Running in Circles - Lexie Grey x OC

Through the Morning Light

Wednesday
The Day Before Thanksgiving
Fifth Floor — Neuro Wing

The fifth floor was already awake.

Stretchers rolled past the nurses' station.

Phones rang without pause.

Somewhere down the corridor an overhead page called for Respiratory Therapy while an MRI transporter argued good-naturedly with an orderly over who had arrived first.

Just another Wednesday.

By eight o'clock, Neuro was already behind.

Which meant, to Eric, they were right on schedule.

He stepped out of his office carrying a cup of tea and the morning census clipped neatly beneath one arm.

The hallway looked exactly as he expected.

Lauren was standing at the central desk surrounded by imaging reports, one hand absently tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear while she compared overnight scans.

Russ was trying to convince a printer that repeatedly pressing the same button would somehow make it work faster.

It wasn't.

Arjay had disappeared.

Which usually meant he'd gone to see a patient before anyone had asked him to.

Eric approved.

Lexie arrived through the elevator doors a second later, shrugging into her white coat while balancing a cup of coffee and her patient list.

"Morning."

"Morning," Lauren answered without looking up.

Russ gave a distracted wave.

Arjay emerged from the opposite hallway almost at the exact same time.

"Trauma just called," he said. "Mrs. Henderson's back from CT."

Lexie glanced at Eric.

"You've already seen it?"

Arjay nodded.

"I wanted to make sure she wasn't waiting."

Eric said nothing.

He simply continued toward the workroom.

Everyone followed.

- - - - -

The morning list filled nearly an entire whiteboard.

Lauren frowned.

"Were there always this many consults?"

"There weren't," Lexie said. "They just all happened overnight."

Russ groaned dramatically.

"I picked the wrong specialty."

"You've said that every rotation," Arjay replied.

"And one of these days I'll mean it."

Lexie laughed quietly as she uncapped a marker.

She'd barely started dividing the patients when Eric reached over, took the marker from her hand and erased two names.

"Why'd you take those off?"

"They're not ours."

"They're under Neuro."

"They're under Neurology."

Lexie looked again. "...Right."

She smiled sheepishly.