season 2 episode 20 & 21
veronica walked behind bailey and george. meredith, izzie, and cristina stayed behind with her. izzie leant towards them, keeping her voice low.
"what happened to george's hair? is he having a nervous breakdown?" izzie questioned.
veronica had noticed his badly cut hair but hadn't said anything. her best friend was going through and it wasn't like she hadn't gone through it and cut all her hair off or cut bangs before, so she couldn't really judge.
cristina sighed, "burke says he's got issues. ugh you should see them together, like doing things, like running... and cooking and talking. they're like bonding."
"and you're afraid that burke will realize he makes a better girlfriend than you?" izzie joked.
cristina ignored her, "you know meredith just go and apologize to him."
"i've tried!"
"try again. things can't stay like this. they suck like this," izzie complained.
veronica rolled her eyes, "mer didn't mean to make things suck and besides it was a two person experience that made things suck."
meredith sent her a grateful smile. they walked ahead of izzie, who was caught by alex, who was late.
the groups first stop was denny, a patient who veronica could see izzie liked, a lot more than she should. then after that was a mrs gibson, who had a pre-term premature rupture of her membranes. veronica stifled a laugh as the husband attempted to flirt with addison.
tuck, bailey's child began to cry as they continued down the hallway.
"i can take him if you want, i'm surprisingly good with kids," veronica offered.
bailey nodded, passing the baby to her.
veronica smiled at the baby, bouncing him on her shoulder. he eventually stopped crying.
"such a good baby, tuck. and so handsome, yes you are. you're the cutest little baby boy," she cooed.
bailey stifled a smile at the sight of veronica holding her baby. bailey always had a soft spot for veronica, the young woman quickly becoming her favourite intern. it was no secret either that veronica had worked her way up the ranks in bailey's eyes. it only took a few weeks.
when a patient came in that needed surgery, veronica was given tuck to babysit since cristina was the least child-friendly person both women knew. she made her way to the gallery to watch the surgery.
it was while she was in the gallery that tuck began to stink.
she gagged slightly at the smell, "you really need a diaper change, yes you do."
she grabbed what she needed and began singing to tuck as she did, noticing he seemed to calm down quickly when there was music or singing. veronica cursed internally when she realised she didn't actually know how to change a diaper. she had no siblings, it was just her and her mum and she had never changed a diaper.
"okay, tuck. you're a baby and i am a genius, together we can figure out how to change your diaper," she spoke. "look at me tuck, we can do this, okay? you just gotta focus. focus, tuck."
"dr jennings?" dr webber spoke up as he approached the doorway.
"oh ah, dr webber," she greeted.
"what's that smell?"
"baby faeces. we had an incident, sir."
"are you having trouble with the diaper, jennings?"
"no, sir."
"because it looks like you're having trouble with the diaper."
"no sir, i've got an md from yale and a phd from harvard, which is weird since yale hates harvard or whatever but they were ranked higher for medical degrees so i went there anyway and i did all of that by the time i was twenty-two, i can handle this diaper," she rambled. "unless you want to?"
richard webber became quickly uncomfortable, "uh, no, no. it's alright, it's alright, you carry on. carry on."
veronica giggle quietly as the grown man almost ran away from the baby.
"did your stinky diaper scare the chief of surgery away? yes it did, tuck."
veronica managed to change his diaper, cheering to herself when she did.
"i told you we could do it tuck," she exclaimed. "high five." she held out her hand to his much smaller one, gently pushing her hand to his outstretched one. "teamwork."
---
veronica fell asleep next to tuck, the boy wrapped in her arms, sleeping soundly next to her. she was half asleep when bailey entered the on-call room. bailey moved towards her, gently taking tuck from her arms. veronica stirred slightly.
"i fed him and changed him. that baby sure can poo," she muttered.
bailey smiled down at the intern, "go back to sleep, ronnie."
veronica smiled, "okay. thanks, bailey. tuck was great. he's a good kid, makes me want one."
bailey shook her head, "you're twenty-three, ronnie, you've got your whole life to think about that."
veronica snuggle further into the pillow, "yeah, you're right. night bailey."
