Mer wakes me up for the worst thing in the entirety of the world, jogging. On the first day I have an afternoon shift, but since I love her and all that I get up and put on some shorts to jog with the Twisted Sisters. I keep up with them easily as I'm probably in better shape and laugh as Cris falls behind.
"Oh you're stupid, oh God. You're stupid, evil, sadistic, and I wanna kill you." She grumbles, doing her best to catch up with us.
"Endorphins are good, they're mood elevators. This is supposed to make us feel better." Mer states, jogging in circles around Cris as she stops to take a breather.
"Oh fuck, do you feel better?" Cris gasps out, glaring up at both of us.
"I'm stupid." Mer replies simply, continuing to jog like an idiot.
"Slutty mistress." I chuckle softly and stretch out my muscles, popping my fingers and back with a groan.
"Pregnant whore." She shoots back, still running for some reason.
"Sleeping with our bosses was a great idea." Cris mutters, leaning forward with her hands on her knees as Mer finally stops. I block them out as they talk about what's ruined for them, flopping onto the grass beside Cris, already regretting waking up this morning.
An hour later I'm walking into work with the interns, passing by Iz and Karev who are gigging in the hallway. I walk with them to their pre-rounds as I have nothing better to do and listen to them talk about Karev.
"You guys are wrong about him, alright. Once you get to know him, he's really sweet." Iz admits, tying up her hair with a sigh.
"He's Alex." I agree with George and go to comment when said intern glances back at us.
"Hey Grey, Izzie was telling me you have tapes of your mom performing surgery. I'd kill to see the Ellis Grey in action." So would literally anyone else.
"Hey, maybe you can come over tonight and we can all watch it together?" Iz offers, not even asking the rest of us.
"Oh yeah, if this was a hell dimension." Mer mutters making me chuckle as I finally split away from them. I enter the elevator with McAss and stand as far as I can, the doors about to slide shut when Richard steps in wearing a hat to cover his bandages.
"Nice hat." McAss comments, wearing that smirk I've come to hate.
"Shut up, I'm going back to work." Richard states, glaring at Shepherd, "I've been sitting at home for a week watching Oprah give things away on TV. Oprah, Derek! You clear me now or I'll hurt you." I'd pay to see that.
"If you want me to clear you so soon, maybe you should've thought about that before you gave chief to Burke and invited Satan to Seattle." McAss retorts, causing Richard to look at me and ask about Satan as the doors open for Dr. Montgomery to step in.
"Good morning, Richard, like the hat." Red greets happily, tapping the brim with a smirk.
"Satan speaks." McAss mutters, glaring at the elevator doors as if that will make us go faster.
"Actually, I prefer to be called The Ruler of All That Is Evil, but I'll answer to Satan." She replies casually, sipping her coffee as I chuckle in my corner, nodding my hello to her with a small smile. I step out at the next stop and head up to speak with Kelly Roche, my first patient of the day. I explain everything about the procedure, ignoring the persistent blushing as I answer her questions, also ignoring Cris as she presents.
"Any questions?" Bailey asks gently, smiling slightly down at the young woman.
"Oh, Dr. Bl.." She starts as her face turns red, "Dr. Black explained everything. He was very, uh, helpful. He gave me some literat-sorry." Her face almost fire engine red.
"Don't be, half the patients that come here have the hots for Black." Karev stage whispers, looking up at me with a smirk.
"Dr. Karev." Bailey admonishes as I roll my eyes good naturedly.
"What, it's true." The arse mumbles as I walk out, brushing past Iz with a nod. I jog down to the Pit when I'm paged and freeze alongside Mer when I recognize the voice that's screaming. This cannot be fucking happening.
"Yang, patient's name?" Bailey demands, calling out over Ellis's yelling.
"Ellis Grey." I supply, ignoring her screaming as I was subject to it numerous times during my internship. I follow Mer into the locker room once they get her mother in a room of her own, banging my head against one of them when I hear the interns outside that Bailey is so wonderfully keeping out.
"Hey Meredith, you know, um, my great grandmother died from Alzheimer's." Cris states, making me look over and give her the 'are you fucking stupid' look, before turning back to Mer. I watch her closely as Bailey distrbutes the interns elsewhere, Iz getting the worst one as she has to work with Dr. Montgomery and McAss.
"George, take care of Dr. Grey." I glance up to see the puppy try to walk in but then he realizes she means Ellis, not Mer, and runs off. Bailey steps inside and fixes me with a cool look as I stand in front of Mer semi-protectively.
"Is she able to work today," the smaller woman asks, ignoring Mer's declaration of 'yes, I'm fine', "Cause I'd understand if you wanted to be with your-" That's where I hold up my hand and shake my head with a chuckle.
