TRIAGE | grey's anatomy (ON HOLD INDEFINITELY)

001: "12:34 AM"

CLEMENTINE HAD ALREADY DRAINED HER FIRST LONG ISLAND ICED TEA IN ONE BIG GULP AND HAD STARTED IN ON HER SECOND WHEN SHE MET HER FIRST OFFICIAL SEATTLE GRACE DOCTOR. She normally made it a rule not to drink alone, especially at the accelerated rate she was planning on going, but Clem didn't know a soul in Seattle except for the formidable Preston Burke, who she was so not about to invite to down vodka shooters with. So she sat at the bar, cracking her dinner of free peanuts and trying not to think of her first shift tomorrow.

"An homage to my roots, Joe!" she cheered to the bartender, clinking her glass against the bottle of tequila he was pouring into two shot glasses. The tall, mop-headed man looked up at her and laughed.

"You're from Long Island, huh? Just moved here?" Joe slid the shots to the blonde girl who Clem had sat catty-corner to. Clem had just caught the last of their conversation when she arrived, and knew the drinks were free.

"Yes, sir. Manhattan, but close enough."

As Joe chuckled and moved onto the next customer, the girl next to Clem gulped the two shots like water and turned to face her. She was pretty, maybe a few years older than Clem, with sad blue eyes and layered honey-colored waves.

"My boyfriend is from New York, too. Ex-boyfriend, I guess. He's a surgeon. A very good surgeon, a very bad person," she stated matter-of-factly, like it was perfectly normal to share with a stranger at a bar.

Clementine was the right amount of tipsy to be perfectly fine with it."How strange. I'm kind of a surgeon too, but I'd like to think I'm a good person. Is he at Seattle Grace? I just transferred into their resident program."

The woman raised an eyebrow and smiled crookedly. "Joe, another round for me and my new friend here. I'm an intern, too, so it looks like we'll be seeing a lot of each other the next five years." She stuck out her hand. "Meredith Grey, professional adulterous whore."

Clem liked her already-- a lot. "Clementine Santos, professional fuckup. Now, what is this about being an adulterous whore? Is it some special job-requirement I missed?"

"Nah, you're too princess-pretty to ever convince people you're a public prostitute. Me, on the other hand..."

Over the next hour, Clem was awarded a (weepy) crash course on the politics and drama at Seattle Grace more confusing and intensive than her Advanced Gross Anatomy class in med school. She paid close attention to everything Meredith said, like she'd be tested on it later. There was the gaggle of interns (and Meredith's closest friends) living in her mother's house and working under the reign of Dr. Bailey (aka "The Nazi"), Meredith's bar hookup who turned out to be world-famous brain surgeon and new attending Derek Shepherd, the recent outbreak of syphillis that hit the hospital like a tycoon, and then tonight's latest development of Shepherd having a wife.

Clementine was, to say the least, overwhelmed. The drinks that Joe had been supplementing them were most certainly necessary. Was she really only two months late to the program? Meredith, though obviously drowning her sorrows in Jose Cuervo, had still asked-- quizzed?-- Clem on herself, probably out of politeness. Clementine didn't necessarily lie, but she certainly didn't include all the nitty-gritty details like a semi-drunken Meredith had provided. Undergrad at NYU, med school at Columbia, and she reluctantly admitted that she graduated both early and was only 23. Meredith had hiccup-laughed at that one, telling her that Cristina Yang would never let her live it down. Clem's residency at Columbia had not been nearly as entertaining, and she told Meredith so. It was filled mostly with overly-polite and impractically perfect doctors, ones who insisted the other do the surgery and who probably went home to their sterile grey alien homes.

Meredith snorted. "I can promise you that we are not like that. And look, my friends are here."

Clem followed her gaze to the entrance of the bar, where a woman in a leather jacket and black curls was accompanied by a shorter guy with a head of brown hair. The entire bar erupted into cheers, with Joe shouting, "All hail the champ! So, my guy Alex finally got what was coming to him!"