Doing The Dance (Jackson Avery Fanfic)

twelve

2014

I made my way to the resident locker's after my shift was over, exhausted from the day and more than ready to just crawl into bed. I knew I'd probably need to speak to Luke considering what the day had contained, but I'd hoped my initial thought of him being understanding would prove true and we wouldn't fight about it.

When I got to the locker room, he was standing there about to change out of his scrubs. Steph and Jo were also in there and I definitely wasn't interrupting any conversations by making my presence known, they had been silent before I'd walked in.

"Hey, how'd the appy go?" Luke asked when I approached my locker next to his.

"Robbins let me fly solo and she said I did it flawlessly" Luke's grin was huge.

"Atta girl! Way to go Tay" I smiled back, the two of us beginning to change into our normal clothes.

"I'm tired though, wanna split a pizza?"

"Definitely. Shepherd let me scrub in on his craniotomy" I smiled.

"Look at us, being real doctors"

"Taylor?" Jo's voice came. I turned to her and Steph, my look inviting her to speak again.

"I'm sorry about what happened in the foyer, with Alex." I shrugged.

"I was mad, don't get me wrong. I thought the last thing I wanted was for people to find out I had cancer and treat me differently for it, like a charity case. But I'd rather that than the way everyone had been treating me prior like I was incapable of being a good doctor"

"So the board knew you had cancer before they hired you?" I shook my head.

"Hunt knew. Derek knew. The rest of the chiefs were told after I got the job. But only them. Alex must have seen me take my wig off in front of a fourteen-year-old cancer patient in Peds this morning"

"And now everyone knows?" Steph asked and I nodded.

"Seems like it"

"And you're okay with it?" I rolled my eyes, I just couldn't help it.

"Well I don't really have a choice now, do I? Look, we're all doctors and professionals. I have cancer. I am not the only doctor here who has been a doctor with cancer and I won't be the last. Let's just be doctors and get on with our jobs and our lives" They nodded and we all went about getting changed and leaving, Luke and I walking out together to my car seeing as I had driven in this morning.

"So, today was interesting" Luke said once we were home and sitting down, him on the couch and me on the small armchair we'd also gotten for the living room. I sighed and rested my head back.

"Interesting is a nice way of putting it. Hell is the word I would have gone for"

"You performed a solo appendectomy for the first time"

"The entire hospital found out I had cancer"

"Touché. But I still think you should focus on the positives" I smiled.

"You know, for never having met him you're a lot like Mark Sloan" He shrugged.

"I knew Mark Sloan." My eyes went wide and my mouth flopped open as I looked at him.

"You did?" He nodded.

"Oh yeah. I was home from med school for the holidays one year and my mom ended up in the hospital with an insane burn on her arm. He was her doctor. He was awesome. He inspired me to stick with it, I was about to drop out"

"Why?" Luke shrugged.

"I didn't think I had what it took to be a doctor. My cousin was a doctor here and he felt like he never fit in. he left to join the army and then died after getting hit by a bus" I spat out the coffee I was currently drinking.