Beep, beep, beep.
Meredith Grey groaned as she rolled over to turn off her alarm, instead she knocked it off of her nightstand. She scrambled to locate it as she blinked away the fog in her eyes.
"SHUT IT OFF, SHUT IT OFF. I'M AWAKE MEREDITH!" Cristina Yang shouted from the other side of the bed.
Beep, beep, beep.
Meredith finally felt it under her bed and just pulled the clock from the wall and threw it into her closet.
She threw herself back into her bed with an exaggerated sigh before turning to look at Cristina.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked.
"Are you kidding me?" Cristina yelped, sitting up. "I'm going to actually get to practice my specialty. No more minor things like sutures and rectal exams. This is mildly exciting, okay, not mildly…but I don't want to sound over enthusiastic and desperate and…HUMAN ORGANS WILL BE SPRAWLED OUT IN FRONT OF ME! Like a smorgasbord of bloody goodness!" Cristina grinned.
"Your mild excitement is leaving me mildly disturbed…" Meredith sighed.
"What, why?" Cristina asked, she caught the look in Meredith's eyes and rolled her own. "I'm fine. I'm dealing, this is how I deal…by cutting people open and prodding their innards. Let me cope!"
"Yeah, well…I don't want you going all postal and whatever. I can picture you having a nervous breakdown in the middle of surgery and like…ripping someone's heart out with your teeth," Meredith stated.
"Okay…who is leaving who mildly disturbed here?" Cristina asked as she stood up and stretched. "We're no longer the bottom of the totem pole here. We have minor pull, we mean something…embrace it! We're people now! Actual people!"
"Yeah well…" Meredith sighed. "I really regret sleeping with an attending."
"The feeling is mutual," Cristina groaned.
"Why couldn't we have slept with attendings with really boring specialties…instead I get the brain surgeon and oh…look at that, I'm going into neuro!"
"And I'm cardio…we're idiots."
"Very big, dirty whore, stupid whatever idiots," Meredith whined.
Both sulked for a moment before they heard Izzie whining in the hallway.
"Oh, what now?" Meredith sighed. They opened the door to see Izzie throwing herself against the bathroom door.
"Is there some sort of problem?" Meredith asked, folding her arms over her chest.
"Alex has been in there WAY too long," Izzie whined. "Other people need to shower! Wait…are you two busy? Can I use yours?"
Before Meredith could answer Cristina ran to the bathroom and started the water.
"Ugh! Seriously?!" Izzie growled. She turned back to the door and yelled, "ALEX KAREV, IF YOU'RE DOING WHAT I THINK YOU'RE DOING…WRAP IT UP. I CAN'T BE LATE!"
The door swung open as Izzie leaned into, causing her to nearly fall over.
"You wish I was doing what you thought I was doing," he grinned, pulling his towel tighter around his waist and zooming down the hall.
Across Seattle another alarm clock was beeping wildly. Beep, beep, beep. Callie Torres-O'Malley sat up, stretched and reached over her husband to turn off the alarm. She brought her hand back, but not before stopping to run her fingers through his hair.
George O'Malley's eyes fluttered open and he gave a small smile, "Hey," he said softly.
"Hey," Callie smiled. "Time to get up, get ready for work…are you excited? I'm excited. Chief Resident!" She squealed.
"Callie…" George sighed. "We need to talk."
"I don't like your expression," Callie managed to squeeze out past the lump in her throat.
"I failed my exam," George sighed. "I'm not going in to work today. I'm out of the program."
Callie was expecting to hear him say something else and was mildly relieved for a moment, until his words fully hit her, "What?" she gasped.
"I didn't pass. I failed, Callie. I failed you, I failed Bailey, I failed my friends…my family. I failed MYSELF," he said, his eyes shifting up to the ceiling.
"George…why…why didn't you tell me this last night? I don't understand this. You studied, you were doing so well! I don't get this, I don't get this at all…" Callie sighed bringing her hand to her forehead.
"I can't repeat my internship, that's my only other option. I just can't. It's not me…I failed, so I have to live with the consequences."
"You can't just give up, George!"
"This isn't giving up, it's accepting my fate. I didn't pass; I don't go back to the hospital. I can't do this over, it doesn't seem right."
"You weren't fated to fail your exam, alright? We…we'll get through this…"
"Maybe it's just one big sign that I'm not supposed to be in the medical field," George sighed.
"No fate, no signs, none of that okay? Look are you SURE you don't want to come in with me today?"
"I'm very sure," George nodded.
"That's it then? You're just giving up completely. The time and effort you put into medical school and you're throwing it all away? The money your parents invested into putting you through school, it's wasted?"
"Callie…"
"No George! You're giving up! You can't 'Callie' me, you just can't."
"You need to start getting ready, you don't want to be late for your first day as Chief Resident," George said, forcing a smile.
"This isn't about me right now, okay? Don't change the subject. George, I'm asking you to really think about this, REALLY think about it. Are you ready to throw all of it away?"
"I thought I was…"
"But?"
"I don't know. I don't know especially with you sitting there looking at me like that."
Callie took a deep breath, "George think about your Dad, think about how proud he was seeing you do your rounds…George, if you can't do this for me, do it for your father."
Meredith pulled up to Seattle Grace with Cristina tapping her fingers against the center console of the jeep.
"Here we go," Meredith said, taking a deep breath.
Cristina stepped out of the passenger side, nearly getting run over as Alex zoomed into the adjacent parking lot.
"Damnit evil spawn!" Cristina yelped.
"I was trying to make you my first case of the day," Alex smirked.
