Walking back home from her date with Scott, Allison was not happy. Feeling elated was such a foreign feeling for the hot brunette, especially as she was clad in a hot little pink number that she was sure would do wonders for Scott's ability to look away from her. But the entire night, nothing. He was off. He was gone. There was something he was either unwilling to talk about or he was just being an ass to her on purpose throughout the entire event of their date. And she had had enough of it as they approached the house she shared with Isaac and Stiles.

"Thanks, Scott. It was great. Great time." Her voice was dark and chilly, a random Saturday in Autumn was her voice, but she couldn't find the time to give a shit after the way the entire evening had played out. "Really, it was the perfect date. Best night ever. Super romantic."

"Allison..."

"My favorite part was probably when you ignored me all night." She scoffed sarcastically. "That was the true MVP of the evening."

"No matter what you think, I enjoyed spending time with you."

She hadn't expected such an admission from the cute man before her. Honestly, she had expected him to go running off after he had gotten her home instead of actually conversing with her on the doorstep at the house. It was only a few hours after he had even proposed the date, so she was so taken aback by his behavior at dinner, and then again now by his rebuttal of said behavior.

"You did."

"I did."

He moved closer to her, like he was going to kiss her goodnight, which was truly the only way that their date would be in any way salvageable. But when she opened up her eyes after waiting for his lips to meet hers, she just saw a scared man in front of her, someone who was definitely not going to kiss her. She had no idea that storm clouds of self-annihilation were brewing in his already shaky mind, but there was no way he was going to tell her that. So he just stood there, looking afraid and mumbled up an excuse.

"I gotta run."

And run he did. He was gone before the beginnings of a protest hit her tongue. She rolled her eyes and shouted after him, "Seriously? Seriously!?", and then she retreated to the safety of her home, slamming the front door with enough vigor that it shook Isaac awake in his room. He was just about to roll over and head back to sleep when Allison came stomping in, throwing on his light and door and lifting her hand in a disbelieving gesture and said once more, "Seriously?"

Isaac just stared at her, unable to understand what was happening since he was still half-asleep as she moved her way across the room. Allison writhed out of her little light half-jacket and stood by the other side of his bed.

"I'm getting in."

"Allison, I'm trying to sleep."

"Shut up."

With a heavy sigh, he threw back the covers for her to get in, hoping that they could get some sleep before something else happened to their collective night.

That's when something did. Outside the house once more, Stiles was sauntering back to his house, wishing that Derek would have stayed at the bar and left him alone. He had just found the unsigned divorce papers about an hour before, and Stiles was done. Derek had clearly made some sort of choice by not setting a pen to the papers, and that was that. But for some reason, he was trying to get Stiles to understand something that Stiles had no intention of trying to understand.

"Derek, I don't want to talk anymore about this. Go home."

"Stiles..."

"I get it. It's Julia. You didn't sign the papers. Choice made. That's it."

His key turning, Stiles made his way inside the house, and Derek squeezed in after him, leaving the door hanging open in the balance of decision, much like Stiles and Derek were at the current moment of fruition.

"Stiles."

"What!?"

"Oh." Derek stood there in the doorway, staring down at Stiles with a squirm of a line on his face in unfortunate circumstance. His features were set to stunned, and Stiles was waiting like an idiot for an appropriate response. "I, uh, hadn't really planned anything to follow that up with. Usually I just say your name and then you yell at me."

"Are you fucking serious?" With the jacket he had just taken off, he started hitting Derek with it, who was recoiling in a severe degree and trying to ask Stiles to stop hitting him.

"Stiles, stop!"

"Seriously? Seriously!?"

Next thing Isaac knew, his bedroom door was being opened again, this time Stiles replacing the earlier form of Allison. "I mean, seriously."

Another grievance on his face, Isaac threw open his comforter so that Stiles could worm his way into the bed with him and Allison, who hadn't fallen asleep and had taken to staring silently and intensely at the ceiling, seemingly waiting for someone as pissed off as her. And with Stiles there, the talking at each other rather than with each other began, hindering Isaac's sleep once more.

"He's a fucking brain surgeon." Stiles growled, also staring at the ceiling.

"I'm hot!" Allison said, clearly only worried about talking about herself, same as Stiles. "My legs are shaved. I even got a Brazilian, just in case!"

"How is he a neurosurgeon and still manage to be so brainless!?" Stiles yelled.

Isaac sighed heavily, as Allison roared, "Seriously!"

"Seriously." Stiles agreed.

Lending both hands, Isaac patted his friends on the shoulders closest to him. "Sleep. Sleep makes everything better."

The lights went out, the power succumbing to the storm brewing above them, a sigh spurring from Isaac's lips as he thrashed against his tiny mattress to try and sleep with his two best friends sleeping next to him as their woes of the romantic nature whirled around their heads, threatening to overtake their very souls.

x

Still dripping from the downpour occurring outside the hospital, Lydia was wringing out her tossed red ponytail as she stood next to Dr. Ramsey putting on her white lab coat. The resident was eyeing her intently through the action of setting her coat on her slender frame, sharp daggers of a stare burrowing holes into the young intern's temples. Catching her gaze, Lydia put on her sternest face and turned toward her resident.

