Chapter 4
Season 1, Episode 9
Finally. Freaking finally. Those are the only words I can think as I walk through the front doors of Seattle Grace hospital not as a patient, but as a mother freaking doctor. I'm a little disoriented as I don't know where the intern locker rooms are but I make my way to the chief's office, he told me he would sort me out on my first day.
When I get there, I knock on the door and hear him on the door side telling me to come in. I walk in to see him at his desk and he pulls his glasses off.
"Ah, Dr. Karev." I walk over to his desk and smile. "Hopefully we'll be able to catch you up to speed today. Remember to take it easy. I don't mean to sell yourself short, but if you need to sit down, don't hesitate."
"I'm fine, Sir. Really." I say confidently. I don't want to be seen as weak on my first day; I want to be thrown in headfirst. He takes a second and looks at me and makes a little noise as if to say we'll see about that.
"Okay then. You've been assigned to our resident Dr. Miranda Bailey, she'll tell you where you need to be. The locker room is on the second floor at the top of the staircase." He says before putting his glasses back on and I take it as a sign to leave.
"Thank you, sir." I leave the room, closing the door behind me and making my way to the lobby before walking up a main flight of stairs and finding the locker room.
When I walk into the locker room, it seems to be empty so I find a locker with nothing in it and claim it as my own. I take my bag off my shoulder and put it inside before grabbing a fresh pair of scrubs and taking my lab coat out of my bag, they sent it to me earlier that week and it has my name sewn onto it. I'm about to take off my shirt to change when I hear someone sniff on the other side of the locker room. I turn and walk around the lockers to see my brother standing in front of the mirror clipping his nose hairs. Disgusting.
"Oh hey, you're here." He says without looking away from the mirror. I roll my eyes and go back behind the lockers where he can't see me.
"Unfortunately, so are you," I mutter while changing.
"I heard that."
"I wanted you to." That jackass.
I finish changing and decide that until I'm put on a case I'll keep the lab coat off. I have enough layers as it is with my white long sleeve underneath the scrubs. I tie my hair up into a ponytail before making my way out of the room. As I open the door, George bursts in and we almost collide.
"We gotta stop meeting like this." I smile but when he returns the gesture he seems a little distracted. I brush it off, we all have bad days.
"I didn't realize it was your first day." He says as I switch places with him standing in the room and me standing in the hallway.
"Yeah, well, it is," I say a little awkwardly. "Oh, by the way, I have the Nazi so I'll be seeing you around." He gives me a genuine smile at that before we part ways and he goes into the locker room. I decided to try and find the famous Nazi. Hopefully, I can make a good impression, maybe if I don't call her the Nazi it'll help.
After about ten minutes of wandering aimlessly throughout the hospital with no luck in finding her, I run into a girl I recognize vaguely.
"Hi, we haven't met before, I'm-" Before I can finish introducing myself she cuts me off.
"Alex's sister right?" She says it with a smile but my teeth grid at the mention of my brother. This is why I didn't want to join this program after my brother, now I'm just going to be known as Alex's sister. I'm not going to be my own person.
"Audrey Karev," I say and hold out my hand which she takes gently.
"Meredith Grey." My eyes widen slightly but I try to hide it.
"You were the one I watched in the OR when I was a patient here! You held a freaking heart in your hand! It was amazing." I watch as she smiles at my reaction. My goal is not to make enemies here. I probably will make some, as it comes with the job, but why put people against you when you could have them on your side?
"Thanks. Yeah, it was a big moment for me." Before we can continue talking, a short but powerful looking woman walks up to us with a sour look on her face.
"Grey, when I tell you to prep a patient I sure as hell don't mean to stand in the hall and chit-chat," Meredith mutters an apology before running away. Bailey then turns to me. "Karev, right?" I nod quickly, scared to say a word. "Hard enough with one, now I gotta deal with two." I'm not exactly sure what to say to her so I keep my mouth shut. "Look, I know your circumstances and know you're a little behind, so I'm going to be gracious and let you observe a resection happening in thirty minutes. Meanwhile you can help Grey prep the patient."
"Okay, thank you," I say quickly, staring at her.
"Well, don't just stand there, go." She says and I run off down the same corridor Meredith went. Now I know why they call her the Nazi.
∞∞∞∞∞∞
In surgery, I stood behind Dr. Bailey and observed as she and Dr. Webber worked on their patient. Meredith stood beside Webber holding the retractor. I didn't expect to be on a surgery my first day so I was ecstatic to at least be in the OR. A steady beeping was all that could be heard for a while as the procedure seemed to be going smoothly.
