season 5 episode 9
Lexie and Holly laughed as the other residents poked Steve after the epidural kicked in.
"Can you feel that?" Ryan asked as he flicked Steve's foot, "Can you feel that?"
"There's no need for you to be doing that." Steve shook his head at Pierce, who was flipping his ear, "I can feel that."
"Okay," Sadie walked inside, "the residents are here, all of them. They're in the hospital, so whatever you're doing..." She looked at Steve, "what are you doing?"
Holly smiled, "We gave him an epidural."
Sadie frowned her eyebrows, "And you didn't call me?"
"It just happened." Ryan defended.
"Epidurals don't just happen." Sadie refuted, "I'm staying at Death's. I could've been here in ten minutes."
"You're staying at Meredith's?" Lexie asked, frowning her eyebrows.
"Lexie." Steve's eyes popped out of his face.
Lexie turned her head at him, "What?"
"Oh, crap." Holly noted as she saw Steve wet the bed, "We forgot the catheter."
"No," Steve shook his head, "no catheters."
"You want to pee yourself again?" Lexie questioned.
Steve scrunched his face up, "No."
Megan, Steve's girlfriend, lightly laughed, "It's okay."
"An epidural," Sadie started, "hmm? Wow. I'm impressed." She looked at Lexie, "Death is so wrong about you."
"Why?" Lexie's smile dropped, "What did she say?"
"That you're a priss." Sadie noted, clasping her gloves on, "Too bad he's not pregnant. You could do a c-section." Steve sarcastically laughed before stopping and giving Sadie a bland look.
"We could take out his appendix." Lexie challenged.
Ryan joked, "Or amputate his foot."
"Seriously." Lexie looked at her intern friends.
Holly frowned her eyebrows, "Seriously?"
Lexie reasoned, "He doesn't need his appendix."
Sadie smiled, a plan manifesting in her brain, "We could take out his appendix. We'll find an empty O.R. We'll be in and out in an hour."
Steve scoffed, "I'm sitting right here."
"Oh," Lexie added, "you could watch. We wouldn't even have to put you under. You'd just stay on the epidural."
"I'm off tomorrow." Ryan continued, "I'd trade and take his shift so he could recover."
"This is crazy." Holly chuckled, "You're--You're suggesting an unnecessary surgery. All we have done are procedures--"
"And they're all here." Graziella noted.
"They're busy chasing solo surgeries." Sadie brushed off.
"It's a genius idea." Lexie assured Holly, "We would be rock stars."
"Or killers." Holly stressfully added, not wanting to get in trouble.
"No." Steve shook his head, "I draw a line at a tube in my penis. Line drawn."
Lexie sighed as Sadie suggested, "Fine. Do me." She pointed at the interns, "As long as I can do one of you guys next."
Lexie smiled, taking off her glove and stretching a hand out, "Done."
Sadie took off her glove, smiling as well, "Done."
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"Okay," Lexie started as she pointed to the O.R. board and Holly held her stomach in pain as she chugged pepto bismol, "Bailey's got an appy in O.R. two, so this floor is out, but outpatient surgery is totally open."
"Okay," Sadie smiled, "let's go."
Meredith rolled her patient towards surgery and stopped once she noticed the group, "Looking for something?"
"Hi," Lexie greeted, "um, uh... we were giving Sadie the tour. Uh," She chuckled and showed the O.R. board, "this is the O.R. board."
Sadie nodded, "Yeah."
"And--And--And this is a patient. Um, you're in good hands. Dr. Grey is an excellent doctor."
Meredith looked at the group, "What's next on the tour?"
Ryan shrugged, "Back to the skills lab?"
"Skills lab." Lexie smiled, "Great idea."
Meredith nodded, squinting at Holly, "Kepner, you okay?"
Holly smiled through the pain, "Never better."
Lexie looked at her friend before glancing back at Sadie and Ryan, "You guys prepare everything for the appy. I'll stay back for Holly." The duo nodded as Lexie jogged up to Holly, "You okay?"
"God hates me." Holly groaned as she held her stomach, "I honestly think he hates me."
"Holly," Lexie shook her head with a smile, "you're being ridiculous."
