"𝐈 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐊 𝐈'𝐌 𝐆𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐀 𝐀𝐒𝐊 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐄 𝐎𝐍 𝐍𝐄𝐔𝐑𝐎 𝐓𝐎𝐃𝐀𝐘" kelsey said to lexie as she let her curls loose from the bun she was wearing. the two were currently in april's room who was downstairs making breakfast after spending the night, due to the two being so tired that they thought they wouldn't make it back to the apartment.
"neuro? what happened to peds?"
"stark is a mess. i hate working with him. i just have to do it before alex tries and leaves or else i'll be stuck with hi—" she was interrupted by an all of a sudden loud screaming.
"who is that?" kelsey asked as he two got up and walked out of the room. they made it over to his room and opened his door, seeing him tossing and turning while screaming.
"jackson. stop" lexie said, unsuccessfully stopping him as he continued to scream. kelsey walked over to the bed.
"stop! hey, hey, jackson" kelsey said, grabbing his arm.
"what?" he asked, looking around with wide eyes.
"i'm sorry, but you need to take something" lexie tiredly spoke with squinted eyes.
"where's charles? charles. where's charles?" he said, obviously still in a sleeping state.
"hey. hey. stop. it's lexie. wake up" lexie, said grabbing his ankles. jackson looked at her before turning and looking at kelsey. he looked down and blinked a couple of times before moving his covers off of him.
"time for work?" he said, getting out of his bed.
"yeah, just about" kelsey responded, looking up at lexie. he grabbed a towel and walked out of the room, leaving the two confused.
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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐈𝐗 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐎𝐑.
"did you just yawn? was that a yawn?" mark asked with his attention on april, who covered her mouth with her hand.
"don't tell us your tired after getting to sleep all day"
"it's not as easy as it sounds" april said in defense of herself.
"not easy? not e—when i was a resident i actually worked for a living. i did every other night call for five years" miranda explained
"there were days that i didn't go home 72 hours. i loved it" stark added from behind them.
"as you trudged through the snow while you whittled your own scalpels" alex mumbled, causing kelsey, jackson, and lexie to snicker.
"sorry. i didn't quite catch that, karev" stark said, glaring up at him.
"uh, karev i need you to follow up on my post-ops and here. take this research. divide out all the fistula cases"
"avery and little grey, hunt is waiting for you in the pit"
"all right. try not to screw up our patients. good night and good luck"
"gonna be over at the bar. try not to need us"
"dr. grey? shepard's wife? you and livingston are with me tonight"
"yes"
"good. i heard you're good. listen, i'm late for dinner, so, um, i made a list of my patients, their protocols. basically, everybody's stable. just try and keep 'em that way" he said with a wave of his hands before turning around and making his way towards the elevator.
"and if we need to in touch with you, sir?"
"you won't....'cause your good" he said before entering the elevator.
"nice to meet you. is he always?....."
"a nonchalant jackasss. yeah. it's lovely" kelsey said with a sarcastic smile before taking a sip of her coffee.
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"𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐃𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆'𝐒 𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐆𝐄? 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐄"
april asked as she closed the door to the attendings' lounge where meredith, kelsey, and alex were seated, eating pizza.
"pizza?" alex offered, to which she just exhaled and looked over at kelsey and meredith.
"i have stupid teenage patients who superglued themselves together so their parents can't tear them apart"
"mm. that sounds romantic" kelsey commented.
"yeah. more like moronic. i have no idea how to get them apart without taking off half their skin"
"try acetone"
"try going away" april said to alex before letting out a sigh. "meredith, kelsey. any ideas?"
"'mm. acetone?"
"thank you" april said with a smile before turning around and leaving.
"so what's the deal with stark? kelsey says he's nonchalant jackass"
"more like a lazy, backstabbing weasel. why?"
"because we called him in to examine this patient—"
"you called him in? ha! i wish i coulda seen that. you don't call stark"
"well, our kid just had pectus excavatum surgery and he was in serious pain"
"yesterday my fundoplication patient was vomiting. you don't call stark. why didn't you just handle it, livingston?"
"because this kid's mother is a nurse at seattle pres and she said she knows about how residents are always half asleep on the night shift and their attendings are no where to be found and yada yada yada. she didn't trust us basically and requested we call stark" she said before shrugging, taking a bite of her pizza.
"let's play a game. there's one rule. you don't call stark"
"alex, i'm serious. normally i would handle this myself, but i haven't been on peds in a while, kelsey's been in o.b., and you know the complications with these kids"
"wait a minute. we should just handle it ourselves. if stark doesn't want to care, he doesn't have to. we'll get an l.d.h., a c.r.p, and a sed rate" kelsey said, looking over at alex for his response.
"that's smart. with stark, you have to cover all your bases so if you do end up calling him, he has no excuse but to get off his ass and come in" he explained before taking a bite of his pizza.
"works for me"
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"𝐇𝐄𝐘, 𝐃𝐑. 𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐌𝐀𝐍. 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐕𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐔𝐋𝐓? 𝐈'𝐌 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐂.𝐓. 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐒"
kelsey asked as she walked up to teddy in the hallway.
"oh, well, joe took my keys, so i'm—i'm pretty sure...i shouldn't be practicing medicine" she slightly slurred, whispering the last part.
"well, what are you doing here then?"
"well, i'm killing time until joe gives me my keys back"
"can't you do that at the bar?"
