AS SKYLAR OPENED her door, already dressed and ready to go to work, she had to stumble back a step. George was in front of her door, holding two cups of coffee. She smiled and curiously eyed him.
"Oh, hi! What's going on, Georgie?" The girl asked with furrowed brows as the boy looked at her, seemingly embarrassed. She didn't know about his struggle to hold the two cups of coffee and knock on her door at the same time.
"I, well…I—I brought you some coffee," he said.
"Oh, thank you." She smiled at him and gave him a sweet look, taking the cup and heading for the bathroom.
Once Skylar closed the door behind her, Izzie walked by and teased George. "Wouldn't it be easier to just ask her out?"
He blushed and sipped his coffee as Skylar came out of the bathroom and walked toward her room to get her stuff.
"Meredith's gonna be late," the boy commented about the girl who had yet to leave her room.
"Maybe not," Izzie said.
"We should warn her," he suggested.
"Definitely not," the blonde answered. "I'm not her mother and you're not her dad. She'll be fine."
"I might warn her we're leaving," Skylar said, going down the hall to softly knock on Meredith's door and loudly saying, "We're leaving, Mer. See you at work."
As she was doing this, Izzie and George were having a hushed conversation so the redhead couldn't hear.
"Stop, okay? I told you I'm not interested."
"Life is short, George. Do you really want to die before you ever ask her out?"
"I do not want to ask her out."
"Do you really want to die a liar?"
"I'm not…I'm not dying."
"Who's dying?" Skylar questioned, coming back to the two.
"No one, Sky. No one's dying." He put a hand on her back as he guided her to the stairs. But not without sending Izzie a glare first.
Alex and Skylar both got to the hospital earlier than the others. They worked together on a case the whole morning. Neither of them mentioned what went on between them and Skylar was happy about that. She wouldn't be able to deal with tension for the rest of the week, or month.
"Cristina, you're late," Bailey said as the intern came rushing up to the group who was ready to round on patients.
"So is Meredith!" Cristina pointed out.
"Child," Skylar insulted, earning herself a playful jab to the arm. Skylar chuckled at her response.
Bailey ignored Cristina's statement and kept walking. Skylar had learned that Bailey had caught Meredith and Derek mid-make-out session the night before and she had also noticed a change in the way the blonde was treated.
Bailey stopped walking before entering Alex and Skylar's patient's room. "When we walk through this door, you will maintain decorum. You will not laugh, vomit, or drop your jaw. Are we understood?" Bailey ordered. The interns were completely clueless. All except Alex and Skylar wore confused looks. Alex hid his smile, already knowing what was behind the door while Skylar just expectantly stared at her resident. Bailey opened the door to room 2111 and everyone followed her.
"Why would we laugh?" Izzie asked.
"Oh, just you wait," Alex muttered, making Skylar elbow him.
"Good morning, Ms. Connors," Bailey greeted her patient. Annie, the patient, smiled at Skylar and Alex, to which they both returned.
"Good morning." The woman was lying in her hospital bed with an extremely large tumor on her side. Everyone's eyes widened when they saw the tumor. George, who was standing behind the other four interns, couldn't see very well and asked what it was. Cristina told him it was a tumor, her eyes still on it.
"Good morning, Annie. How are you? This is Dr. Bailey and these are my fellow interns. And of course, you already know Skylar." The interns, excluding Skylar, raised their brows at Alex's behavior. He was actually being friendly. He was never nice to anyone, not even his patients. Skylar had already seen him with Annie, and she already knew what kind of guy Alex was. He was the kind to act tough to cover up what he deems as a weak side, but in reality, it's just what everyone wants to see.
"Dr. Karev, we refer to patients as—" Bailey began before she was cut off by Annie.
"I told him to call me Annie. Miss Connors makes me feel old and fat, which I am, but why feel that way?"
Bailey shook her head with a smile on her face.
"Good morning," Burke said as he entered the room as confident as ever.
