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Chapter One - Han
Season 6 - Episode 5
Invasion
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HER RIGHT ring finger twitched as she rounded the corner moving her functional left hand towards the heavy familiar door. Pushing against the wood she would step foot into the room she had become so familiar with over the previous years noting that the small tiny family of which usually called it a place of rest and peace, today had significantly increased in size. The emails had circulated months prior, emails of which initially she had ignored. At the time they had seemed both gloomy and a little bit fanciful. She had fought to believe that the rumours were much more than that; rumours.
For if there was one thing that Doctor Hannah Cole knew more than anything was that the walls of Seattle Grace Hospital could talk. And talk they did. For the second the transfers from Mercy West hospital had stepped foot upon the hospital corridor in their bright orange scrubs and starch white coats, the whispers had begun. And like quick fire they bounced from wall to wall, from janitor to attending.
Hannah had yet to lay sight upon anyone sporting the bright orange colour, but she had heard plenty about the group. She knew to expect four new surgical residents on the other side of the door, waiting to join them on the teaching programme within the hospital. Part of her mind opened up in curiosity at the thought of them joining, wondering what their history was, what the teaching was like for them. Would they be more advanced in their training? Know of techniques and styles she did not? Would they be years ahead? She had little thought in regards of them being worse off than the Residents from Seattle Grace, as prior to its last few months of opening Mercy West hospital had a significantly better reputation than they did. She also assumed that most of these residents were probably not sleeping with their superiors, something which could not be said by either of her residency class or the one below it.
Her feelings about the merger and the additional doctors joining them, those were incredibly complex. Hannah had never been one to shy away from competition, growing up with three older brothers tended to develop a person into a competitive individual. But knowing there was four more people at the same point in their residency as her, fighting for the same surgeries she would be, that was a little daunting. Hannah wasn't like some of her colleagues and friends who had pretty much come to find an area they liked the most or they wanted to specialise in. She wasn't even sure there were three areas she liked the most.
She knew her colleagues, her friends, they all held the solid singular belief. That this merger was not going to bring anything good their way. That it would result in something bad. And despite how dearly she held them all in her opinions, Hannah could not find it within herself to feel that same way. But if she had to pretend to have the same opinion as them all to keep them beside her, she would do that. After she had lost George she found herself desperately clinging onto her remaining friends. Unsure on which direction she was to take now she no longer had her childhood best friend by her side.
"... we keep it empty for a reason. Can't you just take your stuff out?" The irritated tone of Izzie's voice would be what greeted Hannah as she stepped foot into the changing room. Only to wish she had never done so. For her eyes soon caught view of the bright orange coloured scrubs she had been told about. To see a short haired woman lingering around the one locker she thought would be empty for longer. Had prayed would be empty for longer. But then she supposed that this was the sign of a merger that people would be forgotten along the way as the two hospitals became one.
It seemed that her entrance was not initially seen by the group which had huddled around the locker. George's locker. But one person did turn. And as Alex Karev, took one look at the doctor who had entered the room he grimaced at her. She knew he did it more of in an awkward manner, for the whole residency class knew just how close Hannah and George had been and she supposed that the reason Izzie had even started to kick off in the first place was probably to save Hannah the heartache of witnessing the scene she had walked in upon.
"I don't think so." The voice of the unknown doctor replied, the tone was full of snark and hatred and it was clear she was already trying to annoy the others. Hannah held back the urge to roll her eyes, knowing it was not a big ask for someone to leave a locker empty for a reason, one they did not have to share. But it seemed that the competition was going to be strong from the first instant. And Hannah could feel the stress starting to work its way through the rest of her body. She rolled her wrists once, twice, three times trying to dispel the stress and reduce the twitching within her hands. But as her left eyebrow twitched she knew there was no luck.
"I said take it out." Izzie continued to give off aggressive vibes towards the rest of the residents in the room. Hannah wanted to commend her for sticking up for Georges memory. Knowing that deep down to the five of them that it was important his locker remained empty in his honour. Or at least until they all had a little more time to come to terms with someone new moving into it.
"Great I've got the crazy one next to me." The other doctor spoke and Hannah moved her eyes to take in the name etched upon her white coat. It was difficult to see the full name considering the way it draped but she was able to read the first name 'Reed'.
"Oh you wanna fight? 'Cause I will" Izzie moved towards the new residents and Hannah knew that the blonde would go through with her threat. It was clear that the others too felt this, considering Alex moved forwards to hold Izzie back from following through with her threat. Though his words seemed to fall flat upon the blonde's ears.
"I will fight you. You're pretty tiny. Come on. Come on. I could take you down in just a couple of seconds." Izzie continued to threaten and Hannah knew she could not continue to stand there and watch this occur, not when she could feel eyes resting upon her figure.
"Izzie, it's fine. You don't have to do this for George." Hannah spoke up moving towards the blonde, finally standing close to the locker she had purposely avoided getting close to for the previous months. It was silly when she thought about it, how she had been avoiding an inanimate object, but she couldn't step foot into the room he had been living in at Merediths, yet alone stomach being around the empty locker which once belonged to him. Izzie spun at her words, having only noted the slightly younger woman's arrival. Hannah gave Izzie a grimace, her eyes moving to lock upon the metal of the locker door which was swung wide open.
"Han." Izzie sighed out, knowing she had been unsuccessful at preventing the sadness which had taken route in the brunettes eyes.
"It's okay, let them take a locker." Hannah placed a hand on Izzie's shoulder noting that Alex had let the blonde go enough so that she could squeeze the brunettes arm watching as a second eyebrow twitch occurred.
Hannah would move to leave the group which still remained present by the lockers, making her way over to her own locker. The magnets which decorated the front of her locker shining against the luminescent lighting of the locker room as she jammed in the combination she had chosen all those years ago. 1708. Speaking the numbers as she spun, a habit she had been doing since childhood when she had first chosen the set of four numbers to be a code. For after all they would be number she could never forget. Upon opening the door, she was greeted with the photo from her first day at Seattle Grace hospital. The photo taken by George's mother that morning as the two stood outside bright smiles upon their faces as they begun the next step of their adventures together, just like they had promised when they were six. And she knew she owed it to him to finish this adventure.
The others headed off towards Meredith's impatient room, eager to keep her up to date on the immediate action of the newcomers. Yet Hannah could not bring herself to head over there. She had a strong feeling just how negative the atmosphere in that room would be. And she was unsure if she could tolerate that. Maybe on another day, a day where she was feeling more bitchy she would have been able to. But not today, not when she was still trying to sort herself out, her emotions out. Hannah felt as though she would much rather sit in her own self pity, take the hits as they came from the merger and deal with it alone, just for a little while longer.
She wouldn't have too long to stew in her own thoughts as her pager bleeped from her pocket. Pulling out the plastic encased pager she took a minute to smile at the cartoon dinosaur stickers which covered the back of the clear plastic whist the front glistened 'Han' in gold. She took note of the message on the front, before making her way to the door of the changing room, turning left and heading down the corridor that would eventually take her to the ER.