IT HAD BEEN EIGHT WEEKS. Eight weeks after a bomb had entered Seattle Grace Hospital in a patient's chest. Eight weeks since Courtney's spinal surgery at Mercy West Hospital. After Courtney had closed her eyes and lost consciousness due to the pain in her back, she had fallen limp into Alex and George's arms. Alex' loud cry of her name had caused chaos: everyone had started panicking and crowding around the blonde intern, which angered her best friend. He had yelled at the crowd, wanting some peace for the blonde, while George was trying to wake her up again. He, however, didn't have any luck and it became harder and harder to support her. Luckily, Chief Webber had already called for an ambulance, which would transport her to Mercy West Hospital.
Alex had quickly decided that he should be the one to ride along with the ambulance, since Meredith wasn't out of her state of shock yet. It had been quite the sight to see Courtney wheeled out on a gurney, passed out and barely hanging on. All the eyes in the hospital were glued on the blonde intern and no one could stop themselves from gossiping, like true Seattle Grace fashion. With Alex by her side, Courtney was taken to the hospital, where interns were already waiting for the upcoming ambulance. There, they came to the conclusion that she had a fracture-dislocation, after taking MRI's. Said injury occurred when a bone in the spine was broken and the ligaments were torn. These fractures were usually unstable and were often surgically repaired.
After everything was in order, Courtney was rushed into a lumbar spinal fusion. Being a little bit overprotective over his best friend, Alex wanted to watch the surgery to make sure that she was going to alright – he didn't trust those Mercy West people with their orange scrubs. However, that wasn't allowed, so he was sent to the waiting room – but not after threatening the doctors. "If Courtney dies, she won't be the only one", he had said.
During her surgery, Alex had called the other interns. They all arrived at Mercy West rather quickly. Meredith had went out of her state of shock, but upon hearing what had happened with her sister that feeling had been replaced with a feeling of worry. She was pacing back and forth in the waiting room, driving the others crazy. The whole time, nobody knew what to say, so they spent every single minute in silence. It was broken, when a very good looking intern walked up to the group and informed them about her condition. Courtney was going to be alright and was recovering in the post-anesthesia care unit. She would soon be moved to a hospital room, where they could then visit her.
After a couple of hours, Courtney was awake again and was faced with her friends and sister standing by her bedside. Meredith was holding her hand and never let go, until she had been forced to leave. Seeing Courtney so weak and groggy from the surgery was a weird sight for all of them and they couldn't help but be worried. "What if they screwed up? I wouldn't put it past these people here." Cristina had said. "I mean have you looked at their scrubs. Orange! What kind of disgusting color is that!"
Everyone had started talking at once: some agreeing with Cristina, others not. As they were arguing with each other, none of them seemed to notice that Courtney was in pain. All of the loud voices weren't really helping with her headache. "Guys, guys! Stop it!" She had yelled, making everyone look at her. "I'm sure that the surgeons here are just as good as at Seattle Grace or maybe even better. I feel fine and I'm not dying, okay? So, will you guys just be quiet? My head is hurting, so all of your yelling isn't helping."
A couple of days later, Courtney was finally able to go home. Her sister and two roommates took her home, after Courtney had finished talking to her doctor. The first couple of weeks, Courtney had to wear a back brace, making it difficult to move – which was the intention. She also needed help with her daily activities (like bathing, dressing, etc.). Meredith and Izzie were all too happy to help and from time to time Callie slept over in Courtney's room on a spare mattress to help her friend as well. Alex had offered to help as well, but Courtney quickly shot that idea down with a glare.
After about two to three weeks, Courtney was able to do those things herself again. Around that time, she also started going to physical therapy. The surgical intern wanted to go back to work again, but her physical therapist didn't allow her to go so soon. So, she had to stay home, while her friends were scrubbing in on amazing surgeries.
Now, eight weeks after the surgery, Courtney was finally back in the intern locker rooms, getting ready for her first day back. She could feel everyone's eyes on her back as she was braiding her long, blonde locks. She sighed, finding it a bit annoying that everyone kept staring at her. From the moment she had walked through the doors, the staring had begun. Sometimes, people came up to her, welcoming her back or asking if she was going to be alright. That she liked, but the staring? That was a big no.
She walked over to Meredith, who was sitting down in front of a locker and just stared at it. Courtney raised her eyebrow at her sister's odd behavior and sat down next to her. She placed her hand on her sister's shoulder, making Meredith glance at her for a second before her eyes were glued to the locker again. She knew that Meredith had visited their mother this morning and had a feeling that something had happened there. "Hey, Mer, everything alright with you? Did something happen with mom?"
