AS SOON AS Cristina, George, and Skylar entered Joe's bar, the entire bar cheered. "All hail the champ!" Joe exclaimed as they took a seat next to Meredith at the bar. Skylar had waited for her friends outside of the hospital to walk with them and when she saw Meredith come out, she told her to wait so she could get a head start on drinking. She wondered what happened to her in those five minutes that she was alone that she made her need to drown her sorrows away in liquor. "So, my guy Alex finally got what was coming to him, huh?"

"George knocked him dead on one punch, should have seen it," Cristina bragged. Skylar laughed and flopped down into a seat between George and Cristina.

"I don't want to talk about it!" George practically yelled.

"Brag, champ. You've earned it," Joe encouraged.

"Can I have a beer, please?" George ordered.

"Gin and tonic," Skylar ordered herself a drink.

"Let's play a game of whose life sucks the most," Meredith suggested. "I'll win, I always win."

"No, you don't want to play with me," Cristina shook her head. Skylar looked at her, knowing what she was hiding, as she took a sip of her drink.

"Oh, I do," she insisted. "I'll even go first. Derek's married."

At that, George spit out his beer. "George, beer is dripping from your nostrils," Cristina cringed, disgust on her face that mirrored Skylar's expression. George fled to the bathroom to get cleaned up.

"Married? To who?" Skylar asked, shocked. Derek didn't seem like the type of guy to do that or hide something that major from someone important in his life.

"Some woman named Addison. Told you I'd win."

Cristina sighed. "No, you didn't win."

"Did you hear me? I said Derek is married. As in pigheaded, adulterous, liar, married." Skylar kept drinking her beverage as Meredith went on. "Nothing you can say can top that."

"Shall I?" Skylar asked and Cristina gave her an encouraging nod. "She's pregnant."

"I win," Cristina finished. Meredith gaped at her two friends, but before she could say anything Joe fell to the floor behind them. All three of them got up to help.

Joe tried to stand up but Skylar protested. "Joe, you gotta lie back down."

Someone in the bar yelled out that the medics had been called which wasn't something that Joe had wanted. "You called the gurney patrol?" He sighed. He really didn't want to go to the hospital. All four of the interns were checking on Joe and telling him that he needed to get tests done.

"You're sleeping with someone?" Meredith questioned Cristina, going back to their previous conversation.

"Is that such a shock, even George managed to get some action," Cristina answered, the hazel-eyed girl lightly hitting her on the arm.

"Correction, George got some syphilis," he corrected.

"How could I not know you were sleeping with someone and Skylar did?" Meredith said.

"In Cristina's defense, I figured it out, she didn't tell me."

"Of course, you did, you figure everything out. You're very observant and it kind of scares me," Meredith pointed out and Skylar just shrugged. She actually quite liked that part of her, it meant that she could easily tell when a person was upset, happy, or sarcastic so she could easily comfort them if they needed it depending on their mood.

"Forget this, the hospital is right across the street," Joe started, standing up. "I can sure as hell walk across the street by myself," he complained, walking out the door. The four interns all shared a look before rushing after him.


"All right. Details. You're pregnant?" Meredith asked Cristina. Those two and Skylar were all hanging out by the nurse's station. They were waiting to hear the news on Joe and to see what was wrong with him. "What are you gonna do?"

"You know what happens to pregnant interns. I'm not switching to the vagina squad or spending my life popping zits. I'm too talented, surgery is my life," Cristina argued.

"And as such, we are supporting Cristina on her legal right to choose," Skylar informed the blonde.

"Which begs the question: who are you sleeping with?" Meredith insisted.

"Does that really matter?" Skylar asked, knowing Cristina was uncomfortable sharing that information.

"Just a guy."

"That's all I get? Am I going to have to corrupt Skylar into telling me?" She threatened, Skylar's eyes going wide.

"Not a word, Red," Cristina warned.

"My lips are sealed. If there's something I learned this year it's that I'm much better at keeping secrets than I thought I was," she promised.

"That's going to backfire on us one day when it's your secrets," Cristina complained. She didn't want to admit that she loved the gossip train when it wasn't about her.

"You can't just bring something like this up and expect me to drop it!" Meredith pleaded.

Cristina sighed in annoyance after sending Skylar a grateful look for not talking about it more. "Watch me."

"Why are you back here tonight, don't you have a date with McDreamy?" Izzie questioned as she and George joined the trio.

"More like McMarried," George said, earning himself an elbow to the side from Skylar.

"McWhat?" Izzie gasped, eyes wide in shock.

