Chapter 11
Season 2, Episode 8
I wake up with a gnarly headache and weight on my chest. When I open my eyes and look over, I see the face of a sleeping man. The same sleeping man I picked up in a bar the night before. Crap. I turn over to see the clock and realize I have work in less than an hour.
I pick up his arm and move it off my chest before moving to get out of the bed. The sheet falls down and I realize I'm completely naked. I pick the sheet back up to cover my chest. Absolutely mortified, I stand up wrapping the sheet around me, looking at the still sleeping man in my bed.
"Uh, hello?" I say quietly trying to poke him in the arm. "Wake up."
I cringe at my failed attempt to wake him up and look around the room before seeing my panties discarded on the ground. I pull them up to my legs and find a t-shirt to throw on before looking back at him. I'm about to try and wake him again when I hear a knock at my door and practically jump to the ceiling.
"Crap. Crap. Crap." I mutter to myself walking over to the door and standing with my ear pressed up against it. "What do you want?" I hiss harshly at whoever is on the other side.
"Yikes, someone didn't get much sleep last night." I hear Meredith on the other side of the door and I sigh before opening it and sticking my head through. She looks at me questionably before trying to look into the room. I block her and give her big eyes.
"What? Why are you-" She pauses before realization hits. "Oh my god, you did not. You had sex!" She exclaims and I walk out into the hall closing the door behind me trying to shush her.
"Shut up! Shut up before someone hears you!" She laughs as I freak out. "How the hell do I get him out?"
"Hey, that's your dirty one night stand and your problem." She grins holding her coffee in her hand.
"No. It was your idea to go get some...and I went and got some, so you need to tell me what to do now!" I whisper harshly, as not to get Izzie and George's attention.
"It was drunk Meredith's idea. Not mine. You should know better than to listen to drunk people." She says taking another sip of her coffee and I roll my eyes, snatching the coffee from her hands and taking a large gulp before walking back into my room. My back is to the bed as I close the door quietly.
"Uh, hey." I hear from behind me and jump again. People have got to stop scaring me.
"Oh, you're awake. Good." I stammer turning to look at him sitting up in the bed rubbing his face. He's clearly hungover as well. "Look, I have to get to work so you need to leave...now," I say to him uncomfortably.
"Work? It's Saturday." He asks me, sounding very confused and I laugh awkwardly.
"Good, you're not a surgeon then," I say to myself as he stands up and starts looking for his clothes. I try to look anywhere but him. I mean, he has a nice body and last night was good but one night stands are embarrassing. He finally has his pants on when he turns to me.
"Uh, you're wearing, uh, my..." He stammers looking at me and I look down at the shirt I'm wearing and my eyes widen.
"Oh! I'm sorry." I say and walk over to my dresser and face away from him. I take off the shirt and cover my chest with one of my own before handing the one I was wearing to him. He takes it and gives me an uncomfortable smile before walking over to the door.
"Uh, last night was-" He starts but I shake my head and cut him off.
"We don't need to do that. You can just go." I say and he nods, seemingly grateful before running out of my room and down the hall. I pull on my shirt and stop to take a deep breath. That was mortifying.
∞∞∞∞∞∞
I decided to walk to work with George that morning. I did not want to sit in a car with Meredith, I know she would be all smug and ask for details that I was not willing to give her. We got bagels and coffee on our way and I was stuffing my face as we walked.
"Wow, hungry?" George asks me laughing that I had already finished half my bagel when we had just left the store.
"More like hungover." I croak as I take a sip of my hot coffee.
"Yeah, well, that's what happens when you get drunk." He explains as I roll my eyes.
"This wasn't my intention."
"It kinda was though. Don't you remember, I'm going to get really drunk and have sex because you only live once." He does a very bad impression of me and I almost choke on my bagel. "It was inspiring, really." He teases me while laughing and I nudge him with my shoulder.
"Shut up." I laugh when all of a sudden I hear a splat and look over at George to see that a bird pooped all over his bagel. I scrunch my nose in disgust as he yells, dropping the bagel.
"Ah crap!" He exclaims and I can't help but laugh when the pigeon that pooped on the bagel comes flying down and starts pecking at it.
"That's disgusting," I say as we start walking again, George looking very disappointed. We only take about two steps before I hear a massive thud from behind us. I turn to see a man lying on the ground having just fallen from the building beside us. "Holy crap," I say as George and I look at each other. We were seconds away from being flattened by that man. The world works in mysterious and sometimes gross, poopy ways.
