Remember when you were a kid and your biggest worry was, like, if you'd get a bike for your birthday, or if you get to eat cookies for breakfast. Being an adult? Totally overrated. I mean, seriously, don't be fooled by all the hot shoes and the great sex and the no parents anywhere telling you to do. Adulthood is responsibility.
Responsibility, it really does suck.
Really, really sucks.
"I wish I could hold a heart." George says.
"Me too." Evi says with a frown.
"A monkey could hold a heart." Cristina says back.
"You're mad Burke didn't ask you." Evi states.
"George, I need more ice and chips." Izzie says with a notepad in her hand.
"Who else did you invite?" George asks.
"Izzie, we said the list was jocks only." Cristina scolds.
"Surgery, Trauma, Plastics. Who else?" Evi lists off.
"Just some people from Peds."
"You invited the preschoolers to Meredith's house. The next thing you'll say is you invited the shrinks."
Izzie looks away from the group.
"She invited mental defects." Evi says.
"This party's D.O.A." Cristina says.
"You know, Meredith thinks this is just going to be a little, small, meet-your-boyfriend cocktail thing. Did you clear this with her?" George asks.
"No, but I will."
George and Cristina give her a look. "I promise."
"Why are you wasting the only weekend your boyfriend is in town on a big party? Is he bad in bed?" Evi asks.
Izzie chuckles "No. I just want him to meet some of my friends."
"Right." Evi says.
"Sixty geeks in scrubs are your friends." Cristina says as her pager beeps. "Bad sex, sucks for you."
"I heard there was a party tonight at Meredith's house." Alex says once he walks in.
"Oh really, party?" Cristina says.
"Uh, news to me." Izzie continues.
"No party." George says.
Alex looks towards Evi. "I haven't heard of any party." She says.
"Are we losing her or what?" He says looking down into the OR.
•.•
"What do you see, Evi?" Bailey asks her as they stand in a hospital room.
"Hyper-inflated lungs, clouded with bullae, seriously diminished capacity. She must be having trouble breathing." She says.
"Course of action?"
"A bullectomy procedure, remove the bullae, reduce the pressure."
"Says here we operated on her back in '99, so Mrs. Drake as been through this before, but talk her through it anyway. And resist the anti-smoking lecture, she feels bad enough already." Webber says.
"The surgery before was supposed to help, but it...it never felt right." Mrs. Drake tells Evi as she takes off her glasses.
"Probably would have been a good idea to quit smoking." Evi says softly.
"I did! Four pack a day habit. Oh, it was hell."
"Here you go, Mrs. Drake." The nurse says as she hands her a blanket.
"It didn't do any damn good."
"It looked-I mean, from the damage, we all thought you probably were still smoking."
"Cold turkey. Five years ago. What do I get for my trouble? I still had to quit my job at the restaurant. But even sitting, it hurt."
"Here you go." The nurse says as she adjusts her pillow.
"Nobody believed me. They all said it was in my head."
"I've seen the films. It's not all in your head." Evi reassures.
"You're right about that. Hey, come here."
Evi moves closer to her. "You're too damn young to be a doctor."
"I know." She says with a small laugh.
"How old are you?" Mrs. Drake asks as they start wheeling her away.
"25." She informs.
Mrs. Drake gapes at her. "Do you think this is going to work this time?"
"I think it's your best option."
"Straight-shooter, huh?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"I like that."
•.•.•.•.•
"We call this a spaghetti procedure. We cut and deflate the bullae to facilitate gentle manipulation of Mrs. Drake's lung." Bailey speaks as they were in the OR around Mrs. Drake.
"Dr. Bailey, do you see that?" Webber asks.
"Sir? Oh my ever-lovin-"
"We need to open her up. I'm taking out the scope."
"You heard him, people. Let's move."
"Lights. Let's get set up. 10 blade. Get the scalpel ready. Towel."
"Rib spreader."
"Suction."
Evi watches as they pull something black out of Mrs. Drakes chest.
"Is that a towel?" She asks incredulously.
"Get a pan." Bailey demands.
"Where did that come from?" Evi asks.
"Best guess, her surgery five years ago."
"Something careless this way comes."
Evi, Cristina, Bailey and Webber were walking
"A towel?" Cristina asks.
"Not good." Webber says.
"She complained about pressure on her chest. Said nobody took her seriously." Evi reiterates.
"Not good for the patient, not good for the hospital. Not good." Webber continues.
"Cristina, hit the files. Find out everything you can about that initial operation. Who was in that room, who was responsible for closing." Bailey starts.
"Evi, you stay with the patient. Keep her happy, she seems to like you."
"okay-um, how long do you think I mean just technically, I'm off at 6:00...." Evi trails off.
"Am I invited?"
"Pardon?"
"Am I invited to the party?"
Evi's eyes widen. "Oh! You-well-yeah. Yes. Yeah. Of course." She stammers.
Once Bailey walks away Cristina gives Evi a look. "What was I supposed to say?" She defends.
"Ugh!" Cristina groans.
•.•
Mrs. Drake starts talking with difficulty, "Told me I had a towel inside me."
"Who told you that?" Evi asks pulling up a chair to sit beside her.
"A surgeon, uh, older man, handsome."
"That's Dr. Webber, he's our chief."
