Episode 6
The next day, I woken up feeling fresh. The twelve or so hours of sleep felt great. I looked out the window, it was pouring rain outside. That's another day in Seattle for you. I got up brushed my hair up, went over to my dresser and pulled out a pair of blue skinny jeans, a green v neck t-shirt and a black button up leather jacket. I grab a few of my medical books and put them in my bag.
I walked out of my room and slinging my bag over my shoulder, when I looked down the hallway to see George standing next to Meredith's room holding two mugs of probably coffee. Izzie walks out of the bathroom.
"Wouldn't it be easier to just ask her out?" Izzie asks.
"She's going to be late."
He turns and sees me standing here. His eyes were wide as saucers, like a deer in a headlights. I smirked at my brother before going downstairs. Since it was still early, I was able to make some toast and have a glass of milk. Georg came downstairs a few minutes later, fully dressed.
"I am not asking Mer out." He declares.
"I didn't say anything."
"Yeah, but I know you Kenna. You were thinking of it."
"Whatever. Is Meredith getting up?"
"Yeah, she came out when I was coming down."
Finally, both Meredith and Izzie come downstairs and we all piled up in Meredith's car. We arrived at the hospital, trying to hurry to get out of the rain. Another car parks next to us and came out Dr. Shephard.
"Crap." Meredith said.
Okay, I am clearly missing something here.
"Crap?" He questions.
I didn't hear anymore after that, since I was walking away, and the rain was starting to come down hard. The rest of us go into the locker room, only a few minutes later Meredith and Cristina came walking in. I was already pinning my badge to my scrubs and putting my hair up.
"You're late." Meredith tells her.
"So are you." Cristina says.
"I know, and I can't afford to piss off Bailey anymore. Do you think she told anyone?" She asks.
"About you and McDreamy?"
"Yeah."
I heard a rumor that some of the other inters were calling, Dr. Shephard, McDreamy. Wait, Meredith was with Dr. Shephard?
"You're with Dr. Shephard?" I ask quietly.
"Don't say anything." Cristina hissed.
"Does George or Izzie know?"
"No."
"Please, don't tell them," Meredith begs. "I'll tell them."
"I won't." I say, walking out of the locker room.
I was able to catch up to Bailey with, Izzie, George and Alex. Meredith and Cristina showed up seconds later.
"Cristina, you're late."
"So are Meredith and McKenna."
I scoffed at her.
"When we walk in this door, you will maintain decorum. You will not laugh, vomit, or drop your jaw. Are we understood?"
We all nodded and entered room 2111.
"Why would we laugh?" Izzie asks.
"Oh, just you wait." Alex smirks.
"Good morning, Miss. Connors." Bailey said.
The rest of us walked in, on the bed was a woman with an extremely large tumor.
"What is it?" George asks, trying to get a look.
"Tumor." Cristina says, sounding shocked.
"Good morning, Annie. How are you? This is Dr. Bailey, and these are my fellow interns." Alex introduces us.
"Dr. Karev, we refer to patients as "mister…" She started to say.
"I told him to call me, Annie. Mrs. Connor's makes me feel old and fat, which I am, but why feel that way?" Mrs. Connor says.
Dr. Burke walks in.
"Good morning."
"Annie, this is Dr. Burke." Alex whispers something else to her.
"Dr. Karev?" Bailey asks.
"Annie Connors is a forty-three-year-old woman who presented last night with progressive shortness of breath for the past three months. Found to have a very large tumor of unknown origin pressed against her diaphragm. Stable vital signs. Scheduled for CT morning, sir." Alex presents her case.
"Thank you, Dr. Karev," Burke says. "Are you at all claustrophobic?"
"I've been housebound for the last year. How claustrophobic could I be?"
"Alright then. Dr. O'Malley 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 ."
Which O'Malley was he talking about?
"Yes, of course. Of course." Dr. Burke says.
"And would it be possible for Alex to take me instead? I mean, he… He's just so fun to look at." She asks.
"Annie." Alex laughs.
"Sure. Sure, Miss. Connors. Excuse me."