"Annie, this is Dr. Burke, our head of cardiothoracic surgery," Skylar explained, noticing the glances between him and Cristina, which told her they were still sleeping together. Before she dwelled on that any longer, she started presenting to Dr. Burke. "Annie Connors, 43 years old, presented last night with progressive shortness of breath for the past three months. Found to have a large tumor of unknown origin pressed against her diaphragm. Vital signs are stable, and she's scheduled for a CT this morning, sir."
"Thank you, Dr. Kepner," Burke nodded before looking at Annie. "Are you at all claustrophobic?"
"I've been housebound for the last year, how claustrophobic could I be?" Both Alex and Skylar shot her sympathetic smiles.
"Dr. Stevens is going to take you up for a CT. It'll give us a better look at the tumor, and we'll know how to proceed from there," the attending explained.
"Could someone tell my mom? She'll worry if she gets back and I'm not here…and would it be possible for Alex to take me instead? He's just so fun to look at," the patient requested. The other interns, excluding Skylar once again, looked at each other, clearly confused by the woman's request but kept a straight face. This was the first time a patient actually liked Alex.
"Sure, Miss Connors. Excuse me," Burke said before he left the room.
The interns, not including Alex, left the room as well. They were gossiping about the woman and her tumor.
"How much do you think it weighs?" Meredith asked.
"60 pounds?" George guessed.
"More," Izzie shook her head. "She's carrying around a whole extra person."
"Guys, cut it out," Skylar interjected. "She's a human being and you're talking about her like you're gonna take bets."
"This one is going in the books! I've got to get in," Cristina exclaimed, ignoring the redhead.
"I almost did. Have you ever seen Alex like that? He actually seemed sincere," Izzie said.
"He was on call this morning when she came in, and I helped him get her to her room," Skylar explained.
Cristina frowned, "I am never leaving this place again."
"Let's move, people. Ms. Connors' surgery, should we choose to proceed, will take most, if not all, of the surgeons off the floor, which means you people will have to work extra hard not to kill anyone because we won't be there to fix your mistakes," Bailey warned her interns as she walked through the hallway, them following close behind.
Later that day, Skylar was walking by the CT room and overheard Alex's voice. She then remembered that Annie must have been in there, so she stopped by to check on what was happening.
"I've never seen anything like this," she heard the CT tech say.
"Well, what I don't understand is how a person lets it get like that," Alex shook his head. "I mean, that is a whole lot of nasty."
Skylar stepped into the room, with a disbelieving look on her face. "Alex, be quiet."
"Excuse me?" He asked, his voice a mixture of annoyance and shock.
"You don't get to judge a patient when you have no idea what she's been through or what her life is like, so just be quiet."
"Maybe she's afraid of doctors, poor thing," the technician suggested.
"Poor thing?" Alex scoffed. "Please. If you're afraid of doctors you take a pill. She's just sick. Like, warped, you know? Seriously, I don't know how she lives with herself."
"Hey," Skylar suddenly snapped. "We don't know her life. So you're not going to sit on your asses and assume things…" She looked at the technician next. "Or criticize her…" She went back to Alex. "Because we don't know. And last time I checked you were a surgeon. Your job is to take care of her, not judge her or talk badly about her, especially when you pretend to be friends with her. I actually thought you were a nice guy, Alex." With that, she turned to leave, done with the conversation.
"You paged, sir?" Skylar asked Burke, who called her to Annie's room a few hours later. Seeing that the patient was awake, she quickly put a smile on her face. "Hey, Annie, how are you feeling?"
"Ms. Connors has personally requested for you to scrub in on her surgery," Burke informed her. "There's an open spot since Dr. Karev was kicked off the case."
"Okay," Skylar slowly said, confused as to why he was kicked off.
"I heard," Annie bluntly said.
"I'm sorry?"
"When I was getting my scan. I think they forgot to turn off the microphone or something. I heard everything you guys were saying."
"Annie, I'm so sorry—"
"Thank you."
Skylar looked between her boss and the patient, confused. "Why are you thanking me?"
