It was bright and early in the morning and the hospital was already abuzz. Patients walked the halls; some holding IV poles, others being wheeled along by loved ones. Nurses and doctors were scattered, some like walking zombies coming off of a long, gruelling shift and then there were others, like Phoebe, whose day had just begun.
Phoebe had gotten to the hospital at dawn, up before the sun. Now, after a few hours, the sun filtered through the abundance of windows as Phoebe animatedly chatted to her friends. Huddled by the nurses station was Phoebe, April and Jackson. All were in between patients grabbing charts and trying to catch up.
"So... how's being the chief's assistant?" Phoebe teased as she wrote on a chart, sparing April a glance as a mischievous smile took over her face.
"Ha. Ha." April responded sarcastically. "I'm not his assistant. He just needed some help and I mean it's the least I can do for him. Dr Shepherd did get me my job back." She continued defensively.
Jackson snickered as he held back an eye roll.
"He needed some help huh? I bet you were more than happy to lend a helping hand?" Jackson said playfully as he rose a brow, a hinting smirk on his lips.
A disgusted frown covered April's face as she shook her head. She snapped closed her chart and said, "you disgust me. That's just so... crude! Disgusting!" April muttered as she walked away from the giggling pair.
Phoebe nudged Jackson after she regained her breath, "That was so uncalled for."
"What?" Jackson spluttered out. "You were just laughing about it. I thought I was going to have to get you an oxygen mask." He exaggerated.
"I never said it wasn't funny. Just kind of uncalled for... maybe you have been spending too much time with me. You've come to the dark side." Phoebe dramatically exclaimed, still half focusing on her work.
This time Jackson did not hold back his eye roll, and shook his head at Phoebe's dramatics. He had been spending a lot of time with her but they lived together and worked together. It was practically impossible for them not to be together, not that he was complaining. His only complaint was that recently she had been spending an awful lot of her evenings off at a certain nurse's apartment. When he wasn't with Phoebe, he was probably with Charles and she seemed to always come up in conversation anyway so really she was inescapable. She was a permanent, certain element of his life, and he wouldn't have it any other way.
Jackson's thoughts were interrupted by the grey haired attending. Mark leant against the desk on Phoebe's other side, his steely blue eyes trained on the resident.
"So you go on dates with nurses but not me?" He jibbed playfully.
Phoebe looked up at the new voice, rolling her eyes at Mark's comment. This caught Jackson's attention, he kept his ears peaked while he focused his eyes on his chart, appearing as uninterested as he could.
"I don't go on dates with nurses. I went on a date with a nurse. Singular. You know monogamy, ever heard of it? Phoebe teased. "Plus it was like half a date." She explained gesturing to Jackson at the end.
Mark spared Jackson a glance before focusing back on Phoebe.
"What so you like this one now?" Mark asked, not understanding.
Jackson choked on his breath, giving way to his disinterested facade.
"What?" Phoebe laughed. "His grandad got sick. God Mark. Why are you so invested in my love life?" Phoebe exasperatedly asked as she closed her chart and filed it away.Mark simply huffed out a laugh in response, before flashing a smirk.
"Oh wait no, I see. You want to focus on my love life so you don't have to think about yours." Phoebe responded with a sickly sweet smile plastered on her face.
Mark's smirk dropped off his face. He pointed at Phoebe as she turned to walk away, "I don't like you anymore. You're mean."
A playful laugh was her only response as she mouthed a goodbye to Jackson before making her way to her patient's room.
She left Jackson with a small smirk across his full lips, he spared Mark a glance and caught his eye.
"What are you looking at?" Mark blandly questioned.
Phoebe checked in on a couple of her patients, making sure they were doing well post-op. She was on her way to meet with Webber and Lexie, as she was working with him today. As she was on route she was kidnapped by a feisty brunette.
"Can I help you Callie?" Phoebe laughed out, taken by surprise by Callie's abrupt appearance.
"You're doing my pre and post ops today. Maybe even Mark's too. I've got a trauma coming in so you have to take over mine." Callie instructed a spluttering Phoebe.
"What? No, I'm with Webber today." Phoebe informed.