He leaves the room. We follow after him.
"How much do you think it weighs?" Izzie asks.
"Sixty pounds." George bets.
"I'll say a good seventy-five at least." I tell them.
"This one's going in the books. I've got to get in." Cristina said determinedly.
"Well, Burke said O'Malley earlier, before Miss. Connor said she wanted Alex. So, one of us are in," I told her, pointing to George and myself. "It was weird to see Alex, sincere."
"Seemed, being the operative word."
"He was on call last night when she came in. I am never leaving this place again." Cristina said.
"Let's move, people," Dr. Bailey came out soon after. "Miss. Connor's 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, cause we won't be there to fix your mistakes."
We were going to go to work, Cristina left us to go talk to Burke. Izzie was able to get another case with Dr. Bailey. Meredith went off with Cristina. Leaving George and I to wonder the halls.
"I know you think I like Meredith, but I don't like Meredith." George said suddenly.
"What?" I ask, smiling at him.
"No. I like Meredith. Obviously, I like Meredith. I just… I don't have a thing for her."
"Sure, George."
"It's just this morning… I know you were probably just teasing, but I don't want you to say anything like that to her. Because you know, we live together, and that'd be awkward."
"George, stop talking."
"Okay, then."
We were paged by Dr. Bailey not long after, to meet her in a patient's room. We arrived, everyone else was there, including Dr. Shephard. The patient was a man, he seemed to have difficultly walking.
"Morning." Dr. Bailey said.
"Mr. Levangie, this is Dr. Bailey and her fine staff of surgical interns."
We all exchange glances.
"Welcome to hell, kids."
"Who's presenting."
I was able to read his chart before coming in here.
"Edward Levangie is a sixty-three old man, admitted for pain management for Dyskinesia. He's been stable since last night and responding to the bolus injection." I tell them.
"Izzie, possible treatments?" Bailey asked.
"For Parkinson's disease? Um, deep brain stimulation has shown…" She started out.
"Not for Parkinson's, for spinal pain."
"Oh, um…"
"Intraspinal catheter," Meredith intercepted. "That way, he can have constant pain medication."
"Excellent. This is Dr .Grey. She's going to prep you for the procedure and assist," His pager goes off. "Excuse me."
"You make yourselves busy, I'll catch up with you." Bailey tells us.
She follows after Dr. Shephard. Meredith started to prep him for his surgery. I decided to go on my own. I was just wondering the halls when I notice I was back on the cardio floor. I seen that Burke and Alex talking. Well more like, Burke yelling at Alex. I was just walking by them when Burke stopped me.
"Go prep Annie Connors for surgery. You're scrubbing in with Cristina."
"Really? I mean, thank you. Okay." I stammered.
I look at Alex who seemed pissed and walked away.
I go into Miss. Connor's room to prep her for surgery.
We just need to recheck your labs and get an EKG, so I need to take a little blood," I tell her. I haven't really work with Dr. Burke, but I hear he is great, I have worked with Dr. Bailey and I know she does a great job. I know you're probably scared."
"That's okay, kitten. You can just do your job. You don't have to talk to the fat, nasty tumor lady. I let it get this bad. How much sympathy do I deserve?"
"I'm just curious, why did you let it get this bad?" I ask her.
"You're the first person since I got here ask me that."
I smile at her.
"Well, I guess it's just like the elephant in the room." I try to joke.
"Elephant?" She questions, sounding offended.
"No, I mean…" I stammer out.
"It's more like a giant sow, don't you think?"
Oh, thank god, she was just joking too.
"Every time I went to the hospital, someone died. All four of my grandparents, then my dad. MY best friend's mom, my baby sister. They all went in, never came out. So, I put it off." She explains.
"You know, you're not the only one to put things off. My brother, he never does anything till the last possible minute.
"Like what?"
"Well… He had this thing for our roommate since, like, day one, and he can't tell her. He keeps telling me, she probably wouldn't go out with him, anyway, he doesn't know that for sure, if he doesn't ever ask, right?"
"Seriously? He's equating his pathetic love like with my record-breaking tumor. Seriously?"