"I'm fine. Literally finer than fine. I just want it to be known far and wide that Lydia Martin, MD, is here and ready to get back to work, okay? I'm fine."

Ramsey seemingly had a response already whipped up, but Julia came sauntering into the room, looking straight at the resident. "Have you seen Dr. Hale?" Then when she realized that there were actually two Dr. Hales, she clarified with, "Derek."

"He's here somewhere." Ramsey nodded. "His initials are on the OR board."

"Thanks."

Lydia saw the confident way Julia strutted out of their view. Crap. She'd forgotten to ask Stiles how it went with Derek and signing the papers. What would happen to her newly proclaimed bestie if Derek had decided not to sign the papers?

"Have you seen Sti-, I mean, is Dr. Stilinski in yet?"

"No one's seen him yet. If he doesn't hurry, he'll be late." Ramsey smiled. "And everyone knows I love late."

Ramsey rounded up the rest of her interns, telling them they had a couple minutes but to meet her in a designated patient's room in precisely two minutes when Stiles came running into the locker room, whizzing past Lydia without so much as a hello.

"So?"

"So, what?"

Stiles threw off his clothes and changed into his intern scrubs, Lydia still in awe at how quickly he could change. No wonder him and Derek always made such great time when they were together doing the things they did.

"The papers. I'm sorry I didn't check in and everything, I was still trying to issue my mother away."

"It's fine, Lydia. I understand." He whipped on his lab coat and headed for the door. "Ramsey said two minutes, right? What room did she say?"

Leading the way, they made their saunter down the hallway, seeing their friends at the end of the hall as they turned a corner.

"Stiles, what happened with Derek? Last thing you told me was you two were meeting at Joel's and I haven't heard anything since then."

"Are you two interested in being doctors today? Let's move!"

Ramsey, ever the peacekeeper, kept Stiles from having to answer as they filed into their first patient's room, a middle-aged man by the name of Araec Green, who looked like he was in the worst pain of his life as he lied in his hospital bed. His wife, Alicia, was knitting, minding her own business as they entered. Ramsey handed Lydia the chart and asked her to present the case to everyone.

"Alright. Eric Green, forty-two. He's scheduled with Dr. Hale of Neuro for a spinal implant-" Lydia was cut off then, by Eric reaching over to the bedside table to turn up the volume on the TV he had been watching since their entry. In seconds, both Scott and Isaac attuned their statures toward the television once they saw what the viewing pleasure, and it was quite the pleasure, on what the screen was portraying exactly. Lydia wasn't looking, and neither were Allison and Stiles, since they were watching Mr. Green go from insufferable pain to slightly uncomfortable, but better than his previous standing. "-to control the pain from his herniated disc. He's allergic to all pain meds so..."

That's when the rest of the interns saw the action on the glass of the screen. Moans of ecstasy emanated from its surface to their ears and positions they had never dreamed of were in full reenactment for their eyes only.

Lydia prompted the patient with, "Is that what I...?"

"Oh, yeah. It's porn." His wife said, ever the sound of nonchalant speaking.

"Porn?" Ramsey said, then when she saw the TV, she exclaimed, "Wait, porn!?"

"Hell, what is it we're watching?" Scott said, subtly covering his body with his lab coat.

"McCall, out!" He stormed away obediently while the others just stared in horror. "I'm sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Green, I'm sure you are lovely people and whatever you do in private is between you and your consent but this is a hospital, now. We can't have porn!"

"It helps my pain!" Eric pleaded. "I swear. My doctor said watching it releases endorphins in my brain that help manage my pain."

"I am totally getting that." Isaac nodded.

"In. The. Hall!"

Ramsey screamed at him, the girls chuckling while Stiles smiled and looked to Alicia and asked, "What even is this?"

"Damsel Doctors...4, I think?"

Suddenly, the action on the TV was too much for the interns, because the positions they were doing were so whimsical and crazy, that they all tilted their heads as they onlooked with provided horror.

"There's no way that's the slightest bit comfortable." Lydia shuddered.

"It's not, trust me." Stiles added.

With gleeful grins, Lydia and Allison smiled as they pictured Stiles and the good Dr. Hale performing such an act. Ramsey was horrified though, snapping her fingers at them and ushering them out of the patient's room before anything of substance could have been said in front of their wildly interesting new patient.

It wasn't long before Ramsey was wrangling her interns back into shape like the obedient cattle that they were, and she wasn't one to waste time with giving out assignments.

"Lahey, McCall, both of you will be taking care of the pit today, no complaints, thank you. Argent, there's a patient that looks to be of cardiac dwellings waiting for you, and Lydia, please keep an eye on the Greens. The last thing I need is for word getting out that there's a free-for-all pornography showing on the surgical floor. Go." They all scurried away, all except for the as of yet unassigned Stiles, who looked at her cumbersomely. "Stilinski, this evening your father is being properly discharged. Do you need more time to get him situated or have you gotten everything figured out?" There was a softness to her voice that until now Stiles wasn't sure Ramsey even possessed, coloring him pleasantly surprised.

"Uh, no, everything's good or whatever. The people from the nursing home are coming at eight."