"She's fine, her and Ellis didn't have the best of relationships before her diagnosis, and it didn't get better after." I answer, turning my head to look at Mer.
"Good, then you're on scut." I take that as my cue to leave so I slip out of the locker room, letting Mer deal with Bailey. I text Calliope with lunch details as I head for Ellis, knowing this is yet another thing i'm going to regret today. I see her trying to wrestle a file from George's hands as she calls him 'Thatch', cluing me in to where she's at right now.
"Dr. O'Malley, I'll take over from here." I state clearly, motioning to the door for him to leave.
"Black, what are you doing here? You have pre-rounds to complete and labs to fetch!" The daft bint exclaims, glaring at her file. I see Mer standing at the door, just watching us, and that's absolutely grand. I manage to get what I need with a hell of a lot of trouble and watch as Mer goes to talk with McAss, most likely fishing for something to do.
I stick around Ellis's room as George comes back to get more data, her yelling increasing as she throws something at George. I note Mer ducking into Kelly Roche's room, and then see Richard talking to George for a moment. I watch George come back with Karev, having the douche do the exam as Ellis won't let George touch her. Now that I think about it, he does kind of look like Thatcher Grey, when he was younger of course.
I decide to go talk with Dr. Montgomery for a distraction and see her watching a baby in a glass case forlornly. I grab Iz's wrist as she passes and take the case file with a nod, stepping into talk with Red.
"She's got a good grip." I comment softly, handing the file over with a sigh.
"Derek said he couldn't operate, that she wouldn't survive the surgery. I need to tell Dr. Stevens to get reassigned as we won't be operating." She mutters, her eyes never leaving the preemie as she speaks.
"Do you think he's right?" I ask gently, bringing my hand up to rub her shoulder in what I hope is a comforting manner while also sending some healing magic through Dr. Montgomery and to the baby, hoping it will help.
"She's too far gone." I take a deep breath before leaning down to kiss the top of her head and then leaving, hoping that's the right thing to do. I get a page from Iz that Cris collapsed during Burke's surgery and take off in a run, the sound of heels slapping the tiles right behind me. I sprint through the halls and push past people as I go, bursting into the room with Dr. Montgomery behind me.
"Cris, you gotta stay awake." I scrub in with them when they wheel her into an O.R., not leaving her side until it's finished. She's family, and I'd do anything for family. I tap into my slightly more dead side, a perk of being the Master of Death I assume, and note that her light isn't dying out. That means she's fighting and that's all that matters. I see Mer try to enter the room but Bailey seems to have noticed as well, going to stop her before Mer manages to step inside.
I hear Mer ask about our jog this morning, and then Bailey joke about tackling Mer but it doesn't exactly lighten the mood. As soon as the surgery's over I head to see the baby again, grabbing two lattes along the way. When I walk in I hear McAss mention the fact that she's stronger since this morning and take that as a sign my magic worked, and be thankful that he may operate. Dr. Montgomery looks up at me with a soft smile and strides over to envelope me in a tight hug.
"She might make it." She whispers in my ear, letting go after a minute, taking the coffee with a grateful smile. I ignore McAss's curious stare and turn to look at the baby, hoping that she makes it through the night.
"By the way Dr. Montgomery, Calliope wants to go out for drinks one night, not sure when though. See if you can get us out of it." I inform quietly, my smile matching hers as I leave the ex-couple to talk. I stop in the stairwell to take a breather before going to Cris's post-op room to relieve Bailey.
"What happened?" She asks quietly, opening her eyes once Bailey leaves the room.
"You had an extra uterine pregnancy. Your left fallopian tube burst, and Dr. Montgomery did everything she could, but she couldn't save the tube." I answer, watching as she exhales the breath she must have been holding and closes her eyes once again. I have a nurse bring me my charts to finish as I watch over Cris, wondering what she's dreaming of. I think about Ellis, and of her affair with Richard, and about the fact she might have liver cancer on top of Alzheimer's.
I head out when Iz comes to relieve me, seeing Mer crying and getting ready to go over there when I see McAss behind her. I watch as she gets up to speak with him, and then as she briefly kisses him before walking away. I get home quickly, probably breaking a few speed limits, and head inside. I take the steps two at a time as I feel myself slowly start to break down, my emotions getting the better of me, and end up punching the wall before leaning against it.
If I had paid more attention to my friends then I could've saved Cris a surgery, I could've kept her child alive if she wanted me to. I crawl beside my bed and pull up one of the floorboards to grab a half empty bottle of Firewhiskey with a sigh. Tonight, is a night for forgetting.