We laugh. I walk out of the room not long after prepping her for surgery. I let the nurses know to let the OR team that she was ready. I go ahead and go down to the lunchroom and get something quick to eat before the surgery. I grab a turkey and cheese on sandwich, an apple and a water bottle. I go over to where Meredith, Cristina and Izzie were sitting down. Surprisingly and annoyingly enough to me, Alex sits down too.
"It's just that he blatantly favors me in front of her and then bluntly dismisses me." Meredith says.
"How do you know he favoring you? Look, you've got a brain. You got into this program. Just because Shephard wants to munch your cookies doesn't mean you didn't deserve what you worked for." Cristina mentions.
Oh, I was a little confused at first to what Meredith was talking about.
"But he's making me look bad. I have to end it." Meredith declared.
"Right." I said.
"It's over."
"Uh, huh." Cristina said.
"Is it true you two get to scrub in on that tumor?" Alex asks me and Cristina.
"Don't sit here." Cristina says, bluntly.
"I second that." I said.
"You get to scrub in? How psyched are you?" Alex asks me.
I smirked at him. "On a scale of one to ecstatic, ecstatic." I take a sip of my water.
"It's unbelievable."
"Why are you still sitting here?" Cristina asks.
"He kicked off that surgery for the same crap you all pull every day."
"You know what. If I stuck this fork into his thigh, would I get in trouble?"
"Not if you make it look like an accident." Meredith says. Izzie and I laugh.
"Hey!" George says, coming over to the table.
"Hey." I smile at him.
"Thank God, man I'm drowning is estrogen here." Alex says,
"You look… is everything ok?" George asks, Meredith.
"Shephard's a jackass." Meredith fills him in on those two words.
"Really/ I think he's kind if great." Izzie says, taking a bite of her fries.
"He reamed her out in front of Bailey." Cristina said.
"Why?" I ask.
"Cause he's a jackass." Meredith declares.
"Oh, well, bad days…bad. Maybe tonight, uh, if, you know, if you drink alcohol, I mean, we could all of us, I man, go out and rink alcohol…because of the bad day." George stammers.
I sigh. Meredith's pager goes off.
"I got to go."
"Dude." Alex and I say.
"Shut up." George says.
I look at Alex and shake my head. I get up and put my empty tray on the trash bin. Cristina catches up with me, on our way to the scrubbing room for Miss. Connor's surgery.
"What's up with you and Alex?" She asks.
"Nothing."
"I might not seem like I care about my friends, but I do."
I look over to my left and seen Cristina giving me a slight smile, I smile at her back. We arrive at the scrub with Burke. This will be my first time working with him. I'm a little nervous.
"If they pull this off, I'm totally calling Oprah." Cristina whispers.
I smile at her. Bailey comes in after we've scrubbed our hands.
"You two been working out?"
"Sometimes I try to take the stairs whenever I can." I tell her.
"Why?" Cristina asks.
"See that large pile of tumor?" We look over to it. "You're going to be retracting it for the next fourteen hours, so I'm just saying I hope you have strong backs."
Great, this wasn't what I was expecting to do in this long surgery. Well, At least I get to see some work done somehow. We go into the OR to get gloved by the scrub nurses. Everyone was ready. It has been about five hours in the surgery and already my arms were already starting to feel like they would fall off at any moment. Not to mention, my back was killing me as well. Dr. Bailey was right, I think after this surgery, I'm going to try to jog on a daily basis.
"We need to hang another bag of O-neg." A nurse announced.
"Cauterizing the small bleeders to keep my visual field clean." Dr. Burke said.
"God, is your back killing you?" I said, starting to struggle holding this tumor.
"McKenna shut up. We're in here aren't we?"
I grunt and stretch my neck.
"Look at he size of this artery." Burke comments.
I tried to see but couldn't see around the tumor.
"My God. It's as thick just feeding on all her blood." Bailey said.
"We need more O-negative." Burke announced.
"I'll call the blood bank." A nurse called out.
I went to go stretch my neck again. When I go to do so, my hands slip slightly from my grip of the tumor. Burke wasn't happy it.
