SKYLAR KEPNER WAS a girl that relied on her morals. She considered her morals right and strong. She knew what she thought was right and she didn't stray from it, having a strong conscience keeping her in line. This made her trustworthy to her friends, however, it also made her overthink a lot of situations, having internal debates on moral dilemmas.

Now, sitting in the gallery and watching Meredith's open heart surgery, Skylar sipped her overpriced coffee, sitting next to George with Cristina on her other side. Meredith had been allowed to assist Burke with heart surgery, so the interns were living vicariously through her.

"I wish I could hold a heart," George complained, leaning backward in his chair. Cristina scoffed, shaking her head.

"A monkey could hold a heart," she sneered, her jealousy of Meredith kicking in. She wanted to be down there, holding a heart and not watching her fellow intern do it. Skylar raised her brow at Cristina, giving her a strange look as Izzie entered the gallery.

"You're just mad Burke didn't choose you," Skylar sighed and Cristina frowned at her.

"George, I need more ice and chips," Izzie suddenly suggested as she wrote something down on a chart she brought in.

"Who else did you invite?" He questioned, referring to what was supposed to be a small gathering at Meredith's house that night.

"This thing better not be huge, Izzie," Skylar warned. She wasn't one for parties. She liked going to the occasional club, but house parties just left way too much of a mess. And, to be honest, she knew she and Izzie would end up being the ones to clean it.

"We said the list was jocks only. Surgery, trauma, and plastics," Cristina reminded her, looking at the blonde over her shoulder. "Who else did you invite?"

Izzie sighed, looking at the three beside her with a nervous look. "Just some people from Peds."

Cristina and George let out groans, Skylar looking up. "Did you invite some of the nurses from the Peds floor? They're all really nice, and Nikki has this really good guac recipe."

Cristina ignored her friend. "You invited the preschoolers to Meredith's house? The next thing you'll say is that you invited the shrinks!" Izzie was silent for a moment and then looked away, and Cristina gasped. "She invited mental defects! This party is D.O.A."

"Cristina…" Skylar said in a warning tone, not even looking at her friend.

"Fine, I'm sorry, Red. Happy now?"

"Very," she flashed her a sarcastic smile.

"Meredith thinks this is going to be a small, meet-your-boyfriend-cocktail thing. Did you clear this with her?" George asked, looking at Izzie with begging eyes.

"No, but I will." The three flashed her accusing looks. "I promise!"

"Why are you wasting the only weekend your boyfriend is in town on a big party? Is he bad in bed?" Cristina pried. Skylar put a sad yet understanding smile on her face.

"No, he is not bad in bed," Izzie scoffed. "I just want him to meet some of my friends."

"60 geeks in scrubs are your friends?" Skylar raised an eyebrow. "Izzie, you have, like, five friends. And three of them live with you"

"Bad sex," Cristina teasingly grinned, standing up to answer a page she got. "Sucks for you."

"At least she's having sex," Skylar mumbled to herself. "I think I've become a virgin again." It came as a shock to her sister when she told her that she had sex. Her family was strict Christians, meaning that they taught their daughters to wait for marriage. Skylar never had that mindset, she lost her virginity a couple of months after high school, but she doesn't go parading around looking for someone to hook up with either. Her parents and sisters, excluding April, don't know that she's not a virgin anymore and they never will.

"Maybe you should pick up a one night stand," Izzie suggested, trying to have at least one person on her side.

George rolled his eyes, trying not to let his panic or jealousy be shown. "I doubt anyone there is going to want a one night stand—"

"I heard there's a party tonight at Meredith's house," Alex came in, butting into their conversation.

"News to me," Izzie denied as Skylar looked down. She was terrible at lying, and she and Alex had become somewhat close. They didn't hang out on their own but they weren't like the others where they called him Evil Spawn or an ass. But she did kind of want Alex there if she were looking for a one-night stand.

Skylar decided to make an in-the-moment decision and looked at him. "Yeah," she nodded, much to the irritation of the others. "There's a party, you should come."

Before the others could yell at her, the heart monitor started beeping in the OR below, and they intently observed. Burke eventually managed to get the patient's heart to start beating once again.


Bailey had invited both Skylar and George to work with her on a case. The redhead loved working with her resident, she actually found her quite pleasant and hilarious at times, and she actually taught her a lot of stuff, so she was more than thrilled to tag along. Now, looking at the patient's scans, the older woman questioned them.

