GEORGE AND SKYLAR were now cuddling in the boy's bed, gazing into each other's eyes with smiles on their faces. George was stroking Skylar's cheek with the pad of his thumb. They didn't care that it was silent between them, all they cared about was each other.

They were just glad they had clothes on because Izzie suddenly stormed into the room, wearing a fancy dress. "Seriously?" She shouted, startling both occupants that were already in the bedroom. "Move over." She said to the redhead as she squirmed her way into the bed.

"We were trying to sleep!" George complained as they both rolled over onto their backs with groans.

"Oh, shut it," the blonde complained, rolling her eyes.

A few minutes later, Meredith entered in a similar fashion. "Seriously?" She laid herself on the other side of George.

"This is a very small bed," George huffed.

"You know, you two should really start knocking now. We could've been in the middle of something that would've scarred you," Skylar suggested in a monotone voice.

"He's a neurosurgeon," Meredith said, ignoring Skylar, though she took the piece of advice into mind.

"I look fantastic. I shaved my legs," Izzie went on. Skylar and George weren't paying them any mind as they focused on how they played with each other's hands.

"He's a brain surgeon, how could he be so brainless?"

"Hello? Seriously?" Izzie complained.

"Seriously?" Meredith followed suit.

"Shh, sleep," George hushed them just as the power went out and everything went dark.


"I had a good time last night, you know, before Meredith and Izzie crashed it," George said as he leaned on the locker next to Skylar's. She was putting her bag and street clothes in her locker.

"Yeah?" She asked and at his nod, she continued, "I did too."

"Maybe tonight—o-or tomorrow, I could take you out on a real date? Or if you don't want to, t-that's fine too," he nervously asked, looking down at his shoes every once in a while. Skylar smiled at how flustered he still got around her. She was about to respond before Bailey interrupted them by coming into the locker room.

The resident was standing in the doorway, waiting for her interns when Cristina walked up to her putting on her coat. Her hair was still dripping wet from the rain outside, which made Bailey raise her eyebrows as she saw the drops falling on the floor. "You're dripping."

"I'm back. I just wanna make that clear. I'm back. I'm ready to work," Cristina immediately told her. She already feared that Bailey would send her back home.

Suddenly Addison came up to the doorway from the hallway. "Has anyone seen Dr. Shepherd this morning?"

"His name's on the O.R. board. He should be here somewhere," Bailey replied and Addison nodded. She noticed Skylar putting on her white coat and smiled at her, before walking away. Even though they only had a handful of conversations, Addison had a feeling they would be good friends when this whole Derek mess blew over.

Cristina was still standing in front of her resident. "I'm good. I'm ready to scrub in. I'm 100% on top of my game," Cristina made sure Bailey knew that.

"You just got discharged. Pace yourself." From the corner of her eye, Skylar noticed a small interaction between Izzie and Alex. Izzie made eye contact with Alex but didn't say anything. She still needed to ask Alex what had happened that night, or at least get his point of view. With pity, she looked between the two before shutting her locker door.

"I'm paced. I'm paced."

"Mhm. Rounds people," Bailey instructed as she looked up from her clipboard. Her interns gathered around her and then they followed their resident to the next patient. Skylar and Alex seemed to ignore her. She couldn't help but wonder why. She hadn't done anything wrong, or at least she thought she hadn't. She did see Alex stop Izzie to talk. They joined the others later on, right before they entered a patient's room.

A woman, probably the patient's wife, was sitting on a chair doing some knitting while her husband lay on the bed. Bailey's pager went off and she glanced at it before accepting the chart that Cristina handed her. "Dr. Bailey. Henry Lamott, age 42. Is scheduled with Dr. Shepherd for a spinal implant," Cristina started, presenting when Mr. Lamott turned up the volume of his television. Corny music and women moaning and giggling could be heard. He was clearly watching something that was not safe for work. George was captivated by the scene on TV and his eyes were glued to the screen. "To control the pain of his herniated disc. He's allergic to all pain medication—" She stopped talking when she saw what was displayed on the screen. The attention of all the other interns was now focused on the television screen. "Is that—?"

"Porn," Mrs. Lamott completed, not at all ashamed, making Bailey stare at it too.

"Porn? As in porn?" The resident was shocked. Her eyes immediately shot up to the television and her eyes widened when she saw that it was true.

"Alright...what are we watching?" Alex couldn't hold back his smirk. He wouldn't be Alex Karev if he didn't make a dirty comment. Everyone looked at him with disapproving looks on their faces. Skylar shook her head even though she knew that Alex was going to say something regarding the porn shown on the screen.

