Sutures // Grey's Anatomy

i.

     "If you don't count that my bacon days are over, sure," the man laughs.

     "You'll have surgery tomorrow with Doctor Burke -- I hear he's good," George explains to the man, "and after that, you can have all of the bacon-flavored soy product you can eat."

     Hadley looks to her fellow intern with a smile before turning back to her patient. "Delicious," she jokes.

     "Kill me now."

      "I wish I could, but I'm a healer," George says. The husband and wife give him a strange look as Hadley looks to the floor as if she was the one to say the cringeworthy thing.

The interns make their way out of the room awkwardly, Hadley closing the door behind her.

"That could have gone better," George laughs, adjusting his white coat. "Way better."

"I think you did good, O'Malley," Hadley replies with a smile, walking to the nurse's station.

The pair, after seeing the many patients they need to speak to, decide to split up. Hadley is in charge of Phillip Jackson, a thirty-two year old man having an appendectomy. The man was calmer than most patients she had seen. He wasn't at all nervous that in a couple hours, he would be going in for surgery.

      After checking the man's heartbeat, Hadley looks at him. "Sorry for asking, but I'm just a bit curious. Why aren't you nervous? Not that you should be, but most patients seem to have that small fear deep within them."

     The man laughs and replies, "I don't mind you asking. Fear is something that is felt so easily. Everyone is scared at times in their life, but only the people that have felt true fear can keep their cool in minimal situations."

     "I know how that is," Hadley comments with a nod.

     "I was serving in the army a couple years ago. We were ambushed. I was the only survivor."

     "I'm so sorry," Hadley gasps. "But thank you for your service, Mr. Jackson, sir."

     The man nods, studying the young girl. She is writing with her left hand on the man's chart. Her white coat just barely creeps up past her wrist, allowing the puckered scars to peek out.

"So you've felt real fear?" The man questions, his eyes catching the scar.

Hadley replies with a nod before putting her patient's chart down. Her sleeve falls back down.

"Can you share?" The man pushes, looking back up at Hadley's face.

"Just don't tell anyone," Hadley says, glancing for any doctors in the halls. The young intern had been pitied all her life. She was never seen as just a normal girl, and she will never be one. Hadley just wants to earn her way up and not get passed along because people feel sorry for her.

"I won't."

Hadley Andrews tells the man her story quietly. Listening closely the entire time, he didn't interrupt.

      "I'm sorry you went through that, Dr. Andrews. That kind of past, though, it helps you stay strong. It helps you succeed in areas that nobody else can. I'm not saying that I'd give that past to anyone, but it's a part of who you are and it helps you be successful," Mr. Jackson explains with a smile, watching closely as the intern wipes a tear from her eye.