"Damn it, O'Malley. Do you want me to kill this patient?"
"No, sir. I'm sorry."
"I mean, is the art of retracting just too much for you?"
"No sir, I was, I was just stretching."
Good thing he was looking down, if only glares could kill. I don't know why, George thought he was a great guy or even teacher. It has been a few more hours and Cristina and I are still holding this tumor.
"How's it going?" Dr. Shephard asks, walking into the OR.
"It's more intertwined than the studies made it look." Burke tells him.
"Hang another bag, call the blood bank. We need more O-negative." Bailey said.
"I'm down ten units of blood I haven't even flipped her yet." Burke said.
"Oh, wow. Look at that. Now how am I supposed to get around that artery? Alright then, forceps." Dr. Shepheard asks.
It was yet another hour of holding this tumor. If my arms weren't starting to feel like they were falling off a few hours ago, they were feeling like that ten times worse now. Not long after, Izzie walks in.
"Mr. Harper, the post-op heart patient in 2114. I had to open his sternotomy bedside."
Everyone stops on what they were doing and turned their heads towards the blond girl. I almost even dropped my part of the tumor again.
"You what?" Dr. Burke asks.
The other attendings asked as well.
"He had a cardiac tamponade. His chest films were clean this morning. It just… It happened fast. He was in PEA. There was no time." Izzie explains.
"Go ahead. I got it. We're okay here." Dr. Shepheard tells him.
I turn my head hearing yelling from the scrub room. I seen that Izzie was hitting Alex in the chest. For once, I was actually liking Izzie.
"Never a dull moment here at Seattle Grace." Dr. Shepheard said, mockingly.
Suddenly, a blood vessel burst, squirting all over Shephard and Bailey.
"Oh."
"Oh, my God."
Both of them said.
"Get right in there." Shephard said.
"She can't afford to lose this much blood. We need more blood." Bailey said, working as fast as she could to stop the bleeding.
"Get me some suction here. I can't see what I'm doing. Clamp, clamp, clamp, please. Is there any blood in the rapid infuser?"
"We're waiting on two units?" A nurse called out.
"What do you mean, waiting?"
"They're on their way."
"We prepped a double supply. We've used it all."
"What did you cut?" Dr. Shephard asked Bailey.
"Nothing. It just blew. She came in with too much damage. The artery walls are too weak."
"Ten units of O-neg."
"The pressure's dropping." A nurse calls out.
"She needs blood. Where the hell is the blood?!" Bailey yells.
"Somebody grab that. Push it back, McKenna. Come on,"
Dr. Shephard yells, I gripped onto the tumor more aggressively, but tried to be careful as well.
"Oh, God. Just squeeze it off right there. Here we go. Some suction, in here, now, We're, losing her now. Look at this. Com on."
Miss. Connor started to code. Dr. Shephard started CPR.
"Oh, come on! Come on!"
He started to shout, but unfortunately, she wasn't coming back.
"Time of death is 11:42." He announces.
Cristina and I let go of the tumor and sigh in relief. I was a little sadden though. She was a good lady, but like Dr. Bailey said, she was too much damaged. Alex ran in holding the bag of blood.
"I got it!" He shouts.
He noticed all of us though and looked defeated as well. I walked into the scrub room and scrubbed out. My arms were starting to feel like Jell-O now, I was starting to stretch my arms out, when Alex showed up by myside.
"You did good in there." Alex said.
I looked over to him weirdly.
"Thanks, I guess."
I was able to actually find an available on-call room. I was walking in when Alex follows in after me. I turn around to face him.
"What are you doing, find your own room."
"Oh, come on. There are two beds. All the other rooms are taken."
"Whatever." I scoffed.
"What's you're deal? I should be mad at you, for stealing my surgery."
"I didn't steal it, Burke just so happened to see me when he kicked you off the case."
He rolls his eyes at me and hops onto the top bunk. I shake my head and hop in the bottom bunk.
"Just don't snore." I tell him.
"You don't snore."
With that being said, I didn't think about going home. I got comfortable and within seconds, I was out cold.
