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April arrived at the ER to begin her shift with the trauma unit. Since Hunt recommended that she spend more time in the pit because she had impressed him immensely, she was placed on his service the following week. It was a morale boost for her. Although her interest in neurosurgery remained the same, she appreciated the fact that an attending already thought highly of her in the short amount of time she had been a resident at Seattle Grace. She felt like she belonged, especially now that she found some people she could call her friends.
And one she could even call her boyfriend.
She didn't want to get ahead of herself, but she and Jackson were officially dating for a week, which was only considered "serious dating" in Kindergarten. They agreed to take it slow, but they were exclusive. They had been on two dates so far and both times were enjoyable. The sushi restaurant he had bragged about for weeks lived up to the hype, and the casual dinner and movie date ended with a steamy goodnight kiss – that lasted for fifteen minutes.
April found different reasons to appreciate Jackson even more as each day passed. He was a gentleman on their dates, opening the doors for her and walking her to the front door of her apartment when he brought her home. He sent her silly text messages during work that made her laugh and sometimes blush. He was very sweet with her.
Their upgraded relationship was new and they weren't flaunting it in front of everybody. Jackson mostly didn't want the gossip spreading across the country to Boston where his mother would be calling him nonstop about the new woman in his life. April's reason wasn't necessarily about herself but because of another person in the hospital.
She was slightly caught off-guard when she found Lexie standing by the nurses' station. The brunette wasn't the biggest fan of working in the ER, so April wondered how she managed to land downstairs with her. She was one of the heavily favored, if not the most favored, third year residents after all.
"Good morning, Lexie," April cheerfully greeted her coworker. "I didn't know you were working the pit too."
"Neither did I," Lexie unenthusiastically replied. "I'm surprised you're not upstairs with Shepherd. I figured you would be since I'm obviously not on his service today. Seems lately it's either you or me."
April forced herself to continue smiling. Despite the fact that she knew she wasn't her colleague's biggest fan, she was going to try her best to build a bridge with her. "Oh, not today. Shepherd's with George."
"What?" the other woman exclaimed, startling April and the nurses nearby. She cleared her throat and calmly said, "George hates Neuro. I can't believe he never asked to switch with me."
"Well, younger Shepherd is in charge of who's on whose service as chief resident, and I'm sure she's trying to rotate us around…" April paused when she noticed Lexie's icy stare, then she nervously laughed. "…which I'm sure you've managed to manipulate in the past. I'm still fairly new. What do I know?"
"Anyway, who do we report to? Which resident did Hunt put in charge?" Lexie pursed her lips after the redhead sheepishly grinned at her. "Oh."
April scanned the area. "The pit isn't very busy right now, so we can just wait and see if any incoming traumas pop up," she suggested. "Or we could… we could check the supply closet and see if we need anything restocked."
Lexie rolled her eyes as April walked past her towards the supply closet. "Fun," she mumbled before following her.
Plastics was the last specialty Jo had in mind. None of her friends ever ended the day raving about working under Mark Sloan. Holding a scalpel was equivalent to winning the lottery. A resident had to be on the plastic surgeon's very good side to be that fortunate. So far, nobody below fifth year was that lucky. Also, there weren't any fifth year residents specializing in plastic surgery. The specialty hadn't been high on the hospital's radar until Sloan arrived from New York, but even his big name wasn't a draw. The problem was he didn't have much interest in teaching anybody.
Jo particularly hated working with Sloan because he could never get her name right. Even when she directed him to her name stitched on her lab coat, he still couldn't remember. She wasn't sure if he was doing it on purpose or if he was truly that ignorant. Either way, the guy was an ass.
"Ah, Washington," Mark greeted Jo when he arrived at the burn unit where he had asked her to meet him.
"It's Wilson," she corrected him, pointing at her last name and drawing an invisible line underneath it. "See?"
"Same difference," he nonchalantly replied.
Jo slightly scowled at Mark. "No, my last name has less syllables and it doesn't share a name with the state we are currently in," she retorted. She decided she wasn't going to let him treat her like crap. Somebody needed to stand up to him and she wanted to be the first. "It's not Watson, Winston, Washington, or my personal favorite, Middleton. Seriously, where did that come from? It's Wilson."