"There's too much damage." Webber states. "We'll have to remove most of the colon instead of a local resection." He starts to attempt to hold off something with a suture but can't seem to get the suture to go around it. I can tell he's starting to get frustrated. "You gotta push it up." He says to Bailey and she tries to accommodate. He still can't seem to get it to work. He clears his throat. "More suture, and what's with these damn lights in here?"
Meredith, like everyone else in the room, could notice his frustration. She moves the light in hope of helping him. He continues and luckily is able to proceed with the operation. A little while later he asks for another retractor.
"This just isn't holding," Bailey says calmly as she tries to help him and he nods before holding his hand out.
"Give me a bigger retractor, please." She starts to hand him the large metal retractor but once he grabs hold of it, he can't seem to keep it up and it falls to the ground with a loud thud.
"Sorry, Doctor." She apologizes but he interjects politely.
"It wasn't you." He says and I can't help but feel helpless as I stand to the side doing nothing. Dr. Webber is an amazing surgeon but with what's happening I can't help but feel like he shouldn't be in the OR right now. He clears his throat again before speaking to Bailey.
"Dr. Bailey, you can finish this." He steps back from the table letting others hold onto his tools. She looks a little startled as he walks away.
"Uh, thank you, Chief. I appreciate the opportunity." He takes off his mask and scrub cap as he leaves the room. "Okay, Grey you can assist. Karev, come and take her retractor." I conceal my excitement well as I walk over to Grey's spot and take the retractor from her as she steps to the other side of the patient.
I know it's not the best time and it's super selfish, but at least I have a better view of the patient now.
∞∞∞∞∞∞
After surgery, I ended up finding Izzie and joining her for lunch where we met Cristina. Luckily she is not hanging the fact that I was her patient a week ago over my head and is actually treating me like a fellow doctor.
We sit at one of the outdoor tables talking when all of a sudden Alex and George come up to our table. The last thing I want is to sit with my brother during lunch but I don't want to leave and blow my chance at having friends, so I stay put and keep my mouth shut.
"Hey, syph boy," Cristina says toward George and it takes everything in me to keep from laughing. Izzie told me that George got syphilis from a nurse he had sex with last night. I honestly just feel bad for the poor guy.
"You told her?" George says to Izzie, sounding kind of hurt.
"Just Cristina and Audrey." She says as George looks to me and I can't help but try and give him a reassuring smile. Honestly, he shouldn't be ashamed, it means he's getting some, which is more than I can say.
"Syph boy, it's gotta nice ring to it. Kind of like superboy, only diseased." Alex says as he pulls out his sandwich and starts to eat. I roll my eyes and look at George.
"Ignore him. He's probably had syphilis and worse before." I say as George sits down beside me, I can tell it doesn't offer him much comfort.
"Look, Izzie didn't have to say a word. Around here, the only thing that spreads faster than disease is gossip." Cristina says, definitely not to offer him comfort but she has a point. I haven't even been here one day and I already know too much about too many people.
"That's not true. Just cause Izzie can't keep her mouth shut doesn't mean everyone knows." He says as Meredith comes up to the table and sits in between George and I.
"Hey, George. How are you feeling? Sorry about the syphilis." She says genuinely concerned and he turns to Izzie angrily.
"Everybody in this hospital knows?" He says absolutely mortified and Izzie has to keep from laughing.
"Knows you're a player." Alex finishes for him shaking his head.
"You're disturbed," George says to him and I laugh.
"True," I say and Alex looks at me with a frown.
"Look, everybody's got a secret, just be glad yours is out in the open," Alex says to George as I start to dig into my salad. I regret not getting a sandwich with actual meat in it. I need more than just a hard-boiled egg for protein.
"Oh, yeah, Alex? What's yours?" Cristina asks curiously and he turns to her.
"You show me yours, and I'll show you mine." He says and I can't help but gag slightly.
"Gross," I mutter under my breath which Meredith hears and smiles. I notice a male doctor walk by and Cristina takes just a second too long looking at him that it piques my interest. I'm not going to ask her about it, but I'm a very observant person.
"I bet you've got some seriously kinky skeletons in your closet," Alex smirks and she turns away.
"What's in my closet is none of your business." We're quiet for a moment before Izzie speaks up.
"Well, I don't have any secrets. My life is boring." She takes a sip from her water as Meredith speaks.
"Everybody's got something to hide." She says it a little too seriously that we all stop for a moment and look at her. She's the one with the twisted skeletons in her closet, I can tell. It's awkward for a minute but I can't stand to be in the middle of it so I stand and say that I'm going to go check on some post-ops, Izzie gladly joins me to escape the awkwardness.