We called the hospital and an ambulance came which brought us and the man to Seattle Grace. When we get there, Bailey is waiting by the entrance and helps us bring him to a trauma room where we start to treat him.
"Window washer fell from fifth-floor scaffolding, obvious open TIB/FIB fracture, but otherwise, okay." Bailey recaps as the first responders lift him from the stretcher to the gurney.
"Equal breath sounds!" George explains, startling me. "After a five-story fall, he's got equal breath sounds! It's unbelievable. Do you want to hear?" He turns to me and I shake my head with an amused smile.
"Yang, get in there and palpate his abdomen," Bailey says to Cristina when she walks into the trauma room.
"Does this hurt anywhere?" She asks him as she touches his abdomen.
"No." He mutters.
"You fell from the sky, five stories, and you only injured your leg." George keeps talking and I nudge him slightly.
"George," I say under my breath.
"Don't George me! A few seconds earlier he would have landed on us. How are you not freaking out?" He says and I scrunch my brow in confusion.
"I don't know, 'cause it's not a big deal," I say moving to trade places with George.
"Not a big deal! We could've died!" He exclaims a little too loud.
"I think you're being a little dramatic," I say before putting my hands under the man. "Rolling on three," I say looking at Cristina and she nods before counting for me. Once he's on his side we look at his back to see feathers scattered. He landed on the freaking bird.
"My life was saved by that pigeon," George mutters and I roll my eyes.
"Let's get some x-rays and after that, you might wanna get in there and look for the rest of tweety," Bailey says unimpressed looking at the deceased bird. I watch as George sadly picks up and looks at one of the feathers.
"Thank you." He whispers to the dead bird.
"Jesus, George." I sigh before helping to lower the man back to the bed. The next hour George and I were stuck in the trauma room pulling bits of the bird out of this man's back. It was disgusting and what's worse is George won't stop talking about how he almost died.
"George! Enough! I was there too, there was no magic bird!" He looks offended at my statement.
"How are you so calm about this?"
"Because I'm a normal person who doesn't believe a bird saved my life," I say and he looks back at the patient and continues to work. After we finish loading him with drugs to try and lighten the pain, we head to the nurse's station where George starts talking to Meredith about his 'near-death experience'.
"Shouldn't he be more excited?" George rants to Meredith as I fill out the man's chart. "Maybe he's in shock. I mean, he survived. That's huge. He's gotta realize that things happen for a reason."
"Oh, yeah. My ex-boyfriend moved his wife to Seattle." Meredith says writing in her own patient's chart beside me. "Reason? To torture me."
"I'm serious."
"So am I." She argues as Christina comes up behind us.
"What's with the hello kitty on your forehead?" Christina asks Meredith who has a pink bandaid on her forehead.
"I don't want to talk about it." She says and I hold back a laugh, she does kind of look ridiculous.
"This is the luckiest day in the world!" George continues to be completely amazing with life and I roll my eyes, picking up my chart.
"Tell that to the bird." I hiss at him before walking away.
∞∞∞∞∞∞
"I couldn't cut off my ovaries and breasts just because I might have cancer." I hear Izzie say as I walk into the intern locker rooms and see Cristina half-naked, pulling on a dress.
"Who has cancer?" I ask as I walk over to my locker and pull out a granola bar.
"She doesn't have cancer, that's the thing. My patient wants to chop herself up into bits because she's afraid she might get it." Izzie explains, looking through her book.
"Think of it like a hand," Cristina explains as she squeezes herself into a skin-tight purple dress. "If someone told you you'd die if you didn't chop off your hand, you'd do it."
"Except when you chop off a hand, you don't kill your sex drive, have silicone breasts, get hot flashes, and lose your ability to bear children," Izzie says mournfully.
"If it were me, I wouldn't even have the test. I mean, what's the point? We're all gonna die anyway, right?" Meredith explains and we all stand silent. "It's the hello kitty bandaid on my forehead. It's freaking me out."
I watch as Cristina shuffles over to the mirror, dress on but scrub pants still at her ankles. She looks at herself in the mirror, trying to decide if it looks good.
"I say slice 'em and dice 'em. Whatever. They're body parts." Alex says, sounding bored at the debate.
"Oh, so you'd cut off your penis?" Izzie questions, not believing his claim at all.
"If it kept me from dying. Besides, I've got plenty to spare." He brags closing his locker and I scrunch up my nose, the granola in my hand less appetizing all of a sudden.