"Okay, stop whining. There are too many of you to remember, not to mention I have my own endless list of patients to memorize as well," he argued, leading her down a hallway. "Chief Bailey told me I need to improve my teaching skills, so this is what we're gonna do. How big are your balls, Wilson?"
"Umm, what?" she muttered.
"Metaphorically," Mark impatiently answered. "Because what we're about to do is no joke and if you can't handle it, then I'm sending you on coffee runs instead. I don't actually enjoy teaching residents this particular technique. I've gotten idiotic fourth years who either cringe, almost gag or actually run out of the room to gag. Scares the patients and they don't need anybody making it worse for them."
Jo had a puzzled expression on her face. "What are we doing exactly?"
After entering a patient's room, both Mark and Jo stood by the doorway. Their patient's arms, legs and chest were severely burned, along with half of her face. "Dr. Wilson, this is Lisa. She was badly burned due to a grease fire in her home last night. About 70% of her body was burned, and today, we are going to debride her burns until we expose healthy tissue," he explained, smiling at the third year with his arms behind his back. "And it's not a pretty process. She's going to be in a lot of pain, so part of your job is to somehow help soothe her pain any way you can."
"So you mean I'll actually be doing this with you?" she inquired.
"Unless, you don't have the balls to."
"Oh, I definitely have the balls. They're huge. Probably bigger than yours," Jo eagerly replied.
Mark smugly grinned. "I highly doubt that," he answered with a wink. She scrunched her nose in response, then he leaned in close to her ear. "By the way, if I catch one grimace or even a tiny gag reflex, you're out of here. Understand?"
Jo quickly nodded. "Yes, sir," she confidently said. "Understood."
Lexie approached April, who was busy updating the electronic video board at the nurses' station. "Beds four and five have been discharged, and bed three needs a consult for his abdominal pain, so I paged my sister," she informed April. Her coworker squealed delightfully, catching her off-guard. "Okay, wow. Not the most thrilling news."
April giggled as she turned to face Lexie. "I'm sorry. This video board updates so fast at the touch of my finger. Still gets me excited just watching it," she chirped.
"You don't get out much, do you?" the brunette bluntly replied.
Before she could respond, a nurse calling out for Owen caught their attention. "Dr. Hunt, incoming trauma on the way."
Owen walked past the two residents, waving his arm towards them. "Kepner, Grey, let's get moving," he instructed. The threesome quickly wore trauma gowns and gloves before going outside to wait for the ambulance to arrive. "Traffic is moving pretty well in there. Nice job, Kepner."
"Thank you, Dr. Hunt," April happily answered.
When the ambulance arrived the back doors opened and a paramedic helped pull out the stretcher. "Steven Olsen, 24 years old. GSW to the fourth left intercostal space, no exit wound. He was touch and go on the way over here, but vitals are stable for now," the paramedic explained.
Owen escorted the gurney into the ER with his residents. "Alright, let's bring him to trauma room one. And page cardio," he instructed one of the nurses as they passed by the nurses' station. They began prepping their patient, hooking him up to machines to record his vitals. The trauma surgeon used a stethoscope to listen to his breathing. "I'm not hearing anything on the left side of his chest. What could this mean, you two?"
"It's possible the bullet hit an area in his heart and blood is filling up on that side of his chest," Lexie stated. "Since there's no exit wound, we would need to perform a thoracotomy to see where it is and how severe the damage is. Also, place a chest tube to flush out the excess blood."
It didn't take long for the monitor's siren to start wailing. "He's crashing!" April announced.
Owen glanced up at the monitor and looked back the redhead. "We can't wait for cardio to arrive. We need to crack his chest now," he insisted. "Kepner, have you cracked a chest before?"
"Once at Mayo," she timidly replied.
"I've done three," Lexie added.
"Then all the more reason for Kepner to get more experience. Go ahead, let's prep for an emergency thoracotomy ASAP," Owen ordered. He watched April move to the left side of their patient as she picked up a clean scalpel from the tray beside his bed. He then pushed open the door to find out if someone from Cardiothoracics was on their way. "Did you page for cardio? We need someone down here right now!"
