white coat and dragged me towards Sloane. He looked amused as she pulled me over, Louise squeezing my shoulder tightly for encouragement whilst brandishing a broad grin of her own – I must've looked like a deer caught in headlights. Talk to Sloane, Karev said. He'll explain it, Dr. Karev said. Dr. Karev obviously didn't take into account that Dr. Sloane was very attractive, and that made me nervous, which was just unfortunate for everybody involved.
"Dr. Sloane, this is, Elaine Robinson. Elaine had a very professional medical sort of question to ask you about your ENT thing, didn't you Elaine?" Louise explained, looking expectantly at me.
I was still stunned into silence. Dr. Sloane seemed to be holding back laughter at his exuberant intern and her mute friend.
Louise sighed and her shoulders drooped. "I'll take the scut and wait for you at the nurses station, Dr. Sloane" she said, gently taking the chart and skipping off. I watched her short blonde ponytail swing from side to side and then hesitantly turned to look back at Dr. Sloane.
"So – you're Robinson – the appendectomy girl" he began, clearing his throat as he looked me up and down, waiting for a response of any sort.
"Y-y-y-yes."
Dr. Sloane nodded his head slowly, looking at the ground, "And Dr. McGrath says you have a question about ENT… Considering a specialty already?" he asked, looking up and smiling.
I shook my head. "I, have, just… a question – about… a-a-a-a certain… ENT ph-ph-ph-ph" I sighed heavily and gave up on phenomenon. "I have a q-q-q-question about a term – the 'choral effect'?"
Dr. Sloane had kept his face free of emotion while I'd stuttered and stammered my way through, waiting patiently while I paused and when I'd finished he'd nodded with understanding. "Elaine," he began, ushering me towards the nurse's station where Louise had been pretending not to eavesdrop, "Did you ever stutter during the pledge of allegiance in school?" he asked gently.
I shook my head.
He grinned. "Of course you didn't. That's because everyone speaking, at the same time, the same words creates the "choral effect" you're talking about." Dr. Sloane winked before continuing, "Everyone else speaks differently to you – and I'm not talking about your stutter," he added immediately. "Everyone speaks at a different pitch and tone to you, because we're all individuals, Elaine." He chuckled, winking again. "Even your own voice sounds different when played back on a recording. This "choral effect"—many voices converging to one – act as a backbone for you, the stutterer, and you don't stutter." He finished as we arrived at the station; Louise was on the floor on the other side, 'looking for her pen'.
I smiled broadly at Dr. Sloane; he certainly made you feel comfortable. "Thanks Dr. Sloane…. You're certainly the prof-f-f-f-fessional," I added blushing.
Sloane patted me on the back, laughing. "That's why I get paid the big bucks. Dr. McGrath? I'm going – you coming?"
Louise suddenly emerged from under the desk with her stupid grin. "Sure sir."
Sloane winked goodbye and walked off. Louise scrambled out from under the desk and waved to me, then ran after him. I was left alone – and then my pager went off.
Great.
* Authors endnote - Hullo. Thank-you for reading this far, but please don't stop. This chapter was challenging to write, and I do think that the upcoming ones will require me to work hard, but I'm looking forward to developing these characters in a way I'm happy with. I'm working on a Callie and Mark conversation, massive trauma and an Elaine explosion - some small spoilers, so stay tuned. Also - five seconds of your time to add a review would be appreciated, I adore any feedback you have.
