alaska | grey's anatomy

⇢ CHAPTER 46

"Oh, um..." Derek looked into the patient room Meredith was in, "well, I should get Meredith. I just got a lecture on the failure to extend professional courtesy to one's spouse."

"Uh..." Owen's eyes trailed to Holly before looking back at Derek, unsure of how to phrase his words, "I think it's best you don't get Meredith."

Holly looked between the two with frowned eyebrows, "What happened?"

✧

Sitting at the nurse's station, Holly tried to gather all of the patient files together as directed by the Chief and Meredith walked up to Alex.

"So they're probably gonna fire me." Meredith glared at Alex, the sudden news grabbing the attention of the other residents excluding Holly, "Are you happy?"

"Oh, come on." Alex shook his head, "They're not gonna--"

"I want your crap out of my house by the end of the day." Meredith instructed before walking away, making the residents look at each other as Holly flipped the page on a file.

Cristina walked up to Alex, "What the hell was that?"

Hearing all of their pagers beep, Holly grew frustrated at looking down at her un-beeping pager, "Are you kidding me?"

✧

"What are you gonna do?" Derek asked Webber, leaning back in his chair. Webber, Derek, Meredith, and Holly were currently in the conference room and recently found out Adele was the patient Meredith tampered the results for.

Webber shrugged, "I don't know."

"Well," Derek reminded, "the protocol is fairly clear."

Holly's eyes widened as she realized what he insinuated, "Derek--"

"Are you encouraging him to fire me?" Meredith questioned, interrupting Holly as she looked between the Chief and her husband.

"Look, Derek," Webber reasoned, "I basically pressured her to do it."

"Mm." Derek sarcastically hummed as he rolled his eyes.

"You'd have to fire us both."

Watching Derek get up and leave the room, Holly looked at the two, "I-I'll go talk to him."

✧

"You'll call one family at a time." Perkins informed as the nurses handed the doctors papers of the families they had to update, "And you'll be assigned a room to take them to and deliver the news. It's gonna be a... a long day."

Webber nodded at the crowd, "That's it."

The doctors began to disperse as Owen walked up to the bulletin board and placed a paper right in the center, making the residents turn their head to see what was on it.

"CHIEF RESIDENT," The paper read, "April Kepner, M.D."

April smiled, feeling the hard work she poured in her job paid off as she kept her eyes on the paper. And when she peeled them off, she saw Alex and Meredith sigh before walking away. She was happy, proud of herself even, but she was alone.

"Apes!" Holly shouted as she ran down the hall, making April turn around in time for Holly to wrap her arms around her, "You got it!"

"I-I did." April let out a proud chuckle, "I'm Chief Resident."

✧

"Is the Schema family here-- Jessica and Maxwell?" Dr. Altman asked, raising her voice to be heard over the large crowd of waiting families.

"Jason Schema." A man and woman walked up with smiles, unprepared for the news that would be brought to them, "He's our son."

"I'm Dr. Altman." Teddy introduced herself before gesturing outside the room, "Will you follow me, please?"

April watched them walk away before speaking to Lexie and Holly in a lowered voice, "They think it's good news."

"They always do." Holly whispered back, a distant look on her face as she remembered Nick's family and her own optimistic denial of George's death when he was standing right in front of her. She kept her eyes forward as Lexie, April, and Jackson looked at Holly sadly, "They try to hold onto whatever hope they have until they're faced with the harsh reality."

✧

Exiting the room she had to update the family, Holly walked over to a gurney and sat on it as she brought her knees up to her chest and looked at the ground. Being on the trial made her hopeful for the future, and throughout that time she hadn't lost any patients. 

While the families she had to update weren't patients of her own, she could feel the pain they went through as she left them. The pain reminded her of her own when George died.

"Hey," Derek greeted as he sat next to her, "you okay?"

"I will be." Holly admitted as she softly smiled at Derek, "I just had to update three families back-to-back that their loved one didn't make it."

✧

"You could go back." Derek suggested, unfolding his sleeping bag on the wooden floor of his unfinished house in the woods as Holly unrolled her own a few feet away.

"And have you mauled by bears and coyotes?" Holly joked, shaking her head, "I like camping. It's fine."

"Mm." Derek hummed, getting into his sleeping bag before speaking, "...Kepner?"

"Yeah?" Holly quirked an eyebrow as she got inside her own.

"You really need to stop being a push-over."

Holly scoffed, "I am not that bad--"

"You wanted to go to Callie's wedding and Meredith and I just stared at you until you folded a second later. You wanted to scrub in my craniotomy, I stared at you, you folded. You wanted to date Jackson--"

"Mm." Holly hummed to interrupt Derek as she jokingly put her hands over her ears, "I'm done now."

"Okay," Derek laughed lightly, "maybe that was a bad example since he's dating my sister-in-law, but you need to start taking charge."

Holly shrugged, "I guess..."

"If you want to be a Neurosurgeon," Derek advised, making Holly prop herself up on her elbows to pay attention, "you're gonna need to to make tough calls that decide if a woman is able to speak or move her fingers... there will be people who try to stop you from taking those risks and you need to show them you know what you're doing, because you do." Derek nodded at her and she looked down at the ground, letting the words sink in, "I'm saying this because you're gonna be a fourth year in a few days, then fifth year will be here before you know it. If you want to be Chief Resident, you need to show them you can lead instead of being a follower."

"I... I can lead." Holly spoke in a soft voice.

Derek nodded, deciding to joke, "'Course you can, mumbler."

Holly squinted at him, "Do you want me to wake up the coyotes?"

Derek chuckled, "There are no--" He paused as they heard a howl in the distance, "...You don't need to--"

"That's what I thought."

✧✧✧

the fact that april felt alone as she celebrated over the fact she got chief resident and then holly came in like WHAT'S UP 🥺

also 😳 i'm gonna start planning what to write for the au chapter 😳😳😳