"𝐎𝐊𝐀𝐘 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄. 𝐖𝐄'𝐑𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐗𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐔𝐏 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐂𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐎𝐃𝐀𝐘"
"what? our boards are coming up, wouldn't it be smarter to work on specialties we're going into?" cristina asked, twirling a pen in her fingers as she spun side to side in her chair.
"while that is true, you all came into this program for a well-rounded education which means you need to know how to work in other specialties. with that being said, kepner you're with webber, yang with bailey, avery with altman, grey with sloan, little grey with robbins, karev with shepard, and livingston you're with torres" owen stared, clipping his own back in the clipboard once he finished.
"i made sure you were put on callie's service today and you need to impress her but don't worry, i talked you up to her last night" arizona said with a smile as she walked up to her once she left the conference room.
"any reason in particular?"
"because, she has a study method that will guarantee you pass your boards, but if you want her to help you you're gonna have to show her what i see in you. got it?"
"yes ma'am"
"good. now go make me proud" she smiled before kelsey went to find callie.
"dr. torres—"
"here's how this is gonna work, i talk and you listen. you are here because you and your little pals are all freaked out about oral boards and dr. robbins suggested that callie torres might have a special secret study method, right?" she asked as they walked through the hallway.
"yep"
"well, dr. robbins is correct. callie torres does have a study method, an excellent study method, and i'm not about to just give it away. callie torres' study method has to be earned. frankly, she's not sure if kelsey livingston has what is takes"
"kelsey livingston definitely has what it takes" she confidently said with a smile as they put on their gloves and walked into the ER. kelsey looked around the ER and noticed a group of people surrounding a patient bed.
"for her sake kelsey livingston better hope she's right, because today is gonna be a grind. excuse me, coming through" callie said as they walked through the group of people. a smile immediately made its way to kelsey's face as she got a clear view of the patient.
"a grind. really?" nicole mumbled to callie.
"it's a meat grinder. oh, whatever like you weren't thinking it too" callie said to her. after kicking everyone out beside the patient's brothers, they begin to examine him.
"hang in there dom"
"yeah, you're looking good bro, real good"
"you're lying tommy. i look like sopressata" their patient said before groaning in pain.
"don't worry dominic, we just gave you some drugs for the pain, you're going to start to feel better real quick"
"okay"
"are you thinking amputation dr. torres?"
"i don't know, you tell me"
"what?"
"you tell me dr. livingston, does this look like an amputation to you?"
"well of course it's a possibility—"
"amputate. no you can't, i need my hand. tommy, don't let them take my...."dominic before passing out.
"whoa, is he?"
"no, those are the drugs. they work quickly, just like we have to"
"but you're just going to cut off his arm?"
"no, this is a teaching hospital mike, okay? i'm doing a thing. now livingston, here's how this is gonna work if you want my help on the boards. you're going to run this. you're gonna decide our course of action, you're going to be the person that stand between dominic and a hook for a hand. you in or you out?"
"i'm in. 100%"
"okay. you were saying?"
"amputation is an option, but if we get this thing off we can see if there are an viable fingers left"
"alright, time's a factor, livingston"
"why is time a factor?" his brother asks
"because the longer his hand stays in there, the more we compromise his circulation" kelsey explained before picking something up.
"ah-ha! a finger" she said, holding it up.
"is that bad or good?"
"dr. livingston, is that bad or good?"
"that's good. that's good thing"
"tic tok, livingston"
"let's call up to maintenance and get a sawzail"
"hmm, you really want to wait that long?"
"fire and rescue has tools"
"better"
"hey, these tools. what are they gonna do, rip apart the grinder?" one of the brothers asked kelsey.
"to save his hand?"
"yeah, but we dropped a couple grand on that thing. you can't trash it"
"it's to save his hand" kelsey frustratingly explained again, knowing they were losing time over this.
"mike, how long would it take you to get that thing apart?"
"i take it apart and clean it every night"
"we can get him out"
"yeah, quick"
"dr. torres?"
"can you do it in under 45 minutes?"
"give or take"
"livingston?"
"what, do i think it's okay to let a couple of civilians take apart the machine that's grinding their brothers hand?" kelsey asked, to which callie raised her eyebrow.
"let's do it"
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"𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐍, 𝐈'𝐌 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐃. 𝐈 𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃𝐍'𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐊 𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐃 𝐁𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐁𝐘 𝐀 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐀 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑"
callie said from across the room where she was reading a magazine.
