A/N: Hello again! Here is a little Shane tag to last week's ep. I had honestly expected a slightly different episode especially with regard to Matt the paramedic so this chapter was a little hard to craft. I don't know if I like it. It kind of works as a goodbye ER moment. Shane is only tentatively enacting his plan because more important stuff is going down at the hospital and he is a bit of a chicken. The promo for next week looks super exciting, and should prove for a fun tag. I hope you like this one all the same. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think.

Shane scowled as he watched Jackson and Stephanie exit an exam room. He tried to stop himself from wrinkling his nose. Jackson freaking Douche more like. Who did he think he was anyway? God's gorgeous gift to the fairer sex? Grandson of flipping Harper Avery, never had to work hard a day in his life for anything, born with a silver spoon in his stupid little-

"Ross? We need you," Avery's voice interrupted Shane' thoughts. "Nose reattachment. Traumatic severance in the field. You never know when we'll see one again. Especially with the ER shutting down. Come on."

Jumping and rushing to follow, Shane lowered the chart he'd been consulting on the nearest nurses station and fell into step behind Avery and Edwards. He might not like the guy, but Jackson was right. Things were so uncertain around here these days, that you had to take every chance you could to do something other than empty urine bags. A rhino assist sure as hell beat grunt work.

After scrubbing in, the three doctors filed into the room, with Stephanie across from Avery, and Shane on second assist. Judging by the look on his friend's face, he realized that Steph had probably noticed his expression earlier. With all the fear and unease wafting around the hospital lately, Shane had been finding it more and more difficult to conceal his inner thoughts. He'd never had a good poker face to begin with, and the whole, 'might lose you job' thing wasn't really helping.

And it wasn't just Shane. Everyone at the hospital was a little on edge these days, what with all Seattle Grace's ongoing financial crisis and the imminent closure of the Emergency Room. He'd barely even had a chance to see his favorite attendings, let alone work with them in recent day. Shepherd and Kepner had been hauled up together, trying desperately to cut as much money from the budgets of other departments to save the ER.

Now, the tension was palpable in the OR, as Jackson, Steph, Shane and the scrub nurses attempted to prep the surgery. Shane was trying to set up his own surgical tray, but to his dismay, none of the drawers he opened held the right equipment. Everything had been shifted around, in the name of 'efficiency. And Shane had only just barely memorized the old system.

It was clear that he was lagging behind the prep of the other two, and Shane winced at the expectant stare Stephanie was giving him from across the patient. Swallowing and glancing over to Avery, he remembered what April had told him about communicating with your superiors when you are doing an assist. He remembered his mistake with Dr. Grey and the liver transplant.

To prevent something like that from happening again, everyone had to be on the same page, so Shane said, "Sorry to take so long, I can't seem to remember the new system..."

To his surprise, Dr. Avery didn't chew him out like he thought Medusa would. Instead the man's brows furrowed above his scrub mask, as he shook his head, "Damn thing. You can't find what you need."

"They are just doing it to help minimize our OR turnover time," Stephanie offered nervously.

"Hardly cuts time..." Shane ventured.

Jackson nodded, "Not at all. Adds time because no one knows where the hell anything is. And...it's not like the volume of patients we serve will help the hospital anyway. What matters is the quality of care, not the quantity..."

Shockingly, Shane was in totally agreement with Dr. Avery. Which was probably a first. He nodded and quickly finished setting up, moving into his position next to Jackson as the man continued to speak, more to himself than anyone else.

"But no, you can't tell the dragon lady 'savior' of the hospital that...oh no. It's all about bottom lines for her. She doesn't care what gets cut or who that hurts..."

"Right," Shane said clearing his throat.

They settled in and began to reconstruct the patient's nose. It really was quite the reattachment. The while external nose had essentially been torn off. All the cartilage. Everything. The kind of thing you read about in text books really.

As they worked, mostly in silence, Shane just couldn't help but blurt out, "I have never seen one so bad!"

Stephanie cleared her throat and tilted her head toward Dr. Avery, who was closest to the guys head, carefully stitching the nose and reattaching what he could. Shane could tell that for a split second she agreed with him, but the moment passed quickly.

"We're interns, Ross. We haven't seen a lot of things. I'm sure Dr. Avery isn't interested in hearing about how new this all is for us...It doesn't speed up the OR..."

"Nah. It's cool. I don't mind," Jackson interjected absently, reaching to his tray and grabbing the next proper instrument without so much as shifting his eyes from the damaged nose. "Suction right here please?"

