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

71 | Suction

 "Who has worked with the tissue of the penis before?" Catherine asked as people began to take their seats in the skills lab.

"Kepner, keep your hand down." Alex joked.

April turned to him as a few people giggled, "Shh."

"It's delicate vascularity demands a grace and elegance that not many surgeons of your station have mastered." Catherine explained, "The three surgeons to do the best end-to-end anastomosis of their chicken's femoral vessels will scrub in with me, so be cautious, be careful, be brilliant. Begin!"

Getting to work right away, I stared down at my chicken parts, took a deep breath, and started. As I picked up the scalpel, I didn't think that I'd ever seen my hand so still as I began cutting. Catherine walked around the room, inspecting people's work before she stopped at April. Tapping her on the shoulder, April smiled, "Yes, you-you have no idea how-"

"No." Catherine stopped her, "Sorry, sweetie. You're too tense. You're all wound up. This isn't woodshop. Step to the back."

Next, she walked over to Cristina, "You need to lay off the lattes, dear. Your left hand is shaking like a motel bed spring."

"It's-it's just tired," Cristina told her.

"I hear you honey, aren't we all?" Catherine nodded, "Step to the back."

"It's very simple, people." Catherine announced, "All it has to be is perfect."

Next, Catherine started to walk towards me, but instead of getting nervous, I just kept working. "Excellent." she nodded while passing me, "What's your name, dear?"

I looked up at her, "Dr. Forrest. Ellie Forrest."

Catherine looked at me like she had heard of me before, but didn't say a word as she continued on.

Once Catherine had weeded out the absolute no's, she let us work quietly for a while before going around again; this time stopping at Meredith. "Excellent." she commented, just like she had with mine, "Very fine work, doctor..."

"Grey," Meredith told her.

Catherine's eyes widened, "As in Lexie Grey?"

"Oh, she's my sister," Meredith said as she continued to work.

"Oh." Catherine nodded before making her way over to Alex. Just then, Alex's pager went off.

"Come on. Not now." Alex groaned, but it just kept going off. "I gotta..." Alex stood up, "I'm out."

"Hey, he forfeits, right?" Mark called from the back of the room where he stood with the people who had been asked to 'step to the back', "He-he walked out."

With Alex gone, there were only three of us left. "Congratulations," Catherine smiled, "We have our winners."

Cristina's hand shot up and pointed to Jackson, who I just realized was a winner as well as Meredith and I. "Uh, he's your son, and you're the judge. Isn't there some rule against that?"

"I don't play favourites, dear." Catherine said, "Nepotism is for the weak."

"That's what my birthday cards always said." Jackson smiled, trying to earn a few laughs.

Once everyone filed out of the skills lab, Catherine, Mark, Jackson, Meredith, and I headed over to Ryan's room to have a little meeting. "Now, it's gonna be big, right?" Ryan's brother, Chad, asked.

"Chad," Ryan warned.

"What? I'm just sayin'." Chad turned to his brother, "Maybe you could be trading up, you know? Have you seen it?" he pointed to Meredith.

"The donor organ? Yes." Meredith nodded.

"How's it measure up? It's nothing to be embarrassed about?" Chad asked.

Ryan sighed, "Chad, shut up."

"I'm just sayin'," the brother defended himself, "my little brother's a good lookin' kid. He's gonna need-"

"He's gonna be happy with it," Jackson assured them.

Chad just fired more questions at us, "And it's gonna work? Not just plumbing, it'll stand up and report for duty?"

"Chad, I swear to god." Ryan was becoming annoyed with his brother.

"That's the point of doing a transplant." Catherine looked to Chad, "To hopefully restore full urinary and sexual function."

Mark nodded, "If you're worried, there's always penile reconstruction. It's less risky."

"I saw the signs for months before I saw a doctor." Ryan told us, "By the time I finally saw someone, they tell me it's cancer, it's too far gone, and I have to lose it. I'm tired of, every time I look down, being reminded of what a coward I am. This feels like a second chance, and like she says, if you can learn something from me that might help out the next guy, then I can feel pretty good about that, too."

"Okay." Catherine shot Mark a look before turning to Ryan, "See you in surgery."

"Very impressive in the skills lab, Meredith and Ellie." Catherine complimented us as we got ready for surgery, "What are you two specializing in?"

"Oh, um, I was thinking about neuro, but I'm making a change," Meredith said.

Catherine nodded, "And you, Ellie?"

I shrugged, "Honestly, no idea. I did recently go down to the Cleveland Clinic and pick up a few things that pushed me towards neuro, but I've always had this thing for trauma."

"Jackson had a chance to be on neuro," Mark said, " he turned it down to follow me into plastics."

Catherine looked to Jackson, a slightly disapproving look on her face, "You had an opportunity to work with Derek Shepherd and you turned it down...for plastics? Jackson Avery, who raised you when I wasn't looking?"

"Mom, let's not-" Jackson started.

"I'm standing right here." Mark butted in.

Catherine turned to him, "I know, honey, but this isn't about you. This is about this boy and, oh..." Catherine stopped when she saw Ryan being rolled down the hall in his bed, "And here he is, the man of the hour. Chad, honey, this is as far as you can go."

Chad turned to Ryan, "Buddy, as soon as this is over, I'm gonna take you to test drive that thing in every strip club on Long Island."

Ryan smiled, "Okay, Chad, stop. For the past year, all we've talked about is this. I miss talking about the Knicks. Tell me this is gonna work so I can have my brother back."