April took a deep breath as she was ready to cut their patient. "Okay, I'm about to cut," she murmured to herself. She was taken aback when Lexie intervened, pushing her aside with her hip. The movement caused her to cut into her left index finger instead and she screamed in pain. "Oww! What the hell, Lexie?"
Lexie ignored her coworker as she quickly made an incision on the left side of the patient's chest. She hardly noticed the blood that quickly filled inside of April's glove. "It was an accident, sorry," she said, though she didn't sound very sympathetic about it.
Owen turned around to check on the two residents and immediately rushed towards April when he saw the blood dripping through the hole in her glove. "Kepner, what did you do?" he angrily questioned her.
"I was about to make an incision, then-"
"She was too slow," Lexie interrupted. "But it was an accident."
Cristina entered the trauma room as she tied the strings of her gown around her neck. "What do we have?" she asked, eying the patient. She noticed Owen was tending to April's cut. "What did I miss?"
"The patient has a GSW lodged into the fourth left intercostal space. He was crashing, so I performed an emergency thoracotomy," Lexie answered as Cristina stood beside her. "There's no exit wound, but I suspect the bullet may have hit the left ventricle."
"Uh, I'm going to take Kepner out of here and have her finger examined if you don't need me in here," Owen chimed in.
"I'll take it from here," Cristina insisted. She watched Owen leave the trauma room with April before she asked Lexie, "And what happened to her finger?"
Lexie softly laughed. "Oh, you know. She was hesitating with the thoracotomy, so I stepped in and did it myself," she casually answered. "He was crashing and she was taking her time. I had to do it."
Cristina eyed Lexie suspiciously. "I see. Well, I guess this means you're scrubbing in with me," she half-heartedly replied. She gently, but forcefully nudged the resident aside once they got a perfect view of the heart. "And I'll take it from here."
"Maybe we were all wrong about Sloan. He's actually an excellent teacher." Jo ate her lunch in the cafeteria with Jackson and George. They quietly listened to her brag about the work she was doing with Mark, though they were skeptical. Based on the unimpressed looks on their faces, it was as if she were speaking to them in another language. "I'm serious, you guys. It seems Chief Bailey got through to him."
"So no coffee runs at all?" Jackson asked curiously.
Jo proudly shook her head and smiled. "Nope. We spent all morning debriding one of his burn patients. After he showed me his technique, he allowed me to work on one arm while he did the other," she gloated, then she pointed at George's lasagna. "And it was like taking that apart, layer by layer, while our patient screamed in agony."
George slowly swallowed his food before he pushed his tray out in front of him. "Now, I'm finished eating," he replied with a disgusted expression on his face. "Not cool."
Jackson chuckled, then he asked, "Okay, so he never badgered you? Is he sick?"
"No, he just woke up and started to teach. I'm telling you, he's changed," Jo claimed.
Alex arrived at their table carrying his lunch tray. Instead of sitting down beside Jo, he remained standing by the empty chair eying Jackson. The latter silently stared back at him, like they were communicating telepathically. However, it seemed their wires were crossed because nobody was making a move.
George looked at Alex, then his eyes wandered towards Jackson. "This is the most awkward silent moment I've ever been in," he whispered to Jo, who softly laughed.
Jackson gestured towards the chair. "You can sit, Karev."
"Alright. Just checking to make sure I'm not intruding or whatever," Alex clarified, setting his tray on the table and taking a seat beside Jo. "What are you talking about?"
"Well, Jo seems to believe that Mark Sloan cares about teaching residents now," Jackson teasingly said. He received a scowl from his coworker. "What? It wasn't exactly surgery. You were in the burn unit."
"I've still done more work with Sloan than you, Avery," Jo retorted. She turned her head to face Alex. "These two are jealous because I got to be a doctor under Sloan's service. He taught me how to debride burns and I picked it up easily. He thought I couldn't hack it because nobody else has yet to, but I proved him very wrong."
"Oh, yeah?" Alex inquired, stuffing his mouth with fries.
