S8 EP3
"IT'S UP!"
The fifth-year residents marched up to the OR board excitedly. It was the day of their first case as lead surgeons; the attendings will only be observing beside them, only to jump in when absolutely necessary. They quickly scanned the whiteboard, grins surfacing their looks.
"OR 3, yes!" Cristina exclaimed in joy. "I love OR 3."
"Wait, bowel resection?" April narrowed her eyes at the board before turning to Alex, "I thought you had a Peds case."
"I switched last minute," Alex muttered.
"Oh, hey, I've got OR 4," Norah pointed out while she savoured her sacred cup of coffee. "It's the widest, most spacious, so less... tight. My favourite OR-wonderful!"
She grinned at the board where the nurse had just finished writing her name, where she would be clipping an aneurysm-all by herself.
"Mark's fine with you standing hours for an aneurysm?" Meredith queried.
"Eh, Mark doesn't own me. I own him," Norah shrugged back at her, sipping on her coffee. "And he wouldn't dare fight me, so..."
Cristina raised a brow when Jackson's name got written on the board. "Oh, plastics. I thought you were the Gunther," she snickered, "Wasting all your capital on boob jobs, huh?"
"Plastics is not all about boob jobs, you know?" Norah defended sharply.
"Oh, sweetheart, you hate plastics," Cristina smirked back at her.
"It's a cleft lip. I'm changing a kid's life today," Jackson corrected with an annoyed tone before nudging his head to the next name written. "Look at Kepner. She's fixing a bum knee," he snorted and turned to the resident, "Way to shoot for the stars, kid."
April ignored his taunt and took a step forward before turning to the residents in a line. "Okay, guys. Uh, you also start teaching skills labs today. I made up a schedule for the month," she informed.
"Ooh, that'll be fun." Norah was the only one who seemed interested in it.
"The schedule is up on the board in my office," April stated; the residents did a double-take at her words.
"In your what?"
❦ ❦ ❦
RELUCTANTLY, APRIL pushed open the door to her office, allowing the other residents to enter. Their eyes widened in surprise at the cozy-looking place.
"When did we get this?" Cristina questioned.
"Uh, we didn't," the redhead smiled awkwardly as the residents took over her office. "It's for the Chief Resident, actually."
Alex walked over to the couch and lay down on it at once, puffing the pillows under his head. "This is good," he commented, "I can sleep on this."
"Yeah, I got that on Craigslist," April deadpanned. "I-It's mine."
"Hey, scoot over," Norah nudged Alex's legs away. The latter sat back up to allow her space, and she dropped herself on the couch, which was, in fact, soft and comfortable. "Oh, this is good."
Cristina walked up to the bulletin board, her eyes narrowing at the names listed out in rows and columns of five. "Uh, why is my name on this?" she questioned.
April hurried over and instructed the residents in the room. "These are this month's intern skills labs," she announced, "Each of you has been given one skills lab to teach."
"No, I can't teach today," Cristina scoffed, "I'm on a mitral valve."
"Okay, well, then just switch with one of these guys," April insisted, but the other residents all had surgeries to get onto; Norah played the pregnant card when the Chief Resident's eyes landed on her. "Guys, come on. I-I divided these up fairly."
"You come on. Every surgery we do this year could end up on the oral boards," Jackson reasoned, and the residents nodded in agreement.
"And they love picking the crappy outcomes," Alex added bitterly.
"This could affect which fellowship I get," Cristina sighed and walked over to the rest sprawled on the couch. "I mean, it's not just life or death, April. Now it's our careers."
"Okay, how's this? Whoever has the worst outcome today teaches all the skills labs for the whole month," Meredith suggested, and everyone voted in favour; April was speechless.
"Jackson's gonna lose," Norah taunted, and the resident quirked a brow at her. "Mark likes precise work. And I remember him complaining about your suture on a bloke's face the other day..."
He shook his head with a sigh and picked out his phone when he heard it beeping. A frown grew on his face when he read the text, the mocking of the brunette were already gone. "You guys get this e-mail?" he asked, but everyone was listening to April shrieking at their tardiness and insane suggestion, then shooing them out of her office.