"Yeah. It was a towel that somebody left last time."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Who would do that?" She asks her voice breaking. "That doesn't seem right, does it?"
"No, ma'am, no. It doesn't."
"I was walking around with a towel inside of me. How could that happen?"
•.•.•.•
"You got called before the chief?" George asks Meredith as they sit in a hallway.
"Tomorrow morning. I could get kicked out of the program. I could, right?" She asks.
"You're not getting kicked out."
"Patterson's just going to sue." Cristina says.
"Patterson is not going to sue and you're not getting kicked out." George reassures.
"What the hell are you thinking? Telling Burke. So stupid." Evi says after a moment of silence.
"I told her not to."
•.•
"Where is Izzie?!" Meredith exclaims as she and Evi walk into the house.
"She didn't clear it with you?" George asks?
"This was supposed to be a meet-the-boyfriend get together little thing." Evi says pushing some random guy away from her.
"Izzie has a lot of friends." George says as they move through the crowd and continue bickering.
"Izzie doesn't know this many people."
"I told her to clear it with you."
"I can't handle this."
"You want me to kick everyone out? I'm gonna kick everyone out."
They turn to see Cristina drunk and dancing.
"Baby! You made it! Woo!" Cristina exclaims.
"Screw it. Hold this." She gives Evi a lamp. "And give me this." She takes the bottle of tequila from George. She goes over to Cristina and joins in the dancing and drinking.
"Hi, baby!"
"George! Evi, come here."
They both shake their head. Meredith and Cristina yell at the pair to join them. They stand between them and Meredith hands Evi the bottle, she takes a long drink and starts dancing passing George the bottle.
•.•.•.•
Meredith, George, Evi, and Cristina are drinking and playing cards.
"Why did we want to be surgeons anyway?" Meredith slurs.
"Surgery is very serious business." Cristina burps loudly. Evi laughs drunkly at her as she has two cards stuck to her face.
"Full house!" George exclaims.
"Royal flush. Get naked, baby boy. Sexy!" Cristina says while laughing.
Cristina throws down her cards and George reluctantly takes off his shirt.
"Surgery is stupid. It's stupid. It's stupid." Evi says taking a swig of the tequila.
"Give me that. You're drunk." Cristina tries to pry the bottle of out of Evi's hands.
"I'm not driving. I'm not on call. I'm in my own house. And it's a party and I'll get drunk if I want to." She says pulling the bottle back as George is still trying to get his shirt off.
"Is, um, Izzie Stevens here?" Some random guy walks in.
"Oh, you must be Hank." Cristina laughs and stands up.
"No, Izzie's not here right now." Evi slurs as Cristina drags her up and pulls her out of the room.
"You and Izzie will give birth to very tall, blonde people, like Barbies." George says.
"Izzie said she was going to be at home. She didn't say there was going to be a party."
"which pisses both of us off. Would you like some tequila? It helps." Meredith offers.
"When do you think she's gonna get here?"
"Don't know. But w\e're low on ice, Hank." Evi says stumbling back in the room.
"I'm serious." He says.
"So am I. We're interns, Hank. Hospital owns us. It's what we do." Evi says pointing at him.
Hank smiles and leaves.
"Bye."
"Nice to meet ya."
"Bring back some ice!" George, Meredith and Evi say to a leaving Hank.
•.•.•.•
George walks through the debris of snacks and bottles over to the couch. He hands Meredith, who is lying on the floor, and Evi who is sprawled out on the couch a mug.
"When's your meeting with the chief?" He asks Meredith.
He sits down beside Evi as she sits up and drinks from the mug.
"In an hour." She responds.
Izzie walks into the house. "Holy mother of destruction." She gawks.
"You missed Doctor-palooza."
Izzie takes off her shoes and walks towards them.
"Apparently, you didn't."
"I should probably never speak to you again."
"Ugh, I'm so sorry, Meredith. I had no idea it was gonna get so..." she trails off.
"Wild. Crazy. Fun" Evi fills in.
"It's okay. Really, I don't care. What would I be doing anyway?" Meredith asks.
"Preparing for your career-altering meeting? Sorry." George says.
"That heart wall shouldn't have torn." Evi thinks out loud. "It was just a small puncture."
Izzie picks up a beer. "Anything in the patient's history?" She asks Meredith.
"Husband says she was in the best shape of her life. She lost 100 pounds last year."
"100 pounds in a year, how's her muscle mass?" Evi says sitting up.
Izzie drinks. "Do you even know whose that was?" George asks.
"I'm hoping it was yours."
"No." Evi shakes her head.
•.
Evi, George, Cristina and Izzie standing in hospital outside of Meredith's meeting.
Evi was leaning into George's side dozing off.
"So, what do you think?" Izzie asks.
"50 says Meredith gets tossed out on her ass and Burke walks away clean." Cristina says.
"Please be nice to her." George says wrapping an arm around Evi to keep her steady.
Unfortunately, once you get past the age of braces and training bras, responsibility doesn't go away.
It can't be avoided.
Either someone makes us face it, or we suffer the consequences.
Meredith, Evi, George, Cristina, and Izzie are cleaning up after the party.
I mean the shoes, the sex, the no parents anywhere telling you what to do. That's pretty damn good.
•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•