we like to think that we are rational beings; humane, conscientious, civilized, thoughtful. but when things fall apart, even just a little, it becomes clear we're no better than animals. we have opposable thumbs, we think, we walk erect, we speak, we dream, but deep down we're all still rooting around in the primordial ooze; biting, clawing, scratching out an existence in the cold, dark world like the rest of the tree-toads and sloths.
•
anastasia had been living at the hospital for the past two weeks because of a resident contest. spending every waking moment working and the high was starting to ware off and she wasn't sure how much longer she would last.
she was stood talking to Mark about a patient that she had some inquiries about while he filled out some charts while sipping some coffee she had brought her attending when she saw derek and rose walking towards them.
"i'll talk to you later." derek said lowly to rose as she walked on ahead when he stopped beside his friend and sister. "bye."
"good morning." he greeted mark and ana and then thanked one of the nurses when she handed him his charts.
"what do you see in her?" mark questioned his friend, taking his eyes of the chart for a moment. "is it the hot sex? is she an animal? is she a bobcat?"
"mark." derek warned and ana grimaced.
"come on. lady on the streets, tramp in the sheets. am i right?"
"talking about my brother's sex life was definitely not how i wanted to start of my morning." ana sighed in disgust.
derek laughed at the uncomfortableness of his youngest sister. "oh, yeah. she's amazing. hot, sweaty, very dirty, hot, sweaty sex."
"you haven't slept with her yet, have you?" mark asked and the smile fell from derek's face.
"she's waiting until we're serious. she has morals. she's a lady." derek told him. "besides, you know what's better than sex?"
"what?" mark questioned.
"anticipation. anticipation, my friend." and with that he left the two alone.
☤☤☤
anastasia stood in the ambulance bay with the other four residents, waiting for the incoming trauma, she pulled on her gloves.
"who's winning?" she asked alex, referring to the contest as he counted up the points.
"yang." he responded.
"surprised?" cristina replied smugly.
"what? let me see." izzie demanded as she pulled alex closer so she could see the notepad he was holding then she let out a gasp. "i'm twenty-six points behind? that's not possible. count again. what about all the surgeries?"
"only three points for watching, you gotta do." cristina told her.
"i do do. i can't make them let me do procedures."
"you gotta ask." ana told her.
"you gotta take charge of your own destiny, make it happen, like this." cristina spoke as she ran up to the ambulance. "what do you got?"
"otis sharon, sixty-one year old male, found unconscious on the street corner with a swollen ankle." the paramedic reported.
cristina let out a scoff then walked away. "not it."
"i don't even know what happened." mr. sharon told the doctors.
"initial b.p. was ninety over palp. vitals stable after a bolus of n.s." the paramedic told them.
"okay, he's mine." izzie shouted out as she went up to the gurney. "all of you back off!"
"it's a swollen ankle, iz." ana stated.
"yeah, he passed out, he's pale, altered, hypotensive and he's got a rash. you see a sprained ankle, i see a medical mystery. eighty points."
izzie walked inside with her patient and just as she did bailey walked out to the ambulance bay.
"oh, stevens is the only one working today?" she asked.
"uh, no. we're all working. we got paged." cristina told her.
"for the ankle. it's gone. now you're trolling for traumas?"
"somebody could come in any minute with a critical injury. we're being proactive."
"we're helping people." alex chimed in.
"you're trolling." bailey snapped at the residents. "you're trolling and i've got no one on post-op and pre-op. now move."
just as they all started to walk back inside the sound of tires squealing and people shouting filled their ears.
"help us! please help!" a female voice called from the car and all the doctors immediately rushed to help.
"help my brother!" now a male voice shouted.
"i'm gonna get a gurney." meredith spoke.
anastasia ran over to the driver and opened the door and began checking him over.
"help my brother." the driver pleaded.
"can i get some help out here?!" meredith shouted inside.
"we got him." bailey told the woman in the back as she, alex and cristina helped the man out of the car, carefully.
"what happened to your hand?" ana asked the driver, seeing a visible large wound with blood coming from it.
"uh, a bear." he responded and ana's eyebrows shot up.
"a what?"
"he's really hurt. we tried to stop the bleeding." the woman told the doctors in the back; referring to the brother.
"we were camping in the mountains." she told them.
"you drove all the way here?" alex asked.
"we couldn't wait for an ambulance." the man who was driving spoke and removed his hand from ana's grasp. "i'm fine."
"no, you're not. let me see your hand." she told him and examined his hand again.
"sir, let's try and get you on this gurney." cristina spoke and helped the man in the back out of the car as he groaned in pain. "step down right here."
"oh! whoa!" she exclaimed as the man fell to the ground and his intestines spilled from his abdomen, grabbing them quickly. "whoa! whoa! whoa! i-intestines in the hands. intestines in the hands."