"She's a filthy whore."
Courtney choked on air, making people glance over at her – worried. She saw the looks on people's faces and tried to ignore them by focusing her attention back to her older sister. "Excuse me?"
"I'm pretty sure that she had an affair. She told me about how she was going all night in an on-call room this morning. She told me how she wanted dad to leave on his own and she even came home with hickey's on her neck, trying to get him to leave. It was absolutely disgusting."
"Wow, okay, then. Did she tell you who it was?" Meredith shook her head. "Now it kind of made sense why dad left her, but why did he have to leave us?"
"I don't know, Court, I really don't know." Courtney sighed and bent down to tie her shoes. She couldn't believe that her mother had had an affair. It was just unbelievable. The youngest Grey stayed seated next to her sister for a while, until Cristina entered the locker room. She pushed past George, who was just about to walk up to the eldest Grey after having stared at her from afar. Courtney got off the bench, having a feeling that Cristina needed her best friend to rant to.
Courtney neared George, who looked a bit upset as he was gazing at his crush. The sister of said crush noticed the sad look in his eyes and patted his shoulder. "I'm really sorry, George. Look, I'm not trying to be rude here, but don't you think it's time to move on from you-know-who?" She looked over her shoulder to take a look at her sister, who was still shocked about what had happened with their mother earlier.
"No, no, I'm going to tell her soon, Courtney."
"That's what you've been saying for months. If you're actually going to do it, good luck then." Courtney smiled. However, she couldn't shake the feeling that George finally confessing his feeling for Meredith was going to cause some serious troubles. She moved past him and exited the locker room.
☤☤☤
Burke and Bailey's interns were standing in a patient room, belonging to a middle aged man – named Chuck Eaton. He was lying in the hospital bed, while Meredith was presenting her round. Courtney stood in the back, listening to her sister as she fiddled with the sleeve of her white doctor's coat. "Chuck Eaton. 54. Has stage 3B small cell lung cancer with possible invasion of the pleura. And a history of COPD. He's had extensive chemo-radiotherapy with minimal regression of the tumor. He's been admitted for radical and block re-section."
Chuck said that he was a smoker and that he only had a 25 percent chance of surviving. Courtney wasn't really focused on the conversation. She was more focused on Burke and Cristina, who kept giving each other tense looks. Courtney couldn't help but wonder if there was trouble in paradise for the two lovebirds. While Burke was telling the patient that they could make him more comfortable if he chose to not do the surgery, Courtney placed her hand on her back, feeling a little sting of pain.
Her physical therapist and doctor had said that it was normal if she felt some pain in her back, even months after the surgery. Then again, it was also Courtney's first day back at work and standing up for hours. For weeks, Courtney had been glued down on her couch, watching countless amounts of movies and reading lots of books. Occasionally, Courtney left her house to go walk around the neighborhood, which her physical therapist had recommended.
When Courtney's focus was back on the patient in the room, it was already time to leave again. The little group of interns exited the hospital room, on their way to another one. Meredith, Cristina, Alex and Courtney were walking in a group, while George and Izzie were trailing rather far behind them. "Hey, you okay?" Alex turned to the blonde girl walking next to him.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Alex raised an eyebrow, shooting her a look. "Honestly, I'm fine, really. Shelley – my physical therapist – said that I'm all good to go back to work. Of course, I'm still going to feel it a little bit, but she said that it was normal and I had to take it easy. I just have to be careful and let my pain guide me. If my back hurts when I do a certain thing, I'm going to stop doing said thing. Don't worry, I'm okay."
"If you say so."
The four interns continued walking, when they saw Bailey approaching them with her eight-weeks-year old baby: Will. After he had been born, Bailey had decided that she wanted to take some more time off to look after him. She wanted more time with him, before she was going to be swamped with surgeries. Bailey looked down at her son, who was smiling at her. Courtney's ocean blue eyes softened when she was staring at Bailey's son. A smile appeared on her lips as she watched mother and son interact.
Then, Izzie and George finally walked up to the group. Courtney was able to look away from Will and her eyes landed on her two roommates. Izzie greeted her resident and the resident's newborn son in a baby voice, making Courtney chuckle. "Are the O.R's up and running?" The resident asked her group. Cristina quickly replied saying that they had been fully functional for about seven weeks and the damage had been taken care of six weeks ago.
"Good, good." Bailey's eyes landed on the blonde intern. "How about you? You fully functional?"
