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

32 | Back to Normal

As Sam poured some steaming coffee into my mug, I let out a groan and pulled my sweater tighter around my body. "Stop moping." Sam rolled her eyes at me. "You have to get ready for work, so stop moping and drink your coffee."

"Ugh," I groaned again and rested my head on the countertop. "What's the point? It's not like I'm going to save anyone's life or anything. I can't even operate."

Sam reached over the counter and flicked my forehead, to which I flinched and glared at her. "Shut up!" she was set in her tough-love mode. "You could get cleared today, but you don't know unless you go to work."

"Sam-" I began but didn't get much else out. 

"-you're going," Sam ordered. "Now drink your damn coffee and move your ass!"

Grabbing my coffee cup, I stood up and headed for my room. "Yes, ma'am." I chuckled.

In a little under half an hour, I was dressed and lazily walking through my front door, not all that excited to arrive at my destination. By the time I pulled into the hospital parking lot, my mood hadn't changed much, but I was determined to try and make the best out of a bad situation; if I didn't, I was just going to make my crap situation even crappier. 

Stuffing my belongings into my cubby in the residents' lounge, I was just changing into my scrubs when my pager went off, as did everyone else's. Sounds big." Jackson said as he checked his pager. "I'm betting MVC."

"Multiple MVC or an apartment fire." Alex nodded.

"When is the staring gonna stop?" April asked with a low grunt, referring to the many other residents in the lounge that were staring at us. Ever since the shooting, all anyone did anymore was stare. It was really quite annoying. 

"As soon as the novelty wears off," Jackson told her. "Just ignore them."

"Owen washed my hair," Cristina said out of nowhere, changing the subject. "And he told me to eat this grainy nut bar. And he booked me into surgery this morning. He is in charge of me. I'm a bride, and I'm going with it."

I chuckled slightly. "Sam is doing almost the same thing with me. It's weird."

"But the trauma guy didn't clear you," Meredith reminded Cristina. 

Cristina shrugged. "Yeah, but he said he'll figure that out."

As Lexie joined us, she side-eyed the staring residents for a while before huffing and turning to them. "Yes. Okay, I am the crazy one." she snapped. "I am the one who freaks out and screams at people . . . like that."

Thankfully, Lexie was saved from having to stick around any longer by her pager going off.  "Go gawk at each other for a while," Meredith told the residents as they started to clear out. "Are you okay?" she asked Lexie.

"Would everybody please stop asking if I am okay, okay?" Lexie begged.

As Lexie stormed out of the lounge, Cristina swiftly changed the subject once more. "He clear you yet?" she asked and Meredith and I shook our heads. "No? Still?"

"I resorted to tears," Meredith said. "I wore bad mascara so he wouldn't miss them."

Cristina took a bite of her granola bar. "What did Derek say?"

Meredith sighed. "Oh, I will be avoiding him today."

"So you don't have to talk to him about the baby thing?" Cristina asked and my eyes widened.

"No." Meredith shook her head.

"Oh. Because you left him in the pokey?"

"Yeah."

Grabbing my white coat, I thanked the world that I didn't have nearly as many problems as Meredith. "Talking about things is overrated anyway," I stated and Meredith nodded in agreement. With that, I grabbed the rest of my things and started for the pit to hopefully get my hands on as much of the trauma as possible before it was taken up to the OR. 

Turning down the hallway, my phone vibrated in my pocket and without looking at the caller ID, which was a big mistake, I answered it. "Hello?"

"Ellie!" the familiar shrill of my mother's unhappy voice blasted into my ear. "Why haven't you come to visit us? Skylar has been asking when you are coming; so what is so important that you can't come and see your family?"

"Hello to you, too," I groaned. "Listen, mom, I'm at work right now and-"

"-so it's your work?" my mother asked. "Now that you're a big shot surgeon you can't come visit us anymore?"

"No, mom, it's-" I tried to explain.

My mother, being the overbearing woman she is, cut me off before I could explain myself. "Ellie, your father and I miss you. We haven't spoken to you in ages and now you've got a new job and a new boyfriend and we don't even know."

I was taken aback as I stepped into one of the unoccupied patient rooms to finish the call. "How do you know I have a boyfriend?" I asked before it hit me. "Skylar . . ."

"Honey, how do you think it makes us feel when we hear about your life through your sister?" she questioned; well, more like interrogated me. 

"Mom . . ." I ran my fingers through my hair as my pager went off again. "I really can't talk right now."

I heard my mother scoff over the phone. "Oh, I'm sorry. Is my love and concern distracting you from your work? Honey, you were in a shooting and we didn't even get so much as a call from you, telling us you were okay."

Finally, I gave in. "You know what mom? I actually don't have a busy day today, so how about I come over right now?"

"See," she said in her 'I'm always right' tone. "Was that so hard?"

"See you soon." I chirped as I hung up the phone before she could say anything else. It wasn't like anyone was going to miss me today anyway, so why not visit my family? I mean, there were about a hundred reasons why not . . . but the sooner I got this over with, the sooner I could get back to life without my mother breathing down my neck. 

Turning off my pager, I exited the patient room and backtracked toward Chief Webber's office. Once there, I knocked on the door before a voice invited me in. Webber, like usual, was sitting at his desk. "Dr. Forrest," he smiled. "What can I do for you?"

"Umm . . ." I tried my best to make my pitch sound reasonable. "I was wondering if I could possibly take the day off? You see, my sister is staying with my parents and after her accident, she has been asking to see me. Plus, I'm still not even cleared for surgery so . . ."

Once I finished my little rant, I stared back at the Chief as he thought. "I don't see why not," he answered. "It's important to spend as much time with family in times of need as possible, and maybe this will help you work out some issues so you can get cleared. So go, have fun, but be back here ready to work tomorrow."

"You got it," I sighed in relief. "Thank you, sir."

After changing out of my scrubs and back into my street clothes, I gathered up my belongings that I had just put away not twenty minutes ago and headed for the exit. On the way, I spotted Jackson. "Hey." I smiled, an idea popping into my head.