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

6 | Famous Patient

After working at Seattle Grace/Mercy West for a while now, I was slowly getting a lay of the land. I had met quite a few people, learned my way around the hospital for the most part, and had been given a crash course on the current drama and relationships throughout the building.

I had briefly met Mark Sloan, the head of plastics, Derek Shepherd, head of neuro and Meredith's boyfriend/husband (it was complicated), Lexie Grey, Meredith's half-sister and who was dating Mark Sloan, Callie Torres, head of ortho, Arizona Robbins, head of pediatrics, and even some of the interns. I had also become privy to the relationship between Owen Hunt, the head of trauma, and Cristina, thanks to Meredith. 

If I thought navigating the hallways was hard, I was in for a real treat when it came to navigating the personal lives and ongoing love-affairs. Despite all this, however, I was beginning to get used to my life in Seattle, and for the most part, my life in Seattle was beginning to get used to me.

"Good morning." I smiled as I approached Cristina and Meredith at one of the main desks in the lobby.

Meredith turned and greeted me with a small, tired smile. "Morning."

Cristina opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, Altman appeared out of nowhere, almost like a ghost. "Yang, you're going solo today," she said.

Cristina took the chart from Altman and lazily began flipping through it. "Uh, been there."

"Cardio solo." Altman rephrased. "Valve replacement."

Cristina's eyes lit up, her bored demeanour gone in an instant. "Uh, porcine or . . ."

"Mechanical."

"So I can try out the subannular stitches."

Altman looked at her with a smirk. "Well, I didn't teach it to you so you could crochet."

"Okay, thank you," Cristina put on a professional facade, waiting to begin her gushing until Altman was out of earshot. "Oh, my God!" Cristina turned into a kid in a candy shop in the blink of an eye. 

"What?" Hunt asked from the other side of the desk, also somehow appearing out of thin air. 

Meredith looked up at him and answered for Cristina, who was currently to busy doing a happy dance to do much talking. "Uh, Altman's letting her go solo on a valve."

"Wow. Uh, you feel ready?" Hunt asked, his reaction clearly not as excited as Cristina's.

I chuckled slightly. "If she's not, I'll gladly take it off of her hands."

Cristina glared at me. "My valve. You back off!"

"She's ready. She just needs to breathe." Meredith turned to her friend and tried to get her to calm down.

"I am breathing," Cristina assured us. "I am a living, breathing cardiothoracic surgeon as of right now."

"Congrats." I smiled. "Cardio solo. That's big. I just have an appendectomy scheduled today."

Without wasting another second, Cristina packed up her charts and rushed away, mumbling something about having to prep as she hurried off.  Hunt let out a laugh as he watched her go. 

"Does trauma need an extra set of hands today?" I asked.

Hunt thought for a moment before shaking his head. "I don't think so, sorry. But if something comes up, I'll let you know."

"Darn. Well, thanks anyway." I sighed before turning on my heel and starting down the hall to look for a case to jump into. If I didn't find something fast, everything would be gone for the day and I would be spending my hours suturing reckless idiots in the pit. 

During my hunt for surgeries, I crossed paths with Bailey, who just happened to be looking for a resident. "Forrest, there's an ambulance coming and we need all the help we can get." she beckoned me over.

"On it!" I smiled and followed her like a loyal companion toward the ambulance bay.

Grabbing some trauma gowns from the dispensary next to the ambulance doors, Bailey and I joined the group of awaiting doctors, which included Derek Shepherd. "Adamson, you're with me," Derek told Reed Adamson, who was one of the residents that had merged over from Mercy West. "Meredith and Forrest are with Bailey. Karev, you're with Torres. Tom Kates is in this ambulance."

"The quarterback?" Alex cocked a brow. Clearly, he knew who Tom Kates was. I, on the other hand, was completely oblivious. 

"Yeah."

Pulling on a pair of latex gloves, Callie Torres turned to the group. "If you see photographers, call security."

"Tell your interns no autographs, no pictures," Bailey added. "I see anyone pull out a camera phone, it's going in the toilet."

"So there are four of us on one patient?" Meredith clarified. 

Bailey nodded. "He's a high-profile patient. He gets a lot of attention."

"Way better than an appendectomy!" I almost squealed as the ambulance pulled up and the paramedics started pulling the stretcher out of the back. 

"I thought we agreed to stop meeting like this?" Derek smiled down at the quarterback, who looked pretty calm considering he was strapped to a stretcher with doctors flocking toward him like bees to honey. 

"Hey, what can I say, man?" Tom Kates' voice was soft. "I missed your smiling face."

"Good to see you," Derek told him as the paramedics started rolling the stretcher through the doors and into the ER. 

With the pleasantries out of the way, the head paramedic started explaining what had happened. "Head trauma but GCS fifteen since regaining consciousness. He got high/lowed by a couple of their linebackers. Dropped like a rock."

Once we had our famous patient inside the hospital, we got him situated into a private room and started working on him right away."Okay, get an X-Ray in here for a trauma series," Bailey ordered.

"Tenderness in the upper left quadrant," Meredith announced as she gently pressed her hands into Tom's abdomen. 

"I'm gonna need a CT," Derek added.

As I checked the patient over for any noticeable flesh wounds, Alex started on the legs. "Oh, there's pain and crepitance in the knee," he said. 

"Get an X-Ray of the left knee with the trauma series," Callie called to Reed, who was just leaving to book the CT. 

Just then, a woman walked into the room holding a baby. "I saw that hit," she said, looking down at Tom. "That was a bad hit. I-I knew it the minute I saw it. I knew before you even hit the ground, that was bad."