---
it was not a great day in the hospital when four people died while in surgery. one of the nurses told veronica that it usually three or seven that died, so they should expect three more. ronnie had certain superstitions like she always threw salt over her left shoulder when she spilt salt or when she used salt in general, or she never opened an umbrella inside. she went to psychics and learned to read tarot, which was more for fun. she dotted her room with crystals, which she did believe worked, if only s little. however, she highly doubted that deaths happened in certain numbers and that it was just a coincidence when deaths followed that pattern. death didn't follow a pattern.
she had scrubbed in on derek's surgery that morning and had witnessed one of the four fatalities. she was upset, understandably but she couldn't let every death stop her from helping others.
"four surgeries, four fatalities and the day has barely started," george complained. he saw the protein bar that cristina was eating. "can i have a bite of that?"
cristina dismissed him, "no. you're in my apartment, you don't get to be in my food."
"dr burke gave me a protein bar, this morning."
"burke packs his lunch for him. did i mention that?" cristina added, exasperated.
"talked to the morgue guy this morning," izzie began.
meredith sat down, "the one with the unibrow?"
"the one with the like teeth thing. and he said that surgical fatalities come in threes and sevens. says there'll be three more before midnight," she finished.
cristina sat up, "well, ok then. since 'dead tooth' morgue guy said so."
"he's the morgue guy. he knows things about death."
veronica shrugged, "the nurses told me the same thing." cristina sent her a look. "i'm not saying i believe it, i'm saying they believe it."
meredith picked something off the ground, "you dropped this."
george ignored her outstretched hand, walking away.
"he's still ignoring me."
"ignore him back," cristina suggested.
"derek says i should apologize until he listens," meredith informed.
"derek says?" veronica repeated.
"it's good advice. he's my friend. that's good friend advice," meredith defended.
bailey walked into the changing room, "come on."
veronica stood up, moving towards her resident, "where?"
"er."
"all of us?" george asked.
"we've all had deaths. let's all go save a life," she answered.
veronica smiled, "that's nice."
on the way to the er, addison stopped bailey to give her hot cocoa.
"it's a little ritual we had in new york. four surgeries, four deaths, i figure we could all use a little good juju," addison explained.
"and cocoa equals juju how?" bailey questioned.
"hey, hey, hey. don't question the cocoa. carry on."
they all continued on their way before addison stopped meredith and veronica.
"here, veronica, i know you like cocoa and that you were in derek's surgery. so, here's the good juju, don't worry i got it with oat milk since you don't like dairy," she told.
veronica smiled brightly, "i do like cocoa and good juju. thanks addie."
veronica continued on her way, drinking her cocoa as she went. by the time they got to the er she had finished it, tossing the cup in the bin.
"great. Nno blood, no guts, no lives to save. it's dead quiet," cristina complained
bailey turned to her in disbelief, "did you really just say that?"
"cristina," izzie scolded.
"what?"
"you said the q-word," george pointed out.
"it's like saying macbeth in theater," izzie elaborated.
"please. you think because someone says it's quiet that it'll mean-"
cristina was cut off by two women running into the er, one yelling about how the other was coughing up blood. bailey assigned george to it. seconds later izzie and alex's pagers went off, both rushing off to help denny duquette, the heart patient.
the sirens of the ambulance could be heard over the commotion that had just begun.
"you jinxed it," veronica grumbled to cristina. they rushed out to the ambulance bay.
"ok, uh, yang, first one's yours. jennings, grey, take number two," bailey assigned.
meredith and veronica rushed over to the second ambulance, the paramedic wheeling a woman out.
"nikki ratlin, thirty, erratic bp in the field. complaining of chest and leg pain," the paramedic listed.
"what happened?" veronica inquired.
"i got struck by lightning," nikki exclaimed.
"can anyone spell coincidence?" cristina yelled as they reentered the hospital.
veronica glared, "just don't say anything else."
"this isn't my fault sunshine."
veronica was listening to nikki ramble on about her horoscope as bailey filled in the paperwork. veronica moved to check her legs. she frowned.
