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Chapter Four - Pretty Boy
Season Six - Episode Seven
Give Peace a Chance
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Hannah found herself sat upon the Gallery of the OR watching down as the team took their time to assess Isaac's tumour. It had taken them over an hour to even get access to the location where the tumour began and Hannah pondered just how long it would take for them to start making a progressive plan to treat. Meredith had complained to her about the fact that Derek didn't really have a plan going into the surgery, Hannah could understand the lack of plan from one aspect, the scan showed such an intense involvement of the tumour it made sense that overly planning wasn't exactly going to work out. But having no plan, that was a little bit ballsy. But then again that never seemed to be out of the picture for Derek Shepard, the man who basically thought of himself as God.
She had been first joined by Cristina, the pair sitting in a comfortable silence as they looked down upon the operating room. Hannah struggled to move her eyes away from the Mercy West resident who had caused her a little bit of a melt down earlier in the day. She wished she could keep her eyes from drifting over, it felt very strange in reality that she found herself drawn back to him. It felt like she was developing a school girl crush on the man, and she knew it was ridiculous. And she needed to take a step back.
At the three hour mark, Hannah could no longer continue to sit there and just watch as Derek Shepherd stared at the tumour and refused to progress further. She was sure enough she was going to hear plenty about it back at the house they were all sharing. Therefore, with a quiet 'excuse me' she passed Cristina and Owen, who had been talking quietly between themselves this entire time, and out of the gallery wondering if there was anything she could do in the meantime.
It wouldn't be until the next day when they found a use for Hannah. A use she was not expecting to actually have been volunteered for. That was blocking the door of the operating room which held the same surgical team in from the day prior as they took another attempt to look at Isaac's tumour. Blocking it from the chief of surgery who was not going to be impressed when he found out that the team was not just cutting the spinal cord to remove the tumour but were going to try and completely remove it instead. And as she stood shoulder to shoulder with the perky paediatric attending, Hannah did wonder which the pair of them had been chosen. Firstly, there was no chance Arizona would be strong enough to make it through two attempts of the chief to pass. And Hannah was nowhere near confident to stand up to her boss. But Lexie had asked her very nicely to do so, so she had given in. Plus Callie had promised her cupcakes from the bakery down the road for completing this. The vanilla ones with the sprinkles on top, they were everything she ever wanted. Easily bribed yes.
But the moment when Chief Webber came to approach the operating room doors, Hannah began to immediately regret being so easily bribed to stand at the door. Chief Webber scared her at the best of times, with his no-nonsense attitude, she wasn't sure she had ever seen him smile over the years she had been working under him. Plus he held her job up in the balance of everything. And if the way things had previously gone were any indication of just how quickly it would take for her to lose her job. Hannah was terrified. But she owed it to the people inside, to Isaac on the table who just wanted to get better. Therefore, she decided to stupidly pull her big girl panties on and brace herself to be as strong willed as she possibly could.
"Oh god, ooh no. Whoa, whoa, whoa." Arizona attempted to prevent the Chief from moving any further through the door.
"Move."
"No." Arizona spoke with about as much power she could muster. And Hannah knew she would have to take control otherwise the Chief would most likely work his way through and put a stop to any progress that had been made.
"I'm sorry Sir but with the most respect I cannot allow you through those doors. Inside there is one of our own, who is undergoing an incredibly important surgery which means the world to him. And I would really like our team to be able to complete this surgery with as minimal distraction as possible." Hannah spoke hoping that there was at least some strength in her words, unlike the way she was currently feeling.
"Fine." Dr Webber huffed before turning on his feet and Hannah didn't know whether to feel proud of herself for having the balls to stand up to her boss or terrified that she might just have lost her job.
"We did it." Arizona turned towards the Resident watching as Hannah's eyes welled up with tears at the confrontation. The pair bringing one another into an embrace as they both cried over the necessity of having stood up to their boss.
"I'm totally getting kicked off the program."