"I'm fine, Dr. Bailey. It's my first day back, though, but I'm fine." Bailey nodded, when suddenly Meredith asked how Bailey's husband had been doing. He had gotten in an accident while trying to get to Bailey, who was going to give birth, eight weeks ago.
"He's doing fine." Will made a cute noise, making Bailey do her little baby voice. "Yes, he is. Yeah. Yeah." Izzie joined in, cooing at the baby and telling him how cute he is. Bailey raised an eyebrow at her intern. "Okay this is not a tea party. Go work. Save some lives. Now!" They dispersed quickly and Bailey walked down the other way, chuckling.
☤☤☤
Courtney leaned against a nurses' station, the one near the elevators. She tapped her index finger against her elbow as she was waiting. After rounds were finished and – almost – everyone had a case of their own, the little group of interns dispersed and went their separate ways. Meredith had Chuck Eaton as her patient and was going to be working with Burke, Cristina had Jake Burton – a 15-year-old boy with advanced craniodiaphyseal dysplasia – with Shepherd. The youngest Grey would be working with Callie on a bursectomy.
A bursectomy is the removal of a bursa, which is a small sac filled with synovial fluid that cushions adjacent bone structures and reduces friction in joint movement. Said procedure is usually carried out to relieve chronic inflammation (also known as bursitis), which was the case with Estelle Patton, or infection.
Estelle Patton was a 45-year-old single mother, who had bursitis and needed surgery to get rid of it. Estelle had went to her regular doctor first, when she noticed the symptoms. Pain in her shoulder gradually built up and at some point she couldn't even move her shoulder, which obviously worried her. She had decided to go to her doctor, who prescribed her some drugs to reduce the inflammation.
However, the drugs didn't work and after a week of no improvement, Estelle Patton went back to her doctor. He then decided that it would be best to go see an orthopedic surgeon at a hospital. When Callie had gotten the case, she quickly asked for Courtney Grey to scrub in (since she was her favorite intern and loved to work with her). After Estelle told Callie that she had tried everything, Callie had come to the decision that they would have to get rid of the bursitis surgically.
Courtney had been staring at the elevator doors the whole time, her back leaning against the nurses' station – which wasn't a very smart idea. Her thoughts were still stuck on Meredith's revelation about their mother. They couldn't leave her mind, which was bothering her. She just wanted to forget about that, but she couldn't. Would she ever be able to see her mother like she used too, now that she knew the truth? The bing of an elevator broke her chain of thoughts. The elevator doors were about to open, when Courtney heard somebody say her name. The blonde turned around, facing the nurse with a smile. "Yes?"
"Here's the chart that you needed." Courtney shot her a thankful smile, which quickly changed into one of pain. The nurse, Nicole, noticed that and her hand shot forward towards Courtney's. Feeling a hand on hers, Courtney glanced up from the chart containing Estelle's information. "Are you feeling alright? Is the pain manageable?"
"I'm fine, really. I just have to get used to working again and standing on my feet for hours." Nikki smiled and removed her hand from Courtney's. Nicole walked away and Courtney looked down at Estelle's chart. With her ballpoint pen tapping against her pink lips, she focused on the chart, not noticing the attention she got from a man standing not too far from her.
"Can I help you?" Courtney suddenly asked as she noticed his eyes on her. She placed the pen on the page she was currently at and turned to the side, facing the very attractive stranger. He was quite tall and had an athletic built, his muscles clearly showing even though he wore a leather jacket. His hair was a bit between light brown and blonde with a little bit of grey and the stranger had beautiful blue eyes, just like Courtney.
"I'm just admiring the view." He smirked, clearly flirting with the blonde intern. He moved a bit closer as a smirk graced his lips. Courtney chuckled and shook her head, making the man smile. His eyes never glancing away from the pretty blonde in front of him.
"If you're here for the view, I don't think that a hospital is the place to be. There are lots of prettier places here in Seattle than Seattle Grace Hospital." Courtney shot back.
"Well, maybe you could show me around some time?"
"Maybe." Courtney smiled at him. "So, what brings you to rainy Seattle?"
"I'm visiting an, uh, old friend." The man lied, not wanting to tell her about Addison – the woman he was really visiting. He wanted to convince her to come back to New York and give their relationship another go. Courtney nodded, when the conversation fell silent. The two just stood there at the nurses station looking at each other. Then, Courtney looked away from the mysterious stranger to look down at Estelle's chart. She needed to go to her patient.