Jackson's eyes widened. "Whoa. Webber resigned," he shared aloud, "He's no longer Chief of Surgery."
The conversations died off immediately as they snapped their head to the sudden announcement. The group of residents then shifted their gaze to Meredith, who had a guilty look on her face, knowing that Webber had taken the fall for her after the whole issue with the clinical trial.
Norah immediately fished out her phone to check her e-mail; her eyes widened twice their size at the notice. "Bloody hell-Owen Hunt is now Chief of Surgery?"
The brunette caught a glance at Cristina, who looked absolutely clueless. The latter had the same expression as the rest of the residents-shocked and puzzled. "What?!"
❦ ❦ ❦
NORAH STOOD IN FRONT of the sink, scrubbing her hands and arms in the scrub room. Derek stood next to her, also scrubbing in, but only to observe. He had a proud smirk that did not go unnoticed by her. "Nervous?"
"Nope. Because if I get nervous, I might end up with a panic attack since I'm off my antidepressants," she muttered back at him.
When he did not reply, she turned her head to the attending, only to see a concerned frown on his face. "Derek, I'm kidding. Take a joke."
"You're about to operate on someone's brain."
"Yet another reason to make a joke," she shrugged, and he returned her with a nervous laugh while continued scrubbing his hands. "How are things going on with Zola, by the way?"
He sighed heavily, "I'm not sure, honestly. We're dealing with international adoption here."
"She'd be great to have you and Mer as parents, or even having a family at all," she offered, "Trust me, I do know." She cracked her neck side to side before asking again, "Things still rough between you and Mer?"
"Yeah."
"Well, sucks to be you, Shepherd," she stated bluntly, and he rolled his eyes at her. "Oh, come on, don't sulk in my surgery," she snickered, "You'll work things out... because you'll be jealous of Mark and me, and we'll be taunting you for it."
Before he should fire back, the door busted open, causing the both of them to snap their heads to Mark, who stood by the door. Norah sighed. Ah, here we go again.
"Mark, before you speak-I am perfectly good," she chuckled at his panting-obviously, he had just run over from Jackson's surgery.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure," she sent him an unamused look, "Kid is sleeping, I think, 'cause I'm not hungry, so... that's a plus."
"Okay, okay..." he exhaled, "But if you get-"
"Mark."
"You can always take a-"
"Mark."
"No, I mean it! You should-"
"Mark, I think she gets it," Derek chuckled at the couple, shaking his head. "She'll be amazing. Stop worrying."
Norah mouthed him a silent 'thank you' before turning back to the plastic surgeon, who took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright," Mark caved before eyeing Derek, "Well, since we're all here... Norah and I decided for you to be our kid's godfather."
The neurosurgeon widened his eyes in surprise, looking between both his best friends; Norah nodded back at him surely. "I'd love to, yes," he responded with a broad grin.
"Awesome!" Mark walked forward and kissed his girlfriend before bending down to her stomach. "Hey, little one, please stay asleep for the next few hours, hm?"
Derek gave the resident a questioning look, and she merely shrugged back at him. She turned off the water and held her hands in mid-air; Mark gave her one last kiss before heading up to the gallery.
"Jealous, Shepherd?"
"Shut up."
Norah snorted before entering the OR, feeling the welcoming air greeting her while the nurses helped her with the gown and gloves. She walked to the end of the table, where the patient had been put under a while ago. Taking a deep breath and exhaling through her nose, she was ready for this.
"Alright, team. All set and ready?" She got confirming nods from the staff in the OR. Derek, who stood behind her in the shadows, nodded, too; his eyes narrowed into a smile.
She glanced at the gallery, where the fifth-year residents were observing, along with some younger residents such as Nina Lee, who had her usual notepad in her hand.
Mark and Timothy were sitting next to each other, the latter giving her a thumbs-up. She had a grin under her mask while looking back at the patient's head.
"Let the fun begin."
