𝗪𝗜𝗟𝗗𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗘, greys anatomy

007

WILDFIRE
chapter seven, season seven episode twenty

    THE SUN WAS SHINING, THE birds were chirping, and Victoria was back to work after having her sweet baby girl, Maisie Ella Shepherd. This was her first baby; lots of questions and confusion, but she was slowly figuring it out day by day. It was a major help that Mark was right across the hall. Well, some nights he would sleep on her couch while the baby slept in a bassinet next to him in the living room. Victoria was a but hesitant to be away from her daughter. ("But-But what if she needs me? Think about the animals in the wild. They don't just leave their babies until they actually need to, Mark!") It was very tough for Mark to argue with that, but somehow he got her to go into work today, leaving him at home alone with Maisie. So there Victoria sat, waiting at south conference room table with a plethora of her colleagues, waiting for Karev to continue with his tangent about his African kid program.

"This is Zola. She's six month old, born with Spina Bifida..." Karev moved on to the next kid in his presentation.

Behind all the attendings, residents stood as they murmured to one another, mocking their colleague. Yang started, "Adorable African children, shameless ego stroking—Karev is a genius."

"Yeah, he's single-handedly stealing Chief Resident out from under all of us, and we're helping him do it. I mean, we can't exactly refuse to treat little sick kids without making ourselves look bad." Jackson pointed out.

"Oh, he is a genius." April agreed. "Or..." She spoke a dialect of African that no one around her understood. "That's what they say in Swahili."

"Well, he only has a shot because I've been benched. The playing field has been leveled. You're all welcome." Yang stubbornly rubbed in.

Even Meredith chimed in. "My Alzheimer's trial kicks African-Orphan ass. It kicks all of your asses."

Victoria had enough of the talking. "Enough." Her voice was firm, interrupting Karev's speech and silencing the peanut gallery. "I am nine weeks postpartum, not to mention nine weeks post life-altering surgery. I have had it up to here with you four, and I've been in the building ten minutes. That says a whole lot. I'm tired, I'm coffee deprived. So for the love of God, shut up! Your colleague is trying to give a presentation. He has a larger shot of being Chief Resident than the four of you seem to have."

The room went silent, seeing how the brunette really was not kidding around. Just in time, Thomas slipped in the room with an iced shaken espresso from Starbucks in his left hand, and a regular black, hot coffee in his right hand. He placed the coffee in front of her before moving on his way to his seat on the other side of the table. Victoria took hold of her coffee, taking a large sip as she continued to glare at her residents.

"Before we go..." Karev started, gesturing to Victoria. "I'd like to personally welcome Dr. Shepherd back from her recovery and maternity leave. Little Maisie Ella is adorable." The young man was trying to suck up—he knew Tori wasn't his biggest fan. However, everyone clapped and welcomed her back, too. She smiled and thanked everyone gracefully before Karev continued. "And I also want to say thank you to all of you for your participation in this project. It, uh, truly means more than I could say."

Everyone, including Tori, started clapping. Jackson's eyes widened, "Slow clap. They're giving him the slow clap. Come on. I'm not giving him the slow clap. Ridiculous."

Alex grinned as staff started to disperse, watching Tori walk up to him. She patted his shoulder, "I appreciate the welcome back, Karev, but the next time you suck up to me like that, I'll give you every exploding bowel in this hospital. Congratulations on the project!"