Shane obliged when Stephanie shifted the clamps, and Avery continued to work. The plastic surgeon shrugged and said, "You know, I can actually say that this is one of the worse damaged noses I've seen too. Certainly since I've been a fellow. Sloan I saw some pretty gnarly stuff back in the day, but this is still pretty wild. Most of what we get are preplanned elective rhinoplastys."

Stephanie sighed, "Without an ER, that will probably end up being all we get. All the trauma joy will go to Seattle Pres."

"In all their Level 2 Trauma Center glory," Avery snorted bitterly. "Lucky Seattle."

Shane couldn't help but chuckle a little bit. Okay, maybe he could understand a little of the "Avery" appeal. He still didn't really like the guy, but he did agree with him about Seattle Presbyterian. He'd looked and them and passed them over for residency applications, in part because of their smaller size, and lower capacity to handle emergencies. Shane also had to admit, grudgingly, that Jackson could be funny. Maybe that's what Kepner and Edwards liked about him, aside from his obvious genetic blessings.

For himself, Shane knew that snark, humor, and sarcasm were not his strong points. He usually giggled before he could actually say the punchline, and Jo had said that most of his jokes were boring and often too 'academic'. Maybe that was part of his problem.

Well, no matter. Never mind that the girl he wanted to laugh at his jokes was currently carrying on with the man next to him in the OR. Shane was a surgical intern, and that was all he was focusing on anyway. That and his little plan to help his mentor.

"Well, without the ER," Shane commented as casually as he could. "We won't be seeing much of the paramedics anymore..."

Avery's eyes lifted from the patient, answering sarcastically, "Obviously."

Shane shrugged, knowing that subtlety wasn't his strong point, but trying to maintain a nonchalant tone all the same, "Dr. Kepner will be disappointed."

Stephanie rolled her eyes, shaking her head. He could tell she was a little amused. She knew about April Kepner and Matthew the paramedic. What she didn't know was why Shane was determined to rub it in Avery's face. He wanted Jackson to feel jealous. He wanted him to feel jealous enough to leave his friend alone, and if Steph knew that was what he was really trying to do, Shane was pretty sure she'd be pissed.

"I think Dr. Kepner will be more sad because she won't be seeing traumas anymore," Jackson countered, swallowing uncomfortably.

Shane still wasn't sure the man knew just what he was hinting at, so he ventured, "But paramedics...are so...tall?"

Stephanie froze and looked up at him, glaring. Uh oh. Had he been discovered? Maybe. Shane could tell that at the very least his roommate was not happy with his continued emphasis on the topic of April Kepner and incredibly tall paramedics.

Jackson cleared his throat and snapped, "Shepherd and Kepner will figure it out. They already got Ortho and Plastics to agree to share lab space and save budget money for the ER."

"But what if that's not enough?" Stephanie mused. "I guess closing the ER means that they can at least costs from that department."

"Then what about all the trauma team? Nurses, residents, attendings?" Shane wondered. He didn't know what all this meant. Chief Hunt was a trauma surgeon, and more importantly so was his mentor. What would Kepner do without a trauma department to work in? It was as a big a fear for Shane as losing his own position. Because, after his performance with Bailey and Meredith, he was pretty sure she was the only attending who actually liked him.

Avery sighed and continued firmly, "Dr. Shepherd and April will figure it out! Now just...pipe down, and cut the small talk! This is a tricky part right. We need to focus."

Chastised Shane quickly shut his mouth and looked back down to his work, remaining silent, except when absolutely necessary for the procedure. He also felt a sense of vindication on a couple of levels. Avery clearly didn't like it when he and Steph talked about his old friend. This was not the first time the man had become uncomfortable and even snappy when Kepner's name came up. It didn't seem to matter whether or not the man heard any mention of paramedics or not. Shane wasn't entirely certain Avery knew about April and Matt, and though he was probably taking a little too much glee in tormenting the guy, he still didn't think he had quite enough courage to just tell the man outright.

Avery was still Shane's superior after all, and as an attending he did have some influence over his options as an intern.

After a tense and quiet surgery, Shane watched as Avery scrubbed out, scowling into the silver metal sink bowl as though it had personally stepped on his puppy. Stephanie washed her own hands, watching the attending with trepidation. Shane felt awkward, scrubbing out quickly, and rushing into the hall. Before the door shut fully, he could make out some of the conversation between Avery and Edwards. He didn't like what he heard.

"We still on for later?" Stephanie asked, in a tone so casual, that if Shane didn't know what 'on' was, he'd never have guessed.

"Yeah," Jackson said, still sounding tense and irritated. "How about-"

The door slammed shut then. And Shane was glad. So much for his grand plan. Or at least the subtle version of his plan. If there was any chance at all of this working, he realized he'd have to 'grow a pair' as they say, and really drive the point home. He'd have to be more offensive. And he wasn't sure he could afford to act that way with an attending in this hospital climate. Then again, Shane knew he was going to continue anyway. It was weird, but in a way he just couldn't let the whole thing go. Not when April was clearly a touchy subject with Avery.