"well, it's just that it smells like pork..." she says before focusing back on the finger and her breathing, trying not to throw up as a. it's definitely something you do not want to do in an OR and it wouldn't impress callie and b. alex, meredith, cristina, april, and jackson were in the gallery watching, which would be very embarrassing.
"so. dr. robbins tells me you had some pretty impressive recommendation calls from two legendary surgeons. that they see you as a board certified ortho and trauma surgeon"
"yeah. i wouldn't call myself that but," she stopped, getting control of her breathing before speaking again "i wouldn't"
"elaborate"
"when i was 16 i was in this school program where i was a shadow EMT before i realized i wanted to do more for a patient then just stabilizing them in the rig, so when i graduated med school i applied for the intern program at one of the best hospital's in new jersey and two months in i was taken under the wing of a man named dr. conwell. he took me to canada for a year and we worked on the weirdest cases. when we were there, he introduced me to dr. regina marshall who showed me—"
"whoa whoa whoa. THE dr. regina marshall as in THE dr. regina marshall who performed two of the most complicated and longest orthopedic procedures back-to-back AND made a completely damaged leg nerve viable again with just an inch of nerve from the arm? that women is a legend!"
"yep. first procedure i did with her was a rotationplasty. it was also my first ortho procedure and i was only a first year"
"you're kidding" she said in astonishment.
"you wanna meet her?"
"don't joke like that livingston. what do we have?" she asked as she walked over to where she was.
"i think this will work. if we cut down the macerated part of the finger, it'll be short but it'll still be salvageable"
"okay, but the thumb i'm gonna go ahead and say that's not salvageable. yeah, you're done. he'll be better off with a prosthetic"
"no" kelsey said, looking down at the hand with furrowed eyebrows.
"the thumb is responsible to 40% of hand function, without it we're done"
"but there's gotta be something we can do. oh! we can use the second toe. i read somewhere about surgeons using a man's big toe as a replacement but it's too important for walking, so we use the second one. it'll provide the same benefits, but reduce potential disability"
"but?"
"butttttt.....we need patient consent first?" kelsey guessed, hoping her suggestion was a good one.
"we need patient consent first" she confirmed, nodding her head in approval.
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"𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐑𝐄 𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐃𝐑. 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐍"
callie said as they finished their surgery, after their patient agreed.
"i know" she said, causing the two of them to laugh.
"there was a lot of hype around you when you first got here, there still is. 14 recommendation letters, calls of recommendation from two legendary surgeons, plans to get triple board certified. all i've heard is how talented you are"
"you don't have to help me. i understand if you don't want to"
"no, that's not what i'm saying. i'm saying you're tougher than i thought. you're smart. every morning, five days a week. you're in my office at 4:00 a.m. and we work, livingston. if you don't show up, if you're late, i will kick your ass. we work livingston and you're gonna pass this test, you're gonna pass it hard" she says with confidence.
"okay" she responded with a smile.
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"𝐒𝐎. 𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐑𝐄 "𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘" 𝐀 𝐁𝐎𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐅𝐈𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐔𝐌𝐀 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐇𝐎 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐎𝐍, 𝐇𝐔𝐇?"
jackson asked as they sat on his bed with a pile of flash cards in front of them.
"it's annoying, i know. people used to give me crap about it during second year"
"i was gonna say it's hot" he said with a smile, making kelsey roll her eyes and smile.
"whatever, avery"
"i just wanna know how you got to meet regina marshall?"
"dr. conwell thought i had a knack for ortho and they were good friends so he introduced me to her. she used to call me the ortho princess"
"ortho princess?"
"well, the other first years would call me that as an insult but then she started calling me that. she was the ortho queen, i was the ortho princess. people used to think i made it up. i mean, i don't blame them, she rarely works with residents" kelsey said as she collected all of the cards and sat them on his nightstand, turning the lamp off.
"speaking of made up," he started, draping his arm across her waist and kissing her neck. "remember the baseball game the other day and you got piss drunk?"
"oh my god. what did i say this time?" she said, rolling onto her stomach and covering her head with the pillow.
"you told me...that you're still a virgin" she didn't say anything, just heavily sighed.
"i don't care kelsey. you don't have to feel embarrassed"
"i do"
"you don't"
"i do"
"you don't, kelsey" he laughed, removing the pillow from her head.
"can we just forget about it?"
"we can forget about it" he said, running his hand up and down her back.
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𝐢 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐚𝐝𝐞|𝐣.𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲!
𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧!😥
𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨, 𝐢'𝐦 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬, 𝐰𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐭𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐧! 🥳
𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞, 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, + 𝐚𝐝𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 !
𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟏𝟕𝟕𝟑