"Alright, good, glad to hear it. Since that's out of the way, I guess all there is, is that you're going to be with Hale today. Derek Hale." Ramsey, letting go of her prior pleasantness, was quick to relish in the ashen glaze Stiles currently wore over his usually handsome features. "Hey, he asked for you. Embrace the struggle, Stilinski. Embrace the struggle." She laughed to herself for about a millisecond. "Take it up with him if you find the challenge to be too much."

Ramsey strode away with unshakeable glee, leaving Stiles to dwell on the face the idea that he was going to be stuck with Derek all day, and the constant reminder that he was just second choice in the game of love.

x

Covering the ER, Scott and Isaac were sort of jonesing for something to come crashing through the doors. Something bloody, something seedy. Really, just something. They were interns, cutters. They wanted to splice flesh, but it was looking to be somewhat of a tame day, and things weren't really looking to speed up at the moment.

"Really?" Scott rolled his eyes. "The pit is always busy. The one damn day that Ramsey personally assigns me to the ER, it's calm."

"Gives you more time to dwell on the fact that you were an idiot for screwing up last night with Allison."

Scott's head hovered toward Isaac in an instant. "What did you just say?"

It was then that the huge turnaround in stillness altered in the pit, a gurney carrying a bleeding patient coming their way. Both were eager on their heels, sauntering over and awaiting to hear what sort of case they had on their hands.

"Zeke Aglionby, twenty five year old male with a severe gunshot wound, left chest cavity. Immediate return of 860 cc's of blood from the chest."

"OW!" Zeke screamed like nails were scraping the insides of his chest, which both Isaac and Scott were quick to accept, because it wasn't like they had ever been shot in the chest to badger his claim.

The attendant wheeling Zeke into the next available ER room broke up Zeke's continued cries of agitated anguish. "In the past hour, he's put out more than 200 cc's."

Immediately jumping into doctoral action, Isaac ordered, "Alright, someone push morphine. Two milligrams."

"No, five milligrams" He countered, eyeing Isaac in a slithering motion with his dark orbs. "You get that this is my case, right?" Scott smirked in the simplest way that raked steel into Isaac's eyes.

"Oh, keep dreaming. The only case you should be worried about is whether or not Allison is going to give you another chance."

"Whoa, out of line!"

"Out of line my ass, she kept me up all night, in my bed!"

"Doctors, enough!" The attendant declared with a heavy fisted outcry, one that shut them up instantly upon looking at him. "Do you get that you have an entire police force watching you right now and you're fighting over an officer instead of accurately helping him?"

Indeed, just outside of the ER room was a squad of cops, watching closely to make sure that they didn't fuck up their fallen brother.

"They don't bite so much as stare you down with Lucifer-level intent." Zeke laughed weakly, which ultimately started a vicious coughing fit that sent his vitals in a swirl of indecisiveness.

"Just page Hale, let him know I'm bringing up a GSW." Isaac spun around, trying to catch his bearings on what to administer Zeke next.

"I think you mean 'we'."

"What?"

"We are bringing up a GSW." Scott solidified, much to the annoyance of the other boyish doctor in the room.

Isaac sent a silent prayer to the ether, begging and pleading that something would just go his way today, and that he could survive working with Scott on this vitally important case.

x

Alan Deaton sauntered into Asher's room a little while later, secretly glad to have the older Stilinski out of his hospital. It wasn't that he hated Asher, because their years of friendship was one of his favorite things on this earth. No, it was because it caused him a little too much pain. And a little too much serrated guilt.

He leaned against the doorframe as his eyes found his old friends'. "You're leaving today, Asher. You'll be able to leave this place behind you."

"No, no, no." Asher said, vehemently shaking his head like a crane that had long sense lost its self-control. "I told you, Alan, I have loads more patients to see today."

"No more patients, Asher." Deaton nodded. "No more hospital. I'll stop by later to make sure your leave is overseen by a friendly face." He finished off with a smile, but even he had to admit it came off a little too happy for his professional liking.

It wasn't until he was ambling out of the room, all thoughts of Asher Stilinski fading from the forefront of his conscience, that the former doctor let his voice ring loudly around the hospital room.

"You should know that Claudia is thinking about leaving me."

Deer in the headlights, teenager caught during his first time, Alan was struck by the semi of a confession bursting forth from Asher's lips. He turned around faster than a thunderstorm concluded a hot day.

"Asher?"

"I can't do it without her, Alan." The brims of his eyes were decorated with a prologue of tears. "I think she's having an affair."

Alan sighed to himself which turned into him actually displaying the action in front of the patient. "Asher, all of this happened a long time ago. Claudia didn't leave you. You're remember things that happened over twenty years ago."

"It'll be too late for me if she leaves me for this haughty bastard." Asher seethed. "This is going to destroy Stiles."

"It didn't." Alan affirmed, knowing that this conversation was futile the more it clung to ears of the walls circling them. "There was no affair." He gave Asher one last smile. "Try and get some rest before you're discharged."

He left, feeling the exact feelings he had been fearing the entire time he had first approached Asher Stilinski's room. And their Alzheimer-fueled exchange only proved to Deaton that he had to be very, very careful with exactly how he conducted himself around Stiles.

x

Walking fast down the hall, Derek was worried at just how mad Stiles was going to get once he learned that he had requested the intern for the day. Sure, things were weird between them, especially after their battle of berating at Stiles' house, but Derek needed more time. Time to explain, time to think. And it was just a lot easier to say that when Stiles had no choice but to stay put and not run away from him every time he opened his mouth to spew forth a clarification.