"We came to check on Joe, you think he's gonna be okay?" Skylar changed the subject.

"You think he's gonna need an operation?" Cristina questioned with a bit too much excitement in her voice than what was acceptable at the moment. The second Skylar saw Derek out of the corner of her eye, a frown made its way onto her face.

"Operation, yes. Okay—hard to tell," he said. Meredith rolled her eyes, avoiding eye contact with him. "The basilar artery is blown up like a balloon,subarachnoid bleeding and an aneurism the size of a golf ball."

"There's no way to clip something like that," George scoffed.

"Not without magic fingers," Skylar commented.

"Or a stand still operation," Derek revealed. He looked down at the chart in his hand one more time. He still felt extremely guilty about what went down earlier that night. His wife had come back and she knew about him and Meredith. She also saw the two of them together before she started talking to them. He figured it would take a while for Meredith to forgive or trust him again.

Cristina, on the other hand, was fangirling. She immediately perked up. "You're doing a standstill opera—" At the group's judging looks, she explained with a shrug. "He's doing a standstill operation!"

"I'd like to try. But first I need some additional patient history, overnight labs and a cerebral angio." He handed Meredith the chart, but she didn't take it, instead, she glared at him.

"I'm drunk," she bluntly said.

"Meredith?" Derek said, but she walked away, not wanting to be near him anymore. George grabbed the chart from Derek's hand.

As the man tried to leave, the four interns all got in his way, pretending they didn't know what they were doing. "McBastard," Izzie whispered as Derek walked by her.

Derek only glanced at them for a split second before ignoring their comments and walking away. What shocked the other interns was when Cristina took the chart from George.

"What are you doing?" George wondered, not knowing why Cristina would even want to work with Derek after what he had just pulled.

"Uh, I am on her side, but we're talking about a possible standstill here. Recognize," she explained and took off while Skylar and George went back to the entrance where she had seen Meredith runoff. She wasn't alone though, Derek was there as well and she was shouting at him. She stomped off to her car when George and Skylar ran outside under the safety of the boy's umbrella to accompany her in this difficult time.


Slowly, but surely, the sun started to rise, and the intern locker room started to fill. George was talking to Skylar and Izzie about his altercation with Alex. "I'm not a violent person. I'm a pacifist. But, you know, he just kept pushing and pushing. He pushed me, I pushed back." George kept looking over his shoulder to where Alex was standing. "I was pushed. And now he—"

"You know what, if Alex tries to lay a hand on you, just tell me, I'll take care of it," Izzie promised him with Skylar nodding in agreement. The two of them were best friends, and she would not hold back if Alex tried something on George. Even though she and Alex were entering the 'friend' stage. But she would do anything to protect George.

"We'll kick his ass," Skylar added. George rolled his eyes, but he appreciated the gesture. He had never thought that he would ever be friends with someone like Skylar. She was a beautiful, smart, confident, and caring woman. She stood up for him which none of his friends in high school ever did. Sometimes he wondered if she felt the same way she did. And wondered if anything would ever come of them. But he also didn't need or want anyone protecting him, he wanted to show that he was capable of standing up for himself.

"You? I don't need you to take care of it. If Alex starts something, I'll handle it myself. I can handle it," George tried to sound tough. Bailey entered the locker room, her interns quickly gathering around her.

"Okay, people, assignments. Yang, you're on discharges. O'Malley, report to room E19. Grey, Kepner, come see me. And who was on call last night?" Bailey ordered. Izzie and Alex shared a look and raised their hands. Bailey shook her head and handed them a stack of charts. "Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. Redo these and return them to me before lunch, understood?"

"Understood," Alex said, clenching his jaw.

"Karev, don't tempt me."

As the rest of the group left to do their respective jobs, the resident turned to Skylar and Meredith. "Somebody's popular."

"Meaning?" Meredith questioned.

"Meaning there's been a special request for both of you," Bailey said leading them down the hallway. As Dr. Bailey started slowing down, Meredith and Skylar saw Burke, Derek, and, who Skylar could only assume was the new attending, talking.

"I was just checking to see if Dr. Burke secured the—" She was cut off by Meredith.

"Interns you requested," she completed and the attending smiled. Skylar recognized her as the woman she ran into the night before Meredith and Derek broke up. What she didn't know was who the woman was in Derek's life.

When she saw the terrified faces of everyone except Burke, Skylar decided to intervene, slightly confused at the tension. "Dr. Skylar Kepner, nice to meet you."

The older woman smiled and shook Skylar's hand that she extended. "Dr. Addison Montgomery-Shepherd." Skylar's face fell a little, realizing the source of the awkwardness. Addison was Derek's wife.

