Code Blue | Grey's Anatomy // Book 2 // COMPLETED

16 | Holly Wheeler

When you're a kid, you always want things to stay the same. The same teacher, same house, same friends. Being a surgeon is no different. You get used to the same attendings, same scrub nurses, same hospital. Of course, that all changes the minute fifth year comes around...and you have to find a new job.

For the past month I, and all the other residents, had been flying all around the country. Interviewing for new positions at hospitals, taking tours, sucking up to Chief's of Surgery. It was exhausting. And all for what? To move and start my life over again? No, thanks. If things went the way I wanted, I would stay at Seattle Grace/Mercy West, where I knew everybody and everybody knew me. However, things don't always go the way you want.

"Oh, this is getting ridiculous." April huffed as Cristina walked into the lounge with yet another bribe from a hospital that wanted her.

Jackson took the tag off of what looked like an extremely large basket of bread or cookies, "The N.I.H.? Since when does the N.I.H. bribe residents to come work for them?"

Cristina set the basket down, "Oh, they don't, except when you're me...a God."

"Cookie's stale," Alex said as he grabbed one and took a bite.

"Hey." Cristina tried to stop him, "Aw, Karev. Is this hard for you, having to beg for interviews while some of us just sit back and get wooed?"

"No one is begging." Alex denied.

April looked to him, "Oh, yeah, maybe you should. Maybe that way, you'd actually get an interview."

"Ha!" Cristina laughed, "I love mean Kepner."

"I got an interview," Alex said as he took another bite of the cookie.

I turned to him, "Oh, really, where?"

"At..." Alex mumbled, "Places."

"Uh-huh." Cristina sighed.

"Whatever!" Alex scoffed, "Look, this sucks, okay. I mean, we got boards in a couple of weeks and-and now they want us to go on freakin' job interviews? There's only so much crap a guy can have thrown at him before he snaps."

"Hey, don't worry Alex." I giggled, "When I went back to the Cleveland Clinic for my interview, they had an opening for a janitor. I'm sure you'd be perfect for it."

"Can it!" Alex warned.

"There's a trauma coming in on the roof." Owen entered the lounge, "Kepner, Forrest, Karev, come with me."

"I gotta leave for my northwestern interview in an hour." April said, "I told you yesterday."

Owen thought for a moment, "Um, Avery?"

Jackson took one of Cristina's cookies, "Sloan's got me all day, Chief. Sorry."

"I'm free," Meredith spoke up.

Owen nodded, "Great. Thank you."

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"Female hiker found at the bottom of a ravine." the paramedic said as they wheeled the gurney out of the helicopter once we arrived at the helipad, "Positive L.O.C. with obvious head and abdominal trauma, hypothermia, frostbite, you name it."

"Let's go," Owen said as we grabbed the gurney and got onto the elevator.

"Airway looks clear." Alex checked the patient over in the elevator.

I nodded, "Weakened pulse."

Meredith stepped closer as the girl opened her eyes, "I'm Dr. Grey. You're in the hospital. Can you tell us your name?"

The girl, however, didn't respond. She only gasped and looked around at us, probably trying to figure out what was going on. "Okay, okay." Meredith tried to calm her as the elevator doors opened, "Let's go."

"Out of the way!" Owen ordered as we rushed through the hall.

As we got the girl in for a C.T. scan, Owen and I sat in the booth as Meredith told the patient what to do. Just as Meredith was about to leave, the girl grabbed her arm. Meredith started to look at the girl's arms and legs as I wondered what she was doing. "What's the hold-up, Grey?" Owen asked through the intercom.

"I'm staying in." she answered, "Get me an apron."

Quickly, one of the attendants gave her an apron before the girl was put into the C.T. After that, we got the girl right into the O.R., wasting no time.

"She was abused." Alex informed us as they put the Jane Doe on the table, "It's all over the X-Rays."

"Okay, we have to call the police," I said as I stared at the scans.

"Just stay calm." Owen instructed, "We don't know anything for sure until she talks."

"Hunt, she has a temporal bone fracture." Derek called over, "I'm gonna have to do a middle fossa approach."

Bailey, who was also in the O.R., sighed, "Okay, there's an aneurysm in her celiac artery. I'll need to put a graft in."

"She's ready to be put under, Chief." the anesthesiologist announced.

"Wait." Meredith said as she walked over to the girl, "You were running from someone, right? Is that how you fell?" the girl nodded slightly, "No one's gonna hurt you. We just need to know your name."

"He-he called me 'Susan.'" the girl stammered, "But I-I think it's 'Holly.'"

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"Yes, her name was Holly Wheeler," Lexie said as we operated.

"We don't know anything yet." Derek told her, "Let's not jump to conclusions."

Lexie sighed, "It was all over the news. She was in the grocery store with her mom, and somebody just...took her. It was the summer of...2000."

"So this could be her." Alex agreed, "I mean, what, she was probably eight or nine at the time?"

"She was six," Bailey corrected, "and they weren't in the supermarket, they were outside. Her mom bumped into a friend, started talking about the block party they were having that weekend. Uh, could she bring a salad? They had enough dessert already. I mean, that's how long it took for her to realize that her child wasn't there anymore. That story runs through my head every time Tuck walks out the door. And-and yeah, we don't know if this is her, so please let's just stop talking about it and operate."

"Bailey, Shepherd, can you stop for a moment?" Owen and Meredith entered the O.R.

"What is it?" Derek asked.

Meredith stepped closer, "The police want us to check for a birthmark under her arm."

Bailey lifted the plastic up as Owen checked her arm, but nothing was there. "Mnh-mnh." Bailey shook her head.

"The other side, further up," Meredith instructed.

Owen checked again, and sure enough, there was a large brown spot on her upper arm. This was, in fact, Holly Wheeler.