COURTNEY WAS TIRED and sat at the dinner table with her head resting on her arms, trying to catch some more sleep. Last night, Meredith had company (Derek) over and they had been quite loud. Normally, Courtney would put in her ear plugs, but she had run out and needed to buy new ones. She hadn't had the time yet, so she to endure hearing her sister have sex with the neurosurgeon. Izzie was watching the coffee percolate, sleepy as well. Courtney hadn't been the only one who had a hard night. George entered the kitchen as Izzie was filling hers and Courtney's cup up with coffee. "You get any sleep?" He asked the two girls.
"Oh, she could oil the bedsprings as a courtesy or at least buy a padded headboard." Izzie replied as she walked over to Courtney. She woke her up before giving her a cup of coffee. Courtney smiled in appreciation before taking a sip from her coffee.
"I hope that next time Mer gives us a heads up." Courtney groaned, rubbing in her eyes.
"So who's the guy?" George asked, clearly jealous. The youngest Grey looked away from him, hoping that he wouldn't ask her. But even if he did, she wouldn't tell him. It was Meredith's secret and it wasn't up to Courtney to tell their roommates about her lover. Courtney tuned out the conversation, simply watching Izzie and George talk, while she drank her hot coffee.
"Well, I am. But at least I know she'll be having a long day at work." Izzie told as Courtney started listening to them again. Then they heard footsteps coming from the stairs, making them share a look. They – George and Izzie – rushed to the open door, while Courtney strolled behind them. They slowly closed it, so that the stranger wouldn't be able to see them. A look of shock, anger and sadness spread across the two roommates' faces when they saw Derek sneaking out the house through the small opening of the door. "Well, at least we know brain surgery isn't his only skill."
"They can't be...He's her boss." George refused to believe it. He and Izzie both turned around to glance at Courtney, who shrugged her shoulders. The look in their eyes gave their question away.
"Of course, I knew. She's my sister and we lived together before we started this internship! Did you really think that I wouldn't know? I even met him, before I knew who he really was." Courtney said.
"We're late. He's all of our boss. You know she has been scrubbing in a lot lately on his surgeries." Izzie suddenly accused, making Courtney sigh. What Courtney had predicted and had been 100 percent sure of that would happen, happened. George, who was still in denial, muttered that she wouldn't do that. "Well, if she's not ashamed of it, why is she keeping it a secret?"
"Maybe she didn't. Maybe it just happened. You know, spontaneously, last night." Courtney looked down at her shoes, knowing that that wasn't what had happened. Meredith then entered the kitchen, while the rest was getting ready to leave. She greeted them with a smile.
"Morning. Hey, so it sounded like you were having some pretty radical sex last night, all night long. Who was the guy?" Izzie asked the eldest Grey, hoping that she would be honest.
"No one you know."
"We're late. Let's go." Izzie scoffed as she grabbed her hand bag. Courtney sighed before following Izzie outside the house. The other two followed and got inside Courtney's car. Courtney sat behind the wheel, with Meredith next to her. The other two sat in the back: George's head resting against the window as he stared outside, still in shock, while Izzie glared at Meredith. The whole car ride was in silence, an awkward one. They arrived at work and got out of the car, Courtney letting out a deep sigh in the meantime. She was glad it was over.
Cristina had parked her motorcycle next to Courtney's car. "Yikes, wouldn't want to meet you in a dark alley." Meredith commented when she saw Cristina sitting on the ground next to her motorcycle. Courtney checked if all the doors were closed, when she saw Alex jogging up to them. She raised an eyebrow, which he replied with a smirk. Izzie was surprised as well, when she saw Alex in his running attire.
"Not suffering enough?" Meredith wondered as she walked by the two.
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
"Don't go acting all indefatigable. You're dragging like the rest of us." Cristina remarked and then coughed. She looked paler than usual and her eyes looked a little bit red-ish. If it had been Courtney, she would've stayed home. She wouldn't have wanted to infect any of the patients.
"Oh, what is that, professional weakness, Dr. Yang?"
"It's called the flu."
"Yeah."
