No Time | Grey's Anatomy // Book 1 // COMPLETED |

37 | Hustled

"I have great faith in you...great faith. I can because I chose you, I trained you. I've watched you work. I know what you can do. That's why today is different. The training wheels are coming off, people." Chief Webber told us as we got ready that morning. Today was the day. The day that the residents were put in charge to prove what they can really do.

Inside our cubbies were dark blue scrubs, different from our usual light blue ones. "Navy scrubs?" Meredith asked.

"Attending scrubs." Chief Webber corrected her, "You are Attendings today. Run the cases, take point, but don't be a fool. If you get in over your head, cry uncle. Until then...congratulations. You've just been promoted."

As Chief Webber exited the lounge, the residents...well, Attendings for today, all started putting on the dark blue scrubs. "I think I look better in navy." I joked and did a little spin. Looking down, I noticed that Cristina was just staring at her scrubs.

"The Attendings aren't going anywhere." Meredith sat down on the bench with Cristina, "We're basically just playing dress-up."

Cristina nodded, "Yeah."

Once we had gotten changed, we got our cases and I was with Jackson and Meredith. "Ms. Radigan, you're still having these headaches and ringing in the ears?" Jackson asked the patient, an elderly woman.

"All day long. It's driving me crazy," she answered.

"It's caused by a buildup of fluid in your skull." Meredith told her, "So what we will do is insert a shunt, and that will relieve the pressure on your brain."

"What do you mean 'we'?" Ms. Radigan's friend asked and turned to Derek, who was also in the room, "You're doing the actual tube part in the brain, right, n-not them?"

"Excuse her. She's a school teacher." Ms. Radigan apologized for her friend, "She talks to everyone like they're hiding gum behind their back."

Derek nodded, "That's all right. She can ask questions. Dr. Grey, Dr. Forrest, and Dr. Avery are residents. They're very talented. One of them will be performing the procedure, and I will be observing."

"A trainee cutting into Ellie's brain? No." the friend refused and my eyes widened. Who knew this patient had the same name as I did?

"I know it sounds like a leap, but these doctors study and assist for years," Derek explained, "At some point, we have to let them operate. That's how we make new surgeons."

The friend shook her head, "Let them learn on someone else."

"Who?" Ms. Radigan, or Ellie, asked her friend, "Someone who's too scared to interrogate the doctors? They have to learn on someone. Might as well be an old lady."

"You're my old lady." the friend retorted, "This should be my call."

"I won't let them move a muscle without my direction and approval," Derek assured them.

"You're a teacher, Joanne." Ellie tried to convince her friend...or possibly wife now that I think about it, "Let the kids learn."

"She's my life." Joanne turned to us, "She has been my life for forty years. Do you hear me?"

Derek nodded, "I hear you."

Once the consult was over, we exited the room. "Who gets to cut?" Meredith asked.

"I want to get a look at all three of you with a drill before I decide who gets the shunt." Derek told us as he turned to leave, "Skills lab seems like a fair way to go."

Jackson sighed, "Competing with the wife? Like that's not a stacked deck."

"Well, it's a game, really." Meredith smiled as she walked off, "So all you have to do is win, which you won't."

"You guys are acting like I'm not in this too." I said, "I have just as good of a chance as both of you do."

Jackson smiled down at me, "Sure you do. Listen, I love you, but I'm going to kick your ass."

As Jackson too left, I crossed my arms. "I'll show them," I whispered to myself as I headed for the skills lab.

"Is Teddy saying you could be fired?" Meredith asked Cristina as she drilled her initials into an egg like we were supposed to.

Cristina nodded, "Sounded that way."

"Well, is she trying to scare you? Is it working?" Meredith questioned.

"I don't think so," Cristina replied.

"Oh, damn it." Jackson groaned from the table he was working at as he threw his egg into the trash.

"What's his problem?" Cristina watched him.

"Derek's got us competing for a brain shunt insertion." Meredith answered, "The egg is the skull. You can break the shell, but you can't break the membrane."

"Damn it!" Jackson yelled this time as he tossed another egg away.

As I turned back to my egg, which was going well so far, I took a deep breath. "I feel bad for him. He's kind of losing it." I heard Meredith tell Christina.

"How's Ellie doing?" Cristina asked.

Meredith's drill paused for a moment as she was probably looking over at my egg, "Ah, she's better competition than Jackson."

Just then, the doors swung open. "Grey!" Jackson groaned as Lexie walked in, "You broke my concentration."

"Sorry." Lexie apologized and walked over to Meredith, "Um, hey, uh, post-ops look good, so if there's nothing else..."

"Oh, could you discharge 12-24?" Meredith asked, "And his chart needs to be dictated."

Lexie nodded, "Uh, yes, it's gonna have to wait until after I check on Torres's knee girl, turf the window jumper to psych, remove a June Bug from some kids ear in the pit, write some meds for screaming-kidney-stones guy, and then deliver labs to my goiter lady."

"Stop bragging." Cristina joked.

"I can't. I was born for this kind of day." Lexie took a deep breath before turning and exiting the room.