"Ew," I whine and watch Cristina checking herself out in the mirror. "I like that one," I say to her and she turns to face me
"Yeah? I could do hot in my sleep. I look hot in scrubs. I'm a hot person." She says and I smile, I love an empowered woman.
"Wait so, why are you trying on dresses?" I ask her.
"Burke. Date. A date with Burke." She rambles turning around to face the mirror again.
"She's not good at dates." Meredith leans over and whispers in my ear.
"He's seen me naked a thousand times," Cristina says, I assume to comfort herself but George hears as he leaves the bathroom and cringes.
"Bad. Bad images in my head." He mutters to himself and I slap his shoulder playfully as he passes me.
"But he's never seen you outside the hospital." Meredith points out which is quite unhelpful as Cristina turns to look at her, mortified.
"Thank you." She says sarcastically before turning back to the mirror, still unsure.
"Cristina, don't worry. You look hot. It'll be fine." I say throwing out my wrapper and making my way to the door. She gives me a nod of acknowledgment but I know she's still worried. Cristina is not very good at date conversations, or really any conversation that's not medical.
∞∞∞∞∞∞
"I don't want to seize the day." Our patient sighs out in annoyance as George continues to marvel over the fact that he lived. We finished getting all the bird bits out of his back and we're just waiting to splint his leg.
"See, that's what I don't get. I'm standing here, and I'm just incredibly happy to be alive. You know, I'm looking at the sky and it's bluer. Food tastes better and I didn't survive a 5 story fall.'' George rants while filling out the man's chart and I look up to the man and his mournful face. That's when the dread washed over me and the realization hits.
"Dr. O'Malley, can I speak with you," I say softly and walk away from the bed, George nods and follows me until we're out of earshot from the patient.
"I just don't understand how-" George stays but I shake my head and cut him off.
"George, has it ever crossed your mind that the reason he is not jumping with joy over the fact that he lived is because he didn't want to?" I whisper harshly at him but he still looks confused.
"What are you saying?" I take a deep breath before answering him.
"I'm saying, maybe he didn't want to survive that fall." I watch as George's eyes grow. "Maybe it wasn't even a fall."
George goes quiet and looks back at the patient who still lies quietly in his bed. I can tell that many emotions are running through George when he doesn't answer so I put and hand on his shoulder before walking back to the patient.
"Sir?" I say lightly and he looks over at me as I take a seat by his bed. "I hope you aren't offended by my question, but, did you jump off that building?" I keep my voice down to not to bring attention to the situation. I watch as tears appear in his eyes and he doesn't need to answer because I already know. I know the feeling. He hesitates before finally answering.
"All the way down, all I could think about was Daisy. She's my ex-girl. She works in this hospital. What kind of joke is that?" He mutters looking over at me. I can feel my own chest tightening at his words, George now coming up beside us and listening.
"Maybe you got a second chance." I smile comfortingly.
"Daisy, you got to go find her for me. You know, talk to her. Tell her she's the reason I'm alive." He asks us hopefully.
"Yeah. I'll go find her." I hear George say from behind me and the man smiles before George goes running down the hall.
∞∞∞∞∞∞
After George found Daisy, he found me and explained that she didn't want anything to do with him. That he was too late, so, unfortunately, our patient went into surgery without seeing the love of his life. I feel like all I've been doing during my internship is watching people die. He died on our table, having not been able to talk to the girl he loves.
I went home feeling like crap, like someone was ripping out my insides and telling me it was for my own good. I know I signed up for this job, I know I have to learn, but it doesn't make this any easier.
I walk through the front door and can't even make it up the stairs so I walk into the living room and sit on the floor by the window. I'm not exactly sure how long I'm there before I hear a knock at the door. Unable to bring myself to stand, I stay on the floor. Then I hear a knock at the window above my head and turn sharply to see my brother standing at the window looking at me.
I go over to the door and let him in. He holds up a case of beer and pushes past me into the living room.
"Peace offering." He says pulling one out and handing it to me as I walk past him and to my place under the window. He follows suit and sits next to me on the floor. I open the beer and take a sip before resting my head against the wall.
"Had a patient who attempted suicide, survived, then died on the table," I mutter with a blank face then I take another gulp. I can feel his eyes on me but I don't turn to meet his stare.
"Are you okay?" He asks, actually sounding concerned. I give him a slow, unconvincing nod.
"I will be," I say and we go back to drinking in silence.
"I kissed Izzie." He blurted out and I think he expected a reaction, but I kept my face blank and faced ahead.
"I figured," I say before finishing my beer and putting it down. He seems content with my answer because he doesn't bring it up again for the rest of the night.