The patient was being rolled back to her room while the doctors studied the x-rays. "What do you see?" Bailey asked her two interns.

"Hyper-inflated lungs, clouded with bullae, seriously diminished capacity. She must be having trouble breathing," George answered.

"Course of action?"

"A bullectomy procedure, remove the bullae, reduce the pressure," Skylar answered this time.

"It says here we operated on her back in '99, so Mrs. Drake has been through this before, but talk her through it anyway. And resist the anti-smoking lectures, she feels bad enough already," Webber informed them, then left the room.

"So you think if they put pictures of these on a pack of cigarettes people will stop smoking?" George wondered and Bailey gave him a look while shaking her head. Skylar had to hold in her laugh as the brunette awkwardly looked away. Bailey sent them to the patient's room before leaving herself. They were walking in silence. George didn't know what to say, seeming as if he was always flustered when he was alone in a room with her.

Skylar let out a small yawn and George looked at her—a little scared to speak up—but he did anyway. "You seem, um, tired."

"Yeah, I didn't sleep very well and I haven't had my daily three cups of coffee. I'll be fine though, but thanks for asking.

"That's what friends are for," George awkwardly said.

"You're not scared of me, are you?"

George gulped, "Why would you think that?"

She gave him a look. "I don't know. You always avoid being alone in a room. And you always look at me with these strange expressions. If you are…scared, I mean…you don't have to be. The only time I'm a bitch is in the morning."

George nodded along. "N–no, I mean, I'm not. It's just—you know…this party has been going through my mind a lot." It was a lame excuse and he knew it. And by the looks of it, Skylar knew it as well, but she wasn't going to comment on it. If something was bothering George, she was going to allow him to tell her on his own time.

She didn't get a chance to respond as they entered Mrs. Drake's room. They stood next to the patient's bed as they asked her some questions.

"The surgery before was supposed to help, but it—it never felt right," she told them as she took off the glasses and tried to put them on the nightstand. Skylar took the glasses from the woman after she saw her struggle and placed them on the table.

"Probably a good idea to quit smoking," George muttered as he wrote something down in her chart. Skylar turned her head to him, her eyes widened and she nudged him in the side. He did what Webber just told them not to do. George had thought that he had said it quietly, but everyone had heard what he said including Mrs. Drake.

"I did! Four pack a day habit. Oh, it was hell," a nurse offered her a blanket. They were prepping the woman for her surgery. "It didn't do any damn good."

"Really? Because it looked—I mean, from the damage, we all thought you were probably still smoking."

"George," Skylar whispered, giving him a look that said shut up.

"Cold turkey. Five years ago. What do I get for my trouble? I still had to quit my job at the restaurant. But even sitting, it hurt." A nurse adjusted her pillow for her. "Nobody believed me. They all said it was in my head."

"We've seen the films. It's not all in your head, Mrs. Drake," Skylar answered with a smile.

"You're right about that. Hey, come here," she said to the two interns and they moved. "You two are too damn young to be doctors."

"Hey, I'm older than I look," George replied with a smile on his face while Skylar did the same.

"I can assure you, that we're more than qualified," Skylar smiled

The nurses started wheeling her away. "Do you think this is going to work this time?"

"I think it's your best option," George responded as Skylar stepped away a bit so the nurses had more space to maneuver the gurney.

"And we certainly hope it does," Skylar said.

"Straight-shooters, huh? I like that. You're a nice couple."

"A…um—a what?" George stuttered.

Skylar's eyes widened in shock. "Oh, no, we're…we're not…" she attempted to explain, blushing.

"Huh, could have filled me," the patient answered, the interns looking at each other.


While filling out Mrs. Drake's chart at the nurse's station, Skylar smiled at Cristina as the girl approached. Realizing that the brunette was busy and hadn't noticed her, she shrugged it off and went back to her chart.

Her attention was then drawn to Dr. Burke when he walked up to the area with an extra coffee in hand and a suspiciously vague smile.

Now, as much as Skylar hated gossip, she didn't mind it when she witnessed it firsthand. She didn't like gossip and rumors when it was just that—rumors. So she never engaged in rumor spreading but found it quite entertaining to observe.

As casually as he could, Burke walked by Cristina, passing her the coffee as he went, never making eye contact with her. Skylar watched the entire thing. Cristina looked at him, then to the coffee, then back to him. Taking a sip from his own cup, Burke shrugged, "It's just coffee."