☤☤☤
The interns were in the locker room getting ready for another day of work. George walked out of one of the changing rooms that were covered by dark blue curtains. Courtney was tying up her shoes, blowing her hair out of her face. "I'm gonna need a major rush to make it through this day. I need a kick-ass surgery." George said, while putting away his clothes in his locker.
"Ooh, you a bad boy last night, George?" Alex questioned, wiggling his eyebrows. But George shook his head. Courtney looked up at the two guys, before looking at the girls. She wondered who was going to spill the beans about Meredith being the one who was a bad boy. It ended up being Izzie. "You a bad boy, Meredith?"
"Do tell." Cristina asked her best friend, while putting her hair up. Meredith glanced at said girl and told her that there was nothing to tell. However, she gave Cristina a look that said it all. Meredith being silent about her wild night, made one particular blonde girl pretty angry.
"That says it all, huh?" Izzie slammed her locker door, still pissed at Meredith for lying about her relationship with Derek. Meredith was surprised and apologized for actually having a sex life, not knowing that it wasn't that what bothered Izzie. It was the person who she had the sex with.
"Don't apologize. Embrace it. Share it. Count me in." Alex suggested, which made Courtney roll her eyes.
"That's such a typical Alex saying. I was already wondering when you were going to say it."
"Are you jealous, Courtney? Don't worry, you can have some of this –" He lifted up his blue shirt and pointed at his abs. Courtney raised an eyebrow as if to say do I need to be impressed. "too, sweetheart."
"Over my dead body." Alex shrugged his shoulders and walked past her on his way to the door. She glared at him and crossed her arms over her chest. While Alex and Courtney had their little argument, Izzie had snapped at Meredith, telling her that she wanted a heads-up next time.
"You were just a little loud." George clarified, after Meredith had asked what she had done wrong. He, then, followed Izzie and Alex out of the room.
"Do Izzie and George know its McDreamy keeping them up all night?" Cristina wondered, while glancing at the Grey sister standing next to her and the other standing in front of her. Her question was more directed to the youngest, since she had been with the two that morning when Derek had snuck out and Meredith was in bed.
"I hope not. I already have Bailey riding me; I don't need my roommates thinking I'm getting special treatment." Meredith replied, but glanced at Courtney. "Do they?"
Courtney looked down, feeling bad for her sister, "They do, Mer. They saw him sneak out of the house. He didn't do a very good job to leave the house without us noticing. I'm really sorry, sis. I couldn't exactly stop them from going to the door and watch him come downstairs, could I?"
"You totally could've done that and it would've been hilarious!" Cristina commented as they exited the locker room together. Courtney gave the black-haired girl a look.
In the distance, they saw Bailey standing with the others. Meredith yawned as she, Cristina and her sister joined them. Their resident was quick to notice that and sighed, before facing her other five interns. "O'Malley, Yang, Karev, go on to clinic." Instead of following the other two, George stopped and watched Derek put in eye drops through the window, which Bailey saw as well. "O'Malley, patients are waiting. You three come with me. Izzie and Courtney, you're hanging with me today." Derek just walked out of a room and ran into the four women. "Good morning, Dr. Shepherd."
He greeted the four women, still looking a bit tired. Courtney noticed the few looks exchanged between Derek and Meredith and wondered if Bailey had seen them as well. Meredith yawned again, making Bailey ask if she had had a late night. Instead of telling the truth, she told Bailey that caffeine hadn't kicked in yet. "If you're at all religious, you would want to start praying it kicks in soon. There's a consult in the pit. Girl with a fever and abdominal pain. After that, Nicholas in 3311 needs his meds. Mr. Moeller's IV fell out, and he's a hard stick. Post-ops in 1337, 3342, 3363, and 2381."
Meredith repeated the room numbers, while writing it down in her small notebook. Bailey shot her look, asking her why she still stood in front of her. Then, Bailey turned her head towards the two blondes, who stood next to her. Izzie looked tired, but mostly annoyed and angry and this didn't go unnoticed by their resident, "You look more like me than you right now. What's the matter?"
"Nothing." The three women walked around the corner, when they heard someone call for help. The woman, a blonde like Courtney and Izzie, needed their help, because her boyfriend had swallowed her keys. Courtney had raised her eyebrows when hearing this and the explanation from the boyfriend himself: he didn't want her to leave.