"did you just say-"
cristina quickly cut bailey off. "intestines in the hands!"
☤☤☤
"is my brother gonna be okay?" the driver; now known as phillip asked ana. "please. this whole thing's my fault. i gotta know if he's okay."
"they're taking him to surgery. they don't know much yet." ana told him truthfully as she stitched up his head laceration. "we'll keep you informed."
"okay, okay."
"impressive hand, phillip." callie spoke as she examined the man's hand. "i can see right through it."
the woman who was in the car who was also now know as jennifer, spoke up. "the bear cub, she just latched on and wouldn't let go. and then- and then when scott came over to try to help, the mother, she... oh, god. i can't believe we got out of there alive."
"he has to be all right. he's gonna be all right. he has to be, right? right?" phillip questioned. "he has to be all right."
☤☤☤
"there. done." phillip said, handing ana his completed paperwork and pen. "beat you, busted hand and all." he told his wife.
ana took a quick look at the papers and laughed lightly. "it's completely illegible."
"he's a slob." jennifer joked.
"still beat her."
"okay, mr. robinson, dr. grey and dr. o'malley are going to come and take you to x-ray and i am gonna take your wife to the waiting room. until you get back." ana explained with a smile.
"she said 'wife' i'm still not used to that." jennifer spoke. "we're newlyweds."
"congratulations." ana smiled.
"she's my rebound girl." phillip told ana and she had to stop herself from widening her eyes.
"um, he's a little hopped up on painkillers right now." jennifer told the girl, slightly embarrassed and ana nodded.
"i think you're oversharing, honey." she told her husband.
"she thought she was my rebound girl, but i rebounded her, all the way to the church." he corrected himself. "only knew her ten days, but when you know, you know. you know?"
"i'm leaving you." jennifer laughed softly and gave her husband a small kiss on the lips.
"i'll miss you while you're gone." he told her.
the two girls exited the room together, ana shutting the door behind her and jennifer leaned against the wall and began sobbing.
"are you okay?"
"it's just, you know, you marry a man like that... or a man like that marries you, and he's cute and he's rich... he's a catch by anyone's standard. so you sort of sit around waiting for the other shoe to drop, because there's no way a man like that marries you. or me. i mean, he married me." she rambled on as she continued to cry.
ana sat down the paperwork as she noticed blood trickling down the woman's forehead and she picked up on ana staring at her.
"i'm sorry. i must look like a crazy woman." she apologised quickly, not wanting to make a fool of herself in front of a doctor.
"it's okay, but it looks like you're bleeding a little." ana responded as she walked closer to her, pointing to her head. "do you mind if i just take a look?"
"no, no. i'm- i'm fine." she tried to reassure her. "i just scratched myself on a branch when we were running."
she took her hat off and anastasia's eyes went wide at the sight of the woman's scalp basically hanging off.
"why are you looking at me like that?"
☤☤☤
"c.t's clear." derek spoke as he looked at jennifer's scans.
"but it's deep. that bear clawed you good." mark told her as he examined her wound.
"god, i didn't even feel it." she admitted.
"adrenaline's a pretty powerful drug." ana told her.
"you're gonna have to repair the galea, but it should reattach without a problem." mark instructed Ana.
"okay, squeeze my fingers as hard as you can, please." derek asked jennifer and she did as she was told. "good."
"i just got happy. i just got married and i'm really, really happy." she told the doctors in the room. "i don't have permanent brain damage, do i?"
"no, it appears that you do not." derek reassured her.
"okay, good."
"all right. page me if any neuro deficits appear." derek told meredith as he handed her a pen; as he was about to leave the room the two shared a look and you could cut the tension in the room with a knife.
"you got lucky." mark told her. "your scalp wasn't completely taken off, so we can just sew it back on. your hair should cover the scar. you won't even need surgery."
"wow. that's great. thank you." she thanked him.
"dr. shepherd here will take care of you. you can go back to being a happy newlywed." mark told her as he stood up and she nodded.
he stood behind meredith and whispered into her ear before leaving. "don't worry. he and rose won't last."
☤☤☤
ana had went to the bathroom to freshen up as she began feeling a little tired during her shift. she splashed cold water from the sink around her face to waken herself up more. she quickly reached for the paper towels and began patting her face dry.
she looked in the mirror in-front of her and started fixing her hair when she looked at her neck and gasped, quickly reaching her hand to her hand. she noticed she wasn't wearing her necklace anymore. she hadn't usually worn it when she was working but this morning she was in such a rush she didn't take it off and was now paying the price for it.
lexie had walked out of one of the toilet stalls and began washing her hands, smiling at the resident.