A few hours later, Derek had entered the room and the competition had officially begun. "Okay, thirty seconds." Derek set his watch and all three of our drills started to whir, "If neither one of you breaks the membrane, I'm gonna have to judge you on precision, so make sure your initials are clean and clear."

"Dr. Shepherd," Meredith said as I carefully ran the drill along my egg, careful to only hit the shell.

"Yes," Derek answered.

"Stop talking!"

"Five, four...three, two, one." Derek counted down, "Time."

Once the time was up, we all turned off our drills and set them down. "What do you got?" Derek asked as he stepped towards me first. Taking a look at my egg, which wasn't exactly perfect but no membrane had been cut, he nodded. "Very nice work," he told me before moving over to Meredith.

Jackson and I both rolled our chairs over and took a look at Meredith's egg, which looked similar to mine. "Oh, not bad." Derek told her, "What about you, Dr. Avery?"

"I just wish I had more time," Jackson said as he wheeled over to his spot.

"Oh really?" Derek nodded as he looked at Jackson's egg, "You did your whole name?"

Derek held the egg up to Meredith and me, and on the egg is said Avery in the neatest lettering I had ever seen on an egg. "What?!" Meredith and I asked at the same time. Jackson laughed as we stood up and walked over to take a better look at the egg. "You conned us." Meredith accused him.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Jackson denied.

"He hustled us." Meredith turned to Derek, "He went through two dozen eggs and made me think I didn't have to practice."

Derek looked to her, "Well, if you didn't practice, Meredith, you were overconfident. Dr. Avery, congratulations. You have the surgery."

With that, Derek exited the room as Jackson held up his egg and flashed us a smile. "Jackass." I sighed.

Once it was time for the surgery, Meredith and I stood in the O.R., ready to watch Jackson perform the shunt. "The minute I hand you this drill, you're on your own." Derek told him, "You may have hustled, Dr. Grey and Dr. Forrest, but you better not have hustled me. This is not a game. This is a real brain."

"I got it. I'm ready." Jackson nodded as he took hold of the drill.

The familiar whir of the drill sounded and I got ready to watch the surgery that I should have been performing. "Dr. Shepherd, " one of the nurses said, "Lexie Grey is paging for a consult repeatedly."

"I'm in surgery." Derek told her, "Dr. Grey."

Meredith looked to him, "Well, are you sure? I wouldn't want to be overconfident."

When Derek didn't reply, Meredith just turned and left. Sighing, I shifted my weight to my left leg and continued to watch. About ten minutes later, Derek's pager started going off again. "Dr. Shepherd, it's Dr. Grey again." the nurse told him, "Meredith Grey."

"Just passing the ventriculostomy tube now." Jackson announced, "Almost there."

Derek nodded, "All right. Take your time Dr. Avery. You want to make sure that-"

"Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it." Jackson panicked as the brain started to bleed.

"Are you kidding me?" Derek asked, "Are you kidding me? What did you do?"

As Derek moved in, his phone started to ring. "Is there...anything I can do, or?" Jackson asked.

"I don't know, Avery. Is there anything you can do?" Derek sighed as one of the nurses picked up the phone and held it to Derek's ear. "Uh, we're having a problem." Derek answered into the device, "I'm fixing it now."

Derek paused as he listened to whoever was on the other line. "I'm not gonna be there for a while, so you gotta take care of it yourself." Derek finally responded, "You wanted a solo surgery today. Now's your chance. Take point."

As the nurse took the phone away from Derek's ear, he turned to me. "Dr. Forrest, Dr. Grey, Meredith, has a situation on her hands. Can you go just in case she needs extra help?"

"Sure thing." I smiled, and once I received the information as to which O.R. she was in, headed there straight away.

Rushing through the hall, I made a sharp right into the O.R. I needed to be in and quickly scrubbed in. Once inside, the nurses gave me a gown and gloves before I stood beside Lexie as Meredith opened up a woman's brain. As she cut, Lexie and I squirted small amounts of saline solution into the crevice. Once Meredith had cut a perfect circle into the skull, she removed it to reveal the brain. As I quickly squirted saline onto the brain to keep it lubricated, my eyes widened, "Wow." I couldn't help but feel in awe, "I've never been this close and hands-on with a real human brain before. It's amazing."

"Did you just stop that bleeder?" Lexie asked.

Meredith didn't move an inch, "Uh-huh."

"How did you even know to do that?" Lexie questioned.

Just then, Derek rushed into the room, still wearing his surgery scrubs from his previous surgery. "Okay. Sorry, I'm late," he announced.

"That's okay." Meredith told him, "Lexie made a good call. I've got it under control."

"What do we got?" Derek asked, stepped towards us.

"Let me finish, Derek." Meredith said, "I got this."

Derek nodded, "Yes you do."

I could tell Derek was smiling at us as I squirted more saline into the brain. Jackson may be pretty and good at surgery, but at this moment, there was no doubting that Meredith, and even Lexi and I, were great.

Once the surgery was over, I made my way to one of the on-call rooms to spend the night. On the way, I overheard that Dr. Hunt had won the $1 million grant. I hadn't even known that was a thing. As I entered one of the on-call rooms and collapsed into one of the beds, I closed my eyes. That's the one thing I love about this job. You can always predict that a hospital will be unpredictable.