Skylar tried to control her expression as she pulled her hand back from the handshake. Eager to get herself out of the uncomfortable situation, she suggested, "Well, then. Should we get started?"

"We should." Addison took off down the hallway, her heels rhythmically tapping on the floor as the two interns followed behind her. They were both dreading the day that was to come.


"Define TTTS?" Addison asked Meredith while she examined the patient's pregnant stomach.

"Twin Twin Transfusion Syndrome." Addison's expression reminded Skylar of a predator who was attaching their prey.

"Conjoined fetal twins."

"Connected by?" Addison continued, almost sounding bored.

"Blood vessels in the placenta." Skylar's eyes darted between the two women, knowing the answer to the questions but recognizing that they weren't for her to answer.

"Meaning?"

Meredith seemed at a loss for words and the redhead turned to the other intern. "Dr. Kepner?"

Skylar cleared her throat, slightly stepping forward to stand closer to the patient. "One twin gets too much blood and the other gets too little. This ends up endangering both of the fetus'," she answered, feeling a little awkward to be between the two women.

"Very good. I expect you to know that, Grey."

"They told me there wasn't much chance that anything could be done," the patient told the doctors.

"TTTS is usually impossible to correct, unless you happen to be one of the handful of surgeons in the world that knows how to separate fetal blood vessels. Which, luckily for you, I am." Addison smiled down at the patient. "So, we're gonna get you to surgery tomorrow. If you have any questions at all, please ask Dr. Grey. From what I've heard she's one of the hospital's most popular interns. If Dr. Grey's answered don't satisfy you, please don't hesitate to contact Dr. Kepner, she's a bright intern."

She looked at her two interns and motioned for them to follow, soon leaving the room. Skylar stood just outside of the doorway, looking between the two. She felt as though she were watching a Western showdown and someone would pull a revolver out at any moment. The tension was so strong you could cut it with a knife.

"I could have answered that question if you gave me time," Meredith told the attending, struggling to stay civil and respectful.

"Chin up, Grey. I'm this tough on everyone, not just the ones my husband sleeps with. I would have done the same if Kepner didn't know the answer." Skylar tilted her head, impressed at the woman's professionalism. "I need you to order an ultrasound for her and pre-op labs, Grey. Kepner, you can stay with me for the day." The redhead looked toward her friend, not wanting to hurt her by accepting, and once she nodded, she ran down the hall to catch up with the attending, already far ahead.

"Dr. Kepner, are you friends with Meredith Grey?" The attending asked as they waited for the elevator.

"I am, yes. Close friends, actually." Skylar nodded with a small smile.

"That explains your reaction when I told you my name," Addison deadpanned.

"I was just surprised, that's all. I prefer to make my own judgements of value," Skylar smiled at the taller woman who returned the expression. "My gut is usually right."

As they got in the elevator, they went silent for a while. "Have you given any consideration to possible specialties?" Addison asked.

"Yeah. I'm currently thinking between neuro and peds, but when the chief of neuro himself tells you you'd be good in pediatric surgery..." She trailed off, not knowing what else to say as she shifted from one leg to the other.

"You know, neonatal and fetal is not much different from peds. I could show you the ropes while I'm here," Addison offered, seeing the potential in the intern she just met.


As Meredith put some gel over their patient's stomach, preparing to take an ultrasound as Skylar was writing down notes in the chart, the pregnant woman spoke up, "What does it take to go after another woman's husband?"

Skylar almost dropped the pen she was writing with, Meredith pausing her hand that was holding the wand for the ultrasound. Skylar moved her shocked eyes away from the screen and to Julie, who was looking straight at Meredith.

"Excuse me?" Meredith asked, looking at Julie with slight anger. Julie laughed, moving her eyesight from Meredith to Skylar, almost as if dismissing her.

"It happened to me. Jeff moved in with a long-legged miniskirt who answers his phone, three weeks into my pregnancy," she said to Skylar, letting out a small hiss as the gell touched her body. She practically glared at Meredith. "That gel is really cold, by the way."

"Sorry. I'm sorry about your husband." Meredith looked at the ultrasound screen, Skylar slowly focusing on that as well. She wrote down the ultrasound notes, fidgeting from where she was standing.

"Are you sorry about Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd's husband?"

Skylar shut her eyes. She wanted to leave the room so badly at that moment.

"I'm going to be checking a few things with this ultrasound," Meredith tried to change the topic, moving her eyesight back to the screen. Skylar opened her eyes and stood a bit closer so she could comfort Meredith without outwardly saying or doing anything. However, Julie just kept continuing.

