The Starting Line

Chapter 28

S9 EP08

Eleanora walked between Callie and Jackson through the skills lab, with the class of interns sitting in chairs in front of them. The three attendings had a serious look and all the interns looked at them suspiciously.

"This is it, people. Your chance to operate on one of the coolest, most innovative surgeries you'll ever see."

Brooks put her hand to her mouth and yawned silently. Eleanora's eyes narrow and she points at the intern, her voice accusatory.

"Brooks yawned! Jackson, did you see a yawn?"

Jackson shakes his head, eyes half-lidded and hands behind his back. "Brooks, you're out. If you can't last a night shift, you can't last this operation. Wake up people, come on."

"The rest of you will have a chance to examine our patient before we move on to the skills lab portion of the contest." Eleanora spoke, crossing her arms over her chest. Callie nodded, continuing with her words.

"Dr. Avery, can you bring our patient in?"

Jackson leaves Eleanora's side to head to the doors, opening them and peeking his head into the hallway. When he returns, Derek and Mark follow him, the neurosurgeon gives a small nod to the interns and Mark looks at them with contempt.

All the inters perk up, their eyes widen and their faces pale as they realize that Derek Shepherd is going to be operated on.

"Now," Jackson begins, returning to Eleanora's side as Mark stands right behind her, "Dr. Torres, Dr. Amedeo-Sloan, Dr. Sloan and I will perform a nerve transplant. Sloan and Sloan will perform harvesting the nerve from our donor, while Torres and I will transplant it into Dr. Shepherd's injured hand."

"We need an intern we can trust." Mark speaks, all the interns move their wide eyes towards his narrow-eyed gaze. "I personally don't trust any of you, that's why we're doing this contest."

"Whoever does the best, gets in on the surgery. It's that simple." Eleanora starts talking. Callie looks at the group of interns, her eyes calculating. She hums to herself and speaks, her voice high-pitched.

"Wilson! Your turn."

Jo quickly gets up and stands next to Derek. Eleanora looks around Callie, eyes on how Wilson handles his injured hand.

Jo pauses on the hand for a few moments, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion and frustration. Derek sighs, sounding a little joking. He could feel the tension in the room, the four surgeons in front of him not helping matters.

"I'm not going to bite you, Wilson." Jo laughs a little, refocusing on the neurosurgeon's hand. She finally takes it, and Derek's face crumples in pain.

"You are out." Mark blurted out, Jo's head moving to look at him. His face was unamused, along with Callie and Jackson's. Eleanora's lips were pursed but she remains silent, watching as Jo lowers Derek's hand as Mark continues.

"Maybe you should stop being so rough with patients, Williams. You're going to get sued."

"It's Wilson." Jo corrects. Mark stares at her blankly and she nods, murmuring under her breath. "Okay."

As Jo slumps into her seat, Callie hums, saying another interns' name.

"Edwards!"

Stephanie confidently stands up and walks over. Eleanora straightens up a little, liking the intern's feeling of confidence. Edwards carefully takes Derek's hand, looking at it for a moment before turning to Callie.

"Did you do a proximal or distal repair the first time?"

Eleanora grimaces, along with Derek, while Mark and Jackson snort. Callie doesn't seem impressed as she stares at the intern, crossing her arms.