And as he went to dive down a corner, Stiles was kicking his heels against the floor to meet him.

"Stiles-"

"Julia is looking for you, Dr. Hale."

"Jesus." Derek could plainly see that his chance of explaining wasn't exactly going to be easy. "Listen, Stiles, this is hard for me."

"Since I know how hard this is on you, let me ease your worries a little bit."

All Derek could think was here comes another long speech by the beautiful Stiles Stilinski.

Shit, he scorned himself. He definitely shouldn't have been immediately drawn to thinking the word beautiful right now, when there was an impending fight breaking out between them.

"It's not going to happen because of me. I'm not that guy, Derek. The guy who pleads for you to stay or annihilates a marriage. I watched my parents struggle with their own too much to willingly add gasoline on an already blazing wildfire. Don't sign the papers, sign the papers, but it's not going to be because of my influence. You're the one, Derek, not me, that decides this." He stopped blinking so he could truly get Derek to understand the next words out of his mouth. "Whatever you do end up deciding, I'm not your consolation prize. I'm withdrawing myself from the prize table, the winner's circle, whatever you want to decree that it is, I'm gone."

Derek stood there, dumbfounded by the words that he was currently soaking in, and Stiles, being the dark and twisty creature that he was, left no room for further thought. "Now, since we're doctors, how about you usher me to this patient that we're supposed to be assisting today?"

All too soon for Derek, they were in their patient's room, a young woman named Sahna, who was admitted after complaining adamantly about a severe twine in her back that was proving to be persistent.

"My legs went numb last night," Sahna explained. "Between that and my back this morning, something's wrong, Dr. Hale." Her face darkened as another wash of pain attempted to drown her. "It's too much."

Derek sympathized, because his heart was begging for air for the second time in his life. He did his best to avert any and all contact to Stiles at the moment while the thumping organ in his chest pleaded to be lifted out of the water of sorrow. "Ms. Liu, I'm going to be putting you on what's called a PCA pump, a morphine administer that will hopefully ease your pain."

"Please and thank you." She winced, both of their turmoil bubbling over again.

"But what worries me is what I'm seeing on your MRI…"

"Please, God, no." She cried. "What is it?"

"Myxopapillary ependymoma, I'm afraid. A spinal canal tumor. I know it sounds terrifying, but we can operate. If we perform surgery as soon as you'll allow, you have a ninety-five percent chance of recovering without major complication. I would like to stress that waiting isn't in your best interest with a tumor as aggressive as yours. Something as seemingly minor as a twenty-four wait and it puts you at a risk of permanent paralysis."

"No." Sahna cried. "I can't have surgery."

"Ms. Liu-"

"No, I…you don't understand, how could you, you're not Hmong. I…it's too soon. I can't." Sahna started to cry, reaching for her phone. "My parents…no, no surgery."

"Sahna, this surgery? You want it. Hell, you need it." Stiles tried his best to remain professional, but she needed to grasp how serious her condition was to her well-being, to her life.

"I don't-"

"Please…I'm sorry, Dr. Hale, but I need you to leave." She looked at Stiles so suddenly, it caused him to rattle a little. "Both of you. Go!"

Once out of the room and climbing the stairs in the stairwell, Derek shot Stiles the oddest of glances in regards to what had just transpired in their patient's room.

"Did she say Hmong? We're going to need to know what she's referring too before we can go any further with her care."

"Should I keep processing her discharge or…?" Stiles said, overwhelmingly unsure.

"We have to, technically, because she's declining out care. But we're going to stay on top of this until we figure something out. It actually reminds me of this case back in Beacon Hills where-"

The end of their ascent imminent, Stiles rolled his eyes and cut off the neurosurgeon before he could get to a place that Stiles couldn't as easily jump out of.

"Honestly, Derek, if there's anything else regarding the current patient…otherwise…"

Now they were stopped, facing each other on the last landing of the stairs, both of them wordless. Derek laughed to himself, at how dismissive Stiles was being but also because his moment to explain had finally presented himself so he could shed some light, albeit in the darkest of ways.

"Okay, Stiles, I get it. I'm the villain in the plot twist to your story, but I need you to understand-"

"Understand what, Derek? That you haven't signed the papers? Because I'm well aware of what you not pressing a pen to those documents really means-"

"It means I was married for eleven years!"

Now, it was Derek's turn to cut him off, to deliver his own speech to Stiles in a newfound way that he had never been able to. The fire of the truth came barreling out of Derek like a Subway train with severed brakes, unable to see the possible doom ahead of him.

"Eleven years, Stiles. We've shared eleven holidays, exchanged in eleven birthday celebrations, eleven family functions. For eleven years, Julia has been my family, my constant. Do you expect for me, in one day's time, to erase that long history, that long eleven years, on just a whim or the flick of my wrist? I think I deserve a little time here! A little hesitation on cutting out a person out of my life that has had my back when no one else did." Derek struggled to refrain from crying, from tapping into the emotional hull he had built around himself and fortified for so long. Stiles was seeing his cracks, seeing through his vulnerable curtain, and he couldn't reel any of it back to care. "She did something selfish, something awful, I haven't forgotten. But I've earned a moment of painful uncertainty." He flashed the most hurt and irate boil in his eyes when he stared into Stiles' awaiting orbs. "And a speck of understanding from you, would be nice."