"Yeah, like they'd let King of the Vagina's work on me. Didn't you pick OBGYN?"
"Yeah, so what, I don't want to hear any lip from you," Alex growled.
"How could you pick gynie over plastics?" Cristina laughed.
"Because, alright? Don't ask questions."
Izzie popped out of the passenger side of Alex's car with a grin on her face and her usual purple mug, "We're moving on up!" she squealed.
"Oh, please don't start singing…" Cristina groaned.
The four junior residents stepped back as a red '66 Mustang Coupe zoomed by them, blasting the Sex Pistols. They watched the car pulled up into the parking spot marked "Calliope Torres- O'Malley, MD. Chief Resident."
Callie slipped out of her car after the song finished, looking professional yet still drop dead gorgeous. Izzie raised an eyebrow at Alex who was rather obviously checking Callie out. Callie adjusted her sunglasses as she smacked her gum and gave a proud grin at the foursome standing around, staring at her.
"Hey look, it's my baby residents," Callie smirked. "Change and then meet me in conference room three, on time please. Punctuation is important with me, you know…just dropping a hint…"
"Uh…" Izzie started.
"That means move your ass, Stevens."
Callie turned and walked off towards the entrance leaving Izzie to sulk.
"I seriously loathe the fact that she's our boss," Izzie whined.
"More like teacher," Meredith said with an pleasant nod.
"Okay, I loathe the fact that she's our teacher."
"Shit, I don't." Alex grinned. "I'll go to detention with her, she can smack me around with a ruler…we can bang more than erasers…"
"You are so disgusting," Izzie groaned. "She's married."
"Hasn't stopped half the staff of S Grace before," Alex laughed. "Dude, she's hot."
Izzie rolled her eyes and then turned to Meredith, "George wasn't with her."
"Just because they are married it doesn't mean they have to go everywhere together," Cristina stated.
Meredith turned to make sure Cristina was alright after she muttered the dreaded marriage word and then turned back to Izzie, "Maybe he's already here or he's running late?"
"Damn, she's going to punish him…that's hot," Alex muttered to himself.
"Okay, the point here is….why do where care? We'll see him when we see him…let's go!"
Callie cleared her throat as she stood before the group. There were eleven of them all together and they all sat around the table chit chatting. Callie cleared her throat again before speaking and everyone turned to look at her.
"I should be safe to say you all know how this works, right?" Callie asked. Everyone nodded.
"You have all chosen your specialties and have been matched with attendings that specialize in your chosen field. You are still annoying interns in their eyes, trust me, but now you can get specific. You will focus on your field unless you are otherwise needed. I will be working with all of you when I am not on my own cases. I will check on your progress, have you write reports and even scrubs in and observe you all for my own reports. I will be a very busy woman so I have no time for bullshit. Aside from babysitting you guys I also have to keep tabs on the senior residents and make sure they are doing their jobs with the first year interns. I don't care who you are sleeping with, I don't care who you have slept with, I don't care who you like, who you loathe, all I care about is you getting your jobs done and getting them done right. Are we clear?"
The group nodded and Callie gave an agreement nod.
"Good, with that said. I'm going to go over your specialty choices and the doctor I'm assigning you to."
Callie read through the other random junior residents before she got to the last group who she was very familiar with.
"Alex Karev, Neonatal. Your attending today is Dr. Lizbeth Saunders, she's Addison's replacement. I know nothing about her, don't ask."
Alex nodded as Callie moved on to Izzie, "Isobel Stevens, general surgery. You will actually be shadowing a senior resident, Bailey today."
"Bailey, really?" Izzie asked.
Callie nodded, "Do you have a problem with that?"
"Of course not," Izzie grinned.
"Cristina Yang. Cardiothoracic. You will be shadowing Dr. Erika Hahn, she is temporarily standing in for…" Callie watched Cristina expression, taking a deep breath. She truly liked Cristina now and didn't want to hurt her but she continued, "Preston Burke."
Cristina's expression did not change, she simply nodded and Callie watched her for a moment before continuing.
"Meredith Grey, Neurosurgery. Dr. Derek Shepherd."
"I figured," Meredith sighed.
Callie gave Meredith a friendly reassuring smile and then turned to the group. "So, I'm unleashing you onto this hospital. I have a surgery lined up and when I get out I'm tracking all of you. So don't do anything stupid because I am in ortho and I CAN break bones."
George O'Malley sat behind the well of his car in the parking lot and debated backing out of the spot and heading back to the hotel.
He thought about what Callie had said but more importantly he thought about his father. He couldn't let his father down, there was no way. Harold O'Malley would push him to do the internship again but to do it ten times better than he had before.
He took a deep breath and then exhaled as he opened the door and slipped out.
He made his way through the courtyard, past the sliding doors and up to the Chief of Surgery's office and was well prepared to see a new face.
Instead he opened the door to Richard Webber and was taken aback.
"Chief…you…aren't you leaving?"
"I could ask you the same question O'Malley," Richard said, motioning to the chair in front of him.
Miranda Bailey had just shown her new interns the ropes and was pointing them off to their jobs. She spied Meredith down the hall going over a chart by herself, she was curious to know how Cristina was doing.
"Grey," she called out.
Meredith turned to spy her but noticed a girl to her left had turned as well.
Bailey looked first to Meredith, then to Lexie and the connection hit her like a brick.
Meredith turned to face Lexie, who seemed rather shocked.
"Lexie Grey," Lexie said, offering her hand.
"Meredith Grey," Meredith replied, shaking Lexie's hand.
"I…believe you are my sister," Lexie stated after an awkward moment of silence.