The Chief's Awakening [Book One of the Chief's Records]

Chapter Four: No Man's Land

So.... yeah. I promise you guys, I did NOT intend to abandon you for six months. My life got so busy all of a sudden, and because of my ADHD my inspiration for stories comes and goes, and I basically have to follow it wherever it leads. When it doesn't lead in this direction, it breaks my heart, because I don't want you guys to think I've abandoned you! I promise Eliza is on my mind 24/7 (shavingforsherl0ck can testify on my behalf about this), it's just sometimes I'm met with a literal inability to write this story if I'm not in the mood for it. I know, I know it sounds like I'm just making excuses, so I won't drone on and on forever about it, but just know that I am still chugging along in this story. Chapter five is in the works now, but I can make absolutely no promises about when it will be published as I'll be working a lot over the next couple of weeks, and I won't have very much time to write in general which makes me very sad.  

That being said, I hope you enjoy chapter four!! 

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Most of the other interns hated waking up at 4:30 in the morning for pre-rounds. Eliza probably would have too, if she was human. However, thanks to her Time Lord biology, she could function off of much less sleep than they could, and it was for that reason that pre-rounds were simply amusing to her. She could wake up while it was still dark outside and feel fine, and smirk to herself listening to the mental complaints of all her colleagues. She knew how much they hated it. She also knew how much they hated her for appearing to not be bothered by how early they had to wake up, no matter how much sleep she'd had the night before their shift.

On that particular morning, George seemed to be particularly desperate to get himself punched. He was kicking up a fuss because Izzie had walked into the bathroom while she was in the shower to get her toothbrush. And when they all pulled into work (Eliza had taken her own car to prevent herself from punching him), George got out of the car and was somehow still on the same tirade.

"You don't understand," he was insisting. "Me gonads, you ovaries."

"Oh, that reminds me," Izzie added as she got out of the car. "We are out of tampons."

"No, you're parading through the bathroom in your underwear while I'm naked in the shower!" George felt it necessary to remind her.

"Could you add it to your list, please?" Izzie requested.

"What?" George demanded.

"Tampons!" Izzie repeated.

"To the list. It's your turn," Meredith informed him.

"I am a man!" George declared. "I don't buy girl products."

"Oh, George, if you're insecure in your masculinity, just say that. It's fewer words that'd make me want to punch you less," Eliza murmured into his ear as she breezed past him, really not wanting to listen to any more of it.

The interns changed into their scrubs in the locker room as usual, and Dr. Bailey came by to give them their morning assignments. "You are the first person they see in the morning," she explained. "You say please, you say thank you. You apologize for waking them up. You make them feel good about you. Why is that important? Because then they'll talk to you and tell you what's wrong. Why is that important? Because then you can tell your attending what they need to know during rounds. And why is that important? Because if you make your resident look bad... she'll torture you until you beg for your mama." She fixed them all with a very serious look, but Eliza found it very hard not to laugh. She had met many more threatening people than Dr. Bailey, and while she didn't doubt that she could cause a serious amount of harm to any of the others, Eliza found it hard to believe that she could cause her any harm at all. "Now get out there. I want pre-rounds done by 5:30 AM."