"You stood up for me," she shrugged. "I don't know why, but you did. So, thank you."
Skylar just gave her a smile in response. "Well, you deserve to have someone to stand up for you."
Skylar was sitting outside on her own. She was eating the applesauce she bought from the cafeteria. She was scanning the outside sitting area when she saw Cristina and Meredith nearing her table with their trays in hand. "It's just that he blatantly favors me in front of her and then blatantly dismisses me," Meredith ranted to her best friends as they sat down at the table.
"Is this about what happened during rounds?" Skylar asked and Meredith nodded. During rounds when Izzie was presenting her patient, Dr. Shepherd asked her a question that she didn't know the answer to. This caused Meredith to speak up, and Dr. Shepherd immediately replaced Meredith with Izzie on the case. Right in front of Bailey too. "He's walking a dangerous road. I'm pretty sure that Bailey has caught on. She seemed pretty pissed when he put you on the case. Does she know?"
"Yeah, remember the party? Me and Derek ended up making out in his car. Bailey saw us." Skylar's eyes widened when Meredith filled her in on what happened.
"How do you know he was favoring you?" Cristina asked, earning her a look from the blonde. "Look, you've got a brain, you got into this program. Just because Shepherd munched your cookies doesn't mean you didn't deserve what you worked for."
"I guess, but it might look really bad, though," Skylar added.
"I have to end it. It's over."
"Right."
"Uh, huh. You know what they say, if I had a dollar…" Skylar joked.
"Is it true you get to scrub in on that tumor?" Alex went to sit at their table. Izzie was right behind him.
"Don't sit here," Cristina immediately said.
"Yeah, until you apologize there's a risk I might yell at you again," Skylar threatened. This made Cristina laugh at this side of her friend.
"You get to scrub in? How psyched are you?" Izzie asked as she sat down with a huge smile on her face.
"On a scale of one to ecstatic," Cristina said. "Ecstatic," she and Skylar said in unison.
"It's unbelievable. You know what I think? I think Burke wants to get into your scrubs," Alex accused as he sat down at the table where the others were sitting.
"Why are you sitting with us?" Skylar questioned. She was upset that the guy that so easily judged Annie for her life choices, was the same guy that reassured her about becoming a surgeon in the locker room, and it was the same guy she slept with. She also asked that, because she knew Burke had already gotten into Cristina's scrubs, and the brunette didn't seem like one to flaunt her relationship.
Alex sent her a glare before he continued to talk to Cristina. "He kicked me off that surgery for the same crap you pull every day."
"You know what. If I stick this fork into his thigh, would I get in trouble?" Cristina wondered, holding a plastic fork in front of her face.
"Not if you make it look like an accident," Meredith answered with a smile.
"I'll even help you," Skylar added as she shot Alex a fake smile.
He rolled his eyes and took a bite of his food. "You know, all this coming from the girl that slept with me."
"You slept with Alex?"
"You slept with him?"
Izzie and Cristina both questioned, as Skylar sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Thanks," she sarcastically said to the boy. Alex just shrugged, taking another bite of his sandwich. He thought she would have told people, but obviously not. Before they could say anything else, George joined them and took a seat next to Skylar.
"Thank God, man. I'm drowning in estrogen here."
"You look…is everything okay?" George asked Skylar once he saw her slightly mad face.
"Alex is a jackass," she bluntly said.
"What else is new?" He jokingly said. Alex was just ignoring them as everyone else laughed. Izzie was still looking between the redhead and Alex with slightly wide eyes.
"Wow…" Cristina muttered. "Who knew Red had a wild side?"
"What happened?" George asked. Skylar just sent him a look that told him all he needed to know. Alex had told everyone that they had sex. George slightly curled in on himself, not wanting to talk about the two's relationship. "Are you okay, Mer?" He then asked. Skylar stole his applesauce from his tray with a smile. He just let it go, not having the confidence to say no to her.
"Shepherd's a jackass," she repeated what Skylar said.