Jo nodded and grinned. "And he couldn't stop throwing compliments at me. 'Keep up the good work, Wilson. You're doing a fine, fine job.' Stuff like that. He clearly thinks highly of me." She furrowed her brow when Alex snorted. "What now?"
Alex cleared his throat, then he mischievously smirked at the brunette. "Dude, he's trying to get into your pants."
"No, he's not!" she argued. Jackson scoffed causing her to groan. "He's not!"
"C'mon. Mark Sloan? Douche who has the poorest bedside manners?" he insinuated, nodding his head towards Jackson. "Avery knows what I'm talking about. No guy like Sloan becomes the prince of politeness overnight."
Jackson nodded in agreement. "He's right. I knew his behavior was too good to be true."
Jo rolled her eyes. "You guys are wrong. Bailey told him he needed to step up with his teaching and that's what he's doing," she defensively replied, folding her arms across her chest. She looked at George, who was the only person who hadn't ganged up on her. "O'Malley, what do you think?"
George barely made eye contact with her. "I have a feeling you might beat me up if I tell you what I think."
"Oh, my God! You three are just… stupid boys!" she agitatedly stated. "Sex is all you ever think about because you let your penises do the thinking for you. I'll prove you guys wrong. There is nothing sketchy about what Sloan is doing."
"Wait until your shift is over," Alex playfully responded. "He hits on the nurses all the time. I doubt he considers residents off-limits."
A few minutes later, April arrived at their table, but she didn't have any food with her. She was visibly upset as she sat down beside Jackson. "Your ex-girlfriend is a psycho," she sternly said, drying her eyes with the back of her right hand as she sniffled.
Her friends immediately noticed her bandaged left index finger. "What happened?" Jackson asked concerned, carefully grasping April's hand and examining her finger. "Did Lexie do this?"
While April was having her finger cleaned and stitched up, she debated in her head whether or not to rat out Lexie. It was obvious she had pushed her on purpose. She hadn't immediately told Owen the truth about what had happened. She wasn't sure if snitching on coworkers was frowned upon, which sounded ridiculous in her mind, but Lexie was the star resident in their class. Would they believe Lexie's word over hers?
Despite the recent praise she had received, she still felt she was at a disadvantage. From middle school until the end of high school, she had been that person who snitched on her peers if she caught them doing something wrong. She was the goody two shoes, the brown noser people loathed. Growing up, even her three sisters were annoyed by her. She tried her best to shed that reputation in college, but she was a rule follower and sometimes she needed to spoil someone else's fun to get ahead.
However, she dreaded Jackson's reaction. She didn't want to ruin his and Lexie's friendship, which existed long before any of them became surgical residents. She hated the idea of starting some unnecessary rivalry just because she was dating Lexie Grey's ex-boyfriend.
"We were in a trauma room with a patient, a GSW to the chest. He was crashing, so Owen asked me to crack his chest, and just as I was about to make my incision, Lexie bumps me aside and I cut my finger with the scalpel," April angrily explained. "It was a deep cut, but fortunately, there isn't damage to the tendon or anything. But I can't scrub in to any surgeries until the stitches heal, so I'm on scut for at least a week."
"Geez," George mumbled, shaking his head. He knew Lexie's jealousy was a bit much, but he never thought she would stoop this low to have her way. "Sorry, April. I mean, she's never really acted like this before. It's kind of bizarre."
"Hmm, not really," Jo disagreed with a grimace. "Remember intern year? That charity softball event we participated in, Lexie threw the ball at the doctor from Seattle Pres who was flirting with Jackson. Hit her right in the boob. She claimed that she thought she was stealing second base. That crazy jealousy has existed all along."
"Lexie is an incredibly competitive person. I'll agree that she takes it too far sometimes," George concurred.
April held her injured finger in front of George's face. "Ya think?" she sarcastically replied, and frowned as she set her hand on her lap. "You could've at least warned me she was like this. I did have a feeling she didn't like me, but I never imagined she would attempt to sabotage my career!"
"Where is she right now?" Jackson questioned, rubbing April's lower back.
