[ seattle grace mercy west? ]
"Look at them in their orange scrubs," I narrowed my eyes, at the new residents, "They look like they broke out of jail."
Mark, and I stood at the railing at the top of the stairs watching the new residents filing in.
"Blue scrubs aren't good enough for them?" Mark asked.
"There's just so many of them. We don't have enough. I guess when we all get fired we could give them to our replacements," I shrugged.
"No one's getting fired," Mark told me, "You need to calm down."
"When I get fired I'm becoming a coroner," I said, "I always thought that would be fun."
"Hey, you're not becoming a coroner. You're going to stay a surgeon. You're gonna save people's lives. You're only gonna take care of living people, not dead people."
"No dead people. Got it," I nodded, "Oh shit. George's cubby. I need to make sure none of those asshat Mercy Wester's take his cubby. I'll see you later." I pressed a quick kiss on his lips before I ran down the stairs, and to the locker room.
When I got into the room there was barely anywhere to walk. There were a bunch of people in orange scrubs every where.
"Oh hey, uh sorry, but could you find another cubby? We uh, keep that one open. For a reason," I said, as a short woman with red haired pixie cut filled up George's cubby.
"Uh, I don't think so," She shook her head, then continued to fill it up.
"There's some empty ones over there," I motioned to the other side of the room.
"I think I'll just stay here," She smiled at me.
"Listen," I lowered my voice, "I told you to find another cubby."
"And I said no."
"You know you're pretty short. I could take you," I walked up to the woman, getting in her face,"I could beat the shit out of you!"
"Brandy!" Alex pulled me away.
"Don't touch me! Get off me," I yelled as Alex pulled me away.
"Brandy, relax," Alex told me.
"She took his cubby," I frowned, as tears filled my eyes.
"It's okay," He told me.
I turned to glare at the woman, before I stormed out of the room.
"Hey that wasn't cool," I heard a voice behind me.
"What?" I turned to look as one of the Mercy Westers, ran up to me and started walking with me.
"In the locker room. My friend, she shouldn't have took the cubby. I'm sorry," He apologized.
"She obviously isn't so-"
"Well it's the first day of school. Everyone's on edge. I'll probably kill someone by the end of the day," He laughed, "I'm Charles, by the way. Charles Percy."
I looked down at the hand he extended to me, expecting me to shake it.
"It might be kinda a hard to not talk to me the whole day. It's been done before. I once didn't talk to my family on a road trip across the country. 10 days, 15 states, not a peep, just read books, pretended I was a hostage."
"Brandy Dixon," I stopped and shook his hand.
"Well, nice to meet you, Brandy Dixon," Charles smiled, "Hey, uh, do you know the key code to the library. I was here last night and it was close so-"
"It took me two years to get that code, I'm not gonna just give it away," I said, before I walked in to the patient's room.
"I have to go, the doctors are here. Okay. Bye," Ms.Fremont hung up the phone and gave us her attention.
"Dixon, why don't you present," Bailey asked me.
"Betty Fremont. Age 27. End-renal disease. On dialysis for three years, waiting for a kidney. She's on her last excess site," I presented.
"That's a polite way of saying they've run out of places to stick needles," She said.
"Ms.Fremont has a subclavian catheter for access. Why is this not ideal?" Bailey asked.
All of our hands shot up, except for Charles...
"It's difficult to obtain sufficient blood flow through the-oh," he looked around at all of us, "You guys raise hands."
••
"This is the nurse's lounge," I pointed out to Charles, "It's literally always someone's birthday. So if you're nice to the nurses, you get cake. The lab."
"How are you doing, Dr.D? I heard about Dr.O'Malley and Dr.Stevens. I'm sorry," The toxicologist said, "They were both fine doctors."
"I'm fine and thank you," I nodded.
"Well if you need anything let me know," He smiled, handing me the labs.
"Thanks," I nodded.
Charles looked at me with a furrowed eyebrows.
"It's nothing," I smiled, at him before I walked away.
"Did you lose some of your friends?" He asked.
"I said, it's nothing," I told him, sternly.
"Want to know something deeply personal about me? See that girl over there? The one from the locker room this morning? That's Reed. I have the biggest crush on her," He sighed, "And she doesn't even know who I am. She calls me Charlie. No one names Charlie ever gets the girl. Charlie Brown, Charlie Manson. I'm not trying to minimize your dead friends or anything, but this really sucks for me."
"You like her?" I asked.
"I love her," His eyes not leaving the woman.