"I, uh, have to go now. I have a surgery, so yeah." The stranger nodded. "Oh, I'm Courtney by the way." She held out her hand, which he shook with a flirtatious smile on his lips.
"Mark."
"Nice to meet you, Mark." Courtney said, before turning around with the chart in her hands. She did notice Nicole mouthing the words he's hot to her as she left. She didn't look back, so she didn't see him looking at her as she walked away. Mark was intrigued by the blonde intern, even though they had just met and his mind was still on Addison. He couldn't deny that he wanted to get to know her better.
☤☤☤
Courtney closed the door behind her as she left Estelle Patton's hospital room. She and Callie had just informed her about the surgery, telling her what was going to happen and so on. Callie had done most of the talking, while Courtney explained it to Estelle's two children – Lucy and Grace. Lucy was 15 years old, while her sister was three years younger than her. The two girls both knew what was going on with their mother and were scared that she might die.
They had already lost their father at a young age and were afraid that it was going to happen again. Courtney eased their worries, telling them that she and Callie were going to do everything in their power to help their mother. The surgery wasn't life-threatening, but complications were possible. After everything was explained, the two doctors left the mother and two daughters alone. With a wave, Callie walked away, since another patient in need of her help had just come in. Estelle's surgery wouldn't happen for a few hours.
Courtney was walking through the hallways, when she suddenly noticed her friends were standing at a nurses' station. She raised her eyebrows and fastened her pace, wanting to know what they were all staring at. "Hey, what are you guys doing?" Izzie pointed at the window, showing Mark Sloan suturing his own face with Meredith holding a mirror up. "What happened to Mark?"
"You're already on first name basis, huh?"
"You know him?"
"When did you meet him?" Were all the questions thrown at the blonde's face, but nobody really answered her own question.
"McDreamy punched him." Izzie then revealed to him. Courtney raised her eyebrows and looked behind her to glance at Mark, who was too busy stitching up his own face to notice the blonde.
"Ow."
"McSexy wants an x-ray to check for fractures and I think it's a bad idea if I take him." Meredith mentioned as she walked up to them. A very jealous George kept repeating the word why and why it would be a bad idea, while Alex quickly took Meredith's offer. The girls – excluding Courtney – ignored George and tried coming up with a nickname for Mark.
"McSexy?"
"No."
"Mc Yummy."
"No."
"McSteamy."
"Oh, there it is."
"Yep." They chuckled and looked through the trauma room window at Mark Sloan. George and Courtney shared a look, before glancing at the three girls again.
"Uh, just, ah, choking back some McVomit."
"Weirdos." Courtney laughed at the same time as George had said something, concerning the nicknaming. The two walked off and went back to work, while Cristina, Meredith and Izzie continued staring at Mark and gossiping about him.
☤☤☤
Courtney was playing with her hair as she sat, slouched, in a chair in a waiting room. Her back was facing big windows, which showed the parking lot of the hospital. The blonde was staring in the distance as she mindlessly took a bit out of her apple. She was actually waiting for the familiar sound of her pager to go off. With a sigh, she took another bite, when suddenly she felt a presence next to her. "Hey, Val." She greeted the bubbly nurse.
"Hey, what're you doing?"
"Waiting for the time to go any faster. I hate waiting."
"You're waiting for the bursectomy with Callie, right?" Courtney nodded. "But anyway, have you heard the newest gossiping around here?"
"About Mark Sloan?" Valerie nodded, excited.
"I heard from Isabelle and Nicole – they were right there when it happened – that Shepherd punched him, when he was talking to Meredith. It was really something to see, they said." Valerie then looked at the blonde intern, who was a bit surprised. She knew about the punch, but not that it was because of her sister.
"Wait, really? I just heard that he was punched, but I never got to find out why." Valerie hummed as Courtney sighed, rubbing her face with her hands. She felt bad for her sister, who always seemed to smack in the middle of all the drama, which could fuel a tv show. "So, how's the wedding planning going?"
Valerie sighed, leaning back into her chair. "I still have lots to plan, but it's coming along. We've already picked out our wedding venue – let me tell you, it's the most magical and stunning place ever! However, that the only thing we have done so far. When I have time to plan, he's either working or sleeping because of the jet lag. But, we've picked a couple of dates where we're both free. We could do it when I get home from work and he's done, but that's always so late. Then, I just want to watch some telenovelas with my fiancé."
"Hey, no judgement from me. If I was you, I'd do the same thing." Courtney added with a chuckle and Valerie joined her in the laughing. "But I think me getting married might not be in the near future. I'm too busy for guys at this point."