"Really? I think he's kind of great," Izzie beamed, a smile on her lips while putting some food in her mouth. She still felt a little weird—and disgusted—that Skylar and Alex slept together. All Skylar wanted to do was leave, but she didn't have a good excuse.
"He reamed her out in front of Bailey," Cristina explained.
"Why?"
"'Cause he's a jackass," Meredith answered.
"Oh," George replied to the blonde's statement. "Well, bad days are…bad."
Meredith's pager went off and she got up. "I gotta go."
"How about you, Sky? Happy to get to scrub in?"
"Happy? I'm over the moon. Plus, I really like Annie, I'm happy I can help her," She answered, eating the applesauce she stole from the brunette.
"Well, you know, later if it goes well, we could, you know, if you drink alcohol, we could—to celebrate—we could go get some drinks. Um, all of us—I mean, we could all…we could all get drinks," he stuttered, clearly uncomfortable. Alex, Izzie, and Cristina all shared a look, trying to hold in their laugh. George was trying to ask Skylar out, but she didn't realize it.
"I'd love to, Georgie, but maybe another time? It's going to be a long surgery, and I think I'm just gonna pass out afterward…" She smiled at him, her admiration for the boy leaking through. Her pager went off and she looked at it. "I gotta go." She got up and left with a smile toward her friends.
"Dude," Alex said, shaking his head and chuckling.
"I can't believe you slept with Sky!" Izzie whisper-yelled, hitting Alex a bit too hard on the arm.
"Ow."
Burke, George, Cristina, and Skylar were scrubbing in for Annie Connors' surgery. The three interns were washing their hands while looking through the window into the O.R. "If they pull this off, I'm totally calling Oprah," Cristina stated, which made Skylar chuckle. Bailey then entered the scrub room.
"You three been working out?" She asked.
"Um, sometimes I jog, and I try to take the stairs whenever possible," George answered.
"Why?" Cristina wondered.
"See that large pile of tumor? You're going to be retracting it for the next 14 hours, so I'm just saying I hope you have strong backs," Bailey responded. The three interns exchanged glances. They weren't excited anymore.
Five hours later, they were still in the middle of Annie's surgery. The three interns had been retracting the tumor for what felt like forever. "We need to hang another bag of O-neg," one of the nurses said when she noticed that the current blood bag was empty. Burke was commentating on what he was doing as he was doing it, but Skylar wasn't listening. At the moment. She was trying to think of happy memories, like celebrating her 21st birthday with her sister, April.
They were both in college at the time, and April was the only one to actually buy a plane ticket to go see her sister on her birthday. April always said that your 21st birthday should be celebrated with the people you are close to—and so they could go clubbing. It was just a small get-together, but Skylar wouldn't change it. It was her, April, and a few of her friends from college. They went clubbing until two in the morning—they were just glad that it was the middle of summer and didn't have to do schoolwork the next day. After they drank their hearts out, they went to a pancake house. They laughed and filled up on pancakes. That hadn't been the best part though. The best part was when they got back to Skylar's apartment and April pulled out a small gift from her suitcase. It was four bracelets. Two were made of braided leather and the other two were beaded. They each wore one of the two—one leather and one beaded—and Skylar still wore them to this day.
"My back is seriously killing me," George muttered to his friends, who were standing on either side of him.
"George, shut up. We're in here."
Three hours later, Annie's surgery was still progressing as Alex entered the gallery to watch.
"My God, it's as thick as a thumb! You've seen a vessel this size?" Bailey commented when she noticed the size of an artery. Skylar sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. She couldn't think away the pain anymore. It felt like her arms were going to fall off at any moment.
"We need more O-neg," Bailey informed.
"I'll call the blood bank," Cristina said as she let go of the tumor and walked up to the phone on the wall. When she did that, George struggled with the weight and let the tumor slip as he slightly shifted.
"Damn it, O'Malley. Do you want me to kill this patient?" Burke scolded him.