"43-81," I said as I walked away.
"What's that?" He asked, as he followed behind me.
"The code to the research library."
••
"This blows," Alex shook his head.
"Getting your ass kicked?" Cristina asked, sitting down with Alex, Lexie and I.
"Shut up," Alex said, with a mouth full of sandwich, "I heard your's got a standing ovation in the ER."
"Your's is the one saved everyone from that maniac in the ER?" Lexie asked.
"Okay, he didn't save anyone! He did some stupid ninja leap and tripped a guy. I used actual medicine to stop a person from dying," Cristina told us.
"Ninja leap?" I asked
"Well, mine has a notebook. A very personal notebook where she keeps very personal notes in, and I stole it," Lexie said.
"You did what?" Cristina asked.
"Give it," Alex said, after swallowing his food.
"No-No. I'm not sinking to their level. They are vindictive and aggressive, and not team players," Lexie shook her head, "And that's gonna become the spirit of the hospital if we don't stop it and fight it."
"So that's why you stole her notebook?" Cristina asked.
"And read it," Alex said, as he chewed his sandwich.
"Well, she's not a very nice person," Lexie defended herself.
"Really? I think my guy's pretty nice. Once you get to know him. And that coffee's for him," I snatched the cup from Alex's hand, "Not yours."
"You're giving him coffee?" Alex asked.
"If you all could past your sad, little egos, you'd see they weren't as bad as you think," I said, standing up and walking away.
"Trader!" Alex yelled after me.
I shook my head as he yelled at me, and walked out of the cafeteria, and back to the nurse's station where I had left Charles. I stopped a few feet away when I heard him talking with, Reed and another redheaded woman.
"The woman does basically whatever I want. I want something," He snapped his fingers, "She gets it for me. The code to research library? She gave it to me. Anytime you want to go in, day or night."
"You're kidding?" Reed asked, in disbelief.
The redhead laughed and shook her head.
"She can't do enough for me," Charles laughed, "I have my own surgical bitch."
The redhead and I locked eyes, causing her to move closer to Charles and clear her throat.
I walked up to Charles, and smiled, "Here's your coffee," I said, dropping it on his feet, then walking away.
"Hey," Mark's smile quickly faded as he saw me, "What's wrong?"
"The Mercy Westers are bitches," I shook my head.
"They can't be that bad," He said.
"Oh yes they can. One just used me and called me his surgical bitch. He seemed so nice too. People suck."
"I'm sorry," Mark wrapped an arm around me, "Should I punch him too?"
"You need to stop punching people for me. As much as I want you to punch him, it's not worth it," I shook my head.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes I'm sure," I sighed, "I need to go check on my patient."
"I'll see you later," He said.
"See you later," I smiled at him, as I made my way to Ms.Fremont's room.
"Dr. Dixon, can I talk to you for a minute?" Charles stopped me outside, her room.
"Go away," I said, without looking at him.
"Picked up the labs for you," He said, handing them to me, "If you want, I can take care of the dialysis."
"I've got this. I don't need a surgical bitch. Thanks," I said with an eye roll.
"Brandy, it wasn't personal. That stuff, it just, uh, comes with the job. I'd expect you to do the same thing to me. Outside of work, you can be friends. But inside, it's a whole different story. At least it was at Mercy West," He shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, that isn't how it is here. Here, we don't just think about ourselves. We support one another. We have each other's backs. We-we throw ourselves in front of buses To save the lives of complete strangers. You will never measure up to the people we've lost."
••
"No way. Are you serious? I'm gonna go to the Chief myself. And I'm gonna tell him you're the best third-year resident I've ever seen," Mark said, sitting next to me in the waiting room.
"I didn't get fired. I-I just miss my best friend. I miss George. I miss Izzie. It's not the same, and-and these Mercy Westers come in here and act like they're something special, but they can't replace them. No one will ever replace them," I cried, "No one can."
I felt Mark's arms wrap around me and hold me, "It's okay. It's okay."
"I'm sorry I cry so much," I sniffled.
"Don't be sorry," He said, stroking my hair, "Do you want me to take you home?"
I nodded as I wiped my tears away. Mark stood up and took my hand. The two of us walked over to the hospital doors. I tried my best to ignore the residents as we walked by them, their eyes burning a hole in us as they watched us.
~~~
Sorry for the short updates, I'm just trying to get as much done in the next few weeks before I start working again and also as school starts, since I probably won't be able to update as frequently as I do. Thank you for reading! 💓