"see, ms ratlin, you have no sign of wounds from lightning," bailey interrupted.
"it was a sign. clearly getting struck by lightning is a sign. a sign that i shouldn't have left my house," nikki continued.
"nikki, normally people struck by lightning have a wound where the bolt entered and exited the body," veronica told.
"we-well, i wasn't struck struck. the tree was struck and it fell on me."
"a tree fell on you?" meredith questioned.
"a big, like, branch or limb, whatever. same difference," nikki dismissed.
bailey pulled the paper off her clipboard, crumpling it up, "no, actually, medically, it isn't the same difference. and it would be helpful if from now on you told us the whole truth."
"you want to know the truth? my boyfriend loves that tree. he's totally going to freak out," nikki told.
veronica tilted her head slightly, analysing nikki. she was lying. or at least, veronica thought so. she watched her closely as meredith monitored her head.
meredith and veronica wheeled nikki into the elevator, cristina already there with her patient.
meredith leant back, "i got hot chocolated. the she-shepherd hot chocolated me. it's her juju."
"i don't like people who say juju," cristina replied.
cristina's patient began saying juju over and over. veronica guessed he had ocd.
"i say juju," nikki spoke up.
"so do i, but i guess only when other people say it," veronica added.
cristina glanced over at the shorter woman, "yeah but you're sunshine, you're an exception to most of these rules."
"i didn't drink it," meredith informed.
"you're not obligated to honour someone else's juju," nikki assured.
cristina leant closer to meredith, "thought you were being friends."
"i am. with him. do I have to be friends with her too?" meredith asked.
"definitely not," nikki interrupted.
cristina shrugged, "maybe."
"you probably should," veronica advised. she began wheeling nikki out and to ortho.
veronica was on a short break, sitting near a vending machine, coffee in hand. her phone started buzzing.
"hello?"
the familiar voice of mark sloan graced her ears, "hey, sweetheart, how's work?"
veronica smiled, "the usual. i have a patient who is obviously lying about everything. plus there's been four deaths. addie jujued me because of it."
"hot cocoa?"
"yeah, and she remembered i don't like dairy. and now the nurses are saying there's gonna be three more. i mean i'm all for superstitions but this seems a little extreme," veronica admitted.
mark chuckled, "what superstitions could you be all for?"
"you'll make fun of me."
"no i won't."
veronica moved so she was sitting cross-legged, "salt. umbrellas. knocking on wood. crystals."
mark laughed once more, "those aren't bad. it's cute. but you gotta explain the crystals."
"i'm glad my superstitions are so funny to you. and some crystals have good vibes, i don't know."
"like i said, cute."
"i can hear the mocking in your voice," she grumbled. "i gotta go, i only answered because i was getting coffee."
veronica, meredith, and bailey were looking at nikki's x-rays. meredith revealed to bailey that nikki was probably a bit of a stalker. which ended with bailey saying she needed her spleen removed.
nikki refused the surgery, she was superstitious. her day had been going badly, with a flat tire and the tree accident, plus her horoscope. veronica did her best to talk her into it but the woman was not budging.
veronica was sat with meredith and cristina at lunch as they discussed their patients, both who were very superstitious. george had joined them, sticking to cristina to get back burke's lucky cap. izzie also joined asking about the death cluster, obviously worried about denny, although denying it was because of anything more than him being her patient.
once midnight hit, there were only six deaths. denny survived his surgery as well as the one the chief was operating on but nikki and jesse died.
nikki had refused surgery for too long, flatlining before she even made it to the or and jesse died on the operating table.
veronica went home upset about losing two patients in one day. she grabbed the phone, ordering a pizza and snuggling into her bed. she just wanted to chill out, eat, and get an early-ish night. her phone began buzzing, dickhead lighting up the screen. he was facetiming her.
"one conversation on the phone with me not enough?" she quipped.
"i wanted to see your pretty face, sweetheart," he flirted, jokingly.
she rolled her eyes, "we're friends, sloan, friends. and i know i'm pretty." she sat up, beginning a conversation with him that made her forget about the bad tv she was planning to watch.