"Probably in surgery with Yang. With the patient I was supposed to be treating," she bitterly answered.
"You want me to kick her ass when they're done?" Alex straightforwardly asked. Truthfully, he would never hit a woman, but nobody was allowed to mess with his roommate.
Jo lightly elbowed Alex and scowled at him. "Please, you doing it would be inexcusable," she noted, then she smiled back at April. "You want me to kick her ass?"
Jackson dismissively waved his hand. "Nobody is kicking anybody's ass," he scolded them. Although he wasn't showing it, he was fuming. There were times when he brushed off Lexie's jealousy, but this time she had gone too far. He leaned in to kiss April's cheek. "I'll talk to her later, okay? She won't get away with this."
Cristina and Lexie walked out of the scrub room following the completion of their surgery. They stood in the hallway while the cardiothoracic fellow gave her instructions. "I'm going to talk to the family, and you can go… do something else productive," she lazily said. "I'll stay overnight and handle his post-op treatment."
"Thanks for letting me scrub in, Dr. Yang. I mean, I honestly thought I'd never be in the same OR as you, so thank you," Lexie gratefully replied.
"Yeah, whatever," Cristina mumbled, then she walked past the third year resident. She paused, slowly turning around on her heel. "One more thing, Little Grey." Lexie stared at her eagerly, likely hoping for a real compliment from her. "Kepner is very much capable of handling an emergency thoracotomy. I know because I talked her through one at Mayo, and she did just fine."
Lexie forced herself to chuckle. "I'm not sure where you're going with this."
"I understand your motives. You want to be the best and will do anything to reach the top. I've been in your shoes before, but never have I tried to ruin someone else's career to get there," Cristina insinuated. "I may not have seen what you did, but I'm not an idiot. Pull a stunt like that again and I'll report you to the Chief."
"I don't know what you're talking about, Yang!" Lexie called out to the Asian woman after she walked down the hallway. She simply rolled her eyes, removing her scrub cap as she headed towards the opposite direction. She rounded a corner and spotted Jackson approaching her. "Jackson, oh my gosh. I just finished a cardio surgery, one you will probably be envious of."
Jackson kept a straight face, slightly furrowing his brow when they met halfway. "Heard about how you got that surgery in the first place." He pulled Lexie into the nearest supply closet, then he placed his hands on his hips. "In the past, I let your antics slide, but this time you've gone too far, Lex."
"I have no idea what you mean," she casually replied. "What are we talking about now?"
"Cut the crap, okay? I know what you did to April," he chided. "What the hell were you thinking? She could've done some serious damage to her finger! You would've been responsible for ending her career if she couldn't do surgery anymore."
"Right, because April Kepner is oh so perfect, isn't she?" Lexie irritably responded. "Since she arrived it's like she walks on water to everybody. Even freaking Cristina Yang defends her and she has the heart of a dead person!"
Jackson threw his arms up in frustration. "She's new, Lexie! Aside from Karev, she didn't know anybody. She's been trying to be friends with you and all you've done is give her the cold shoulder. What is your problem with her?"
"There is something about her that she's not telling anybody. I know she's hiding something, Jackson," she speculated. "The signs are all there. Transferring in the middle of residency with somebody who knows her well. Her social awkwardness, the fact that Yang is only nice to her…"
"Wow. I never realized how incredibly paranoid you are," he replied in disbelief. "I mean, I honestly thought it had to do with me having feelings for April, but I realize now that's only half of the story. I think you can't handle the fact that someone might actually be better than you. Isn't that why you broke up with me in the first place? You would be more comfortable competing for surgeries if I was your ex instead of your boyfriend."
Lexie's mouth dropped open, then she quickly shook her head. "That's not it. That's not why I broke up with you."
Jackson folded his arms and sighed. "Then why did you?"
"Because we were together for almost four years, and towards the end of medical school, you were starting to discuss a more serious commitment between us. You brought up moving in together and you didn't have to say it, but I knew you were thinking about marriage. I wasn't ready for that," she admitted. "But every now and then I wonder if I made a mistake. Sometimes I can't help it when I see other women flirting with you. I know your mother still likes me, but I'm positive she thinks I'm also an idiot for breaking up with you."