∞∞∞∞∞∞
After the two of us finished out post-ops and filling out some charts we decided that until Bailey gave us a job we were going to go find the others. Hopefully, others didn't include my brother, I don't understand why these people were friends with him. They probably aren't, he does have a way of getting in your face and being impossible to get rid of.
We make our way down the hall and as we do we see Alex walking out of an exam room looking like he just won the lottery. He walks down the hallway the other way and the two of us walk into the room, pull back the curtain to see George bent over a table with his pants dropped and Meredith behind him holding a syringe. A very peculiar sight but I quickly realize they are trying to help with his syphilis.
"Hey!" George yells at us, obviously mortified and trying to get us to leave as he tried to close the curtain again.
"What are we doing here?" Izzie smiles as she walks around the table to get behind him. I follow her laughing.
"Breaking George's spirit," George says closing the curtains again. We both get behind him to see Meredith getting the syringe ready.
"Curing George's syph," Meredith says as she gets ready to inject him.
"Cute butt, George." I laugh as he rolls his eyes, clearly uncomfortable. Then, without hesitating, Meredith sticks in the needle and he winces in pain.
"I don't like needles." He mumbles and I laugh yet again as Izzie jumps to sit on the counter.
"Good thing you become a doctor." He scoffs at my comment as Meredith gets another syringe for the other side. All of a sudden we can hear Cristina from the other side of the curtain calling Izzie's name.
"Mr. Franklin's procedure's been scheduled for after-" As she talks she opens the curtain and George attempts to stop her. She looks down at him amused.
"Ooh, what are we doing?" She says walking around to get behind him just like the three of us. I move to make way for her.
"We are saving George from a future of festering sores and insanity," Izzie says from her perch on the counter as Cristina looks at his behind.
"Oh, cute butt." I laugh at her comment.
"That's what I said." She looks at me and laughs.
"It is cute, like a baby's," Izzie says as the other syringe goes in and he winces again. He turns and pulls up his pants sharply now that we're done and turns to us embarrassed.
"You know, I have spent hours, days, years, imagining myself half-naked in a room with multiple women. The reality is so much better." He says before storming off and leaving us to laugh.
"I think he's gonna cry," Cristina says which only makes us laugh harder. If you asked me to explain what I thought my first day at Seattle Grace would be like, it would not have been this.
∞∞∞∞∞∞
"Three interns, four residents, and six nurses on this surgical floor have been diagnosed with syphilis." Chief Webber states as a group of about thirty nurses, interns, and residents stand in a conference room. Apparently, this problem is bigger than just George.
I'm surprised at the number of people at this hospital who are sleeping together. I would feel weird sleeping with someone at work, then I'd have to see them every day. Then again, who knows what might happen.
"There are over 70,000 new cases every year." A woman sitting beside Webber states. "Undiagnosed, syphilis can lead to blindness, insanity, and death." She explains and I can't help but raise my eyebrows. That seems a bit far fetched. Who knew sex could kill?
"If you are having unprotected sex with another member of staff, get tested. This is not a request." Webber says plainly and I can't help but look at George who looks like he's going to crap his pants. Poor guy.
I'm standing beside Cristina and Meredith and look over as I see Cristina look down to avoid being caught laughing. I smile at her and nudge her with my arm to get her to stop before Webber sees. I look back at the front and watch as Webber looks up and sighs in annoyance.
"Patricia will now give you a safe-sex demonstration." He says which makes many people in the crowd start to laugh. I lean over to Cristina.
"We're doctors, you'd think we'd know this by now," I say which she laughs at and Meredith leans over as well.
"Yeah, you'd think." She makes eyes at George as we stand up straight to watch Patricia put a condom on a banana. I don't really pay attention but I notice Shepherd walking over to Webber who now stands at the side of the room. They stand beside each other without looking at each other, but I can see that they are talking. I wonder what they're talking about, he looks serious.
"Poor George." I hear Meredith say from the other side of Cristina.
"Yeah, you know, I think he really likes Typhoid Mary." Cristina jokes and I turn to her.
"The nurse?" I ask confused but she nods.
"Well, not many budding relationships survive a good dose of V. D," Meredith responds and we agree just as Patricia finishes her demonstration. When we leave I go to find another assignment.
Later that day, as I'm walking through the hall and pass the nurses station I see Dr. Shepherd and Meredith walking side by side. When they get to me Shepherd looks at me.
"Hey, can I borrow you?" I nod and he gestures for me to walk down the hall with them. "How good are you at keeping secrets?" He asks and I laugh.