"cristina yang is bartending, so, no, i can't. it's just—it's too depressing"
"cristina? bar tending? as like a joke or..."
"as a bartender. yeah, i know, that look on your face? that's how my whole body feels, and not just 'cause cristina makes the world's strongest drink, but because my aspirational couple has broken up, and they're living on two separate continents, and 'cause i'm dating men who still live with their mother. but they don't admit that on their profiles" kelsey listened to teddy drunkingly rant on what she assumed was an internet date gone wrong, helping her zip up her jacket.
"pictures are up" kelsey looked at the c.t. tech before back at teddy.
"good night dr. altman" she said with a smile before walking past her and back into the c.t. room.
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"𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐖'𝐒 𝐆𝐎𝐓 𝐀 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐔𝐋𝐂𝐄𝐑. 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐀'𝐒 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐓 𝐉𝐎𝐄'𝐒, 𝐃𝐈𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓?"
kelsey asked meredith as she walked up to her with their patient's scans.
"what? as like a joke right?"
"nope. as a real bartender. but, his ulcer's bleeding, and it must be from the anti-inflammatories. i called stark in and no answer, big surprise, but this kid needs surgery"
"yeah" the two looked at each other, knowing they had the same idea.
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"𝐌𝐑𝐒. 𝐌𝐂𝐍𝐄𝐈𝐋, 𝐖𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐒𝐎𝐍'𝐒 𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐒"
kelsey said as her and meredith walked into the room. "the c.t. scan revealed that your son has a perforated ulcer. that's what's causing his pain" she explained.
"so does he need surgery?"
"yes. and we've called dr. stark, and he's on his way" meredith answered.
"we can start prepping him immediately"
"thank you. thank you" she thanked them both, earning nods in return. after they walked out of the room, meredith grabbed kelsey's wrist.
"okay, so hold on. are we really gonna call in a whole o.r. team with an attending? i mean, what if stark doesn't answer the page? what if he doesn't come in on time"
"what if the kid dies while we're waiting to find out? like the chief said, this is how you get things down at night. i've watched arizona do plenty of these"
"what do we have to do a truncal vagatomy or a pyloroplasty? have you even done those on your own?"
"not only can i do it, i can do it better than stark. you in or out? i understand if your out"
"well, like hell if i'm gonna let you do it without me. i'm in" kelsey gave her a small smile before the two of them walked off.
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"𝐎𝐊𝐀𝐘. 𝐈𝐒 𝐇𝐄 𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑?"
kelsey asked the anesthesiologist.
"is he talking? yeah. he's under" smart ass, she thought.
"no word from stark yet?"
"no"
"call him every five minutes until he answers"
"and page dr. bailey" kelsey added, looking down at the young boy's abdomen she was about to cut into.
"bailey's not on call tonight" dammit. of course she's not.
"just keep calling her"
"i thought you said you could do this better than stark"
"i can, alright. 10-blade" kelsey looked up at meredith who nodded. kelsey slowly cut an incision line down the exposed abdomen. too late to turn back now.
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"𝐀𝐍𝐘 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐊?"
kelsey asked after a while.
"no"
"here's the perf. anterior duodenum" meredith stated, using the lap pad to better kelsey's view.
"well, we could do a graham patch"
"excellent suggestion, fellow surgeon. 2-o silk, please, boki. can you believe we called an entire o.r. team and they came? amazing"
"we've got balls. clamp"
"you've got balls. i've got cojones"
"you know those are balls, right?" kelsey said, looking up at meredith in amusement before looking back down.
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"𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐊 𝐃𝐎? 𝐈 𝐌𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐖𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐄"
kelsey asked as the two stared at the door, waiting for the dreaded attending to walk in.
"he can yell. he will yell"
"it doesn't matter. you know, the kids in good shape, the mom's happy. we did what we were trained to do" then it happened. dr. stark walked in and quickly a shut the door behind him. kelsey and meredith straighten up, bracing themselves for the yelling.
"i am gonna make your lives a living hell" he whispered, leaning forward on the table. "and you know what? i'm gonna enjoy it. you lied to my patients. you hijacked an o.r. you performed a surgery that you had no possible business performing, and for the life of me, i-i-i don't know what you were thinking" kelsey looked between dr. stark and dr. webber who was standing in front of the window with his arms crossed. he gave the two a small smile, making the too look over at each other before looking back at dr. stark who was still going off on them.
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"𝐇𝐄𝐘. 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐅𝐓?"
kelsey asked jackson who was filling out a chart at the nurse's desk.
"tiring. long, and tiring. what about you?"
"same. but exhilarating. i went rouge"
"you went rouge?"
"yep. i operated on a little boy's perforated ulcer with no attending. just me and meredith"
"really? you two put together an entire o.r. team and they listened?" jackson asked, handing the nurse the chart.
"yep" she proudly answered with a smile.
"that's badass" he said with a smile, stepping closer to her. "you're going home?"
"yeah. me and lexie have beer in the fridge back at the apartment slowly going to waste. it's a shame"
"the beer will be fine. come back to the house with me " he grabbed her chin and tilted her head up, softly kissing her lips.
"is that your plan to convince me?" she whispered, smiling up at him.
"did it work?"
"i think i need a little more convincing" he smirked at her before kissing her again, his arms wrapping around her waist and hers wrapping around his neck
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𝐢 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐚𝐝𝐞|𝐣.𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲!
𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲?
𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞, 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, + 𝐚𝐝𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 !
𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟔