No Time | Grey's Anatomy // Book 1 // COMPLETED |

3 | Snow

That morning, I was awake as soon as the hospital began to spring to life for the day. With the morning staff bustling in and family members eager to visit their loved ones, the increased foot traffic in the hallway and jumbled voices had me up and out of bed in no time. Jumping up, I managed to make my way to the residents' lounge that Chief Webber had briefly shown me the day before and put my things inside of my designated cubby. Grabbing my toothbrush, I rushed to the bathroom and brushed my teeth quickly before heading out to find Cristina or Dr. Altman.

For a while, I wandered the halls aimlessly before by sheer and utter luck, I located both women at one of the nurses' stations. "Good morning." Altman greeted me with a groggy smile. "You're here earlier than I expected."

"I slept in an on-call room," I told her.

"Well, we were just going to check on one of our patients." she smiled. "Care to join?"

I nodded. "Lead the way."

Following Cristina and Altman to the same room that I had met them in the day before, I flashed a small smile to the patient and her boyfriend. The woman in the bed, Kelsey, was awake now and the machine that kept her alive was buzzing in the background. 

"It's weird." Kelsey placed her hand over her chest where her heart should be. "No heartbeat. I used to climb mountains, you know? One time I did the Inca trail. It's four mountains in three days. The second day there's this climb. It's eight hours straight and you are so tired and the air is so thin, you don't even talk. All you do is climb. And it's just you and your breathing and your heartbeat pounding in your ears. It's just hard getting used to no heartbeat."

"That sounds incredible," I gushed, wishing I had the nerve to do something that daring. "I'm sure that once Dr. Altman is done, you will be back to doing all the scary and thrilling things you love soon enough."

Kelsey sighed, all her energy suddenly drained. "I'm getting tired. Really tired."

"I know." Altman gave her hand a reassuring pat.

"You know what? You just need to hang on till New Year's Eve." Cristina told Kelsey. "There's a lot of drunk drivers. A lot of brain death. It's an organ-palooza."

The man who was with Kelsey cleared his throat and we turned to him. "Kelsey, you just gotta hang on, okay? You'll hike again, you know? We'll hike together. It's such a beautiful world outside of this hospital. It's snowy and quiet . . . cold and perfect. So, you know, you just gotta make it until New Year's Eve."

"I need to go outside," Kelsey told us matter-of-factly.

"What?" we all asked at the same time.

Kelsey took a deep breath before elaborating. "I might die. We all know that. I might die really soon. But snow is my favourite thing in the whole wide world. It's my favourite thing. Please. Please, okay?"

"I'm sorry but . . ." Cristina started.

"We can do that." Altman cut Cristina off, sending a smile to Kelsey's face. "We can do that."

We all gave Kelsey one last warm smile before exiting her room. "Is that really a good idea?" Cristina asked as soon as the door was shut and Kelsey could no longer hear the conversation.

"I think she'll be fine." I threw in my two-cents. 

Altman nodded. "It's what she wants. She is living without a heart right now and all she wants to do is go outside and see the snow. We can make it happen, Yang."

"Alright." Cristina reluctantly agreed before heading off to do some post-ops.

Just then, a smaller woman with dark skin walked past, stopping when she saw Altman. "Who do you have doing your post-ops?" she inquired.

"Cristina just left," Altman answered. "Why?"

"I was supposed to have Karev, but who knows where he went." the woman replied, the expression on her face telling me that this wasn't the first time Alex Karev had disappointed her.

A smirk spread across Altman's face as she gestured to me. "Miranda Bailey, meet Ellie Forrest. She's going to help you with your post-ops."

I stood still for a moment before turning to the woman who was easily a foot shorter than I was. "Hi." I greeted her.

"Great." she motioned for me to follow her, not even bothering with a greeting. "Let's get going. Dying people don't wait for you to arrive so they can die."

Having learned this type of tactic already from Cristina, I jogged to catch up with my new boss for the day. "So, what do you need me to do?"

The woman I had just met, Dr. Miranda Bailey, turned to me. She had an exhausted expression on her face. "You must be new. You're too eager to have been here very long."

"Second day." I nodded.

Dr. Bailey huffed. "Well, Dr. Forrest, welcome to your worst nightmare."

After hours of doing post-ops for Bailey, which really did feel like a nightmare at times, I got a page from Altman. Throwing my last post-op into the finished pile, I grabbed my white coat and rushed off to Kelsey's room. Kelsey was now in a wheelchair and wearing a coat, hat, gloves, and had a blanket draped over her. "I'm here, Dr. Altman." I shoved my pager back into my pocket.

"Perfect." she smiled, and as soon as Cristina arrived, the three of us escorted our patient down the halls and toward the nearest exit to the outside. 

A cheerful grin on her face, Altman suddenly broke out into storytime. Clearly, she was in a good mood. "Did Hunt ever tell you about the time that he made snow?"

"Who's Hunt?" I asked.

"Owen Hunt," Cristina answered. "Trauma specialist. Was in the army with Dr. Altman."

"Oh, okay." I nodded, trying to commit the name to memory. 

Cristina and I shook our heads, indicating that neither one of us had ever heard the story before. Altman smiled before diving headfirst into the tale. "His guys were feeling the holidays pretty bad, so Hunt orders one of those snowmakers on Christmas Eve. He tried to get the thing going, but the minute that the snow hit the sand, it melts. So Hunt blindfolded his guys and made them put their faces right up to the snowblower." Altman chuckled as she relived the memory in her mind. "There was this one kid from Minnesota. He actually cried. He said it felt exactly like Christmas at home."

Cristina and I shared a heartfelt look. "Ohh, Hunt." Jackson Avery caught up with us, his voice low so Altman wouldn't hear. "Hunt's so delicious when he's tending to bloody soldiers. Love me some Hunt."

"Shut up." Cristina turned around and snapped at him. 

When we stepped outside it was pitch black and the snow was falling slowly everywhere. Kelsey stood up and stared at the sky, raised her arms up, and opened her mouth for the snowflakes to fall into. I watched as she stood there, happy as ever. 

One second she was enjoying the one thing she loved most in the world and then the next she was falling limp to the ground. "Oh, my God!" I panicked as Jackson and I rushed for her, trying to catch her body before she hit the pavement. 

From the second Kelsey started falling to the second I caught her in my arms, the only thing I could hear was my heart beating in my ears. Was this what Kesley felt while climbing that mountain? Because if so, I never wanted to climb a mountain for as long as I lived.