𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐋𝐔𝐕? ─ Jackson Avery

⸻ fifteen

"Do you know how many things I've screwed up in the last month?" he asked, causing both Sage and April to roll their eyes.

"Stop it," Meredith snapped. "I'm serious. Just ask around and get on someone's service and get back to work."

They all went back to semi-paying attention to Teddy before Alex walked in. He was sweaty and he smelled like booze as he sat down in the open spot next to Sage.

She wrinkled her nose and glared at him out of the corner of her eye.

"You smell like you're sweating booze," Sage muttered.

"Where have you been?" Meredith asked.

"I want the weekend you had," Jackson smirked, turning around to wink at Sage, who subtly flipped him off.

"What happens in Vegas, you know?" He waved off their concerns. "Hey, who's Stark? I'm supposed to be on Stark's service today."

"Oh, me, too." April smiled. "He's the new peds attending, Since Robbins left."

"Crap," Alex whispered. "I can't handle a bunch of sick kids today. I can't do it."

"So was it a bachelor party or—"

"Shh," Sage interrupted her. "They're talking about Cristina."

"Oh."

The five of them turned their attention back to Teddy. "It became clear to Dr. Yang that they were gonna need to switch modalities. The patient was put on ecmo..." Teddy went on for a minute before she was interrupted by another doctor.

"And why did Dr. Yang opt to use the intra-aortic balloon pump over an r-vad?" he asked.

Teddy cleared her throat, "I, um... I can't answer for Dr. Yang."

"And why isn't she here?"

"She um..." Teddy paused for a moment. "She quit. She left the program."

The whole room erupted in questions and murmurs. Sage and Meredith exchanged a knowing glance as the murmurs continued.

"I'm sorry. What?" Mark spoke up. "She what?"

"Dr. Yang cleared the balloon pump with Dr. McQueen, who agreed that it was the best—" Teddy tried to continue but Mark didn't let her.

"Go back. Go back. Yang quit the program?"

"Yeah, where have you been?" Derek asked, turning to his best friend.

"Well, that's the first I've heard of it. Hunt, what the hell happened?" He turned to Owen.

"She told the chief she quit," Owen said.

"Richard—" Mark began but Chief Webber stopped him, getting up to take a phone call.

"If we could just finish the presentation, then—"

"I have a question," Derek cut in. "Can you tell us about your decision to put Dr. Yang in charge of this patient?"

"Sorry?" Teddy raised an eyebrow,

"But she didn't "quit" quit, right?" Mark stood up and turned to face Meredith. "Grey. You're joined at the hip. What'd she say?"

Meredith cleared her throat, "Uh, she hasn't spoken to me about it."

Mark looked shocked as he turned to Sage. "Chang?"

"I have no clue, Mark," she replied, shaking her head.