"Good," Cristina blankly replied.

"Okay."

"Okay."

Burke smugly nodded and left, causing Skylar to go back to her chart as he walked past her. Cristina, still unaware of the eyes watching her, closed her file, hesitated for a moment but still ended up drinking the coffee the attending bought her.

As she walked away, Burke peered around the corner and smiled to himself in victory when he saw her actions.

Skylar gaped at the place where she last saw Cristina, as the brunette rounded a corner. The redhead's eyes were wide with disbelief.

"Am I the only intern not banging an attending?"


Skylar and George were observing Mrs. Drake's surgery while Webber was operating on the woman. "We call this a spaghetti procedure. We cut and deflate the bullae to facilitate gentle manipulation of Mrs. Drake's lungs," Bailey explained to the two interns, looking at the screen that showed what Dr. Webber was doing.

"Dr. Bailey, do you see that?" Chief Webber asked when he noticed something weird between the woman's lungs.

"Sir?" She questioned, looking at the screen. "Oh my ever-lovin'…" She muttered when she realized there was something abnormal in her body.

"We need to open her up. I'm taking out the scope."

"You heard him, people. Let's move."

As the older surgeons operated, the interns intently watched, until the chief pulled something out of the woman. The two interns were trying to see what was going on when George recognized what it was.

"Is that a towel?" Everyone was pretty surprised and looked at the towel with wide eyes. "Where did that come from?"

"I'm guessing her surgery, five years ago," Skylar suggested, her mouth open slightly in disbelief.

"Something careless this way comes," said Dr. Bailey. After they took the towel out, they did a quick look over to see if anything else was wrong with the patient before they started closing her up. After the surgery was finished, Mrs. Drake was wheeled back to her room.

Skylar, George, Cristina, Bailey, and Webber were speed-walking down the hallway. They were filling Cristina in on what had happened during surgery and she was just as surprised.

"A towel?" The woman said, shocked.

"She complained of pressure on her chest, but nobody took her seriously," George explained.

"She says she'd always known the surgery didn't feel right and that it hadn't helped," Skylar informed, seeing her friend's expression turn into an even more surprised one.

"Not good for the patient, not good for the hospital. Not good," Webber told them.

"I'm guessing it's not good for the surgeon either," the redhead whispered so that only her fellow interns could hear.

"Cristina, hit the files. Find out everything you can about the initial operation. Who was in that room, who was responsible for closing? George and Skylar, stay with the patient and keep her happy. She likes you two." Skylar nodded and just as she was about to take off she heard her friend and stopped in her tracks.

"Right, okay, um, how long do you think…it's just, technically, I'm off at six," George complained.

"Am I invited?" Bailey questioned.

"Excuse me?"

"Am I invited to the party?"

"Oh! You, well, yeah. Yes. Yeah. Of course," George agreed, a bit surprised by Bailey's question. The resident walked away while the other two interns gave George a look. They did not want their resident, who was the boss of them, crashing their party. "What was I supposed to say?" Cristina rolled her eyes and ran off.

"Anything, Georgie. Anything but that." Skylar patted George's shoulder as he let out a frustrated sigh. George kept apologizing to her as they walked to the patient's room.


"Told me I had a towel inside me," Mrs. Drake spoke, having a hard time coming to terms with what was happening.

"Who told you that?" George asked, Skylar by his side.

"A surgeon, uh, older man, handsome." It came out weakly as if even talking used too much energy for the woman.

"Must be Dr. Webber. He's the Chief of Surgery," Skylar informed, looking at the woman with compassionate eyes and a small smile.

"It was a towel somebody left last time," the woman shared. "Who would do that?" Her voice broke a bit and Skylar looked down at her with sympathy. She couldn't imagine the pain she was in for five years because of a mistake like that. "That doesn't seem right, does it?" She teared up slightly.

"No, ma'am, no. It doesn't."

"I was walking around with a towel inside of me. How could that happen?" Skylar looked at her friend and saw that he appeared to be as distraught as she was herself.

"I don't know. But you're okay now. You'll get better." She held the woman's hand, attempting to give her some comfort. She missed the look of pure awe and adoration that George sent her way.


Mrs. Drake ended up falling asleep, so George and Skylar wandered the hallways for a while before seeing Meredith and Cristina in the tunnels. Skylar sat down next to Cristina while George stood next to Meredith, who was sitting at a table.