"I'm one hundred percent sure that one day you'll find your prince charming, Court. Before you know it, you'll be planning a wedding, yours. It might come even sooner than you think." The two friends laughed and continued chatting about Valerie's upcoming wedding, which would happen in a little bit more than a year. Their chat quickly ended as Courtney pager went off.
"Time for surgery."
☤☤☤
Courtney walked out of one of the operating rooms, laughing at something Callie had said, after finishing up Estelle's surgery. Everything had went swimmingly and the woman would continue living, without the pain. The two doctors had zero complications, so they had been able to catch up without having to panic. The two girls had talked about the arrival of Mark Sloan, which nobody could shut up about. A couple of hours into the surgery, the conversation had slowly died down, until one of the nurses spilt a secret. Apparently, Mark had gotten into another fight with Shepherd over a surgery that he wanted to do on Derek's patient, Jake.
"Bye, Calls, see you soon." Courtney said to her friend as they parted ways. Callie said something similar, before turning her back on the blonde and walking in the direction of another patient of hers. Courtney hummed a song as she made her way to the cafeteria, since it was lunch time. Suddenly, she heard a door slamming shut and clicking of heels coming near her. She whipped her head towards the noise and noticed the woman with the red hair. Courtney stopped walking and waited for Addison, who passed her, not acknowledging her. The woman seemed upset and Courtney debated if she should go after her to make sure that she was alright.
She decided not to, figuring that Addison would probably want some time to herself. Courtney made a note that she would check up on the redhead later and continued her walk to the cafeteria, missing Mark Sloan coming out of the same door Addison had just went through. After getting her salad from the cafeteria, she joined her friends outside. They were arguing about Izzie and George's case, the woman with the spontaneous orgasms. Courtney had taken a place next to her older sister and were currently whispering about their father. "So, he said that he didn't know?" Meredith nodded. She had had a talk with Richard Webber earlier about their father. "And you're sure that he doesn't know anything about why dad left?"
"That's what he said, Courtney." The two sisters sighed. Courtney was in deep thought, mindlessly eating her salad, while Meredith joined the conversation about the spontaneous orgasms.
"You know it's like you see someone throw up, makes you wanna throw up too. Kinda like that?" Courtney looked up from her salad to glance at Christina.
"Kinda like." Izzie replied as she glanced at Alex, who was grinning and laughing silently at her. Izzie tried to hold in her laugh, while Courtney rolled her eyes. She was glad that she wasn't a part of the conversation and had kept herself out of her. However, just because she didn't say anything, didn't mean that she didn't hear everything – including George's little confessions to Meredith, like that she looked nice and smelled good. "You know what? I'm not hungry. Do you hear me? I'm not hungry. Neither is the beast."
"The Beast? What the hell are you talking about, Izzie?" Courtney wondered as the blonde got up and left, leaving the others either confused or amused. Courtney had raised her eyebrow at Alex, figuring that it had something to do with him and their thing. Cristina thought the same thing and wondered if the Beast was some sly reference to Alex' penis.
"Get your mind out of the gutter, crack-whore." Alex shot back, which made the others laugh. George, who seemed to have all the answers, spilled some information about Izzie's Beast.
"No, it's not Alex's penis. It's, you know when you haven't had sex for a long time and you forget how good it is, so you want it less?" George chimed in, making both Cristina and Meredith look at him weirdly. Both of the girls said that didn't happen to them, making Courtney place down her fork.
"Well, this was an eventful lunch."
☤☤☤
Courtney was curled up in a little ball on her couch. She wiped the tears on her cheeks away with the sleeve of her maroon sweater. She let out another sob, in that moment being glad that neither Izzie or George were home. She did want her sister there with her, but she wasn't. Her sister was at Joe's bar – possibly drinking away her sadness. The two sisters needed each other right now, but neither of them had the courage to call the other. This was something they would had to go through on their own. They needed to come to term with this on their own.
Maybe less than an hour ago, the two Grey sisters had went to see their father, who they hadn't seen in more than twenty years. It had been an emotional and difficult moment for all parties involved. Courtney had ended up crying, while Meredith had done all the talking on their behalf. The eldest had driven them home, after leaving their father telling him that they didn't need anything from him. However, now their mother's affair was confirmed.
The eldest Grey sister had dropped the youngest off at home, before driving off the driveway to the all too familiar bar. Meredith had shed a few tears as well, but quickly regained control of her emotions again. As Courtney sat home, she realized how broken her family actually was. She had always known that, but never really believed it.
Until now.