"Am I?" Holly stopped walking as the breeze that hit her made her feel more nauseous than she already was, "I think I'm being punished for having premarital sex."
"That was a few months ago. You're being--" Lexie stopped talking as Holly ran to the trash can near the Nurse's station and threw up, "ridiculous... could you be pregnant?"
Holly glanced at Lexie worriedly before throwing up again.
✧
Lying down in an exam room, Holly stared at the ceiling as she waited for Lexie to come back with her blood test results before George burst in.
"George--"
"Are you okay?" George asked, placing a hand on her forehead, "You're burning up... Lexie told me you--"
"Might be pregnant?" Holly finished, placing a hand on her stomach as it hurt again.
"...She told me you were sick." George corrected, his eyes doubled in size, "You're pregnant?"
"No." Holly shook her head and then stopped, "I think."
"You think?" George paced around, trying to contain his level of wanting to freak out.
"George," Holly noted, "I'm not ready to have a baby either so you can freak out."
George chuckled, "I'm not freaking out." He looked down at his pager after it beeped and sighed, "I have to go."
Holly nodded, waving a hand as she saw his hesitance, "It's fine, you can go."
George nodded, kissing her forehead before he walked away-- correction, he took one step and then went back to Holly's exam room, "Are you sure--"
"Go!" Holly waved him away, "Save lives, I'll be okay. I just need my results."
George nodded and walked away. A few minutes later, Lexie came in with Sadie, unfortunately, trailing behind.
"Good news," Lexie smiled, "you're not pregnant."
"Thank God." Holly sighed in relief.
"But," Lexie listed, "you've got a fever, high white count and tenderness over McBurney's point, so you've--"
"Got appendicitis." Holly finished, lying back on the exam bed, looking at Sadie, "I won't be able to see your appy then."
"Well," Sadie began, "I don't know if you guys are thinking what I am." Holly frowned her eyebrows, "Think about it, we wouldn't be taking out mine that's an 'unnecessary surgery,' you'll need yours out either way so--"
"What--" Holly shook her head, "no, Lexie--"
"I mean," Lexie added, agreeing with Sadie, "it would be a 'necessary surgery' either way-- and it would be a learning experience."
Holly sighed, feeling slightly peer pressured, "Fine." She raised a finger at them as they high-fived, "But if anything, and I mean anything goes wrong, you're calling an attending A.S.A.P."
"Of course." Sadie nodded.
"Great." Holly winced, "So give me ten of morphine since I'm not pregnant cause my appendix is trying to kill me or just give me the epidural now."
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"This is so cool." Ryan noted as Holly lied down on the surgical table-- all of her parts covered except for the area where they would make an incision.
"Can you believe we're actually doing this?" Megan chuckled.
"The epidural should be working." Ryan looked at the clock.
"Trust me," Holly nodded, not feeling the pain anymore, "it's working."
"Okay," Lexie poked Holly's abdomen, "she's numbed. We're ready. Okay." She chuckled, "Here we go." She looked down at Holly, "You okay?"
"I think so." Holly nodded, "Just don't show me anything, I know it's a learning experience but I'd rather not see my insides."
Lexie nodded and looked at Sadie, who was going to be her second, "You ready?"
Sadie remarked, "I find the fact that you have parents and rules and smiley-face posters oddly comforting."
Lexie frowned her eyebrows, "What?"
"I'm ready."
"Okay," She looked at Ryan, who was going to be the 'scrub nurse,' "surgical marker. I'm going to mark the incision." She looked at the images they had placed around the O.R. to remind themselves of what to do and squinted at the textbook, "C-C-Can you hold that a little bit closer?" Another intern brought it closer, "One-third the distance from the anterior superior iliac spine to the umbilicus. Okay." She checked the distance with her hands, "That's right about..." She marked the line and interns muttered, "Okay."
Holly stared at the ceiling as she thought about her happy place-- the farm, her family, and George. And she hoped everything would go well otherwise her family might fly over and meet all of her friends-- and George.
"It's a great day to save lives, people." Lexie commented, interrupting Holly's thoughts, "Although," she glanced at Holly, "relatively your life is just fine and--"
"It's nighttime." Ryan nodded.