"hey, lex, you haven't seen a necklace laying about anywhere, have you?" she questioned.
"uh, no, i don't think so, why?"
ana mentally cursed and let out a sigh. "i lost mine. let me know if you see it yeah? it means a lot to me. it's a dainty silver chain with a small diamond pendant on it."
lexie agreed and ana thanked her and the two left the bathroom.
☤☤☤
four out of the five residents stood outside of a conference room, waiting on bailey to announce the winner of the stupid contest.
"what are you doing here?" alex asked cristina as she finally joined them. "you spent the last three hours watching a surgery. that's three points."
"i'm trusting you guys screwed up enough that it won't matter." she admitted.
"i could still win." izzie said and ana rolled her eyes.
"what? with your broken ankle?"
izzie brushed ana's comment off and continued. "i could. i did get a lot of points today."
"what's the matter with you?" alex turned and asked meredith who was being awfully quiet. "where's the trash talk, charles barkley?"
"she knows i'm the best." cristina bragged.
miranda came out of the conference room, holding little tuck in her arms and all the residents quickly crowded around her.
"who won?" izzie eagerly asked.
"congratulations..." miranda dragged off as she counted up the points.
"who won?!" izzie semi-yelled.
"dr. grey." the woman announced and everyone let out a huff. "the guy from the bear attack had a brain tumor and grey caught it. eighty points for solving a medical mystery. that's what put her over the top."
"i could've found a tumor." cristina said.
"but you didn't. you chose to scrub in with hahn and watch for three little points." bailey scolded her. "now congratulate dr. grey."
"congratulations." the residents muttered.
"hey, don't you want your prize?" miranda asked, stopping meredith from walking away.
miranda pulled out a pager from her pocket that was covered in rhinestones and held it up.
"ooh. a shiny pager." izzie said in awe.
"a sparkle pager." miranda corrected.
"what's so great about a glitter pager?" anastasia asked.
"a sparkle pager." miranda corrected again. "it is special. it is surgery's holy grail. it's been passed down from resident to resident and now it belongs to dr. grey. for the next three months, whenever you all get a surgery, you have to pave this pager and if grey wants your surgery, she has the right to take it from you."
"come on!" cristina groaned.
"that's not fair." ana huffed.
"crap." alex muttered and all izzie could do was gasp.
"enjoy the power, dr. grey." miranda said as she handed meredith the pager. "now may i recommend you all go home? you smell, you greasy, you need to bathe and i'm sick of looking at you."
"even my one year old here is sick of looking at you." she began talking in a baby voice. "isn't that right, bug? sick of looking at your little, ugly faces."
after miranda left, meredith finally spoke up. "somehow i thought i would enjoy this more."
"oh, well, give it to me. i'll enjoy it." izzie said with enthusiasm.
"don't give it to her. give it to me." alex said and izzie gasped again, smacking his shoulder.
"oh, shut up. it's hers. she's the winner. she's not gonna give it to you." cristina said as she walked closer to mer. "give it to me." she said in a lowered voice.
meredith walked away and ana couldn't help herself from laughing at how childish the pager had made them.
☤☤☤
anastasia was now in the locker rooms, she had changed into her regular clothes and there was still no sign of her necklace anywhere. with a sigh she got down on her hands and knees and began searching the locker room floor for it. after a few minutes she was starting to give up until the sound of a familiar voice made her jump.
"looking for this?" she looked up and saw mark standing against one of the lockers with the necklace hanging from two of his fingers.
"you scared the crap out of me." she sighed and stood up again and walked over to him. "where'd you find it?"
"outside one of the patient's rooms. picked it up and thought i recognised it."
mark pulled the girl closer to him and brushed her hair out of the way, unclasping the necklace he put it around her neck and fastened it. "i can't believe you still have that, never-mind wear it."
"i only take it off for surgeries but besides that i haven't took it off since the day you gave me it." she smiled and thought about when he gave her it.
she had just turned twenty-one years old and her boyfriend of four years at the time invited her out to dinner, only to end up breaking up with her at that said dinner. so she had called derek up in tears, asking him to come pick her up from the restaurant, although mark had been with derek when he received the call from anastasia and offered to go pick her up.
he had picked up her favourite candy along the way, and the two just sat in the car together for hours while ana laughed and cried; all while they both ate kit-kats together.
"we didn't even make it to the main course." ana said through tears but was laughing about it, which had made mark laugh at how she was handling the situation.
then he had pulled out a little box with a bow on it and handed it to her with a smile. "happy birthday, anastasia."
"i might just have to buy you an upgrade." mark said, drawing ana out of her own thoughts.
"no! i love this one."
and then without thought mark pulled the girl in for a hug, holding her tightly.