"You got called before the chief?" George asked Meredith. The latter had accidentally nicked a woman's heart during the surgery that they were watching earlier that day because she had been so tired. Then a complication had arisen and Meredith had said that it might have been her fault in front of the patient's husband. So, she and Burke had been called to the Chief's office.

"Tomorrow morning. I could get kicked out of the program. I could, right?"

"You're not going to get kicked out, Mer," Skylar tried to assure her friend. "At least, I hope not."

"Patterson's just going to sue," Cristina mentioned, trying to calm down Meredith.

"Patterson is not going to sue and you're not getting kicked out," George added while glaring at Cristina.

"What the hell were you thinking? Telling Burke. So stupid," Cristina told her.

"I told her not to," George revealed.

"What? No! She should have. Maybe not in front of the patient's husband, Mer, but what if it did cause a problem. Plus, I think the Chief will see that you actually revealed professionalism and honesty by coming forward. You should have just not done it in front of the husband." Skylar tightly smiled at Meredith, making a small smile show up on the blonde's face. "At the very least your conscience is clear. I can say I've always had a hard time dealing with a heavy conscience…"

Meredith's phone then rang. When she recognized the caller ID, she immediately got up and walked away to take the phone call in private. When she left, Izzie showed up and took her place on the gurney. The blonde had two coffees, a banana, water, pudding, and other things in her hands. Cristina and Skylar took one of the coffees each, but Cristina also grabbed the banana. George took the pudding and the water bottle.

"Okay, so beer is coming at seven, and four nurses are bringing wine," she informed them.

"Nurses? You invited nurses?" Cristina complained.

"Did you clear this with Meredith?" George confirmed.

"A few more people isn't gonna make a difference. A party is a party."

"Actually, it is," Skylar started. "She has a career changing meeting tomorrow and so you are going to make sure you talk to her about this, Izzie, are we clear? It's her house!" Skylar spat out like an angry mother scolding her child.

"Oh, Red gets scary when she's mad…anyway, the bigger the party the less time for bad sex."

"Can you stop saying that! Hank and I have great sex all the time. In fact we'll probably have sex after or during the party." The blond snacked on some fries, Skylar occasionally stealing a few.

"As long as you clear it with Meredith," George told her and Skylar made an approving noise.

"Hank just needs to realize that doctors can have fun. We're not all workaholics with God complexes." Izzie ignored George's statement and looked at Cristina again.

"Who are we kidding, we kind of are," Skylar laughed, stealing a couple more fries from the blonde. George showed her a glove balloon, which now had a face on the palm, making her chuckle.


Later that night, Skylar lay on one of the benches in the locker room. She was holding a magazine that covered the world of medicine above her face. But she couldn't bring herself to actually read it. She'd just watched Izzie and Alex scrub in on a surgery, even though she was supposed to already be home. She just couldn't bring herself to go to the party.

Earlier, she had seen Dr. Burke and Dr. Bailey speaking, and after overhearing part of their conversation, had realized that Burke was the surgeon responsible for leaving a towel inside of her patient. It scared her a bit. Granted, the girl didn't particularly like the man, but he was a good surgeon. If he'd made such a blatant mistake, what would stop others from doing the same? And worse, he hadn't come forward about the problem, endangering a woman's life in the process.

Now, the heartbroken woman's complaints and the sight of the towel coming out of her wouldn't leave Skylar's head. She barely even noticed Alex Karev entering the locker room.

"Hey, what are you still doing here?" He asked, making her jump. "Not in the mood for a party?"

"Just a complicated day, I guess. Lots to think about," she told him, putting down her magazine and sitting up. He started to change out of his scrubs, her staring off into space.

Looking at her with compassionate eyes, the boy sighed, as if compelling himself not to continue the conversation. That seemed to fail, as a few seconds later, he sat next to her.

"Want to talk about it?" He asked.

"It's not that big of a deal, really. It's just today, we found my patient had a towel inside of her from a surgery she'd gotten five years ago. She spent five years in pain and no one believed her…" She trailed off for a moment and then continued. "Just makes me think about how much responsibility we hold. We could change someone's life, for better or for worse, without even knowing it. In a minute, we could make a mistake, ruin somebody's whole life and future…I don't know, I'd just like to know that when I'm helping someone, I'm actually helping them," she ended with a sigh.

"I think you're too good for your own good, Red. This job can really suck sometimes," the boy agreed. This was such a heartfelt conversation, that they were so focused on it, that they didn't realize how close they had gotten to each other.