"Karev! Go stand in the hall," Bailey ordered in a disapproving tone. He quickly walked outside to wait in the hallway. As Bailey tried to talk, she kept getting distracted by the television. Not wanting to look at the footage anymore, she tried to keep her eyes on the couple. "Uh, Mr. and Mrs. Lamott, I'm sure...you're really...nice people...and what you do in the privacy of your own—look, we can't have porn in here. This is a hospital."

"It's for my pain. My doc says it releases endorphins in the brain. It helps keep my pain at a manageable level," Mr. Lamott answered and all the female interns looked amused while George was still captivated by the scenes played on the TV.

"Really?" George asked, mesmerized.

"George—hall," Bailey ordered and the intern turned to leave, hiding his crotch with his lab coat. As he walked by the group, Skylar smacked his back with the back of her hand, shaking her head lightly.

"What is this?" Izzie asked, chuckling.

"Nasty naughty nurses...um," Mrs. Lamott quickly looked at the TV. "Four." The female interns all stared at the TV and tilted their heads to one side.

"That does not look comfortable," Skylar mentioned as she grimaced at the position the woman was in.

"Trust me, it's not," Meredith replied, making every intern in the room look at her in shock and bewilderment.

"Get in the hall!" Bailey ordered once more, not believing how childish her interns were. All of her interns in the hallway, occasionally, got some weird looks.

After Bailey was done with the patient, she walked out of the room and toward the nurses' station, where her interns followed. "Kepner, O'Malley, Karev, you're in the pit today. Stevens, there's a cardiac patient waiting for you up on two. Yang, keep an eye on the Lamotts. I don't want any problems. Go."


As George and Skylar entered their emergent patient's room, they asked for a chart as the nurse presented, "Pete Willoughby, 25 years old, GSW to the chest, immediate return of 860 cc's of blood."

"Oh, man, this hurts," Pete groaned out, looking down at the gaping hole in his chest.

"He's out over 200 cc's in the past hour," the nurse finished.

"They never tell you in movies how much it hurts to get shot.

"Okay, Pete, we have you now, okay? We're going to take care of you," Skylar reassured the man with a tight-lipped smile.

"Push morphine, two milligrams," George instructed. "Alex, this is my case."

"Morphine, five milligrams," Alex ordered. "You didn't even call him."

"I was here first."

"You got here first because I let you."

As the two boys bickered in the background, Skylar actually focused on the patient. "Do you have chest films?" She asked the nurses, ignoring the two boys bickering behind her.

"You always get the surgery, today I'm getting a surgery. There's only room for two interns," George argued.

"Yeah, and you just want to spend the day with your girlfriend," Alex shot back.

"Guys, knock it off, at least not in front of him," Skylar pleaded as she worked.

"He's one of Seattle's finest, you've got a whole police force watching you," the nurse told them. The three interns looked out the window of the room to find a group of police officers watching them. No pressure...

"Page Dr. Burke, let him know we're bringing him a GSW," Skylar requested as she wheeled the man to the elevator, the two boys quickly joining her.


"You got shot in the line of duty?" Alex asked as the three interns pushed the patient toward the elevator.

The patient nodded feverishly, clearly still in pain. "First month on the job. Can you believe my luck? A guy pulls a gun, and I freeze up. The rookie let himself get shot. I'm never gonna live this down."

"Sure you are," George reassured him.

"You think?"

"Absolutely, you'll get to be the rookie who got shot and lived to tell the tale," Skylar smirked down at him and he gave her a halfhearted smile in return.

Once the elevator doors closed behind them, Alex asked the two, "So, what's the deal with Izzie?" Skylar laughed slightly, bewildered at how he could be so oblivious.

"She shaved her legs for you," George bluntly explained.

"And?"

"And you didn't even kiss her goodnight," Skylar raised her brows at him.

"She shaved her legs for you and you didn't even follow through?" Pete asked.

"See, Pete here knows it all," Skylar joked.

"Hey, I follow through. I always follow through," he scoffed.

"You didn't last night..." She pointed out, earning a glare from Alex and a smile from Pete and George.

"Mind your own business," Alex complained. Skylar rolled her eyes at his unnecessary rudeness.

At that, George became defensive. "Mind her own...? She had expectations—women have expectations, and you didn't meet them. Okay, I live with these women and every time you guys don't meet their expectations I have to hear about it. I didn't get any sleep last night, so, you know, it is my business."

Suddenly, the lights went out and the elevator abruptly stopped. George instinctively grabbed Skylar's arm to make sure she was fine. "You okay, Sky?"

"Yeah, fine, thanks."

"Dude, we're not moving..." Alex pointed out.

"Really? You think?" George sarcastically replied, giving Alex a look.