He stormed off, leaving Stiles in the dust of his words, hoping that for once, Stiles knew what it felt like to be crushed by the words of someone else.

x

At the edge of the mezzanine of the hospital, Lydia leaned against the railing, the lights above her flickering ominously, like someone was whacking the electric wiring throughout the establishment. Rolling her eyes at the nuisance, Lydia winced in pain just as Stiles joined her at the railing. She was still sore from everything that had happened.

"You should take something, you know." Stiles gestured to her side when her eyebrows met him with an arch. "Someone as studious as you should already know how long surgical scars take to fully heal. There's no shame in needing to manage your pain."

"Pills are for quitters." Lydia barked back, earning her a smirk from her friend.

Just then, Allison stomped over to them, having a clear mindset when she blurted out, "I hate Scott."

"Because he didn't make your happy place happy?" Lydia said concerned in a way that made it clear that she wasn't.

"Whatever. It's just that I really hate Scott."

"I broke up with Derek." Stiles mentioned with a slight stench to his tone.

"Peter wants to be in a relationship."

Allison let her eyes somersault inside her head. "Boys are fucking stupid."

With that, she left and Stiles joined her as Lydia thought about how right that statement was, and how much she didn't want to be distracted by anything but her career while her heart was strumming for something more.

x

Luckily for Isaac and Scott, Zeke had somehow stabilized as soon as they had reached the elevator to take him in for surgery. Not that he still didn't need immediate medical attention, but it definitely made their trip to the OR a little bit more level headed. As they rode on the elevator, Isaac could tell that Scott was itching to ask him something by the way he kept licking his lips. Apparently, Isaac wasn't only getting really good at reading his friends, but also really good at being the person people wanted to unload all of their problems to.

Which was a double-edged sword that he couldn't quite carry.

"Dude, just out with it already." He sighed. "What is going on with you?"

"Not me." Scott finally exhaled, as if he had been waiting on Isaac to ask him. "It's Allison. What's going on with her?"

"You blew it." He said, not caring enough to hold back. After all, it was his bed that Allison had sought refuge in last night. "She shaved her legs, she got a damn Brazilian. How are you this bad with women?"

"Whoa, I am not bad with women."

"Oh, so you just forgot to kiss her goodnight then?"

Zeke winced, catching both doctor's attention as he looked at Scott with disdain. "That's cold, man."

"Just… stay out of it, okay? I don't need tips from you, Isaac."

"Seriously? Apparently, you do because I live with her, both Allison and Stiles. And whenever you and Derek or whoever messes up, I'm the one who has to pick up the pieces and shush them, telling them it's all going to be alright and clean up their vomit from tequila binges so, no, I'm not going to stay out of it."

The elevator shuddered to a stop, so violent that it rocking all three of them like they were in a hammock rather than a fairly safe metal box, one that was quickly turning into a metal coffin as their panic set in.

"We're not moving." Scott stated.

Isaac scoffed loudly, and without the hum of the elevator to drown him out, it snared along the walls around them. "No kidding." He started to frantically press the call button that they were supposed to call upon in case of emergency. But after about five minutes of cramping his hand with mashing and crashing the button in, it seemed like they were going to be stuck.

"Give it a rest." Scott demanded lightly. "If they haven't gotten us out by now, there must be a problem with the power or something."

Zeke began to cry out, swelling with a hardcore bout of distress. After checking the monitor, Isaac's cool exterior fell to the floor as fast as Zeke's vitals. "We need to get him to an OR now. There's more asbestosis."

"What's that mean?" Zeke said in between hitched breaths.

"It means we have to get out of here and soon."

Isaac looked at Scott at this statement, his heart clamoring against his rib cage as they were stuck in an elevator with a patient that could die within minutes if they didn't operate.

x

After leaving the mezzanine, Lydia made her way back to Mr. Green's room. She seriously needed a distraction from her situation with Peter. And that's exactly what she got. Eric was the only one in his room and he was writhing on the bed in what looked to be intense pain.

"Are you alright, Mr. Green?"

"Oh, thank God." Eric wrestled with his pain a bit more in bed, practically scratching at his skin and begging it to peel beneath his fingernails. "Is there another room available? The TV went with the lights and everything is still out."

"That would be the power outage." Lydia nodded. "It'll be back on soon, hopefully. You'll be just fine staying here."

Eric displayed an ostentatious show of agony. "What's our plan?"

"I'm sorry, what 'plan'?"

"The plan that includes my porn!"

Lydia stifled a laugh, trying at least a little bit to hold some professional air about her, even if she did disagree that he really needed it. "I hear they have these things that are handheld and can actually teach you something. I believe they're called books."

"Hey, I need my porn!"

"Right." Lydia mocked, leaving the room and hoping her patient would give up the porn gig.

x

"Redirect all ICU patients to the south wing!"

Ramsey wasn't an insanely religious individual, but she was praying at multiple deities that the power to Seattle Grace Hospital was restored, and soon. Patient were getting restless, interns were getting lazy, and attendings were prescribing ludicrous decrees that really made her blood curdle.