"It really can. You know, Alex Karev, I don't think you're nearly as bad as you tell yourself you are," Skylar softly said. That's when Alex realized the proximity between them. They both made an impulsive decision at that moment, and that decision may or may not have ruined their friendship—they didn't know at the moment. All they did was smash their lips together.


The next morning, Skylar found herself waking up in an on-call room. She was still slightly out of it, having just woken up, but everything started to come back to her. And that's when she realized she was naked and her clothes were on the floor—and a naked man was laying next to her. And, even worse, that man was Alex Karev.

So, as quietly and as slowly as she could, she slid out of the small bed and got dressed. She didn't know how she did it, but she did it without waking Alex up. At the moment, she didn't know if she regretted sleeping with Alex or not. On the one hand, he was her friend, and she knew what sleeping with friends did to that relationship. She made that mistake in college. But she didn't think Alex was the type of guy to be upset about not wanting a relationship—she, sure as hell didn't want a relationship.

As she walked out to her car, she just thought she would do her best to try and keep her friendship with Alex.


"Oh God, what happened? How many people came to this thing?" She said, scrunching her nose in disgust as she looked around the room. She sat down on the couch beside Meredith, who was laying on the floor.

"I don't know, I'm too hungover to think."

George came in and handed Meredith some coffee. "Why didn't you come home last night, Sky? I was getting a bit worried…"

"Um…" Skylar trailed off, not knowing whether to tell them the truth or not. Her mind tended to make some pretty impulsive decisions lately, and this decision was one of them. "I slept with Alex."

Both of them said nothing and just stared at her with wide eyes. She was too busy looking at the floor to notice their stares, however. She missed Meredith's look of disappointment and George's look of betrayal. But before either of them could speak, Izzie came in with a look of shock and horror on her face.

"Holy mother of destruction!"

"You missed doctor-palooza," Meredith said, deciding to talk to Skylar later about, what Meredith thinks, was a mistake. "I should probably never speak to you again," she joked.

"I'm so sorry Meredith, I had no idea it was gonna get so…" the blonde sat down next to George, trailing off, not knowing what the right word was.

"Crazy? Destructive? Messy?" Skylar suggested. Izzie playfully glared at her.

"It's okay. Really, I don't care. What would I be doing anyway? Not sleeping around." The last part of the sentence was directed at Skylar, who looked down in shame. She didn't think that this is how her friends would react. If anything, she thought that they wouldn't care, or they would treat it as nothing new, but she was wrong.

"Preparing for a career-altering meeting?" George said, breaking the tension in the room. Izzie slightly noticed it but decided it wasn't much so she didn't comment on it. Skylar sent him a grateful look, but he couldn't make eye contact with her.

"That heart wall shouldn't have torn…" Meredith got distracted by what George said.

"Anything in the patient's history?" Izzie questioned as she picked up a random beer bottle.

"Husband said she was in the best shape of her life, she lost a 100 pounds last year."

"100 pounds in a year, how's her muscle mass?" Izzie asked as she took a sip from the beer that she held in her hand.

"Do you even know whose that was?" George questioned, slightly disgusted.

"I was hoping it was yours." It wasn't.


George, Cristina, Izzie, and Skylar were standing on the walkway, looking into the Chief's office. Meredith was having her meeting in there with Burke, the Chief, and a lawyer. Skylar was bouncing her leg, hoping that everything would turn out alright and that Meredith wasn't going to be fired. "So what, do you think?" Izzie asked the other three interns.

"50 says Meredith gets tossed out on her ass and Burke walks away clean," Cristina answered, while Skylar rolled her eyes at her comment.

"Really, Cristina? That's terrible, be nice," Skylar said.

The meeting ended sooner than they thought and Meredith left the room. She looked relieved and started walking toward the four of them when Derek intercepted her. He asked her if everything was alright.

"Yeah. One month probation." He nodded before walking away, so she could go to her friends. "Burke saved my ass in there." Meredith stood in front of them.

Bailey arrived and looked at her interns. "Don't you all have something better to do? C'mon people, move!" They all hurried away. Back to work.

When Skylar learned that Burke had come forward about the towel situation, she felt a weight lifted off her chest. Maybe he'd made a mistake, but he'd taken responsibility and tried to fix it. And if he had, what would stop others from doing the same?


Words: 478

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