"But Shepherd always says that and--"
"Would you just go?" Sadie impatiently spoke.
Lexie looked at Ryan, "Scalpel." She held the instrument in her hand as she thought about how her friend's life would be in her hands, "Okay." The scalpel was centimeters away from Holly's abdomen before all of Holly's worries filled Lexie's mind and she brought the scalpel up, "This is a bad idea. This is a really bad idea. And--And it's the middle of the night, so our judgement is, you know, it-- it-- it's off. But we can use this frustration that--that--that we're feeling, th-that's driven us to the point where we're about to do a very stupid thing, a thing that I am certain we'd all regret, possibly from jail. And--And we can use the frustration for--for good. We--We can ask for more time in the skills lab, and--and we can ask to observe more surgeries, and we can demand that our residents teach us better."
Holly lightly brought her head up, nodding, "Fine, let's call the attendings."
Sadie grabbed the scalpel off of Lexie's hand and began to cut along the line Lexie drew, Ryan frowned his eyebrows at Sadie, "Whoa, whoa, whoa."
Holly immediately leaned back and sighed, "Or you could cut me open."
✧
"Okay," Lexie continued as Holly stared at the ceiling again, trying to distract herself, "I'm following the taeniae coli down to expose the appendix."
"Whoa." The interns chorused, "There it is."
Lexie frowned her eyebrows, "Huh."
Holly's eyes darted to Lexie's, "What?"
Lexie looked at Sadie, "Does it look a little inflamed to you?"
Sadie nodded, "It does... a little. It looks inflamed."
"What?" Holly looked at the two, "It's supposed to be inflamed-- is it more inflamed than necessary? What's happening?"
"It's normally only supposed to be seven to eight millimeters in diameter." Sadie answered, "It looks a little big."
"If it's inflamed," Graziella noted, "this isn't routine procedure. It's a... we should... we should call a resident."
Holly nodded at the girl, "I agree."
"We're not calling a resident." Sadie stopped.
"I'm sorry." Graziella apologized, "I'm just... I'm really freaking out."
"You better not need to call my sisters," Holly warned the interns, "'cause April's gonna be pissed if I die."
"You're not gonna die." Lexie assured, "It's a routine procedure."
Holly listed, "My appendix is inflamed. I'm lying on a surgical table with my other intern people taking out my appendix. You guys are staring at a textbook-- I'm scared."
"Holly," Lexie spoke as she stared at the open incision, "you're gonna be just fine." At that moment, Holly began to bleed out and Lexie looked at Sadie, "Suction!" She turned her head to see Holly's head to the side with her eyes closed, "Holly?" She freaked out as she sighed, "We have to call a resident--"
"We are not calling a resident." Sadie shook her head, "We've got it."
Lexie stood conflicted before hardening her expression and stared at the interns, "Ryan, get Sadie away from Holly and Megan, suction until I get back."
✧
After a few minutes of waiting for help, Megan continued to suction and kept her eyes on the door as blood continued to come out. Hearing the door open and watching Meredith, her resident, walk inside, she explained, "I-I-I think she's dying."
Cristina jogged up to Meredith and they both told the interns, "No one tell George."
✧
Hearing George's snoring, Holly groaned as she opened her eyes to a bright light.
"I knew that would wake you up." George chuckled as he held her hand before kissing her forehead.
Holly frowned her eyebrows, "What happened?"
"Meredith, Bailey, and Cristina had to go in to fix what the interns did once you started to hemorrhage." George explained as Holly brought her head in her hands, "...Why did you volunteer to do it?"
"They were going to do it anyways." Holly explained, "Sadie volunteered but my appendix was actually going to burst so it was coming out one way or another."
"Mm." George hummed, "Interns are banned from the O.R. until further notice and you're on probation."
Holly sighed, "Great," She smiled at him, "just the kinda news I wanted to wake up to."
George chuckled as someone burst into the room and Holly groaned at seeing April's shaken expression, "What did they do to you?"
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George's snoring has become an alarm to Holly even though she's a heavy sleeper ✨