That's when Derek Hale decided to grace Ramsey with his a little too perfect presence. She'd paged him earlier in the day in regards to Eric Green and it seemed like now was going to be the time to discuss it.

"Porn, Derek? The man is in chronic pain and you go with porn?"

"Ah." Derek smiled, giddy from the subject matter in juxtaposition to Ramsey's seriousness. "You've met my lovely friend Eric."

"Porn, Derek?"

"Do you have a problem with pornography, Dr. Ramsey?"

"PORN!?"

"Listen, it's been proven that it's not only music or art that can minimize pain by stimulating the brain and producing endorphins." He sneered. "Besides, I wasn't the one to prescribe it. Find the real porn connoisseur."

Begrudgingly, Ramsey walked away for greater destinations when Derek found himself a little surprised to see Stiles willingly coming within ten feet of him. Sure, they were on the same case together, but their last interaction didn't exactly go swimmingly.

"Dr. Stilinski?"

"You need to talk to Sahna's father. I have a feeling just having testicles isn't good enough of a qualification. Apparently, you have to actually have years of experience doing this sort of thing so."

"What happened to social services?"

"Well, I talked with Sahna, and just doesn't think they can help us. She thinks nothing is going to help because her father believes that she can't go through with surgery because she's missing something."

"Missing something? Like, her keys? What could possibly be important enough to need finding?"

"Her soul."

Derek regarded Stiles with saucer-sized corneas. He had to admit that a little part of him was super pleased that he and Stiles could get along well enough to revel in medicine together, without making it awkward by bringing their personal troubles into it as well. It was just one of the many things that Derek loved about his connection to the budding doctor.

"Her soul?"

Stiles nodded vigorously. "We don't need a social worker, Derek." He gave the smallest inkling of a simper. "We need a shaman."

x

Back in the elevator, Isaac and Scott were still eagerly awaiting with Zeke for the power to enable them to get to a floor appropriately. And Zeke was getting too bad off. So bad off, that he must have thought that he could get off of the gurney, because he began to struggle out of his reclining state and aiming to place his feet on the floor.

"Zeke, you can't—"

But he ignored Scott's calls of obedience. "I don't care what you say. I'm getting out of here."

"We're going to get out of here." Isaac issued. "I promise."

Thankfully, Peter appeared through the small opening onto the surgical floor that they had, letting them glimpse onto the floor of gawkers that managed to assemble for their spectacle of strife.

"What's his blood pressure, Lahey?"

Isaac shook his head. "He's too flustered."

"Pulse?"

"Still there, if that's what you mean." Scott grunted.

"Were either of you smart enough to bring supplies?"

The interns swapped a look of inadequacy. Scott said, "Nothing more than gloves."

"We thought we'd be in the OR."

Peter sighed. "Enough excuses. Let's hear the blood pressure, McCall."

"Systolic over 50, just like the last three times you asked."

Zeke began to wheeze and shake with vigor, setting all three's worry at a new time high.

"Dr. Hale?"

"I suggest the two of you buckle up." Peter shifted on the floor, so he could better peer into the descended elevator. "This isn't going to be the best, but it's happening."

"What's happening?" Isaac asked.

"You're going to crack his chest open."

Again, Scott and Isaac looked at each other like Peter Hale was absolutely ready to admit himself to the nearest institution over the mere idea of allowing two interns before a solo surgery by opening a chest for the first time ever.

X

Lydia sauntered up to the nurse's station, enjoying the look of annoyance swimming through the pores on Allison's face. She definitely seemed upset about something, and if anyone was having a worse day than her, Lydia was all for it. Porn Guy was bumming her out.

"What's the matter, Sunshine?" Lydia laughed breezily.

Allison rolled her eyes painfully. "Bite me." She turned to the nearest nurse. "Could you do me a favor and grab me every record for Velma Barkley? And then just page me whenever you can, I'd really appreciate it."

The nurse began to compile Allison's request as the young doctor got up to grab her snacks from the counter.

"Wait, what's going on with your patient?" Lydia wondered.

"Mystery arrhythmias. I'm trying to pinpoint exactly what's happened in her life to cause these things." She ripped open the wrapper on her brownie and took a bite, walking out from behind the nurse's station and heading away from them at the same time that Stiles started to walk over. "Plus, I don't have time to exactly research it with this much going on."

Stiles smiled at them as he approached. Allison stuck out her hand and forked over the bag of pretzels she was saving and awarded them to Stiles. He greedily took them, thanked Allison for her services, and went walking right by the nurse's station.

"Wait, what aren't you guys telling me?" Lydia pouted.

Allison walked backward as she sneered with supreme joy. "Peter is about to talk Scott and Isaac through heart surgery in the elevator."

Stiles did the same action, and added a smirk to dagger at Lydia. "Derek booked a shaman healing ritual."

"Hell yeah!" Allison hooted.

Both of her friends made themselves scarce as their days dwindled into a wonderful display of medicine, and Lydia's was full of moans and facial expression of ecstasy.

"But all I have is Porn Guy!"

A little while later, Lydia decided to check in on her porn patient. The power was still ceasing to course through the walls of the hospital, and she had a feeling that Eric was still struggling to take it.