"I bet she asked to work with you. It's what I would have done," she reasoned.

"Actually, Dr. Grey, why don't you go check on the labs? I'll finish up here," Skylar cleared her throat, attempting to change the subject with a smile.

"Sure," Meredith got up, clearly upset, and left the room.

As Skylar continued with the ultrasound, Julie still didn't give up. "You two seem like you get along. How can you be friends with her after what she did?"

Skylar tried to ignore the question, dodging it. "Okay, after we get the labs we should be able to tell if the babies are still stable."

She started wiping the gel off of the woman's stomach, but she didn't relent. "Oh, come on. Are you really not gonna share, Dr. Kepner?"

"You have to understand that I don't feel comfortable discussing my colleagues personal lives, especially when they're not present." She flashed the patient a sarcastic smile, knowing it worked more often than not.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to put you in an uncomfortable position."


They had some time before lunch started so Skylar decided to wander the halls like she always did. She didn't know exactly why, but somehow it relaxed her and made the uncomfortableness leave her body. It cleared her mind. She noticed George standing outsides the baby room and it seemed like he was talking to himself. Meredith and Skylar both walked up to him, but from different sides.

"Hey, Georgie," Skylar said, leaning against the window sill like he was.

"Talking to yourself now?" Meredith spoke up, shooting a smile at Skylar as a greeting.

"Yes—no!" He corrected. "Damn it. I'm a bad sponge. A leaky sponge. I leak all the wrong secrets. I'm a bad liar, who can't even talk about lying to myself."

"Join the club," Skylar sighed. She knew what it was like to be a bad liar, she had been her entire life. As long as no one outright questioned her about a secret, she was fine, but if they did, boy, did it suck for her. She usually ended up making a fool of herself.

As the boy looked over at the girls, he commented on their looks, making them both smile. "You two look nice today."

"I'm wearing lipgloss Sky leant me, 'cause my ex-boyfriend's wife looks like Isabella freaking Rossellini and I'm like...me," she complained. "I'm trying to outdo her when she's the victim here. How crazy is that?"

"You, Sky?" The boy questioned.

"Oh, no reason. Just felt like putting some makeup on today," she badly lied, but George didn't catch on, and she was glad for that. George was the one person she didn't want to know that she put makeup on today to impress him. And she knows that a boy should like her for her, without makeup, but she couldn't help it. She wanted George to like her as she liked him.

"I'm an evil mistress," Meredith said, interrupting Skylar's train of thought.

"Come on, Mer. You didn't know, you did nothing wrong, Derek did," Skylar attempted to reassure her friend.

"Still, you look nice," George told her.

"Thanks. What are you doing here?" At the boy's hesitation, she insisted, "Come on, O'Malley, out with it."

"Okay, can you think of any reason—any reason at all, why Cristina would be kissing Burke?" He let out, Skylar's eyes widened as she hit his shoulder, trying to get him to shut up but it was too late. "Ow!" He complained, but then realized why she hit him based on her look. "Wait, you already knew?"

"Oh, Georgie, when are you going to learn that I know everything?" She smiled at him, raising one brow. "Plus, I don't spill secrets, so people trust me. Now, let's go, too much time looking at babies makes me want to pop one out."


As Skylar and Meredith took another ultrasound of the babies still in-uterus, the tension in the room was unbearable. "When I found out about the miniskirt, I called her up and took her to lunch. It was perfectly civilized, I didn't hold it against her that these things happen. But really? I just wanted to put a face on the bitch that got my husband to throw away 15 years of marriage."

Both interns were trying their best to ignore the woman's rant when they found something on the monitor that looked like some sort of abnormality. As they tried to keep their faces passive, they prepared to go get their attending. "Okay, I think we're finished here," Skylar reassuringly smiled at the woman. "We're going to go get Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd."

When they entered the hallway, Skylar asked, "Are you okay? That woman is relentless..."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Did you see that abnormality?" Meredith switched subjects as they walked down the hallway to find their attending.

"I know. Those poor babies," she whispered like it was a secret. "And poor mother, I can only imagine..."

As the interns approached both Addison and Derek, who seemed to be arguing, Meredith looked at her friend. At her panicked and slightly begging face, Skylar spoke up, "Dr. Shepherd?"

"Yes?" Both attendings replied in unison.

Skylar forgot about that little detail but faced Addison as she spoke. "The labs confirm what look like abnormalities on the ultrasound. We thought you should come and see for yourself," she explained, realizing how uncomfortable Meredith seemed.