❦ ❦ ❦
S8 EP4
MARK'S CAR WAS FILLED with gifts and more stuff from the baby shower that morning, but he had driven to the woods after finding out that his prize resident was being seized off under his eyes.
"Derek!" he called out, his voice loud over the hammering sound on the wooden deck. "You're trying to steal my guy."
The group of men lifted their heads from their work, watching Mark marching up to Derek with an unamused look on his face. "He's my guy," he deadpanned, "Avery, go get in the car!"
"What?"
"Mark-"
"You've been moving in on him all week. You weren't even interested in him till you saw how much he meant to me," Mark claimed, his tone considerably harsh, "I don't take the time to teach anyone if I can help it."
"Mark-"
"But I'm taking the time with Avery because he's a quick learner, and he can do a z-plasty better than I could at his level!"
Jackson was taken aback by the sudden compliment as he stared at the plastic surgeon. "I can?"
Not as good as Norah could in her third year, but still, whatever.
Mark crossed his arm on his hips, staring at the younger man before his eyes drifted to another guy on the deck. "Tim, why are you here?" he questioned with his brows furrowed, "I thought you're with your sister?"
"Uh... I thought you were with her?" Timothy stared back at him and wiped off the sweat on his forehead while watching the other man's face drop.
"Oh god," Mark squeaked out, "She's gonna kill me. A-And our kid won't have a dad. Oh no, this is bad-" He had taken a few strides towards his car before he turned back to the group, staring pointedly at the man with green eyes.
"Avery, go get in the car!"
❦ ❦ ❦
S8 EP5
NORAH WAS SEATED between April and Jackson in the auditorium while more hospital staff entered the area. He slowly put his cup of coffee aside, out of the brunette's reach, when he realised that she was staring at it.
"I can't believe Altman postponed our surgery for grand rounds," Cristina complained while sliding into the row in front of them. "It's just a boring lecture."
"Your husband said it was mandatory," Meredith reminded her, and she huffed in annoyance.
"One more hour of sleep, that's what it is," Alex smirked and folded his white coat to put under his head.
"Oh, no. It's not gonna be boring," April chimed in, "This is Jackson's mother, Catherine Avery."
Jackson shifted uncomfortably in his seat while Meredith asked, "She's a urologist, right?"
"Yeah. I met her when I was an intern at Mercy West," April replied, "She is amazing."
"She is a lunatic," Jackson corrected with his eyes wide.
"You're another kid with parent issues?" Norah quirked a brow at him, and he nodded curtly. "Wonderful."
"She's brilliant," April insisted, "She says these things that shock you, but then when you think about them later, they change your whole life."
"Or they ruin your whole life," Jackson deadpanned, sinking down his seat in an attempt to hide his presence. "She's toxic. She's a meddler. My mom has no boundaries. Be warned."
Alex spoke up from his supposedly asleep, "Hey, is that why you shipped Lexie out of state?"
Norah snapped his head to the man next to him. "You shipped Lexie out of state?"
Despite her whole brother-and-Lexie conflict that was still going on since Timothy could not get over his feelings, she still respected their relationship, but at the same time mocking her brother for being an idiot.
"Who hides his girlfriend under a rock while his mom comes into town?" Cristina snorted.
"Someone who's got a hypercritical surgeon for a mom," Meredith responded casually, turning her head to Jackson, who was seated behind her. "I get it."
He returned her with a tight smile, although he still wanted to vanish from the auditorium.
Norah yawned and shifted into a comfortable position on her seat. She leaned her head backwards and shut her eyes, hoping to get a quick nap before the talk started.
However, before her mind could even try to doze off, a loud booming voice startled her awake.
"Wake up, everybody!" Catherine Avery's words made Norah have a guilty look on her face. "I know, I know, it's grand rounds, where we have to sit and listen to somebody talk about how somebody did something and here's how they did it, and there's not enough coffee in Brazil for this."
The room laughed lightly at the joke; Norah raised a brow at Jackson's horrified face.
"Well, not today," Catherine resumed, "Today, we are going to do. Today I'm going to change a life and maybe make medical history, too. And I can't do it alone, so who wants to step into the future with me?"