She made her way into her patient's room and Eric was, as predicted, inconsolable over his capsizing pain. He was crying out, yelping like a wounded animal. Concernced, Lydia reached for his chart and read his newly provided vitals.

"Oh, your pressure's elevated…pulse is racing…oh my God, you're in actual pain!"

Eric, among his painful excursions, still spared a moment to roll his eyes at his doctor. "That's what I've been trying to tell you!"

"The porn…it really is sedating your pain?" Eric just looked at her like she'd been missing the entire point, which in all actuality, she had. "I'm sorry, I—"

"You honestly think I enjoy watching hardcore porn in front of my doctors?"

"Do you want my honest answer or…?"

"Hey!"

"Alright, alright." Lydia didn't want her patient in pain. Despite her demeanor, she really didn't want anyone to suffer, especially under her watch. So, she really did have to come up with a plan for Eric. Something that wouldn't let his pain linger and sting him with fire ant bites. Eric was allergic to most narcotics and NSAIDS. She remembered reading in his history that both droperidol and dihydroemetine caused him to fall into a coma last year. She could get an anesthesiologist, but Eric had surgery tomorrow and there was no chance that the anesthesiologist was going to administer an epidural block.

"What am I supposed to do? I'm hurting!"

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking."

Unfortunately, an idea implanted itself into her brain, and she wasn't going to enjoy it a bit. Eric must have accurately read her face because he rested into his bed and waited for her plan to unfold to his benefit.

"Listen to me, if you tell anyone about this, I will sell your favorite body parts on the black market and then use the money to eradicate the remainder of your family line. Got it?"

"I promise!"

Eric leaned back into the mattress and closed his eyes as Lydia took a seat on the available chair next to him, and began to verbally spew the sordid tales that kept Eric's pain at bay.

"So…there's women. Uh, three women. Three doctors. You like doctor's, right? That's what you were watching when—"

"I get the picture." Eric said, waiting for her to hurry up and get these so called "details" out of the way.

"Right, back to the doctors." She laughed nervously. "Okay, so there's three doctors and all of them are very…saucy. Three very saucy, naughty, sexy doctors awaiting very bad, bad patients to attend to. Oh, and they're in a shower, all three of them."

Eric released a sigh, finally having some of his pain relieved in a way he hadn't felt since the power had cut off his only remedy. Lydia saw his expression soften and knew that she was doing the right thing, no matter how it looked or made her feel.

x

Back in the elevator, Scott was pissed. He was pissed because he was afraid. And he was afraid because he had other things on his mind. And during that time, he froze. Completely froze when Peter asked him to step up take charge of cracking Zeke's chest open. And that's how Scott had allowed Isaac to cut open a chest completely by himself and left Scott to take to ventilating.

Peter was guiding Isaac through every maneuver, everything he needed to get through the procedure without endangering his career or endangering the life of their very critical patient and his overall well-being.

"Alright, Lahey, talk to me." Peter reiterated, laying down on the floor just as he had before as he considered the small opening between the floors. Isaac was a master with a scalpel, doing everything with expert precision. But it was important to know absolutely everything he was doing so that Peter insured the safety of Zeke once they finally got into the OR.

"Dr. Hale, I didn't cut the lungs or the heart." Isaac beamed up at his mentor with wide eyes and a masked smile. "The lungs and the heart is okay!"

Peter smiled minimally. "That's great, Lahey. You're doing great." He made sure to send an annoyed glance at Scott, one the latter didn't take too well. "Now just do the pericardiotomy and be sure to insure that there's no lasting injuries."

Still harnessing every muster of attention on Zeke and his continued good health, Isaac mentioned to Peter, "Dr. Hale, I'm going to need satinsky clamps, lap pads, metzenbaums, and forceps."

Smiling down at his young intern, Peter just nodded. "You absolutely will."

After acquiring the correct items, Isaac not only did the pericardiotomy, but also extracted a clot from Zeke's chest with minimal effort. The last problem was that there was a hole in his aorta, and Isaac told Peter that the only way it didn't act like it would rupture was if he plugged it with his finger. Peter advised against it, but there was no denying the vitals change that Zeke portrayed.

"BP is stabilizing." Scott muttered.

"That's good!" Isaac said as he looked back up to Peter for more direction. "Okay, Dr. Hale, what's next?"

"You wait." He smiled back, looking to see that the fire and rescue team had finally arrived to get Scott, Zeke, and Isaac from the locked elevator. "They're ready to pull you guys out of there, so you grab the satinsky clamp to hold him over until we get in the OR."

"Right." Isaac nodded.

"And Lahey?"

"Yeah?"

"Congratulations. You just flew solo."

Laughing victoriously, Isaac nodded once more and avoided Scott's damning gaze. "Thank you, Dr. Hale."

x

"'That's it!'" Lydia yelped in ecstasy, still describing sordid scenes for her patient with the chronic pain problem. "'I'm so good and being bad!', Erica said as she misplaced her stethoscope." It, of course, was at this moment that Lydia looked over and saw that Ramsey was in the doorway, looking absolutely disturbed by what she had heard. Quickly, Lydia gestured toward her patient as the reasoning behind her erotica-filled speech. Ramsey shook her head and Lydia decided to keep going. "'I'm bad too!' said Christy as she lubed up her surgical glove. And then Martha was poised behind her to—"

A huge surge went through the room as the power triumphantly returned to Seattle Grace and Eric's porn returned to portraying women and men in the mot compromising positions.