After a few long minutes, the elevator still wasn't moving, causing Skylar to get anxious. As Alex tried to open the elevator door, George read the instructions and Skylar stayed by the patient's side. "'If the elevator should stop, do not become alarmed. Press the button marked 'alarm' to summon assistance,'" he recited, his face right up against the panel. "If they don't want us to be alarmed, why call the button 'alarm'?" He pressed the button repeatedly, but nothing happened.

"That didn't work the last ten times you did it. Get it in your head, we've lost power. We're stuck here," Alex complained.

When Skylar heard their patient moan, she turned to check his vitals on the monitor. "His pressure's falling," she whispered to the two boys. "There's a lot more blood in the pleurovac. We need to get him to the O.R, like, now."

"Okay, you're whispering, don't whisper," Pete pointed out. "I don't wanna complain here but I've got a bullet in my chest and whispering isn't a sign that I'm gonna be okay, you know? It's bad. It's bad, right?"

"Pete, someone should get us out of here soon, alright? We just need you to stay calm, okay?" Skylar gently asked, but she couldn't contain the nervousness on her face.


Though the firefighters managed to get the doors open, they couldn't even get them open at least a foot because the doors were jammed. Skylar, Alex, and George were also stuck between floors with a dying patient and no tools to help him.

Through the small opening of the doors, they heard Dr. Bailey. "What did you guys do?"

"Nothing!" The three answered in unison.

Dr. Burke took the resident's place, peering through the small opening. "How's your patient?" He asked

"He's not looking so good..." George informed.

Their patient started moving and trying to get out of bed. He pulled the wires off of him and took out his oxygen supplementer while the three interns tried to put all the stuff back on him and hold him down at the same time.

"Pete, hey, it's Dr. Kepner, what are you doing?" Skylar spoke to him, holding his arms down while Alex and George fixed the wires on him.

"I need to get home," he slurred, trying to stand up.

"Pete, you're in the hospital..." Alex explained

"I need to get home. I need to get home," he kept repeating over and over again.

"What's his blood pressure?" Dr. Burke asked from outside the elevator once they got Pete to settle down a little

"He's too agitated, we can't get a reading," Skylar answered, biting her bottom lip. She was way too stressed out right now.

"How's his pulse?"

"It's thready but it's still there," George informed.

"Do you have any instruments?" Burke kept trying to ask, to know what the situation was and what he needed to do for them.

"Just a code box and some gloves," Alex spoke up this time.

"You didn't bring an open chest tray?" He nearly yelled which didn't help Skylar's anxiety.

"No, we thought—"

"We don't have time for excuses," Burke interrupted. "O'Malley, blood pressure?"

"I've taken it three times, I can't hear systolic over fifty," he answered. "He's gonna die," George realized.

"No, no...we don't say that," Skylar insisted.

Burke hesitated for a moment before making a split-second decision. "Intubate him. I'll be right back."

Skylar's eyes widened, concerned. "Wait, where are you going?" George asked.

"To get instruments ready. You're going to have to open up his chest." At that, all three interns shared a worried look, knowing that that was well over their skill set.


While they waited for Burke, Skylar just kept repeating the same phrase over and over again in her head. Fake it 'til you make it. Fake it 'til you make it. Fake it 'til you make it.

"When's Burke coming back?" George whispered, slightly panicking as he manually ventilated Pete. "When's Dr. Burke coming back?"

"I...I don't know," Skylar whispered back, panicking a bit as well.

"Will you just shut up!" Alex snapped, clearly panicking as well just displaying it differently.

Once the attending came back, he spoke to them in the calmest voice he could manage. "Hey! This isn't gonna be too sterile but we can try. Prep and drape the patient," he instructed them, giving them the drapes, gowns, gloves, and any other material they needed which they hurried to put on. They all shared uncertain looks as they cleaned Pete's wound and prepped it for operation.

Once they were ready, Alex turned to the other two. "We're really gonna do this..."

Fake it 'til you make it.

As Burke extended some surgical instruments to Alex, he looked up. "Take these." Alex seemed to freeze, as Burke repeated, "Karev, take the scalpel."

"Alex," Skylar whispered. Burke looked at him confused, while Alex kept his gaze on the ground.

At the boy's lack of reaction, George encouraged him, "Alex, come on. Alex!"

They waited but, once again, he wouldn't step up. "Okay, I'll ventilate, George." Skylar reached for the Ambu bag and George took the scalpel.

"What do I do?" He asked Burke.

"Make a large anterolateral and midaxillary incision in the fifth intercostal space," Burke explained.

George found the space and asked again, adrenaline coursing through his veins. "How large?"

"As long as possible, you'll need to get two hands in there," the attending instructed. "It needs to be long and deep. Use the scissors if you have to."

"Okay. Okay." He took a deep breath and prepared for the procedure he knew an intern shouldn't be doing.

Just as he was about to cut, Burke stopped him. "But be sure you don't cut into the lung or heart."