"It's gonna work." Catherine told him, "I'm gonna go harvest the organ right now. I'll see you in the O.R."

Ryan nodded and looked up to his brother, "When this is over, you can never mention my penis again."

"Promise." Chad grabbed Ryan's hand and gave him a quick hug.

"All right." Ryan took a deep breath as the surgeons took Ryan into the O.R. wing.

"All right, buddy." Chad smiled.

"You're a really amazing brother." I told Chad before following the rest of the group in, "He's lucky to have someone like you to be with him every step of the way."

With that, I turned on my heel and walked into the surgery that I earned. Once Catherine had gotten the donor organ, we all gathered in the O.R. Many people were up in the gallery watching and others inside the actual O.R. with pens and notepads to take notes.

"All right, my dear." Catherine sighed as we approached about the middle of the surgery, "What do you say we get to anastomosing these deep dorsal vessels?"

"Suction," Mark said as I kept my eyes down on the organ that I was slicing.

"Dr. Grey, easy on the suction, hon." Catherine told her, "Lighter touch."

Meredith did as told, "Like that?"

"That's perfect." Catherine nodded, "Dr. Forrest, could you please-"

Before Catherine could say the next words, I sliced a little further down and I could sense her approval, "Very good. Hm, Dr. Grey, seems you've inherited the hands of your mother."

"Thank you." Meredith smiled.

"Did your sister Lexie inherit the same skills?"

Jackson looked up, "Dr. Avery."

"I'm my mother's only child." Meredith explained, "Lexie and I are half-sisters."

Catherine looked to Jackson across the table, "Looks like someone picked the wrong Grey."

"Ma-" Jackson warned.

"Lexie is very talented." Meredith tried to calm things down, "She's brilliant."

"Lexie's great." Mark nodded, "Great surgeon, great girl."

Just then, the doors to the O.R. slid open and Cristina walked in. "What is all the bustling, please?" Catherine asked as Christina pushed people out of the way. "I'm sorry to interrupt."

Cristina held a mask over her mouth, "I need to speak with Dr. Grey."

"Dr. Grey is busy making history right now." Catherine told her, "Suction, please."

"Meredith." Christina called softly, "Meredith."

Meredith looked up to Cristina, and the look in her eyes practically screamed that something was wrong. "I-a-I'm-I'm sorry, Dr. Avery." Meredith said, "I'm sorry."

"For the love of God." Catherine sighed as Meredith followed Christina out, "Ellis Grey is rolling in her grave right now. Who wants to take Dr. Grey's place?"

Almost every hand in the audience went up. "Dr. Kepner." Catherine looked to April.

"Yes." April turned to get scrubbed, "Excuse me. Excuse me! I have to scrub."

A few minutes later, April was scrubbed and standing beside me, holding the suction. "Dr. Avery, thank you so much for bringing me in. This is so exciting." April's whole face was a smile.

"Relax, honey." Catherine stared into the device that magnified what we were doing, "Relax. Suction, please. Lightly. Lightly."

Catherine took a deep breath, "And that, ladies and gentlemen, completes the work on this dorsal artery. Everybody, stretch, shake out your hands, take a breather."

placing my scalpel down, I stretched out my hands and moved my head in circles to relax my neck. "Your technique has improved, baby," Catherine told Jackson.

"Thanks." Jackson sighed.

"It's easy to teach when there's natural ability to work with." Mark said as we began to work again, "Your boy's born for plastics."

Catherine wasn't giving up that easy, "That might be so, but, you know, you gotta be careful with that easy road. A person can get used to taking the easy road, and the next thing they know, they find themselves...the boob job king of Seattle, a tummy-tuck tycoon."

"I don't think that's fair," Mark said, his voice muffled from the mask's we were wearing.

"More irrigation and suction." Catherine told April, "Are you saying there isn't easy money in plastics, Dr. Sloan?"

Mark looked to her, "Are you saying there's no valuable work to be done there?"

"She's saying I don't have the discipline to resist the easy money." Jackson joined the conversation as I stayed way out of it.

"I'm just saying, there's a temptation." Catherine retorted, "Gently, April."

Jackson sighed, "Yeah, well, maybe if you knew a little more about me, you'd know that I'm incredibly disciplined."

"And I'm not a tummy-tuck tycoon," Mark added.

"I'm sorry about that, Dr. Sloan." Jackson apologized for his mother.

Catherine looked up again, "Don't apologize for me. Suction, April, right near the dorsal vein."

Jackson continued to talk, something he was very good at, but Catherine, April, and I had tuned him out. "Right here?" April asked.

"Back off!" Catherine ordered.

"You back off!" Jackson told his mother.

Catherine sighed, "Not you, the suction. April."

"Oh, God." April gasped, "The vein is stuck. Oh, what-what-what do I do?"

Looking at what she was doing, I assessed the situation, "All right, shut off the suction now!"

"Don't move!" Catherine practically yelled, "It's shredding."

"She's mangling it." Mark watched.

"Oh my, God. It's not stopping." April panicked, "Oh, oh...oh, no. Oh, god. What did I do?"

April held up the suction.

I groaned, "And she's ripped the vein right off."

"You destroyed my dorsal vein." Catherine stared at it.

And with that, we were left in the O.R. with a boy on the table and a ripped off dorsal vein. I was supposed to help rock this surgery, not spend half of the time having to re-attach a vein smaller than a noodle. This was not a good start.