"Really good, why?" Nodding he walks a little faster before walking into an OR and holding the door open for us to walk through. When I look at the table I see Chief Webber lying on it, prepped for surgery. Now it makes sense why they were talking so seriously.
"That's why." He says before walking past me and up to Webbers beside. Meredith walks up beside me before filling me in on the procedure. Dr. Webber has a tumor behind his eye which is the reason he couldn't operate properly this morning, it's pushing on the back of his eye and making it hard for him to see.
"How are we doing?" Shepherd asks Webber who is still awake on the table.
"Did you lock up the gallery?" He obviously wants to keep his surgery secret. If anyone heard that he was going rough surgery there would most likely be a fight for the position of chief.
"Don't worry. We're flying under the radar." Shepherd assures him but Webber is still stressed.
"What did you put out there? The Midas Rex?" He asks but Dr. Bailey who I didn't realize was in the room speaks up.
"We've got it, Chief." She says calmly as he continues.
"How much vancomycin is there?" He asks I can't tell he's going to be a back seat surgeon until we put him out.
"One gram, as ordered, sir," Bailey assures him once again.
"You're not going to be too liberal with those benzos?" He questions Shepherd again and I see Shepherd smiling under his mask.
"You know, doctors make the worst patients." He responds. "You should just breathe in the happy gas. Stop running my OR." He says and puts the oxygen mask over Webber's mouth which has the gas in it. He leans over and whispers something I couldn't hear in his ear.
Luckily the surgery went really well and it was awesome for me to be able to observe brain surgery for the first time. I enjoyed it.
"Nice work, everybody. Nicely done." Shepherd says as he steps back and takes off his equipment before leaving the OR. Meredith and I start to help clean up when Bailey walks up to us.
"Do you think the optic nerve is damaged?" Meredith asks.
"If it is, when he wakes up he'll-" She starts to answer but Meredith cuts her off.
"He'll be blind? For how long?" She sighs before answering.
"Forever." She waits a moment before continuing and looking at me. "Karev, page Stevens and Yang. Tell them I want them covering you and Grey's patients. I need you to stay and monitor the Chief." I nod and start to walk away but Meredith speaks up.
"Wait, uh...Cristina and Izzie, I think they're already swamped." I'm confused and look at Bailey who looks just as confused as me.
"With what?" She asks and Meredith hesitates before coming up with the worst excuse.
"Labs...they had to check on some labs." I watch as Bailey takes off her mask and looks at Meredith amused.
"Oh, you are lying. I know you're lying. Do you know how I know? Cause you're a bad liar. I hate a bad liar." She almost laughs in disbelief before all of a sudden she goes still with realization. "Take over for me." She says to a nurse. "I know exactly where they are." She passes by me and I'm not sure what to do. "Karev, don't bother paging them, I'm on my way." She says before opening the door harshly and storming out.
I turn to Meredith very confused. She looks suspiciously guilty.
"Did I miss something? What are they doing?" I ask and look at her. She sighs and admits defeat before answering.
"They're doing an unauthorized autopsy." She admits and my jaw drops open.
"What?!" I almost scream but look over at the scrub nurse apologetically before turning back to Meredith. "They could lose their license! They could be kicked out of the program!" I whisper-yell at her and she nods.
"I know. I know. I tried to talk them out of it but you know Izzie." I shake my head in disbelief. How could they be so stupid?
∞∞∞∞∞∞
At the end of our shift, most interns were in the locker room changing. I had already changed back into my jeans and hoodie and was just brushing through my hair when the nurse George slept with came in to talk to him. He told me that he told her that he got syphilis and that it didn't go very well. Honestly, I'd be more surprised if that conversation did go well.
I wasn't really listening but I was standing right beside them so when she started admitting that right before she met George she had slept with someone else, I couldn't help but overhear.
"I didn't know how much I'd like you and when I realized, I broke it off with the other guy." She explains sounding nervous.
"Other guy? Who's the other guy?" He asks and it's silent so I turn slightly to see what was going on to see her looking at...my brother. George also sees who she's looking at.
"You and Alex?" He asks almost as if he thought she was joking but when she looks serious he asks again. "You and Alex?!" He yells this time angered before jumping up and running at him, tackling him to the ground. "You gave me syphilis!!!" He screams in Alex's face.
I yell out in surprise before Cristina and I run over to pull George off. Not fast enough as he's able to swing in one good punch to the face before we get him off. Cristina and Meredith hold George but I know my brother, he won't hesitate to beat the crap out of George so I run between them and put my hands on Alex's chest to hold him back. His nose is bleeding and his eyes are wide with rage.
"Alex! Alex, don't," I say pushing back on him while I hear the others calm down George.
What a crazy first day.