Rounding a corner, Shane was surprised when he caught sight of Dr. Kepner seated at a chair in what had once been the ER waiting area. Judging by the darkened trauma rooms just beyond, he realized that the Emergency Room was closed at this time. Damn it. Shepherd and Kepner's plan must not have done the trick.

He approached cautiously, taking a seat across from her. It was kind of eerily silent. The pit was usually a place buzzing with activity and carefully controlled chaos, even late into the night. Now it was dark and quiet.

"Hey," Shane whispered, because whispering seemed like the thing to do in as somber a moment as this.

April glanced up at him and gave a half hearted nod.

He pointed to the binder she held loosely in her hands, "So...the big plan didn't work?"

She laughed harshly, and shook her head, "No...and Cahill never wanted it too. There...there was never a chance. Not when I maximized efficiency, or when we found the money to run it. There was never a chance. It's not so much the ER being too expensive for the hospital, apparently, as it being too expensive for potential buyers to be attracted. Turns out ER' can be a big turn off in the hospital real estate market."

"What?" Shane asked, feeling confused. He thought they just needed to tightened the purse strings a lot. "Buyers?"

"The hospital is going to be sold," Kepner explained sadly.

That was not good, realized in panic. They had no idea who would buy Seattle Grace Mercy West hospital, and no idea what kind of hospital the buyer would want it to be. What if they became a one specialty cancer center? Or a children's hospital? Or stopped having a teaching program at all? Everyone's roles were in question, and jobs were at stake. Somehow even more than Shane had previously thought. He'd known that all this money stuff was bad, even though he was still a little uncertain of how everything had started. But he didn't have the since until this very moment just how bad it was. The fact that the ER was actually closed brought the point home in a real way. The hospital was in deep trouble.

Watching April, Shane shook himself. She looked crest fallen.

"So, no more ER?" he asked lamely.

She pursed her lips, "No more ER."

"Damn."

"Pretty much."

"What's going to happen to you?"

"I don't know," Kepner shrugged.

Shane winced, "Are you okay?"

"I don't know."

Swallowing, Shane looked at his hands. His mentor continued to sit, glancing around the quiet waiting area. Her phone buzzed and she carefully slipped it out of her pocket, smiling faintly despite her visible sadness as she read whatever was on the screen.

After a long moment of silence Shane ventured, "Need a drinking buddy?"

Mere weeks ago, when the whole affair between Jackson and Stephanie had come out, they'd bonded over alcohol and pub food. Shane had found the evening to be incredibly cathartic and was more than willing to help Kepner out if she needed another night like that. This year must feel like it was already turning out to be pretty crappy from her perspective, and Shane was happy to do what he could to do what he could to change some of that.

Still looking at her phone, April tilted her head to one side, "Thanks for the offer but...I think I already have one..."

Now it was Shane's turn to smirk, in spite of the sad situation, "Oh yeah? Mr. Paramedic?"

"We're are not call him that. He has a name. It's Matthew."

"So, Matthew is your drinking buddy?" Shane waggled his eyebrows.

She bit her bottom lip and lifted her eyes to his, "Maybe."

"He's texting you?"

"He says he found a pub downtown with karaoke," April replied. "We were supposed to go to celebrate my triumphant rescue of the ER."

Shane frowned sympathetically, "Do you like karaoke bars?"

"I've never tried one. I've never been drunk enough."

"Well, if ever there as a night to get there..."

"This would be it," April laughed. She held up her phone, "Matthew understands though...if I don't want to go. Lame night's at home are awesome too. That's what he says."

Shane nodded and pulled himself to his feet, moving over and giving his mentor and awkward pat on the shoulder, "Why not?Doesn't really matter where you go. Drown your sorrows. It's what people do."

"Amen to that."

Kepner chuckled and stood up herself, straightening her shoulders and standing to face the empty ER one last time. She sniffed and she quickly whipped away a tear. Shane shoved his hands in his pockets and blinked out at the pit, wondering how many lives had been lost, saved, or dramatically changed in that place over the years. Thousands? Hundreds of thousands? But now it was dark and empty. A hollow shadow of the institution the ER had been only that morning. The situation was kind of terrifying. Shane had no idea what this meant for his future as a resident, his mentor, of any of them. Would Kepner lose her job? as he about to be fired? Should he be looking into other residency programs. Shane had no idea.

How on earth had it come to this? The ER was closed. And Shane didn't know that there was any hope it would come back again.