breathe ━ derek shepherd

017. ━ mountain climbers

season three // episode twenty-four
[ mountain climbers ]

❝Besides, I'm not her favorite.
He is.❞

𝐀𝐁𝐁𝐘 𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐈𝐍 her hands, sitting at the conference table. She had several files spread out in front of her; it made her brain hurt just by looking at them.

This was not what she had planned for the day.

Of course, she knew that she had to think about it. Annie needed to have a certain future. And Adam couldn't be the one to give it to her.

Her pager went off and she let out a breath, sparing it a glance. She collected her papers with a sigh before making her way down to the ER where she found the attendings—as well as Callie—already there.

"They paged you guys, too?" Addison asked, walking in step next to Abby. Derek hummed in confirmation.

"Well, I think they paged all of us," Burke said.

Abby fluttered her lips. "That can't be good if they need this many surgeons," she replied, combing her fingers through her dark brown hair.

"Sure it can," Mark contradicted and she raised her eyebrows. "He could be letting us know that I won the race for Chief."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, I hope not..."

"And he isn't." The group of surgeons looked over when they heard Bailey's voice, seeing she was walking towards them. "He's making his recommendation to the Board tomorrow for Chief of Surgery and Chief Resident."

"Well, then why were we all paged?" Derek asked.

"Oh, because search and rescue found those lost climbers who were up on Mount Rainier," she told the group.

Just then, Richard joined them. "People, the climbers are on their way."

"Any specifics?" Abby asked him.

"They found three so far, one's still missing," Richard replied and she sighed. "They're reporting severe dehydration with traumatic head and chest injuries. Dr. Bailey, Dr. Torres, you'll be my trauma team."

Bailey let out a breath. "Bad day not to have interns."

"What?"

Abby looked at Mark. "Oh. Today's the intern exam."

Richard nodded, glancing around at his surgeons. "You'll all have to do your heavy lifting today," he told them. "And if you see an intern—which you will because they can't help themselves—turn them away until after the exam. The ambulances are five minutes away. It's time to do what we do best, people. Let's roll."

"So, how's Annie?" Mark asked, following Abby as they walked out to the ambulance bay. "Settling in well?"

"She's good," she replied with a shrug. "I mean... she's still a little confused about why her mom is suddenly gone, but... yeah, she's good."