April let out a loud 'whoo', and everyone turned their heads to her; the Chief Resident stared back with dread-filled eyes when she was the only one who responded. She wanted nothing more than to stick her head into the ground like an ostrich.
"Okay. That's alright. That's a start. Let's see if I can get a few more," Catherine grinned, and her face remained hopeful. She turned her head backstage and signalled for a man, "Ryan, honey, would you come out here, please?"
The man staggered out awkwardly, a smile on his face as he looked at the room full of surgeons. "Everybody, his is Ryan," she introduced, "Ryan, could you show everybody what we're here to do today?"
Ryan slowly undid the knot on his robe and dropped it entirely, allowing the fabric to hit the floor. The surgeons gasped, and a wave of murmurs erupted while their eyes widened at the man's genitalia. The men grimaced as though they could feel it personally; the women just had their jaws dropped.
"Ladies and gentleman, I'd like to invite a few very lucky residents to scrub in on this country's first penis transplant," Catherine announced. The residents in the room had their mouths hung open, and some had perked up in interest while the others were still wincing.
"Thanks to a case of penile cancer, Ryan underwent a full penectomy eleven months ago," she presented, "Good margins left him basically cured and cancer-free, so that's gone." She gave him a high-five before turning back to the room of surgeons, "And today, we'll be replacing the other thing Ryan lost. A suitable donor's become available here at Seattle Grace Mercy West, and Ryan generously agreed to fly out and make this day a teaching opportunity. Who wants in on it?"
Nearly every residents' arms shot up to the sky with eager looks on their faces, keen to have a place in this once-in-a-lifetime surgery with the great Catherine Avery. "Hello! That's more like it," she exclaimed with a wide smile.
"Suddenly, I'm interested in plastics again," Norah mumbled.
"That's urology," Jackson muttered.
"It's a transplant. Plastics will be involved."
He shook his head and stared at his mother disturbingly while arms of eager residents surrounded him like bamboo trees. Norah's raised her brow slightly when she saw a figure in the front rows standing up from his seat.
"Uh, Mark Sloan, plastics," the plastic surgeon cleared his throat, "Isn't penile reconstruction the standard approach in cases like these? Why a transplant?"
"Well, I can answer your question with a question," Catherine prefaced assertively, staring right at the Head of Plastics. "Do you like your penis?"
Her question broke a laugh among the surgeons. The group of residents near the middle of the auditorium quickly faked a cough at their friend; Norah instantly sank down to her seat, her eyes widened in horror.
Mark cleared his throat again before turning back to the bold woman on stage. "It does the job."
"Oh, it definitely did the job," Derek mused, and the attendings around him snorted.
Norah choked on oxygen, silencing away her coughs when she felt a few gazes landing on her... and her very obviously pregnant belly.
"Mer, I'm gonna kill your husband," she screamed internally, covering her heated face. She made a mental note to beat up Derek Shepherd the next time she saw him. "I need to travel in my head into a different dimension."
"I did say, 'be warned'," Jackson tried and grumbled in embarrassment.
"If one day, it wasn't there, wouldn't you want it back?" Catherine continued, "Or would you be satisfied with a reconstructed organ that has very little function?"
Mark narrowed his eyes, his ear pinkish. "Satisfied? No. But that's not the-"
"Neither would Ryan here," the woman interrupted, "Yes, this is new ground. But here's a young man with his whole life ahead of him, with the will to live it as a whole man, with a bravery and selflessness to help advance medical science along the way. So let's give Ryan a hand. Come on!"
Ryan had an awkward grin, whereas Catherine had the largest smile on her face while the surgeons burst into cheers and applauses.
"Hey, sweetheart, Mark's frozen on his spot," Cristina informed as she turned to the brunette who had her eyes shut.
Norah shook her head frantically. "I'm in my happy place, and I don't wanna care," she snivelled, "No, actually, I do care... God-I need to get out of here. I need to fucking get out-argh!"
❦ ❦ ❦
"HEY, LITTLE ONE, YOUR dad did a penis transplant today. Total success, the patient's beyond satisfied. Also, the cafeteria only had tuna sandwiches, which is disgusting. But the cold coffee is worse."
"Mark, you really have the weirdest topics to share with our kid," Norah chuckled, lying beside him on the bottom bunk in an on-call room.
He lifted his head and narrowed his eyes at her. "We're surgeons. We kinda only have surgeries to talk about," he pointed out. "Unless you want me to tell our kid how you nearly beat up their godfather...?"
She knitted her eyebrows together, shaking her head. "Yeah-no. Anything but that."
Mark snorted and lay his head back on the mattress. "You know, kiddo, you already have so many people by your side," he whispered, making sure that Norah could not hear what he was mumbling to their kid. "Your Mom, your Dad, your Uncle Tim, Callie and Arizona down the hall... your godfather, who almost got beaten up by your Mom-don't tell her I said that-you'll be absolutely loved by everyone.
"But above all, your Mom and I will show you what real love is. It's not easy to come by, really. I never knew that I could love someone that much until I've met her." He grinned to himself, every word he said filled with genuineness.
It was his greatest relief that their baby would be overwhelmed by love, unlike what he and Norah both had experienced in their childhood.
"Hey, Laurie?"
"Yeah, love?"
"I want the best for our little one," he prefaced, "So can we get Addison to deliver our kid?"
She smiled with a nod, "There's no one better to." He grinned back at her while she raked through his hair, his face resting close to her stomach; he was still whispering words to it.
The mumbles subsided a while after and were replaced with soft snoring. He still had his arm draped around her, and his forehead rested against her waist.
The dim room brightened when the door opened, and Timothy entered quietly. He gently closed the door after him and walked over to the bed, greeting his niece or nephew.
"Oh wow, you don't even bother to say hi to me now?" Norah glared at him.
"Hi to you, my sister dearest."
"That's more like it," she scoffed lightly while he leaned over the sleeping man on the bed and lowered his face to her bump.
"Hi, little bean, it's Uncle Timmy here," he cooed, "I'm fucking sad today, but you and your cousin are making my day much better."
"Hey-don't swear at the child! God, you speak to your daughter with that mouth?" she hissed at him and smacked his hand away before he could poke her. "And don't use my kid as your therapist-wait, why are you sad?"
"Because a fool named Avery shipped Lexie off to a different state. I mean, I wouldn't do that," he continued speaking in a high-pitched voice, and his sister sighed at him. "And now your Momma's gonna lecture me on how hopelessly I'm in love with her, which, I admit, I am."
"Tim, you need to get laid," she deadpanned, "Want me to set up a date for you? I heard a third-year is crushing on you. Or I can get Callie to-ow..."
Timothy snapped his head to Norah and saw her face crumpled up, her eyebrows furrowed, and she inhaled sharply, staring pointedly at her stomach. "S-Something wrong?" he asked worriedly.
"Oh god, this does not feel good," she mumbled and sank into the pillow. "Braxton Hicks, I assume."
"Assume? That's not good enough," he whisper-yelled at her before slapping Mark on his face despite Norah's protest.
The sleeping man jolted up at once, hitting Timothy under his chin, and the latter hit his head on the top bunk, grunting in pain.
"Geez, Tim, what are you-Norah, what's wrong?"
"Braxton Hicks."
"Are you sure?"
"I think so..."
"Are you sure sure?"
"I-ooh, crap, that hurts. Bloody freakin' hell..."
Mark was silently panicking, and he stammered on his words. Before he could move out or sit up from the bed, she had grabbed hold of his arm and was now clawing into it.
The next minute passed excruciatingly, with Norah clenching her grip tight while Mark tried his best not to whimper; Timothy watched them while he took a big step away from her sister's reach.
"Mark, I feel for you, man," he snickered, folding his arms above his chest amusingly.
The plastic surgeon sent the resident a hard glare through his pained eyes. "Timothy-shut up."
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Soooo irdk how to write a baby shower as I've never been to one 😅