April 15 2021
The next morning, AJ knelt in the bright, cartoon-painted daycare room, adjusting Mateo's tiny backpack.
Aj -Mommy will be right downstairs, okay? Luke will check in.
Mateo giggled, tugging her hair, and AJ kissed his cheek before standing. Luke leaned casually against the doorframe, eyes scanning the room like a hawk.
Luke -Don't worry, Doc
Luke said.
Luke - He's safe. No one's getting past me.
AJ smirked faintly.
Aj - That's why I trust you.
But the moment she stepped back into the Neuro wing, her world tilted.
---
It started with a page. Then another. Then three more.
By the time AJ stormed into the OR, she was met with the most horrifying sight:
Her interns—*all five of them*—were standing around an open patient. The surgery had been routine. But instead of following protocol, they'd tried to "speed things up."
Jackson had clamped the wrong vessel. Simone misread the vitals. Gabriel insisted on one course of action, Parker panicked, and Luca—poor Luca—had frozen completely.
The patient's blood pressure had tanked.
If AJ had arrived a minute later, they would've lost him.
---
The room went silent as AJ swept in. Her eyes were sharp, her voice lethal.
AJ - Step. Away.
The interns scrambled back, terrified. AJ took over, hands steady, saving the patient with surgical precision.
When the bleeding was controlled and the vitals stabilized, she finally turned to them. Her glare was so cold, so furious, Simone swore she could *feel* it burn her skin.
AJ - Do you like your jobs?
AJ's voice was ice.
AJ - Because if you EVER pull something this reckless, you won't just lose your place in Neuro—you'll lose your license. Do you understand me?
No one dared breathe.
AJ - You think I'm harsh now?
she continued, stepping closer.
AJ - You haven't seen harsh. You haven't seen what happens when I decide you're not worth saving.
Her tone was so venomous, her stare so unflinching, that Parker whispered under his breath—too quiet for her to miss—
Parker - ...Medusa.
AJ didn't flinch. She just leveled them all with one last look.
AJ - Good. At least you know what you're dealing with.
---
Word spread like wildfire.
By the end of the day, every intern in Grey Sloan knew why AJ Brewster had earned her nickname. They whispered it in the hallways, wide-eyed and nervous: *Medusa.*
But Camilla, watching from the gallery, didn't see a monster. She saw a woman barely holding her grief together, channeling her pain into fury because it was the only way to keep everything from collapsing.
And she couldn't decide what broke her heart more—what the interns called AJ, or the fact that AJ believed she had to live up to it.
---