"Locate the lady's keys." Miranda asked one of the blondes, Izzie. She glanced over at Courtney. "You come with me. I have another patient for you." The youngest Grey followed Bailey, after waving goodbye to Izzie. Instead of waving back, Izzie had crossed her arms and had glared at her. She was angry with Courtney, because she hadn't told them about Meredith and Derek. The blonde felt betrayed.
Bailey and Courtney arrived at a patient's room and the first one opened the door, letting Courtney in. A woman – probably in her fifties – with brown, well more grey actually, hair was lying in her hospital bed. The older of the two greeted the patient with a smile and walked over to her, "How are you doing, Gretchen?"
"You know how I'm doing, Miranda." Gretchen gave her a look of discomfort, before noticing the other doctor in the room. She smiled at Courtney, who smiled back, and looked at Miranda. "Is this one of your interns?"
"This is doctor Grey and she'll help you today, Gretchen." The oldest woman nodded and tried to sit up straight, so she could talk, but winced in pain. "No, no, Gretchen! Don't move. I know that the nurses told you to keep your moving to a minimum, so you're not moving an inch on my watch."
"I'm glad that you're still the same headstrong and confident woman that I met so many years ago. I thought you would've softened over the years, but apparently not." Gretchen looked over at Courtney, mischievous look in her eyes. "Want to hear some stories about a much younger Bailey?" Courtney chuckled and nodded her head, which received an intense stare from Bailey.
"Um, no, it's fine, Gretchen. Instead you can tell me what happened exactly." Courtney quickly changed the subject, after gulping.
"Well, a couple days ago I started feeling this intense pain in my stomach, when I ate some fries, but I thought it was nothing. The pain faded away in a few hours, so I saw no problem. Then, however, it worsened. I started feeling nauseous and puked a lot. But, me and my old lady brain thought I just had the flu or something." Bailey scoffed and rolled her eyes. "But when my pee was dark and I had diarrhea, I knew I had to call Bailey and ask her advice. She told me to come in."
"So, Grey, what do you think the patient has?"
"From what I've heard, the symptoms seem a lot like gallstones, but a ultrasound, abdominal CT scan or blood test can confirm my suspicions." Courtney replied with a smile and her eyes landed on Gretchen again. The woman held up her thumb and winked at her. Courtney shook her head and tried to not laugh. She already liked this woman.
☤☤☤
Courtney was leaning against a desk, waiting for someone to return to her and give her the blood results of Gretchen McNeal. Her fingers were tapping against the wooden desk and she looked through the window, seeing nobody, "Hey? I'm still here, waiting for my results? It's important."
"Sorry, Jesus, don't you interns have any patience?" Courtney glared at the man, who finally revealed himself from beneath his desk. "I have some bad news for you, though. The bloodwork you asked for, well, we can't find it anywhere."
"Are you kidding me? You lost it?" She clenched her fists, trying to contain her anger and not lash out at the man in front of her. The blonde bit her lip and looked away from him.
"Yeah, sorry. But, we can, um, process the blood again."
"Sure do that and page me when you're done." Courtney replied, before storming away from the station. She couldn't believe it: that guy had seriously lost the bloodwork she had asked for. She honestly couldn't wait for it to be processed again and took out her phone, asking for an abdominal CT scan. Because the longer they waited, the more complications could arise.
From a distance, someone was watching her with a smirk on their lips. They looked down at their hands, holding the very tests that the blonde had needed. Their plan was going in the right direction. They walked away from their hiding place, glancing back at the guy, who had lost Gretchen's bloodwork. They shared a nod, before the stranger walked away – following Courtney.
Said blonde ran into George, who was currently looking for Shepherd. They were working on Jamie Hayes' case – a two-year-old girl who had been diagnosed with Rasmussen's encephalitis. "Hey, hey, hey. Have you seen Shepherd?" He asked Courtney, right when they passed by Izzie. Courtney shook her head, but Izzie – who had heard the question – had something else in mind.
"Not as up close as Meredith has." Izzie responded, still angry. George looked from Courtney to Izzie and back, feeling uncomfortable. He feared for what would happen, knowing Courtney pretty good now. He knew that Courtney wasn't going to let Izzie walk away after saying that.