"Oh, finally." Lydia said, standing up from her comfortable reclining position in her chair and looking Eric square in the eye. "Remember, not a peep out of you about this."

"Thank you so much." Eric said, ushering her away so he could alleviate his pain in his preferred medium.

x

Lydia found Peter in an on-call room. It was time to talk to him. Enough with the avoiding, enough with everything going on between them. This was it. So, she barged in while Peter was taking his shirt off to sleep. To say that his chiseled perfection was distraction would have been a discarded and accurate assumption, but she'd seen so much porn today, that she had to reel it back in.

"So here's the thing. I'm overworked, I'm competitive, I'm right because I'm always right, and I sometimes talk in my sleep."

Taking everything in, Peter just said, "Okay…"

"This is me trying." Lydia sighed. "Get on board or get in bed."

"Oh!" Peter exclaimed, beaming at her declaration. "Sorry. So you're saying…"

"Fine, we're a couple. Don't buy me flowers because I hate flowers. It's not a big deal."

Peter crooned, swooping her into his arms affectionately. "Oh, it's about to be a big deal."

Fighting every urge in her body, Lydia couldn't help but let a yelp escape her as he pulled her close and began to kiss her neck, much like those she had heard during Eric's lustful tapes. But she gave in to the fantasy, because what she wanted, needed, was Peter, and he knew exactly how to take care of her needs.

x

Outside of Sahna's room, Stiles watched in amazement as a shaman performed his ritual to return her soul back to her body. There was this ethereal moment during the act that Sahna's body shifted in her hospital bed and her body became lithe with posture, angling her body in such a way that Stiles thought would be utterly detrimental to comfort. But there was a glaze in Sahna's eyes, and she nodded at Stiles, to which he responded accordingly.

"How long?" Derek commented, seeing the exchange between the two.

"Sorry?" Stiles laughed.

"To get her soul back. How long do you think something like that takes?"

"I don't know." Stiles said candidly. "But when someone learns where I lost mine, I'll give you all the grisly details."

Derek laughed, gesturing back behind them. "Let's start getting ready for surgery."

And then they were operating. Stiles had his grounds with Derek personally, everything that had happened between them consumed every thought of every waking day that involved the sun rising, but that all washed away when he was in the OR. More precisely, there was something about when Stiles worked with Derek in the OR that made everything else…pointless. They were a great team, there really was no denying it. The way they ebbed and flowed through every movement together, through every motion that saved the patient. It was an art, what they had. And as they wrapped up in the scrub room, Stiles wasn't sure that he was ready to end anything with Derek. Derek smiled at him as he finished scrubbing his hands, planning on leaving the scrub room, and Stiles had to lift this anvil off of his chest.

"I was wrong."

Spinning back around, Derek stifled a sigh and looked into those ridiculously gorgeous orbs Stiles had for eyes.

"What?"

"I lied to you. I didn't mean what I said before, I'm not done…with this relationship. I'm here. I'm in." Stiles lolled his eyes around in his head, clashing together off key in a true representation of how this was all coming out. "And the worst part of it all is here I am, groveling in front of the man that I'm trying to win over."

In true Derek fashion, he looked Stiles over like it was the sweetest thing he had ever seen, and gave the smallest of smiles. "Stiles—"

"Shut up." Stiles scoffed up a feeble smile. "You say Stiles and I bitch at you, remember?"

Another small laugh, and Derek rolled on his heels to let Stiles deliver what he was hoping was a conceding to conceding on their relationship. "Right."

"Alright, here I go." Stiles scoffed again, ready to do this, ready to admit this to himself. "Your choice? It's easy." He was four words in, and he already felt his voice shaking and tears marbling against his eyes. He pushed through, this had to happen. Had to be right now. "Her or me. And I'm sure she's even more amazing than I've been able to witness. But Derek…" Out with it, Stiles. SAY IT. "I love you." A flood of release met him, his tears trying to overwhelm him in the best way possible. Derek reacted to the proclamation by shifting his stance, nearing Stiles evermore, but his former flame was far from done. "I just love you. And I think you might love me too. Because I love you, Derek. In a really, really big…pretend to like your mother, let you have the last piece of pizza, throw my fist up in the air while walking across a football field because I got you, devastating way that makes me hate you, love you. So pick me. Choose me. Love me."

Derek went for the embrace, but Stiles stopped it just in time and back away so he could finish.

"I'll be at Joel's, waiting. So if you decide to really do this and sign the papers and truly give this thing we have a shot? Meet me there."

Not wanting to dwell on the raw emotion he was displaying, Stiles ran out of the room. Derek felt overcome with sorrow, over doing this to Stiles, over doing this to himself, over doing this to Julia. Everything was so crazy and everything was so far from idyllic. He wanted Stiles, wanted him like he needed to breathe. But in order to accept this offer from the man he loved, he had to destroy Julia. Desecrate everything she had built within herself to let Derek know that she still wanted him. Which was the right choice? Was the right thing to do the right thing for him?

Derek didn't have the answer, but later across the street at the bar where he had first met Derek, he'd wonder if his knight in shining whatever would show up and pick him, because it was what Stiles wanted more than anything else.