"Well, that doesn't give you a free pass to treat my girlfriend like crap," he countered. "April and I are dating. It's something you're gonna have to accept. I want us to be friends, Lex, but I'm not sure I can trust you right now."
The brunette frowned. "C'mon, Jackson. I'm sorry."
Jackson opened the door and began to leave. He turned around to look at his ex-girlfriend. "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to," he reminded her before leaving the supply closet.
"Beautiful work, Wilson. It was a painful process for Lisa, but this will help her in the long run," Mark complimented as they exited the burn unit. He rubbed his palms together as they strolled through a hallway. "Perhaps I can have you on my service again tomorrow. Maybe I'll even give you a patient to work on by yourself."
Jo's face lit up. She had thoroughly enjoyed working in the burn unit, despite how grueling it was for her patient, and at times for herself. "Are you serious? That would be amazing!" she happily answered. "Working with you has been a pleasure, Dr. Sloan."
They stopped in front of a door, then Mark opened it. He nodded his head towards the empty on-call room. "Same goes for you. You know, I can teach you a few more things right now. Consider yourself a privileged resident under my service," he offered, winking at her. "A good job deserves a reward."
Her face suddenly dropped and she took a step back. "If you're suggesting what I think you're suggesting…" She inhaled sharply and immediately scowled at the plastic surgeon. "For your information, I am not that type of woman. Maybe some nurses and interns don't mind sleeping their way to the top, but you're not getting anything from me."
"Listen, I hate teaching residents," Mark bluntly said.
"Then why are you working at a teaching hospital?" she asked in annoyance.
"The paycheck was too hard to pass up," he chuckled. "And you're a looker. You're competent and attractive. You really should be flattered."
Jo pursed her lips, then she said, "Thanks, but no thanks. I was seriously hoping to be wrong about you, that you were actually trying to be a teacher for once. You're disgusting," she berated the plastic surgeon before angrily walking away.
She went upstairs to change out of her scrubs as quickly as possible. All she wanted to do was go home and pretend her successful day with Sloan hadn't happened at all. She also hated the fact that her male friends were right. She pictured them giving her a hard time about it as soon as they find out what had happened. Maybe George would go easy on her, but Jackson and Alex wouldn't hesitate to give her grief over it.
When she finished dressing into her street clothes, Jo skipped the elevator and used the stairs to leave the hospital faster. She hurriedly walked outside through the main lobby, letting out a sigh of relief afterwards. Alex was sitting on a bench speaking to someone on his cell phone, so she decided to approach him. She waited until he was finished with his call before she spoke.
"You were right. Sloan was being nice, so he can get laid," she blurted out, folding her arms. "You win. So, go ahead. Gloat about it. Throw it in my face that I'm a loser because my instincts were wrong. Get it over with now, so I can ignore you tomorrow."
Alex slowly stood up, while Jo impatiently waited for him to answer her. "You want me to kick his ass?" he proposed. There wasn't a joking tone in his question, and she appeared taken aback by his response. "I'm serious. I can go back in there and throw in a punch or two if you want. Dude's an asshole."
Jo took a deep breath and sighed. "No, it's okay. I just want to go home and snuggle with my cat or something," she dejectedly replied. "See you in the morning."
"Uh, wait a second." He gently grabbed a hold of her arm to stop her from leaving. "I was planning on going around the corner to the taco truck that's parked over there. You wanna come with me? My treat."
"No taco order limit? Don't get stingy on me, Karev," she replied with a smirk.
The twosome began walking to the taco truck together. "If you want twenty tacos, I'll buy you twenty tacos," he quipped. "But if you end up befriending a toilet tomorrow, I'm not taking any responsibility for that."
Jo playfully rolled her eyes. "You're kind of a moron."
Alex smugly grinned back at her. "But you decided to have dinner with me, so who's the real moron?" He received a slap on the shoulder as they continued walking. "Am I allowed to call you Josephine yet?"
Jo smiled as she shook her head. "Not even close. It's going to take more than buying me tacos, buddy."
Let me know what you think, please! :)