"Excuse me? What did you say?" Courtney asked, crossing her arms over her chest. They had stopped walking and the two blondes now faced each other. Izzie raised her eyebrow, challenging Courtney, which was a big mistake. Nobody ever messes with Courtney or her sister. Nobody.
"You heard me, loud and clear."
"I would watch what you're saying or—"
"Or what, huh? You're gonna cuss me out? Give this whole speech about how this is all Derek's fault and Meredith earned everything she got? Maybe you should keep your emotions, your anger issues, in check." Izzie shot back, glaring at the blonde in front of her. She couldn't explain why she was so angry with Courtney, but she just was. The latter one was glaring at her, before turning around on her heels, walking away. The blonde couldn't be bothered anymore, she didn't care anymore.
"What are you doing, Izzie? Are you trying to get Meredith in trouble and ruining your friendship with Courtney? They're our friends. You know Courtney and you have to be extremely lucky if she ever forgives you for what you just did." George defended them as he watched Courtney walk away.
"George, this program will make or break our careers. Some of us will make it through, and some of us won't. And that decision depends entirely on recommendations from doctors like Shepherd. There is a reason we don't sleep with the attendings." Izzie glanced at the brown-haired boy, walking next to her. "And about Courtney? She needs to learn to keep her anger outbursts to a minimum and look after herself. What she keeps doing, defending her older sister? That might eventually come to a point where she pisses off some powerful people and she might lose her job here. I'm just looking after her, George."
"That's not what it looked like to me." George muttered to himself.
☤☤☤
Courtney was humming a song as she walked towards a coffee cart. She desperately needed some more coffee or she would fall over due to the lack of sleep. Suddenly, Alex popped up and stopped her, crossing his arms over his chest. Courtney sighed, that had been the second time in a very short time that someone had done that. Not long ago, she had run into Ash and he, being his flirty self, had tried to woo her again. She, however, wasn't impressed and had just walked away from him to the scan room.
Gretchen had had her abdominal CT scan. Now, they had proof that the woman had gallstones and a surgery was planned to remove them. "Hey, Courtney, can you please tell your lover boy that we aren't friends?"
"Uh, what? Why would I need to say that? I'm pretty sure it's general knowledge that we aren't friends."
"Well, apparently, he doesn't know that. He's been following me around and keeps asking me questions about you: like what is your favorite color? I know it's light blue, but I'm not gonna tell him that."
"Aw, Alex, you know what my favorite color is? That's so sweet of you." Courtney said as she glanced at Alex, who didn't look very amused. He rolled his eyes and looked away from her. "You know what? Maybe we are becoming friends. Can you imagine it: Alex Karev and Courtney Grey best friends forever?"
"No. I would rather be shot than be best friends with you."
"Thanks, really." Courtney sarcastically replied as they moved towards the others, who were standing near the coffee cart. The blonde knew that the two of them were getting closer to being friends every single day. At this point, they were two people who were quickly becoming friends, but hid it with their usual banter.
"Yeah, we do. Forget I said that. Pretend like I'm not here. Continue." Alex chimed into George, Izzie and Cristina's conversation. Courtney joined him, but had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. But, if she had to guess, probably Meredith and McDreamy. Karev looked at Cristina, who still looked pretty sick. "You look like you need to be spoon-fed."
"You look like Alex."
"Yeah, about drinking, Dr. Taylor, the anesthesiologist..." George spoke up and nodded to where Dr. Taylor was standing nearby. Everyone of their group glanced at the anesthesiologist and then at George. "Do you think he drinks?"
"I said whatever gets you through the day."
"I mean here, at work. Earlier, I thought I smelled...Do you think...? I mean, his patients trust that...So I should say something, right?"
"It's a can of worms, George. Weren't we talking about sex, anyway?" Alex wanted to change the subject back to the original one. Now, Courtney knew that the other three had been talking about Meredith. When those words came out of Alex' mouth, the rest looked at him in disgust.