"Have you told Ethan about your feelings yet?" Callie asked, confusing Phoebe even more.
"Well no.." she tried to respond before she was interrupted.
"Then you're on scut." Callie simply replied.
"You can't-"
"If you keep running from your feelings then I definitely can."
"Oh really? What's up with you and Arizona? Pregnant yet?" Phoebe asked with a knowing look, well aware that she wasn't the only one avoiding her uncomfortable emotions.
"Low blow March. Low blow." Callie replied as she walked away.
"Callie!" Phoebe called out to her retreating figure but went ignored.
It had been hours of taking blood and running back and forth to the lab, checking vitals and her hand was starting to ache from the paperwork she had to fill. She'd heard of the surgery that Webber performed, jealous of April who took her place, feeling the familiar itch that came when she hadn't done a surgery in a while. She had also heard of the trauma that came in, the police officer with multiple gunshot wounds. Needless to say, Phoebe was not impressed with how she spent her day and was planning on giving Callie an earful.
"Stupid Callie, with her hypocrisy. 'Have you spoken to Ethan?' Why don't you speak to him if you're so in love with him." Phoebe muttered as she scribbled in a chart.
"What was that?" She heard a deep voice ask from behind her, making her jump.
"Ethan." Phoebe greeted. "Hi." She added, her voice rising in pitch. She cringed at her own awkwardness but smiled through the pain.
"Hi." Ethan replied matching her pitch teasingly.
"Haven't seen you in a few days, want to grab a drink at Joe's after work?" Ethan asked as a stepped closer to her, lowering his voice to not gain the attention of the nearby nosey nurse.
"Yeah sorry, I've just been really busy with umm patients, you know." Phoebe replied.
"Right. Yeah, I have a few of those of my own." Ethan laughed. He looked at the girl uncomfortably fiddling with a pen as she tried to look anywhere but him. He let out a sigh as he gently took ahold of her hand and took her into a close by supply closet. A confused Phoebe followed after him with a baffled look upon her face.
Ethan turned to her and gave her a charming smile, from their close quarters Phoebe could smell the spearmint gum he had been chewing. It made her smile, remembering when they started getting to know each other and Ethan had tuna for lunch and she threw a pack of gum at him.
"How have you been?" Ethan asked her sweetly, leaning against one of the shelves.
Phoebe laughed. "I'm good, exhausted but what resident isn't. What about you?" Phoebe replied, matching his stance by leaning against the opposing shelves.
"Good. Kinda thirsty, I asked this girl to go for a drink but she completely ignored it." He teased.
"Oh right! Joe's. I'll see you there." She smiled, it only widening when he took a step closer to her, grasping her hands and pulling her into him. He grinned down at her before ducking to meet her lips. She pulled her hands away from his so she could wrap her arms around his neck as he grabbed ahold of her waist, drawing her in closer. Not too long after they pulled their lips away, not wanting to be caught in a somewhat precarious position, given it could be worse.
"I-um. Can we talk later?" Phoebe asked, fumbling over her words slightly, her brain foggy after kissing him.
"Sure. Is everything okay?" Ethan asked, masking his worry well.
"Yeah. No. It's fine, not a big deal at all. " Phoebe attempted to reassure but when she noticed the unease in Ethan's eyes, her own softened.
"I promise." She added, effectively squashing his worries.
"Okay." He smiled. "I've got to get back out there." He added, giving her one last kiss before he left the storage closet. Phoebe followed after him, leaving a suitable amount of time in between.
At the end of Phoebe's exceptionally long shift, which felt like it lasted for days with the scut work being dumped on her, she made her way through the lobby where she saw Lexie. She ran ahead to catch up with her friend when she noticed her slouched shoulders and frown.
"What's wrong Lex?" Phoebe worriedly asked as she looped her arm through Lexie's. The disheartened girl placed her blonde head on Phoebe's shoulder as she let out a sad sigh.
"I've had the worst day."
A/N- sorry for the lack of updates. My phone got stolen so I was without it for a week and just kind of got used to not writing. This is also the first chapter with Gary Clarke, I didn't really want Phoebe to replace another character so I just left hints of it, I don't know. Let me know what you think x