"Hey, hi, sweetheart." Tom smiled up at what I assumed was his wife and child. "Oh, and that's my boy."

"Oh, he's very cute." Derek walked over to the wife and directed his attention to the young boy. 

Her eyes meeting Derek's, Tom's wife's face was plastered with worry. "Dr. Shepherd-" she started. 

"He's gonna be fine," Derek assured her, his confidence and collected nature enough to soothe any distressed family member without having to say a single word.  "He's gonna be fine. Now I can't have you in here with the baby, okay?"

Tom looked up at his son as held his hand out. "Okay, littlest high five in the world." 

"We'll come and find you the second we find out what's going on," Bailey told the wife before she exited the room with the unassuming infant in her arms. 

"I love you, babe." Tom's wife smiled. "Don't give him too much morphine, it makes him goofy."

"I won't," Derek said. 

As soon as the door closed behind his wife, Tom relaxed back onto the bed and sighed. "How great is that kid, huh?" 

"He's pretty great." Derek gave Tom a pat on the shoulder before continuing his work.

After a thorough examination, we discovered that Tom only had a concussion, which was incredibly lucky considering how rough of a hit he had taken. Before long, people slowly started filing out of the room when they realized that there was nothing more for them to do. 

Once the coast was clear, we moved Tom to his own room on one of the higher floors. Not long after, Derek came in to give the full details. "It's a concussion," he stated. "It's no worse than you've had before. Nothing we need to go in and fix."

Meredith, who was standing beside Alex and myself, spoke next. While Tom's head wasn't too much of a cause for concern, the rest of him was still pretty banged up. "Initially we thought the injury to your spleen would resolve itself, but it's bleeding too much. Dr. Bailey needs to go in and remove it as soon as possible."

Derek nodded. "The surgery is gonna have you out for a couple of weeks, but you'll be back in the game for next season."

Tom stared back at Derek for a few seconds, his eyes wide and mouth hung open, speechless before he started gasping for air. "Tom?" I asked as his mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. "Are you okay?"

"I can't . . . I can't . . . I can't breathe." Tom placed his hand on his chest and continued to struggle.

"Let's get some oxygen," Derek ordered to anyone around who could hear him. "Get a crash cart. Tom?"

Thinking quick, Alex reached for one of the breathing masks and helped Derek place it over Tom's mouth and nose. Once Tom's breathing had slowed and he wasn't having as much trouble getting air into his lungs, Derek ordered an EKG. "Tom, have you ever had a panic attack before?" Derek asked.

"I'm fine." Tom's voice was muffled under the mask so he reached up and removed it. "It's just, uh . . . it's nothing."

"There's daddy!" Tom's wife sang as she entered the room, the baby still in her arms just like before. 

Tom sat up instantly, the pale, worried expression on his face fading fast. "Hey, how's my guy?"

"He's fine." the wife replied. "How's my guy?"

"The, um, brain's okay," Tom said, getting the biggest concern dealt with right off of the bat. "But they gotta cut my belly open. I can't play till next season."

Tom's wife sighed, clearly sorry for him. "Honey . . . don't worry. Next season will be here before you know it."

Once everything was under control and Tom was stable again, I excused myself from the room, Alex following suit. "Just a concussion." I huffed, a little guilty that I felt bummed about there being nothing seriously wrong with Tom. "At least he'll be back for next season."

"Yeah." Alex zoned out while he filled out a chart at the nurses' station. While I waited for him to finish up, Meredith approached us, her brows furrowed and her mouth stretched into a tight line.

"What's the deal with you and Reed?" Meredith asked Alex out of the blue, catching me completely off guard.

Alex looked up at her, confusion on his face. "Nothing."

"You're not trading her surgery for sex, are you?" Meredith questioned as I followed the conversation intently, happy to just stand by and let the verbal confrontation take place while I listened in. 

"Give me a break." Alex continued filling out the chart. 

"Because if you are, it's gross," Meredith told him before turning to me for back up. "Right?"

I shrugged. "This is the first I'm hearing of this, but yeah, if it's true, it's gross."

Alex was growing annoyed now. "Look, if I sleep with her it's 'cause I want to. You gonna look me in the eye and tell me Derek never threw a craniotomy your way after the two of you spent an hour in the on-call room? Please."

Meredith sighed and slumped her shoulders. "I know it may not feel like it, but you are still married, and Izzie is coming . . ."

"You know what? I'm done worrying about Izzie." Alex snapped. "'Cause she sure as hell ain't worried about me."

"This is the old Alex," Meredith told him. "Sleeping with some random person because you're angry and hurt."

Alex shook his head. "That's what you always did."

"And then we grew up and got married."

"Yeah, well, it turns out your stupid post-it is ten times the marriage my church wedding ever got me. I'm moving on." Alex huffed before he stormed off.

Eyes wide, I turned to Meredith, my mouth hung open. I probably looked exactly how Tom had looked while gasping for breath. "I probably shouldn't have been here for that."

"You were gonna find out sooner or later." Meredith didn't seem all the worried about the situation.

"So . . . Alex is married?" I asked. "And who's Izzie. I have so many questions."

Nice enough to answer my questions, Meredith started explaining. "Izzie was an intern here with us when we started. She and Alex always had a thing but then she got cancer. Alex and she made a rash decision and got married, but then one day Izzie just left and we haven't seen her since."

I winced. "That's harsh. Poor dude."

"Yeah." Meredith began to walk down the hall and I followed her. "But he's just making it worse for himself."

"At least I understand where some of his hostility comes from now," I said.

Meredith sighed. "Some of it, yeah, but most of it is just pure Alex. Be glad you didn't know him when we all first started. He was a real handful then."