"Doofus." George said, before they all left Alex standing alone at the coffee shop. Courtney walked with the others and looked behind her at Alex, sticking out her tongue. He glared back, before buying something. Courtney's focus was brought back to her other friends, who were talking about Shepherd. Izzie and her didn't say a word to each other. The latter wasn't going to forgive her that fast. Who knew? Maybe they were never going to get over this little bump in their road.
☤☤☤
Courtney was fast asleep, on the floor, while Cristina was lying on a bench. The former had finished her surgery together with Bailey a couple of hours ago and had been sleeping ever since. First she had lay on the bench Cristina was currently lying on, but when said girl had entered she had shoved the blonde off of it. Obviously, she had woken up, but went back to sleep even though she was lying on the floor. Izzie had been there as well and had ignored Courtney the entire time.
Then, Meredith entered locker room after scrubbing in Claire's surgery. The patient was a 17-year-old girl, who had had gastric bypass surgery in Mexico. The surgery left her with an abscess and edema. "Ew, what smells?" Izzie asked, scrunching up her nose at the horrible smell. Meredith explained that it was her, well her patient's insides to be more exact. "That makes me strangely happy." Izzie smiled she sat down on the bench next to Cristina. Her foot accidentally kicked against Courtney's arm, waking up the youngest Grey.
"Oh my God. Oh, Meredith, sister, what the hell did you do? You smell terrible." Courtney stated as the smell hit her nose. She held her hand in front of her mouth, hoping to hold back the puke.
"Karma." Izzie sung, extremely happy about the fact that Meredith smelled absolutely horrible. Meredith heard her and turned her head towards the blonde, asking what she had said. A smile formed on Izzie's lips, as she sheepishly said, "Nothing."
"Something vile is stuck in your hair. You know, just go stand over there, please." Cristina noticed and pointed at the others side of the room. In the meantime, Courtney had stood up and was placing her jacket back into her locker.
"Ugh, how much do I love being a surgeon right now?" Meredith complained as she glanced in the mirror, looking at herself with a sigh escaping her lisps. Izzie let out the word karma again, making Courtney roll her eyes. "What does karma have to do with anything?"
"I'm just saying, you've been given all the best surgeries. And now you smell like putrid goo. And you're giving off a stench. Karma's a bitch." Then, Bailey entered the room, asking for one of them to scrub into Derek's surgery. Cristina immediately jumped at the offer, telling her that she was completely healthy – which was a total lie and Bailey caught that.
"Grey?" Miranda asked Meredith, which fueled Izzie's anger even more. That started a fight between the two of them and Izzie eventually spilt that she knew about Meredith and Derek. She told Meredith that she was the problem, because only she could help Shepherd in ways that none of them could. "Hey!" Miranda Bailey turned to face the other Grey, having enough of the argument. "Hemispherectomy in OR 1 with Dr. Shepherd. Go."
The blonde ran out of the room, ecstatic. She couldn't believe that this was going to be her second surgery of the day. On a normal day, she would have to be really lucky to get at least one. As she was running to the operating room, she hoped that everything was going to be okay with Meredith. Said girl was going to have a hard time with Bailey and Izzie being angry with her, because of Shepherd. In that moment, Courtney wished that her sister had never met the neurosurgeon. The only thing he was good at doing (except brain surgery) was causing trouble for the eldest Grey.
☤☤☤
Courtney had scrubbed in as fast as she could, since Derek had already started operating on Jamie. The blonde was at the neurosurgeon's side in a couple of minutes with a huge smile on her face. He looked away from his patient to glance at the blonde, "All right, we're gonna start the procedure with the left temporal lobectomy. Thanks for joining us, Dr. Grey. After the temporal, we'll do the frontal, and then the occipital."
Courtney's eyes wandered to the gallery, seeing George watching. She bit her lip, feeling bad for her fellow intern. She had no idea what George had done, but it must have been something bad if Shepherd had sent him out of the O.R. Courtney looked around the room and watched Dr. Taylor working on his crossword puzzle. Derek said something, but trailed off when he noticed that Jamie – although sedated – was blinking. "We'll encounter the anterior cerebral artery." Courtney finished the sentence, while looking at the surgeon next to her in confusion.
"Yes, so we're gonna need to, uh..." Jamie blinked once again.