George awkwardly paused. "Uh, how can I be sure of that?

"You just have to be sure."

George slightly nodded. Skylar made eye contact with him and nodded at him, trying to give him a confidence boost. She knew George struggled with it once in a while and this was one of those times he really needed it. Taking a deep breath, he prepared to cut.

"I really hate storms," Skylar muttered as the scalpel sliced deeply into the patient's skin.


Sometime later, chest having been cut open, George informed, "I didn't cut the heart or the lungs. Dr. Burke! I didn't cut the heart or the lungs!" He sighed with relief and he could hear his girlfriend do the same.

"Good, O'Malley, really good. Now, check for injuries and do a pericardiotomy."

"Okay, I'll need some lap pads, forceps, metzenbaums and Satinsky clamps," he asked, his voice now steady and secure.

"Yes, you will," he answered with a small smile, pride in his eyes.

After some time, he informed, "I removed a small clot from the pericardium. No obvious cardiac injuries."

"Any change in the vitals?"

"BP is still too low to register on the monitor," Skylar answered.

"We need to cross-clamp the aorta," Burke told him. "You might want to get Kepner to assist."

"Okay, Sky, help me out here," he pleaded. She and Alex switched places so he could ventilate and hold the light while she could help George. She gave him her hand to place. "Just put your hand right where mine was, yeah, like that," he instructed.

"Stick your hand in and dissect down until you feel two tube-like structures," Burke told George. "The esophagus will be more medial and anterior."

"Um, I feel one tube that is easily collapsible. The other is more muscular and...spongy. I can feel the spine just underneath it," George described.

"Yes! You're touching the aorta."

George looked at his girlfriend with a look of ecstasy. "I'm touching the aorta." Skylar gave him a smile in response to his gleefulness.

"Wrap the index finger of your left hand around it. Kepner, apply a Satinsky clamp with your hand."

Both of them did as told, working in silent synchronicity until Skylar called out, "Got it."

"Wait, I—I think I can localize the bleeding," George said with a smile. "I think it's coming from the inferior vena cava."

"Can you find the lesion?"

"Um, yeah...yeah, I think I feel it, but it's too far in to repair..."

"How big is it?" Burke kept trying to guide him through the procedure.

"Small, maybe smaller than a dime."

"Okay, O'Malley, I want you to take your finger and plug the hole."

George felt around for a while, speaking up soon after. "I think I can feel his heart starting to fill more. It's...beating a little stronger."

"Excellent. Keep your finger there."

"Okay. Now what?"

"That's it," the surgeon told him.

"That's it?" The realization came to him and he tried his best not to hop up and down as he smiled widely. "That's it! We did it, Sky!"

"We did, Georgie. We did it!" They gave each other celebratory smiles as Alex stared at them, disappointed in himself. Something has been bothering him lately, and his confidence and mojo have been down.

"Dr. Bailey, you can tell the fireman to get my guys out of there," Burke instructed. "O'Malley? You and Kepner just flew solo."

"Thank you, sir," he smiled up at him.

Once the interns left the elevator, the police force that was present congratulated Skylar and George. However, as the adrenaline and the rush left her body, she could feel the anxiety from the situation taking over her.


Skylar and George both left the hospital with giant smiles on their faces as they both gushed about what they did that day. Skylar couldn't get her near panic attack out of her mind though. After they were thanked by the police force she collapsed in the bathroom and had some trouble breathing. That was the second time that had happened and she wasn't sure what to think of it. So as the couple made their way to Joe's, she decided she deserved a drink after everything.

"He's not coming," they heard Meredith sigh as she and George joined their fellow interns at their table. Meredith had told Derek that she wanted him and would be at Joe's, waiting for him, so if he didn't show up, it'd let Meredith know he'd chosen Addison. "You don't think he's coming."

"He might come," Izzie said.

"Yeah, you never know," Cristina piped in.

"I hope he does," Skylar shrugged and gave her a sympathetic smile.

"He's definitely coming," George intervened, earning himself a kick from Izzie. "What? You want her doing tequila shots all night? We'll be the ones cleaning up the vomit, you know."

"Well, today I'm refusing to be sad, Georgie flew solo and I got to help," Skylar boasted. She usually wasn't one to brag about accomplishments but she couldn't hold it back.

"Yeah, I touched a heart today, Porny," he teased Cristina.

The bell above the door chimed, signaling someone had entered. The group all turned at once, just to see a happy couple enter the bar.

Skylar looked at Meredith with a sad look, then she looked at Joe. "Pour her another one."


Words: 3898

For this one, I wanted Skylar to be in on the heart in the elevator, but I didn't want her to take charge and just replace George because I think it gave George some character development in the show, so I just included her in it

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to Follow, Favorite, and Review