It would be later that evening once the surgery was over and Hannah was sat in the Resident's lounge tying the laces on her running shoes that she saw anyone from the surgical team. Unfortunately for her, it would not be the sunny happy face of Lexie Grey opening the door. Rather it would be the smug appearance of none other than Jackson Avery who would enter through the door pulling off his scrub cap as he moved. Hannah at first prepared herself to collect her stuff and just leave. But she had confronted one person today, her boss of all people. And there was still a little bit of fire left within her bones. And she fully intended to use it before the courage left her.
"Congrats on the surgery." Hannah initiated the conversation, just because she had something she wanted to say, didn't mean she had to enter the conversation stand off ish and brutish. At least that was what her mother had always taught her.
"Sad you missed out?" Jackson replied his tone was cheeky she could tell but she could feel the underlying competitive edge to his words.
"Not really." Hannah shrugged moving to stand and walk towards her locker to collect her bag, she paid no attention to the man getting changed, aware that there wasn't really anything such as privacy in these rooms.
"But every resident kills to be on a surgery like that."
"Not every resident, Avery." Hannah shook her head as she searched her bag for her car keys. More than ready to back away from the topic of conversation and just go home, that fight she had was nearly all but vanished.
"Is it because of the tremor? You know your secret is safe with me." Jackson was trying to be friendly, maybe, Hannah wasn't really sure. But if only he knew it wasn't a secret.
"You know you do a lot of assuming with that big old brain of yours." Hannah added on. Finding her keys and closing her locker behind her with a soft thud as it bounced against the metal confinements.
"Plus, it's not a tremor." Hannah walked to the door opening it and turning back once more to look at the male Resident whom only looked at her with a mixture of confusion and intrigue.
"It's Tourettes."
Hannah thought that it would be the last of that conversation but alas what she wants and what she gets never quite aligns. A hand would grab her arm and before Hannah knew it she was being dragged into the location of a cupboard. She turned to see the haphazardly dressed figure of Jackson and raised a single eyebrow at him.
"Dude, at least take me for a drink before you wanna get all nasty in a supply closet." Hannah joked though the look she got was not of someone who enjoyed the laughing matter she was presenting. "Okay cool not the joking type."
"Tourettes, you're a doctor with Tourettes?" Jackson seemed to almost stammer at her and Hannah laughed at his response. This might have been one of the best ones she had received from telling her co-workers. Other than that time that Arizona spat her drink out and it came out her nostrils as well.
"Yeah, why are you looking at me like I'm some sort of wonder child?" Hannah titled her head at him this time around unsure where he was heading.
"And you let me talk to you all high and mighty about a tremor?"
"Well, you assumed." She shrugged.
"Shit Cole, now I feel like a Jerk."
"If the title fits Avery." Hannah paused before looking at him further, she thought there was a little bit of remorse in his eyes as he looked at her and she pondered if he was truly sorry. She wasn't sure he seemed nice enough.
"But still Cole I feel really bad." Jackson sighed as he tried to make eye contact with Hannah, only noticing that as he studied her face that there it was again a little twitch of the cheek he thought he had imagined earlier. But it was almost as if Hannah was completely oblivious to it occurring, and maybe she was.
"Hey if you're going to grovel, maybe try using my first name. I've told you my deep dark, medical secret we're friends now." Hannah tried to be friendly in her tone but she took the fleeting look of confusion. "Jeez Jackson, it's Hannah." She laughed once more.
"Sorry Hannah."
"Now can we please leave this supply closet, the walls talk here. And I have a reputation to uphold." Hannah looked around dramatically as to prove her point.
"You're the one who told me I needed to ask you out for drinks first." Jackson tried to play it cool, she could see that he was someone that people often didn't turn down. It must suck for him to hear her next point. She wasn't going to be easy. Plus if there was one thing her eldest brother had taught her, never date your co-workers.
"My point still stands Jackson."
"Drinks then Hannah."
"In your dreams pretty boy." Hannah finally swung the door open and headed back down the corridor like she had first intended to walk down on her way home. What she wanted in that moment more than anything is to head home to kick her feet up on the sofa and continue to watch the reruns of 'Rock of Love' they had been playing for the last few weeks.