"The branches of the artery need to be coagulated and divided."
"You know, Taylor, her anesthesia is awful light." Taylor didn't respond and Jamie was still blinking. "Come on, Taylor, s-she's waking up."
"Dr. Taylor? Hey! Dr. Taylor!" The youngest Grey asked, stepping away from the table to a place where she could see the anesthesiologist better. Her ocean blue eyes widened when she saw that he had fallen asleep. "Uh, what the hell? He's asleep!" Shepherd started yelling his name, hoping that he would wake up.
"Huh? Oh, God, sorry. Sorry, I'm on it. My bad, Shep." Taylor apologized, while giving the girl more anesthesia, so she wouldn't wake up while the surgery was still going on. Derek finally realized his mistake and asked Taylor if George had been right all along. Taylor tried to defend his actions, but no luck.
"I'll be fine. It won't happen again." Dr. Taylor promised, after asking Steph to go and get him some coffee. He looked at the neurosurgeon, hoping that he would be forgiven.
"Yeah, not in here, it won't. Uh, Steph, call Dr. Pennington. Hopkins, take over until she gets here. Get out of here and get it together." Derek asked Steph, while Taylor looked at him in shock. Taylor left his place and exited the room, while somebody else took over. The other anesthesiologist had arrived rather soon and everything had gone back to normal.
A bit later, Derek was almost finished with the surgery. "This packing, we hope, will prevent hemorrhaging. Dr. Grey, do you want to add something to that?" Courtney nodded and replied to his question, which she answered correctly. "Hmm, very nice." Derek looked at two other doctors. "You two, you wanna close up?"
"Yes, doctor."
"I'm gonna go to bed." Derek said more to himself than the others. Courtney wanted to say something to him, but decided not to in the end. Maybe she needed to learn to keep her mouth shut from time to time. She turned around, her ponytail going from side to side. She went to her patient from earlier, Gretchen, to check up on her.
"Hey? How are you feeling?"
"Like a whole new person." Gretchen smiled at the blonde, who stood next to her bed. "You seem like you haven't slept in a week. I know that this whole internship is hard, but you need to look after yourself as well, Courtney. Maybe, sometimes, go on a date, have some fun and party like you've never partied before."
"I'm not really the party animal, Gretchen. I never was and probably never will be."
"Well, then go on a date with someone you like. It doesn't hurt to try, sweetie." Courtney looked down at her feet. "Even if it's just one date, just go and try to have a life. I remember when Bailey went through this all with her current husband. She wanted to be an excellent surgeon and dedicated everything to that. In the meantime she forget to live her life and lost part of herself. Then, Tucker came along and brought that piece – she didn't even know that she lost – back. It all turned out well, but what would've happened if they hadn't met? Just forget about this hospital once in a while."
"Thanks for the advice, but I'll be fine. I don't need a man and I'm perfectly capable of having a life without having a man by my side." Courtney stated, before walking out of Gretchen's room. She went to the locker rooms and changed back into her normal clothes, before driving back home. When she finally arrived home, she met Derek on the driveway. He waved at her as he went inside the house, meeting Meredith.
"Hey, Courtney? Look I'm sorry for what I said." Izzie apologized when Courtney entered the kitchen. The blonde placed her bag on the table and looked at the other blonde with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Izzie, you know me well enough now to know that forgiving you is going to take some time. I might be a raging bitch sometimes, but what you said hurt my feelings. It's the truth, I know that, but still. It hurt."
"Yeah, I know and I'm seriously sorry."
☤☤☤
Hey! So, what did you guys think of the new chapter? Honestly, i have mixed feelings about it. i think it turned out well, but then also not. I had such difficulty writing this chapter and rewrote it lots of times, but still, i'm not that happy with it. I think that this chapter is a bit all over the place and for some reason i can't really fix it? But anyway, i hope you enjoyed this chapter!
This time, we see Alex and Courtney bonding again and i love them. my cute brotp!!! I love that slowly, but surely, the two of them are becoming closer and closer and sort of refused to admit them being friends is becoming reality. Also, Izzie and Courtney? I thought it would be more realistic with a fight here and there. What do you think: was Izzie out of line to say that to Courtney or do you think that she's right?