"Fine, let's go," the attending agreed and they returned to the patient's room. The silence was filled by the clicking of Addison's heels on the floor and the quieter thud of Skylar's sneakers.


"See?" Meredith pointed at the ultrasound screen, bringing both Addison's and Skylar's attention to it. "Bilateral pleural effusion with evidence of subQ edema."

Julie let out a worried noise, her hands drifting to her stomach. "In English, please?"

"It's evidence of beginning heart failure in the twins," Skylar explained, stepping toward Julie. "Let's try and stay calm and unalarmed, okay, Julie? Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd is the best."

Addison smiled, standing up to look at Julie. "Dr. Kepner is right, I am the best. However, I am going to go ahead and take you into surgery now. We're not going to wait, alright?"

She turned to look at Meredith, eyes harsh. "Book an O.R. Now." She then looked at Skylar, her voice less harsh but still demanding. "I only have room for one intern. You'll keep your pager on and come running if we need you for anything. Understood?"

Skylar felt disappointed that she wouldn't be getting to operate, but she tried not to show it. She nodded, smiling at Addison, and swiftly exited the room, letting her entire being deflate as she walked down the halls.

She glanced at the time on her watch and realized Joe's surgery would be starting soon. Her walk slowly turned into a jog as she made her way to the gallery.


Skylar skid to a stop in the gallery, her breathing slightly heavy. When she entered everyone turned to look at who had entered but after a second turned back to the surgery. Skylar stepped up beside Dr. Bailey, her voice was soft and worried. "How's he doing?"

Bailey hummed, crossing her arms. "So far, so good." She looked at her intern out of the corner of her eye, her voice accusing. "Aren't you supposed to be with Shepherd?"

Skylar nodded, sitting in the empty seat beside her resident. Her eyes never left the O.R. "She only had room for one intern and picked Meredith. She told me to keep my pager on just in case. I finished all my charts and labs, so I just...Joe means a lot to me. I can't just leave him alone."


It had been quite a while and the surgery had been going on for 28 minutes. Skylar had moved to sit beside Alex, Izzie offering her an apple. "You know, I'm very sweet once you get to know me," he muttered to Skylar. She was able to tear her eyes from the surgery to glance at Alex for a split second. She could see in his eyes that what he was saying he meant and was possibly true.

Izzie, however, didn't believe it, not that Skylar blamed her. The only thing that Alex had done is show them his bad side. He had given nobody an actual chance to get to know him. He closed himself off and built a wall to make sure that nobody could get to know the true Alex. But Skylar knew him a little better than the rest of them. She knew that when it came down to it, he would do anything to help the people he cared about. Maybe the only thing that he needed was just one person to believe in him and be by his side no matter what. He just needed a friend.

"No, you're not," Izzie said.

"We could be good friends."

"Alex. never, ever. Ever."

"Why not?"

"Give me one reason why we could? What about you is even remotely human?"

"It's going too slowly," Skylar said, looking down at the surgery.

"I hope Joe can pull through this."

"He can. He will. He has to."


Joe's surgery was successfully completed after 45 minutes. Happy that Joe made it out alive, everyone was able to leave the gallery knowing that their favorite bartender was going to be alright. Alex, Skylar, and Izzie were walking side by side with Skylar in the middle. Before they entered the locker room, Skylar looked to her left to glance at Alex. He happened to look back and the two of them shared a smile. She held him back, letting Izzie go in alone. "I'll you a chance, Karev. Even Satan himself needs a friend, right? I believed you when you said that you were actually a nice guy underneath that whole facade of yours, so I'm giving you a chance." She walked into the locker room, not even giving him a chance to respond.


As Skylar, Cristina and Meredith sat at the bar, the first enjoying her usual gin and tonic. Cristina spoke up from her place in between the two girls. "The clinic has a policy. They wouldn't let me confirm my appointment unless I designated an emergency contact and a backup. Someone to be there just in case, to help me home. After. I put your names down. That's why I told you I'm pregnant. You two are my persons."

"We are?" Skylar asked with a smile. She was happy that Cristina finally said out loud that they were friends.

"Yeah, you are. Whatever."

"Whatever," Meredith agreed.

"Not whatever!" Skylar put an arm around her friend, head on her shoulder. Cristina slightly tensed on the contact but patted Skylar's head twice.

"He dumped me." When Cristina said that Meredith put her head on Cristina's other shoulder.

"Jackass," Skylar whispered.

"You guys realize this constitutes as hugging?"

"Shut up and enjoy it. We're your persons," Skylar happily said, finding comfort in the embrace.

"You're my persons."


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