"No, I—sorry…"
"I mean, is the art of retracting just too much for you?" Skylar furrowed her brows slightly. She didn't like how harsh the attending was being. She had to control the urge to protect her friend from him.
Finally, Shepherd arrived, after finishing his surgery with Meredith. "Oh, wow. Look at that. Now, how am I supposed to get around that artery? All right, then. Forceps," Derek thought out loud.
A little bit later, Izzie entered the O.R. with a sigh. She was tired of having to run the whole floor because someone wasn't answering his pager. "Mr. Harper, the post-op heart patient in 2114. I had to open his sternotomy bedside." Everyone turned to look at her in awe and shock.
"You what?
"What?"
"He had cardiac tamponade. His chest films were clean this morning. It just…it happened fast. He was in PEA. There was no time," Izzie explained. Derek gave Burke permission to leave and get to the patient. He had it handled.
Burke quickly scrubbed out and Karev entered the scrub room to talk to Izzie. His yells could be heard in the OR. "You opened a heart bedside and you couldn't even page me? Needed all the glory for yourself, right?"
"I did. I paged you 50 times! Do you have any idea what I have been through?" Izzie yelled back. The surgeons exchanged some looks as the boy quieted down, but soon heard a renewed yell. "You forgot? You forgot?" She slammed his pager out of his hands and onto the floor and stomped on it. "You are hateful! You are a hateful, lazy, arrogant, hateful man!"
"Never a dull moment here at Seattle Grace…" Derek commented, right before a blood vessel burst. Blood spewed out onto Skylar, Bailey, and Derek. The OR burst into chaos.
"Oh my God!" Cristina exclaimed.
They needed more blood, which was a problem and a half. They didn't have any and were currently waiting for two more units. It was pretty chaotic as everyone yelled for more blood and the surgeons ordered for tools.
"I can't see. Skylar, give me your hand. Push right down here. Pull it toward you. Suction! Suction!" Derek ordered, panicking a bit.
"Pressure's dropping."
"Where the hell is that blood?" Derek snapped. Alex, watching the commotion in the OR, ran out of the scrub room to get the blood. "Push it back, Skylar. Come on." Everyone was breathless. Annie's heartbeat started flat-lining. "Some suction, please, in here, now. Come on. We're losing her now." Derek started doing CPR. "Come on! Come on! Come on!" He yelled. A sweaty and bloody Skylar looked up at the man. Everyone knew the patient was too far gone. When he noticed her gaze, he stopped his movements, the sound of heavy breathing and the patient flatlining were the only sounds in the OR. "Time of death is 11:42." He ripped off his gown and headlamp.
"I got it!" Alex came running into the room, blood in his hands. He stopped short when he saw everyone was clearing out. Skylar walked next to Cristina and George, her arms and back hurt so much. Then Bailey tapped on George's shoulder, motioning that they had to go tell Annie's mother about her daughter's death. Skylar shot him a faint smile and they parted ways.
Later that night, Skylar and George sat side by side in the locker rooms, staring into space. "You didn't have to stay with me. I'm fine," Skylar spoke up.
"I know…" he whispered. "I want to, though? Do you want to talk about it?"
After a couple of moments, Skylar sighed. "She deserved better. She was sweet and nice. She didn't deserve it."
George placed his hand on Skylar's, wrapping his fingers around her palm. "My mom used to say bad things happen to good people…"
"No…I refused to believe that." She stroked her thumb on George's hand, absentmindedly as she shook her head. "What's the point if that's true? I…I just…think too much sometimes…" Skylar looked up at George, grateful for him in her life.
"I know you do. It's one of the things that make you…you." They shared a smile before quieting down once again. They found comfort just by being beside one another.
Words: 4140
If any of you are confused about Skylar's relationship with her family, she isn't really close to her parents or sisters besides April. She and April are one year apart in age, Skylar being younger, so they were the closest. And her other sisters bullied her growing up like they did to April. Also, Skylar's not super religious, she does pray once in a while but doesn't strictly follow the 'rules' like April does.
Hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to Favorite, Follow, and Review
